MILITARY RECORD. - 441 CHAPTER V. THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. "Our country is calling; go forth! go forth! To danger and glory, ye heroes; In danger your manhood must prove its worth, There hearts are weighed in the balance; And he who would win his life at last Must throw it all on the battle's cast." THE first gun of the war of the rebellion was fired on Fort Sumter, on the 12th day of April, 1861, and the smoke still hung over the battered walls when the first call was made for volunteers. On Monday morning, the 14th day of April, 1861, the President issued the following proclamation: WHEREAS, the laws of the United States are now and have been opposed in several States by combinations too powerful to be suppressed in the ordinary way; I therefore call forth the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of 75,000, to an press said combinations and execute the law. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The first service assigned the forces will probably be to repossess the forts, places and property seized from the Union. On Tuesday, the 15th day of April, 1861, the Governor of Ohio issued a proclamation calling for thirteen regiments, and on Friday, three days thereafter, two regiments, numbering 1,700 men, were on their way to Washington. Union County, with all the loyal North, was awakened to the danger of the hour. The rattling drum and the tread of marching soldiers were heard in every town and village in the county. When we recall the days of 1861, we can again hear the stirring music of fife and drum, and again we see the boys of Union County as they marched through the streets with banners proudly waving, and were off for the war. "Proudly and firmly marched off the men; Who had a sweetheart thought of her then; Tears were coming, but brave lips smiled when The soldiers followed the drum, The drum, The echoing, echoing drum." And again we see them returning, after four years of war, with their old tattered flags faded by the Southern sun and blackened with the smoke of battle. Their ranks were broken -their old, faded blouses and jackets had borne the storms of many battles, but they came crowned as heroes. The were welcomed home by a grateful people, who vied with each other in doing honor and homage to their sons who bad fought the battles of a war that cost "four hundred thousand loyal lives, that made three hundred thousand union soldier cripples for life, and left more than one million widows and orphans to mourn for their loved ones who did not return." Union County, with a population in 1860 of 16,507, sent into the service upward of three thousand soldiers, of all arms of the service infantry, cavalry, artillery and navy representing more than one hundred regiments, batteries and independent companies. The total roster of soldiers published in this history numbers 3,538 ; this includes soldiers now living in the county, who went into the service from other counties, and many of them from other States. These rolls have all been carefully examined by soldiers of every regiment represented, and those known to have entered the service from other counties have been checked, and this leaves the number from this county 3,200. Add to this the veterans that 442 - UNION COUNTY re-enlisted. 348. and we have a grand total of 3,548 enlistments. This includes about 200 represented in two different regiments or companies ; deducting no, these and the veteran enlistments leaves upward of 3.000 soldiers from the county. Of the full companies sent from this county, there was one for the first three months* service in the Thirteenth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. and thirty two men for the Seventeenth Regiment, aggregating one hundred and twenty men ; six companies for the three years service under the first call. three companies under the three years' call in 1862, one company under the three months' call in 1862. one company for the six months service in 1863, three companies of "One Hundred Days men" in 1864, and two companies of "Squirrel Hunters " in 1862 -in all twenty companies. Three hundred and forty-eight re-enlisted as veterans under the call of the President in December, 1863. These were men who, after having served more than two years in one organization, re-enlisted in the same organization for "three years more, or during the war." Of these veterans re-enlisting, from Union County, the following regiments of Ohio Volunteer Infantry were represented : Thirteenth, Twenty-sixth, Thirtieth, Thirty-first, Thirty-second, Fortieth Forty-sixth, Fifty-fourth, Sixty-sixth, Seventy-sixth. Eighty-second, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, Twentieth, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-seventh, Thirty-third, Thirty-eighth, Forty-second, Forty -third, Forty-fourth, Fifty-third, Fiftyeighth, Sixty-third Sixty-fifth, Seventy-fourth, and First Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. Besides the full companies raised in the county, companies were largely recruited for the Fortieth and Fifty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and the First Ohio Volunteer Cavalry ; a company of sharp-shooters, and quite a number of colored