I 
 
 E ^99 
 
 kJsJp 
 
 ifl?!: ift^ffc^^roSKjK JE^K 
 
 
 KE-Ib. 
 
 f^"-^^^^ 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 14ih 
 .Bl 
 Copy 1 
 
 f^^^fj^ 
 
 
 m 
 
 ■y/. 
 
^LIBRARY OF ( (INGRESS. fi 
 
 # 
 
 r^^^,.<L. *^/ ^ 
 
 f 
 
 # 
 
 ^^^"#/^/ 
 
 ^UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J 
 
■^ 
 
 / 
 
cLurCi^^^ 
 
t Sttfrififf Co ji summit. 
 
 LIFE 
 
 O F 
 
 EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER, 
 
 LATELY 
 
 A SOLDIER IN THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 
 
 B Y 
 
 JEREMIAH TAYLOR, D. D. 
 
 Honor is the reward of action. 
 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 HEIS-RY^ HOYT, 
 
 No. 9 CORNHILL. 
 • v/ 1863. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by 
 
 HENRY HOYT, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of tlie District of Massachusetts. 
 
 GEO. C. KAND & AVERY, 
 STEKEOTYPEKS AND PKINTEKS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 -ooja8><c 
 
 
 Circumstances occumng in nie often 
 
 give prominence and importance to char- 
 ^ acters and individuals that might not 
 otherwise have been brought to the 
 public notice. 
 
 Strength of purpose, finished beauty of char- 
 acter, is an important part of the compensation 
 derived from Avhat is severe in trial and rigid 
 in the discipline of earth. Hence, it is times 
 of marked severity which not only create^ but 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 reveal for admiration the best features of man- 
 hood. 
 
 In nature, the rainbow is not photographed, 
 except there be first the background of storm 
 and cloud. 
 
 "And darkness shows us worlds of light 
 We never saw by day." 
 
 The appalling scenes of civil war through 
 which this nation is now drifting afford a rare 
 opportunity for perfecting some of the divine 
 forms of individual life, as well as for exhibit- 
 ing to the world the wisdom and strength 
 combined in our free institutions. 
 
 By-gone ages, which we have been wont to 
 view only through the hazy atmosphere of his- 
 toric record, have rolled back upon us. And 
 
PREFACE. VII 
 
 we are struggling in the midst of all tliat is 
 heroic, grand, self-denying, enduring, to con- 
 serVe our priceless inheritance, as our fathers 
 did to purchase and transmit it to us. 
 
 And so the names and deeds of thousands 
 are passing into materials for future history, 
 which times of peace had left to a humbler 
 sphere of light and influence. 
 
 The life delineated in the following pages 
 is chiefly valuable to intimate friends. 
 
 If, outside of the circle of partial friendship, 
 the volume shall seem to have merit, it will 
 be due, in the main, to the fact, that it is the 
 story of a Christian soldier, — one who found 
 it sweet to die for his country. 
 
 One whose example may stimulate others to 
 
yill P E E F A C E . 
 
 feel that it is better to be sacrificed in the 
 cause of the right in youth than to come to 
 the grave of years through the hidden path 
 of neglected duty and cowardly invirility. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 — — ooja8i<oo 
 
 CHAPTER I. • 
 
 HIS PLACE OF BIRTH — EARLY YEARS, 11 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HIS GREAT BEREAVEMENT — THE DEATH OF HIS 
 FATHER, 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SCHOOL DAYS— ENTERS COLLEGE, 29 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BUSINESS LIFE, 31 
 
 IX 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER, 41 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ENLISTS AS A SOLDIER, 59 
 
 •CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WOMAN AND DUTY — HIS MOTHER'S SACRIFICE, . 65 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DEPARTURE FOR THE SEAT OF WAR — CAMP LIFE, . 80 
 
 CHAPTER IX,. 
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF LIFE, 115 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 BURIAL, 135 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 OP 
 
 EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 
 
 CHAPTEK I 
 
 HIS PLACE OF BIRTH EARLY 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 ATURAL scenery has much to 
 do in the formation of indi- 
 vidual character. The grand 
 and imposing in the outer 
 world stimulate to the bold 
 and elevated in thought, while 
 the beautiful and the tranquil 
 serve to chasten the spirit, and adorn the 
 life with the amiable and quiet virtues. 
 
 The classic story informs us, that Her- 
 
 11 
 
12 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 cules, the old prodigy of strength, engaged 
 in his first successful battle for life, while 
 the occupant of his cradle. 
 
 It is no fable, to say, that ordinarily, the 
 influences which wait upon the opening 
 period of life are potent for good or ill, and 
 serve not a little to give tone and color to 
 the future. There is such a happy combina- 
 tion of the grand and the less imposing in 
 much of our American scenery as tends to 
 produce the most favorable results upon the 
 body and mind of the inhabitants. There 
 is both strength and aspiration, and also the 
 graceful and the 'pure. Among the more 
 favored portions of New England, in these 
 happy combinations, may be ranked the val- 
 ley of the Connecticut ; and in this highly- 
 favored section, few places will care to dis- 
 pute the palm of precedence with the old 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 13 
 
 town of Middletownj in the centre of the 
 State of Connecticut. 
 
 The small city, which retains the name of 
 the town, nestles closely upon the river, just 
 where it makes its graceful sweep, and turns 
 aside from the pleasant dales, where it has 
 so long proudly borne its course, to make 
 its way more directly through a garrison of 
 hills for the waters of the great deep, and 
 becomes the open channel of commerce to 
 and from the national metropolis. Ascending 
 from the river a few hundred yards in this 
 city, we reach High Street, distinguished 
 for its elegant residences, inviting lawns, 
 gardens, and flowering shrubs. The street 
 is so thickly set with shade and ornamental 
 trees on either side, that when the foliage is 
 in perfection, the rays of the sun strive in 
 vain to impinge on the ground. These prem- 
 
14 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 ises, being guarded carefully from the intru- 
 sion of the sportsman, have become the 
 elysium of various kinds of birds, where, 
 at certain seasons, they pour forth their 
 full flow of song, and add the finish to a 
 scene of such attractive beauty. Midway 
 in this street, which runs north and south, 
 just where the curve of the rolling surface 
 rises highest, stands the massive stone man- 
 sion erected by the late Nathan Starr, the 
 maternal grandparent of Edward. Front- 
 ing on College Street, which descends the 
 hill, just south of the spacious grounds 
 which belong to this edifice, at the loAver 
 extremity of the orchard, stands the house 
 where he was born, April 15, 1842. Here 
 his mother and two sisters still reside. His 
 mother had been married to Hamilton Brew- 
 er, a young physician just established in 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 15 
 
 bis profession here, in the month of May 
 of the previous year. The parents took 
 this their first-born child to the sanctuary, 
 where he received baptism, September first 
 of the same year. Parental love of the 
 most thoughtful and watchful kind guarded 
 the child from the moment his being began. 
 His infancy and childhood unfolded happily 
 as a flower that enjoys continually the in- 
 fluence of a healthful atmosphere, sunshine, 
 and rain; and which is carefully protected 
 from the sting of the hurtful insect. 
 
 The most gratifying results of parental 
 fidelity early appeared in the character and 
 conduct of the child. He learned to shun 
 the evil, and cleave firmly to the good. 
 Tiie defects and vices in character against 
 A\diich he had been warned at home, were 
 quickly seen in others abroad, and received 
 
16 LIFE AND CHAEACTER OF 
 
 the earnest expressions of his 'disapproba- 
 tion. It is told of him, that he had a com- 
 panion whom he tenderly loved, and in 
 whose society he found much of his pas- 
 time in one of his early summers. His ear 
 caught from his lips one day the wicked 
 word. The sport was at an end in a mo- 
 ment, as Eddie turned sorrowfully away, 
 saying, "I shall not play with you, if you 
 use such naughty words ! " At first, the 
 transgressor was disposed to brave it out, 
 and sacrifice his companion rather than to 
 correct the vice in his conduct ; but better 
 judgment ruled his final purpose, and he 
 gave the pledge of reform, and cemented 
 more firmly than ever their friendship. The 
 young hero had that day the triumph of a 
 double victory : he ruled his own spirit, 
 and taught another how to conquer himself 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 17 
 
 Life thus well begun can hardly fail to ex- 
 pend itself in some broad field of usefulness. 
 The home of Edward was ever a place 
 of his cherished delights. The house was 
 fashioned after an architectural model very 
 common in the earlier periods of the coun- 
 try, — double in front, with two stories sur- 
 mounted w^ith a gambrel roof It holds an 
 eligible position affording an extended view 
 of the surrounding country. On the east, 
 rise conspicuous in the distance tlic Cobalt 
 Hills, at the foot of which, through the 
 Narrows, the river forces its way, on the 
 opposite bank of which are the silver mines, 
 which were opened in the period previous 
 to the Revolution. Thence, a little way 
 south, stands prominent to view, White 
 Rock, a favorite resort, and the Feld-Spar 
 Quarries, from which have been gathered 
 
18 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 several choice minerals^ besides the large 
 exports which are annually made of the 
 feld-spar itself for manufacturing purposes. 
 On the west, within a minute's walk, at the 
 head of the street, is the Wesleyan Univer- 
 sity ; while a short distance below, arise the 
 spires and towers of the various churches. 
 Hedges and fruit-trees, vines, flowering and 
 sweet-scented shrubs fill the yard and climb 
 upon the building, and extend to the birds 
 an invitation to make their home and re- 
 peat their songs there, which they freely 
 accept. Here the boyhood of the child 
 flowed on delightfully to himself, and free 
 from any great sorrow, until he had just en- 
 tered his fourteenth year; then there settled 
 a cloud over the home circle, which would 
 never be fully removed. The young heart 
 had come to the scene of its first great trial. 
 
 J 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 
 
 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HIS BEREAVEMENT DEATH OF HIS 
 
 ^"^ .HE Christian home! What 
 spot so choice on earth ? It 
 is the fragment of a lost par- 
 adise, which has come down 
 to us through the ages. As 
 the world now is, it seems 
 impossible that any institution 
 could be substituted in its place, fraught 
 with so benign influences for individual 
 man or society at large. It is virtue's gar- 
 den ; the abode of purest love ; the sanc- 
 tuary of hallowed sentiments. Sweet har- 
 
20 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 mony of soul is there. God is there in 
 covenant with man. 
 
 How well adapted^ too, the parental rela- 
 tion, which exists in such a connection, 
 to the necessities of childhood and form- 
 ing youth. A double love, a twofold guar- 
 dianship is placed about the morning of. 
 life, that nothing may check its healthliil 
 growth. Father and mother are there, — 
 one to nourish and train the plant at home, 
 the other to guide and protect it when 
 borne forth into the atmosphere of the 
 busy world. Man never appears more de- 
 praved in himself, more cruel to his fellov/- 
 men, than when attempting to obliterate the 
 family, or to weaken its influence, and to 
 break down the towers of its strength. 
 Death never seems more, cruel than when 
 he stalks boldly into such a sacred enclos- 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 21 
 
 ure and lays his chosen victim low. Espe- 
 cially is the scene one of gloom and mystery 
 when the family is young. When " parents 
 are leading forth their little ones like a 
 flock/' how- agonizing the hour, when the de- 
 stroyer comes and bears one away ! And the 
 parent, — must he die? What will become 
 of those who need his care ? A few morn- 
 ings since, I stood by a bereaved one as he 
 struggled with his great sorrow. His w4fe 
 was sleeping her last sleep by his side. His 
 children were motherless. The sweet babe 
 had been but a few hours on her bosom 
 when her heart became cold and dead, and 
 her tender care was evermore denied it. 
 There was a cloud on the divine throne 
 that hour, overshadowing that dwelhng, — 
 one we have often seen elsewhere. We 
 could only bow the head and weep, saying. 
 
22 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " Thy will be done/' as the voice of speak- 
 ing Love was heard through the gloom, 
 *^What I do thou knowest not now, but 
 thou shalt know hereafter." 
 
 At the period to which our narrative had 
 come in the previous chapter, Dr. Brewer's 
 family consisted of three children, — Edward 
 and two younger sisters ; and the picture 
 of home-life there enjoyed was such as 
 might challenge the admiration of the be- 
 holder. The father was exerting a widen- 
 ing influence in his profession, and eliciting 
 the warm esteem of all whom he met in 
 the other walks and business relations of 
 life. 
 
 When in vigorous health, he was pros- 
 trated by a fatal disease which terminated 
 life after a few hours of intense suffering. 
 His wife was a widow, his children father- 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 23 
 
 less! Were not such scenes so common, 
 we should say they could not be endured. 
 What a change for a young, buoyant life 
 to pass through! Just when needing a 
 father's hand most, to have it relinquish its 
 hold evermore ! Life is made up of periods 
 or chapters ; scenes of pleasure now and 
 here ; times of trial then and there. Many 
 a poor child has come to his first great trial, 
 and been crushed by it; the young heart 
 had not strength to endure. It is not every 
 sapling that bows gracefully before the 
 sweeping tornado, and comes up erect again 
 in the wake of the tempest. To most per- 
 sons, great sorrows are eras from which 
 marked changes in personal character be- 
 gin. Life is set forward, henceforth, more 
 vigorously in the right direction, or it then 
 takes a sudden turn downward to ruin. If 
 
2-i: LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 the heart opens aright, as the barbed 
 arrow enters it, truth leaves her heahng 
 bahn there, and the blessing is sure. ^^I am 
 fatherless ; my mother a widow ! " must have 
 been the sorrowful reflection in the mind 
 of Edward, as they returned from the grave 
 to their desolate home, and sat musing in 
 the evening tw^ilight. These two facts were 
 to him like two well-set eyes opening vivid 
 visions of the future. His home, his heart, 
 the world everywhere seemed sad, gloomy 
 under the shadows they revealed. A child 
 differently trained might have debated with 
 himself whether he should not assume an 
 air of independence, reject maternal advice 
 and authority, and mark out for himself 
 such a course for the future as would ac- 
 knowledge no restraints but what might be 
 self-imposed. How many a son has struck 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 25 
 
 the rock of his destruction by rejecting the 
 counsels of his mother at such a turn in 
 life ! but not so was the decision in the in- 
 stance before us. The noble, right-spirited 
 boy finds two grand, governing purposes 
 formed within him in -that serious hour. I 
 will do all that I can to bless and comfort 
 my sorrowing parent. I will reflect the 
 virtues of my father in my own life. Those 
 purposes were like two loving, powerful 
 guardian angels, and they kept the lad 
 henceforth in the way he should go. 
 
