LIEUTS. MUDGE AND SARGENT. 637 lieutenant; promoted to be captain July 8, 1861; and was subsequently made major and lieutenant-colonel. When the regiment covered the rear in Gen. Banks's retreat, Col. Mudge was with them in their dangerous path; and in the battle of Winchester, May 25, 1862, received his first wound. At the battle of Chancellorsville, Col. Cogswell was wounded early in the day; and the command of the regiment devolved upon Col. (then Major) Mudge, which he retained from that time until his death. In the movement on Beverly Ford and the wonderful march of the army to the field of Gettysburg, the Second Regiment was kept in constant readiness for any duty. On the evening of the 2d July, it changed its position from the left to the right wing. The rebels were found to have advanced their left. A reconnoitring-party was ordered forward, and discovered that the woods in front were filled with them. It was at this juncture that the calm courage and wonderful quickness of thought of Major Mudge enabled him to extricate the regiment from its perilous position. The officers and men felt themselves saved from annihilation or capture by the presence of mind and military skill of their young commander. The morning dawned, and an order came for the brigade to which the Second Regiment was attached to assault the enemy's position. It resulted in one-half the regiment being laid dead or wounded on the field. The remnant struggled through alone; the brigade having broken, and fled back to the cover of their lines. The young commander fell dead, struck full in the breast by a rifle-ball. LIEUT.-COL. LUCIUS MANLIUS SARGENT. Lieut.-Col. Lucius Manlius Sargent, First Regiment Massachusetts Cavalry, was killed at Weldon Railroad, Va., on the ninth day of December, A.D. 1864, when leading his regiment against the enemy. He was widely known in the service for his manly and chivalric nature, his indifference to personal danger, and his efficiency as an officer. From the outbreak of the war, he devoted himself, without hesitation, to the cause of his country; first as a surgeon in the Twentieth Regiment, and afterwards by joining, as captain, the First Cavalry, of which his brother Horace was lieutenant-colonel. He saw much active service, and was in various engagements, being wounded at Aldie. He made it a principle to share the hardships and privations of his men, improving every opportunity of contributing to their welfare. His wit and cheerfulness made him an agreeable companion, and his natural enthusiasm inspired others with like zeal and devotion. In every relation of life, Col. Sargent was exemplary, and not least so in the practice of his profession. He took good rank as a surgeon; and his dispensary services, from their extent and usefulness, have been often mentioned with praise. Ordinary panegyric seems cold and unmeaning when applied to a character of such noble proportions. Those who were bound to him by ties of friendship or consanguinity will ever cherish his memory with peculiar tenderness. CHAPTER X. FALLEN HEROES. Major W. A. Walker.- Capt. W. S. Hodges. Capt. W. E. Hooker. Capt. N. B. Shurt. leff, Jun.- Lieut. H. M. Burnham. — Lieut. E. P. Hopkins. Sergeant Theodore Parkman. Lieut. Sumner Paine. - Brig.-Gen. George B. Boomer. - MAJOR WILLIAM A. WALKER. MAJ AJOR WILLIAM AUGUSTUS WALKER was a native of Portsmouth, N.H. He was born in 1827. At the age of twenty, he removed to Boston, and subsequently to Greenfield in 1858, where he was employed as a clerk for some time, and was interested in all matters of public interest. In the summer of 1861, at the breaking-out of the Rebellion, he was very active in raising and organizing a company for the Twenty-seventh Regiment. He was mustered into the service, as captain of Company C of that regiment, 20th of September, 1861. The first engagement in which Capt. Walker participated was at Roanoke Island, Feb. 7, 1862, in which, by the testimony of all his brother-officers, he behaved gallantly. His next engagement was at Newbern, March 14, 1862, when the reputation for bravery he had earned at Roanoke was firmly estab lished. From this time till the winter of 1862, his regiment performed camp and garrison duty only. In November, he participated in the brisk skirmish at Rawles's Mills; and afterwards marched with his company to Williamston, Hamilton, and in the vicinity of Tarborough, near the Weldon Railroad, on an expedition designed to destroy the road. In the succeeding month, Capt. Walker participated in the sharp engagement of Bristow, White Hall, and Goldsborough, in an expedition led by Gen. Foster. Major Walker was for a long time provost-marshal of Newbern; performing the arduous and delicate duties of the post with great satisfaction to all associated with him. In consequence of his business-training, and known habits of order and system, he was repeatedly chosen to serve on courts-martial, and, in many positions other than in the field, served his country faithfully and acceptably. In May, 1863, he was promoted to the rank of major. In the fall of 1863, the Twenty-seventh Regiment was transferred to Norfolk, Va., where it performed garrison-duty till the opening of the summer campaign of 1864, when it was incorporated into the Army of the James. A temporary sickness detained Major Walker, and prevented his capture at Drury's Bluff, where most of the regiment was taken. The command of the remainder now devolved upon Major MAJOR WALKER AND CAPT. HODGES. 