In His Own Words - Captain William Francis Bartlett

Thursday, November 7, 1861

In his journal Captain William Bartlett responded with characteristic humility to the praise he received from Boston and New York newspapers concerning his outstanding performance at Ball's Bluff: "They compliment me too highly, who did nothing more than my duty. My coolness was in me. I ought not to have the credit of it, but be grateful to God, who in his mercy has spared me, for granting me the courage and self-possession."¹

References:
¹Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett (Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1878), 33-34.