Washington County, Ohio - War of the Rebellion - Continued (2 of 2 so headed), 1881 (part 4 of 11)

September 24th the Eleventh and Twelfth corps were ordered to Bridgeport, Alabama, to reenforce the army of the Tennessee, and the whole force of twenty thousand men was transferred by rail in five days, arriving September 3oth. They then marched up the Tennessee and joined General Thomas near Brown's Ferry. On October 27th, at about midnight the enemy made an attack on General Geary and the Twelfth corps at Wauhatchie, Teunessee, and the Seventy-third with the division was ordered to their support. The Seventy-third and Thirtythird Massachusetts regiments being in advance, and coming onto the rebels charged up a steep and difficult hill, and upon arriving at the top were received with a deadly fire; but nothing daunted, they fixed bayonets and charged, driving the enemy in confusion from their entrenched position, breaking the rebel line, and compelling the entire attacking force to retire from Geary's position. Indeed, as soon as the Seventy-third Ohio and Thirtythird Massachusetts opened their fire the rebel fire on Geary's line fell off. The conduct of the Seventy-third on this occasion was characterized in the official dispatches of General Grant as "fone of the most daring feats of arms of the war."

In the battle of Mission Ridge the Seventy-third formed a part of General O. O. Howard's corps that was pushed out on the left to make a junction with Sherman, and took position on the banks of the Chickamauga, on Sherman's extreme left. Meanwhile Thomas and Hooker had made their famous charge and captured the ridge. On January 4th the regiment went home on veteran furlough.

Upon its return the Seventy-third regiment was assigned to the Third brigade (Wood's), Third division (Butterfield's), and Twentieth corps (Hooper's) army of the Cumberland. The Seventy-third took part in the great Atalanta campaign, and in the battle of Resaca so acquitted itself as to be complimented by the division commander for brilliant conduct.

In the battle of New Hope Church, they occupied the extreme left, and, though in an exposed position and suffering severely, held their position until nightfall, losing three officers and seventy-two men in killed and wounded.

Around Kennesaw Mountain the Seventy-third was in several severe engagements, losing heavily; in front of Marietta, Georgia, sixteen, and in another engagement nineteen men in killed and wounded. On June 2oth, they engaged in the battle of Peach Tree Creek, losing eighteen men. The rebels were now hotly besieged in Atlanta, and the Seventy-third was constantly under fire and in the front line of works. Upon the evacuation, two companies of the Seventy-third, forming part of a reconnoissance, were the first troops to enter the city. In this campaign of one hundred and twenty days, the regiment had been under fire one hundred and three days, and lost two hundred and ten men and eight officers out of less than three hundred and fifty.

On November 15th, they started with Sherman on his memorable "March to the Sea," being in the Twentieth corps, under General Williams, and, in the left wing, commanded by General Slocum. The regiment reached Savannah without firing a shot. x

January 2, 1865, the regiment crossed the Savannah into South Carolina, and entered upon its last campaign. At the battle of Averysborough the Seventy-third engaged the enemy, losing fifteen wounded.

On Sunday, March roth, they took part in the battle of Bentonville, the last engagement of the war, loosing five men killed, and four officers and twenty-one men wounded.

After the march to Washington and the grand review, the Seventy-third was sent to Louisville, and on July 2oth was mustered out, and returning to Camp Dennison, Ohio, was there finally paid off and discharged July 24th, after a service of three years and eight months.

It was always in actual service, never at posts or guarding communications. It marched several thousand miles, participated in twenty battles, not to speak of numerous skirmishes. On three occasions, in connection with its brigade, its behavior in battle decided the fortunes of the day. Its discipline and drill were uniformly the subject of remark in its brigade and division. As proof of its gallantry and services, out of a little more than twelve hundred members, including recruits, two hundred and eighty-five sleep beneath the sod, and five hundred and

Seventy-Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regimental Officers

Colonel Jesse Hildebrand, mustered October 5, 1861, died April 18, 1863; Colonel William B. Mason, April 18, 1863, mustered out December 31, 1864; Colonel William E. Stevens*, March 7, 1866, mustered out as lieutenant colonel; Lieutenant Colonel Wills De Hass||, October 5, 1861, dismissed February 16, 1864; Lieutenant Colonel William E. Stevens, March 19, 1864, promoted to colonel; Lieutenant Colonel Charles H. Morris*, March 7, 1866, mustered out as captain; Major Benjamin D. Fearing, December 17, 1861, appointed leutenant colonel Ninety-second Ohio volunteer infantry, August 26, 1862; Major William B. Mason, August 26, 1862, promoted to colonel; Major Louis E, Sisson||, March 19, 1864, mustered out December 10, 1864; Major Charles H. Morris, November 14, 1865, promoted to lieutenant colonel; Major Robert E. Smithson, March 7, 1866, mustered out as captain; Surgeon James W. Warfield, + February 3, 1862, honorably discharged May 15, 1864; Surgeon Andrew Wall,§ August 11, 1864, mustered out with regiment; Assistant Surgeon Pardon Cook, October 29, 1861, died August 31, 1863; Assistant Surgeon Andrew Wall, September 8, 1862, promoted to surgeon; Assistant Surgeon Yearsley H. Jones, September 17, 1864, mustered out December 31, 1864; Chaplain William Pearce, January 4, 1862, resigned August 31, 1862; Chaplain James T. Holliday, July 13, 1864, mustered out December 31, 1864.

