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MAJOR HORACE NYE.

Horace Nye came to Ohio when a child, August, 1788, with his father, Colonel Ichahod Nye. From that time until his death Ohio was his borne, and until 1823 his residence was Marietta.

He was the grandson of General Benjamin Tupper, a soldier, and the son of Colonel Nye, also a soldier, and was surrounded by men who put themselves under strict military discipline during the Indian war, while living in Campus Martius. Thus he became a soldier himself, and was all through life noted for his military bearing and soldierly qualities.

Though but a child, he shared in the privations and hardships and dangers of the garrison, and at an early age began to share in the toils, and to form habits of endurance and energy.

His life was coeval with the first settlement of the State, and the history and experience of its tragic scenes and patient toils and heroic sufferings were as familiar to him as household words.

He furnished many facts from memory to the historian, and published some valuable sketches of early times. In the summer of 1812 he was calred into the service of his country as brigade major, in General E. W. Tupperls brigade of Ohio militia. This brigade was composed of troops mostly from southern Ohio, and was called into service shorlly before the surrender of General Hull at Detroit. The men were ordered to the frontier—Ohio then being a frontier State—and spent most of the winter near Urbana and McArthur's block-house. They suffered much from bad quarters, bad food, poor clothing and the severity of the winter. Later they were advanced to Fort Meigs, where they remained until their return of service expired. The service rendered was important and severe. Major Nye returned home in the spring of 1813, and during the following summer engaged successfully in business in Putnam, Ohio.

Few men ever lived who have established a better character for uprightness of purpose and unbending integrity. He scorned the idea of bending his principles to expediency or of smothering his honest convictions. He was a reader, a thinker and a keen observer of men. For thirty years he was a member of the Presbyterian church, and to know the right was with him to do it. Always the friend of the slave he was an advocate of immediate emancipation.

In 1835 his life and property were threatened by a Zanesville mob. There was a little band of Abolitionists in Putnam, of which he was one, and when the mob threatened to burn the town, he saw no reason to change his views, but armed himself under the authority of the mayor, and purposed to fire at the word of command. He would have braved the dungeon or the stake in defence of the inalienable rights of man.

He was born at Chesterfield, Massachusetts, June 8, 1786, and died at Putnam, Ohio, February 55, 1859.

CAPTAIN JASON R. CURTIS.

Jason R. Curtis was born in 1785 at Warren, Litchfield county, Connecticut, removed to Marietta in 1792, and married Mary Clark, daughter of Major John Clark. Captain Curtis served during the War of 1812, as aid-de-camp of Governor R. J. Meigs, with the rank of captain. Jason R. Curtis, father of Hon. William F. Curlis, died in Marietta September 12, 1834.

CAPTAIN ROBERT C. BARTON.

Robert C. Barton came to Marietta during the War of 1812. We have not been able to obtain any facts as to him, except that he commanded a company under General Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe, and was mentioned by General Harrison in his report of that battle for gallant conduct. He was afterwards, during the same wa, first lieutenant under Captain Timothy Buell in a company of mounted volunteers, and was also on duty with Governor Meigs, probably as aid- de-camp.

CHAPTER XVII.

WAR OF THE REBELLION.

Causes of the War—Leaders North and South, Political Campaign of 1860—Position of the People of Washington County as to the War --Public Meeting January 8, 1861—Progress of Public Sentiment— View of the Country April, 1861—War Begun at Sumter—Calt of the President for Troops—The "Union Blues"—Ceremonies on Departure of First Company—The Beverly Company—Militia System of Ohio—Preparing for Invasion—Appeal to the Governor for Aid—Arrival of Colonel Barnett’s Artillery—Camp Putnam Established—The Military Situation—Governor Dennison's Plan of a Campaign Successful—McClellans’ Communications—Battle of Bull Run—Romance no more, but Dead Reality—New Policy Inaugurated —Call for Five Hundred Thousand Men for Three Years—Hon. William P. Cutler's Offer—Thirty-sixth Regiment—First Three Years Company—Groesbeck’s (Thirty-ninth) Regiment—Company L, First Ohio Volunteer Corps—Buell’s, De Beck's and Huntington's Batteries— Seventy-seventh Regiment— Sixty-third Regiment— Camp Tupper

Established—Military Committee Appointed—Close of the Year 1861—Beginning of Governor Todls Administration—First Volunteer Killed in Battle—"Shiloh "—Washington City Threatened —The "Putnam Guards "—Organization of the Ninety-second Regiment — Parkersburgh in Danger — The Draft — Camp Marietta Established—Battles of South Mountain and Antietam—Death of Colonel Melvin Clarke—Battle of Corinth—Organization of Company H (the "Newton Guards ")—Seventh Cavalry Alarm along the Border—Military Strength of Marietta—Close of 1862.

THE WAR OF THE REBELLION—INTRODUCTORY.

Reader, let us stand together on a crest of the Alleghenies, commanding a splendid prospect to the westward. It is a bright clear day in September, the year 1788. Here lies the course of the wagons of the mountains up from the east and down to the west, the grand thoroughfare of emigration, now scarcely begun westward. We see spread out before us a grand expanse of forest and stream. In the far distance from north to south is the Mississippi river. On the hither side, like a silver thread from northeast to southwest, winds the Ohio river. On the north, like burnished shields, lie the great lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior, and spread out between these bounds, like an open scroll, lies the Northwest Territory. The pleasing fancy cherished so long in Connecticut and Virginia that those old commonwealths owned strips of country from the Atlantic westward to the South sea, or more familiarly the Pacific, have been exploded and abandoned, and the claims of those States in the Northwest Territory formally released.

Look at the vast expanse of forest in the foreground, undulating like the green waves of the ocean and traversed by silvery streams flowing to the Ohio or to the lakes. Westward in the far distance the country breaks away from the forests and spreads out into broad savannahs, studded with groves, and beyond the eye detects the sheen of the Father of Waters.

This vast domain possesses the finest climate of the continent. In a similar climate the human race attains its highest development. Neither too hot or too cold, but finely tempered as a Damascus blade. Mother of energy, endurance, enterprise and civilization, this beautiful land lying before us will certainly be fruitful and productive. Vast in extent, encumbered by the finest timber, the growth of centuries, it is now a wilderness. The primeval forest clothes it like a garment. The great valley of the Ohio falls away to the southwest

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with nothing to disturb its placid stillness but here and there an Indian guiding his rude canoe.

Excepting a few settlements on the hither side of the Ohio river, the whole is one vast solitude—but hold, there at the junction of the Ohio and Muskingum, the blue smoke curls up, and a clearing appears. The white man has come to take possession, and he has come to stay; now through the aisles of the stately forest is heard the woodman's axe. The Indian pauses on the trail while hunting the bear, the deer, or the wild turkey, to listen; and he creeps through the thicket to obtain a view of the newcomers, who are soon to dispossess him and bring a nobler race to take possession. But, reader, think not these fertile acres, fraught with such great possibilities, have been overlooked and forgotten.

This settlement is but the result of a cause that went before. That cause was as subtle in its results as the falling dew or gentle rain, and came as silently. Every inch of land, from the great lakes on the north to the Ohio on the south, is held as firmly as though caught by hooks of steel, and every man, woman and child destined to be born in and to occupy and cultivate this land can not, if they would, escape its influence. The Ordinance of 1787, the second great charter of American progress and liberty, has silently gone into possession. Law, enthroned in a temple built without hands, has assumed sovereignty over a vast domain, having as yet but few occupiers, but waiting for the teeming millions of the future. "Law it is," as the Hindoo says, "which is without name or color, or hands or feet, which is the smallest of the least and the largest of the large; all, and knowing all things ; which hears without ears, sees without eyes, moves without feet, and seizes without hands."

Let us now turn to the southward, there lie Virginia and Kentucky soon to be settled from eastern Virginia and the Carolinas by a brave and hardy race, but wedded to the institution of human slavery. There is but the narrow Ohio between the north land and the south, yet even at this early date the forerunners of the race to come are separated very widely in sentiment by the institution referred to. And their children shall grow up with the cherished sentiments of their parents, instilled into ther minds at their mothers' knee, to be intensified by each political contest, and confirmed as time advances in their various opinions. Time will show to what dread extent two great contending ideas will carry the sections. Oh pine on the crest of storm swept Alleghany sigh, and ye mothers in the far off clearings weep for the evil days to come, and that so fair a patrimony should be destined to witness so fierce a struggle between such noble men, children of a common brotherhood,

When this soft turf, that rivulets sands,

Were trampled by a hurrying crowd,

And fiery hearts and armed hands

Encountered in the battle-cloud.

Ah! never shall the land forget

How gushed the life-blood of her brave—

Gushed, warm with hope and courage yet,

Upon the soil they fought to save.

It is necessary in writing the military history of the first county and oldest settlement in the Northwest Territory to bring prominently to the front that great ordinance which has so largely shaped the destinies of the populous commonwealths of Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, especially as that ordinance contained the germinal cause that made the States named to go with the Government, when the crisis of revolution came. Let us therefore examine very briefly that part of the ordinance which pertains to the subject in hand—the cause of the War of the Rebellion. That it was no sudden growth all will readily admit. The men, south of the Ohio and north of the same, were generally of a common origin, Americans all. It will not do to say that these States would have gone with the North in 1861, had there never been such an ordinance as the one referred to. Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, at least, could have been slave States as easily and consistently as Virginia and Kentucky, having substantially the same climate, the same products and therefore the same demand for slave labor; but the fundamental law governing the territory, out of which all these States were erected, prohibited slavery, and thus each State constitution contained a clause of similar prohibition.

The article of the ordinance referred to is as follows:

ARTICLE 6. There shalt be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted : provided always that any person escaping into the same from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service, as aforesaid.

The Jeffersonian ordinance of 1784 providing for the government of Kentucky and the Southwest, contained nothing in regard to slavery; an amendment had been offered, putting an end to the peculiar institution after the year 1800, but failed of passage by one vote, the delegate of one State, New Jersey being temporarily absent. On what a slender thread often hang the destines of millions! The Resolutions of 1798 as passed by the Kentucky legislature were preeminently a State Rights document. They were a natural outgrowth of the doctrine of slavery; and as that institution increased so did the States Rights heresy.

We quote the first resolution which is a sample of all the others:

RESOLVED, That the several States composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government, but that by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution of the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a General Government for special purposes—delegated to that. Government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force; that to this compact each State acceded as a State, and as an integral party, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other party; that the Government, created by this compact, was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the constitution, the measure of its power; but that as in all other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as welt of infractions, as of the mode and measure of redress.

Similar resolutions were passed by the legislature of Virginia the year following. They were afterwards re-

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peated, but not until they had largely sown the seed of rebellion and revolution.

In the earlier days of the Republic the great question of slavery, and especially of States Rights, had already been formulated and stated in terms that were not materially altered during all the great political contests that followed.