troops for the Fifth and Twenty-seventh United States Colored Troops. Many others entered the regular army, mostly in the Eighteenth Regiment United States Army, and many enlisted and were credited to other counties of whom we have no record. Union County's contribution to the war was equal to the total number of male adults in the county at that time, as a large number of the soldiers were boys under age. From the first call for soldiers in 1861, until peace in 1865, Union County filled her quota for every call. Of the commissioned officers, two attained the rank of Colonel, two of Lieutenant Colonel, three of Major, four of Surgeon, fifty of Captain, and seventy of Lieutenant-in all one hundred and thirty commissioned officers. We did not furnish a brilliant array of officers of high rank-Brigadier and Major Generals manufactured to order at home by political influence and newspapers, fighting battles at long range ; but we did furnish our quota to the rank and file of the army-the soldiers who carried the musket, the carbine and saber, the cartridge-box, the canteen, the knapsack, the haversack with their rations, and marched through rain and mud, and slept in the "dog tent ; " the soldiers who stood picket, lay in the rifle-pits, made the breastworks, did the dangerous scouting and raiding, laid the pontoons, carried the ammunition and fought the battles of the rebellion. Such was Union County's contribution to the war-the real heroes who served without hope of reward, save that of a nation preserved. They have no costly monuments to proclaim to the world their valiant deeds; but monuments will crumble and fall to the ground while the people will keep green in their heart of hearts the heroic deeds of the rank and file of the army, nameless and pageless in history though they be- "They were the builders whose work is immortal, Crowned with the dome that is over us all." The soldiers of Union County fought upon every field of the thirty-one principal battle-fields of the war, from Bull Run to Appomattox. The first of her Soldiers wounded was at Bull Run. They were at Carnifex. Ferry, where the first Page 443 - Picture of Wm H. Robb Page 444 - Blank MILITARY RECORD. - 445 soldier from the county was killed ; and again we find them led by Garfield marching on to victory in Eastern Kentucky, then following Thomas triumphantly at Mill Springs, in January, 1862, and in February we find them at Fort Donelson, both with the land and naval forces. They fought at Shiloh, Corinth and Perryville; again struggled amid the cedars of Stone River; then poured out their best blood at Chickamauga. They were at Island No. 10, Champion Hills, Jackson, Big Black River, Grand Gulf, Arkansas Post and Spanish Fort. They were with the victorious columns of Thomas at Mission Ridge, and fought under Sherman, at Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw and Atlanta; marched with "Sherman to the sea," and were with "Old Pap Thomas " in one of the best planned battles and most brilliant victories of the war, at Nashville. And again. at Forts Wagner, Fisher and McAllister, at Port Republic, Cedar Mountain, South Mountain and Chancellorsville; at Antietam, Gettysburg the Wilderness, Fredericksburg and Cold Harbor. They were at Winchester, and swept down the Shenandoah Valley Under "Little Phil," and were on every field of Virginia. They were at Cumberland Gap, Knoxville, Vicksburg Murfreesboro and Kingston. They were at Charleston and Bentonville. They participated in the most brilliant cavalry raids of the war, and carried death and destruction into the heart of the Confederacy, under the leadership of those dashing cavalry chieftains, Kilpatrick, Custer and Sheridan. Many of them were at Appomattox, and finally, it was the fortune of Union County's cavalrymen to be present at and participants in the capture of the President of the Confederate States. The blood of Union County soldiers was poured out upon all these sanguinary battle-fields, and many of them are sleeping in nameless graves on the fields where they fell. And what was Union County's sacrifice in the war ? 133 of her soldiers were killed in battle; 400 died of wounds or disease, or wasted in the prison pens ; 360 were wounded, and 143 were prisoners of war, making a total loss of killed, died, wounded and prisoners, of 1,035 ; 200 sleep in the graveyards and cemeteries of the county, and 321 are buried in the South and in unknown and unlettered graves, there awaiting the assembly of the grand army above, where Heaven's "Recording angel will call the roll " on that great day. What a sacrifice for one little county ! but what a grand array will muster on that other shore. In addition to these, there are buried in the cemeteries of the county ten soldiers of the war of the Revolution, 109 of the war of 1812, and 7 of the war with Mexico, making a total of 655 soldiers, residents of the county, mustered out of life's service. The first three soldiers who enlisted in the county, as shown by published records, were John Newlove, C. S. Irwin and James Chapman. They were too impatient to wait for a company to be recruited in the county, and Irwin went to Springfield and joined a company that was assigned to the