University of Vermont - Ariel Yearbook (Burlington, VT)

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- ,THE ARIEL,,,19,07 15 the state Constitution was adopted-is the first in a long series of election sermons, and one of the few literary monuments of Early Vermont. Rush Hawkins left Vermont before he was fifteen, and in the fall of 1847 enlisted in the U. S. second dragoons, seeing service along the Rio Grande and in Mexico. Late in the autumn of 1848, for disability contracted in the field, he was discharged from the army at New Orleans. Here he remained until 1851, when he removed to New York. The next ten years were occupied with important business interests intrusted to his oversight, which required extended tours in the VV'est, but left intervals during which he pursued the study of the law. In 1856 he was admitted to the bar in New York City. When the Rebellion broke out,' Mr. Hawkins. was at the head of an independent company' of Zouaves, organized for the purpose of attain- ing the highest possible proficiency in military drill. Cn the evening of the day on which the first call for troops appeared, this company resolved to tender its services to the Government, and by half-past seven they next morning its captain was in the executive chamber of the Governor of New York, the first citizen of the State to tender his com- pany's services for the suppression of the rebellion. In the course of the eight days which followed the 17th of April, 1861, he raised, and had mustered into the service of the State of New York, the 9th Regi- ment of N. Y. Volunteer Infantry, generally known as the Hawkins Zouaves. This regiment shared in the movement against Big Bethel, the cap- ture of Hatteras Inlet, the affair of Chicomocomico, the taking of Roanoke Island, the attack on Winton, N. C., the battles of South Mills fwhere Colonel Hawkins was woundedj, South Mountain and Antietam Qwhere the regiment lost more than 63 per cent of all who were in the fightj, Fredericksburg, and the siege of Suffolk, and was mustered out in June, 1863. - - Colonel Hawkins had charge of the perilous business of landing the Union troops through the surf at Hatteras Inlet in August, 1861. A portion of his own regiment had been anchored in a most dangerous

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14 THE ARIEL, 1907 The Introduction covers the vexed question of the invention of printing, and favors Gutenberg as best entitled to that distinction. The author modestly represents himself as a compiler, but the book gives proof of much careful inquiry, and verification of the statements of others. The value of the work to collectors and librarians is greatly enhanced by twenty-five fczcsifmile illustrations, generally showing the colophon in addition to a full page, The practical value of these accurately dated specimens of early typography is obvious. Previous writers on early books had given lists of places in which presses were set up before the end of the fifteenth century. One makes it 196, another, I52, others, writing between ISOS and 1853, 207, 209, 218, 221. This volume describes 236 books believed to be the earliest issued by the first printers in the towns named. The reproductions in the volume the present writer believes to be in every case from examples in Gen. Hawkinsfs own collection. He remembers seeing in the Cfeneral's study a plain case,,about ten feet long by seven high, filled with these incunabula. It took long years of patient research to assemble these volumes, and more thousands of dollars than one would venture to name. There is no similar collection in the United States, that is equally comprehensive, while in certain respects it is surpassed by butilive or six in Europe. This treasure is to be enshrined at last, we have heard, in a fire-proof building specially designed for it, in Provi- dence, R. I., to be called the Ann Mary Brown Memorial. In addition there will be a room of Old Masters, another of Modern Paintings, and a room for family relics. The whole in honor of his wife, who was a granddaughter of Nicholas Brown, the founder of Brown University,- and to perpetuate her memory. Rush Christopher Hawkins was born in Pomfret, Vt., September 14, 1831. His father was Lorenzo Dorr Hawkins, a son of Dexter Hawkins, who served in a R. I. Regiment in the Revolutionary 'VVar. His mother was a great granddaughter of Rev. Aaron Hutchinson, a graduate of Yale College in I747, who, after a pastorate in Grafton, Mass., came to Pomfret in 1776, and was for a time the sole bishop C Congregationalj of Pomfret, Hartford, and VVoodstock. His discourse at Wiiiclsor before the Vermont Convention of Iuly, 1777.-at which

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16 THE ARIuEL,,1907- position among the breakers. The captain and engineer of the tugboat Fanny, refusing to undertake their rescue, were yet persuaded by a loaded navy revolver in the colonel's hand, to obey orders, and save the imperilled soldiers from certain death. In February, 1862, the gunboat Delaware leading an expedition up the Chowan River to Winton, Col. Hawkins took his position on the cross-trees of the foremast, and so was able to save the boat and its living freight of two companies from an ambush of rebel infantry and artillery. His escape at this time from instant death was little less than miraculous. The Delaware was struck more than ISO times, and the ratlines were cut out of his hands as he was descending to the deck. The Union forces withdrew down the river, but the next morning cap- tured and burned a part of the town. Colonel Hawkins organized the first body of loyal North Carolinian troops, the nucleus around which was formed the First Regiment of N. C. Volunteers. Thirty-two of these volunteers were hung by the rebel general Picket for constructive desertionf' an dffence unknown to military law. General Picket's crime is discussed in one of General Hawkins's publications. Colonel Hawkins's brigade was in the disastrous fight at Fredericks- burg, December 13, 1862. It was his protest against the proposed second attack the next morning, made first at General Wilcox's headquarters, and later in the presence of four other generals, and finally, by suggestion of General Sumner, to General Burnside in person, which induced General Burnside to relinquish his purpose, and probably saved the Union forces from a repetition of their cruel defeat. l Colonel Hawkins was among the first to discern the incompetence of Gen. George B. McClellan, and one of the most active in the effort to secure his removal from the head of the army. Such independent action was of course well-nigh fatal to all hopes of promotion. Though mus- tered out with his regiment, he yet gave his whole time till the close of the rebellion to the promotion of the Union cause. During his service in the field he was called to command his brigade, and later a division. In 1866 he was promoted to the rank of brevet