About this time my Regiment was inspected by Gen. Tyler, commanding the Division, and he pronounced the men in good condition, and the Regiment has stood number one at every inspection since. In a few days after we were ordered to the front, and the conduct of the First Massachusetts Regiment on that occasion is a matter of history. One brave man, however, upon whose banner was inscribed “three or five years, or during the war,” melted like Snow before a hot fire.
On the 13th of August I was Brigaded under Gen. Hooker, at Bladensburg, and on the 14th of October was assigned by him to the command of the First Brigade. On the 23d of the same month he gave me a recommendation for Brigadier General, of which the following is a copy:—
Headquarters, Hooker’s Division,
Camp Union, Oct. 23, 1861.
Brig.-Gen. S. Williams,
Adjutant-General, Army of the Potomac.
General: After giving the subject the deliberation it requires, I respectfully name Col. Robert Cowdin, 1st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, for promotion to the rank of Brigadier-General, and request that he may be assigned to the command of the First Brigade of my Division. He is at present exercising that office. I recommend Col. Cowdin for the following reasons:—
He is the senior officer of the Brigade.
He displayed great courage while in command of his Regiment, in the skirmish at Bull Run, on the 18th of July, 1861.
He was the first Colonel in the United States to tender a Regiment for three years, already armed and equipped for the field, to the Government, at the hour of its greatest peril, and his promotion will place Lieut.-Col. D. G. Wells, an officer of uncommon merit, in command of his Regiment.
Very respectfully,
Your obt. servant,
JOSEPH HOOKER,
Brigadier-General, commanding Division.
“Official Copy,”
Wm. H. Lawrence, Aid-de-Camp.