Dunn, Horace Sargent

HORACE SARGENT DUNN. Second Lieutenant 22d Mass. Vols. (Infantry), October I, 186r; died at New York, May 22, 1862, of disease contracted in the service. HORACE SARGENT DUNN was the son of James Cutler and Sophia (Paine) Dunn, of Boston, Massachusetts. He was born in Williamstown, Vermont, at the residence of his maternal grandfather, the Hon. Elijah Paine, on the 12th of June, 1842. Much of his early years was spent among the green hills of Vermont. At the age of twelve years he entered the Boston Latin School where for five years he pursued his studies diligently. Gentle and unselfish in his nature, truthful and conscientious, he was a general favorite both at home and at school. The resolutions passed by the Everett Literary Association of the Latin School, after his decease, testify the esteem in which he was held by his associates. His summer vacations were usually devoted to pedestrian excursions, with a few of his youthful friends, in the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont. These served to invigorate his constitution, and prepare him for the fatigue and privations of a soldier's life. As the time for his leaving the Latin School drew near, he expressed an earnest desire that his friends should apply for his admission at the Military Academy at West Point, but as this scheme was opposed by his parents, he yielded a cheerful acquiescence to their wishes, and entered Harvard College in July, 1859. There he pursued his studies for two years, and received the approbation of his teachers; there also he formed many warm friendships, and engaged zealously in the athletic exercises of the Gymnasium and the Boat-Club. At the outbreak of the Rebellion his desire for a military life returned, and after the disastrous battle of Bull Run, and the earnest call for soldiers, he again appealed to his parents for permission to offer his services to his country, and they did not feel at liberty to withhold their consent. In October, 1861, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Twenty-second Massachusetts Volunteers, which was then raising by Senator Wilson. He left Boston with the regiment, and proceeded to Washington, where his captain was transferred to General Butler's department in Louisiana, and his first lieutenant placed on General Porter's staff. He was thus left in command of his company, and being the only commissioned officer, his duties were exceedingly arduous. For three months he devoted himself to them so faithfully that, although stationed within seven miles of Washington, where some of his immediate family were spending a part of the winter, he visited the city only twice, and then in the performance of his official duties. Early in the spring of 1862 the Army of the Potomac was suddenly transferred to the Peninsula, in front of Yorktown, which place it was hoped might easily be captured, and thereby an easy road opened to Richmond. But the country and army were doomed to disappointment. After a series of delays it was determined to begin a regular siege. While stationed on the Potomac Lieutenant Dunn had borne cheerfully the fatigues and dangers of a soldier's life, and had enjoyed uninterrupted health; but now his regiment was in front of the enemy's works, and so near that the men were compelled to lie flat in the daytime and to work in the trenches in the night. The situation was peculiarly unhealthy, and in a few weeks more than half his company were ill with the typhoid fever. About the 5th of May, 1862, he was himself violently attacked with that disease, and immediately sent to New York, and placed in the New York Hospital, where he received every attention which the most skilful physicians and kind friends could bestow. But the disease had taken too strong a hold of his robust frame for human skill to avail. A few moments before his death he called his nurse to his bedside, and pointing to Heaven with an exclamation of great joy, gently went to his rest. His most intimate army companion wrote thus of him:" Having been his military associate for the first four months of his service in this campaign, and living alone with him in daily companionship in the circumscribed limits allotted to soldiers when serving in the field, I had the best opportunity to observe and to form a correct judgment of those qualities, the possession of which in him commanded my respect, admiration, and esteem. " Correct in his habits, conscientious and just in his dealings with all, - adding to the advantages of his education a natural ability, a good, clear common sense, and the thoughts and judgment of a man far beyond his years, - cool, kind-hearted, and brave, - genial and cheerful in his companionship, considerate of the faults of his associates, - I do not feel that my partiality has over-estimated Horace Sargent Dunn."