Patrick Henry, June 4, 1788, in the Virginia convention called to ratify the new constitution of the United States, said:

"That this is a consolidated government is demonstrably clear; and the danger of such a government is, to my mind, very striking. I have the highest veneration for those gentlemen (the framers ot the constitution); but, sir, give me leave to demand, What right had they to say We, the people? My political curiosity, exclusive of my anxious solicitude for the public welfare, leads me to ask who authorized them to say, We, the people, instead of we the States? States are the characteristics and the soul of a confederation. If the States be not the agents of this compact, it must be one great, consolidated National government of the people of alt the States I need not take much pains to show that the principles of this system are extremely pernicious, impolitic and dangerous."

Washington, in his Farewell Address, said:

"Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your National capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."

Alexander Hamilton, June 18, 1787, in the debate on the new constitution, said:

“The general power, whatever be its form, if it preserves itself, must swallow up the State governments, otherwise it would be swallowed up by them. It is against all the principles of good government to rest the requisite powers in such a body as Congress. Two sovereignties cannot exist within the same limits.

The people of the States formed out of the Northwest Territory were by education and tradition, and more especially by virtue of the moulding power of a great fundamental law, opposed to slavery and to the doctrine of States Rights. They naturally went with the North; and we believe we are justified in saying that the North could not have succeeded in the war for the Union if the States named had refused to cooperate.

Previous to the war, through much discussion and many political campaigns, the people of the States named, as well as the balance of the great North, had settled, as far as they were concerned, the momentous question forced upon them by the slave power. The venerable John Quincy Adams, ex-President, in his gallant fight for the right of petition in Congress, was one of the first to take up the gage and begin the battle, and he was successful. Then followed that noble galaxy of leaders, Joshua R. Giddings, William Lloyd Garrison, John Greenleaf Whitter, Henry Ward Beecher, William Cullen Bryant, Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, Gerrett Smith, Cassius McClay, Owen Lovejoy, Benjamin Lundy and a host of others, who appealed to the North in the name of liberty and humanity, and eventually carried the great majority to victory in the Presidential campaign of 1860.

The people of the South also were led by men of ability, who fought long and hard for what they considered truth and justice, and they have left their mark upon their generation. Some of them, indeed, in certain localities, are deemed martyrs to a noble cause, lost and hopeless though it be, forever. Beginning with John C. Calhoun, the great advocate and expounder of the States Rights doctrine, there were Jefferson Davis, Judah P. Benjamin, Henry A. Wise, R. Barnwell Rhett, Alexander H. Stephens, James M. Mason, John Slidell, John B. Floyd, William L Yancy, Robert Toombs, Isham G. Harris, and many others, under whose teaching and leadership the great States of the South were induced to try the arbitrament of the sword to decide their grievances.

Thus the two sections of the country with the leaders named and entertaining the principles they did, glowing with the white heat of a great political campaign, gradually drifted asunder. In the south free speech was denied to northern men. Northerners at the south on business were violently treated and hundreds returned, bringing the story of their treatment home. John B. Floyd, Buchanan's Secretary of War, had quietly removed cannon and other munitions of war to southern arsenals, and these and many other events which occurred in swift succession, enhanced the excitement. Early in January, 1861, news of an alarming character began to be received, and the "War News" headings of the newspapers had come to be so common as to be regularly looked for by the readers.

Mr. Dennison, governor of Ohio, while reviewing the situation in his message to the legislature, January 7, 1861, says:

The patriotism of the country is justly alarmed. The unity of the Government is denied. Doctrines subversive of its existence are boldly advocated and made the basis of State action, under the pretended right of a State to secede from the Confederacy at its pleasure, in peace or war, constitutional liberty is imperilled, revolution is meditated, and treason is justified.

On the occasion of my inauguration I felt it to be my duty to warn my countrymen against those hostile designs against the Federal Union. But then they were in speculation only. Now they are in act. Shall they be consummated? Shall the National Government be degraded into a mere league between independent States, existing only by their appearance, subordinate to them and subject to be destroyed at the pleasure of any State of the Confederacy? Or shall it continue to be maintained, as it has always been maintained, as a government proper —sovereign within its prescribed sphere—as the States are sovereign within their prescribed spheres—founded on the adoption of the people as were the States, and creating direct relations between itself and the individual citizens, which no State authority has power to impair or disturb, and which nothing can dissolve but revolution.

The people of Washington county fully endorsed these sentiments. They had stood arrayed against each other in the two great political parties, but when the Union was threatened, irrespective of party they gave their allegiance to the Government of the fathers. On the evening of January 8, 1861, pursuant to a call for a union meeting, the people of Marietta and vicinity, including a number of citizens from the adjoining county of Wood, Virginia, assembled at the court house, in Marietta, and the mayor, Hon. William A. Whittlesey, was chosen chairman; Hon. T. W. Ewart and C. F. Buell, secretaries. Thereupon a committee consisting of Melvin Clarke, Arius Nye, Rufus E. Harte, Andrew W. McCormick, Davis Green, Douglas Putnam, William West, David C. Skinner and Charles F. Buell, were appointed to draw up resolutions expressive of the sentiment of the people on the condition of the country. The meeting then adjourned to 2 P. M., January 12th. On the day named

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a large number of citizens of Washington county and of Wood county, Virginia, without distinction of party, assembled at the court house, and the committee, through Melvin Clarke, reported resolutions at length, condemning the secession movement and affirming their devotion to the cause of the Union.

The following are the second and seventh resolutions passed:

II. The doctrine of the secession of a State has no warrant in the constitution, but, on the contrary, is in its effects fatal to the Union, and subversive of all the ends of its creation; and in our judgment secession is revolution; and while we fully admit the right of revolution for the causes set forth in the Declaration of Independence, or for others of equal force, and while we are grieved to say that the Government and citizens of several of the States, both north and south, have been guilty of acts of great injustice toward others, yet facts do nol exist which warrant a resort to that last and final remedy, revolution, and we have still an abiding faith in the capacity and adaptation of the General Government to redress all grievances suffered by its citizens, whatever their origin.

VII. Notwithstanding former differences of opinion on this subject, for the purpose of making a final adjustment of the unfortunate controversy now raging in our country, we are willing to accept as the basis of a compromise, the re-enactment of the eighth section of the Missouri Compromise act; or we are willing to adopt the principle, that the whole subject of slavery in the territories, shall be left to be determined by the will of the bona fide residents of such territory, provided they also be left free to elecl their own officers, executive and judicial, as well as legislative.

The history of the progress of public sentiment in this county is but a repetition of that of many others in the State. The people of Ohio would have compromised with the south gladly; but it is an old story, often told, how the southern leaders disregarded all overtures. They were bent on having a new government, founded upon the institution of human slavery and awaited their opportunity. In the fullness of time that opportunity came.

But, reader, come again with me to the crest of high Alleghany and let us look once more westward. It is noontide of a beautiful day in April, 1861. Seventy-three years have elapsed since the first settlement of the Northwest Territory. To the southwest are the broad valleys of the Ohio. In the far west, by the shore of the Mississippi is Illinois On the north, like burnished shields, lie the great lakes. The forests have melted away. No more does the Indian lurk in the thicket or guide his rude canoe on the broad Ohio; but the great Anglo Saxon has built his domicile beside every stream, and his cattle graze upon the hills and in all the valleys. On the Ohio, the great steamer, bearing the commerce of populous States, pursues her way. Instead of a few hamlets, we see the populous valleys of Virginia. In place of the lone wagon trail over the mountain, is the wonderful railroad, connecting Ohio and the east. Instead of the small settlement at the mouth of the Muskingum, we see a thriving city, and the county of Washington with thirty-six thousand five hundred inhabitants. The wilderness has been subdued, and out of it has grown Ohio with two million three hundred and forty thousand, Indiana with one million three hundred and fifty-five thousand, Illinois with one million seven hundred and fifty thousand, Michigan with seven hundred and fifty thousand, and Wisconsin with seven hundred and eighty thousand inhabitants. Cultivated fields interspersed with woodland extend as far as the eye can reach and the thrifty son of toil has made the land "to blossom like the rose." Peace and prosperity have wrought their perfect work. Great cities have sprung up. Thousands of manufactories, giving employment to a million of workmen, dot the land. Institutions of learning are scattered here and there over the whole land. Unexampled prosperity! Amazing transformation ! Surely this Northwest Territory has more than fulfilled its early promise. Sad, that the wheels of industry should be stopped, the plough left standing in the furrow, the college deserted, and that the red hand of war should paralyze a State in the full tide of prosperity, sending mourning to so many hearts and disaster to so many homes; but such is war.

At the hour of 4:30 on the morning of April 12, 1861, the boom of a mortar on Sullivan's Island, in Charleston harbor, gave notice to the country and to Major Anderson, pent within the walls of Fort Sumter, That the war was begun. The news was not wholly unlooked for, yet the dread reality was difficult to comprehend. Soon, however, the patriotic impulse of the people obtained control and carried everything before it. Washington county was thoroughly aroused. The news of the beginning of hostilities reached Marietta on Saturday morning, April 13th, and on Monday morning the call of the President for seventy-five thousand men was received. Captain Frank Buell, of the Union Blues, a Marietta company, called his men together the same evening, and the company promptly tendered their services, were at once accepted by the governor, and ordered to march on the following Monday morning. The company was soon filled more than to the maximum, officers elected and preparations made for departure at the date named.

As this was the first company from this county to offer its services to the Government, and as this was an event of great moment at the time, we give the names of this company and a short sketch of the events attending their departure.

COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

Captain Frank Buell, First Lieutenant Dennis O'Leary, Second Lieutenant William H. Bisbee, elected major of Eighteenth Ohio volunteer infantry, May 29, 1861; Second Lieutenant Wallace Hill.

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

First Sergeant John Theis, Second Sergeant Daniel Y. Hill, Third Sergeant Owen O'Neal, Fourth Sergent Theodore G. Field, First Corporal Wallace W. Withrow, Second Corporal John D. Holden, 'Third Corporal Samuel C. Skinner; Fourth Corporal George B. Haskins, Musician Louis Fourgeres, Musician Manly Warren, Musician Ebenezer Corry.

PRIVATES.