 As daily he looked upon the face of his 
 bereaved mother, struggling between the 
 cheerfulness it would bear towards her 
 children, and the shadows of her deep 
 sorrow, which were continual^ gathering 
 there, his heart became brave for her sake, 
 and his bearing was manly, dignified, under 
 
26 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 the thought that so holy a mission had been 
 intrusted to him, — that he was to comfort 
 the distressed, bear the burden of the heavy- 
 laden. Sometimes there is a painful matu- 
 rity created by these great changes in 
 the outward circumstances of a young life. 
 Childhood, with its imposed cares, its dis- 
 turbed sources of joy, overleaps youth. 
 Manhood goes down to embrace the child 
 and aid in bearing its cares, and leaves its 
 thoughtful impress on the plastic nature, 
 and the child is no more young. Life thus 
 forced to maturity by the discipline of ad- 
 versity, does not ordinarily present the 
 most pleasing picture for contemplation. 
 The natural formation of a free, outgushing 
 youth, with the healthy glow of innocent 
 glee, is better, led, indeed, in wisdom's ways, 
 and instructed by the counsels of unerring 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 27 
 
 truth. Dwarfs in body, or very marked 
 precocity of mind, are sources of pain rather 
 than enjoymd^it to one who delights in the 
 harmonies of a beautiful creation. 
 
 Edward was truly a thoughtful boy. He 
 was not likely to do things rashly. No 
 gross transgressions in conduct are regis- 
 tered against him ; yet his life was cheerful, 
 and the yoke he was bearing seemed not 
 too heavy, but like that which the wise 
 man says it is good for one to bear in his 
 youth. While he remembered the joys that 
 had been tasted and were gone, he did not 
 forget that others, and perhaps more pre- 
 cious, might return. The world was still 
 bright, though the sun had once been 
 eclipsed. Much of the grief that would 
 otherwise have remained in the home circle 
 passed away in the charm of his presence 
 
28 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 and the promises of his life. And so the 
 father slept; the grave was closed; and the 
 family looked out upon the future with a 
 new hand pointing onward ! The bow was 
 in the cloud. 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 
 
 29 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SCHOOL DAYS ENTERS COLLEGE. 
 
 NE who afterward became em- 
 iuent as a scholar is s;iid to 
 have been greatly incited in 
 his purpose to obtain a Hberal 
 education by the sight of a 
 school academy, and the daily 
 ringing of the bell from its 
 tower, in his hearing, as he was laboring, 
 when a boy, in a neighboring field. 
 
 Nothing was wanting to the educational 
 
 surroundings of young Brewer's home to 
 
 vincite him in the same direction. The 
 
 city high school was nearly opposite his 
 
30 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 mother's door, where hundreds of children 
 assembled daily for their studies. The stu- 
 dents of the college, located hard by, he 
 met in all his walks. The house and 
 grounds of his maternal parent were now 
 converted into a classical boarding-school; 
 other schools and seminaries of a high order 
 were but a little more removed; so that it 
 would hardly be possible for him not to 
 cherish the thought of pursuing a regular 
 course of classical study. Add to these 
 the fact that his father had been a gradu- 
 ate of the university, and a member of one 
 of the learned professions, and his course 
 for life seemed plainly indicated. The spirit 
 of the boy was certainly not wanting in that 
 direction. He pursued the studies consti- 
 tuting the course preparatory to college, at 
 the high school, and at the boarding-school 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 31 
 
 of Rev. H. M. ColtoD; and entered the Fresh- 
 man class in the Wesleyan University, in 
 t!:e autumn of 1859, when seventeen years 
 old. 
 
 After a few months of trial in the class- 
 room, he became convinced that he could 
 not pursue the prescribed course either 
 with comfort or succesr^.s. Distressing pains 
 afflicted his head ; he Vv^as also at times 
 troubled with discouraging weakness of the 
 eyes. It was a terrible trial to abandon his 
 cherished plans by taking up his connection 
 with college. He was goaded to the quick 
 when friends intimated that he was fickle, 
 and lacked decision of purpose and energy 
 in prosecution. He struggled long, before 
 reaching a final conclusion as to what he 
 ought to do ; but the disease still remained 
 like a bitter foe, forbidding literary pursuits, 
 
32 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 and he at length turned sorrowfully and 
 finally away from the bright vision which 
 had tempted him onward. Some one has 
 saidj " The setting of a great hope is like 
 the setting of the sun, — darkness comes 
 on, and then the stars begin to shine." So 
 serious a matter as the change of all his 
 plans for life did not leave the youi^.g '"stu- 
 dent devoid of a purpose to accomplish some- 
 thing. He had no patrimony to tempt him 
 to idleness and dissipation. He must toil 
 somewhere, — make the world feel his influ- 
 ence for good in some department of honor- 
 able industry. Life was too precious to be 
 wasted. Surely the Lord had need of him, 
 and he would work. 
 
 He derived much pleasure and strength, 
 during all these days of bis second grejit 
 trial, from the thought that his mother sane- 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 33 
 
 tioned his course by her counsel; and he 
 could but believe that prosperity would, in 
 the end, follow the fortune of that child 
 who acted in accordance with parental wis- 
 dom. Too many eminent men had attributed 
 their success in life to fidelity to maternal 
 influence to leave a doubt in that matter. 
 The teachings of the sacred Word were 
 too plain for him to cherish a feeling of 
 uncertainty on this point. He had learned 
 the words, " Honor thy father and mother," 
 — which is the first commandment with 
 promise, — "that it may be well with thee, 
 and that thou mayest live long on the 
 earth.'' 
 
34 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BUSINESS LIFE. 
 
 'N former years, Middletown was 
 quite extensively engaged in 
 the manufacture of fire-arms 
 for government service. The 
 various streams that flowed 
 through the valleys offered, at 
 limited expense, the requisite 
 power for running machinery, and held out 
 inducements for capitalists to erect capa- 
 cious buildings, which were converted to 
 other uses in later periods, but, now that 
 war is upon the nation, are more or less 
 devoted again to their original service. The 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 35 
 
 sound of the forge, the glare of the furnace, 
 and the hum of the machinery do not cease 
 now during the livelong week, telling the 
 terrible haste there is in this work of death ! 
 It is our good fortune here in New Eng- 
 land, to learn the magnitude of the national 
 struggle through indirect channels, rather 
 than under the immediate blighting influ- 
 ence of marching and contending embattled 
 hosts. The amount of labor and capital 
 employed in constructing the implements of 
 war is no unmeaning witness on the subject. 
 It makes the heart sicken when we pause to 
 inquire, Where is flowing the strength of 
 our young men, our arms and our treasures? 
 If it were an enemy that had done this, 
 how easy, comparatively, to be borne ! but 
 when our foes are those of our own house- 
 hold, the sacrifice which we are called to 
 
36 LIFE AND CHAEACTER OP 
 
 make, by the fierce passions and Tinhallowed 
 ambition of those who have taken the sword 
 to destroy us, in defence of our sacred honor 
 and blood-purchased rights, is greater than 
 heaven is wont to claim of any people. ^* Oh, 
 thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be 
 ere thou be quiet ? " 
 
 In this earlier government service, the 
 maternal grand-parent of Edward was long 
 and successfully employed ; and in later 
 labors for furnishing the nation with arms, 
 two brothers of his mother were extensively 
 engaged. It seemed natural for the youth, 
 now that his thought was turned to business 
 pursuits, to look in the direction where so 
 many of his friends and relatives had found 
 their calling. An opportunity every way 
 favorable was offered him by his uncles in 
 their large factory in Binghamton, New 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 37 
 
 York. He acceded to their proposal, deter- 
 mined to master the business in all its de- 
 tails, so as to secure for himself the best 
 possible position. To this end, believing 
 that he who would ultimately be master 
 must begin at the very lowest part and 
 ascend, he entered the manufactory as a 
 careful learner. It was a severe trial to 
 leave his home for this new start ; but not 
 more so to him than to those he left behind. 
 How deeply he gherished the desire that 
 all should go well with the family of his 
 love, is revealed by a letter he sent his 
 eldest sister while at Binghamton. Re- 
 ferring to an invitation which had been 
 extended to her by her aunt to pass some 
 time with her in Neiv Haven, and express- 
 ing the hope that her visit would be every 
 way agreeable and profitable to her, he adds : 
 
38 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " But while you are at home, remember 
 that you are mother's oldest daughter ; and 
 that you ought to help her as much as you 
 can. I wish you to break yourself of the 
 very bad habit you are indulging in, — of 
 hugging the pillow in the morning, and thus 
 robbing yourself of the best hours of the 
 day for doing anything. As mother has 
 taught us, and as I just begin to appreciate, 
 remember the old and familiar maxim, — 
 ' Early to bed and early to rise is the way 
 to be healthy, wealthy, and wise.' 
 
 " So rouse up, and do all you can to help 
 mother bear her already too heavy burdens. 
 By pursuing such a course, you will not 
 only have her warmest love, but what pre- 
 sents a far better and stronger motive than 
 any earthly love, however pure, — you will 
 have the approval of God. With his love 
 
EDWAED HAMILTON BREWER. 39 
 
 in your heart, all will go well with you. 
 Kemember that this life is but a place of 
 discipline, where we must all be tried, as 
 silver is tried ; and if we take a correct view 
 of our trials, we shall not only, by them, be 
 made better in this world, but under their 
 influence ripen for our heavenly home." 
 
 If in the change of pursuits he had ex- 
 pected to find deliverance from his disease 
 in the head, he was doomed to disappoint- 
 ment. The trouble was aggravated rather 
 than diminished, by the noise and confusion 
 of the workshop; so that he felt obliged, 
 after a few months' experiment, to return to 
 his home to find rest. He came to us greatly 
 depressed in spirit, sadly disappointed, ex- 
 pecting to hear the old suggestion, want 
 of stability. He mingled but little in soci- 
 ety ; and, contrary to his better judgment. 
 
40 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 he determined to return to the trial at some 
 day not far in the future. We recall with 
 sadness these days, because his spirit was 
 so overwhelmed within him ; and he did not 
 care to have it known that he was again 
 beneath the paternal roof. There was a 
 voice which he heard even then, speaking 
 to his secret soul, as the notes of the friendly 
 bell sound on the ear of the doubtful mar- 
 iner, through fog and tempest, guiding him 
 in the course he should go : " Commit thy 
 works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall 
 be established. In all thy way acknowledge 
 him, and he shall direct thy paths." Impor- 
 tant changes in the business of his em- 
 ployers caused his stay at home to be 
 protracted beyond what had at first been 
 contemplated. In the mean time an open- 
 ing occurred for the services of a young 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 41 
 
 man in one of the banking-houses of the 
 city. The position seemed so desirable, that 
 a large number made application for it. Ed- 
 ward came to me one morning, exhibiting 
 more than usual excitement and solicitude 
 in his words and manner. He would not 
 divulge the important secret in full, but 
 desired such testimonials to his personal 
 merit as might aid him in securing a busi- 
 ness position on which his heart was set. 
 A few days afterward we met; he was clerk 
 in the Middlesex County Bank. The joy 
 of his heart was full. The limited business 
 hours presented ample opportunities for 
 open-air exercise. The little garden where 
 he had strayed when a child would feel his 
 hand of cultivation. He could again launch 
 his boat on the river, where in boyhood he 
 had whiled away so many leisure hours. 
 
42 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 But the grand charm of the arrangement 
 was found in being at home. Familiar skies 
 were overhead ; the Lord's house, the home 
 of his religious affections, was open there 
 to receive him on the sacred day of rest; 
 the social meeting, where his feet had been 
 wont to go of an evening hour, invited his 
 attendance. Here, too, he could be in the 
 family, where his presence, counsel, and 
 love to mother and sisters contributed more 
 and more to their essential comfort. Be- 
 yond the present, there opened to view an 
 honorable and successful business, should 
 he be faithful to his trust. Many, beside 
 the youth and his relatives, thought they 
 saw in all this the hand of Him who pities 
 them that fear him, like as a father pitieth 
 his son. It seemed to those who were 
 familiar with his great personal merit, that 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 43 
 
 nowhere else could he be more useful, by 
 his example and efforts, than where he had 
 been brought up. He had no need to go 
 among strangers to have honor, or to meas- 
 ure the strength of his influence. We leave 
 him now, to attend to the calls and the 
 routine of daily duty in the banking-house, 
 to turn back a little and delineate his char- 
 acter as Hght falls upon it from another 
 source. 
 
44 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 
 
 >HE high school, of which Ed- 
 ward was a member in 1858, 
 engaged in one of its de- 
 partments the services of a 
 young lady, as teacher, who 
 thought not less of the moral 
 and spiritual condition of her 
 pupils, than of their literary attainments. 
 
 She possessed to an eminent degree the 
 faculty of enlisting the thought of the young 
 in the subject of their personal relations to 
 Christ, and their individual obligations to 
 " Remember their Creator in the days of 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 45 
 
 their youth." After the fatiguing labors of 
 the class-room were over, she was accus- 
 tomed to meet tiiose of her classes who 
 wished to spend an hour for rehgious con- 
 versation at her own apartments, and, in a 
 familiar manner, speak to them of God, and 
 the way of life. 
 
