Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Henry Lee Higginson did not seem to have much going for him. He was the scion of one of the most prominent families in the Commonwealth, but the Higginsons had fallen on hard times in recent years. It did not appear that Henry was destined to reverse that decline. He had failed to graduate from Harvard (his eyesight was the official reason) and had spent a great deal of time loafing about Europe. Worse (and this was unpardonable to the Brahmin ruling class), he was an Abolitionist and did not hide his feelings on the subject of slavery. And so, the family and friends of beautiful Ida Agassiz, the daughter of Swiss scientist Louis Agassiz, were aghast that she might even consider Henry Higginson as a contender for her hand.
They had all but decided that she should marry instead the ailing widower, Francis Parkman. The historian was 14 years Ida's senior, but he was at least RESPECTABLE in their eyes. And the difference in their ages was a minor matter. After all, Parkman's traveling companion on his famous trip out west, Quincy Adams Shaw, had recently married Ida's elder sister, Pauline...and he was 16 years her senior.
For his part, Parkman was quite smitten with the lovely Ida, but feared that his fragile health and financial circumstances might not work in his favor. He decided to hide his feelings until he gathered up the courage to ask for her hand. In the meantime, Ida--perhaps under pressure--had rejected Henry Higginson.
Then the South fired upon Ft. Sumter
Henry Higginson was one of the first to sign on. He recalled the day that he and his friend, Charles Russell Lowell, had watched helplessly as Anthony Burns was dragged through the street of Boston back into slavery. "Charlie," he told Lowell on that fateful day, "It will come to us to set things right." That time had come.
But Higginson did not remain long witht the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry. He did not get along with Colonel Gordon, and the prolonged period of inactivity to which the regiment was subjected that first summer and fall, compelled him to look elsewhere. Along with his good friend, Greely Curtis, Higginson left the regiment for the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry.
On 17 June, 1863, Higginson was badly wounded during the battle at Aldie. In the hand-to-hand contest, he was shot dangerously near the spine and slashed across the face by a Confederate officer (said to be Thomas Rosser). Left to die in the road, Higginson painfully crawled, dragged and walked along until found by his men. He was transported home to his father's house in Boston to recuperate.
Ida Agassiz subsequently accepted his proposal of marriage.
Francis Parkman was deveatated. So well had he hidden his true feelings, that Ida viewed him as nothing more than a good friend, in spite of the insistence of her friends to the contrary.
Parkman could only grumble that it had been Major Higginson's war wounds that had won Ida's heart. And Elizaberth Dwight Cabot, a Parkman promoter, sniffed that the war had "exerted a transforming, strengthening, and elevating power" upon Henry Lee Higginson "unknown in the annals of human development hitherto."
His wounds prevented Higginson from ever returning to active duty. After the war (after an unpromising beginning), Higginson amassed a fortune. Among other accompishments, he founded the Boston Symphony and donated the land for Soldier's Field at Harvard, in memory of his fallen comrades.
Henry and Ida lived happily ever after.
The family of Louis Agassiz was strongly connected with the fortunes of the 2nd Masschusetts Infantry.
