From Charles F. Smith to Foster Peirce, June 1864

From Charles F. Smith to Foster Peirce, June 1864

Smith, Charles F.

Peirce, Foster

Charlestown, MA.

From Charles F. Smith to Foster Peirce

Charles F. Smith

Jerome Peirce Collection, National Park Service

HIST 428 (Spring 2020), University of Mary Washington

1864-06 (day unidentified)

NPS, Civil War Study Group, Josef Rokus (Transcriber)

For educational purposes with no commercial use. Courtesy of National Park Service, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP, FRSP 16095-16102 (FRSP-00904).

English

Text

Letter #220

Charlestown, MA.

The tidings that Jerome had fallen on the battle field have cast a deep gloom over his numerous friends in this city.
Associated with him from childhood, I feel it a privilege to bear testimony to his worth and to the esteem in which he was held by his comrades.
As a boy he was noted for his studious habits and eagerness for knowledge. As he grew to manhood his frank and generous nature, his conscious regard for the right and his genial disposition made him a great favorite with his companions.
In 1851 ten young men who had been schoolmates and intimate friends matured a plan for forming a society for mutual mental improvement. Into this scheme Jerome entered with all the zeal and earnestness so characteristic of him and we soon found our society increasing in numbers, in interest and usefulness.
Through the liberality of citizens pleased with the stand we had taken, a fund was raised for the purpose of providing us with a Library.
We knew Jerome to be a great student with a thorough knowledge of books and authors and to him mainly was entrusted the duty of selecting our Library and to it, with characteristic liberality, he made many additions of choice volumes from his own shelves. That Library composed as it is mainly of the more solid works of English literature, has always been a source of just pride to us and an enduring monument to Jerome’s energy and literary taste.
In a society of young men of various temperaments and representing every shade of opinion and feeling, it could not be otherwise than that we should have warm and earnest debates upon the various topics which came before us.
Jerome, with a mind well stored by his extensive reading, took an active part in our debates. Always calm yet decided, always sincere, always earnest, always charitable to the faults and failings of others and ready to put the best possible construction upon their motives and actions, he exercised an influence over his associates which will not soon be forgotten.
That a man of his refined taste and quiet habits, appreciating so keenly the joys of home, so devoted to his wife and child, should have volunteered for the military service can be accounted for only on the ground that he had come to believe it to be his duty. He never jumped at conclusions. The conviction upon which he acted was reached by the slow process of thought and inquiry.
Once convince [???] him that duty pointed him in a certain direction and no ordinary influence could cause him to swerve from that path.
His sole aim in entering the army was to render to his country that service which he felt was due from him in this her hour of trial, and although well qualified to command, he had no aspirations to rise from his humble position in the ranks, contented to render any service that might assist in vindicating his country’s honor.
That he would be spared to return to his family and to that quiet life which he enjoyed so much has been not only the sincere prayer but the assured belief of his numerous friends. But it has been ordered otherwise and we must submit.
He now fills a hero’s grave. No praise which we can bestow can reach him. But the influence of his well spent life, his incorruptible integrity and noble sacrifice to the call of duty will long be felt by those who were so fortunate as to enjoy his companionship.
I cannot better close this brief and altogether unsatisfactory tribute to his memory than by adding the lines which he was want to quote.

“How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
By all their country’s wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallowed mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod.

By fairy hands their knell is rung;
By forms unseen their dirge is sung;
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And freedom shall awhile repair
To dwell, a weeping hermit, there.”

C.F.S.

Charlestown June 1864

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

NOTE 1: Foster Peirce was Jerome older brother.

NOTE 2: C.F.S. was Charles F. Smith, a long-time family friend. He kept in contact with Albinia Peirce for many years as evidenced by letters from him to Albinia in the early 1900s. On the letterhead of a letter from him dated May 25, 1905, which was written on stationery of the Commonwealth Trust Company in Boston, Massachusetts, he is listed as the treasurer of that company.

NOTE 3: The funeral at which this letter was read, per the notation on the envelope, was conducted by Rev. Levi Ballou on June 19, 1864, in the church in Orange, Massachusetts, where Jerome Peirce had been the “Sabbath School Superintendent.”

NOTE 4: The poem in the letter is a verbatim quote of the poem titled “How Sleep the Brave,” written by William Collins (1721-1759).

Letter/Paper