OF THE

TWENTY-FIRST REGIMENT

MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS

IN THE

WAR FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE UNION

1861-1865

WITH

STATISTICS OF THE WAR AND OF REBEL PRISONS

BY

CHARLES F. WALCOTT

CAPTAIN IN THE REGIMENT; COLONEL SIXTY-FIRST REGIMENT MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS;
BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL U. S. VOLUNTEERS; MEMBER OF THE MILITARY

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS

ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS AND MAPS

UNIV OF

BOSTON

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street

The Riverside Press, Cambridge

1882

Copyright, 1882,

BY CHARLES F. WALCOTT.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge:
Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.

THE CENTENNIAL OF THE AMERICAN FLAG.

Thou hast not always been, as here to-day, so comfortably ensovereigned.
In other scenes than these have I observed thee, Flag,

Not quite so trim and whole, in folds of stainless silk ;

But I have seen thee to tatters torn, upon thy splintered staff,

Or clutched to some young color-bearer's breast, with desperate hands,

Savagely struggled for, for life and death fought over long,

'Mid cannons' thunder-crash, and many a curse and groan and yell, and rifle volleys cracking sharp,

And moving masses as wild demons surging — and lives as nothing risked,
For thy mere remnant, grimed with dirt and smoke, and sopped in blood;
For sake of that, my Beauty, and that thou might'st dally as now, secure up there
Many a good man have I seen go under.

M188322

WALT WHITMAN.