USA > Massachusetts > Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment [circular no. 13] > Part 8
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May 6, 1908
Josiah S. Bacon, Co. H, Natick, Mass.
May 10, 1908
Enoch C. Pierce, Co. F, Greenfield, Mass. May 17, 1908
William S. Soule, Co. A, Brookline, Mass. Aug. 12, 1908
Orvilla L. Brock, Co. H, Florida
Sept., 1908
Charles W. Manning, Co. B, Boston
Nov. 19, 1908
* Soldiers' Home.
The paper on General Grant, by our comrade, George Jepson, was first published in the " Boston Globe," where it attracted wide and deserved attention.
CHAS. E. DAVIS, JR. Secretary.
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LLOYD W. HIXON.
BY C. E. DAVIS, JR.
Dr. Lloyd W. Hixon was mustered into service as assistant surgeon in the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment March 21, 1863, and remained with the regiment until its muster out, Aug. 1, 1864. His life presents one of the noblest that can be expected of man ; an example of moral and physical courage that is rarely to be found combined in the same individual. The regiment contained no more intrepid man than Dr. Hixon. He was so modest and unpreten- tious in all his actions that some time elapsed before the regiment appreciated his great merits, but he soon acquired the love and respect of the boys and held it to the last. The deep and kindly interest he felt for them, his suggestions for their comfort, their health, or to add to their knowledge, was shown in many ways and was highly appreciated. He procured books from home, which he distributed among the boys for their edification or improvement. Among the books he had collected were some for instruction, and to make the best use of them he formed a class to which he devoted all his spare time. I have been told by several that their after suc- cess in life was due to the doctor's friendly interest in their behalf. He was one of those rare individuals that had the gift of imparting information to others and exciting a desire to learn. Having aban- doned the practice of medicine, he started a preparatory school for boys wishing to enter college. Soon he was obliged by reason of his deafness to abandon even this, and shortly after he became totally deaf, permanently interrupting a career of great usefulness. Notwithstanding the great disappointment it must have been to him, he bore his affliction with patience and a cheerfulness that was remarkable.
In his simplicity he was great ; in his devotion to others he was beautiful ; in his friendships he was ideal ; in his life he was a hero and an example of the finest type of a gentleman. His whole life was the embodiment of all that was good and pure and his greatest happiness in doing for others. He was a man of strong religious instincts, a face radiant with sympathy and love, speaking cheer and comfort to those about him, acquiring the affection of all who came in contact with him. Though his religious instincts inclined him to
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serious thoughts, he was gifted with a strong sense of humor and his wit often found expression in caustic though cheerful repartee, as some found to their amazement when attempting practical jokes upon him, of which he had an intense dislike. We find it difficult to express our admiration for a mind so simple, so willingly contract- ing itself to the humblest duties though capable of expanding itself to the highest.
I wrote him shortly after our dinner giving an account of our reunion, who was present and what was said, particularly the expres- sions of regard that were uttered about him. His reply to me was dated the twenty-first of December, and five days after he was dead. The suddenness of his death reminded me of the following poem by Ironquill (Eugene H. Ware) :
" An aged soldier, with his hair snow-white Sat looking at the night. A busy shining angel came with things Like chevrons on his wings. He said, 'The evening detail has been made - Report to your brigade.' The soldier heard the message that was sent ; Then rose and died, and went."
NASHOTAH, WIS., Dec. 21, 1907.
MY DEAR DAVIS :
Your most welcome letter came this morning. Your apology was unnecessary. My rank in the Field and Staff was the lowest and I was never associated with it in any military function, so I scarcely realized I belonged to it - certainly not when I read your statement in the circular. Though I am not so very old - not quite four score years, I have outlived all my early companions. I am the oldest survivor of my grandparents' descendants. I am the oldest member of my college class - forty have died in fifty years. I am a perfect stranger when I walk the streets of Lowell where, when a boy, I knew the name of every person I met, and to suddenly find out that I was within one life of being the sole survivor of the Field and Staff of the Thirteenth when I probably had always been the eldest, rather startled me. I thought of Campbell's poem " The Last Man." It gives me a prominence not warranted by my service. The statement will be true before many years, so you can keep it on hand. You will remember me most kindly to the Major ( Pierce) when you have an opportunity.
