Henry Hill Goodell : the story of his life, with letters and a few of his addresses

Introduction

In preparing this sketch of the hfe of President Goodell it has been the author's aim to make it as far as possible autobiographical. The letters written during the Civil War are a soldier's letters, written by camp-fires, amid the confusion of army hfe, and sometimes with the booming of great guns ringing in his ears. They are printed as he left them, without correction, omitting personal and family matters of no interest to the public. The letters are sometimes arranged so as to appear Uke a diary, but he did not keep a diary. He wrote to his friends of what was going on around him; he has very httle to say of matters that did not come under his personal observation.

President Goodell was very careless about his manuscripts and seems to have looked upon them as of temporary value; and except the addresses and papers which found their way into print, only a few out of many have been preserved. Those printed in this volume are selected as illustrative of the tone of his mind and his method of handling the subjects he studied. It will be pleasing to those to whom they were addressed to read his farewells to the graduating classes.

It will be impossible to mention all the friends who have contributed to this story. It is suflScient to say that Mrs. Helen E. Goodell has been untiring in collecting material illustrative of the work and character of her husband. The sons of the late Colonel Mason W. Tyler of Plainfield, vi INTRODUCTION

N. J., have kindly loaned letters addressed to their father; many thanks are due to M. F. Dickinson, Esq., of Boston, for letters, papers, and valuable suggestions. Major Thomas McManus of the 25th Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers and the Honorable William R. Sessions, for many years Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, have contributed important facts, one in regard to the soldier, the other in regard to the affairs of the College. Professor William P. Brooks and Professor George F. Mills, for many years associated with President Goodell in the Faculty of the College, have been very kind in furnishing information of great value on important subjects; and many of the graduates of the College have contributed interesting incidents and characterizations.

Contents

MEMOIR

I. Youth 1

n. Soldier 12