1865, mustered out with regiment as first lieutenant and adjutant; First Lieutenant Henry H. Dye, November 14, 1865, resigned October 10, 1865, as second lieutenant; First Licutenant William A. Day, E, November 16, 1865, mustered out with regiment as second lieutenant; First Lieutenant John Smith, K, December 30, 1865, mustered out with regiment as second lieutenant; First Lieutenant Thomas Wiseman, C, December 30, 1865, mustered out with regiment; First Lieutenant James P. Daugherty, March 7, 1866, mustered out with regiment as second lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Joseph J. Steenrod,* A, November 23, 1861, killed April 8, 1862; Second Lieutenant David F. Jones, B, December 2, 1861, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Marion N, Burris, C, December 10, 1861, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Edward R. Moore, D, December 12, 1861, promcted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Hanson Criswell, + E, December 12, 1861, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Oliphant S. Thomas, * G, December 10, 1861, died May 31, 1862; Second Lieutenant David A. Henery, { F, December 21, 1861, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Levi J. Fouraker, H, December 31, 1861, discharged October 21, 1863; Second Lieutenant Henry Hobletzell, || 1, December 31, 1861, dismissed January 8, 1863; Second Lieutenant William H. Fisher, { K, November 5, 1861, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Robert B. Griggs, K, March 6, 1862, discharged August 5, 1862; Second Lieutenant Charles H. Morris, A, April 8, 1862, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Thomas R. Campbell, 'B, August 26, 1862, died September 25, 1862; Second Lieutenant Robert E. Smithson, G, May 31, 1862, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Charles J. Eagler, B, August 26, 1862, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Jesse Hildebrand, jr., H, October 21, 1862, resigned January 23, 1864; Second Lieutenant Henry L. Pugh, F, August 26, 1862, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Nathan B. Smith, t K, October 21, 1862, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Gordon B. West, G, February 11, 1863, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant John L. McIntyre, + G, January 1, 1863, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Jesse S. Province, I, May 1, 1862, mustered out December 27, 1864; Second Lieutenant Isaac B. Kinkead, K, November 1, 1862, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Samuel Fulton, A, February 13, 1863, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Robert H. Flemming, D, February 25, 1863, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Leonard A. Marlow, C, January 1, 1863, prornoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Robert C. Berry, A, April 18, 1863, promoted to first, lieutenant; Second Lieutenant William E. Smithson, B, November 1, 1863, mustered out December 11, 1864; Second Lieutenant Benjamin T. Hill, adjutant, March 29, 1865, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Henry H. Dye, H, March 2g, 1865, resigned October 10, 1865; Second Lieutenant William A. Day, E, March 29, 1865, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant John Smith, March 29, 1865, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Thomas Wiseman, C, May 31, 1865, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Joseph M. Mitchell, E, March 29, 1865, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant William W. Burris, A, June 29, 1865, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Henry H. Clindenst, September 29, 1865, never mustered; Second Lieutenant Gamaliel J. Lund, B, November 14, 1865, mustered out with regiment as sergeant; Second Lieutenant Jeremiah Fish, + November 14, 1865, mustered out with regiment as sergeant; Second Lieutenant James P. Daugherty, November 14, 1865, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant William H. Hose, November 14, 1862, mustered out with regiment; Second Lieutenant William H. Hanson, G, November 16, 1865, mustered out with regiment as sergeant; Second Lieutenant Christopher Black,* December 30, 1865, mustered out with regiment as sergeant; Second Lieutenant William H. Bingman, t+ March 7, 1866, mustered out with regiment as sergeant.

Early in September, 1861, the quota of Ohio being full at the time, Governor F. Pierpont, of Virginia, commissioned Jesse Hildebrand, of Marrietta, Ohio, colonel, and Wills DeHass, of Wheeling, lieutenant colonel, to raise a regiment along the Ohio river for the United States service. It was soon manifest that the men composing the regiment would be nearly all recruited in Ohio, and as the Government would now accept them, Governor Dennison proposed to Colonel

Hildebrand to enter the Ohio service, which proposition was accepted, and the organization was made the Seventyseventh regiment of Ohio infantry. Recruiting officers were appointed October roth, and the place of rendezvous was Camp Tupper, Marietta. With the exception of company A from Monroe county, company E from Belmont county, and company F from Morgan county, all the companies of the regiment were almost entirely composed of Washington county men - there being some recruits from Monroe and Noble counties in several of them.

