With feelings of deep regret, I inform you that Colonel
Prescott, our brave and lamented leader, is no more. He was
shot through the body, near the heart, on the eighteenth day
of June, and died the following morning. On the morning of the
eighteenth, our division was not in line. Reveille was at an
early hour, and before long we were moving to the front. Soon
we passed the ground where the Ninth Corps drove the enemy
from their fortified lines, and came upon and formed our line
in rear of Crawford’s Division. In front of us, and one mile
distant, the Rebels’ lines of works could be seen. Between us
and them, and in a deep gulley, was the Norfolk and Petersburg
Railroad. Soon the order came for us to take the railroad from
the enemy, whose advance then held it. Four regiments of our
brigade were to head the charge; so the 32d Massachusetts, 62d,
91st and 155th Pennsylvania regiments, under command of Colonel
Gregory, moved forward in good order, the enemy keeping up a
steady fire all the time. All went well till we reached the
road. The Rebels left when they saw us advance, and, when we
reached the road, they were running away. But here our troubles
began. The banks, on each side of the road, were about thirty
feet high, and, being stiff clay, were nearly perpendicular.
We got down well enough, because we got started, and were
rolled to the bottom, a confused pile of Yanks. Now to climb
the other side! It was impossible to get up by climbing, for
the side of it was like the side of a house. By dint of getting
on each other’s shoulders and making holes for our feet with
bayonets, a few of us got up; reaching our guns down to the
others, we all finally got over. Meanwhile, a storm of bullets
was rained upon us. Through it all, Colonel Prescott was cool
and collected, encouraging the men to do their best. After
we were almost all across, he moved out in front of the line,
and called the men out to him, saying, “Come on, men; form
our line here.” The color-bearer stepped towards him, when a
bullet struck the Colonel, passed through him, and wounded the
color-bearer, Sergeant Giles of Company G. Calmly the Colonel
turned, and said, “I am wounded; some one help me off.” A
sergeant of Company B, and one of the 21st Pennsylvania, helped
him off. This man told me, last night, all that the Colonel
said, while going off. He was afraid we would be driven back,
and wanted these men to stick by him. He said, “I die for my
country.” He seemed to be conscious that death was near to him,
and said the wound was near his heart; wanted the sergeant of
Company B to write to his family, and tell them all about him.
He will write to Mrs. Prescott, probably; but if they do not
hear from some one an account of his death, I wish you would
show this to Mrs. Prescott. He died in the division hospital,
night before last, and his remains will probably be sent to
Concord. We lament his loss in the regiment very much. He was
like a father to us,—always counselling us to be firm in the
path of duty, and setting the example himself. I think a more
moral man, or one more likely to enter the kingdom of heaven,
cannot be found in the Army of the Potomac. No man ever heard
him swear, or saw him use liquor, since we were in the service.
I wish there was some way for the regiment to pay some tribute
to his memory. But the folks at home must do this for the
present. The Thirty-second Regiment has lost its leader, and
calls on the people of Concord to console the afflicted family
of the brave departed, by showing their esteem for him in some
manner. He was one of the few men who fight for principle,—pure
principle. He did not fight for glory, honor nor money but
because he thought it his duty. These are not my feelings only,
but of the whole regiment. I want you to show this to every
one, so they can see what we thought of the Colonel, and how he
died in front of his regiment. God bless and comfort his poor
family. Perhaps people think soldiers have no feeling, but it
is not so. We feel deep anxiety for the families of all our
dear comrades.
CHARLES BARTLETT,
_Sergeant Company G, 32d Mass. Vols._[194]