74 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



ing party at Port Hudson, yet it gives me great pleasure not 

 to have my services required. Those works were con- 

 foundedly strong, and one half or two thirds of us would 

 have paid the penalty of our attempt with our lives. War 

 is not the glorious thing it's cracked up to be. Though we 

 get used to all kinds of horrid sights, yet we can't get per- 

 fectly calloused. I could tell you some things that would 

 fairly make your blood curdle with horror. I will omit all 

 description as that is best learnt in familiar discourse. 



The 25th Connecticut regiment, after one of the most 

 trying campaigns of the war, was now to take another sea 

 voyage and was mustered out at Hartford, August 26, 1863. 

 Scant justice has been done to the Nineteenth Corps. The 

 field of their action while in Louisiana was far away, and, 

 until the fall of Port Hudson, was cut off from the North 

 except by the sea. The public attention was absorbed by 

 the operations in the states along the border, and even their 

 great victory at Port Hudson was eclipsed and looked upon 

 as a consequence of the fall of Vicksburg. But they did 

 a great deal of hard fighting, and made hundreds of miles 

 of hard marching in a climate to which the men were not 

 accustomed. 



Goodell had entered the regiment as second lieutenant, 

 but he had acted in many capacities. He had officiated as 

 first lieutenant in his own and other companies, had often 

 discharged the function of captain, and had acted as ad- 

 jutant of the regiment. He was promoted to first lieutenant 

 on the 14th of April, and became aide-de-camp on the staff 

 of Colonel Bissell, commanding the 3d Brigade of the 4th 

 Division, on the 8th of July. 