 The interest awakened in these twilight- 
 hour gatherings became very great. The 
 service was rendered so attractive under 
 the chastened spirit of devotion which pre- 
 vailed, that the place of audience was often 
 crowded ; those who went once were at- 
 tracted thither again. In that room, under 
 the eye of that faithful friend, a number of 
 young persons, for the first time, expressed 
 religious hope. In these evening conven- 
 tions our young friend was constantly 
 found ; and there, for the first time, he 
 
46 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 spoke openly of the love of the Saviour in 
 his soul. I remember the hour well. He 
 solicited me to accompany him, as his pas- 
 tor, that I might aid in giving direction to 
 the thought of the inquiring. The sight 
 was beautiful ; the scene one of great ten- 
 derness, — such as our Saviour would have 
 found the highest pleasure in beholding, had 
 it met his eye when on the earth. It was 
 like that in the temple, where the children 
 sang their sweet hosannas. As the ques- 
 tion went round, asking from each one an 
 expression of his religious exercises, Ed- 
 ward, in a few brief words, signified his 
 deep interest in the subject of his salva- 
 tion. There was no heated emotion, — no 
 unusual excitement apparent, but a fixed, 
 solemn determination to lead henceforth a 
 life of devotion to God. There was a feel- 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 47 
 
 ing of distrust in my mind at the time. I 
 had hoped to witness greater pungency of 
 conviction for sin, — more overpowering 
 joy in view of forgiveness received. This 
 feeHng led to a more careful watch of 
 the young converts, to see if their future 
 life and conduct were such as to indorse 
 the change as genuine. Most of the chil- 
 dren and youth that constituted those meet- 
 ings belonged to other congregations on the 
 Sabbath ; and what the result was to them 
 cannot be stated. Some made a public 
 profession, — that is all I know of their 
 religious life. The precious lamb that be- 
 longed to my own fold never gave occasion 
 for a doubt to exist but that he was indeed 
 all that he had expressed a desire to be. 
 He came freely to me with an open heart, 
 seeking counsel in respect to all the more 
 
48 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 important affairs of his life. He seemed 
 ever like a disciple in intimate, daily com- 
 munion with the Saviour. With no high- 
 wrought ecstasy, no remarkable zeal, there, 
 was sincere love to the truth, delight in 
 the service of religion, and marked consis- 
 tency in his daily walk and conversation. 
 In a word, his whole character and conduct 
 seemed to reflect the thought which formed 
 the basis of all his actions, — that it was 
 his most reasonable service to yield heartily 
 to the claims of our holy religion. The 
 impression remains now, as his life is re- 
 viewed, that he was one of those who, at a 
 very early period, was brought to know the 
 Lord. His great bereavement — the loss of 
 his father — may have been sanctified to 
 him to that degree as to wean his affections 
 from earth and sin and place them on holi- 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 49 
 
 ness and heaven. How well fitted such a 
 scene to such an end ! As he looked upon 
 the lifeless form of one whom he had so 
 tenderly loved, prostrated by a tatal blow, 
 unwarned, the lesson of holy Writ must 
 have been furrowed deeply into his tender 
 heart, — " Man that is born of a woman is 
 of few days, and full of trouble. He com- 
 eth forth like a flower, and is cut down ; he 
 fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.'' 
 It has been said that the source of power- 
 ful controlling influences is often hid, like 
 the obscure fountains which feed mighty 
 rivers, — so here, beneath death's own dark 
 shadows, may have been the silent agen- 
 cies which controlled evermore that young 
 life. There is great pleasure in tracing 
 these evidences of a life of faith thus early 
 begun in the heart of this youth, because 
 
50 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 the temptation is entirely taken away to 
 set up a claim to a religious character for 
 him, on the part of his friends, for less 
 substantial reasons. One of the most un- 
 happy influences flowing from the present 
 state of our country is the feeling in the 
 mind of so many, — that every man who 
 sacrifices his life in this war for the Union 
 dies a martyr, and goes to heaven, as a 
 matter of course. Many of the patriotic 
 songs which this state of the times has 
 made popular, many of the addresses over 
 the remains of our slain have embodied this 
 pernicious sentiment. Patriotism is not pi- 
 ety. Man may love his country, but have 
 no love to God who has enriched him with 
 such a goodly heritage. Thousands are 
 dying by the sword in the service of the 
 United States, in as righteous a cause as 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 51 
 
 the sun ever looked down upon, over whose 
 grave no star of hope for future blessed- 
 ness ever shines; for they never came to 
 Christ, and received his great salvation. It 
 is as true of the soldier as of men in the 
 other pursuits of life : "He that believeth on 
 the Son of God hath everlasting life ; and 
 he that beheveth not the Son shall not see 
 Hfe, but the wrath of God abideth on him." 
 It is too late in the centuries to revive the 
 old doctrine of the crusaders. The Word 
 of God sheds too clear a light to forsake it 
 for the wild vagaries of Mohammed, or the 
 fooleries of the Book of Mormon. The sins 
 of no individual, or no class of individuals, 
 are so heinous in the sight of Heaven that 
 God gives eternal life as a reward for ex- 
 terminating them by the weapons of war. 
 Away with this soul-destroying doctrine ! 
 
52 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 On New- Year's morning, 1860, it being 
 the Sabbath-day, Edward brought his gift to 
 Christ. It was himself, in those new forms 
 of a holy consecration, connected with a 
 public profession of his faith in the merit 
 of the Redeemer. The scene in the house 
 of God will not soon pass from the memory 
 of those who witnessed it. He stood there 
 in the great congregation, all alone, to per- 
 form his vow. He was not yet eighteen 
 years old, as in the presence of the great 
 Searcher of hearts, angels, and men, he 
 solemnly affirmed, — "I dedicate myself to 
 God in Christ; humbly confessing and re- 
 penting of my sins." There was one sitting 
 near him on that occasion, whose cup of 
 blessing was foaming to the brim. It was 
 she who bore him an infant to the sacred 
 font, and who now witnesses the fulfilment 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 53 
 
 of the promise, and the keeping of the cov- 
 enant: "I will estabHsh my covenant be- 
 tween me and thee and thy seed after thee 
 in their generations, for an everlasting cove- 
 nant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed 
 after thee." With Hannah she can say, ^^ My 
 heart rejoiceth in the Lord ; " as the child 
 she lent to the Lord as long as he should 
 live, gratefully accepts her sacred act as 
 his own, now that he with his own hand 
 subscribes unto the Lord. The child rises 
 up before her and calls her blessed, as he 
 takes her by the hand, as it were, and leads 
 her to the footstool of Sovereign mercy, say- 
 ing, " Behold, Heavenly Father, my 
 mother and the son of her consecration. I 
 come to redeem her vows, and to praise 
 thee for the covenant which has held and 
 blessed me unto this hour." 
 
54 LIFE AND CHAEACTER OF 
 
 " 'Tis done, the great transaction's done, 
 I am my Lord's and he is mine; 
 He drew me and I followed on, 
 Rejoiced to own the call divine." 
 
 The piety that is loving, healthful, needs 
 to be employed in active service for God. 
 The faith that justifies the soul by appropri- 
 ating the merit of Christ, brings the be- 
 liever into sympathy with the Saviour, so 
 that, like him, he goes about doing good. 
 To obey is the life of holiness. — The sun 
 shines, — a good tree yields good fruit. 
 
 The young Christian has a mind to work. 
 He takes a place in the Sabbath school. 
 Becomes an officer, where he had long been 
 a scholar. His presence is all the more 
 prized because there seems to rest upon 
 him the mantle of one who had long 
 cheered us by his mild and gentle life of 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 55 
 
 goodness, but had now passed into the vale 
 of eternal being. 
 
 During the warm season, the young men 
 and others of our city are accustomed to 
 form small parties for a few days' excursion 
 to sea, or for recreations with the hook and 
 line along the shore ; going out during the 
 day, and coming in to shore for the night. 
 Many a one, exhausted by close appHcation 
 to business, becomes invigorated by an e/ji- 
 sode of this kind. While in the bank, feel- 
 ing a brief respite from daily toil would 
 afford him much pleasure and profit, Ed- 
 ward joined a company of his associates in 
 one of these excursions. They were ab- 
 sent several days. Since his death, a friend 
 who was with him has communicated an in- 
 cident which came to his knowledge on that 
 occasion, illustrating his thoughtfulness for 
 
5Q LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 the good of others. At night they occu- 
 pied an old building, — the common resort 
 of fishermen who might frequent those 
 parts. In this old tenement, in one of the 
 most retired parts of it, where one who 
 wished to be in secret with his God would 
 be likely to resort, is found, after they have 
 taken up their connection with the place, a 
 copy of the Sacred Word, bearing the name 
 of " Brewer, " but underneath it, a line in 
 his own hand, dedicating it to the use of 
 those who in future might resort there. 
 Trivial as the circumstance ma}^ seem to 
 the thoughtless, it speaks volumes to those 
 who know the worth of the soul, and the 
 dangers of final ruin which constantly at- 
 tend it. He who leaves a Bible where the 
 sailor may read it has placed a lighthouse 
 on the shore, just where dangers lie thick- 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 57 
 
 est. A circumstance of this kind gains in 
 importance when it is remembered that 
 many persons, while going from home for 
 summer recreation, leave their Bibles and 
 religion behind them. Our watering-places 
 are not generally pools of Bethesda to the 
 soul, whatever may be their healing virtues 
 to the body. The country village which is 
 so unfortunate as to furnish attractions for 
 city boarders, does not generally improve in 
 morals or religious influence, during the 
 summer months. Religion and the re- 
 straints of holy living are too often of 
 secondary importance abroad, whatever may 
 be the profession and spirit of devotion at 
 home ; the sight cheers us the more, there- 
 fore, to see a young man go to his recrea- 
 tions with Bible in hand, not only that he 
 may keep his own soul in the light, but may 
 
58 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 also give right guiding influences to others. 
 The voice of the sea, as the waves break 
 on the shore near that old shanty where the 
 young Christian prayed and left his precious 
 legacy to others, seems to swell with the 
 song, — 
 
 " There's a light in the window for thee, brother, 
 There's a light in the window for thee ; 
 A dear one has moved to the mansions above, 
 There's a light in the window for thee." 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 
 
 59 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ENLISTS AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 'N the latter part of July, of the 
 last year, Captain Elijah W. Gib- 
 bons, a resident of Middletown, 
 who went into the service of 
 the United States under the first 
 call of the President for volun- 
 teers, and who subsequently 
 lost his life in the defence of his country, 
 returned home from the army with a com- 
 mission for raising new recruits. He 
 opened his office in Main Street, only a 
 brief distance from the banking house 
 where Edward was employed, and where 
 
60 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 the call for men was perpetually saluting his 
 ears. The political horizon was overcast 
 with deep gloom. The splendid army of 
 the Potomac had disappointed the hopes so 
 long cherished in respect to it, and was 
 melting away under the influence of dis- 
 couragement and disease, on the plains of 
 the Chickahominy. A draft had been or- 
 dered to fill up the ranks of the national 
 army, suffering everywhere from a rapid 
 and extensive depletion. 
 
 The order for the draft in the different 
 States was withheld for a time, in the hope 
 that volunteers would come forward in such 
 numbers as to supersede entirely the neces- 
 sity for a resort to it. Towns and States 
 offered munificent bounties to urge on the 
 work of enlistment. The feeling every- 
 where prevailed, that, in such a cause, coer- 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 61 
 
 cion should be avoided if in the bounds of 
 possibility. The moral impression needed to 
 be kept up at home and abroad, in the 
 army and among the States in rebellion, 
 which had been created in the beginning of 
 the struggle, from the spontaneous arising 
 of the North to defend and preserve her 
 sacred interests. Many men enlisted un- 
 der the influence of those stirring appeals 
 which were made to their patriotism, 
 backed by such a consideration, who would 
 have felt themselves justified for not enter- 
 ing the Government service from any other 
 consideration. 
 
 Young Brewer belonged to this class. 
 There were peculiar reasons in his case 
 which would seem to warrant his exemption 
 from military service. I do not think 
 among all who knew him a single one 
 
62 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 would have said his duty lay in that direc- 
 tion. But his own impressions were clear 
 in the premises, and his name was placed on 
 the muster roll of the Fourteenth Regiment 
 of Connecticut Yolunteers. He was not a 
 stranger entirely to military drill. He had 
 been a member of the Home Guard, and en- 
 joyed the tuition of his uncle, Col. E. W. 
 N. Starr, who has the well-earned reputa- 
 tion of an accomplished oflScer. There was 
 much, also, in the associations connected 
 with his native town, that might serve to 
 awaken his patriotic ardor, and inflame him 
 with desire to bear the sword in his coun- 
 try's cause. Here was the honored grave 
 of McDonough. Here Tatnall, bearing a 
 fame once so bright, but now so inglorious, 
 returned to the bosom of his family from 
 the brave wounds and the brave deeds of 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 63 
 
 Peiho. Here was the cherished home of 
 Mansfield. 
 
 An inspiration which he could not resist 
 pervaded his soul. Its words, stirring as 
 the bugle-notes, were, — 
 
 " Strike for your altars and your fires, 
 God, and your native land." 
 
 A charm was thrown over this act of en- 
 listing as a soldier from the fact that so 
 many of the choice youth of his acquaint- 
 ance were to be enrolled in the same com- 
 pany with him. 
 
 The pledge had indeed passed between 
 himself and his dearest earthly friend out- 
 side the home circle, that they would stand 
 shoulder to shoulder. Those who subse- 
 quently saw the company on parade, and as 
 it moved to its encampment and then to the 
 
64 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 seat of war, will not soon forget the form 
 and features of Brewer and Fairchild, so 
 lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in 
 death not now divided. 
 
 But there is another hardly less interest- 
 ed in this question of enlistment than the 
 boy himself. We must leave the child to 
 see how this new phase of life reflects the 
 mother. 
 
 To thine heart, widowed one, there 
 comes a word, — a joy and yet a knell. 
 Thou hast a son to give ; but given, the 
 altar-fires shall consume him quite. 
 
 ***^"^@^'raSV^ ©^'S3»-^'— • 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 
 
 65 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WOMAN AND DUTY HIS M0T3ER'S 
 
 SACRIFICE. 
 
 HOEYER has moved his 
 thought of lawful inquiry 
 along the theatre of stirring 
 events among men, where 
 great characters have been 
 fashioned, noble deeds have 
 been done, and a lofty, di- 
 vine-hke purpose has been imparted to the 
 human will, and all the elements which un- 
 derline and mould society have been so 
 moved as to advance everything that is 
 good to a higher plane of existence, has 
 there found woman^ by her untiring, unde- 
 
66 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 viating devotion to the right, imparting to 
 her character a lofty heroism. 
 
 It is quite obvious that those who have 
 been engaged in the warm debates of our 
 time, in reference to the " proper sphere of 
 woman/' are wholly incapable of appreci- 
 ating her true position, or of discovering 
 the majestic power of her influence as she 
 moves onward in the silent orbit of her 
 daily devotion to truth and duty. 
 
 Why not ask as well. Where should the 
 angels cf light find their appropriate field 
 of labor? and bring them down from those 
 invisible forms of love and toil in which 
 they are sent forth ^' to minister for them 
 who shall be heirs of salvation," to the 
 ugly, polluting contests of earth ? 
 
