HARVARD

MEMORIAL BIOGRAPHIES.

VOL. I.

CAMBRIDGE:
SEVER AND FRANCIS.

1867.

J2 Harvard Memorial Biographies.

1843-
ARTHUR BUCKMINSTER FULLER.

Chaplain 16th Mass. Vols. (Infantry), August 1, 1861; discharged, on res-
ignation, December 10, 1862 ; killed, as volunteer, at Fredericksburg, Va.,
December 11, 1862.

IN that wonderful fragment of early autobiography which
Margaret Fuller Ossoli left behind her, and just before
that brilliant passage in which she portrays the respective in-
fluence upon her childhood of the Greek and Roman tradi-
tions, she speaks lovingly of the household around her in
those juvenile years, and of the "younger children" in whom
her mother was so much absorbed. One of those younger chil-
dren was Arthur, at whose funeral, long years after, James Free-
man Clarke thus recalled the images of that happy group : —

" I first knew Arthur Buckminster Fuller as a little boy. Being
a distant relative, I was in the habit of visiting his father's family
while a student at Cambridge. They lived at that time in the old
Dana House, on the bend of the road from Boston. In the large,
old-fashioned parlor the family sat together in the evening; Mr.
Timothy Fuller sitting by one corner of the open fire, with his
stand, holding his papers and a lamp, at work preparing for his law
duties of the next day, but occasionally taking part in the conversa-
tion ; usually, as I remember, in moderating what he thought some
too enthusiastic statement of his daughter Margaret. She sat talk-
ing with her friends as only she could talk, and the younger chil-
dren studied their lessons or played together; and among them I
well remember the bright eyes, and clear, open features of Arthur.
Near by sat the mother at her work, serene, gentle, kind, a comfort
and joy to all."

Arthur Buckminster Fuller was born in Cambridge, Mas-
sachusetts, August 10th, 1822 ; the son of Timothy and Mar-
garet (Crane) Fuller. His maternal grandfather, Major Peter
Crane of Canton, served in the Revolution, and was at one
time the chaplain of his regiment. His paternal grandfather,

Arthur Buckminster Fuller. 73

the Reverend Timothy Fuller, represented Princeton in the
Massachusetts Convention for the adoption of the Federal
Constitution, and voted against that instrument because of the
clause providing for the rendition of fugitives from service.
He was descended from Thomas Fuller, who emigrated to
America in 1638.

Timothy Fuller the younger was one of five brothers, all
lawyers. His daughter Margaret has sketched his character
'with frankness and with vigor. He was often in public life,
and was a Representative in Congress from 1817 to 1825,
where he was Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs,
and prominent as a defender of the Seminole Indians and as
an opponent of the Missouri Compromise. He resided in
Cambridge until 1834, when he removed, with his family, to a
farm in Groton, where he died the following year.

The family being thus left fatherless, much of the responsi-
bility of the care and training of the children devolved on the
eldest sister. How much they owed to this extraordinary wo-
man is indirectly made manifest in many passages of her
" Memoirs " and " Writings," — the latter having been edited,
after her death, by the grateful hands of her brother Arthur.
He was fitted for college, amid great obstacles, by his sister,
by the teachers of Leicester Academy, and by Mrs. Ripley of
Concord, Massachusetts, whose classical school had then a
high reputation.

During his college course he aided in his own support by
teaching school, was faithful to his duties, and graduated with
creditable rank in 1843. On leaving college he instantly en-
tered on the career of activity which he loved; investing what
was left of his small patrimony, a few hundred dollars, in the
purchase of an academy at Belvidere, Illinois. There he not
only taught secular studies, but' soon began the work of re-
ligious exhortation with- a zeal which brooked no delay. A
Unitarian of the more evangelical type, he yet obtained the
fellowship of Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians. With
the Methodists especially he sympathized by temperament and
habits, and associated much with them during his whole life.

74 Harvard Memorial Biographies,

He wrote home about this time : —

" I go every Sabbath about eleven miles, take charge of a Sab-
bath school at ten, preach at eleven, have an intermission of half an
hour at half past twelve, preach again a long sermon, take tea at
once, and ride over the chill, bleak prairie, directly home, which I
do not reach till late in the evening. On week days, besides the
hours of teaching, I lecture and aid in debating-societies, and so
forth, so that I can scarcely find time to write even these poor
letters."

