THOIIAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 877 



vania was consulted, but events moved so rapidly that the proceeding 

 became unnecessary and even undesirable. 



In the spring of 1861 he was offered the command of the 4th Bat- 

 talion of Infantry, then hastily raised for government service. Not- 

 withstandiug the fact that the impending collision had for some time 

 back induced him to turn his reading towards military works, so that 

 he had acquired an academic acquaintance with the theories of attack 

 and defense, he did not feel competent to assume charge in the field 

 of a battalion of troops. Moreover the state of his wife's health at 

 that time was precarious, and she was especially dependent upon him. 

 A third and probably a prevailing reason was the uncertainty of the 

 government position on the slavery question, and the fear that, as com- 

 manding officer, he might be compelled to return fugitive slaves to their 

 masters. 



By the fall of that year the anti-slavery position of the government 

 had become more clearly defined, and he sought and obtained permis- 

 sion to raise a regiment of which he was to be second in command. 

 After three months of hard labor in raising companies in different 

 parts of the state, and after about half the necessary companies had 

 been raised, an order putting a stop to recruiting rendered all of this 

 preliminary work abortive. Recruiting was renewed in 1862, and he 

 then raised a company for the 51st regiment, of which company he was 

 commissioned as Captain, September 25, 1862, He quotes in his 

 " Cheerful Yesterdays " a popular nonsense rhyme made at his expense 

 about this time which ran as follows: 



" There was a young curate of Worcester 

 Who could have a command if he 'd choose ter, 

 But he said each recruit 

 Must be blacker than soot, 

 Or else he 'd go preach where he used ter." 



Very shortly after receiving his commission as Captain in the 51st 

 regiment he was offered by General Saxton, military commander of the 

 Department of the South, the command of a regiment of freed slaves. 

 This offer fulfilled, he says, the dream of a lifetime, and after investi- 

 gating the circumstances under which the offer was made, he accepted 

 it. November 10, 1862, he became Colonel of the 1st South Carolina 

 volunteers, afterwards the 33d United States colored troops, the first 

 regiment of freed slaves mustered into the United States service. The 

 regiment was stationed near Beaufort, South Carolina. During his 

 connection with it, whether on the march or in camp, he made a close, 

 analytical study of the negro as a soldier, the record of which is to be 



