Excerpt from History of the Fifty-Second Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers September, 1862. - The war was dragging slowly, wearisomely on, and a half-year had passed since the stars and stripes had been assailed by rebellious foes in the harbor of Charleston, S.C., a year and two months since the disastrous defeat of the Union Army at Bull Run. The first impulse of enthusiasm resulting from the firing upon Fort Sumter in April, 1861, had carried us hopefully through the first campaign, which ended in disaster and shame in June, 1861. Then came the real hour of trial. This country never saw so dark a week as that which followed that disgrace. "Are our men cowards when danger is to be faced?" was asked. "Will the North give up in despair, and yield principle and honor?" "No," was the emphatic reply. "We know we are right, and we will prevail." Armies melted away like dew before the sun, but new ones sprung up to take their places. Fifty thousand failed in June, 1861. Two hundred thousand are in camp in December of that year. Disaster followed next year on the peninsula; but the strength and courage of the loyal North had not been exhausted, and in the public mind the determination was stronger than ever to put down the rebellion and maintain, at all hazards, the unity of the nation. On the fourth day of August, 1862, an order was issued from the War Department for a draft of three hundred thousand troops, to serve nine months; but the people and the State officials were opposed to a draft, and it was not resorted to, and the call was for three hundred thousand volunteers. The quota demanded of Massachusetts under this call was nineteen thousand and ninety men. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.