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yet so full of stern determination to do or die. The records of our regiment can show the name of no braver man or better officer.
I am very truly yours,
Captain Grafton's character was thus described by one who knew him well:—
Endowed by nature with a powerful frame and vigorous constitution, and of a cheerful and sanguine temperament, Captain Grafton was well suited for a soldier's life.
He was eminently a courageous man, not only physically, but morally and mentally courageous.
He never fell into that attitude of discouragement and dissatisfaction into which so many brave and good officers have at times fallen during the long course of this varied and at times disheartening struggle.
To see his strong, handsome face, his firm step, his resolute carriage, and to hear his cheery voice, was at such times a cordial and an encouragement.
He never wavered in his firm belief in the success of the cause.
He never indulged in that unfavorable criticism of the administration, or of the generals employed by it, which has been at times so rife in our army.
He never attended much to political matters, but his sound judgment early saw the necessity or propriety of many of the measures which for a time threatened so greatly to weaken the confidence of the army in the government.
He was a strong, clear-headed man, hopeful and courageous.
He enjoyed the comforts and luxuries of life as much as any man; but the cheerfulness and zeal with which he would go through fatigue and exposure, and brave danger, were never surpassed.
In the marches through Georgia and the Carolinas he suffered greatly from rheumatism, and his pluck in persistently marching with his company, and refusing the offers of a horse or an ambulance which were made him, was perfectly characteristic of him.
The announcement of his death, with that of
Lieutenant Storrow, who fell on the same field, was received with peculiar emotion among a large circle of those who had known these two young men in their native city,—from the very fact that the war seemed so nearly ended and their perils almost over.
They were almost the last of the
Harvard men to fall on the field; and the historian of the Great March wrote truly of
Captain Grafton, “He could not have found a nobler death, nor could we have lost a nobler soul.”
