To the same.
Wayland, 1876.
Whittier, in one of his letters to me, expresses himself about your beloved Robert, thus: “I know of nothing nobler or grander than the heroic self-sacrifice of young Colonel Shaw.
The only regiment I ever looked upon during the war was the 54th, on its departure for the South.
I shall never forget the scene.
As he rode at the head of his troops, the very flower of grace and chivalry, he seemed to me beautiful and awful as an angel of God come down to lead the host of freedom to victory.
I have longed to speak
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the emotions of that hour, but I dared not, lest I should indirectly give a new impulse to war. For his parents I feel that reverence which belongs to the highest manifestation of devotion to duty and forgetfulness of self, in view of the mighty interests of humanity.
There must be a noble pride in their great sorrow.
I am sure they would not exchange their dead son for any living one.”