Amos Mordecai, Eli P. Boring, Frank H. Bosworth, R. H. Bull, William Bryan, Robinson Blain, Jacob Bower, Benjamin Bragg, Absalom Boring, George R. Burris, Alexander H. Bukey, John F. Booth, Guy Barrows, Henry Claus, John Clark, Peter L. Coniffe, Stephen H. Collins, Charles Clogston, George Coon, Joseph Corey, E. Corey, Daniel Close, John Chase, John Calverl, David Craig, Thomas Dyar, David Dow, George W. Devin, Juthro Davis, Thomas Driscoll, Thomas C. Daily, Hannibal Dibble, D. T. Deming, Henry Eastman, William N. Foulke, Thomas Fisher, Jeremiah Fairhurst, Daniel Goodman, Allen Green, William Gay, L. R. Green, Milton Gillingham, Henry Henning, John Henning, George B. Haskins, Alberl Hamilton, Thomas Hatfield, William Holden, Henry Kellner, August Kropp, Herman Ketchner, Lafayette La Grange, Philip Loufman, Levi F. Lamolte, Frederick Living, J. H. Lapharn, Milton H. Laughlin, Augustus Morris, John Mahnkin, Wesley Miner, John N. Miner, George

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Moore, Wilbur F. Morse, Leonidas R. Meriber, Lewis Monroe, Thomas McNamara, John McCullough, George McCadden, John Neigham, Reuben L. Nye, Thomas North, James S. Parker, Anthony Padden, Wallace W. Pixley, William Parker, George Pixley, Michael Padden, James Phelps, Jewett Palmer, jr., Thomas Phelps, Daniel Quimby, Philetus S. Ripley, George W. Ridgeway, John Ranger, William Robinson, Walter Reppert, Milton Regnier William Ranger, James H. Sniffen, William Stewart, Daniel Soler, John L. Shaw, Elijah G. Smith, Peter Sherrer, Jacob Shaw, William Spence, Ordam Snier, Horatio Stark, John W. Smith, Robert Shiers, Henry B. Stanton, James Stanley, William N. Scott, William H. Snodgrass, Charles W. Sprengle, Tartus L. Stewart, Hugh Shoop, David Shockley, James Turner, Thomas R. Thorniley, Samuel Tracey, Abner Tucker, T. W. Terry, Oscar Underwood, George Vickers, James Voschel, Gordon B. West, Charles B. Wetson, Jacob Wood.

Quite a number whose names appear in the above list were not accepted, being under age, over age, or physically unfit for service. On Sunday evening before the departure of the company a meeting was held at the Congregational church in Marietta, all the other churches meeting at the same place.

The church was crowded with an earnest and attentive throng, seats being reserved at the front for the volunteers. They marched in. The choir sang the National hymn "My country, 'tis of thee." After which Rev. Dr. Wicks preached from the text—Isaiah xi: 4—a sermon full of patriotic zeal and devotion to country. The concluding part of his sermon was more directly to the volunteers, and was in part as follows:

Never did I think to perform such a task as this; never imagined that I could stand in lhe midst of such an assembly, to give the parting word from this sacred desk to a company of volunteer soldiers enlisted in their country's defence. Yet let me say, that strange and painful as the service is. it is no unwilling part that I perform. I have never been an advocate for war. I have preached the gospel of peace and good tidings. I would that there were no such necessity laid upon you and upon me; yet my heart is with you, my countrymen, and I bid you God speed in this work, though it may be a mission of death to many.

In the name, therefore, of God, and from this house of God, where prayer shall continually ascend for you, we bid you go forward; we give you our blessing, and shall not cease to implore the blessing of heaven upon you. Your cause is ours. Dear as you are to us, and bound in the tenderest ties of earthly kindred, yet for our countryls service and the maintenance of all that is most precious in human sociely, we give you up, sons, brothers, husbands though you be, to stand in the deadly breach. We know well the danger. Some of you may not return to us again. Your ranks may be fearfully thinned, though it is not certain but that we who remain here behind at home may be called to fal! first at our own firesides. It is not certain yet where the blow will first be struck. The danger is widespread and threatening, and we cannot escape it. God be thanked that we are all aroused as one man to meet it, and that he has given us one heart to take the sword of justice to avenge that accursed treason, which, considering all the circumslances of the case, is without a parallel in the history of the world, and which demands the most signal, summary punishment that violated taw can inflict.

In the name then of our loved country, in the name of fathers and mothers, and sisters and wives, whom you love; in the name of the ministers of our holy region; in the name of God—that God who loveth truth and justice, and is terrible to the evil doer, we bid you go and God go with you. May He make your arm strong, and your hearts courageous to do valiant service, while you are ever cheered in the darkest hour, when the missiles of death load the air, and there are many here who will not cease to pray for you and commend you in humble supplication to heaven.

Dr. Wicks was followed by Dr. L. G. Leonard, of the Baptist church, who with Rev. Mr. Wakefield, of Harmar, and Rev. Mr. Mumford, of the Unitarian church, occupied the pulpit. D. P. Bosworth, president of the Washington County Bible society, then addressed the

volunteers and presented each with a neat pocket edition of the New Testament. At the close of the ceremony Reuben L Nye, one of the volunteers, ascended the pulpit stairs, "and responded in behalf of the company in an exceedingly appropriate and eloquent speech."

Dr. Leonard then closed the exercises with the benediction.

This was in the oldest church in Ohio, and these ceremonies are said to have been the most impressive and effecting ever witnessed within its walls.

Before the volunteers left for Columbus on Monday morning, the ladies of the city of Marietta presented them with a splendid silk flag. This was in the presence of an immense crowd on the commons, Melton Clarke making the presentation speech and Captain Frank Buell responding.

Thus cheered and encouraged, and with the benediction of the entire community upon them, the first company of volunteers from Washington county left for the war. 'Their progress up the Muskingum was like a triumphal march. People flocked to the landings to greet them as the steamer approached. At Lowell the entire population turned out, and cheer upon cheer was given. Speeches were made, and a purse of over sixty dollars was raised for them. After the boat was gone, Albert Chandler and Warner Green started a subscription paper to raise money for the equipment of a company, and for the support of the families of those who should volunteer. In one hour's time, thirteen hundred dollars were subscribed, one man, James S. Stowe, pledging five hundred dollars. At Beverly, the citizens had already formed a company of home guards of over a hundred strong, and as the steamer approached they fired a salute. The Beverly brass band then played a patriotic air, and were followed by the Beverly vocal band, who sung the stirring song, "My Native Land." Speeches were made —George P. Buell responding on behalf of the company. It is said, on good authority, that Colonel E. S. McIntosh, an old citizen, probably upon a timely suggestion, bought up all the underwear in town and presented it to the volunteers. The company went into quarters at Camp Jackson, Columbus, and were assigned to the Eighteenth regiment as company B, of that regiment.

A company of volunteers of about one hundred strong was organized at Beverly, April 23, 1861, called the Washington guards. The following were the commissioned officers: John Henderson, captain; Thomas Ross, first lieutenant; Oliver H. P. Scott, second lieutenant. They were assigned to the Eighteenth regiment, and became company K, of that organization.

The militia system of Ohio, under the fostering care of Governor Chase, had, at the beginning of the war, grown to be an institution of some consequence, and in nearly every county of the State could be found one or more companies, with more or less proficiency in drill, and the tactics, according to the length of time such companies had been organized and the efficiency of their officers.

When the war broke out these military organizations were of great utility in furnishing men somewhat familiar

148 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.

with the military art, to take the lead in forming companies and regiments out of the mass of raw volunteers offered the State.

Ohio was, at the time, divided into military divisions. The Seventh division comprised the counties of Fairfield, Hocking, Perry, Scioto, Lawrence, Jackson, Pike, Newton, Washington, Athens, Meigs, and Gallia. The whole of this large district was under the command of Major General Jesse Hildebrand—headquarters at Marietta. This division was subdivided as follows: Fairfield, Hocking, and Perry counties, under command of Brigadier General N. Schleich— headquarters at Lancaster; Scioto, Lawrence, Pike, Jackson, and Vinton counties, under command of Brigadier General Peter Kinney—headquarters at Portsmouth; Washington, Athens, Meigs, and Gallia counties, under command of Brigadier General Robert A. Constable—headquarters at Athens.

General Hildebrand's staff was as follows: Colonel A. W. McCormick, assistant adjutant general and division inspector; Colonel. John Marshall, assistant quartermaster general; Colonel Melvin Clarke, assistant judge advocate general; Colonel A. L Haskins, assistant engineerin-chief; Major J. B. Hovey, Major I. R. Waters, and Major W. B. Whittlesey, aids.

On April 22, 1861, in pursuance of orders received from Columbus, General Hildebrand issued his general order No. z, calling on the people of the Seventh division for ten thousand men. Whenever eighty men should be secured they were authorized to form an infantry company, and if forty men be secured, a light artillery company, and to elect one captain, one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, four sergeants, four corporals, and two musicians. This was promptly responded to, more men being offered than could be used, under the President's call, the quota of the State being thirteen regiments.

The language of the general order as to the disposition of the men was as follows:

All companies which may be organized in counties near the Ohio river to remain where organized, to defend the frontier, while all other companies will hold themselves in readiness to march when and wherever the President of the United States, through the Governor of Ohio, may direct.

General Hildebrand and his staff soon afterwards tendered their services to the Government; but the general and the most of the members of his staff were destined to other duties, and to act important parts on widely separated fields, and in commands tried by the storm of battle, where the glory of a military uniform was little thought of. The general himself died in the service, at Alton, Illinois. He was a man of good presence, brave, and did good service as commandant of a brigade at Shiloh. His career will be more fully noticed further on. Colonel McCormick was severely wounded at the battle of Shiloh, in a charge by Forest's Texan cavalry. Colonel Clarke, while in command of the Thirty-sixth Ohio, was killed by a cannon shot at Antietam. Colonel Haskins died of injuries received while colonel of the Sixty-third Ohio, and Captain Whittlesey was killed at the battle of Mission Ridge, while leading his company in that memorable charge.

During the first two years of the war there was great fear along the border and in Washington county, of raids by the rebels. News came to Marietta on Sunday, April 21, 1861, that a large body of rebels was about to descend on Parkersburgh, and great alarm was felt as to the threatening attitude of affairs, and the following dispatch was sent to the capital:

MARIETTA, OHIO, April 21-5 P. M.

To Governor Dennison:

It is rumored that rebel troops are on their way to Parkersburgh, Virginia. We do not know what credit to give this report. It is, however, reasonable to suppose that Parkersburgh, being the terminus of one branch of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, will be made in any event a base of operations by the rebel military, and that we are in danger of being overrun by foraging parties and perhaps worse events. We therefore feel that an absolute necessity exists of being at teast prepared with a full supply of arms and ammunition, of which we are wholly destitute. We may also need more troops than can be raised on the border, and experienced drilt officers. We shall at once organize a home guard, which we believe it to be of the utmost importance to arm. We want especially cannon, and as many as we can have. We think there can be no possible doubt of the existence of an overwhelming necessity for the occupancy of this point and Belpre, opposite Parkersburgh, at once. A messenger will leave for Columbus tonight.

A. T. NYE,

President of City Council.

M. CLARKE,

Of Major General Hildebrand's staff.