Sixteenth Ohio Regiment in the three months' service. Newlove and Chapman joined a company from Urbana, of the Second Ohio Regiment, and were in the first battle of Bull Run. Both Newlove and Irwin were afterward enlisted and served over four years in the First Ohio Cavalry. The first Union County soldier who died in the service was C. C. Hurly, of Company D, Thirteenth Regiment; the first one wounded was James Chapman, of the Second Regiment, who was wounded at Bull Run, and the first one killed was Ransom Reed, Company I, Thirteenth Regiment, who was killed at Carnifex Ferry, September 10, 1862. The first company to enlist and enter the service, in response to the first call for 75,000 volunteers for three months, was a company recruited at Marysville by J. G. Hawkins and M. C. Lawrence. The first war meeting was held in the old court house on the evening of April 15, 1861, and ten days later the company was organized and started for camp at Columbus, Ohio. A company was organized at Plain City, by Thomas J. Haynes, at about the same date, in which many Union County boys enlisted. A company was also organized at New California, 446 - UNION COUNTY about the 25th of April, of which James Cutler was elected Captain, W. L. Curry, First Lieutenant, and D. R. Cone, Second Lieutenant. About sixty men enlisted, but before the company was recruited to the required number to enter the service the three years' call was issued, and many of the men becoming impatient, enlisted in other companies, and this company never entered the service. The following companies were organized in the county under the first call for three years' service: Company F, Thirteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry; Company B., Thirty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry; Company E, Thirtieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry; about fifty men for Companies D and K, of the First Ohio Cavalry; Company F, Thirty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry; a large number for Company K, Fifty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry; a detachment for Company D, Fortieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry; Company F, Sixty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and Company H, Eighty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Detachments were also recruited for many other Ohio regiments, and for the Seventh, Seventeenth and Eighteenth United States Infantry. These companies were organized during the summer and fall and were all in the field by early winter. On the 27th day of September, 1861, an order was issued by the Adjutant General of Ohio, appointing military committees in every county in the State, and they were empowered to appoint recruiting officers and were to superintend the recruiting service in their respective counties an(.] have general supervision of military affairs. The first committee appointed in Union County was composed of P. B. Cole, J. W. Robinson, C. Rathburn, A. F. Wilkins and G. L. Sellers. John Cassil was the first recruiting officer appointed by the committee, and he recruited a company for the Sixty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. J. A. Henderson, Joseph Newlove and James R. Smith were afterward appointed members of this committee. The military committee was kept in service until the close of the war, and did good and efficient work in this county in the management of military matters. In the month of October, 1861, in response to the call of the Governor, the citizens of the county sent large donations of clothing and blankets to the soldiers in the field, this being the first well-directed movement for the relief of suffering soldiers in the field and prior to the organization of any regular "aid societies.." Soon after this, however, " aid societies " were organized all over the county, not only for the relief of soldiers in the field, but for the relief of the families of soldiers in the county. The first of these of which any record can be found was organized in Union Township, November 29, 1861, James Fullington, A. A. Woodworth and John Reed being the prime movers in the matter. These societies collected and distributed from this county thousands of dollars in money, clothing and sanitary stores, and hundreds of sick soldiers in the hospitals and on the field were ministered to and made comfortable by the donations from the patriotic ladies and citizens of Union County. Thousands of dollars were paid to the soldiers of the county as bounties during the war, and it may be truly said that her citizens never failed to respond to every call made for either money, sanitary donations or soldiers. The companies organized in the county during 1861 were assigned with their regiments to the different departments of the army as follows: The Thirteenth Regiment entered the field in West Virginia, fought at Carni. fex Ferry September 10, where Ransom Reed fell, the first of Union County's soldiers killed on the field of battle; from Virginia to Tennessee, marched with Gen. Buell's columns to Pittsburg Landing and lost heavily in that hard-fought battle. The Thirtieth Regiment was ordered to Virginia, was at Carnifex, and had many