Two years he spent in labors such as these, and then re-
turned to spend two years of study at the Divinity School of
Harvard University. To revert to the pursuits of the student
was, however, rather hard for one who had already lived the
stirring life of a pioneer preacher ; and his zeal was constantly
bursting over the cautious regulations of the Faculty, — he
naturally demeaning himself as a full-fledged minister instead
of a pupil. Much of his time was given, therefore, to extrane-
ous occupation, though he graduated with his class in 1847.

This partial separation of pursuits, added to some peculi-
arities of temperament, and a rather marked use of evangelical
phrases and methods, formed undoubtedly some slight barrier
between Arthur Fuller and many of his companions, both at
this time and afterwards. Having been accustomed to express
his opinions with the greatest freedom and unction to Western
audiences by no means his equals in education, he had not
always the necessary tact in dealing with his equals, and hence
was apt to elicit as much antagonism as sympathy. If he
erred, however, everybody admitted that it was from excess of
zeal; but it is difficult to make such zeal attractive, especially
among cultivated intellectualists, and certainly he did not al-
ways succeed. His intense ' earnestness had, or seemed to
have, a flavor of self-assertion, and this often led his critics to
do him less than justice. The recollection of this peculiarity
in him, whatever may have been its source, added interest to
his later career in the army ; for it is evident that the grander
experiences of life smoothed away some of these rough-
nesses, and developed in him more comprehensiveness, more
tact, and more power of adaptation.

Arthur Buckminster Fuller. 75

After leaving the Divinity School he preached a few times
at Albany, New York, and wrote thence : " I have been at-
tending a course of anti-slavery lectures by Frederick Doug-
lass, the fugitive slave, and have become greatly interested."
Then he supplied the pulpit, for three months, of " Fathej
Taylor," the celebrated Methodist sailor-preacher in Boston.
He was afterwards settled as minister over the Unitarian
Society in Manchester, New Hampshire, then over the New
North Church in Boston, and then in Watertown, Massachu-
setts. In all these positions he worked for years with the zeal
of a revivalist; and he also took active part in the usual col-
lateral duties of a New England minister, rendering important
services on school committees, and in temperance and anti-
slavery reforms. He was also twice chaplain of different
branches of the Legislature of Massachusetts.

He was twice married, — to Miss Elizabeth G. Davenport
of Mendon; and, after her death, to Miss Emma L. Reeves
of Wayland. The latter, with several children, survives him.

He devoted much time at this period to revising and editing,
in their final form, the writings of his sister Margaret; inter-
weaving in the work a great deal of new matter from her
manuscripts. This work was admirably done, especially when
we take into consideration the wide difference in temperament,
habits, and aims between the sister and the brother. He thus
speaks of this affectionate labor : —

" I have done my best and hardest work on this book. The labor
of compiling and superintending such a publication and correcting
the proof is greater than I could have conceived possible. It is
done; and I thank God for giving me strength to do it. I pray
that it may contribute to do justice to her merits. That is all the
reward I can expect; and that reward would be so noble, so holy!"

And again : —

" This has been a labor of love, which I have joyed in, and have
esteemed a privilege, and not a burden. If I only live to send forth
Margaret's works from the press, as they should appear, I shall not
have lived wholly in vain."

All the profits of these volumes were sacredly devoted to

76 Harvard Memorial Biographies.

repaying certain debts, contracted long before by his sister, at
the time when she was the support and protector of the house-
hold. These debts were all due to very friendly creditors, yet
he wrote joyfully when all was done : " Margaret's debts are
all paid, every dollar. That sacred trust to us is now ful-
filled."

In the midst of these pursuits came the call to arms, after the
attack on Fort Sumter. Watertown, like other villages, had
its war meeting, which was addressed by the Unitarian minister
among others. A newspaper narrative describes his speech as
follows : —

" Rev. Arthur B. Fuller protested against * any further compro-
mise with slavery. Thus far, and no farther.' He was in favor of
the Constitution of these United States. He was in favor of a
settlement; but, in the language of Honorable Charles Sumner,
* Nothing is ever settled that is not settled right.' Let us stand
right ourselves, and then we can demand right from others. He
urged the Republicans to stand by the election of Lincoln and
Hamlin.....He was opposed to compromise, — even to the ad-
mission of New Mexico, — because it would be in violation of our
platform, and at variance with the opinions of such honored states-
men as Webster and Clay, and because it interdicted the spirit of
the Gospel.''