 The proper sphere of woman ! What has 
 she done ? Read her history. Mark her 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 67 
 
 spirit of devotion, in the past, to all that 
 is good and commendable. Surely, she 
 has not been living through all the period 
 of the centuries, constituting so important 
 an agent, as she has done, in every field of 
 action, and not yet have come to her proper 
 place ! We shall find that her name and 
 merit have not been wanting entire even 
 where men have earned the meed of their 
 proudest achievements by personal daring 
 or profound wisdom. Miriam and Deborah 
 were quite worthy of a place beside Moses 
 and Barak in the camp or council-chamber. 
 Palmyra and Babylon were rendered as 
 illustrious under the royal rule of Zenobia 
 and Semiramis as when the sceptre was 
 held by any other hand. When has England 
 been more illustrious than in the days of 
 Elizabeth, or now, with Victoria on her 
 
68 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 • 
 
 throne ? When has Spain sent her power 
 and fame afar more extensively than when 
 Isabella was a partner on the throne and 
 the glory of the nation ? These are excep- 
 tions to a general rule, and it is no matter 
 for regret that they are so, for the merit of 
 woman appears more conspicuous elsewhere. 
 In the arts and sciences, too, she has an 
 honorable place. Her hand has skilfully 
 plied the chisel and given speaking forms 
 to dead matter. She has touched the can- 
 vas with the pencil, and beauty has ap- 
 peared there in her loveliest forms. She 
 has moved the telescope along the paths of 
 the heavens, and guided to the fixed abode 
 of the stars which was before unknown. 
 But all these things may pass as the simple 
 recreations of her leisure hours, her appropri- 
 ate work is so much more sublime and heroic. 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 69 
 
 Her sphere is preeminently one of en- 
 durance. The gate of life is through her 
 agonies. The blood of the saints, which 
 has so often constituted the seed of the 
 church, has flowed as freely from her veins 
 as from others ; and she has never been 
 found wanting when suffering was* need- 
 ful for the good of others. With Mary she 
 she has stood by the cross when a sword 
 has pierced through her own soul, "that 
 the thoughts of many hearts might be re- 
 vealed." It is an unshaken faith in the 
 power of virtue and truth ultimately to win 
 the day and gain the conquest, and boldly 
 to follow where it leads, that arms the soul 
 with a true courage ; — and such a faith 
 has not been wanting as an overcoming 
 power in the life of woman. Our Lord said 
 of one whose name and praise have trav- 
 
70 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 elled down through many centuries without 
 losing a single ray from their original bright- 
 ness, " She hath done what she could." The 
 world was against her ; yet she saw the fu- 
 ture and believed in it. And like her, in 
 all time, there have been many of her sis- 
 terhoo'd who have been moved and con- 
 trolled by the same spirit of faith. 
 
 The measure of the truly heroic is the 
 amount of sacrifice which love is ready to 
 make in accomplishing the end proposed. 
 
 Correct estimates are not generally ob- 
 tained in measuring the actual suffering 
 among mankind. It is an established truth 
 that the mere physical in suiFering is light 
 when compared with mental anguish. The 
 criminal in the cell, tortured by thought, is 
 more wretched than if bound to the se- 
 verest bodily service, where his mind may 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 71 
 
 be relieved of preying upon itself. The 
 time of intense suffering to the soldier is 
 when he meets the enemy for his first en- 
 counter. Beyond that, danger seems past, 
 however great in fact the toil and exposure. 
 Without detracting in the least from the 
 honor due the self-sacrificing soldier, — his 
 meed of praise cannot be too widely sound- 
 ed, — there is yet reason to believe that 
 the real suffering, the agony of the sacri- 
 fice is at home, where remain the mothers, 
 the wives, and the lovers of the noble brave, 
 — they are the ones who look on and view 
 the strife, without the relief afforded by 
 actual engagement. To them it appertains 
 to see the face of the dead when the strife 
 is over ; or to spell out the name of the 
 loved and lost where no farewell sound 
 comes from his dying lips, and no index 
 
72 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 guides to the place of his sleeping; and 
 the heart must bear the heavy thought, — 
 
 " He is missing, evermore ! " 
 
 From what has been derived from min- 
 gling with those thus bereaved, — sorrow- 
 ing, — my own election would be, so far as 
 the matter of suffering is involved, to fall in 
 the action which defends the right, rather 
 than be doomed to stand where the desolat- 
 ing wave should lave my feet while rolling 
 up to view the mangled forms of my dear- 
 est earthly friends, thus fallen. Ah ! how * 
 many a mother has felt, in such an hour, 
 Would God I had died for thee, my son, 
 my son ! The suffering, to a sympathizing- 
 nature, in the person of another is harder 
 to be borne than in one's own person. The 
 mother, to save her babe, robs her own 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 73 
 
 breast of its warm covering, and freely lets 
 the chill of death enter her soul. Damon 
 prefers death in the place of his friend to 
 lifc without him. 
 
 In this department of suffering for others 
 woman has ever been eminent. What ac- 
 tion more heroic than that which, in the 
 beginning of the missionary work among 
 the heathen, bound sons and daughters to 
 the altar of holy consecration. And were 
 not a mother's faith and a mother's love 
 the cords that held the victim there? 
 
 As faithful to the claims of a noble self- 
 sacrificing patriotism as to her saving faith, 
 she has freely brought of her choicest treas- 
 ures when her country has so demanded. 
 How the old Spartan mother has taught 
 this lesson of fidelity to our country's weal. 
 Die, my boy, rather than disgrace yourself 
 
74 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 while bearing the arms of your country. 
 Such was the spirit she breathed into her 
 soldier son. 
 
 The same holy ardor inflamed the breasts 
 of the American women in the period of 
 the Revolution. Tlie sentiment expressed 
 by the wife of the elder Adams was the 
 one that ruled that anxious hour: "I feel 
 a pleasure in sacrificing my selfish passions 
 to the general good, and in imitating the 
 example which has taught me to consider 
 myself and family but as the small dust of 
 the balance when compared to the great 
 community." 
 
 In this department of patriotic devotion, 
 the spirit of woman partakes more of the 
 morally sublime, the exalted heroic, because 
 it is so disinterested, and expends itself in 
 such unobtrusive forms. 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 75 
 
 Man may seek honor on the battle-field. 
 He may there be placed in a situation to 
 exalt himself, to earn and receive the 
 adulation of admiring thousands. But the 
 mother, as she bids her son go ; the wife, as 
 she cheerfully yields her husband to what 
 seem to her claims prior to her own yearn- 
 ing heart, — what is to be her gain person- 
 ally? She never stops to inquire. She 
 may be a widow ; she may be sonless. Be 
 it so ; the sacrifice shall be made, if God 
 and duty so demand. 
 
 Noble, disinterested, self-sacrificing wo- 
 man! I see thee, the admiration of men 
 and angels, in the person of Mary, standing 
 by the cross of thy son, dying to save a 
 world! I see thee shedding rays of a 
 divine light in our primitive forests, as, in 
 the person of Pocahontas, the red man's 
 
76 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 daughter, thou dost interpose thine own 
 life to save a stranger from the merciless 
 tomahawk. 
 
 I see thee rise on the wings of angelic 
 loveliness and holy devotion, in the person 
 of Florence Nightingale, as thou dost hasten 
 from affluence and ease to the tented field 
 of the dying soldier, to bind up his wounds 
 and comfort his despairing spirit. 
 
 Yes, nearer still, I see thee in thy labors 
 of holy love this day all through the loyal 
 states, with toiling hand providing freely 
 for those who, in camp and hospital, lie 
 wounded, dying, for their country's sake. 
 Has not thy mission been well defined, 
 then ? What cause has flourished to which 
 thy hand has not given strength ? Who has 
 suffered, and thou hast not been in agony 
 with him? Hast thou not been sent, like 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 77 
 
 him who bowed the heavens and came 
 down to heal the broken-hearted, to give 
 comfort, hope, salvation, to die, if need be, 
 to bless the world? 
 
 Was there ever a time since the memory 
 of man when woman more heroically filled 
 this her sphere of self-denial and endur- 
 ance than just now when she offers so 
 freely her sons, brothers, husband, for the 
 nation's salvation ! 
 
 Truly the heroic age is upon us. The 
 Spartan mother, the old Roman matron, the 
 women of the times of Washington and 
 Bunker's Hill, are with us in these days 
 of trial. Whatever else has deteriorated in 
 the flow of time, surely not devotion to the 
 right, — a pure patriotic ardor, the proudly 
 heroic in the life and devotion of woman. 
 Hope, bright, cheering hope, meets us here. 
 
78 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 right here. When the mother of Augustine 
 entreated her bishop to labor for the con- 
 version of her wayward son, at first he re- 
 pelled her entreaty ; " but seeing her tears, 
 and marking the patience of her impor- 
 tunity, he said, ' Begone, good woman ; it 
 is impossible that the child of such tears 
 should perish.'" 
 
 As there meets us this view of hearty 
 devotion to their country's weal from our 
 mothers and daughters, while the national 
 struggle moves on, we are certain that our 
 government cannot be destroyed, or ulti- 
 mately weakened seriously in the arm of 
 its power. If men are derelict in duty, 
 the enemy shall be sold into the hand of 
 women. If Barak is wanting, Deborah will 
 not be ; and Sisera, if need be, shall die, 
 smitten by the brave arm of Jael, and his 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 79 
 
 mother shall look in vain for his return 
 with the spoils of victory in his hand. 
 
 It was to a mother who belonged to this 
 class of self-sacrificing ones, one who was 
 alive to the magnitude of the struggle 
 through which the nation was passing, 
 and who felt that nothing was too sacred 
 for her to give to aid in turning back the 
 scene of peril, that the young soldier whose 
 story of life I am telling presented his 
 request for permission to go to the battles 
 of his country. Doubtless, the thought 
 was not new to her. She had witnessed 
 the young men all around her passing away 
 on a like holy mission, and had been long 
 praying for grace and strength for this 
 hour, should it come. Her noble boy ! can 
 she give him up ? He is her only son, her 
 first-born. In him she sees the form and 
 
80 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 features of her departed husband, ren- 
 dering him doubly dear. There is a 
 strange, starthng premonition that if he 
 goes, he will return to her no more. Her 
 assent will be his death-warrant. She 
 knows well that he who has never gone 
 counter to her approval leaves the deci- 
 sion with her. Yes ; go and bear thy part 
 in thy country's agony. 
 
 The maternal sacrifice was laid upon 
 duty's altar, that day, 
 
 "in tears and pain." 
 
 -^1 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 
 
 81 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 DEPARTURE FOR THE SEAT OF WAR LIFE IN 
 
 CAMP. 
 
 RIGHT decision in duty 
 is a central power which 
 brings into vigorous exer- 
 cise and appropriate bear- 
 ing all the energies of life 
 in man. Hence a youth, 
 often, no sooner settles the 
 question of his future course of action than 
 he seems to have a new existence imparted 
 to him. His soul is all on fire to reach the 
 appointed goal, so that ordinary discourage- 
 ments are powerless to check his progress. 
 One who long observed young men during 
 
82 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 their college course remarked, that, when a 
 student had decided to be a foreign mission- 
 ary, everything he undertook in the routine 
 of daily labors was prosecuted far more 
 successfully than before. Let the goal be 
 set aright and it gives speed to the race. 
 
 Persons of eminent success in some one 
 department are often decried, because they 
 pursue a single idea. But is it not the 
 single aim that always leads when grand 
 results are reached ? The man who has de- 
 termined to do one thing well has started 
 on the road he must take to greatness if he 
 ever gets there. It is truly refreshing, in 
 this world of so much misdirected energy, 
 to mark the course of one whose life flows 
 on under the guidance of a single aim, 
 whose very being says, " Wist ye not that I 
 must be about my Father's business ? '' " For 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 83 
 
 me to live is Christ." " The age in which I 
 live must feel the elevating power of my in- 
 fluence." These men of one idea are the 
 sharpshooters who so skilfully disarm the 
 foe and render useless their heavy artillery ! 
 God bless them ! 
 
 Edward was at my door as he returned 
 from this interview with his mother. I met 
 him as his foot rested on the threshold. 
 He declined to come in, but extended his 
 hand, as ho bade me good-by. There was 
 an earnestness in his word and manner, 
 which had not appeared before. A great 
 thought was urging him on. He was dedi- 
 cated to the service of his country. He 
 was to become an actor in the gloomy trag- 
 edy. His courage was up, his arm was 
 nerved. He might not be hindered. The 
 w^ord of benediction was spoken. We did 
 
84 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 not exchange salutations again. The Four- 
 teenth Regiment, into which his company 
 was enrolled, as Company B, was encamped 
 for a few days at Hartford, Col. D wight 
 Morris, commanding. August 25th, they 
 embarked for New York on board of one of 
 the propellers that ply between the two 
 cities, hastening on their way to the scene 
 of strife. On that day, as they sailed down 
 the river, many a son of Middletown took 
 his final look of the delightful city of his 
 home and cherished affection, where the 
 sunny past seemed more bright, as it was 
 fading so rapidly from view, and sunset hues 
 in the horizon of joys that might never re- 
 turn were whispering with the closing eye 
 of day, — 
 
 " Good-night, good-night." 
 
 In the first letter received from young 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 85 
 
 Brewer after their departure, he says to his 
 mother, " As we passed Middletown, I saw 
 you on Fisk's Dock and took off my hat and 
 waved it. I tried hard to have you see 
 me." Had they mutually seen the near fu- 
 ture, how their eyes would have flowed into 
 each other, treasuring up more sacredly 
 than ever, each, the loved features of the 
 other I 
 
 At no time in our great national struggle 
 has the excited state of public feeling been 
 at a greater height than when this regiment 
 was en route for the seat of war. Gen. 
 Pope's campaign in Virginia had proved 
 a most disastrous and humiliating failure. 
 The second defeat of Bull Run had sent a 
 panic not only through the army, but the 
 entire North, as the forces of the enemy, em- 
 boldened by success, were pressing their 
 
86 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 way by rapid movements into territory 
 deemed hitherto safe from their incursions. 
 The dangers of the hour forced into ser- 
 vice where battles raged hot and fierce 
 those who had just enlisted from the field 
 and workshop, store and bank, and who 
 were totally unprepared by previous train- 
 ing for the hard work in hand. 
 