skirmishes during the fall and winter - spent the winter at Fayetteville, working a part of the time on the fortification, and in April, 1862, we find it at Raleigh. MILITARY RECORD. - 447 The Thirty-first Regiment was assigned to the Department of Kentucky, and marched in December to the relief of Gen. Thomas at Mill Springs -, wintered in Kentucky, then marched with the army of the Ohio to Pittsburg Landing and took part in the siege of Corinth. The Thirty-second Regiment left Camp Dennison for West Virginia in September, 1861; was soon on Cheat Mountain, and under Gen. Milroy took part in the advance on Camp Alleghany, During a greater part of the winter, the regiment remained at Beverly, drilling, and on the 1st of May, 1862, advanced on Buffalo Gap. The Fortieth Regiment left Camp Chase in December, 1861, for Eastern Kentucky, and in January, 1862, participated in the battle of Middle Creek, defeating Humphrey Marshall. The Fortieth spent the rest of the winter at Piketon on outpost duty, and until June, 1862. The Fifty-fourth Regiment organized at Camp Dennison; left for Paducah, Ky., in February, 1862, where it was assigned to Gen. Sherman's Division, and engaged in the battle of Pittsburg Landing, losing in this, its first fight, nearly 200 men. The Sixty-sixth Regiment struck tents at Camp McArthur, near Urbana, in January, 1862, and was off for West Virginia, where it was assigned to the command of Gen. Lander, at New Creek, and immediately commenced active service. During the first winter, the regiment was constantly on the move scouting and skirmishing, and in June, 1862, we find it marching with the army of Gen. Shields. up the Shenandoah to Port Republic. The Eighty-second Regiment, organized at Kenton, was ordered to Virginia, in January, 1862, and spent the winter at Fetterman, drilling and in camp duty. In the early spring, it was on scouting service under command of Gen. Schenck, and in May marched under Gen. Fremont toward Branch Mountain. The First Ohio Cavalry, organized at Camp Chase, received marching orders for Kentucky, and on the 9th day of December, 1861, struck tents, and on the 11th of the same month arrived at Louisville, being the first regiment of' cavalry to enter that department. The regiment remained at Louisville, drilling, until January, 1862, when it was ordered to join Gen. Thomas, at Mill Springs, but did not arrive in time to take part in that battle. The regiment was on scouting duty in Kentucky, during the winter, and had its first encounter 'with the command of John Morgan, on Green River. Late in March, they led the advance of Gen. Buell's columns to Pittsburg Landing, and participated in the siege of Corinth. Such was the disposition of Union County companies that enlisted under the first three years' call, in the spring of 1862, -it the close of the first year of the war. On the 26th of May, 1862, Gov. Tod, in compliance with a call from the War Department for troops to protect the National Capital, then threatened by Stonewall Jackson, published a proclamation calling for volunteers for three months The day before, he had sent telegrams to every county in the State announcing the need of troops and assigning the number expected from each county, urging that all who were Willing to volunteer should hasten to Camp Chase. Within two days 5,000 volunteers had responded to the call, and within ten days the first of the new regiments - the Eighty-fourth, was on its way to the field. The Eighty-sixth and Eighty-eighth soon followed while the Eighty-fifth and Eighty-seventh were organized for duty within the State. Under this call, one company was recruited for the Eighty-sixth Regiment in Union County, and served three months in Western Virginia. Under the calls of the President in June, 1862, for troops for three years' service, Ohio's quota was 74,000, one-half of which was liable to draft.(1) " Men were universally averse to the idea of a draft, and the people of Ohio were especially anxious that it might be said that the soldiers from this State were volunteers. In compliance with popular demand, Gov. Tod made an effort to dis (1) Reid's History. 448 - UNION COUNTY tribute the new quota impartially among the different counties, and to obtain the proper number of volunteers from each; the draft was only to be used as a last resort." The regiments having been localized, each community took particular interest in raising the required number of troops, and in "getting clear of the draft." In this assignment, the Ninety-sixth was allotted to Union and its neighboring counties. It was under these calls that the Seventy-ninth, the Eighty-third, the Eighty-ninth, the Ninetieth, the Ninety-first, the Ninety -second, the Ninety-third, the Ninety-fourth, the Ninety-fifth, the Ninety-Sixth, the Ninety-seventh, the Ninety-eighth, the Ninety-ninth, the One Hundredth, the One Hundred and First, the One Hundred and Second, the One Hundred and Third, the One Hundred and Fourth and the One Hundred and Fifth Regiments were raised in the various counties of Ohio. In response to this call, one company was recruited in this county in August, and was assigned as Company K, of the Ninety-sixth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Under