The messenger sent was Beman Gates, esq., who went to Columbus and laid the matter before the governor, with what success will be seen further on.

On the next day, pursuant to a resolution passed by the city council of Marietta, on Saturday, April 20th, a large number of citizens of the county assembled at the court house to arrange for home defence. Two committees were appointed to carry out the objects of the meeting, one to raise money for the benefit of the families of volunteers, consisting of Hon. William R. Putnam, J. S. Sprague, and Henry Fearing; the other a committee of safety, consisting of Colonel John Mills, William P. Cutler, William R. Putnam, Davis Green, Anselem T. Nye, Harlow Chapin, Rufus K Harte, David C. Skinner, and the mayor, Hon. William A. Whittlesey.

Measures for the defence of the county, and especially of Marietta city, were adopted. Arms and ammunition were needed, and very few, if any, arms were to be had. Meanwhile, in order to utilize the means of defence at hand, two iron cannon, in the city, were put in readiness for active service, and an order was given to the foundry of A. T. Nye, jr., to cast solid shot for fixed ammunition. In response to the dispatch and to the personal application of Mr. Gates, the governor ordered the First regiment, light artillery, Third brigade, Fourth division of Ohio volunteer militia, from Cleveland and vicinity, to report at Marietta for the defence of that point.* The regiment was made up of six companies,

* Mr. Reid, in Ohio in the War, says: "Governor Dennison, as early as April 19th, four days before the call for volunteers, determined to protect the exposed points. Marietta, Parkersburgh, and Gallipolis were the points, and Marietta was considered the place of greatest danger. Colonel Barnett, of Cleveland, had already tendered the services of himself and command, and he was ordered to report at Columbus. Meantime, on Sunday, April 21st, the Columbus machine shops were opened at the request of the governor, and before night two hundred solid shot were cast. The next day, the twenty-second, the battery arrived, and went by way of Loveland to Marielta." And in a foot note he says: "As the battery entered Columbus, a committee of

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO - 149

citizens from Marietta arrived to represent their danger to the governor and to ask for succor. They found that his foresight had already secured them, and some of the commitlee, turning immediately back, reached Marietta again on the same train which bore the battery they had gone to ask."

of twenty men each, and six guns, under command of Colonel James Barnett.

On Tuesday night, April 23rd, the regiment arrived and went into camp at the fair grounds. This was the first camp established, and was named Camp Putnam, in honor of General Rufus Putnam, of the Revolutionary war. These were the first troops to arrive in Washington county. The next was the Fourteenth regiment Ohio volunteer militia, raised in the Tenth congressional district, and commanded by Colonel James B. Steedman. Then came the Eighteenth regiment, on its way to Virginia. The latter regiment was made up as follows:

Company A, Lawrence Counly guards, Captain Roders; company B, Marietta Blues, Captain Buell; company C, Lawrence County guards, Captain Bolles; company D, Vinton County guards, Captain Caldwell; company E, Lawrence County guards, Captain Merrill; company F, Meigs County guards, Captain Curtis; company G. Gallia County guards, Caplain Aleshire; company H, Meigs County guards, Captain Waller; company K, Washington County guards, Captain Henderson; company L, Jackson County guards, Captain Hoffman. Regimental officers, elected al Parkersburgh, Virginia: colonel, J. R. Stanley, of McArthur; lieutenant colonel, William Bolles, of Ironlon; major, William H. Bisby, of Marietta; quartermaster, Beman Gates. Mr. Gates afterwards resigned, and John C. Paxton was appointed.

At this point it will be well to understand the situation. The rebels had penetrated western Virginia and pushed their forces along both branches of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, from Grafton westward, towards Parkersburgh, and along the northern branch toward Wheeling, burning bridges and trestle works as they went, This spread general alarm throughout western Virginia, to Wheeling, Parkersburgh, and along the border in Ohio. Governor Dennison resolved that the line of. battle should not be on the border of Ohio, but along the natural line made by the Alleghanies. And this was against the advice of General McClellan, who counselled delay, but the governor was positive, and his plan prevailed. Accordingly, on the twenty-sixth of May, the following movement was ordered: The Fourteenth regiment, Colonel Steedman, stationed at Zanesville, and the Eighteenth, Colonel Stanley, stationed at Camp Jackson, were ordered to Marietta to support Barnett's battery. The Seventeenth regiment, Colonel Connell, stationed at Lancaster, was ordered to Zanesville. The Fifteenth regiment, Colonel Andrews, stationed at Zanesville, was ordered to Bellaire, to await orders. The Sixteenth regiment, Colonel Irvine, stationed at Columbus, was ordered to Zanesville to support Colonel Andrews. The Nineteenth regiment, Colonel Beatty, and the Twenty-first, Colonel Norton, stationed at Cleveland, were ordered to Columbus, there to await orders. Colonel Steedman, with the Fourteenth and a part of Barnett's artillery, crossed to Virginia on the morning of May 27th, arriving at Parkersburgh at eleven o'clock, being the first troops to enter southern territory, Ellsworth, with the New York Zouaves, entering Virginia from Washington at 2 P. H. After putting a quietus on the secession element in Parkersburgh, they moved out on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, rebuilding bridges and trestle works as they advanced. Colonel Irvine, with his regiment at Bellaire, crossed the day following, and was joined by a regiment of loyal Virginians, under Colonel Kelley, and they pushed on out the northern branch of the Baltimore & Ohio, repairing and rebuilding bridges and trestles. The two columns met and formed a junction at Grafton, Virginia. After them the gallant sons of Ohio and Indiana went pouring into Virginia, driving the rebels before them. Fifteen miles beyond Grafton, at Philippi, they fought the first battle of the war, and gained a victory.

Thus, by the foresight and energy of Governor Dennison, was West Virginia saved to the Union, important railway communications recovered and held, and Ohio and the border protected from invasion and predatory warfare.

On the twenty-third of June, pursuant to an order of the adjutant general of the State, the following militia companies arrived and were distributed along the railroad between the city of Marietta and Athens to guard the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, known as the "old line." General McClellan feared that his communications would be interrupted and that his supplies might be cut off by the destruction of the bridges and trestle works on this railroad, which was an important matter at that time. These companies were: company F, First regiment, Captain Miller, thirty men; company B, Second regiment, Captain King, thirty men; company F, Second regiment, Captain Garrett, thirty men; company D, Second regiment, Captain Menken, fifteen men; company E, Third regiment, Captain Buckner, forty men; company G, Third regiment, Captain J. H. Carter, sixty men. The whole under command of Lieutenant Colonel A. E. Jones. Afterwards four of these companies were relieved by four Washington county companies, one of which was the Union Blue company recruited up after the three months men had gone, commanded by Captain William B. Mason; the Fireman Zouaves, Captain S. F. Shaw—both companies from Marietta—one company from Harmar, Captain Joseph B. Daniels, and one—the Belpre guards—commanded by Captain F. H. Loring, from Belpre. They were distributed along the railroad in squads, and were armed, clothed and subsisted the same as other volunteers. This service although not especially dangerous, was important, and as these companies are not elsewhere recorded we give them below as far as possible to ascertain their names:

COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

Captain F. H. Loring; Lieutenant James King.

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

Orderly Sergeant A. P. Sherman, Sergeant J. L. O'Neal, John Mitchell, C. W. Stone, John Drain.

CORPORALS.

A. H. Browning, P. W. Simpson, E. M. O'Neal, A. D. Slone.

PRIVATES.

H. G. Allen, D. C. Allen, James R. Barrows, George Ballard, Daniel Breckenride, William Baker, W. W. Botkin, William Berry, Samuel Barkley, Jacob Clark, A. F. Downer, Moses Dugan, George Dunlevy, J. G. Ellenwood, Councrl Flowers, George Flowers, L. R. Forbes, George Gage, Alexander Galbraith, George Hutchinson, John Had-

150 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.

dow, George A. Howe, John Hutchinson, D. B. Horton, C. B. Kirkpatrick, Fremont Kirkpatrick, Henry Kirkpatrick, Corwin H. Loring, George Lysle, George M. Conaughey, Joseph Marsh, Joseph Miller, James Mendenhall, James McGaffey, F. F. Newport, J. R. Newporl, M. Noland, Joseph Noland, F. Odenahan, E. R. O'Neal, William Powell, James Powell, Josiah Rutherford, Jacob Rutherford, B. B. Stone, Frank Stone, George G. Stone, William F. Shee, Joseph Sterlin, William F. Sayre, Henry Schram, Harrison Smith, John A. Shipe, S. C. H. Smith, Milton Stone, F. B. Simpson, Martin Tharp, John Thompson, William White, Noah Welch.

Roll of Captain William B. Mason's company D, in the First regiment, Third brigade, Seventh division of Ohio volunteer militia, enrolled on the twenty-seventh day of July, 1861, and mustered into the service of the State of Ohio the twenty-seventh day of July, 1861.

COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

Captain William B. Mason, First Lieutenant James McCaddon, Second Lieutenant James Lewis.

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

First Sergeant W. L. Theis, Sergeants George W. Kennedy, Robert H. McKittrick, Louis Schmidt; Corporals Jacob Unger, John Mahuken, john Plug, William L. Porterfield; Bugler Louis Schlieker.

PRIVATES.

George Baldwin, Frank Braddock, Peler Beck, George Booth, John Burke, Frederick Becker, John Dow, John Danker, Henry Estman, John W. Eaton, David M. Grimes, William Hose, Seymour J. Hathaway, Andrew Holden, Luther M. Ingraham, David F. Jones, Frank E. Jett, Arius Nye Kennedy, Joel Kennedy, David H. Lewis, Dennis Mulhane, John J. Medlicott, Patrick C. Meers, Frank McCaddon, Theodore McCaddon, Frederick Mahuken, Michaet Manly, George \V. Reynolds, John Ratgen, Nicholas Roeder, William Robinson, Frank Shafer, William W. Skinner, William H. Storrs, Richard Siebers, William Salzman, Samuel Tracy, Frank Towsley, Jacob Wood, J. Henry Wellbrook, Julius Wenland.

Muster roll of Captain Joseph B. Daniels' company, First regiment, Third brigade, Seventh division, of Ohio volunteer militia, commanded by Major 0. Bennett.

COMMISSIONED OFFICER.

Captain Joseph B. Daniels (both lieutenants refused to respond to the call).

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

First Sergeant Arthur B. Chapin, Sergeants William S. Judd, Diton Fearing, George Maxon; Corporals George Reppert, George Marsh, Abram Daniels, Otis J. Chambers, Drummer John Knox.

PRIVATES.