 We have reached now a period in our nar- 
 rative when the letters of the soldier be- 
 come the light of his life. As they were, 
 with only two or three exceptions, ad- 
 dressed to his mother, the substance will be 
 taken by extracts without preserving the 
 formal address. 
 
 His first letter is dated "Fort Ethan Al- 
 len, Va., August 3d.," and gives us a vivid 
 insight into the intense earnestness of the 
 business upon which they had been sent. 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 87 
 
 " We crossed Long Bridge, Washington, 
 Thursday noon, and arrived at our camp- 
 ground, near Fort Richardson, late in the 
 afternoon. We went to bed early, and, at 
 three o'clock, Friday morning, were hustled 
 out, and made a forced march of twelve 
 miles to Fort Ethan Allen. Last night we 
 slept on our arms, expecting an attack; and 
 now, while 1 am writing, the guns are boom- 
 ing in the distance. I am well and in good 
 spirits, awaiting the enemy in the rifle-pits 
 of the fort.'' This letter was written the 
 sixth day after the regiment sailed from 
 Hartford, and yet there they are in the very 
 den of death, awaiting his terrific approach ! 
 It is no marvel that the son finds occasion 
 to caution his mother not to indulge in anxi- 
 ety on his account, with the assurance "I 
 am right." Still his heart has undergone an 
 
88 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 amazing change if he really supposes she 
 can fail to be exceedingly anxious when he 
 presents to her view such a picture of his 
 own exposure. Her boy in the rifle-pits, 
 awaiting the enemy, and the mother not 
 anxious ! 
 
 The division of the army to which his reg- 
 iment belonged was moved forward as rap- 
 idly as the operations of the enemy and 
 their own circumstances would permit, to- 
 ward the section of the State of Maryland 
 to which the invasion was directed. On 
 the 11th of September, he writes from 
 Clarksburg, Md., " We have been put 
 through so fast since leaving Fort Ethan Al- 
 len that I could not write you at an earlier 
 date. Last Saturday we were ordered to 
 pack our duds and be ready to march at a 
 moment's warning. But evening came and 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 89 
 
 found US still in our encampment. Orders 
 were then given for us to sleep on our 
 arms. Sunday morn the command was, to 
 march as quickly as possible. At two 
 o'clock we were under way. The section 
 of country through which our line of march 
 lay looked fresh and nice; for war had not 
 desolated it. Our route was through sev- 
 eral small towns ; and Saturday night we en- 
 camped just outside of Frederick, where I 
 expected to enjoy a quiet Sabbath, and re- 
 fresh myself by going to church. But war 
 allows no Sunday. At three o'clock we 
 were ordered out, and told to be ready to 
 march again as soon as possible. We were 
 pretty tired, but that made no difference ; 
 go we must. For several days we could 
 hear the roar of the cannon of our advance, 
 following up and harassing the retreating 
 
90 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 ranks of the enemy. Our division did not 
 arrive in time to take part in the engage- 
 ment at Middletown Heights, but we crossed 
 the ground after it was over." 
 
 Edward's superior oflScers early discov- 
 ered that he was quah'fied for some other 
 service than that of a mere private in the 
 ranks. He might be more useful with the 
 pen than the sword. While on their march 
 from Virginia into Maryland, he was de- 
 tailed as clerk to Gen. French's headquar- 
 ters. His new office was by no means a 
 sinecure. He gives us an outline of his 
 work : — 
 
 " The first thing in the morning is to get 
 up and prepare my breakfast. Mind you, I 
 do not sit down to a table all made ready at 
 my hand, as when with you. But I have to 
 get my own breakfast. Washing face and 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 91 
 
 hands is entirely superfluous; and I don't in- 
 dulge in that operation except when Ihave a 
 chance, which is not every day, by any 
 means. Water is a precious article here, 
 and I know how to prize it now, if never 
 before. 
 
 " About eight o'clock in the morning my 
 duties as clerk begin. I first make out the 
 countersign papers for the day, of which 
 there are seven. Next are the orders de- 
 tailing regiments for picket duty, and for 
 the outer lines, and one for the inside picket 
 reserves ; making in all ten orders to begin 
 with. This I call my play work, and always 
 have it off my hands at ten o'clock ; then 
 commences the hard work, in the shape of 
 orders, reports, &c., from different generals 
 in the division, and from Gen. McClellan's 
 headquarters, of each of which there must 
 
92 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 be five copies, when I make any ; and 
 sometimes one order occupies three pages, 
 and sometimes an entire sheet of large size 
 letter-paper." So much did his hands find 
 to do in those wearisome days that he says, 
 " Out of seventeen days we have been at 
 Harper's Ferry, there have been but five 
 when I could find time to cook my regular 
 meals, and I have often been under the 
 necessity of getting along with one mealj 
 and several times have written until after 
 eleven o'clock at night." He breathes this 
 story of his over-work into the ear of his 
 tender parent, not to complain of his lot, nor 
 to intimate a single regret that he has gone 
 forth to the toil and exposure, but simply as 
 his apology for not having written her more 
 frequently. It is not difficult to believe the 
 tale of his complete exhaustion, when he 
 
EDWAED HAMILTON BREWER. 93 
 
 says, " I have been so tired of writing, that, 
 when I had time to send you a few Hnes, 
 my hand ached so, that I had not energy 
 enough to make the attempt." 
 
 The terrible battle of Antietam, Md., of 
 the 17th of September, 1862, has already 
 been enrolled in the bloody annals of his- 
 tory. The earth has been far richer in 
 human gore and precious dust since that 
 gloomy though triumphant day. The Four- 
 teenth Connecticut Regiment, undisciplined 
 as it was in the art of war, and most of the 
 men who composed it only a few days out 
 of the home circle, was brought into the 
 heat of that engagement. Edward, being in 
 the clerk's department, was detained by his 
 duties in the rear of the army, and was con- 
 sequently not exposed to the raking fire of 
 the enemy. Report came to his ears that 
 
9-1 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 many of his companions were cut down. 
 Two days after the battle, still uncertain of 
 the actual facts in the case, he writes, 
 " Our company lost a good many men, but 
 here it is Friday, and I have not seen any 
 one to inform me how the matter stands. I 
 am in a perfect fever of anxiety to know 
 who are killed, wounded, and missing." 
 The startling report came to his home, that 
 he himself was among the number of the 
 slain. But the hour for him had not yet 
 come. It proved subsequently that only 
 one of Company B was killed in that en- 
 gagement, — that a townsman of Edward's, 
 a member of the same Sabbath congrega- 
 tion and Sabbath school. Robert Hubbard 
 was the shining mark at which the cruel, 
 "insatiate archer" aimed his fatal dart on 
 that day. It would seem as if the fell de- 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 95 
 
 stroyer might have spared even him, for our 
 own noble Mansfield had already fallen. 
 Holding a commanding position upon an 
 eminence overlooking the battle-field, as the 
 fight went on, the generaPs clerk "had a 
 full view of the thriUing scene, and heard 
 the not very pleasant music of whizzing 
 and bursting shells." Gen. Mansfield, who 
 fell early in that day's work, had known the 
 young soldier from Middletown from his 
 early life. They met just before the en- 
 gagement began. The youth was over- 
 joyed to see the veteran, his own friend 
 and his mother's friend. And the heart of 
 the general was moved with tenderness 
 as he grasped the hand of inexperienced 
 youth and contemplated the fearful struggle 
 that was opening immediately before them. 
 " He looked well, but seemed sad, as he pro- 
 
96 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 nounced his benediction, ^^ God bless and 
 keep you. Take good care of yourself. I 
 hope in due time you will be restored to 
 your home and friends." As the words 
 flowed from his hps, he put spurs to his 
 horse and was quickly at the head of his 
 division, in the very jaws of death. The 
 old and the young are now both alike at 
 rest. Sweet spring-time has already shed 
 her beauty and fragrance over the graves 
 where wo have laid them. 
 
 The horrors of war, in the more aggravat- 
 ed forms of its appalling features, come 
 after the struggle is over, when the 
 ploughed, gory field is left to the dead and 
 dying. Our young friend embraced an op- 
 portunity which offered, to survey the field 
 of the slain. "The second day after the 
 battle, I went over a part of the field, some 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 97 
 
 ways to the right of the position held by 
 our division. Not that I really have a rel- 
 ish for such scenes, but just to satisfy my 
 curiosity for once, in the survey of such a 
 scene. And I then saw enough to check 
 all further desires of a like kind. The posi- 
 tion held by the enemy, covering a distance 
 as far as from the college to Main Street, 
 about one-fourth of a mile, was strewn with 
 their dead. In some instances, piled one 
 upon another, with limbs broken, and 
 doubled under the body of the slain, they 
 were lying as they fell in the engagement, 
 in every conceivable posture. Back of these 
 lay scattered those who fell during the re- 
 treat to a position behind the fence, while 
 behind the fence the dead were piled up 
 three or four deep. In a clover-field about 
 two hunlred feet Vv^ide, the entire space 
 
98 LIFE AND CHAEACTER OP 
 
 was strewn with guns, knapsacks, blankets^ 
 canteens, dead horses, men, Lelts^ cart- 
 ridge-boxes, &c. &c. Crossing this lot, I en- 
 tered the woods to note the destruction 
 caused there. Trees nine inches in diame- 
 ter were cut completely off by the shells, 
 and others of larger growth were so shiv- 
 ered that a heavy wind would prostrate 
 them. Shot and shell thickly covered the 
 ground in all directions. In an open space, 
 there stood a building which in days of 
 peace must have been used " to teach the 
 young ideas Jioiv to sJioot/^ but judging from 
 present appearances, it had just now been 
 taken as a target for artillery practice. It 
 was literally riddled from floor to ceiling, 
 and here, too, stretched in death, were a lot 
 more of those miserable fanatics, known as 
 rebels. I went through the hospitals. The 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 99 
 
 view which mot me there was revolting. 
 To see the wounded, hear their groans, wit- 
 ness the physicians at their duties, sur- 
 geons amputating limbs, — here an arm, and 
 there a leg, — it has made me sick at heart." 
 As might naturally be expected, the sud- 
 den transition from all the comfort and care 
 of home to the exposures and personal neg- 
 lect of the camp, together with the intense 
 excitement of mind, and the close applica- 
 tion to his appointed duties at headquar- 
 ters, induced disease of body, followed ulti- 
 mately by great prostration of strength, 
 from which he was never afterward fully 
 able to rally. The malaria of the camp gen- 
 erally is more fatal to life than the weapons 
 of war. Harper's Ferry, at the time the 
 Fourteenth Regiment was there, seemed 
 totally abandoned to pestilential influences, 
 
100 LIFE AND CHAEACTER OF 
 
 and it was next to certain death for one to 
 sicken there. 
 
 The poor boy, who had never lacked a 
 gentle and skilful hand to nurse him before, 
 presents a discouraging picture of himself 
 in a letter written September 30th. 
 
 "I have had the diarrhoea almost ever 
 since I came out, and I cannot get rid of it. 
 It makes me so weak, that it is not pleasant, 
 to say the least. I wish you would tell me 
 what is good for it, — that is, what herbs or 
 barks that I can- get and administer to my- 
 self" Still he is disposed to take a hopeful 
 and even mirthful view of things though 
 depressed and enfeebled. " Give my love to 
 ' Cretia,' and tell her I wish I were as fat as 
 her rabbits, but assure her I am about as fat 
 as the match Uncle H. tells about." A life 
 so valuable ought to have been cared for at 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 101 
 
 this stage of wasting disease ; and if the 
 young soldier could not get well in camp or 
 hospital, why not send him where the only 
 chance of recovery presented itself, — to 
 his home? 
 
 Pleasant as Edward found it on many ac- 
 counts to be clerk at headquarters rather 
 than retain his place in the ranks, there 
 were some considerations which rendered it 
 more desirable to be with his company. 
 His unselfish nature wished for no indul- 
 gence denied his companions in arms. 
 
 ^^ I am hardly willing," he says, " to stay 
 here at headquarters, and take things so 
 comparatively easy, when the boys in the 
 company are having it tougher than my- 
 self. I started out with them, expecting to 
 share in their hardships and participate in 
 their joys. But I was ordered here, and 
 
102 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 here I have been. So that I have the satis- 
 faction, at least, of knowing that 1 have 
 obeyed orders^ and I think it would have 
 been just the same if I had been ordered 
 to charge with the rest up to the cannon's 
 mouth, because I made up my mind when I 
 left home to forswear ease and comfort, and 
 take up with the lot of a soldier, whatever 
 it might be, and, ' God helping me,' to go 
 wherever ordered, and spill my blood, if 
 need be, for my country's cause. But now 
 that I am in a place of comparative safety, 
 it seems as if I deserved little or no credit 
 for coming, and what you say of the com- 
 mendation of friends, on account of the step 
 I have taken, makes me blush. But I am 
 glad for your sake, dear mother, that I am 
 so favorably situated. Were it not for you, 
 I should leave for the company instanter." 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWEK. 103 
 
 A most serious part of the trial connected 
 Yvdth the separation from his company was 
 the loss of the society of his bosom friend, 
 Fairchild, who had been his intimate associ- 
 ate in all the pastime of home-life from 
 early years. Those were precious hours of 
 joy when they met in tent or camp. 
 
 ^^ Amos was here last evening and spent 
 the night with me, and a pleasant time we 
 had. He was not feeling very well. I do 
 not see him very often, nowadays, as he is 
 some distance from my quarters, and I am 
 so busy writing that I cannot get away." 
 
 When a dear friend has gone forever 
 from sight, many little incidents are often 
 recalled, which made no very deep impres- 
 sion at the time of their occurrence, but 
 which in review reveal the fact, that an in- 
 visible hand of love was shaping things for 
 
104 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 the final separation, in those delicate arrange- 
 ments which might prevent the full force of 
 tlie crushing blow in its final descent. We 
 know not how it is, but when the terrible 
 event is announced, we seem to see many 
 an index which had pointed in that direc- 
 tion and wliich whispered, '^ It may come." 
 
 Mrs. Brewer remembers now that there 
 came to her home from her son one day a 
 letter, containing pictures, hair, a ring, &c. 
 She was startled when she broke the enve- 
 lope and noted the contents. What ! is the 
 dear one already gone, that these memen- 
 tos are sent home ? No, not that ; still, 
 they may be but the precursor of such a re- 
 sult. She reads, " I sent my pictures home 
 because I wanted to be rid of the trouble of 
 taking care of them, that is all. You will 
 also find a lock of Amos's and my hair. We 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 105 
 
 reserved the hair for you when we were 
 barbered figliting style, but I forgot to send 
 it until now. My finger has become so 
 emaciated that my ring will not stay on ; so 
 I return it to you for safe keeping." Was 
 not God lifting the veil which conceals the 
 future, little by little, to that parent's eye, 
 so that the shadow of the hastening ill may 
 fall across her path before all is night ? 
 
