1862. RESOLVES OF MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. 79

On the receipt of the news of the victory of Newbern, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted by the Legislature of Massachusetts:

Resolved, That the thanks of the people of Massachusetts are due, and through the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, are gratefully tendered to the officers and soldiers of the 21st, 23d, 24th, 25th, and 27th regiments of Massachusetts Volunteers for their heroic deeds at the battle and victory of Newbern. In the hands of these men the honor of Massachusetts will always be safe.

Resolved, That we deplore the irreparable loss of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Merritt and Adjutant Stearns, and the gallant men, their companions in arms, who on the field of that victory laid down their lives to save the life of the nation. The people of Massachusetts will imitate their virtues. In all our hearts their memories will ever be cherished.

These resolutions were originally offered in the Senate by the Hon. John C. Dodge, of Middlesex, who said in support of them that he could speak from personal acquaintance of only one of the noble men commemorated by the resolutions, Frazar A. Stearns. He then spoke of the self-sacrificing spirit with which Adjutant Stearns entered the army, and of his exalted courage in the bayonet charges of Roanoke and Newbern, concluding his eulogy as follows: "He was a man of singular nobility of character. Noble in daily life, in purpose, in aspiration. He has fallen in the morning of life with all life's brightest hopes opening before him. Loving hearts were waiting for him at his home, but the doors of that home were to open for him again only to receive his lifeless remains. Now, as we are speaking, the last offices of affection are being performed. Kindred and friends with hearts well-nigh broken are following him to the grave. May God console them in their great sorrow, for no earthly consolation is adequate!"

Many eloquent speeches were delivered in the Senate and House, while these resolutions were pending. I will give that of Mr. Goddard, of Barre, delivered in the House, who said, after some preliminary remarks:

Those who have preceded me have spoken of the officers whose names appear in these Resolves. I would speak of the men. I regret that I had not the honor of a personal acquaintance with the brave and lamented Merritt and Stearns; but, sir, I did know many of the gallant men of the 25th and 21st regiments, many of whom, though numbered among the "undistinguished dead," now fill the soldier's honored grave, having met the foe bravely, quailed not in the hour of battle, but nobly yielded up their lives upon the altar of their country's good. In that gallant 21st regiment, which, at the memorable battle of Roanoke (as you, sir, on a former occasion, so beautifully expressed it), "plucked one of these trophies of victory (the rebel flags hanging in the Hall) from the very crest of battle," and which, at the later, no less brilliant engagement at Newbern, literally covered itself with glory, in that regiment is one company from the town where I reside (Company K), and which I, to-day, have the honor to represent on this floor; and of that company, four brave fellows met their death in the impetuous charge upon the enemy in the face of his deadly fire (privates James O. Fessenden, Patrick Martin, Joseph E. Stone, and James H. Sullivan).

Who, sir, would not covet the honor with which the memory of even the " undistinguished dead" of Roanoke and Newbern will be handed down to the latest posterity? Why, sir, when we who fill these seats to-day shall have passed from the stage of action, no matter to what heights of civil honor we may have been elevated by our fellow-citizens, I say when we are forgotten, our children will delight to revere the memories of those who thus nobly fell in their country's defense, and praise them for the enjoyment of the blessings of free government which they, by the sacrifice of their lives, did so much to perpetuate and transmit.

PRESENTATION OF THE GUN TO AMHERST COLLEGE.

The brass rebel cannon, belonging to the battery captured by the regiment, and presented to it by General Burnside as a monument to the memory of Adjutant Stearns,1 was sent in charge of our gallant wounded comrade, Captain John D. Frazer, to the Chicopee Foundry, where it was beautifully polished, and the following inscription, which tells its own story, engraved upon it :

1 By Special Order No. 52. See ante, p. 69.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

This gun belonged to a battery of flying artillery which was silenced by a bayonet charge of the 21st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, under Lieutenant-Colonel W. S. Clark, at the battle of Newbern, North Carolina, March 14, 1862. It is the piece first surrendered on that day, and was presented to the regiment by MajorGeneral A. E. Burnside, who so successfully directed the attack on this stronghold of the rebels. The officers of the 21st, with the approval of their gallant brigadier-general, J. L. Reno, have unanimously resolved to place it in the keeping of the Trustees of Amherst College, many of whose members were on the bloody field, as an enduring monument to the memory of their lamented brothers, who fell while bravely fighting for liberty and union.

NAMES OF THE SLAIN.

First Lieutenant Frazar A. Stearns, Acting-Adjutant. He was an honest man, a true Christian, and a model soldier,— faithful, active, intelligent, and brave among the bravest. His comrades in arms will never forget his many virtues nor cease to mourn his loss.