Daniel Bingham, William Bingham, Joseph Boyd, John Chambers, Salmon Chambers, Charles Dugan, James Doughitt, William Dugan, John Edelston, Dennis A. Finch, Charles L. Gates, John Huff, Isaac Lucas, Solon Malhews, Horatio W. Mason, Thomas McNamara, Henry E. Nugent, Samuel H. Niece, Madison J. Naylor, lames S. Parker, William Parker, Samuel H. Putnam, Simon Readin, Byron P. Reppert, William W. Rice, Darwin A. Scolt, William Snodgrass, William Tunnicliff, James Wright, Luther Wright, John L. Young.

We have now passed the opening chapter of the war as far as it relates to Washington county. This was the romantic period of the contest, if such a thing can be said of so grim a subject. The hardships, dangers and privations of active service had not been fully realized. The theory at first entertained that armed resistance could be put down in a three months campaign was soon dismissed, and the enormous strength of the Rebellion began to be understood.

On July Zest the great battle of Bull Run was fought and lost, the flower of the Union army destroyed, or turned into a fleeing rabble, and a great mass of war material swallowed up in the vortex of war. It was hard to believe this news, but what seemed at that time a dire disaster proved, in reality, a loud note of warning, and to that extent, at least, beneficial. It broadened the views of the administration as to war measures. Henceforward the war was to be carried on more aggressively, and on a gigantic scale. The President, on the day after the battle, issued a call for five hundred thousand three years' men. Another outburst of patriotic feeling ensued. This was the first great call to arms. The country was stirred to its centre, and the scenes of volunteering that followed were grand. It was from these five hundred regiments that the vital power to crush the Rebellion came. They furnished the great bulk of the officers who finally led our armies to victory.

The Representative of this district at that time was the Hon. William P. Cutler, who was attending a called session of Congress. Having received enquiries about raising a regiment in Washington county he telegraphed as follows:

WASHINGTON, D. C., July 23, 1861.

M. Clarke and F. Hildebrand:

Government will probably accept an infantry regiment if ready in fifteen days. Can you raise it ? I will bear all incidental expenses of raising it. Answer.

WILLIAM P. CUTLER.

The response sent was that Washington county could and would do it.

This was the beginning of the Thirty-sixth regiment, companies for which began to rendezvous immediately at Marietta.

Colonel John Groesbeck, of Cincinnati, had offered to raise and equip a regiment at his own expense, and the liberality of this offer attracted general attention and commendation. The companies for that regiment were about this time gathering at Camp Colerain, near Cincinnati. There was a company in Marietta at this time known as the "Washington County Rifle Guards." They resolved to join Groesbeck's regiment. Lieutenant W. H. Edgerton came from Newport with a battalion of men and joined the guards, the election of officers resulted as follows:

John C. Fell, captain; William H. Edgerton, first lieutenant; Henry W. Shepard, second lieutenant.

This was the first three years' company that left the county. They numbered one hundred and fifteen men. Upon leaving Marietta July 22, 1861, for the war, they were escorted by a Marietta company called the Fireman Zouaves, Captain S. F. Shaw, the German brass band, and a large concourse of citizens, relatives and friends. They marched through the streets, Ohio and Front, from their headquarters at the old woollen factory and across to the Harmar depot The Zouaves, finding that the guards had no colors, presented their beautiful flag, through Captain Shaw, who made the presentation speech, which was responded to by Captain Fell in appropriate words, and which act of courtesy was received with cheers by the departing volunteers. This company became company B, and Groesbeck's regiment the Thirty-ninth Ohio volunteer infantry.

The following is the complete roster:

COMPANY B, THIRTY-NINTH OHIO VOLUNTEER—FIRST

THREE YEARS COMPANY.

COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

Captain John C. Fell, First Lieutenant William H. Edgerton, Second Lieutenant Henry W. Shepard.

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO - 151

PRIVATES AND NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

Henry Adams, Furman Abbot, Jacob Abendshau, J. Abernachard, Samuel Ackerson, William C. Buck, John C. Buck, Henry Bast, C. Briggs, P. Bronson, Wilson Congdon, J. S. Carver, Tames Cahoon, John Cisler, B. Congdon, John Congdon, H. Coleman, T. J. Conner, M. L Cook, G. W. Chapman, J. Carson, William Carpenter, David

C. Day, E. J. Douglass, W. W. Dye, K. Davis, L. K. Dutton, J. Eifler, G. Ellifritz, J. Ebinge, Lewis W. Linch, W. Fise, H. Farnsworth, William Grass, B. F. Gilpin, A. H. Gardz, J. W. Goodrich, J. Goddard I.. Green, D. D. Huntsman, William Hobby, C. Hallet, D.

D. Hughes, I. Hutchinson, W. Hackathan, Lyman Hall, Luther Hathaway, L. Hyer, Jacob Johnson, A. Johns, William Kennedy, William]. Kemp, Frederick K. Lebze, A. W. S. Landy, Joseph H. Lapham, T. Lang, E. J. Ludgen, Smrth Ming, William S. Morse, James McCall, George Moore, M. McManus, Neil McLaughlin, A. F. Moore, W. Miller, M. Miller, L. Mine, J. McCullough, A. A. Middleswart, G. W. Middleswart, Lewis Noe, David P. Pugh, Daniel Pfaff, Ebenezer Pearce, George Payne, C. Pfaff, F. B. Reckard, C. L. Russell, E. H. Richards, Nedor Roon, C. Riesch, C. W. Reynold, A. Rudig, William Rouse, F. W. Ranger, D. S. Reynolds, George T. Rice, Moses Smith, George Soler, John Stewart, Frederick Solzer, William St. Clair, C. J. Skidmore, N. H. Shaw, Matthew Stricker, William Stewart, S. H. W. Smith, J. E. Schmidt, Eli Steen, F. Snodgrass, W. J. Seevers, J. F. Snoetast, J. E. Smith, William Theis, John E. Thurman, R. Taylor, John Wood, Henry Wendelker, S. Wells, Lewis Zimmer, L. Zimmerman.

The second company was "Koenig's German Rifles," which was raised in one week. It was composed mainly of Germans, and included many of the best shots of that nationality in the county. They elected Jacob Koenig captain, and left for Camp Colerain July 35, 1861, deferriny the election of the other officers until their arrival in camp. The company became company F, Thirty-ninth Ohio volunteer infantry.

About the, first of August, 1861, the "Muskingum company" went into camp at Marietta, the first of the gallant Thirty-sixth regiment. They were composed of the young men of the valley of the Muskingum, immediately above Marietta. Twenty of them were from Rainbow and the neighborhood of Devol's dam, and comprised the best, and in fact, nearly all the young men in that locality. They were officered as follows : Captain Hiram F. Devol, First Lieutenant J. Gage Barker, Second Lieutenant J. C. Selby, First Sergeant Miles A. Stacy. The next company was the "Salem Light Guard," a splendid body of men, officered as follows: Captain Jewett Palmer, jr., First Lieutenant James Stanley, Second Lieutenant Ernst Lindner, First Sergeant John A. Palmer. Soon the Thirty-sixth regiment was full.

Captain T. W. Moore's company was raised in the vicinity of Tunnel Station, in Washington county, and were considered a fine body of men, and Captain Adney's

* Before the departure of the guards from Salem the ladies of that place presented the company with a fine flag, their spokesman addressing the departing volunteers in appropriate words. Their captain, Jewett Palmer, jr., responded as follows:

"Ladies of Salem: We thank you for this stand of colors; we know and fully appreciate the spiril which prompted you in procuring them for us, and knowing this we receive them promising as we do to defend them if necessary with our lives, and to return them to your hands. It may be tattered and torn, but not dishonored.

" In speaking of this noble ensign of freedom, it is not necessary to enumerate the causes which by degrees have brought about this very presentation. Suffrce it to know that on the fourteenth day of April last, for the first time since this flag has had a nalional existence, it was struck, and that too, by fraternal hands raised in rebellion against it; therefore we consider it the duty of every loyal citizen to rally beneath its folds and march in solid phalanx to the defence of our country."

was from the west end of Washington and from Athens county. The governor appointed Melvin Clarke lieutenant colonel, Professor Ebenezer B. Andrews, major; Benjamin D. Fearing, adjutant, and John M. Woodbridge, quartermaster. Neither of these officers had any military education, and it was decided to secure a regularly educated army officer, if possible, as colonel of the regiment. Major E. B. Andrews, to carry out this idea, went to Columbus to lay the matter before Governor Dennison. At first it was supposed that Colonel Sill would be appointed; but Colonel Sill, a member of the governor's staff, was needed in organizing the thousands of raw recruits then flocking to the Ohio camp. Major Slemmer, however, of the regular army, inspector general on the staff of General Rosecrans, was designated as commanding officer, for the time being—the same Lieutenant A. J. Slemmer who was in command of Fort Pickens, at the entrance of Pensacola harbor, Florida, when the war began, and who, by his prompt refusal to surrender, and promptness in preparing for defence, saved that important fortification to the Union.

The Thirty-sixth was, on August 3oth, ordered into Virginia, Major Slemmer joining the regiment at Parkersburgh ; but soon after Colonel George Crook, of the Eighth United States infantry, was assigned to the command of the regiment, and began at once the task of drilling and disciplining both officers and men.

The advent of Colonel Crook was an event of great importance to the Thirty-sixth. He won the confidence and respect of the men, and imparted to the regiment a character for discipline and good behavior that they never lost during subsequent terms of service.

During the months of September and October of 1861, several important commands were in process of formation in Washington county. Colonel T. C. H. Smith, of Marietta, was commissioned as lieutenant colonel of the First Ohio cavalry ; and soon after, on September 11th, Captain Thomas J. Patten, and Lieutenant John D. Barker went into Camp Putnam with sixty men for that regiment, which became company L, First Ohio volunteer cavalry. At the same time Pierpoint battery, De Beck's battery, Huntington's battery, the Sixty-third Ohio volunteer infantry, the Seventy-seventh Ohio volunteer infantry, were all enlisting men—the men that were shortly to do such gallant service for their country.

Captain Frank Buell who was always devoted to his men, had become dissatisfied at Ohio's treatment of the volunteers, and with the delay of the State authorities in paying off his men, recently returned from the three months' service, and he therefore resolved to raise a company of artillery for the new State of West Virginia. He had no difficulty in securing a sufficient number of men, many of the old company of three months' men joining him, the entire company being from Marietta and vicinity. They were accepted by Governor Pierpont, whose name they took, and were known as Buell's Pierpont battery and Battery C, First regiment West Virginia, light artillery. They left October 9th for Camp Carlisle on Wheeling Island, West Virginia. A large concourse of citizens and friends witnessed their departure. The Young

152 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.

America brass band accompanied them to Wheeling, the leader and one of their number, William Jenvey, having joined the battery.