 His division of the army v/as at Warren- 
 ton, Va., when a change was made in the 
 department of Commander-in-Chief Gen. 
 McClellan was removed from that position, 
 and Gen. Burnside temporarily occupied 
 the place. Nov. 10th was the day when 
 the change took place, in presence of the 
 army. The ^^ soldier-son " embraces the op- 
 portunit}^, ^^ when the general and staff are 
 away," to forward a letter home. The cold 
 
106 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 season has now set in, and a winter in camp 
 is the opening prospect. If he may not 
 pass the season of cold and storm in the 
 home circle, they must do something for his 
 comfort abroad ; and so he sets down various 
 articles that he wishes to have forwarded to 
 him. He displays excellent judgment and 
 a careful economy in all matters of this 
 kind. The useful and the good alone had 
 attractions for him. 
 
 He is very favorably impressed with the 
 appearance of Burnside when at the head of 
 the army, because he detects in him a taste 
 like his own in the matter of dress. " I 
 have seen him a number of times before/'' 
 he writes, Nov. 14th, ^' but never had so 
 good a view of him as to-day. He is a fine- 
 looking man. Dresses very plain ; wears 
 no insignia of rank whatever. Just the 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 107 
 
 kind of officer for me. I have had about 
 enough of gold-lace officers, who seem to 
 care more about their traps than for a faith- 
 ful discharge of the duties assigned them.'' 
 There is one day in the year, if no more, 
 when every son of New England lays his 
 plans, if possible, to be at home. What a 
 social bond has been created by the careful 
 observance of our time-honored Thanksgiv- 
 ing ! How it holds the child, roam where 
 he may, to the cot that gave him birth, — 
 
 " Where blend the ties that strengthen 
 Our hearts in hours of grief, 
 The silver links that lengthen 
 Joy's visits when most brief." 
 
 " I was away from home," writes the ab- 
 sent son, " on last Thanksgiving-day, and I 
 then thought nothing would keep me away 
 this year ; but I little thought then that I 
 
108 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 should be in my present business." We 
 seem to see the tears gushing from his eyes 
 as the old festive board, laden with its rich 
 viands and surrounded by happy, smiling 
 faces, passes in review, and he remembers 
 it will be far, far away from him ; but he 
 dashes them away and summons up his 
 brave heart to cheer one who needs words 
 of comfort more than himself. 
 
 '^ Never mind ; I hope I shall see home 
 again sometime, when war is over and 
 peace once more reigns. It does seem, in 
 any view, that this state of things must ter- 
 minate before long. But if you could be 
 out here at the ' seat of war,' where I am, 
 and see the poor fellows around you dying, 
 worn out by marches and disease, and thus 
 measure the misery brought upon us by 
 this awful war, then you would be yet more 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 109 
 
 anxious to have it ended, and the soldiers 
 sent back to their own homes. I am very 
 thankful that these scenes of war are so far 
 removed from you, and that while fearful 
 carnage devastates this part of the country, 
 ^our home,' with its pleasant memories, is 
 safe from destruction at the hands of sol- 
 diers." 
 
 Thanksgiving-day, as noted on the calen- 
 dar, came, but not the visit home. Nor did 
 the box of good things, the tokens of home- 
 love, so much expected, so earnestly de- 
 sired, reach the absent one in camp. The 
 encampment of Edward's division was at 
 Bell Plains, Va., on this day. If his hand 
 could not partake of good cheer, his heart 
 was as a sunny land when he pictured the 
 scene in camp for the eyes at home. 
 
 ^' Yesterday was Thanksgiving-day, and 
 
110 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 the regiment was favored with speeches 
 from several officers, songs were sung, and 
 the governor's proclamation read. I made 
 my dinner from ' salt-horse ' and ^ hard-tack,' 
 and it tasted first-rate. I was very hungry, 
 and that is a pretty good sauce. I hope 
 you at home had a pleasant time, but I flat- 
 ter myself you would like to have seen the 
 raissing one in his place." 
 
 At length, disease has so impaired his 
 health and strength that he is disabled 
 longer to discharge the duties of the clerk- 
 ship, and he is released from his position at 
 headquarters, under the expectation of be- 
 ing sent to the army hospital at Washing- 
 ton, to receive proper medical treatment 
 and quiet. But his regiment being detailed 
 from the regular service to guard supplies 
 at Bell Plains, he joined his company there, 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. Ill 
 
 and found his health so much improved, in 
 connection with lighter labors and old com- 
 panions, that he preferred the camp and 
 friends to the hospital and strangers, and so 
 remained at his post. 
 
 The Army of the Potomac is at length in 
 position for the winter, and we have a view 
 of tent-life at Falmouth, where Edward 
 passed the last months of his life. It is 
 said by those familiar with the two cities, 
 Middletown, Ct., and Fredericksburg, Va., 
 that there is a striking similarity between 
 them in many particulars, but especially in 
 location. The latter lies delightfully upon 
 the Rappahannock, with hill and dale, as the 
 former does on the peaceful waters of the 
 Connecticut. It may have afforded some 
 consolation to the soldiers from this place, 
 to trace the resemblances to their ^^home 
 
112 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 land '' in that, as they lay in sight of it dur- 
 ing the long days of winter inaction. Bet- 
 ter thoughts than these may have come to 
 the mind of one who was gradually, though 
 unconsciously to himself, passing down to 
 the grave. As he daily sent his vision 
 across the river to the city whose towers 
 and spires greeted the eye, and from which 
 strains of music came floating on the night 
 air, he may have wandered in imagination 
 in the streets of that city built upon the 
 river of divine pleasure, where shall be no 
 ^' battle of the warrior with confused noise 
 and garments rolled in blood,'' but whose 
 walls are salvation and whose gates praise. 
 Early in February, 1863, he writes, " I lived 
 in a Sheltei tent part of November and all 
 of December, but now occupy a Sibley tent, 
 which is rather more comfortable, though 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 113 
 
 for the last two or three days it has been so 
 cold that it is wellnigh impossible to keep 
 warm anywhere. It has been snowing 
 quite hard to-day and feels very wintry. I 
 am quite comfortable just now, however, 
 sitting in the hospital by the fire while writ- 
 ing you. There is nothing of interest go- 
 ing on here, and if there were, I am too 
 feeble to be much excited by it. For some 
 cause I cannot get strength, and find it 
 very laborious to keep about. But I trust 
 in God, and hope to be better soon.'' 
 
 Oh, how hope leads on the captive of dis- 
 ease, but only promises to deceive ! 
 
 " Hopes, what are they ? Beads of morning 
 Strung on slender blades of grass, 
 Or a spider's web adorning 
 
 In a straight and treacherous path." 
 
114 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CLOSING SCENES OF LIFE. 
 
 HEN General Hooker took 
 I cominand of the Army of 
 the Potomac, he awoke the 
 gratitude and inspired the 
 confidence of the soldiery 
 by his prompt and vigor- 
 ous measures to improve 
 the comfort and health of his men. Impor- 
 tant changes were made in the quality and 
 variety of the provisions. Edward cheered 
 greatly the heart of his mother and friends 
 when he wrote, March 8th, "I am beginning 
 to improve under the influence of the good 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 115 
 
 rations provided since the advent of Gen. 
 Hooker. To a certain degree, at least, the 
 improvement is attributable to this source. 
 Our food now is the best we have had since 
 we left home. We have plenty of salt also, 
 for the want of which we have really suf- 
 ered. When I speak of improving in flesh, 
 if you could see me, I guess you would 
 think there was room for improvement in 
 that direction. The calf of my leg is about 
 the size of my arm when I left home. Thus 
 I am rendered rather weak in the under- 
 standing. Never mind ; if you can count 
 my ribs now, I hope to be of some service 
 yet to my country, and also live to see 
 home and friends once more. But God 
 rules and reigns, and he will do with me as 
 seemeth to him good, and it is our wisdom 
 to commit ourselves to his care. In his 
 
116 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 own good time we shall meet again ; if not 
 in this world, we trust it will be in a better, 
 where wars and rumors of wars never 
 come, and where the wicked cease from 
 troubling and the weary are at rest." 
 
 His tender heart was pierced as it had 
 not been since the death of his father, when 
 the intelligence came into camp that Fair- 
 child was dead. He had been sick in the 
 hospital at Washington for a long time, but 
 it was generally supposed his recovery was 
 only a question of time, when his disease 
 came suddenly to a fatal termination. He 
 breathes his grief to his eldest sister : " I 
 do not write in so cheerful a strain as I 
 had been wont when addressing you. I was 
 very sorry last night to hear of the death of 
 Amos. He was as dear to me as a brother. 
 In fact, I called him such. The news of his 
 
EDWAED HAMILTON BREWER. 117 
 
 death came so unexpectedly that I was not 
 at all prepared for it. This, taken in con- 
 nection with an iinfeehng remark made by 
 the physician, — ^ that he knew he was very 
 sick and he had sent him off to get rid of 
 him/ — so affected me I could not stay in 
 the tent, Avhere I had gone to make inquiry. 
 I went to my own lodgings and mused a 
 while in quiet, and then read in my Testa- 
 ment, and went to bed. But I could not 
 sleep for a long, long time. Little did I 
 think when he left the regiment that I 
 should never see his face again on earth. 
 But I trust we shall meet again in heaven." 
 In the picture-gallery of their native city, 
 there is a full-length likeness of these two 
 youths, on the same card, in the full uniform 
 of the soldier. We think of them now, as, 
 in robes of light, — the righteousness of 
 
118 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 saints, — they stand together in the great 
 army of the blessed above ; the union re- 
 stored for which the weary, lonely one lay 
 sighing in his tent at Falmouth. 
 
 His words again to Mary are, "I don't 
 feel right in health yet; but as warm 
 weather comes on, and genial breezes fan 
 the brow and quicken the blood, I hope to 
 be well again. Enclosed is a card, contain- 
 ing the Lord's Prayer. It was written by 
 Lieutenant Heath, under my own eye, and 
 is about as fine a specimen of penmanship 
 as I ever saw. Thinking it would please 
 you, I bought it. Kiss Emma (his young- 
 est sister), and tell her I am looking for that 
 promised letter from her. When I next 
 write home, I will try to send her a sort of 
 a curiosity that I am going to make for 
 her." 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 119 
 
 One of the last letters ever penned by 
 him was addressed to his great-uncle, who 
 had watched over him from childhood with 
 the most tender interest and affection. His 
 home was just across the fields from his 
 mother's, and the two families are wont to 
 flow together almost daily. It gives some 
 glimpses of his tent-life not befoi^ imparted. 
 The disease which has been upon him for so 
 many months, requiring unwearied attention 
 by night and day until it would seem that 
 the strongest and most robust constitution 
 must succumb to it, though in a measure 
 checked, is still exceedingly troublesome, 
 precluding all possibility of undisturbed re- 
 pose at night. To meet this insidious foe, 
 he must be perpetually on the alert. He 
 must be armed cap-a-pie at all hours. "You 
 would laugh, I think, to see me go to bed, 
 
120 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 for I liave to get in Loots and al], wliich is 
 ijot quite so comfortable a method of sleep- 
 ing as 1 have been used to, but for the past 
 two months I have not dared take them off. 
 It does not strike me as the most healthy 
 way of sleeping, and I would sacrifice a 
 good deal to be able to take off my clothes 
 and jump into a good bed. I hope sometime 
 in the future to enjoy again the comforts of 
 home and the society of friends. I feel 
 almost alone here now, so far as ' old 
 friends ' are concerned. One by one, those 
 who enlisted in the company with me have 
 gone. Some have been discharged, some 
 sent to the hospital ; out of the number 
 only one has died, but he to me was more 
 than a brother. Had I dreamed when we 
 last met that I was looking upon his well- 
 known features for the last time on earth, 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 121 
 
 how different would have been the parting- 
 scene ! But a wise Providence closes the 
 veil which conceals from us the future, and 
 I thank God it is so; for how often would 
 life itself be embittered if we knew before- 
 hand what was going to happen to our 
 friends. Why, it seems to me, of all tor- 
 ture that would be the worst. During an 
 intercourse of many years, Fairchild and I 
 have never, to my knowledge, had an angry 
 word pass between us. He was always the 
 same even-tempered boy. I had hoped we 
 should enjoy each other's society for years to 
 come, but God wills it otherwise, and, hard 
 as is the blow, I try to submit in patience, 
 trusting that, in that better world to which 
 1 believe he has gone, we, together with 
 ' loved ones ' jrone before, shall walk the^ 
 golden streets and never more be parted." 
 
122 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 In paying this tribute to his friend, Ed- 
 ward was unconsciously dehneating some of 
 the most amiable traits of his own character. 
 If two youths associate together for a long 
 term of years, and during that period when 
 the young blood is quickest up, without 
 "an angry word passing between them," it 
 is quite evident that the amiability is not 
 entirely on one side. Had Amos lived to 
 speak of his deceased friend, his words 
 would h'dve been no less earnest, mournful, 
 tender. It may be added^, appropriately, in 
 respect to him, that he too was the son of 
 a widowed mother. He died in the hospital 
 at Washington. His remains were sent on 
 to Middletown for interment. The funeral 
 was attended by a very large concourse 
 from the Methodist church, of which he 
 was a member, and then his body was fol- 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 123 
 
 lowed with military honors to the family 
 burying-ground, commanding a view of his 
 childhood's home and the flowing waters of 
 the Connecticut. The sermon preached by 
 his pastor, giving a brief sketch of his life 
 and character, was published, and has been 
 read with interest by many. 
 
 One more communication closes the se- 
 ries of letters from the absent son to his 
 friends at home : — 
 
 " Camp Fourteenth Regiment, Conn. Vols., 
 March 22d, 1863. 
 