639 Walker: he marched with them and the Eighteenth Army Corps to join Gen. Grant. June 3, in a fatal charge upon the enemy at Cold Harbor, Major Walker was instantly killed at the very front of his regiment. The spot where he fell being under the fire of both armies, he was left several days unburied, and at last interred upon the field where he fell. It is the universal testimony of both officers and men who were associated with him, that he was a brave man, and a faithful, efficient officer. His company, as a testimonial of their respect and attachment, some time previous to his promotion, made him a present of an elegant sword, sash, and belt. CAPT. WILLIAM TOWNSEND HODGES. William Townsend Hodges, captain Fourth Massachusetts Cavalry, son of Col. Almon D. Hodges of Roxbury, Mass., was a lineal descendant, on his mother's side, from Roger Williams. He graduated at the English High School in Boston in 1850; and was appointed a discount clerk in Washington Bank, Boston, at the age of nineteen years. He was killed, April 6, 1865, in a cavalry charge made by three squadrons of his regiment on the rebel cavalry under Fitz-Hugh Lee, at High Bridge, near Burkesville, Va., where nearly every officer of this command was either killed or wounded. The command had broken through a brigade line of the enemy's cavalry; and the last charge was made by Capt. Hodges at the head of his squadron, upon a division line of the enemy, when he fell. He was actively engaged during the battles which ended in the evacuation of Richmond, and took a part in the pursuit of Lee, up to the engagement in which he lost his life. Capt. Hodges first held a commission as first lieutenant in Capt. John L. Swift's company of the Forty-first Massachusetts Regiment; and he bore an honorable part in the campaigns in Louisiana. At Port Hudson, volunteers were called for as a forlorn hope to make an assault on the powerful works of the enemy; and he was one among the first to offer his services for the dangerous duty. This was quite in keeping with the character of the deceased, who was a courageous and determined soldier. Lieut. Hodges was promoted in April, 1864, from lieutenant of the Third to a captaincy in the Fourth Massachusetts Cavalry, which he held at the time of his death. Capt. Hodges' remains were brought to Roxbury, and repose in Cypress Avenue, Forest Hills, where a monument is erected to his memory, and also to the memory of his brother, George Foster Hodges, a graduate of Harvard University of the class of 1855, who joined the Fifth Massachusetts Regiment, which left Boston for Washington, April 21, 1861. He was appointed paymaster of said regiment by Col. Lawrence, his classmate, after the arrival of the regiment at Washington. He participated in the battle of Bull Run; and, after the return of the Fifth, he was appointed to the office of adjutant of the Eighteenth Regiment, on recommendation of Col. Barnes. He also gave up his life to the service of his country. CAPT. WILLIAM ESTES HACKER. Capt. William Estes Hacker, Company A, Third Maryland Volunteer Infantry, was born in Philadelphia, Aug. 20, 1844. Moved to Worcester 1850. Entered the Highland Military School at Worcester in 1857. In 1858 was appointed second lieutenant, and captain in 1859; and held the office until he graduated in 1861. He left home, September, 1861, to act as volunteer aide on Gen. James Cooper's staff, who was raising a brigade in Maryland; and continued on his staff until the following May, when he accepted commission as second lieutenant in the Third Maryland. The last of May, the regiment was ordered to Harper's Ferry, and was stationed at Bolivar Heights. In the retreat of Gen. Saxton, the regiment lost all their baggage and tents. Was afterwards up the Shenandoah Valley with Gen. Banks's army corps, and in the fight at Slaughter Mountain, where Major Kennedy of the regiIment was killed. During the retreat of Gen. Pope, the regiment was engaged in the rear, burning and destroying baggage-wagons and railroad-cars, and suffered severely for want of food. In the battle of Antietam, he was shot through the chest. He was taken to Worcester by his father on a stretcher. In November, he left for his regiment again, as he learned they were going into winterquarters. A few days after, they were ordered to move, and he to report to the medical director at Philadelphia. Not being sufficiently recovered to go with the regiment, he was ordered to the officers' hospital at Camacs Woods in Philadelphia, where he staid until Jan. 13. He then joined his regiment at Stafford Court House, Va.; and shortly after they were ordered to Acquia Creek. In March, was detailed by Gen. Jackson to act as brigade inspector; but, before assuming any of the duties, he was taken with typhoidfever, and died March 28, 1863. His body was taken to Philadelphia, and laid in Laurel-hill Cemetery. He was eighteen years and seven months old when he died, and probably one of the youngest captains who died during the war. CAPT. NATHANIEL BRADSTREET SHURTLEFF, JUN., Was the son of a physician of Boston bearing the same name; and was born in that city on the sixteenth day of March, 1838. He received his early education in the public schools of his native city, where he earned several high prizes. He graduated at Harvard College in 1859, where he distinguished himself as a public speaker, possessing the highest powers as a writer and extemporaneous debater. In the law-office of William Brigham of Boston, he passed a year of study; and, just as he was attaining a position among his fellow-students, the country became convulsed by the Southern Rebellion. He was a member of a volunteer military company in Boston, the Independent Company of Cadets. On the day after the Baltimore riot, Fletcher Webster made his public appeal in State Street for soldiers for three-years' service. |