I have received sympathetic letters from (Dr. Edwin H.) Brigham and
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(Wm. R.) Warner. They were all the more gratifying because I do not remember them personally, though I do their names.
Though I have passed almost fourteen very pleasant years here and have made many acquaintances and a few friends and am perfectly con- tented, in my heart of hearts I am a Yankee with a big Y and any indica- tion that I am remembered there, though it be merely an official intimation, is most pleasant. I never expect again to see the loved land, but it is a great satisfaction that my body will be buried among my ancestors in what used to be called an old graveyard - now a cemetery. Mind I do not say wearied body or that it shall rest, for my body is neither tired nor needs rest. Were I where there were more social stimulus, I should be rather a frisky old gent.
I have a great horror of post-mortem resolutions and dislike obituary notices, and so intently paid no attention to the request you made in your letter written a year ago, asking for information that might be used in some public post-mortem notice. I may have been discourteous in not making an explanation then, and so make an apology. But your repeated application and interest shown in me by Brigham and Warner have led me to think that the desire to know more of my history by the Thirteenth, I think as I came as a stranger into the Thirteenth and but little of my life was known there, ought to be gratified, though at the expense of private feeling. So I send you a bald statement of data of the principal events of my life, and perhaps a few remarks to be used as you may decide. I have full confidence in your taste and that not too much will be made public.
My bodily infirmities have increased since my return from California, and though I am assured I am free from organic lesions, yet chronic indigestion is often as sudden and fatal in its action.
I wonder if the humor of comrade Jones' remark (in the circular), that during his administration as president the debt had been reduced from $7.79 to $2.14 was generally appreciated ?
Sunday - To-day's mail has brought a Christmas card from Jenness of Co. E.
(Then follows personal remarks of no interest to others. )
Yours very truly,
LLOYD W. HIXON.
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA. (Mentioned in his letter.)
I was born in Great Falls, N.H., Jan. 18, 1829. In 1834 my `parents moved to Lowell, Mass., where in a few years my father died, and my mother in 1860. Attended the public schools of
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Lowell and Phillips Academy, Andover. Graduated from Dart- mouth College in 1857. Taught in Lowell High School two years. Graduated from Medical Department of University of Pennsylvania in 1861.
For some months was contract surgeon in United States Army. March 3, 1863, received commission as assistant surgeon in Thir- teenth Regiment Mass. Vols. Was mustered out with regiment.
Then became assistant surgeon in insane asylum, Taunton, Mass. Remained two years. For several years kept a boarding school for boys, at first in Lowell, then in Newburyport.
In 1894 became librarian in Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary, Nashotah, Wis. Resigned on account of infirmities in 1907. These business changes were owing to deafness, which has been total for twenty years.
On my mother's side am descended from the very first settlers of Plymouth Colony ; on my father's side from the Hixons of Norfolk County.
It may not be a matter of general interest, but I feel it would be disloyal should I omit saying I was brought up in the Episcopal Church and have always remained in its communion.
The following was from the pen of the Rt. Rev. William Walter Webb, D.D. :
The death of Lloyd W. Hixon, M.D., on the morning of December 26 at Nashotah House, means the loss of a very dear personal friend and of one who will be very much missed by the many students and clergy who were attracted and helped by his strong personality. The doctor was born in 1829. He attended Dartmouth College, at which institution he took the degree of Bachelor in Arts. Later, after a course in medicine at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, he received that of Doctor in Medicine. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War he offered his services as a surgeon and was appointed assistant surgeon in the Thirteenth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The bursting of a shell nearby so far impaired his hearing that he was no longer able to practise medicine. For a short time he taught at St. Paul's School, Concord, and later started a school of his own in Lowell, Mass. This school he afterwards moved near Newburyport, where he had bought a property on the banks of the Merrimac River, subsequently known as " Eaglenest." Here he had a most successful school, and here he enter-
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tained his friends, especially the clergy, with the open-handed hospitality which was characteristic of him to the end of his life.
