As the Civil War raged, in the aftermath of Mudge’s death, Adjutant John Fox subordinated his own grief over the death of his brother to ease that of the Mudge family. To the colonel’s father he wrote,
I esteemed it a great privilege to be the first friend to receive his remains, and, with Colonel Morse, to perform those last offices which none but a friendly hand should undertake. Of his gallantry I need not speak,–it will be a house-hold word of every survivor of the regiment. My brother and Charley were classmates, and I hold it the sacred duty of my life to fight for the flag they died for, and to see that the cause for which they suffered is in the end triumphant over all its enemies. I hope that God may comfort and bless you and yours , even as I pray He may comfort my poor father and mother, and all who were friends of the loved and lost.
–The 2nd Massachusetts Infantry
at Gettysburg (1-3 July, 1863):
Vignettes of the Battle
http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/2126/gettyvig.html
Kinsmen and Kinswomen 