 } 
 
 " Dear Mother : — Yours of the 17th has 
 just reached me, and I should think mine of 
 the 8th was about long enough in reaching 
 you. Enclosed is a tract for ' Cretia,' 
 which I hope will suit her ; also please find 
 enclosed a little ring for Emmie. I shall 
 not tell you now of what it is made, because 
 
124 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 I wish to have you guess and see if you can 
 tell. I hope it will fit her. She is such a 
 little body that I could not easily decide 
 how large it ought to be. Tell her I re- 
 ceived her letter. It was very interesting 
 indeed to me. I hope she will write me 
 many more. Kiss her and Mamie for me. I 
 am growing fat, and begin to look like my- 
 self again. 1 think I shall be quite Aveil be- 
 fore long. I am deeply thankful to our 
 heavenly Father that it is so — that he is 
 restoring me to health. I dread the idea 
 of marching again, though. There was a 
 skirmish up the Rappahannock a few days 
 ago, and the troops here were all put under 
 arms, with orders to be ready to march 
 at a moment's warning, as a rebel raid 
 was constantly expected. 
 
 " The troops were not brought into ser- . 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 125 
 
 vice, however. The next day we saw forty 
 prisoners go by our camp, clothed in gar- 
 ments of as many colors as the famous coat 
 of Joseph. These were taken in the fight 
 referred to. The weather here is becoming 
 quite mild, and every morning as I awake 
 my ears are greeted by quite an orchestra 
 of the feathered songsters congregated in 
 the neighboring bushes. The robins have 
 been seen for about a month. Their pres- 
 ence and their singing remind me quite for- 
 cibly of the notes they have been wont to 
 carol from the trees around my own pleas- 
 ant home, and which home I shall hope to 
 see next summer if I live. From all ac- 
 counts, I judge the rebels themselves to be 
 sick of this war and nearly starved out. 
 They told our pickets, the other day, that 
 they were subsisting on half-rations. 
 
kf.. 
 
 126 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 " I have not written the kind of letter 
 
 which was intended when I began. But no 
 
 time is left me for expressing regrets. The 
 
 mail is about closing. I shall write you 
 
 again in a few days, however. With much 
 
 love to all, I remain, 
 
 " Your affectionate son, 
 
 " Eddie." 
 
 More than two months have already 
 elapsed, and that pledge to " write again 
 soon " has not been redeemed. The lone 
 mother looks in vain for the letter ad- 
 dressed in that familiar hand, breathing its 
 words of thoughtful care and tender love. 
 Other letters in the mean time have been 
 received, which solve this problem of 
 silence. 
 
 In fact, this letter had hardly come under 
 the eye of the one to whom it was ad- 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 127 
 
 dressed, when a telegram was handed in to 
 the family, from the chaplain of the Four- 
 teenth Regiment, bearing the astounding 
 intelligence, that Edward would not proba- 
 bly survive the day. New forms of disease 
 had set in, and such as precluded all hope 
 of recovery. The shock was terrible, even 
 like the bolt of heaven which prostrates a 
 friend lifeless at our feet. It was plain to 
 bo seen, however, that strength was given 
 to the stricken parent from Him who says, 
 " Cast thy burdens on the Lord and he shall 
 sustain thee." The mother determines to 
 hasten to her sick son the ensuing morning 
 if the next message informs her he still 
 lives. But with the evening hour came a 
 letter saying all was over. April 2d, 1863, 
 at half past one, noonday, the spirit of Ed- 
 ward Hamilton Brewer, let loose from the 
 
128 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 bond-s of flesh, went home to God. Epilepsy 
 of the severest kind was the immediate 
 cause of his death. He was at his dinner, 
 better in health, apparently, than he had 
 been for many months, when the paralyzing 
 blow fell upon him. Spasm after spasm fol- 
 lowed in quick succession, throwing his 
 body into terrible contortions, and painting 
 fearful agony on the features of his benig- 
 nant face until they reached the number of 
 twenty-six, when the silver cord was loosed, 
 and the golden bowl was broken. The 
 evening previous to his death, he sat till 
 midnight conversing with one who had 
 nursed him during all his sickness most 
 tenderly. In full confidence of returning 
 health, he expressed the desire to remain in 
 the army until the great questions at issue 
 were honorably adjusted. Not for a mo- 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 129 
 
 ment would he indulge the thought that his 
 
 country could be dismembered. The Union 
 
 must be restored, at whatsoever expense of 
 
 treasure and blood. In the converse of that 
 
 night, religion, a theme ever so precious to 
 
 him, became a familiar topic. He spoke of 
 
 his hope of the future, and the prospect 
 
 opening before him beyond the dark river, 
 
 should his life be cut short, through the 
 
 merit of a risen Saviour, in whom alone he 
 
 trusted for life and salvation. Then, as 
 
 there came floating by the cherished visions 
 
 of other days and home-life, he told of his 
 
 love for the Sabbath and the sanctuary 
 
 where he had been wont to worship. The 
 
 Sunday school also shares largely in his 
 
 warm attachment, and then there comes up 
 
 that brightest scene in all the week, when 
 
 in the closing liours of the holy day his 
 
130 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 
 
 mother v/as wont to sit with him and the 
 other members of the family, making the 
 Word of Life their study and the precepts 
 of the gospel the lessons of tlie occasion. 
 
 '* Season of rest ! the tranquil soul 
 
 Feels the sweet calm, and melts to love ; 
 And while these sacred moments roll, 
 Faith sees a smiling heaven above." 
 
 Had he been aware that the end of earth 
 was so near to him, he could hardly have 
 spent those hours more profitably to himself, 
 or in a way more grateful to surviving 
 friendship. 
 
 He is found at his post of duty the ensu- 
 ing morning, and passed the forenoon entire 
 as usual. The blow which prostrated and 
 killed was so powerful in its descent that he 
 was thought to be unconscious of suffering 
 after two or three of the earlier attacks. 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 131 
 
 He did not speak, or seem to observe what 
 was passing about him, until a few moments 
 before he breathed his last, "when he 
 opened his large eyes, and, with a bright, 
 pleasant smile, such as lights up the Chris- 
 tian's waning life," as it reflects the visions 
 of coming glories, looked his farewell greet- 
 ings on those about him, then closed them 
 in the long tranquil sleep of death, and so 
 is " evermore with the Lord." 
 
 " Oh ! 'tis a placid rest, 
 
 Who should deplore it ? 
 Trance of the pure and blest, 
 Angels watch o'er it! 
 Sleep of his mortal night, 
 
 SoiTow can't break it; 
 Heaven's own morning light 
 Alone shall wake it." 
 
 The chaplain of the Fourteenth Regiment 
 is a native of Middletown. He had, from 
 
132 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 his first connection with the army, evinced 
 a lively interest in the condition both spirit- 
 ual and temporal, of the men under his 
 charge. With young Brewer he had been 
 intimate ; drawn to him because he was 
 sick, and because he was good. Immedi- 
 ately upon his death, he wrote the afflicted 
 parent a letter full of the details of the 
 closing scene, and of tender consolation to 
 her wounded heart, in which he says, — 
 
 " I had the fullest confidence in his reli- 
 gious hope. The nature of his brief illness 
 precluded the possibiUty of obtaining an 
 expression of his feelings in the tryiug 
 scene of death. But a dying testimony 
 was not needed from him. He undoubtedly 
 loved his Saviour and abhorred impurity 
 and wrong. He shuddered at the exhibi- 
 tions of profanity and sin which he was 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 133 
 
 compelled to witness daily, and grew more 
 and more anxious to become spiritual- 
 minded, and Christ-like. He conversed 
 with me freely on religious topics as oppor- 
 tunity presented, and evidently enjoyed 
 such themes. 
 
 " I looked upon him as one on whom I 
 could rely for good example before the un- 
 godly, and as a sympathizing. Christian 
 brother. Last Sabbath evening, as he sat 
 beside me, he gave an account of the 
 method in which he was accustomed to 
 spend the evening of the holy day when at 
 home, and spoke with heightened emotion 
 of the delight he should experience when 
 the old privilege should be again renewed." 
 
 The surgeon, too, who had long had him 
 under his care, adds his testimony to the 
 great worth of his character as he offers 
 
134 LIFE AND CHAEACTER OF 
 
 his sympathy to the sorrowing. He thus 
 writes : — 
 
 " While I deeply sympathize with you in 
 your affliction, I can look back upon his ex- 
 emplary life during the time I have known 
 him, — and for a long period previous to his 
 death he had been employed in my depart- 
 ment as a clerk, — and see many things to 
 praise, but nothing to censure or condemn. 
 I believe he was a sincere and true Chris- 
 tian, and our loss has been his immeasurable 
 gain. 
 
 " Many more must fall, smitten by disease 
 and the bullets of the enemy ; many more 
 mothers' hearts will be torn by the sad 
 news of therr fall, before this wicked war is 
 ended ; but they die in a noble cause, and 
 I hope their sufferings and death will not be 
 in vain." 
 
r- 
 
 EDWAED HAMILTON BREWER. 
 
 135 
 
 CHAPTEK X 
 
 BURI AL . 
 
 UR holy religion presents the 
 doctrine of the resurrection as 
 one of those animating truths 
 which spread gleams of light 
 and joy amid tlie darkness 
 and gloom of the battle-field. 
 Thousands have fallen who 
 will never be gathered in burial to the sep- 
 ulchres of their fathers, where affection can 
 adorn and bedew with its tears the hallowed 
 spot of their repose, yet they are safe under 
 the eye of God. Home-love foUows in vain 
 the path of the warrior to gather up its slain 
 on many a gloomy plain, where the iiving 
 have plucked the glory of high achievement. 
 
136 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 It was as a precious balm to a broken 
 heart that the friends of Edward were 
 spared such a sequel. Death had no sooner 
 fixed his features in that placid, happy ex- 
 pression which they had been wont to bear 
 when he slept calmly in his own room at 
 homOj than the embalmer set them firmly 
 there for the eye of love to contemplate. 
 Though the gem had been taken, the casket 
 remained most precious. It w^as a beauti- 
 ful afternoon on the first of April, that I 
 was conducted to the room where the body 
 of my young friend lay in this its last re- 
 pose. There he was, surely, the only son 
 once more in the endeared home of his 
 childhood. Those that so fondly loved him 
 were about him. We forgot for a moment 
 that the scene was Death's own. It seemed 
 rather a tableaux of one who liad lain down 
 
EDWAED HAMILTON BREWER. 137 
 
 for pleasant dreams. The sleeping soldier. 
 The soft radiance of the setting sun flowed 
 in through the window, playing about the 
 pillowed head of the prostrate youth, as 
 often the beams of the morning enter the 
 room of the tired child, not to disturb, but 
 to lull him yet longer to repose. His 
 parted lips were just as when in childhood 
 he slept well. The scene held us as by en- 
 chantment. We saw the face which for 
 months had been veiled from sight. We 
 only needed now the look from the speaking 
 eye, the warm grasp of the hand, and the 
 word of salutation, and the scene of joy 
 would have been complete. The night 
 passed away, and another morning came, 
 but alas ! he waked not. 
 
 We bore him then to the house of God, 
 just where, an infant, he was carried by his 
 
138 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 parents, when in faith he was consecrated 
 to Jehovah ; just where, a youth, he had 
 made a public profession of his faith in 
 Christ; just where his measured steps had 
 trod the hallowed floor as a devout wor- 
 shipper. Our prayers were offered at the 
 mercy-seat. Our words were spoken. Our 
 requiem sung mid tears and sad regrets 
 that one so good and true should die 
 ere yet manhood had placed her crown of 
 age and privilege fairly on his brow. But, 
 while the heart was heavy and the head 
 sunken low in grief, the trusting spirit said, 
 '' Thy will, God, be done." 
 
 Thence to the grave we bore him, pass- 
 ing by the Bank where his form had so 
 often been seen entering the door-way, or 
 as he stood looking from the window or 
 busily engaged with the daily duties at his 
 
EDWAED HAMILTON BREWER. 139 
 
 desk. At the grave, we lowered liim gently 
 down, sorrowing not as others w4io have no 
 hope, for there fell on the ear the words of 
 the Lord Jesus : — 
 
 " I am the resurrection and the life ; he 
 that believeth in me, though he were dead, 
 yet shall he live." 
 
 With such light of immortal life flowing 
 into the narrow house, we could not say 
 farewell to him whom we must leave there, 
 but only this, — ^' Good-night. We shall 
 greet each other again in the morning." 
 
 Words^vorth's hymn of the child, " We 
 are seven," has melted many a heart. 
 
 Often, as the summer-day comes to its de- 
 cline, the mother and sisters of Edward re- 
 sort to his grave, emboAvered beneath the 
 evergreen tree in the old cemetery at the 
 head of Washington Street. 
 
140 EDWARD HAMILTON BREWER. 
 
 As they stand there weeping, or phmting 
 flowers, the simple thouglit of that child 
 presents the picture of a united family, 
 though the father, two sons, and a daughter 
 are with the dead, and the mother and two 
 daughters alone survive. 
 
 The thought, too, is more than poetical. 
 It is a divine truth. The family which on 
 earth has been bound together in saving 
 Christian love can never be permanently 
 separated. The pious dead are not lost, but 
 gone before. 
 
 Let then the transient love of earth par- 
 take of the holy and heavenly in its charac- 
 ter; and though death cause grief in the 
 present, the future restored joy to which it 
 leads shall be everlasting. 
 
 " The Christian dies to go home." 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS 
 
 PUBLISHED AKD FOR SALE BY 
 
 HENKY HOYT, 
 
 No. 9 Cornhill, Eoston. 
 
 PICTORIAL CONCOKDANCE of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, with Chronological Tables, etc. By Rev. 
 John Brown .... 1 00 
 
 MILLENNIAL EXPERIENCE, or the Will of God 
 known and done from moment to moment. Illus- 
 trated from the Bible and the lives of eminent 
 Christians 1 25 
 
 THE HIGHER CHRISTIAN LIFE. A volume of re- 
 ligious experience. Illustrated by sketches from 
 history and from life 1 25 
 
 THE HARVEST W(JRK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, 
 Illustrated in the Evangelist Labors of Rev, Edw. 
 Payson Hammond, in Great Britain and Amer- 
 ica. By Rev. P. C. Ileadley 1 00 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 
 
 SONGS, for Social and Public Worship ; containing 
 over 300 choice tunes, and 1039 hymns — the best 
 work extant 1 00 
 
 THE STORY OF A POCKET BIBLE. An autobio- 
 graphy of the book itself, with ten splendid Illus- 
 trations 95 
 
 THE OLD RED HOUSE. By the author of Capt. 
 Russel's Watchword, Ellen Dacre, etc. One of the 
 ablest productions of this popular writer. Illust. 95 
 
 BERNICE , The Farmer's Daughter 85 
 
 THE MODEL MOTHER, Or, The Mother's Mis- 
 sion. A Narrative Work of uncommon interest 
 and power. 12mo Illustrated 80 
 
 ONLY A PAUPER. A work of graphic interest. 
 
