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Matthew M. Lewey, son of John W. and Eliza Lewey, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, 1845. Up to the age of fifteen he had received no schooling, except the little that was afforded by the private schools of that slave state. At sixteen his parents sent him to New York, where his aunt, Mrs. Emeline Carter, and grandfather, Rev. William McFarlin, lived. There he attended the well-known school on Mulberry street, Rev. John Petterson, principal. When Governor John A. Andrew of Massachusetts was about to organize the colored 54th and 55th regiments of volunteers, the subject of this sketch dropped his school books and joined the 55th regiment, although but eighteen years of age. He had fully caught and recognized the sentiment of President Lincoln's proclamation.

His regiment took part in several hard-fought engagements, among which were the siege of Fort Wagner, the battle of James Island, and the fearful, horrible slaughter of Honey Hill, S. C. In this latter engagement he was shot three times while bearing the colors of his regiment, and finally fell badly wounded. After a period of several months in the hospital at David's Island, New York, being totally disabled, he was honorably discharged in the summer of 1865.

In the fall and winter of that year, he pursued his studies under the instruction of Rev. William T. Carr, then pastor of the Madison Street Presbyterian church, Baltimore. In the fall of 1867 he entered the preparatory department of Lincoln University at Oxford, and graduated from the collegiate department with full honors in the spring of '72. The following year he entered the law department of Howard University, under the deanship of Hon. John M. Langston, in the class with Josiah Settle, H. B. Fry, Robert Peel Brooks, and others. Before completing the full course he removed