the call of July 1, for 300,000 troops, two companies were recruited for three years' service, and left Marysville about the 1st of September, for Camp Delaware; they were assigned as Companies A and I, of the One Hundred and Twenty-first Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. At this period Union County was in a blaze of excitement; the rattling drums of the recruiting officers were heard in every town and at every cross road. It seemed as if the whole country had been converted into a recruiting rendezvous. We now had in the field ten companies, and man detachments in various other organizations. Many of the soldiers who had enlisted at the first call had been killed or wounded, and many others had died of disease and had been brought home and buried by their friends. " Mourners were going about the streets," and the weeds of mourning were to be seen in many families. Ransom Reed, the first to fall, had been brought home and buried with the honors of war, amid a large concourse of people, on the 6th of October, 1861. The funeral services of four soldiers-Cyrus Thompson, Delmore Robinson and two brothers, sons of Henry Crist-were held in the Presbyterian Church at Marysville, on the same day, July 23, 1862. The people now began to see and realize some of the results of the war, for now there were broken hearts, bitter tears of sorrow and desolate homes. Many of the soldiers who enlisted in the last companies had left families. The citizens realized the necessity of the hour, and relief societies began to work with renewed energy. The military committee was active, and in July appointed committees in each township to take subscriptions for the relief of soldiers' families, and fair hands were busy making clothing and preparing sanitary stores for the hospitals. At this time, Gen. Buell's army was falling back rapidly toward Louisville, and one column of Gen. Buell's army was advancing by forced marches on Cincinnati. Gov. Tod issued a proclamation in September, 1862, calling, upon the citizens of Ohio to rally to the defense of Cincinnati. He said Our Southern border is threatened with invasion. I therefore recommend that all loyal men form themselves into military companies to beat back the enemy at all points he may attempt to invade the State." In response to this call two companies went from Union County, aggregating about one hundred men in all, many of them old and gray-headed, prominent among whom was the Rev, B. D. Evans, a very intelligent old Welshman and Presbyterian minister of Jerome Township. They went with their shot-guns, rifles, powder horns and shot pouches they responded gloriously to the call for the defense of Cincinnati. and you should acknowledge publicly this gallant conduct," said Gov. Tod in a dispatch to the Secretary of War. These men were denominated " Squirrel Hunters." and were, by act of Legislature, given honorable discharges. MILITARY RECORD. - 449 During the Winter of 1862-63, a law was passed by the Ohio Legislature, organizing the militia so as to drill the entire militia force of the State, including every able-bodied man between the age of eighteen and forty-five, to be armed, uniformed and equipped so as to be instantly available in case of invasion. This was the nucleus of the "National Guards of Ohio," the next year to be thrown into the field on two days' notice, 35,000 one hundred days' men. Under this law, 3,631 militia were enrolled in this county - below we give the election of officers in these companies, so far as can be learned: Paris Township, East District- Captain, L. Sellers - First Lieutenant, Leonard Geer - Second Lieutenant, G. A. Fox. West District.-Captain, W. H. Doll; First Lieutenant, W. P. Welsh; Second Lieutenant, Robert Snodgrass. Leesburg Township, Southern District.-Captain, A. E. Rosencranz ; First Lieutenant, P. Hildreth; Second Lieutenant, A. Konkle. Jerome Township.-Captain, J. Ewing; First Lieutenant, T. Killberry; Second Lieutenant, D. G. Robinson. Darby Township.- Captain, George Starr; First Lieutenant, J. G. Homesker; Second Lieutenant, D. Marquis. Dover Township- Captain, Samuel McAllister; First Lieutenant, James Briggs; Second Lieutenant, W. B. Harriott. Jackson Township.-Captain, J. M. Baldwin-, First Lieutenant, C. W. Burgoon ; Second Lieutenant, G. S. Robinson. Washington Township.-Captain, Jehu Grey - First Lieutenant, H. Toby; Second Lieutenant, Daniel Miller. Taylor Township.-Captain, William Folk; First Lieutenant, S. Graham; Second Lieutenant, H. Thompson. Claibourne Township.