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Regiment of Volunteers, by Robert Cowdin

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Title: Gen. Cowdin and the First Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers

Author: Robert Cowdin

Release Date: July 11, 2010 [EBook #33139]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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GEN. COWDIN
AND THE
FIRST MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT
OF
VOLUNTEERS.

BOSTON:
J. E. FARWELL AND COMPANY, PRINTERS,
37 CONGRESS STREET.
1864.

PREFACE.

At the urgent and repeated solicitations of many friends, I have finally
consented to give to the public a few statements concerning the treatment
which I have received from a few high official dignitaries, representing
the State of Massachusetts. I do not wish to be egotistical or extravagant
in my expressions, but to state the facts simply as they are, leaving the
public to decide whether one who has sacrificed his business, the comforts
and pleasures of home, and friends, for the defence of his country, has
deserved such unkind and ungenerous usage.

R. C.

BOSTON, October, 1864.

STATEMENT.

Immediately after the fall of Sumter, when the Capital seemed in imminent
danger, I reported myself to his Excellency Governor Andrew, tendering him
the services of myself and command, and expressing my willingness to go at
the shortest possible notice. A number of other Colonels appeared for the
same purpose, and after the matter had been thoroughly discussed, the
Governor ordered Colonel Jones, of the Sixth Regiment, to report himself
the next day, which he did with about four hundred men, some three hundred
short of the requisite number for a full Regiment (as the regulations then
provided). I then offered to the Governor one of my companies, under the
command of Captain W. S. Sampson, which was accepted. This, with others
that had previously been ordered, filled up the Regiment to its full
quota, an