LETTERS OF THE HARVARD REGIMENT

Many historically significant letters, some transcribed from the collection at the Boston Public Library and published here exclusively for the first time.

• Civil War Correspondence of Lt. Sumner Paine and musings by a great-great nephew Thomas M. Paine, including A Short Essay: Lt. Sumner Paine and the 20th Mass at Gettysburg

• TWO HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT GETTYSBURG LETTERS OF HENRY LIVERMORE ABBOTT, written to Robert Paine,  dated July 13 and July 28, 1862

• "Humane and Generous Enemy" -Letter from Confederate General Robert E. Lee to Col. William R. Lee, dated July 19, 1862

• Postwar Letter from Lane Brandon to Josiah G. Abbott, father of Henry Abbott and Ned Abbott . Brandon was a Harvard classmate and friend of Henry Abbott and served as an officer in the 21st Mississippi, a regiment which met the 20th Mass in battle many times.     

• ACCOUNTS OF THE BATTLE OF FAIR OAKS, VA., FROM LETTERS OF THE 20TH MASS. PARTICIPANTS  Henry Abbott   John Summerhayes    Henry Ropes   Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

• Henry Ropes Letters--from the Manuscripts of the Boston Public Library

      --YORKTOWN April 25, 1862 (Description of William Bartlett's Yorktown                                        wounding ).

     --FAIR OAKS  May 31, 1862

        --ANTIETAM CAMPAIGN    Sept. 15, 1862    Sept. 19, 1862   Sept. 20, 1862     Sept. 21, 1862

      --FREDERICKSBURG   Dec. 18, 1862     Long letter decribing the intense street fighting of the 20th Mass. in Fredericksburg, Va. on December 11, 1862.

Return to Top of Twentieth Mass Page