![]() ![]() Even now I do not claim that the Roster is perfect, but the errors cannot be very numerous, and it is certainly by far the best that exists at the present time. In this task of correction I have examined personally all the monthly regimental returns, and indeed every roll, report, and return relating to the regiment on the files of the office of the adjutant-general, from whom and his assistants I have received all possible aid in the work. I had expected to use the Roster published by the Commonwealth in 1870, in the “Record of the Massachusetts Volunteers,” but found that part of it relating to the enlisted men so frequently and wonderfully incorrect, that I have dared to take hardly anything from it without verification. The revision which I had supposed would be the work of months only, has to my great regret occupied years,-more than a year of the delay being caused by the difficulty of making a roster of the regiment worth publication. As the years passed on it became more and more evident that the materials which I had accumulated must be used by me ifīy any one and finally, at the reunion of 1879, I promised an early completion and publication of the history. I became dissatisfied with the result, and found it not very difficult to persuade myself to put my record upon the shelf, in the hope that it would at some future time be my privilege to coöperate with other comrades in producing a better monument to our heroes. But there were still many gaps to be filled, and the Roster was entirely wanting. With an intense feeling of loyalty to the glorious old regiment and of tender regard for the memory of our dead comrades, I devoted to this labor of love every hour during those years which I could spare from the demands of a laborious profession. During the summer of 1866, circulars were freely distributed among the members of the regiment and families of deceased comrades, calling for facts which they deemed of interest, and the principal portion of this history was compiled and written in the years 18. As these would give me a start, I thought that I could find time to do the work, and at once set about its preparation. While a member of the regiment, from its organization until the 25th of April, 1863, I had kept a full diary, and collected the official reports of battles and casualties in action. At the first annual reunion of the survivors of the regiment at Worcester, February 8, 1866, I was urged by many comrades to prepare a history of its service.
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