The Portland daily press., 1870-07-29


First in order is the prompt commander
of the Third Brigade OF Kearny's Division.
Charles Davis Jameson. This noble speci-
men of a solder-citizen was born in Gorham,
Maine, and brought up as a lumberman-a
trade which gave so many distinguished SOL
diers to the National Army, among them the
smart, prompt practical Bailey, .NRo built the
Red Rverdam and saved cur feet., This.en-
terprising officer was 1.-THE first to mount md
leaR\inside" the rebel works Al Yorktown;
then Col. Black, Sixty-second PENNSYLVANIA:
then Col. Cove, Twenty-second Massachu-
sets; then Captain, afterwards Major and
Brevet Colonel Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler,
Fourteenth New Yoik Engineers and l. euten-
ant Crawford, OF the Generals staff. Gen.
Jameson and Colonel Black, advancing at
their own risk" were the first two men IN the
"ereat water angle" "They found it de-
serted, but presently ii was swarming with our
soldiers" detachments of the Sixty-second
Pennsylvania, Twenty-second Massachusetts,,
and thirteenth New York, the latter under
Captain Horace Boughton, deploy ed as sxir-
nlsbers. Jameson and Black raised the glOri-
Gus emblem of our nationality, and as il fared
out the General uncovered "his noble head"
and called for "three cheers for the good old
Stars and Stripes" which were given with
vigor which madethe welkin ring. In like
manner as at Yorktown, about an houl after
5ic SuCCcGuluS iuc UdItlt vi VIII
liamsburg, the "eaoleeyed' Jameson, with
picket of one hundred and twelve men under
Lieutenant Gilbert, of the One Hundred and
Fifth Pennsylvania (oDe of KeaIny's and his
own re2iments), was the first to enter Fort
MaGrnder. and thus, again, this General was
me nlst man within the first two rebel fortifi-
cations which fell into our hands in the first
actual campaign OF the war. He continued
to display the same energy and intrepipity in
every action until stricken down by Chicka-
hommy fever. Jameson is constantly men,
toned IN exalted terms by Kearny, not only
in his official reports but in his private letters.
He remained in command up to June Is, 1862,
and then returned home to die. He expired
alter brief though conspicuous career, at Old
town, on the dark swiftly flowing Penobscot,
a few miles above Bangor, Maine, on the 11th
OF June, 1862. Jameson was one of the most
prominent victims of McClellan's criminal er-
ror in subjecting his army to the midsummer
miasma of the swamps peculiar to the Chick
ahominy, that breeder of pestilence and river
OF death.
Death which had so often respected his
gallantry in the fore front OF battle struck him
down with that insiduous maady whose poi
son even yet daily consigns to the grave no.
bic soldiers, who had escaped the steel and
the bullet OF fast succeeding battles unexam-
Piled in the annals of war.
0Ehh1s
Next comes a noble figure, the third and
last OF kearny's brigadiers, stalwart in form.
tall and broad chested, and with as manly yet
winning lace and glorious eye as ever look
ed into brother mans or on a stricken field.
Remark him well, that self-made man, whose
Saxon energy first brought reiniorcements up
10 weu-nigh-lost Williamsburg, and whose
Anglo-Saxon intrepdity twice stemmed the
tide oil disaster at Charlottesville, where he
tell, covered with glory, and, as far as he and
his division were concerned, crowned with
victory. Excellent man and brave soldier! As
man simple and good, he was not military at
first blush either in his dress or ordinary ap-
pearance, but he showed himself in very deep
first-rate officer, as faithful to his duty as
devoted TO his soldiers. An ordinary observ-
er would rather take him for an honest iarm-
er than Brigadier-General. Born poor
boy at Thomaslon (now Rockland) on lovely
Penobscot Bay, Maine, and bred carpenter,
he worked himself up TO the mayorality of his
native city and the command of a division,
and lived and died hero. De Trobrand
says " he belonged to that fine race Of fores-
tiers from the State of Maine, who, notwith-
standing every appearance of great physical
strength, were not as able TO bear up as sue
cessfully under the fatigues and privations of
war as others less endowed with physical ad-
vantages and muscular developments" In
fact, experience proved that as regards the
conditions of good health, men rather thin
than feshy, rather undersized than tall, make
the most hardy soldiers. In the case OF the
woodsmen from Maine this fact seems the
more surprising since they were habituated
from very childhood to labors in the open air
and to camping out in the forests, where their
industry found empIoyments. General Ber-
rvs health sank gradually and visibly during
the PeninsuIar and Pope campaigns. Never
theless, his moral force did not yield to his
physical weakness until complete exhaustion
compelled him to retiIe from the field for a
short period to recuperate his strength. As
soon as his health permitted he hastened
back TO the field and was assigned to higher
command only to wreathe his brow with the
laurels OF victory and fall, in the full lustre of
splendid achievement, in her arms.