Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies

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‘ [270] but I think this appropriate, do not you?’ The Chaplain assented; and he added, ‘I have lived a soldier, I die a soldier, I wish to be buried as a soldier.’ To another member of the regiment, a son of his clergyman, the Rev. John S. Stone, he said that he wished Dr. Stone, as his minister, to receive his last message in case he did not live to reach home and talk with him. He said: ‘Tell him I am ready to die. I look back upon the past with many regrets for failings and for misused opportunities, but still with the self-respect of a man who has tried to do his best. As for the future, there is but one hope, no putting forth of one's own claims, but reliance on the merits of Another: you know what I mean.’

He was placed in an ambulance for the night. The men lay around it. At daybreak his wounds were dressed. He examined them in a cool, naive manner. Looking at the hole through the forearm, he said: ‘Now that's a very neat little wound, a proper wound; but the other, pointing to the thigh, won't do so well.’ It was now determined to carry him to Boonesborough, where a house had been found for him. Twelve men from the new recruits were detailed for the purpose. They were divided into six parties, who relieved each other by turns. During the journey of three miles and a half, he called out the reliefs himself. On their way, they met the drum and fife corps of the regiment. He stopped them and requested them, as a last favor, to play him the Star-spangled Banner once more. He thanked them, repeating the sentiment of the song in the wish that ‘The star spangled banner in triumph may wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.’ One of the men happened to ask where the rest of the regiment was. Colonel Dwight called out: ‘Who asked for the Second Regiment? I'll tell you where the Second was yesterday. In the foremost front of the battle, fighting like men; and we drove them, boys, drove them.’ Chaplain Quint writes of him on this journey: ‘If water was given him, or any service rendered, his old “Thank you” was never omitted. Indeed, the night before, in the garden, he repeatedly sent his servant and others to relieve the wounded men around him, while in pain himself.’