of obtaining experience in the surgical part of my profession. Colonel Cogswell, who will probably be confirmed as Brigadier-General in a few weeks, has promised to take me on his staff as aide-decamp. If you still feel opposed to my making this change, please write."

After much delay, during which, following the wishes of his parents, he applied for a transfer as Assistant Surgeon from his present position to a regiment in the field, and found that such a transfer was against the regulations, he accepted a commission as Second Lieutenant in the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, offered him by Colonel Lowell.

In August he sent in his resignation as Assistant Surgeon, and shortly afterwards reported himself at Readville, where a part of the regiment was recruiting. At an evening parade, his horse, an undisciplined one, reared and fell backwards upon him, inflicting a serious injury, which after a fortnight of severe suffering proved fatal to him.

The following extract from a tribute to his memory which appeared in the papers shortly after his death, from the pen of a friend in no way connected with him, will show how those estimated his character who had an opportunity of forming an unprejudiced judgment of it.

"No careful observer of his thoughtful and expressive face can have failed to see beneath that clear serenity a latent power capable of being brought into earnest action; and in the nameless slight courtesies, addressed to those who most needed them, which mark the true gentleman, no one could have hesitated to recognize the self-forgetfulness which led him to brave the peril of a fearful disease, from which the timid shrank, in order to minister to the extreme needs of a friend. All honor to the simple goodness which would have refused praise for a deed which was doubtless a necessity to his kindly nature, a deed which won for him the respect of many who would have hesitated to follow his example.

“Endowed with all the qualities that make home lovely, — amiable, unselfish, intelligent, with a touch, if we mistake not, of romance, which might instigate the possessor to swerve a little from the beaten track, this young man seemed born to make brighter the fortunate circumstances in which he was placed by

Providence, while a rare modesty secured the regard of all who really knew him.”

The delineation of Dr. Mason's character in this extract will be accepted by all who knew him intimately as eminently just. Should those who formerly felt an interest in the subject of this memorial find that it accords with their view of his character, void as it is of any brilliant deeds or great services, they may possibly believe with the writer, that if Dr. Mason had been permitted to follow his inclination from the first, he would have borne himself as bravely in defence of his country as those noble companions of his who fell in the field; and would probably have found with them a soldier's grave.

HENRY LYMAN PATTEN.

Second Lieutenant 20th Mass. Vols. (Infantry), November 25, 1861; First Lieutenant, October 1, 1862; Captain, May 1, 1863; Major, June 20, 1864; died at Philadelphia, Pa., September 10, 1864, of a wound received at Deep Bottom, Va., August 17.

H'

ENRY LYMAN PATTEN, of the Twentieth Massa

chusetts Volunteers, was born in Kingston, New Hampshire, on the 4th of April, 1836. His father, Colcord Patten, and his mother, Maria (Fletcher) Patten, were substantial New England people, whose children (Henry being the youngest) have all become worthy citizens. His early life gave bright promise of distinction. His singularly quick intelligence and love of books caused him, after the usual course of district schools, to be sent to the public Latin School of Boston. Thence, having graduated with high honors and prizes as a medal scholar, he passed into Harvard College in July, 1854.

At this time Patten was a fine specimen of the college student. In person he was short, straight, compact, well-knit, vigorous, and elastic. In later years, his shoulders so filled and broadened as to remove the idea of insignificance which his small stature gave. His face, with its regular features, was thoroughly handsome: its frank and open expression was the trustworthy index of his character, and his passport to confidence and love. His cheeks were ruddy with health, his hazel eyes full of light and meaning, his lips mobile and expressive, his forehead broad and shapely. He was almost equally proficient in all the college studies, except the modern languages, but perhaps showed most skill in the classics and metaphysics. Through several college tèrms he ranked third or fourth scholar in a class of nearly a hundred. Lack of money, however, (an inconvenience which vexed him for many years,) forced him to be absent through part of his course, teaching schools or private pupils. This double pressure slightly lowered his numerical rank, but did not touch his

prestige among his fellow-students and professors as a brilliant and thorough scholar.

or

His character was, in college, a singular mixture of boyishness and maturity. He was fond of athletic and out-door sports, and passed nearly as much of his college career on the Delta as in the recitation-room. He was a quick and daring football player, and one of the best cricketers in the Class. A friend writes of him, that "his only fault as a cricket-player was that he was too rash, and was frequently put out in attempting to make runs when the ball was almost in the hand of the bowler of the opposite side." He very often neglected the Class tasks to play out a match game, or for a walk, or for skating, sometimes, it must be owned, for a favorite book, or agreeable company, or a friendly idle chat. Among his comrades he won a reputation for frankness, generosity, courage, quickness, intelligence, and an overflow of good-humor and animal spirits. In conversation, his address was pleasing, his words select and forcible, his utterances direct and frank. He had no reservations. There was no worse thing left in his mind to be said after the hearer's back was turned. Sometimes his emphatic style of assent or dissent was unpleasantly brusque : but his vivacity and vigor, and the general bonhomie of his bearing, made him an excellent conversationalist and an agreeable companion.

He was an active member, in successive years, of the Anonyma, Institute of 1770, Psi Upsilon, and Hasty Pudding Club, and of a much-prized private club. As he possessed a fine oratorical delivery, and a ringing and melodious voice, he became an effective as well as fluent debater. He was, too, an unusually good writer, as his college dissertations, exhibition. parts, and his exceedingly entertaining letters attest.

If among his many noble traits frankness be pronounced the most striking, his generosity held at least the second place. He was generous to a fault, spending his money instantly on getting it, and never on himself alone. He was charitable in his judgment of others. One of the most judicious of his comrades said:

"I do not remember ever to have heard him speak ill of any

person not present. I know no one with more liberality in judging other's actions, or more sympathy with the feelings and sufferings of others, or a more prompt and indulgent appreciation of the temptation under which a wrong or mean action might have been committed, than Patten. Nevertheless, he was wonderfully firm in sticking to his own opinions and practices, and settled in his convictions."

College days being over, and his Commencement speech pronounced, Patten turned to the law. It was the summer of 1858. A twelvemonth earlier, in vacation, he had written from Kingston to a friend :

My brother, though not a lawyer exactly, is the 'squire,' and has an office in which are several law books, a dozen or so, into which I now and then peep. I think you and I will never repent our choice of a profession. I never have seen a sensible fellow yet who, having studied law, did not think it the best of pursuits."

But the omnipresent question of finances again came up, and the result was a year's devotion to teaching, with the view of accumulating money enough to carry him through a year of law study. It need hardly be added that this plan took three years for its accomplishment, instead of one. After many

disappointments in seeking a place, he became a tutor in the Free Academy at Utica, New York. There he kept up a correspondence with some old friends, and sighed to be in Cambridge, "studying law and reading Plautus.”

His year at Utica ended, Patten obtained a situation as private tutor, through the aid of President Walker of Harvard University, who had always been his friend. His pupil, George Appleton, a youth of eighteen, was a grandson of William Appleton of Boston, and son (by a former marriage) of Mrs. Arnold, herself a daughter of George W. Lyman. Her resi dence was at Montgomery, Georgia, twelve miles from Savannah, on the beautiful Vernon River. Thither Patten went for

a year, in the autumn of 1859. He passed much leisure time in shooting the abundant small game, his pupil being extremely fond of field sports. For a while the genial tutor also was quite enamored of this pursuit (though he got surfeited in due

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