Boston Nov. 21^st 1864

 

Tho^s Chase Esq

                       

My dear Sir

                    Probably not a day has passed since the death of your son Charles was made known to me, that I have not thought of him and of you, and I assure you my heart has deeply sympathized with you and your family in your and their great bereavement, but as the day of our annual Thanksgiving approaches, that blessed New England family festival—my feelings have been deeply moved as I thought of the thousands of family gatherings where there will be seats made vacant by this terrific war, and my thoughts have particularly turned to you and those who shall gather with you, around what has been to you all in past years on Thanksgiving Day, the family festive board, and I have pictured to my mind, the sadness that would involuntarily come over your joyous meeting, as each looked at the vacant chair of Charley and felt that he would never fill it more, and my heart was moved with a desire to say—if possible—a word of comfort. and certainly, I / think you have every thing to comfort you that parents and friends could have under such a loss. I feel that Charles was a young man of uncommon purity of heart and life, ever faithful in the discharge of duty and patient under trials, and I know that he enlisted in the service of his government from the highest motives of patriotism. he felt that his country needed his services and his sense of honor and patriotic impulses would not permit him to withhold them, and so he promptly volunteered as a soldier of the Republic, and as such, he has bravely fought and cheerfully offered up his life that he might save the life of his country, and since the sublime and fix^d purpose of the people has been so clearly expressed in our late National Election, all feel—as I have always felt—that the great cause for which he and thousands of the best young men in the country have shed their blood, will gloriously triumph, our country be saved, our union restored and our blessed government firmly established on the principles of eternal right justice and freedom, and our country become the asylum for the oppressed of all nations and the beacon light of liberty for the world. And is it not something to be grateful for that you had such a son and that he died manfully fighting for such a cause / and may you not even feel it to be a cause of thanksgiving to God in that day especially set apart for the public recognition of his overruling Providence and to render thanks for his countless blessings. but you have doubtless learned in this trial what it means to be "sorrowful yet rejoicing" I know you must be sorrowful at your great loss, while rejoicing in the sweet memory of his unspotted life and the precious hope that through the atoning sacrifice and merits of the blessed Saviour he has attained unto the higher and better life brot. to light in the Gospel. I am assured that Charles not only discharged his own duties faithfully as a soldier, but that he encouraged others in theirs, and that by his example and influence he saved more than one of his fellow soldiers from contracting habits of intemperance and vice, which would have been their ruin, and this too is something to be thankful for.

 

            Renewedly tendering to you and your family my heartfelt sympathy and condolence for your great loss and rejoicing with you that the case affords so many rich sources of consolation, I remain

 

Very Sincerely Yours             H. S. Chase                       

 

Mr Chase was a Calvinist baptist

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