-Captain, Joseph Swartz; First Lieutenant, T. M. Bethard; Second Lieutenant, V. Collier. The large number of men recruited during the summer and fall of 1862, were immediately thrown into the field, without any experience in camp life or drill, and these men suffered very much during the severe winter. At no other period during the war did so many soldiers of Union County die of disease and exposure in the same length of time. Among the heaviest sufferers were the soldiers of the Ninety-sixth and the One Hundred and Twenty-first Regiments. Under the call in June, 1863, for six months' regiments, this county sent one company, which was assigned to the Eighty-sixth Regiment. It entered the field in August, took part in the campaign after John Morgan, and was then ordered to Cumberland Gap, Ky., where it operated until the expiration of its term of service. Many recruits were sent from the county during the summer of 1863 to the old regiments, but no other full companies were raised that year. The next enlistments in which the county figured prominently was that in which the citizens at home had but little to do - this was the veteran enlistment of the old regiments in the field that had gone out under the first call in 1861. "Their terms of enlistment were expiring long before the great campaign to which they were looking forward should be ended." Their ranks were thinned by service on the field of battle, in the camp and in the hospitals. These soldiers knew what war was, with all its horrors ; yet they, with a patriotism never before or afterward equaled during the war, stood by the flag and again enlisted for "three years or during the war." This gave a new inspiration to the recruiting service. More than 20,000 veterans re-enlisted, and when they came home on their thirty days' furlough, their decimated ranks were rapidly filed up by new recruits, and a thrill of patriotism swept over all the land. The first regiment to re-enlist was the Sixty-sixth, which was soon followed by the Thirteenth, Thirtieth, Thirty-first, Thirty-second, Fifty-fourth and Eighty-second and the First Ohio Cavalry. During the winter of 1863-64, these veterans were honored, feasted and toasted by almost every family in the county, and they bad never felt until then 450 - UNION COUNTY how "warm was the gratitude of these loyal men, women and children at home for the boys who were fighting the battles of the great war." Many men enlisted from the county in these old regiments, which returned to the field in the early spring with full companies and with renewed devotion to the cause of the Union. In the spring of 1864, it seemed that the critical point in the war was approaching, Great armies were in the field, all preparing for a forward movement. The Army of the Potomac, under Grant, was preparing for the campaign of the Wilderness; the Army of the West was active, and Sherman, with his grand army in Georgia was about to attack the well-guarded works of the rebel army in the center; that was to prove a bloody summer's campaign. It was at this critical period that the National Guard, or "Hundred Days' Men," were called out to man the forts, that all the veterans might march to the front for the great struggle of the bloody battle summer of 1864 ; 30,000 of Ohio's Guard went into camp in one day in response to the call of the Governor. Union County contributed to this number three full companies that were assigned to the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Regiment Ohio National Guards, and several detachments for other regiments. Quoting from a newspaper of that date "Fortunate was it for the country that the Governor of Ohio held in his hand this reserved thunderbolt of war. The crisis of the rebellion was upon us. The rebel foe was insolent and sanguine. They were gathering their whole military power and preparing to hurl it upon the Union columns in one deadly and decisive conflict. The hearts of all brave men throbbed in unwonted anxiety as they looked upon the formidable array of rebel hosts. They saw that the impending conflict must speedily occur. They knew that failure to our arms would be an inexpressible disaster to the National cause; and all wanted the assurance of our success made doubly sure by giving additional strength to our armies in the field. To render that strength effective, it must be added at once. The exigency permitted of no delay. The re-enforcements must come then, or their coming would be useless for the critical moment of the campaign. It was at this moment of public anxiety-a moment pregnant with the Nation's future-that Gov. Brough sent forth the reserved power of thirty-five thousand brave and gallant National Guards. At the very moment when most needed, the Ohio army stepped into the place of veterans and thereby enabled the Government to send that many veterans forward to sustain Gen. Grant's advancing columns. Our State militia organization was made the means for meeting the emergency ; and most nobly and gallantly did the members of that organization respond to the call of the Governor." In response to the call in July, 1864, for one year regiments, two companies were organized in the county, and were assigned as Companies B and C, of the One Hundred and Seventy-fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry; and under the last call, in December, 1864, for 26,000 men to fill the last quota of Ohio, one company was recruited for the one year service, which was assigned as Company B of the One Hundred and Eighty-seventh Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. This was the last company recruited in the county, and it entered the field in February, 1865. Many of these soldiers were lads thirteen or fourteen years of acre when the war began, but now they had grown to manhood, and went forth to take the places of their fathers and brothers who had fallen upon the field of battle