[104] of the largest military problems, and the great advances he had found time to make while becoming a consummate master of tactics, into the wilder domain of strategy. Such, and more and better than he has been described, was the young veteran, whose last day on earth began with furious battle, of which he, the survivor of so many battles, was not to see the end. His body was sent to Massachusetts and buried in the cemetery of his native city, beside the remains of his brother Edward. On the lid of his coffin were engraved the words, Sans peur et sans reproche. Two years have passed since the fearless, blameless young soldier fought his last fight. The cruel war is over; Peace sits once more under her olive; and the time has come when, in the fields of Virginia,
Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro,The drum no longer beats the roll-calls of the Twentieth; the smoke of battle no longer envelops its brave officers and sergeants and privates; its colors, torn and stained, are safely fixed in the rotunda of the State Capitol. The memory of the horrors of the war is passing from our minds and hearts, but it is not so with the memory of those whom we learned in those dark days to prize the highest. There are many hearts which will not cease to cherish the memory of Henry Abbott so long as memory holds her seat. Those who knew him knew that his growth in the last four years of his life was almost beyond belief. His career, short as it was, was long enough to prove that his early death deprived his country of one of its most faithful and most precious champions, his State of one of its most worthy sons, his companions in arms of an associate beyond praise. No name holds such a place as his in the hearts of the surviving officers and soldiers of his regiment. And so long as the American people shall rejoice in the blessings which the war was waged to secure, so long will their best gratitude be due to those who were so faithful and efficient in their service as he.
Exesa inveniet scabra rubigine pila . . . .
Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulcris.
