Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/108

 100

��COL. HENRY O. KENT.

��acteristics, and such means as have' been at his disposal have been placed in that direction.

As has been indicated, Col. Kent en- tered political life as a Republican, and was an active advocate of the cause and policy of that party, with pen and voice, until after the election of Gen. Grant to the Presidency. In 1855, being then but twenty-one years of age, he was chosen Assistant Clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives, and re-elected the following year. In 1857 he was chosen Clerk of the House, efficiently discharging the duties of the office for three successive years. In 1862 he was elected a member of the House, and served with marked ability, his previous extended experience as Clerk admirably fitting him for the discharge of legislative duties. He served that year as Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, — a position of much importance, considering the fact that we were then in the midst of the war period. His next appearance in the Legislature was in 1868, when he served as Chairman of the Committee on Railroads, and again in 1869. when he was at the head of the Finance Committee, During each year of his legislative service he occupied a prominent position among the leaders of his party in the House, displaying marked ability in debate, and energy and industry in the Committee room.

In 1858 a Commission was appointed by the States of Maine and New Hamp- shire "to ascertain, survey and mark" the boundary between them. The line had been established in 1784, and revised in 1820, when Hon. Ichabod Bartlett and Hon. John W. Weeks were the Commis- sioners on the part of New Hampshire. The duty of representing this State upon the Commission of 1858 was assigned to Col. Kent, and the work was performed during the autumn of that year, through the wilderness, from the Crown monu- ment, on the divide, "separating the wa- ters that flow north into the Gulf of St. Lawrence from those that flow south into the Atlantic Ocean," by the marking of permanent lines in the forests and the erection of stone posts in the clearings, as far south as the towns of Fryeburg and Conway. In 1864 Col. Kent was one of

��the Presidential electors of this State, and from 1866 to 1868, inclusive, was a mem- ber of the Board of Bank Commissioners.

At the outbreak of the rebellion, in 1861. Col. Kent, having volunteered in the service, was ordered to Con- cord by Gov. Goodwin and commis- sioned Assistant Adjutant General, with the rank of Colonel, and assigned to duty in the recruiting service. Recruiting a company in a few days at Lancaster, he was ordered to General Headquarters, and directed to proceed to Portsmouth, where the Second Regiment was form- ing. He was continued in duty in the Adjutant General's Department until af- ter the earlier regiments had left the state. In the fall of 1862 New Hampshire was called upon for three additional regi- ments, the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seven- teenth, which were for convenience, as- signed to the First, Second and Third Congressional Districts, and Col. Kent was commissioned Colonel of the Seven- teenth. In order to meet the exigency of the time, it was determined to fill the reg- iments in their numerical order as fast as men enlisted, from whatever locality in the State, thus taking all the earlier en- listments in Col. Kent's district to fill the other regiments and leaving the Seven- teenth to be filled by the more dilatory from all the districts, an arrangement which, while perhaps calculated to best promote the general interest, must have been anything but agreeable to the per- sonal feelings of Col. Kent, largely upon the strength of whose name men enough for an entire regiment had been raised, the town of Lancaster furnishing nearly a full company. Nevertheless, the or- ganization of the regiment was perfected, and drill, discipline and instruction com- menced and carried forward. It having been determined to postpone the State draft, and few more volunteers appearing, in February, 1863, the officers and men of the regiment were furloughed till April 1, when the command again reported in camp, with the official assurance that the regiment would be promptly filled and participate in the approach! ug cam- paign. But as is stated in Waite's history of New Hampshire in the Rebellion:

"About this time orders were received

�� �