Dr. Hixon was a strong churchman of the Tractarian school. His home was frequently used for retreats, and he always took an intense interest in all that went on in the church. He was always proud of the fact that he voted for Dr. DeKoven at the meeting of the Convention of the Diocese of Massachusetts after the death of Bishop Eastburn. His hearing having entirely failed he gave up his school and in IS93 he accepted the position of librarian at Nashotah House, in which capacity he served until a year since when, feeling that his strength was not equal to the work involved by the office, he resigned. He made liis Conimunion in the Seminary Chapel the Sunday before Christmas and, although not feeling well, said that he had had one of the happiest Christmas days of his life. An unusual number of his friends, and he had many all over the country, had remembered him. He died quietly the morning after Christmas, his death, at the end, being unexpected. We liad the Requiem Celebration of the Holy Eucharist in Nashotah Chapel the morning of December 27 and accompanied the body to West Medway, Mass., where the doctor had desired to be buried beside his mother. The interment was on Sunday morning, the 29th, and there were present a number of the doctor's friends and relatives. We were assisted in the service by the Rev. Herbert Dana, of St. Mary's, East Providence, R.I.
Dr. Hixon was a gentleman of the old school, a very strong and unique personality. He had the finished scholarship of the past generation and was an omniverous reader, keeping up with the events of the day and reading everything of current importance. He had a keen sense of humor, told a story well, and was quick at repartee, so that, despite his absolute deafness, he was excellent company. He had learned the lip language sufficiently to talk without much difficulty with those whoin he knew well. He was generous to a fault and delighted in giving pleasure to others. The students who have been at Nashotah during the years that he was there have always found in him a good friend, having been helped by him in many ways. He despised anything that was mean or underhanded, and his sterling truthfulness and strong common sense made him a valuable adviser. He was able to give them advice impossible, in many ways, for the faculty. He was always most careful not to betray their confidence, saying that he " was not a messenger of the gods." The writer owes more to Dr. Hixon than he can tell. Humanly speaking. the doctor was the means of his studying for Holy Orders. At the time that he had his school near Newburyport I was studying mining engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. During the summer I was staying near his home and was lay reading at a little church, St. James', Ames- bury, Mass. We were camping out one night on the seashore at the . mouth of the Merrimac when he said to me: " Have you never thought that perhaps God might call you to the Ministry of the Church ?" He put
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the whole matter so strongly before me that before the summer was over I had decided to take Orders. He was present at my ordination and also at my consecration. He has left behind him many devoted friends, not a few of them graduates of Nashotah House, who will miss his kindly interest in their work and the problems that came to them. May his soul rest in peace and may eternal light shine upon him !
A few extracts from letters received since his death show how he was admired by his oldest friends. One has written of him : "His patience and courage are an object lesson to us all. How loyal he was to faith and friend ! Withal how ready a fighter and how vigorous a hater! I count it one of the gracious gifts of God that I knew him so intimately." From the wife of one with him in the war: " My husband often spoke of his courage and devotion on the battlefield, never hesitating to put himself in charge where he could be of service to any sufferer." From a classmate : " How patiently for forty years he suffered deafness. Then the loss of his beloved home - ' Eaglenest' - with its superb pines and beautiful river front, and the many devoted friends. Ile was never known to com- plain of the loss of all the earthly objects most dear to him. He was cheerful and interested in those about him to the last." From one of the professors of the Roman Catholic University in Washington comes this tribute to his lifelong friend : "He thought his life to be a failure, but through him our Lord taught a more effective lesson than falls from the lips of many a professional preacher." Another reminds us of Thackeray's Colonel Newcome : " And lo, he whose heart was as that of a little child had answered to his name, and stood in the presence of the Master."
One cannot read without emotion the following beautiful letter of Mrs. Leeds, giving a charming picture of the doctor's daily life. I have taken the liberty of publishing it in full :
BISHOP'S HOUSE, 222 JUNEAU AVE., MILWAUKEE, WIS.