At this time Captain William Craig, of the regular army, had charge of the army stores and military depots at Bellaire, Marietta and Parkersburgh, with headquarters at Marietta. He desired to raise a regiment for the war, and was commissioned by Governor Dennison as colonel, for that purpose. He was a graduate of West Point, and was much esteemed as an officer and gentleman. The prospects for raising the regiment seemed good, and it was christened the Sixty-third Ohio volunteer infanlry. Alexander L Haskins, a civil engineer of Marietta, was appointed major, and the lieutenant colonelcy temporarily left vacant.

About the same time a vigorous movement was inaugurated to raise a regiment for Colonel Jesse Hildebrand, who stood high in the State militia service, and had strong hold upon the popular heart. He had, for a long time, been the favorite military man of the county, and many people wished to have him command a Washington county regiment. His friends had expected that he would command the Thirty-sixth, but a regular army officer was appointed. His cause was urged upon Governor Dennison, but to no purpose. The governor was hampered in some way, and could not act. He had learned by this time that there was a war department in this country, and governed his actions accordingly. Colonel Hildebrand finally tendered his service to Governor Pierpont who did not need any urging to take advantage of the situation, and at once issued a commission to Hildebrand as colonel, and ordered him to rendezvous his men at Parkersburgh. This led to an emphatic protest by the friends of the colonel.* About this time the War Department authorized Governor Dennison to commission all Ohio officers who were promised commissions by Governor Pierpont, and so the merits of Colonel Hildebrand were recognized, and he was immediately commissioned by the governor to raise a regiment of three years men in Washington county. W. De Hass

* Memorial numerously signed by citizens of the city of Marietta:

MARIETTA, OHIO, September 14, 1861. We, the undersigned citizens of Marietta, Ohio, having felt a deep interest in the appointment of General J. Hildebrand in the command of a regiment, regret very much that the governor of Ohio refused to commission him to such command, and we regret still more that General Hildebrand is after many efforts of his numerous friends to procure for him the aforesaid command, compelled to either remain out of the service of our country or take command of a regiment in the State of Virginia, which command we understand he is about to take, and which patriotic course in him we do most sincerely and heartily endorse: W. F. Curtis, A. N. Hill, W. A. Whittlesey, James B. Hovey, Isaac N. Goldsmith, H. B. Shipman, H. H. Drown, A. T. Nye, B. F. Hart, Arius Nye, David Alban, Davis Green, W. P. Cutler, John Mills, Douglas Putnam, E W. Buelr, James Holden, Jesse Vickers, H. Brenan, C. E. Glines, George S. Jones, William S. Ward, James M. Booth, J. S. Sprague, H. Purch, E. F. Hill, Jacob Cram, Thomas W. Ewart, J. A. Hicks, A. Finch, George W. Wilson, D. G. Mathews, Charles B. Hall, J. R. Waters, John Hall, A. L. Haskins, A. Tupper Nye, jr., Warner Green, John Scott, jr., Joseph Holden, jr., James McLeod, R. E. Harte, E. Winchester, D. B. Bosworth, S. P. Hildreth, W. H. Buell, John Marshall, John W. Thomas, A. W. McCormick, L. Sayes, Horatio Booth, C. E. Sherman, W. L. Ralston, Charles F. Buell, Hugh Donahoe, E A. Jones, George Benedict, F. A. Lovell, J. M. Houk, E C. Dawes, W. G. Bloomfield and olhers.

was appointed lieutenant colonel, and Benjamin D. Fearing at that time serving as adjutant of the Thirty-sixth, was appointed major.

Here then were two regiments authorized to be raised at the same time, in the county, and this naturally led to some friction between the parties interested in these different organizations. The fact of Colonel Craig being a West Pointer, acted against him as well as in his favor. The volunteer could never exactly understand the regular army officers' manner and style of doing things, and they often charged him with being haughty and tyrannical with the common soldier. No doubt great injustice was done Colonel Craig in this way, but he had able defenders, and they only intensified the opposition. The result was that the Seventy-seventh was soon full and ready for service, while the Sixty-third was slow in getting men. Finally the Sixty-third was ordered to Columbus to consolidate with the Fifty-second, but that proved an unfortunate combination, and the Sixty-third returned again to Marietta for the purpose of filling up its ranks. The Twenty-second regiment, a fragmentary organization at Camp Dennison, was ordered to Marietta to consolidate with the Sixty-third, and arrived January 3o, 5862. Colonel William Craig having resigned the colonelcy, John W. Sprague, a captain in the Seventh regiment, was appointed colonel, and after remaining in Camp Putnam until February 58, 5862, they received marching orders and departed for Paducah, Kentucky.

Colonel Jesse Hildebrand, immediately after being commissioned by Governor Dennison, received orders to form a camp and recruit up a regiment, which was to become the gallant Seventy-seventh. Accordingly, he chose a public square in Marietta, the Quadranaon, and named it Camp Tupper, for General Anselem Tupper. On the south side, along the line of Third street, he built ten barracks, for as many companies, and on the elevated square in the camp, a field piece was placed for firing a morning and evening gun. The regiment was rapidly filled. Many of the recruiting lieutenants held meetings through the east side of the county, as did the Rev. William Pearce, who afterwards became the chaplain of the regiment. On January 9, 5862, the regiment received marching orders, and went to Camp Dennison.

Governor Dennison, in the fall of 1865, finding that the recruiting and handling of a large number of soldiers entailed an immense amount of labor upon the executive department, and especially on the adjutant general, resolved to systematize and divide the work so that each county would have its share, and at the same time have competent supervision and proper attention given to details incident to the service. He accordingly divided the State into military districts, which were the same as the congressional districts. Each district had over it a district military committee, appointed by the governor, and they appointed a committee of five for each county, and the county military committee appointed a committee of three in each township. These were the men to whom the governor appealed in emergencies, and they appealed directly to the people. Their duties were varied and often arduous, at times requiring their con-

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO - 153

stant attention to the exclusion of all other business. They served without pay, and considering the character and value of the service rendered, deserve to be gratefully remembered.

The military committee appointed in the fall of 1861 for Washington county were William R. Putnam, chairman, Samuel F. Cooke secretary, and John Newton, Mark Green, and George W. Baker.

The township committees appointed at the same time by the committees were as follows:

Adams—Dr. William F. Clark, Dennis Gibbs, Jonas Mason. Aurelius--Thomas Ellison, Samuel L. Berkley, Theodore Jevres. Barlow J. W. Merrill, H. E. Vincent, William Breckenridge. Belpre— O. R. Loring, John Stone, Joseph Potter. Decatur—William P. Gamble, Jonah McGirr, W. C. Smith. Dunham—J. J. Hollister, William A. Chevalier, Edward McLarty. Fairfield—Dr. J. W. Marsha, John B. Farris, William Thompson. Fearing—Joseph W. Stanley, Orin Chapman, F. G. Guitteau. Grandview--Samuel F. Cooke, Moses Meeks, John Pool. Independence--John G. Thomas, Squire D. Riggs, Dr. Valentine. Lawrence--A. J. Dye, A. W. Dye, J. M. Caywood. Ludlow—George W. Harvey, Christopher Dickson, William Bell. Liberty —Jackson A. Hicks, John H. Jamison, John Roberts. Newport—Luther Edgerton, Aaron Edgell, Edgar O'Neal. Palmer—John Breckenridge, sr., J. M. Murdough, D. J. Richards. Salem Josiah Morgan, Henry Schofield. Moses Blake. Marietta City—George Benedict, First ward; David C. Skinner, Second ward; Thomas W. Ewart, Third ward. Muskingum--Colonel William West, William F. Curtis, Johnson Bean. Mannar --David Putnam, Colonel D. Barber, Henry Fearing. Waterford—Enoch S. McIntosh, Samuel B. Robinson, Mathew Patterson. Warren —Moses Morris. Dean Briggs, August S. Bailey. Wesley—S. C. Van Law, Robert Hodgin, J. P. Bruce. Watertown— W. F. Lasure, Henry McGrew, H. L. Deming. Union—Wesley Coombs, J. B. Dyar, Samuel Maxwell.

It was upon the county military committee, however, that the most of the labor and responsibility fell. They were charged with the entire business of recruiting in their counties; and could adopt such measures to hasten the work as they thought proper. All candidates for commissions had to have an endorsement by the county committee, and they were enjoined to be very careful whom they recommended. They were also charged with collecting clothing and supplies for the army. No further praise need to be bestowed upon the conduct of the military committee of Washington county than to say that through all the emergencies and trying ordeals of four years of the war the same men first appointed were retained to the end.

In closing the year 1861 there are many things that might be said in regard to the management of military affairs outside as well as in this county, about which there was great difference of opinion at the time, but it is not the province of this history to discuss such matters nor have we room for an extended examination, but one thing should be said, at least, a word in justification of Governor Dennison. The governor was not denominated, but was passed with a commendatory resolution and David Tod, a war Democrat, taken up in his stead, and elected. Governor Dennison sought no vindication nor asked any one to defend his course, but left it to the future and the sober judgment of the citizens of Ohio to vindicate him, and he has, indeed, been fully justified. He said "Ohio must lead in the war, " and he nobly endeavored to make good the promise. The war found him a plain but versatile and talented civilian, with no knowledge of military affairs and with a staff totally unacquainted with the demands and emergencies about to overtake them. When hostilities began, and the thousands of citizen soldiers began to crowd into the capital city, it was utterly impossible to meet their demands with even the barest necessities of camp life, and so on, during the succeeding weeks as each new exigency arose, it was met manfully and all demands filled as soon as possible; but Governor Dennison fully realized the great burdens imposed upon him and laid his plans to meet them, and in a short time he had so fully mastered the situation that he was enabled to give his attention to other matters than the mere details of military organization. He planned the first campaign against the enemy in West Virginia which was a grand success, but enough offence had already unavoidably been given to the volunteers, fresh from the comforts of home, to raise a great clamor against him, which extended to every part of the State from which a three months' man had come. The legislature took up the cudgel also and asked for the resignation of certain members of his staff, but the governor, firm, yet dignified, declined to dismiss them, and knowing that he was doing all that could be done, continued to work out his task, and the sequel showed that he did his work well and that a greater part of the complaints were causeless and unjustified by the facts.

When Governor Tod took the reins of government in January, 1862, he found the State fully organized and ready for a vigorous war administration. Many of the men who were subsequently to distinguish themselves and reflect honor upon their native State had already been commissioned by Governor Dennison, and gone to the field.

Mr. Whitelaw Reid, in Ohio in the War, says of the opening of Governor Tod's administration:

With trained assistants, and organized system, and the work thus gradually conning upon him, Governor Tod speedily mastered his new duties. where was no opportunity for distinguishing his administration by the redemption of a State, or the appointment of officers who were soon to reach the topmost round of popular favor, or the adoption of independent war measures during a temporary isolation from the General Government. But what there was to do he did prudently, systematically, and with such judgment as to command the general approva! of his constituents.

There was, however, room for all the zeal of patriotism to have full play. The war was constantly affording opportunities for men in authority to show what they were made of, and the year 1862 furnished its full share.