Color Corporal George E. Sayles, Corporal Charles L. Woodworth, Corporal Mitchell W. Paul.

Privates Austin Barton, Patrick Cushing, James A. Fessenden, Thomas Hurst, Edward Lacore, James C. Parker, William H. Williston, Timothy Collins, Louis Dana, William Flint, William H. Johnson, Patrick Martin, Charles H. Sinclair, Joseph E. Stone, James H. Sullivan, Henry Shepard, John N. Smith, Lucius C. Hale.1

The formal presentation of the gun to the college took place on the 14th of April, in the college grounds, before a great concourse of students and citizens, - Captain Frazer delivering the gun in behalf of the regiment, with the following soldierly words of presentation: "In behalf of the 21st regiment I now present this cannon, with its inscription upon it, as a lasting monument to the memory of those whose names it bears, hoping that you will ever preserve it in commemoration of the virtues and patriotism of the dead."

1 Color Corporal William H. Brackett did not die of his wound until subsequently to the presentation of the gun. His name should now be added to those upon it.-ED.

Rev. Dr. Vaile made the address in behalf of the trustees of the college, in response to Captain Frazer. His eloquent address contained the following passages: "Bear to your comrades in arms our most heartfelt acknowledgments for this loud-speaking trophy of victory now intrusted to our care, and assure them that it shall be preserved to be transmitted to all coming generations of the sons of Amherst College, as a monument of the heroism of those who have gone before them, and of the precious blood that has been spilled in suppressing this mad rebellion. . . . It will be sacredly preserved among the archives of this college as a monument to the heroism of the 21st Massachusetts."

Sergeant Chauncey B. Irish, of Company F, while on a visit to Newbern with two or three comrades, the day after the battle, was taken aside by a negro whom he met in the street and told by him that the Bank of Newbern, in the hasty flight from the city, had hidden a large quantity of gold coin in an old tomb. The negro said that he was the only witness to the act, and wanted some soldiers to help get possession of the treasure. Sergeant Irish and his guide went to the tomb, and found the gold, - apparently many thousand dollars in amount, but, to the terrible disappointment and disgust of the poor negro, the sergeant posted his comrades on guard over the gold, while he notified the provost-marshal of the city, who at once took possession of the money.

On the 19th of March the regiment was moved from the battle-field to a filthy rebel camp, which had been left with the tents standing in a sandy plain about a mile from Newbern. The camp had formerly been occupied by the 19th North Carolina regiment, and was named Camp Burgwyn, after their colonel. We gave it a better name, “Camp Andrew," and cleaned it up; but it was an unhealthy place, and, in a few weeks, we lost more men from typhoid fever than we had so far lost by the bullets of the enemy.

March 24th. Miss Carrie E. Cutter, the Florence Nightingale of the 21st, died of spotted fever on board the steamer Northerner," in Newbern harbor, aged nineteen years and

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eight months. Miss Cutter, an intellectual, refined, and delicate woman, the daughter of our surgeon, had embarked on the "Northerner" with us at Annapolis, and had accompanied the regiment since that time. A blessing to the regiment, she had bravely and patiently endured the discomforts of the crowded steamer, — a thousand times greater to her, the only woman on board, than to any of us, and with constant, unremitting devotion had added her gentle, womanly care to her father's wise and faithful energy in helping and nursing our sick and wounded men.

Her body was carried to Roanoke Island and buried by the side of that of her admired friend, Sergeant Charles Plummer Tidd, the heroic companion of John Brown, whose eyes she had closed so sadly during the battle of Roanoke Island.

March 31st. Second Lieutenant Charles Coolidge, of Company E, a good officer and estimable man, died of typhoid fever, after a short sickness.

April 3d. The War Department, infatuated by the recent showy victories in the East and West (Fort Henry, Roanoke Island, Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, and Newbern), committed the terrible blunder of discontinuing the entire volunteer recruiting service, by General Orders No. 33, issued on this day; and for more than two months, while the Union armies were melting like wax before the fire, there was no restoring process in operation.

April 9th. A private in the 11th Connecticut regiment, so drunk that he could hardly walk, even with the aid of a negro who accompanied him, carrying an ancient copper coffin, was arrested by our guard as he passed our camp. The coffin bore the name of Richard D. Spaight, a distinguished Revolutionary patriot, and governor of North Carolina from 1792 to 1795. Its contents, fortunately, had not been disturbed, and it was at once restored to the dilapidated family tomb of the Spaights, from which it had just been taken, close by our camp. Frightened by the indignation of our men at his sacrilegious act, and apparently becoming himself aware of its indecency, as the coffin was taken roughly from him and he