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And here I must hastily end this first sketch of the Great Defence. May it continue to be as firm and faithful as it is this day!
I have scribbled my story with a thousand men stirring about me. If any of my sentences miss their aim, accuse my comrades and the bewilderment of this martial crowd. For here are four or five thousand others on the same business as ourselves, and drums are beating, guns are clanking, companies are tramping, all the while. Our friends of the Eighth Massachusetts are quartered under the dome, and cheer us whenever we pass.
Desks marked John Covode, John Cochran, and Anson Burlingame have allowed me to use them as I wrote.