CHAS. E. DAVIS, ESQ. :
MY DEAR SIR : I can but jot down the every-day incidents that appealed to me personally in Dr. Hixon. Few realized how heroic he was at the time his school was given up and he was almost penniless. I was at the auction when his old friends bought in what they could. I never shall forget his tall handsome figure, his kindly, and at times entertaining, speeches, as the furniture was carted away. He went from the fine old house to a small house of three rooms, unpainted and dilapidated : this he called " The House Beautiful" after the one in Pilgrim's Progress. There he gave tea drinkings and did his own cooking. At this time his friend, Judge W. C. Robinson of the Roman Catholic University, Wash-
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ington, his friend of Dartmouth days, got him his pension - $30 a month - and my brother, then President of Nashotah Theological School, asked him to be librarian, in return for free board and lodging. The doctor occupied two room> -- a study and bed chamber - looking out upon the lake. This was a meeting place for the students. Until last year he had chafing-dish suppers for those he thought he could cheer or encourage. The seminary is miles from any village; many of the men from the far West and East. Those who held missions nearby coming back from long drives cold or weary, found a cup of coffee or tea waiting them.
Truly the doctor was a " vessel of election," beloved of God and honored among men. He often said to me my life is a failure, but through him our Lord taught a more effective lesson than falls from the lips of many a professional preacher.
Christmas and other great feast days, the boys' birthdays, etc., he had some little token of remembrance, if only apples and cakes. Meantime he catalogued and arranged twelve thousand volumes. Was in the library two hours daily to loan books. He was a constant reader himself and always took the "Boston Transcript," several magazines and journals. He was a good whist player and played frequently. He was never idle ; he knitted shawls, mitts, and sweaters. Until the last year of his life he took long walks. I have heard the men say at Nashotah that he was the man of all their circle the most respected and looked up to. He was a most loyal friend, never weary of talking of his Dartmouth chums and of his comrades of war days. He enjoyed everything that was good and beautiful in life. On Sunday he was never absent from his stall in the chapel choir, although he could not hear a word. The men have told me at night they could hear him saying his prayers aloud and praying for his friends by their individual names. After his death I found his bible and prayer-book worn with use. He was interested in all Christians and earnest thinkers, but the Episcopal Church he loved with a passion that never wearied. He always suggested Colonel Newcome to me, in his dig- nified submission to the loss in this world of all dearest to him, in his courtesy and exquisite appreciation of the things of the spirit, and like Colonel Newcome in Thackeray's words, " And lo, he whose heart was as a little child had answered to his name, and stood in the presence of the Master "
As a child I passed my summers at Newburyport in my grandfather's house near Dr. Hixon's school. Three years went by and I did not see him frequently till six years ago, when my husband died and I went from time to time to visit my brother, then Dr. Webb of Nashotah, Bishop Webb now. My brother and I were as children devoted to him. He had us there at " Eaglenest " constantly. He kept open house in those days, was in fact too generous to his pupils and saved nothing out of his school. My mother used to send him money to come and visit her in Philadelphia
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from time to time. Dr. Hixon was very proud and I think few outside my own family knew how very little he had. He was always dressed with care and neatness. Out of his little he gave to foreign missions, loaned money to needy students and friends. . Always had medicines on hand for the boys. He knitted me something each year. He was perfectly clear in his mind till the very last. A cold weakened him and brought on heart failure. He died in bed about 10 A.M. The day previous he was up and dressed all day and so far as we know had no thought of its being his last illness.
Yours sincerely, (MRS.) ANNE W. LEEDS.
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GENERAL GRANT.
BY GEORGE E. JEPSON.
" I should like to know what brand of whiskey he uses," President Lincoln is reported to have humorously rejoined to a party of gen- tlemen, some of whom were criticising Grant on account of his alleged drinking habits, "so that I could send some of the same kind to our other generals."
The ghost of this outlived and long-buried charge of habitual indulgence in liquid stimulants by General Grant -- largely the product of envy and malice - has been suffered to revisit the glimpses of the moon, owing to the lack in a prominent statesman of that negative virtue which our great humorist crystallized into a proverb, when he said of Washington that " he never slopped over." It was not so much what the orator said in his unfortunate allusion at Grant's tomb last Memorial Day that is so objectionable - for the reference was casual and without invidious intent, though tactless and uncalled for - as the misconstruction which his remarks invited, and the fact that they were calculated to revive and unloose from a proper oblivion the ribald tittle-tattle and venomous aspersions to which Grant was subjected throughout his military career.
