Right up into the Fire

At the outbreak of the Civil War, 21-year-old Henry Ropes, son of a wealthy Boston merchant, is a student at Harvard College (Class of '62). The patriotic young man immediately takes a keen interest in military matters, and in November of 1861, with the help of influential friends he obtains a commission for a Lieutenancy in the prestigious 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Called the "Harvard Regiment" for its officer cadre of upper class Harvard graduates, among them the future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., the grandsons of Paul Revere and the great-grandson of Robert Treat Paine, the regiment soon earns a reputation for dependability and steadfastness under fire. Seeing hard service in the Army of the Potomac, the regiment is bestowed with the sobriquet of "the Bloody Twentieth". The honorific is dearly paid for with staggering losses of soldiers and officers alike in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg and General Grant's Overland Campaign. A prolific letter-writer, Ropes keeps a constant correspondence with his parents and especially his beloved brother John. In his letters, the young lieutenant talks freely about all facets of military life, be it his opinions on the generals, the government in Washington and the conduct of the war, or the rivalries and infighting among his fellow officers, the martial abilities of the Union soldier, everyday life in camp and on the march, the horrors of battle and morale among the men, from the unswerving confidence during McClellan's Peninsula Campaign to the darkest days of despondency during the disastrous winter of 1862. Ropes' extensive correspondence paints a complete and vivid picture of his Civil War experiences from his first letters trying to obtain his commission to his last hurriedly jotted down lines while unknowingly marching toward the greatest battle of the war, in which the promising lieutenant's life will come to a tragic end. These well-written and frank letters of an educated, articulate and astutely observant young man offer comprehensive insight into an officer's life in the field and into the mind of a class-conscious member of the New England Establishment.