or died of wounds and disease. Thus Union County responded to every call, from the first gun at Fort Sumter to the sounding of the re-call -it Appomattox Court House in 1865. Every quota was filed, and at the end of the war Union County stood eleven ahead of her quota on the last call, as shown by the records in the Adjutant General's office. Her loyal citizens at home stood by the soldiers in the field, by contributing money by thousands of dollars for the relief of soldiers' families and by relief societies to give aid and comfort to the wounded, sick and suffering Soldiers in the field. MILITARY RECORD, - 451 Ah, the history of this work of love and devotion of the mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts never can be written ! We can only get a glimpse of it; for who can tell of their anxiety or of the many weary and wakeful nights as they watched and prayed for their loved ones, many of whom were never to return. The tender, sad memories of the war, speak to all more eloquently than can be written on the page of history, as they sweetly and pathetically remind us how the mothers and women of the land, touched by the fires of patriotism, bade their sons gird on the armor of their country; how, through the long and bitter years of the war, their faith was unbroken and their loyalty was firm and how, when their dear ones were borne home cold and lifeless, they, like the Spartan mothers, thanked God that their boys had died that their country might live "The wife who girds her husband's sword, 'Mid little-ones who weep or wonder, And bravely speaks the cheering word What thou h her heart be rent asunder? Doom'd nightly in her dreams to hear The bolts of death around him rattle Hath shed as sacred blood as e'er Was pour'd upon afield of battle I "The mother who conceals her grief While to her breast her son she presses, Then breathes a few brave words and brief, Kissing the patriot brow she blesses, With no one but her secret God To know the pain that weighs upon her Sheds holy blood as e'er the sod Received on Freedom's field of honor!" The record of the war is not complete without the history is written of the part borne by our loyal women. How much we owe to their love, care and encouragement for all we have achieved; and how we strive in all the laudable ambitions of life to win their smiles of approval. In these few pages, the services of the soldiers of Union Count have been but briefly sketched, and may we not, in this brief retrospect of a few of the great results of the War, justly congratulate ourselves as soldiers that we have borne a part, however humble our position, in the accomplishment of that "great and mighty drama of a nation preserved?" And it is not taking to ourselves any unmerited honors, either for our patriotism or for our services; but we can say truly, without the charge of egotism, that the soldiers of this county did their duty, honestly, faithfully and patriotically, in the day of our Nation's peril. Almost twenty years have passed away since the close of the war, and when peace spread her mantle over the land, the ranks of the army melted away like the smoke of battle. The soldiers laid aside their uniforms as quickly as they had donned them when the first drum-beat sounded "to arms !" and soon took their places in the busy marts of industry and the peaceful avocations of life. A million soldiers laying down their arms after four years of sanguinary war, and quietly taking their places in the civil walks of life without any unusual commotion, was a sublime spectacle upon which all civilized nations looked with wonder and admiration. These were the volunteer soldiers of a free country. The soldiers of Union County were no exception to this rule, and the boys of twenty Years ago have become the good and substantial citizens of to-day. The " good soldier is the good citizen," and in all the positions of life they bear themselves as becomes brave and gallant soldiers of the Republic. They are found as farmers, merchants, in the counting-room, in the halls of legislation and in places of honor and trust all over the land. From disease contracted and from wounds received during their service, the soldiers are falling rapidly, one by one-falling by the wayside, comrades of all ranks passing away. 452 - UNION COUNTY "A chosen corps they are marching on In a wider field than ours; We shall meet and greet with closing ranks In time's declining scenes, When the bugles of God shall sound recall And the battle of life is won." And as one by one our comrades are mustered out of life's service, let us cherish more warmly each succeeding year the memory of their services, and as our heads are bowed and sprinkled with the frosts of many winters, let us be bound more closely by that friendship formed during our service on the march and in the camp, and "welded in the fire of battle;" and let us not forget the widows and orphans of our late comrades. They are the wards of the nation; let us "guard them with a jealous eye," and keep them in our fostering care, for no man can give better proof of devotion to friend or country than that he will "lay down his life for them." (RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE)