But we can hold our spirits and our bodies so pure and high, we may cherish such thoughts and such ideals, and dream such dreams of lofty purpose, that we can determine and know what manner of men we will be, whenever and wherever the hour strikes and calls to noble action.

Of his desire to serve in the War he wrote to Maine's Governor Israel Washburn Jr. Gen. He would break his own record in 1868.

He served on the faculty and as president of his alma mater Bowdoin College. After the war he entered politics as a Republican and served four one-year terms of office as the 32nd Governor of Maine.