The first soldier from Washington county to be killed in action was Albert W. Leonard, private of company C, Second West Virginia cavalry. He was killed in an action on Jennie's creek, Kentucky, January 7, 1862. His command was in pursuit of Humphrey Marshall, and, on turning a curve in the road, was attacked by the enemy, young Leonard falling at the first volley. He was the son of J. D. Leonard, at that time living at Matamoras, but for many years previous a resident of Marietta. His captain, Thomas Neal, said of him: "Officers and men will attest to his bravery on the field, his exemplary conduct as a soldier, and his honest, upright course as a comrade."

On April 6, 1862, the great battle of Shiloh took place.

154 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.

It was a momentous and memorable event, as being the first great engagement for our western troops, and one exciting especial interest in Washington county as being the first battle in which the Seventy-seventh regiment was engaged, having seven companies from this county. It was not until the ninth that the full news of the battle was received, and it revealed a tale of slaughter and suffering that startled and aroused the community. On April 10th a public meeting was called at the court house in Marietta to provide means of assistance for the wounded. Beman Gates, William F. Curtis, George M. Woodbridge, Henry Fearing, Dr. Benjamin F. Hart, and George Benedict were sent at once to Cincinnati to make arrangements with the sanitary commission for the relief of the wounded from Washington county, and if necessary to go directly to the battle-ground. Meanwhile ladies assembled at the Episcopal church and made up four boxes of hospital stores, which, together with three hundred dollars in money, were sent along with the committee. A standing committee consisting of Davis Green, W. R. Putnam, W. F. Curtis, I. W. Andrews and Stephen Newton were appointed to raise subscriptions and render such aid to the wounded as occasion might thereafter require.

In this engagement the Seventy-seventh bore a gallant .part, and on the third day, while in the advance in pursuit of the enemy, were charged upon by Forest's Texan cavalry and rode down and literally cut to pieces. Their conduct was worthy of regulars. The commanding general of the division neglected to have the Union cavalry within supporting distance, which exposed the infantry to a destructive charge. General Hildebrand, in his official report, says of the battle:

Early on the morning of Sunday, 6th inst., our pickets were fired upon, and shortly after seven o'clock the enemy appeared in force, presenting himself in columns of regiments, at least four deep. He opened immediately upon our camp a heavy fire, following up rapidly with shell. I ordered an advance. The Seventy-seventh and Fifty-seventh regiments were thrown forward to occupy a certain position, but encountered the enemy in force within three hundred yards of our camp. Unfortunately, we were not supported by artillery, and were compelled to retire under cover of our camp, the engagement becoming general along the entire front of the command. A battery having been brought to support our right, the Fifty-seventh and Seventy-seventh stood gallantly side by side for four hours, contending with a force of at least four to one. The battery having been forced from its position, and the infantry both on our right and left having fallen back, it finally became necessary that the regiments forming part of my command should fall back lest their retreat be effectually cut off. . . . The night I passed on the battlefield in company with Colonels Buckland, Cockerel, Rice and other officers.

That night was one of intense interest on both sides. Beauregard, impatient for the morning light, that he might complete the work so auspiciously begun; and Sherman and Grant hoping for Buell with his fresh divisions, to reinforce the Union army. Buel arrived and crossed, and one of his officers remarked to a gunboat officer, "We will show you some man-of-war fighting to-morrow," and they kept the promise well. Marching to the front they relieved the exhausted troops engaged the day before and drove the rebel army back, regaining the lost ground, and the victory was complete.

General Hildebrand says of Monday's battle:

On monday morning I marched near the field of battle, forming near the rear, holding my force in readiness to enter into action at any moment, when called upon. We remained in this position, until the enemy had retreated and the victory achieved.

On the eighth instant, in compliance with your order, I marched my brigade, accompanied by a large cavalry force, also by Buckland's brigade, on the Corinth road, about four miles from camp. Halting in an open field, skirmishers were sent forward, who discovered rebel cavalry in considerable force, exhibiting a disposition to fight. the skirmishers immediately fired upon the enemy, when the Seventy-seventh regiment, under command of Lieutenant Colonel De Hass, was ordered up to support them. Soon after forming in line a large body of cavalry made a bold and dashing charge on the skirmishers and the whole regiment. So sudden and rapid was the charge, shooting our men with carbines and revolvers, that they had not time to reload, and fell back, hoping our cavalry would cover the retreat. Unhappily our own cavalry was not sufficiently near to render essential assistance. The rebel cavalry literally rode down our infantry, shooting, sabering, and trampling them under foot. We sustained a loss in killed, wounded, and missing of fifty-seven—nineteen killed on the spot, thirty wounded, and the balance missing. Of the latter, two captains and one second lieutenant are numbered. Captain A. W. McCormick and Captain A. Chandler were meritorious officers. This I may also say of Lieutenant Criswell

With regard to the officers and men who participated in the battle of Pittsburgh, and the affair of Tuesday, I am happy to bear testimony to the fidelity, bravery, and devotion of all. . . .

Major B. D. Fearing, who was immediately in command of the Seventy-seventh regiment, acquitted himself with as much skill, bravery and military bearing as an old officer of long experience, and was not excelled by any other field officer who came under my observation.

In a letter to his wife the general says:

To the credit of the Seventy-seventh and Fifty-seventh be it said, that they fought on their own ground for four hours, against at least four times their number, nor did they fall back in the least until completely overpowered with numbers, and to show hew well they fought over two hundred rebels fell and lay dead on the battle-ground in front of our lines, besides double that number wounded, while there were not fifty in both of our regiments, killed, and about a hundred and fifty wounded. I was in the fight all day Sunday, but on Monday held my command as a reserve, ready to bring it into action at any minute needed. The shells and balls flew as thick as hailstones around me on Sunday, but still I came out untouched

The Seventy-seventh has lost in killed, wounded and missing over two hundred, and, in short, I may say that the Seventy-seventh was in the hardest and most important part of the engagement. The rebels fought like devils; they were determined to whip us. They had the best of the battle on Sunday, but we returned the compliment on Monday! I cannot describe to you the awfulness of this most terrible battle, but if I ever live to get home I wilt try to give you some idea of what it was like.

The roll of killed, wounded and missing of the Seventy- seventh sufficiently attests the brave stand they made. The following is a recapitulation of the whole number:

Company A-4 killed, 53 wounded, 3 missing; total, 20. Company B-4 killed, to wounded, 6 missing; total, 20. Company C-3 killed, to wounded, 3 missing; total, 16. Company D-5 killed, 18 wounded; total, 23. Company E-6 killed, 13 wounded, to missing; total, 29. Company F-2 killed, 11 wounded, 1 missing; total, 14. Cornpany G —9 killed, so wounded, 11 missing; total, 30. Company H-4 killed, 8 wounded, 19 missing; total, 31. Company 1—11 wounded; total, xi. Company K-5 killed, 9 wounded, 26 missing; total, 30. Total-42 killed, 113 wounded, 69 missing—Total, 224.

Colonel Hildebrand himself exhibited fine, soldierly qualities in this action, and when the Union line was driven back on Sunday he was of great service in rallying the men, not only of his own brigade but of other brigades, and his portly figure and fearless demeanor inspired many a company with renewed confidence and turned them again to the front; and he was, no doubt, of great service in saving the army from complete route before overpowering numbers.

Colonel T. C. H. Smith, of the First Ohio volunteer

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cavalry, in a letter to George M. Woodbridge, of Marietta, written from the field of battle, April 12, says:

"Hildebrand and Fearing showed distinguished courage. The first account I had of Hildebrand was from a major of the Ffteenth Illinois, who, unasked, gave me an account of their part in the fight, of their being surprised and their field officers killed, etc. While we were scattered there came along a Colonel Hildebrand rallying the men. I don’t know what State he is from, or what his regiment is, but he showed grit. We rallied under him, and fought there until they sent Lieutenant Colonel to command us."

On the twenty-sixth of May the startling news was received that Washington city was about to be attacked, followed by a dispatch from the governor of the State calling for troops. The call designated three classes that would be received for the term of three years, for the term of three months, and for guard duty within the State, and saying: "Everything is valueless to us if our Government is overthrown."

This dispatch was accompanied by another, directed to the Washington county military committee, as follows:

"Astounding as the fact may be, Washington city is in imminent danger. You will please raise, without delay, one hundred men, and send them as fast as raised to Camp Chase, where they will be organized and equipped; and such as are not willing to proceed to Washington will perform guard duty in place of the regiment now at Camp Chase.

DAVID TOD, Governor."

A meeting of citizens was immediately called to take action. Upon assembling at the usual place of holding such meetings in Marietta, R. H. Harte was chosen chairman, and G. R. Rosseter, secretary. Judge Green then addressed the assembly, and was followed by William R. Putnam, who made a stirring appeal to men of all ages to respond promptly to the call of their country. Rev. D. H. Moore, a Methodist minister of Marietta, spoke, saying that he "had held back from enlisting by the advice of his friends long enough, and now he was bound to go at all hazards." The court house was filled to overflowing, and this declaration of the reverend gentleman had a stirring effect. Others followed in patriotic appeals, and enlistment rolls being circulated quite a number of names were secured. The students of Marietta college held a meeting and twenty-five young men offered themselves as volunteers.

The following is the closing part of an appeal sent out through the country as a hand-bill:

We call upon our fellow citizens at once to stand forth for their country in this emergency! Your country calls, and it is the duty of patriotic citizens to obey the call ! Old Washington to the rescue! Volunteers along the banks of the Muskingum river should be in readiness to take the steamer for Zanesville on Wednesday. Volunteers from other parts of the county will report themselves immediately to the undersigned at Marietta.

WILLIAM R. PUTNAM,

Chairman military committee Washington county.

Marietta, May 26, 1862.

On the twenty-eighth the company embarked on the steamer Ema Graham for Zanesville, and a large concourse of citizens assembled on the commons at Marietta to see them embark. The company was named the Putnam guards, in honor of Judge William R. Putnam, chairman of the military committee. On arriving at Camp Chase they elected Rev. D. R. Moore captain, who was afterwards lieutenant colonel of the Eighty- seventh when in the three years' service; E. S. Aleshire, first lieutenant, and J. R. Jenkins, second lieutenant, and became company A, Eighty-seventh regiment. This regiment was at Harper's Ferry, under Colonel Mills, when the surrender took place, and were parolled, their time being out.

On the second of July, 1862, the President called for three hundred thousand more volunteers for three years, and Ohio's quota was about forty thousand. Governor Tod issued an earnest appeal to the military committees and the citizens of the State, calling upon them to furnish the men. The military committee of the county resolved that old Washington should not be behind in any emergency, and invited a general meeting of the citizens of the county in Marietta, on July 19th. Meantime a meeting of the military committees of the counties comprising the third military district was held in Marietta, to promote concerted action, and to provide officers for the new regiment, which was to be the Ninety-second.

