3i6
��Col. Enoch Q. 1%'ilcnvs.
��education ; and, though his father did not oppose him, he did not second him in his efforts. The autumn after he was seventeen he attended Rev. L. P. Frost's high school in Wayland, Mass., one term, and the following winter taught school in Framingham. While there his attention was first called to West Point, from the fact that a lawyer was in practice there who had been in West Point one year. The next year, 1843, h^ attended the Newbury (Vt.) seminary three terms. On leaving there he was fitted for college in all except Greek. During the summer vacation he went to Meredith Bridge (now La- conia) while court was in session, in order to see John P. Hale, then Con- gressman, relative to the West- Point appointment. The State had recently been redistricted ; and Mr. Hale told him he was not in his district, but in that of Moses Norris, jun., and, as Mr. Norris was there, introduced the young man to him.
Mr. Norris did not promise him an appointment ; but the next spring, there being a vacancy, he did appoint him.
Promptness has always been a char- acteristic of Col. Fellows : so he at once left for West Point, and spent several weeks there studying for the entrance examination. He entered on his nine- teenth birthday, and at once took a good standing in his class, which he always maintained, standing eighth when he voluntarily resigned in November, 1846. He had for schoolfellows Gens. George B. McClellan, Ambrose E. Burn- side, D. N. Couch, Jesse L. Reno, and " Stonewall " Jackson.
His father was opposed to his enter- ing West Point and being away from home ; and it was on account of his solicitations that he finally resigned, and returned to his home in Sandwich.
��He worked at home most of the time till 1854. In 1847 he was appointed one of the drill-officers of the New- Hampshire militia, and resigned in 185 i, when the militia law was revised. He was also adjutant of the Nineteenth Regiment in 1847-1849, and in 1858 brigadier-general of the brigade com- posed of Carroll, Belknap, and Strafford Counties. In 1851, 1852, 1853, and 1854, he was doorkeeper of the New- Hampshire Senate. From 1854 to 1857 he held the position of inspector in the Boston Custom House. From 1857 to 1 86 1 he was in Sandwich; but in April, 1861, the moment he saw President Lincoln's proclamation, call- ing for seventy-five thousand troops, he offered his services to the adjutant- general of the State, and was imme- diately ordered to report at Concord. He was at once employed in drilling recruits, and assisting in the organiza- tion of the First Regiment, and was offered a captaincy in it, but declined, though he immediately enlisted as pri- vate ; then was commissioned as first lieutenant of Company K, and detailed as adjutant of the regiment, the duties of which office he performed during the three months the regiment was out.
His success, and that of the other officers, was attested by the many com- pliments the regiment received for its splendid appearance.
He was mustered out with the regi- ment on the ninth day of x\ugust, 1861, and on the following day was commis- sioned colonel of the Third Regiment without any solicitations on his part. Col. Mason W. Tappan urged his ap- pointment before the governor and council.
While the Third Regiment was being organized. Gen. T. W. Sherman came to Concord, and selected it as a part of
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