Reminiscences of the Thirty-Fourth Regiment, Mass. Vol. Infantry

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR.
HOLLISTON: J. C. Clark & Co. 1871.
TO GEN. WM. S. LINCOLN, OF WORCESTER, SO LONG AND HONORABLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE REGIMENT, THESE SKETCHES ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR.
The Reader will please bear in mind that this little work does not claim in any sense to be a history of the Regiment; but simply the recollections of the writer up to May 15th, 1864, when he received the wound which disabled him from further military service.

t is the afternoon of a summer day, with but little breeze more than enough to gently sway the folds of a new and handsome National Flag, which is in full view of the multitude who encompass it. We have taken the reader, in thought, to the spacious and beautiful Common in Worcester, on the 15th of August, 1862.
A few words concerning this great gathering; the close attention of all being drawn to the speaker’s stand in its centre. Citizens of all classes are here, gazing and listening, representing the population of the city and suburbs. Its inner circles are clothed in the uniform of their country’s service, and stand in military order. To them, as a Regiment, through their commander, who is conspicuous on the stand by his uncovered head and noble bearing, the Flag is being presented: a touching farewell act of the ladies of Worcester.
It is delivered with fitting words, and now not only the soldier, but the orator speaks. Never, while memory lasts, will the picture be erased from the mind of one, at least; the central figure, the devoted Wells: so soon, comparatively, to be the lamented.
The throng breaks, and the Regiment gradually prepares to leave the city for fields of duty, not to shrink from fields of danger. Hark! as they slowly recede from sight, and the clangor of martial music is hushed, can you not almost distinguish, stealing through yonder casement where a lonely heart is thinking of the absent ones, the plaintive words:

eary and monotonous indeed, would be many of the days spent in camp by the soldier, did not something crop out of an amusing nature, either in the proper members of the camp or in some of its motley group of followers.