On the fifteenth of July they assembled, members present:

Athens: J. M. Dana, T. F. Wildes, W. R. Golden, and W. T. Brown.

Meigs: J. V. Smith, G. W. Cooper, J. J. White, D. A. Smith, and George Eiselstein.

Noble: E. G. Dudley, Jabez Belford, W. H. Frazier, and Dr. M. Martin.

Washington, William R. Putnam, G. W. Barker, John Newton, and S. F. Cooke.

Monroe: Not represented.

Colonel William R. Putnam, chairman; J. M. Dana, and J. Belford, secretaries.

A committee consisting of G. W. Cooper, of Meigs, E. G. Dudley, of Noble, W. R. Golden and G. W. Barker, of Washington, having been appointed to devise a plan of organization for the new regiment, reported that the several counties of the district should furnish the following number of companies: Washington, three; Noble, two; Monroe, two; Athens, one, and Meigs, one. Monroe county not being represented they adjourned until July 22d, and upon the adjourned meeting elected officers for the Ninety-second regiment, and passed the resolutions following:

Resolved, that we pledge ourselves one to another, to use all diligence in recruiting our respective portions of the Ninety-second regiment, and that we will exert ourselves to the extent of our ability to maintain harmony and good feeling in our proceedings, upon which we feel will depend, to a great degree, our success, as well in recruiting as in every other branch of the service in this military district.

Resolved, that we call upon every loyal man in this military district to aid us with his might and strength and means to recruit the men called for to fill up the Ninety-second regiment.

Resolved, that we go home and go to work.

Resolved, that we make everybody else go to work.

With this declaration of purpose to raise a regiment for the war these gentlemen went home, and we shall presently see with what success.

The mass convention of the citizens of the county, called to meet on the nineteenth of July, assembled at the court house in Marietta, at ten o'clock A. M. of that day, and Colonel David Barber, of Harmar, was chosen chairman, and S. B. Robinson, of Beverly, secretary.

156 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.

The object of the meeting having been stated by the chairman of the military committee, the following gentlemen were appointed to report resolutions: R. E. Harte, Davis Green, C. R. Rhodes, E. S. McIntosh, and Douglas Putnam. After the resolutions had been prepared Mr. Harte reported them, and they were unanimously adopted; they declared the confidence of the citizens of the county in the Government and in the power of the country to sustain itself in the struggle for equal rights and in the integrity of the Union, and pledged anew the men and means of the county to carry out the war to a successful issue. After remarks by George Benedict and William F. Curtis, an effort was inaugurated to raise a fund to assist in recruiting three hundred men in the county for the new regiment. Two thousand one hundred dollars was raised in about five minutes. In the afternoon Hon. W. P. Cutler, having returned from a session of Congress, made an eloquent and forcible speech upon the situation of public affairs. Further subscriptions raised the total to three thousand five hundred and fifteen dollars. This amount was further increased to four thousand and twenty-six dollars by the twenty-fourth of July, Henry Fearing, of Harmar, donating a house and lot in Beverly, worth nine hundred dollars. August 1st, the war fund amounted to five thousand and eighty-one dollars. William Pitt Putnam, of Belpre, obligated himself to pay eight dollars a month to two volunteers and a third volunteer fifteen dollars bounty.

On July 28th the following despatch was received at Marietta.

PARKERSBURGH, July 28, 1862-1;52 P. M.

To the mayor of Marietta:

Send us all the men and arms you can at once. We are about to be attacked by a force of rebels.

M. P. Amiss, mayor.

Soon one hundred men were raised, and Lieutenant George T. Rice, being home on recruiting service from the Thirty-ninth regiment, was placed in command, as captain, also Lieutenant Robert Booth, of the Sixty-third regiment, and Lieutenant C. B. Way; of the Eleventh Virginia were appointed lieutenants, and Manly Warren, orderly sergeant. They marched to the depot to take a train for the beleagured city, but there received a second dispatch "we are not yet attacked and no reenforcements are needed now."

On August 4th the call for a draft of three hundred thousand nine months' men came, and this, in addition to the calls for three years' men, made the quota of Washington county under both at two thousand and thirty. The total number of enrolled militia at that date was six thousand and eighty-nine, making two calls equal to about thirty-three per cent. of the whole number of militia in the county.

The draft commissioner for this county was George Benedict; provost marshal, William F. Curtis, of Marietta; examining surgeon, Dr. James Little, of Beverly. After several postponements by Governor Tod the draft finally took place on October 1st as follows: Adams, eleven; Barber, nine; Fairfield, four; Fearing, fifteen; Grandview, six; Independence, two; Lawrence, nine; Liberty, six; Ludlow, ten; Palmer, three; Union, one; Warren, seven; Watertown, seven; Wesley, sixteen—total, one hundred and seven, which was afterwards increased to one hundred and thirty-one. A great effort was made to save the county from the draft, and large sums of money were raised in all parts of the county to facilitate enlistments. Barlow was down for over two hundred dollars; Waterford, over twelve hundred dollars in addition to one thousand dollars subscribed to the county war fund previously. To this must be added large sums in every township, of which we can find no record, running up into the thousands. It should be said, however, rn regard to drafted men from this county, that a greater portion of them volunteered for three years when they reached Camp Dennison, and some even before. Noble county had over three hundred men drafted, Monroe sixty-one, Morgan one hundred and sixty-seven, and Muskingum two hundred and ninety-three, Gallia two hundred and seventeen. Athens, Lawrence and Scioto escaped.

Judge William R. Putnam having been placed in command of the post at Marietta, with rank of colonel, was authorized to lease ground and erect additional barracks. Accordingly, in September, of 1862, he selected a site which, at that time, lay between the fair grounds and the Muskingum river, and constructed quarters to accommodate the new regiment. By the nineteenth of September the Ninety-second regiment was complete; it contained as good material as any regiment from this part of the State, the men being from among the best citizens of the district, and its subsequent history fully justified the expectation of its friends. The time in camp at Marietta was devoted to drill and disciplining the men for active service. On October 7th they received orders to march, and left Camp Putnam for Gallipolis. Many of those who marched out on that October day with such fine martial bearing were destined never to return. Again Washington county was sending forth her bravest and best, but the sacrifice was not considered too great for the issues at stake.

On October 12th the battle of South Mountain was fought, in which the Thirty-sixth was engaged. It was in this battle that the future brigade commander of the Thirty-sixth was severely wounded—Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, the successor of Grant to the Presidency. On the seventeenth of July the Thirty-sixth was hotly engaged in the great battle of Antietam, in which its colonel, Melvin Clarke, was killed, and loosing heavily in non-commissioned officers and men.

The great-battle of Corinth took place on October 4th, resulting in a crushing defeat to the armies of Price and Van Dorn, and not without great loss to the Union army. The Sixty-third regiment, containing two companies of Washington county men, stood the brunt of the charge at Fort Robinet, and lost very heavily in officers and men—fully forty-five per cent. Colonel J. W. Sprague, of that regiment, said of his regiment: "The loss of my regiment has been terrible, but I have the consolation of believing that no braver or truer set of men were ever taken into battle. Every officer distinguished himself for gallantry and daring."

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In October, 1862, Captain Arthur D. Eells, recruited a company of cavalry for a new regiment authorized by the governor. Captain Eells' company was recruited very rapidly, as he was a popular man and had seen service as captain of company F, Second West Virginia cavalry, from which position he resigned in May, 1862, on account of ill-health, but by October of the same year was again engaged in the service of his country, as captain of company H, Seventh Ohio volunteer cavalry. At the date of leaving for the front the company had one hundred and one men, officered as follows: Captain, Arthur Eells, First Lieutenant, William L. Tripp, Second

Lieutenant, John J. Smith.

The year 1862 was one of great military activity in Washington county. Over two thousand men were sent out, many to fill up old regiments, but the greater part to form new organizations, which were, in the main, recruited for three years' service. The danger of invasion from Virginia had thoroughly aroused the county, and the militia companies throughout the townships were called out for drill at regular intervals. The citizens of Marietta during the summer closed their places of business at four o'clock P. M., and all the able bodied men, including the Silver Grays, turned out to drill.

On Tuesday, August 26th, Colonel William R. Putnam, commandant of Camp Marietta, received a dispatch from Governor Tod, saying, "You are in danger of invasion on the border; prepare for it." The citizens of Marietta then had the following companies: Silver Grays, Captain D. P. Bosworth, First Lieutenant C. J. Sheppard, Second Lieutenant R. E. Harte; Home Guards, Captain Charles R. Rhodes, First Lieutenant James Lewis, Second Lieutenant John B. Dutton; First ward company, Captain Robert Booth, First Lieutenant Dan Y. Booth, Second Lieutenant Philip Schramm; Second ward company, Captain R. E. Harte (promoted from Silver Grays), First Lieutenant Samuel C. Skinner, Second Lieutenant Lewis Theiss ; Third ward company, Captain John S. Conley, First Lieutenant S. J. Dutton, Second Lieutenant Joseph S. Stephens; Bloomfield Guards, Captain Nathaniel F. Bishop, First Lieutenant Joseph E. Hall, jr., Second Lieutenant D. A. Belden; Putnam Light Artillery, Captain A. T. Nye, jr., Lieutenant Charles A. Hall, Gunner John Hall. On September 13th Ernst Lindner having resigned as adjutant of the Thirty-sixth regiment and residing for the time being in Marietta, was placed in command of the companies of Marietta and Harmar, by order of the commandant of the Washington county militia. The companies were placed as follows: A, Captain Charles R. Rhodes; B, Captain Rufus E. Harte; C, Captain Nathaniel F. Bishop; D, Captain Oscar Underwood; E, Captain Robert Booth; F, Captain I. W. Andrews; G, Captain D. P. Bosworth; H, Captain Casper Crouss; I, Captain John W. Conley; K, Captain W. B. Hollister. Smith J. Dutton was appointed adjutant, and D. P. Bosworth, jr., sergeant major; George Payne, sr., drum major. We give these details to show how pressing the emergency was considered and how the men of those days rallied to meet it. The city of Marietta was laid off for the purposes of guard duty into beats, and for many weeks the night patrol paced the streets expecting a border foray.

Many brave sons of Washington county fell in the year 1862, among them Captain Frank Buell, Captain Theodore Greenwood, Colonel Melvin Clarke, and Lieutenant J. J. Steenrod.

The closing event of the year was the arrival in the county of Major General J. D. Cox and staff on December 7th, who established at Marietta the headquarters of the department of West Virginia, which included the State of West Virginia and the bordering counties of Ohio from Wheeling to the Big Sandy. General Cox remained until April 8, 1863, when he went to Columbus, Ohio, having been assigned to a new command.