09/04/2026
Edward Stanley Abbot, Joseph Hale’s great-grandson born on Oct 22, 1841, in Boston, MA. When Stanley was 20, he enlisted in the 17th United States Infantry Regiment on July 1, 1862. By November, he became a 2nd lieutenant and on April 27, 1863, he became a 1st lieutenant. During the Battle of Gettysburg, he was leading a charge when he was shot. He survived in the field hospital for several days, regaining consciousness and speaking. However, he died on July 8, 1863 at the age of 21. He is buried in Central Cemetery in Beverly, MA.
Quincy Abbot, Stanley’s great-nephew, wrote a book compiling Stanley’s correspondence and journals from 1853 to 1863, titled From Schoolboy to Soldier. In this book, it displays Stanley’s thoughts and actions leading up to and during the war. In his journal entry for April 19, 1861, just after the Civil War started, he describes parting with a friend who was joining the Confederate Army. He writes, “who can say we may not meet hereafter as mortal foes who in the old times held each other fondly?” and “My God! What a frightful thing this horrible war is! Oh we do not see it when the blood within us boils high, and blind sectional enthusiasm makes fratricides of us all in heart! But sometimes there must be pauses in the tragedy between the acts, and then its appalling bitterness sweeps down and crushes us. Oh how America will weep in tears of bitter agony and oceans of blood the blindness that has fallen upon us like a curse from the Almighty!” In a letter to his mother on May 5, 1863, he wrote “I see a future for my country more noble than was ever yet permitted in any land thus far—a people just, tolerant, peaceful, giving freedom and education to a continent and true to the principles for which they have suffered.” After Stanley's death, his brother Edwin traveled to Gettysburg to exhume his body and bring him home. He recorded how Stanley was shot, his last few days in the hospital, and the exhumation. After Stanley was exhumed, Edwin recorded, “I spoke to the boy and his companion. They said they knew Stanley, and knowing I had come for his body, they had left the camp to help me, because they had liked Stanley. “Yes,” added the boy, “he was a strict officer, but the men all liked him. He was always kind to them.” That was his funeral sermon”
