GOODELL FAMILY LETTERS- #13B
 

Colonel Edwin Upton to Anson

Colonel Edwin Upton wrote this letter to Anson P. Goodell. It is in response to a letter sent to him by Anson upon his resigning his commission with the 25th Mass. Regt. when the Non Commissioned Officers and enlisted men of the 25th presented him with a sword.[1]

                                                                                     Fitchburg, January 1st, 1863
To
Anson P. Goodell Esq.
Company D 25th Regt. Mass. Vols.
Newbern, N.C.

            Dear Sir,

Your communication of the 29th of Nov. last came to hand a few days since and on yesterday a box containing the contents there in described, for which I desire to tender the Non Commissioned Officers and Privates of the 25th Regiment Mass. Vols. though you for this splendid and beautiful token of your friendship and confidence in me as your commander my sincere thanks.

            You sir have referred to the many different positions in which we have been placed as a Regiment from the commencement of it’s formation until the time where I felt compelled by the ruthless hand of disease to tender a few weeks since my resignation. I often look back on the time spent with you as your commander with the greatest pleasure and thank God that it fell to my lot to command in the service of one beloved country in this her hour of peril and danger so noble a set of men as those comprising the 25th Regt., ready at all times to obey with alacrity every order of those appointed over you. From the first starting of this regiment I have ever felt a deep interest in your welfare I have felt that mine were as good men in the ranks as among those appointed to the offices, men that had families at home that were as near and dear to them as they possibly could be, and unto whom they were endeared with the strongest ties of friendship and affection that can be conceived of, and this is why I have ever felt it to be my benevolent duty while in command not to allow an unnecessary sacrifice of the lives who were placed under my charge. While at the same time any necessary sacrifice to the cause in which we are engaged, I would make without a moments hesitation.

            The duties of a soldier life away from the streets of a New England home and family would have been doubly severe and almost unbearable were it not for the confidence that I have always had that the Rank and File of the 25th Regiment have always been with and ever ready to support me. And if I ever had reason to doubt you’re your readiness and willingness to give me that support those doubts are removed at once and forever. I often look back with pleasure upon the success of the Regiment for the year that I was in the service with you although we lost by death from the Regt. forty three of those gallant men that left the old Bay State with us our comrades in arms by disease and by the bullet on the battlefields of Roanoke and Newbern. Yet have luckily escaped compared with other Regts. in our own division or any other division in the service of the country. I do not know of another Regiment that has fared so well, and therefore are we under renewed obligations to do our duty to God and Country and one another, in a manner becoming men in the age in which we live. In conclusion let me say to you for this beautiful token of remembrance. Accept My Thanks, feeling assured that so long as you remain in the service I can with confidence rely upon your faithful performance of every duty required by those appointed over you in the service of our beloved country now bleeding at every pore, or as long as there can be found a Rebel with hands vile enough to tear down, or feet so grossly polluted as to trample under foot that glorious old flag of our Country under which we have been protected for almost a century.

            I am most respectfully

                                    Your Obt. Servt.

                                            Edwin Upton


[1] This letter was not in the Goodell Collection, but Mrs. Marion Williams gave a copy of it to me.

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