Envy like death loves a shining mark; and as in the case of Washington and Lincoln, Grant's detractors hitherto have suffered the general fate of their species, supplying one would think a suffi- cient warning to deter any sensible person from courting the dangers of post-mortem defamation. A delver among the dead bones of the past has only himself to thank if his fingers are stained in the exhumation. But how, by-the-way, could an alumnus of Yale forget the motto every school boy knows : De mortuis nil nisi bonum ?
Roscoe Conklin, in his nominating speech at the Chicago conven- tion in 18So, said of Grant : " His fame was born not alone of things written and said, but of the arduous greatness of things done."
Grant was a great general ; great as a dogged, determined fighter : great in his soldierly readiness and swift decision, and in possessing what Napoleon called as a superlative distinction in a general, " two o'clock in the morning courage." Grant was great in the ability to control and efficiently handle large masses of men ; great as a strate- gist on original lines, as shown in the Vicksburg campaign (under-
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taken against the alarmed protest of Sherman, a consummate strategist himself, who in a four-page letter told him his plan was against all the books and bound to fail), to say nothing of minor operations previous to his attaining the supreme command of the entire Union forces. And so on to the final issue, though often baffled, until his " fighting it out on that line " policy vindicated his strategic genius and spread his fame throughout the civilized world. And this preeminence was won in despite of his alleged fondness for John Barleycorn. It is incredible, however, that a man who was a slave to the vice of intemperance could rise, and more rapidly than any military leader in history, from the command of a regiment to the practically supreme direction of an army composed of upwards of a million soldiers, and this without political influence or potential friends. General Grant may not have been as abste- mious as a Daniel, the Prophet, or a Rutherford B. Hayes, and therein he would be in fellowship with some of the world's most illustrious worthies. But there is no authentic instance in his public career where he was known to be incapacitated through alcoholic indulgence.
The recrudescence of this old-time scandal and the wide discus- sion it has occasioned stirred the writer's ire while at the same time giving a fillip to his memory which, leaping the gulf of forty odd years, vividly revives the impressions made on his youthful mind by the personality of the great commander of the Union armies. It so chanced that the present chronicler had opportunities of observing General Grant at close range almost daily during a period of five or six weeks, embracing the time when, late in March, 1864, he arrived at Culpeper Court House, Virginia, and assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, up to the general advance the first week of May following. And during that period nothing in his appearance indicated that he was or ever had been addicted to the habitual use of intoxicants. Strong drink, long indulged in, leaves its stamp upon the countenance. Grant's face, though bronzed by exposure, was unlined and clear, with a healthy glow, his eye was bright, his lip firm, his hands without a tremor.
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The reminiscences that follow, trivial in themselves perhaps, may be deemed interesting as being associated with and casting a side-
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light on the personality of one whom Union soldiers will ever revere, admire, and honor.
I have never read any account of General Grant that pictured him as he was the day on which he arrived in Culpeper to take command of the army, although that arrival was momentous. Altogether, be it said without irreverence, he presented a personal aspect the farthest removed from one's idea of a great military leader. There seemed nothing military about him ; the " set up" which a West Pointer is supposed to acquire was noticeable by its absence in his figure, which bore the somewhat slouchy look of a rustic dressed in a soldier's cast-off clothes, and his shambling gait emphasized the comparison. Such was the impression which I and undoubtedly most observers derived from the first view of the hero of so many victories, as he appeared at Culpeper on that chill and blustering March day, which may be said to have marked the first step in the funeral march to the grave of the southern confederacy.
No one witnessing the scene could ever forget its singular features. Not that they were picturesque or imposing, but rather because of the absence of these elements which naturally would be looked for in an event of historical significance. The general's dislike of dis- play and his disregard of those ceremonious observances which military high cockalorums expect and insist on, were no doubt responsible for the lack of "poppycock " that marked his advent upon the new stage of his activity whose ultimate end was destined within eleven months to crown him with the unfading laurels of victory and peace !
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