 Illustrated 80 
 
 OPPOSITE THE JAIL. By the author of the Child 
 
 Angel, etc. A narrative work of great power and 
 
 interest. 12mo. Illustrated 80 
 
 PALISSY, THE HUGUENOT POTTER. A Historic 
 
 Tale. 12mo. Illustrated 80 
 
 CAPT. RUSSEL'S WATCHWORD. Combining rare 
 elements of interest and power. A book for boys. 
 Fully illustrated. 12mo 80 
 
 STRAIGHT FORWARD, or Walking in the Light. 
 By Lucy E.Guernsey, author of Irish Amy, Ready 
 Work, etc. Illustrated 80 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 
 
 WORKING AND WINNING, or the Deaf Boy's 
 Triumph 80 
 
 CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN, or how I rose in the 
 world. By the author of Old Red House, Capt. 
 Russel's Watchword, Ellen Dacre, etc. Illustrated. 80 
 
 ELLEN DACRE, or Life at Aunt Hester's. By the 
 author of Capt. Russel's Watchword. Fully illust. 80 
 
 SEQUEL TO TIM, THE SCISSORS-GRINDER. By 
 Mrs. Madeline Leslie. Beautifully illusti-ated 80 
 
 TALES FROM THE BIBLE. First Series. By Rev. 
 Wm. M. Thayer, author of Poor House to the Pul- 
 pit, Poor Boy and Merchant Prince. Beautifully 
 illustrated 80 
 
 THE LOST WILL. By Mrs. A. E. Porter. This work 
 had its origin in facts which took place in New 
 England. Illustrated 80 
 
 NOONDAY. By the author of Capt. Russel's Watch- 
 word, and the Old Red House 75 
 
 TIM THE SCISSOR-GRINDER, or ' Loving Christ 
 
 and Serving Him. Illustrated 75 
 
 PIETY AND PRIDE. An historic tale. Illustrated. 75 
 WILL COLLINS, or the Way to the Pit. By Miss 
 H. B. McKeever, author of Edith's Ministry, Sun- 
 shine, etc. Illustrated 75 
 
 'the organ GRINDER, or Struggles after Holi- 
 ness. By Mrs. Madeline Leslie, author of Tim the 
 Scissors-Grinder, Sequel to Tim, &c. Illustrated. 75 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 
 
 THE SOLDIER'S RETURN. Illus 70 
 
 ANTOINETTE. The original of the Child Angel. 
 By the author of Opposite the Jail. Illustrated. . . 75 
 
 THE DRUNKARD'S DAUGHTER. By the author 
 of Ellen Dacre, Capt. Russel's Watchword, Old 
 Red House, Blind Ethan, etc. Illustrated 70 
 
 LELIA AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. A splendid 
 Juvenile, with ninety-four illustrations 65 
 
 DAISEY DEANE. By the author of Grace Hale. Il- 
 lustrated 65 
 
 GUYON'S LETTERS. Translated by Mrs. Prof. 
 Upham. 16mo. Illust 60 
 
 THE FLOUNCED ROBE .\ND WHAT IT COST. 
 By Miss H. B. McKeever, authoress of Will Col- 
 lins, etc. A book of surpassing interest and power. 
 12mo. 184pp. Illust 60 
 
 THE LITTLE MOUNTAIN GUIDE, or How to be 
 Happy. 18mo. , Illustrated 50 
 
 THE GOLDEN MUSHROOM. By the author of the 
 Watercress Sellers. Illustrated 50 
 
 THE SUNBEAM, and other Stories. Beautifully il- 
 lustrated 50 
 
 UNCLE JABEZ, or the History of a Man whose Boy- 
 hood was spent in the School of Adversity. Six 
 illustrations » 50 
 
 HANNAH LEE, or Walking in the Light . Illust .... 50 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 
 
 LIEUTENANT MESSINGER. Illus 50 
 
 LITTLE ONES IN THE FOLD. By Rev. Edward 
 Payson Hammond 50 
 
 SIMILITUDES. By Miss Lucy Larcom, a writer of 
 rare excellence. Illustrated 50 
 
 THE CONQUERED HEART. By the author of 
 Hemlock Ridge, Robert Walton, etc. Illustrated.. . 45 
 
 JOHNNY tJcKAY, or the Sovereign. ISmo. Illust. 45. 
 
 SOPHIE DE BRENTZ, or the Sword of Truth. By 
 
 the author of Hillside Farm. Illust 45 
 
 LITTLE MAY, or of What Use am I? Illustrated. 45 
 ROBERT WALTON, or the Great Idea. Illustrated. 45 
 THE FACTORY GIRLS. A touching narrative. 
 
 Fully illustrated ^^ 
 
 MOORCROFT HATCH. By A. L. 0. E. , one of the 
 
 most gifted writers of the age 45 
 
 PETE, THE CUI^NER BOY. By Grandmother Hope. 
 
 Illustrated ^^ 
 
 CHARLEY ADAMS, the ^lorning Laborer. Illus. 40 
 THE BEGGAR'S CLOSET, and What it Contained. 
 
 Illustrated ^^ 
 
 ADDIE ANSLEY, or How to Make Others Happy. A 
 
 charming juvenile. Illust ^^ 
 
 HILLSIDE FARM, or Home Influences Illustrated. 
 
 A book for the family. Illus •• ^0 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 
 
 THE FAITHFUL PROMISER, in large type. A de- 
 votional work of great excellence 40 
 
 GRACE HALE. A book for girls. Fully illustrated 40 
 
 HEMLOCK RIDGE, or only Dan. White's Son. 18mo 
 Illustrated 40 
 
 MACKEREL WILL, The Thieving Fisher-hoy. Illus. 40 
 
 THE BOUND BOY. By the author of Tii^ Sequel 
 to Tim, Prairie Flower, etc. Illus 40 
 
 THE BOUND GIRL. By Mrs. Madeline Leslie, 
 author of Tim, etc. Illus 40 
 
 VIRGINIA, OR THE POWER OF GRACE. A touch- 
 ing narrative of a friendless orphan rescued from 
 the streets of New York. By the author of Tim. 
 Illus 40 
 
 JOE CARTON, or the Lost Key. A book for boys. 
 Illus 35 
 
 ROSE COTTAGE. A beautiful juvenile. Illus.... 35 
 
 MILES LAWSON, or the Yews. Illus 35 
 
 ROSE DARLING, or the Path of Truth. By the 
 author of Joe Carton, Hop-Pickers, etc. Beauti- 
 fully illustrated 35 
 
 HENRY MINTURN, or my Dark Days. Beautifully 
 written and fully illustrated 35 
 
 MATTY FROST. A story for girls. By the author 
 of Grace Hale, Carrie Allison, Our Father's House, 
 etc. Illus. 35 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 
 
 LITTLE APPLE BLOSSOM. By the author of Car 
 rie Allison, &c. IIlus 35 
 
 HENRY LANGDON. By Louisa Payson Hopkins. 
 Illus 35 
 
 THE PRAIRit: FLOWER. By the author of Tim, 
 the Scissors-Grinder. A narrative of the tenderest 
 interest. Illust 35 
 
 PLEASANT SURPRISES. A charming juvenile. 
 Illustrated - 35 
 
 THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY. The Child of the 
 Thirteenth Regiment N. Y. S. M. ; his character as 
 a Christian boy, and untimely death. Illus 35 
 
 STELLA, OR THE PATHWAY HEAVENWARD. 
 By the author of Opposite the Jail, Young Sergeant^ 
 etc. Illus -•" 30 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL SPEAKER, or, Children's Con- 
 cert. Twelve numbers— one for every month. 
 Each c . . 30 
 
 PAPA'S LITTLE SOLDIERS. By C. E. K., author 
 of Grace Hale, Conquered Heart, Daisey Deane,etc. 
 Illus 30 
 
 CARRIE ALLISON, or in the Vineyard. By the 
 author of Grace Hale 30 
 
 WHY THE MILL WAS STOPPED, or Overcoming 
 Evil with Good. Illus ^ 30 
 
 FRANK TALBOT, or Unstable as Water. Illus 30 
 
 GEORGE ROWLAND, The Servant Boy. Illus.. 30 
 
8 CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 
 
 THE PARISH HALL, and What Was Done There. 
 Fully illustrated 30 
 
 GRANDMOTHER TRUE, or When I was a Little 
 
 Girl. Illus 30 
 
 TEDDY WHITE, or the little Orange Sellers. Illus.. 30 
 OUR DEAR EDDIE. A rare example of piety in a 
 Sabbath School Scholar. Illus 30 
 
 LOSS OF THE SHIP KENT, by Fire. A work of 
 thrilling interest. Illus - 30 
 
 THE YOUNG MILLINERS. A book for girls. Illus. 30 
 
 THE POWER OF FAITH. A narrative of Sarah 
 
 Jordan. Illus 30 
 
 THE YOUNG HOP-PICKERS. By the author of 
 
 Matty Gregg. Illus 30 
 
 TAKING A STAND. By Mrs. II. C. Knight, author 
 of Hugh Fisher, etc. A book for boys, and all 
 
 others who tamper with Strong Drink. Illus 30 
 
 OUR FATHER'S HOUSE. A sweet juvenile. Illus. 30 
 ANNIE LYON, or the Secret of a Happy Home. Illus 30 
 SOWING AND REAPING. A book for boys. Illus. 30 
 THE GOLD DIGGER. What he lost and what he 
 
 failed to realize. Illus 30 
 
 THE YOUNG SERGEANT, or the Triumphant 
 Soldier. By the author of Opposite the Jail, 
 Antoinette, etc - 30 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 9 
 
 ALICE HAVEN. A book for girls. By the author 
 
 of Grace Hale, Carrie Allison, etc. Illus 30 
 
 THE TELESCOPE. An Allegory. Filled with Bible 
 
 truth, and clothed in beautiful imagery, ' Hlus 25 
 
 LEONARD DOBBIN, or the One Moss Rose. Illus.. 25 
 KITTY'S KNITTING-NEEDLES. A book for girls. 
 
 Illus 25 
 
 THE FOX HUNTER. A work of unspeakable value 
 
 to disciples. By Dr. Malan 25 
 
 NED, THE SHEPHERD BOY, changed to the Young 
 
 Christian. Illus 25 
 
 WILLIE AND CHARLIE, or the Way to be happy. 
 
 Illus 25 
 
 JANE THORNE, or the Head and the Heart. Illus . . 25 
 JENNIE CARTER, or Trust in God. By Catherine 
 
 D. BeU. Illus 25 
 
 PHILIP AND BESSIE, or Wisdom's Way. Illus. . . . 25 
 THE SABBATH SCHOOL CONCERT, or Children's 
 
 Meeting. Its History, Advantages, and Abuses, 
 
 with approved mode of conducting it 25 
 
 LEAVING HOME. By the author of Capt. Russel's 
 Watchword, Ellen Dacre, Old Red House, Blind 
 Ethan, etc. Illus 25 
 
 LITTLE JERRY, The Ragged Urchin, and under 
 what Teachings he was Reclaimed from the Street. 
 Idas ' 25 
 
10 CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 
 
 THE BELIEVING TRADESMAN, an authentic story, 
 and a wonderful illustration of the power of faith. 
 It has few parallels in history, lllus 25 
 
 THE SUNDAY EXCURSION, and whatcameof it. A 
 timely work. lllus 25 
 
 BLIND ETHAN. By the author of Capt. Russel's 
 "Watchword. lllus 25 
 
 ROBERT RAIKES, the founder of Sabbath Schools 
 By Rev. Dr. Cornell. An entirely new and original 
 
 work. Elegantly illustrated 25 
 
 SONGS FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND VES- 
 TRY 20 
 
 BENNY'S BIRDS. lllus 25 
 
 STOLEN GOLD PIECE. lllus 25 
 
 ALICEFIELD. lllus 25 
 
 SEALING THE SPIRIT 20 
 
 THE REMEMBERED PRAYER. A charming juve- 
 nile, lllus 20 
 
 SHIPS IN THE MIST. By the author of Similitudes, 
 
 etc. lllus 20 
 
 LAZY STEPHEN, and what made him a valuable 
 
 Man. lllus 20 
 
 THE LOST HALF CROWN. A charming juvenile. 
 
 Fully illustrated 20 
 
 TOM MATHER AND THE LOST PURSE. Reveal- 
 ing the Workings of Conscience in a Little Boy'a 
 mind. lllus 20 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 11 
 
 JESSIE AT THE SPRING, aud Other Stories. De- 
 signed for children and youth 20 
 
 THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER'S DAUGHTER. A 
 charming example of Christian faith in a child. Ill 20 
 
 WILLIE WILSON. A dear child was Willie. The 
 story and its associations speak for themselves. Ill 20 
 
 THE YOUNG RECRUITING SERGEANT. The mind 
 of a little child sometimes exercises a potential in- 
 fluence over that of an adult. Illus 20 
 
 YES AND NO. Two very hard words to speak in 
 the light of a temptation. Illus 20 
 
 TOM BRIAN IN TROUBLE. Much easier is it to 
 get out of it. This story is a practical commentary 
 
 on a great truth. Illus 23 
 
 DREAMING AND DOING, and Other Stories. Great 
 
 truths in life expei'iences. Illus 20 
 
 SANCTIFICATION. By Rev. J. Q. Adams 20 
 
 THE HANDCUFFS, or the Deserter. Illus 15 
 
 THE LUNATIC AND HIS KEEPER, and other narra- 
 tives. Illus 3..^ 15 
 
 MUST I NOT STRIVE ? or the Poor Man's Dinner. 
 
 Illus 15 
 
 THE LOST TICKET, or Is your Life Insured? Ilbis. 15 
 
 THE CHILD ANGEL. Illus 15 
 
 THE DREAM OF HEAVEN. A narrative work of 
 touching interest. Tenth thousand 15 
 
 SUNBEAMS FOR HUMAN HEARTS 15 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 Hi 
 013 709 096 fl r