He at once began to visit the camps for religious exhorta-
tion ; was soon elected chaplain of the Sixteenth Massachu-
setts Infantry, and was commissioned as such, August i, 1861.
In his letter of resignation, he thus stated to his parish his
motives : —

" The moral and religious welfare of our patriotic soldiery cannot
be neglected, save to the demoralization and permanent spiritual in-
jury of those who are perilling their all in our country's cause.
The regiment represents Middlesex County on the tented field, the
county in which I was born, and which my honored father repre-
sented in our national Congress ; and one company is from Water-
town, where for nearly two years I have been a settled minister, —
circumstances which give this call of duty a peculiar claim upon my
mind and heart. I am willing to peril life for the welfare of our
brave soldiery and in our country's cause. If God requires that
sacrifice of me, it shall be offered on the altar of freedom, and in
defence of all that is good in American institutions."

Arthur Buckminster Fuller. yj

A parting festival was held at the pastor's house, and many
presents were brought in, — every religious denomination in
town being represented in the gifts. A prayer-meeting took
place in the Methodist church, the services being conducted
by Mr. Fuller in connection with Rev. Mr. Hempstead, minis-
ter of that church. An army officer, who was present, spoke of
the dangers to which he was about to return ; and the two
clergymen offered prayers for him. It was noted afterwards
as remarkable, that this officer finally came back to his home
uninjured, while both the ministers became chaplains, and
gave up their lives, within a few days of each other, at Fred-
ericksburg.

Chaplain Fuller left Boston, with his regiment, August 17,
1861. Scarcely were they settled in camp, near Baltimore,
when he entered with his wonted zeal upon his new labors.
He writes as follows : —

" Our encampment is hardly settled enough yet for definite ar-
rangements to have been fully carried out. After this week, how-
ever, the arrangements are as follows : Sunday school at nine, A. m. ;
attendance to be wholly voluntary. Preaching every Sabbath at
five o'clock, p. M., the old hour at Camp Cameron, and the best
hour of the day for the purpose. Prayer and conference meeting
(when practicable) every day at about six and seven, P. m. ; attend-
ance of course voluntary. These services will be fully attended.
Even now, every night there are quiet circles for prayer and praise.

" Besides these services, there are Bibles and religious volumes
to be distributed to the men, and books for singing God's praise.
We find the l Army Melodies' useful among us, and were not the
writer one of the editors of the volume, he would say much of the
necessity and usefulness of supplying religious and patriotic music
and words to every regiment and every naval vessel, in place of
the ribald songs so sadly common in the army and on shipboard.
No more refining or religious instrumentality than music can be
used."

The position of an army chaplain is no easy one : the ma-
jority of clergymen fail in it. In a little world of the most
accurate order, where every man's duties and position are
absolutely prescribed, the chaplain alone has no definite

78 Harvard Memorial Biographies,

position and no prescribed duties. In a sphere where every-
thing is concentrated on one sole end, he alone finds himself
of no direct use towards that end, and apparently superfluous.
In this difficult position, nine men out of ten are almost use-
less, while the tenth achieves a wide-spread influence. Arthur
Fuller seemed to be one of the latter class. The prime quali-
ties required by his new position were moral energy and tact;
he had always a superabundance of the one, and he must have
developed the other, or he could not have been so successful
as he evidently was.

For instance, it is the custom in some regiments for the
chaplain to be the caterer for the officers' mess. The first
proposition to this effect, in the Sixteenth Massachusetts, was
promptly met by a Scripture text, " It is not reason that we
should leave the word of God and serve tables." The Colonel
was not quite pleased, it is said, with this piece of frankness;
yet afterwards, at a complimentary dinner of the officers, when
they had vainly implored the Chaplain to take wine with them,
the Colonel finally proposed three cheers for the Chaplain, as
"a man whom we all honor the more, because in public and
private he is uniformly consistent with his principles."

In accordance with these views, the Chaplain was soon at
work in resisting the most perilous of army vices. He
writes: —

"We celebrated the close of the year 1861 by forming in the Six-
teenth Massachusetts Regiment a Division of the Sons of Temper-
ance. At an early hour the new chapel-tent of the regiment was
filled to overflowing with soldiers eager to listen to. an exposition
of the principles of the organization, and to unite in the movement,
if it commended itself to their judgment. Over one hundred officers
and soldiers were proposed for initiation. Authority had been re-
ceived by the chaplain from the Grand Division of Massachusetts
to organize this Division, which is to embrace not only soldiers of
this regiment, but Massachusetts men connected with other regi-
ments at or near Camp Hamilton, or with the naval vessels lying
off the fortress."

He formed also an "Army Christian Association," and a
"Soldiers'* Teachers' Association,"—thus transplanting the

Arthur Buckminster Fuller. 79

church and school-house of New England to the soil of Vir-
ginia. Then, by freely setting forth at home the demands of
the regiment, he provided a " chapel-tent," — the first seen,
probably, in our army. He thus describes its dedication : —

" Yesterday was a noteworthy day with the Sixteenth Massachu-
setts Regiment, for on it we dedicated our beautiful tabernacle tent.
This tent was presented to us by various patriotic and benevolent
citizens of Boston, who desire that religious services may not neces-
sarily be suspended during the sultry heat of summer, or during the
fall of the rain, so copious in Virginia, and that our evening prayer
and temperance meetings may'not necessarily be held in the open
air. The subscriptions were secured by a most excellent lady, and
she receives the grateful acknowledgments of our entire regiment.
The day of dedication was also Forefathers' Day (December 22),
which was very appropriate for a Massachusetts regiment, having
their tabernacle in the wilderness, as did their fathers.

"Both army and navy chaplains participated in the exercises.
The chaplains were representatives of nearly every sect, including
Roman Catholic; but there was entire harmony, and a sweet blending
of devout sentiment and Christian, patriotic utterance. Chaplains
from North and South, East and West, were there, and from sea
and shore, yet no discordant note was uttered. The tabernacle tent
was trimmed with holly and live-oak wreaths and crosses, made
by the soldiers with a taste which would have surprised our female
friends. The ladies of the Hygeia Hospital, who were present,
contributed a beautiful cross of mingled evergreen and flowers.
Our regimental band played the Star-spangled Banner admirably,
and the regimental choir sang the hymns written for the occasion,
in a manner which elicited, as it deserved, much praise. Rev. Mr.
Fuller's dedication discourse was founded on the text in Isaiah iv.
6, ' And there shall be a tabernacle, for a shadow in the daytime
from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm
and rain.'"

Besides these varied labors in the regiment, Chaplain Ful-
ler was an active newspaper correspondent, — writing letters
to the Boston Journal, the Boston Traveller, the New York
Tribune, the Christian Inquirer, and other journals. Among
these letters was a narrative — perhaps the most graphic ever
given — of the famous contest between the Merrimack and

80 Harvard Memorial Biographies,

the Monitor, and all the exciting events which preceded and
followed. These important letters are fully given in the Me-
moir of Chaplain Fuller, by his brother; but only the most
exciting passage of the narrative can be here inserted. The
date is March 15, 1862 : —

" The morrow came, and with it came the inevitable battle be-
tween those strange combatants, the Merrimack and the Monitor.
What a lovely Sabbath it was ! how peaceful and balmy that South-
ern spring morning! Smiling Nature whispered only ipeace,' but
fierce treason breathed out threatenings and slaughter, and would

have war.....At nine o'clock, A. M., the Merrimack, attended

by her consorts, the war-steamers Jamestown and Yorktown, and a
fleet of little tug-boats, crowded with ladies and gentlemen from
Norfolk, who were desirous of seeing the Minnesota captured, and
perhaps even Fortress Monroe taken, — certainly all its outlying
vessels and the houses in its environs burnt.

" The little Monitor lay concealed in the shadow of the Minne-
sota. The Merrimack opens the conflict, and her guns shake the
sea and air as they breathe out shot and flame. Sewall's Point
sends from its mortars shell which burst in the air above the
doomed Minnesota. The Minnesota, still aground, replies with a
bold but ineffectual broadside. All promises an easy victory to the
Merrimack, when lo! the little Monitor steams gently out and offers
the monster Merrimack battle. How puny, how contemptible she
seemed! nothing but that little round tub appearing above the
water, and yet flinging down the gage of defiance to the gigantic
Merrimack. It was little David challenging the giant Goliath once
again,—the little one, the hope of Israel; the giant, the pride of the
heathen Philistines. Truly our hopes were dim, and our hearts
almost faint for the moment. The few men on the Monitor are sea
and storm worn, and weary enough, and their little craft is an ex-
periment, with only two guns with which to answer the Merrimack's
many. Who can doubt the issue ? who believe the Monitor can
fail to be defeated ? And if she is, what is to hinder the victorious
and unopposed and unopposable Merrimack from opening the
blockade of the coast, or shelling Washington, New York, and
Boston, after first devastating our camp and destroying its soldiery?
That was the issue; such might have been the result, smile now
who will. Believe me, there were prayers offered — many and
fervent — that Sabbath, along the shore and from the Fortress