By the last of December the regiment was full and many men recruited for it were transferred to the Sixtythird Ohio infantry. On the ninth of January, 1862, the Seventy-seventh left Marietta for camp Dennison, where the regiment was engaged in drilling until the seventeenth of February, when it was ordered to Cincinnati, and at once embarked on transports for Paducah, Kentucky, for service on the Tennessee. Landing at Paducah on the twentieth, it was assigned to General W. T. Sherman's division. After drilling and doing guard duty without arms till the ninth of March, it was armed and brigaded with the Fifty-third and Fifty-seventh Ohio and Fifth cavalry regiments, and embarked on transports for Pittsburgh Landing and other points on the Tennessee. Colonel Hildebrand being in command of the brigade, and Lieutenant Colonel DeHass absent, the regiment was under command of Major Benjamin D. Fearing. The regiment joined in the expedition to cut the enemy's ton railroad, and landed at the mouth of Yellow creek March 14th; but the heavy rains and the position of the enemy rendering this impracticable, the expedition returned next day and disembarked at Pittsburgh Landing on the sixteenth. On the seventeenth it marched under General Sherman to near Monterey, in the direction of Corinth, where the enemy was in heavy force, and returning went into camp at Shiloh Church on the eighteenth. Still other reconnoissances towards Purdy and Corinth were made, and on the first of April the regiment moved with the division, by transports, to Eastport, Mississippi, driving the enemy from Eastport towards Iuka. After its return to Shiloh, the Third brigade, of which this regiment was a part, was encamped on the left of the Corinth road, the right of the brigade resting on the Church.

The Seventy-seventh camped on the left of the Corinth road, its right resting on Shiloh church, which was used for regimental headquarters. On Friday evening, April 4th, Captain Mason's company, B, was on picket near the Lee house, in front of Shiloh church, and plainly heard beating of drums a short distance south. They wondered whether our troops were moving towards Corinth. When daylight came they discovered that the birds, rabbits, and squirrels were coming towards them and passing through the guard line, being too much frightened to notice the pickets, thus showing that a large body was near on the south. Captain Mason at once established a few new vidette posts at favorable points of observation, and before noon a squad of gray-coated cavalry passed along the ridge, about seventy-five yards distant, several of them firing at the vidette. About two o'clock large bodies of cavalry were seen approaching the Union line, and filing off to the right, keeping under cover as much as possible. Soon after, column after column of infantry arrived at the same point, filing off to the right and left, taking up their position in line of battle. Several pieces of artillery also went into position on the ridge, just at the edge of the open field. Captain Mason, believing this display of the enemy worthy of reporting, sent Sergeant C. J. Eagler, now of Macksburgh, to inform Colonel Hildebrand just what had transpired, and then report back to the picket line. The sergeant promptly obeyed the order, and Colonel Hildebrand, brigade commander, says he at once went to division headquarters and repeated the report the captain had sent him, word for word. General Sherman ridiculed the idea of such a force being seen, and ordered the messenger arrested. In obedience to this order the colonel sent Captain Stevens, with a portion of his command, to arrest Eagler for bringing false and scary news from the front. On learning the object of his arrival, Captain Mason said to Captain Stevens: 'You have not men enough to take Eagler; he has simply obeyed my orders, which he swore to do when he enlisted. Go back to headquarters and have the order changed to my arrest, for I am responsible, and have sent in the facts, as all on duty here know."

Captain Stevens returned, reporting the facts as related. Soon after, Colonel Hildebrand, with part of his staff, came out to the picket line, and, after saluting, said: "Captain Mason, what does all this mean?" He replied: "General, it means the enemy are directly in our front. Do you wish to see them? If so, ride to that little opening to the right, and about two rods in advance." He and his staff did so, accompanied by the captain, who pointed out the enemy, whom the colonel could see without the aid of a field-glass, when Colonel Hildebrand exclaimed: 'My God! General Sherman has been deceived, for he told us to-day there was no enemy this side of Corinth, except some reconnoitring parties." He returned to camp, and took the precaution of doubling his picket line by detailing companies C and G, Captains Sisson and McCormick, to relieve company B, at dusk, Saturday evening. He also reported to General Sherman that he had been to the picket line, and it was true that the enemy were in our front in force, with the appearance of a determination to attack.

Notwithstanding these facts, orders were received near midnight, by company commanders of the Seventy-seyenth, "Form your companies on the color-line at daybreak in the morning, move to the old drill-ground, and drill one hour before breakfast." Captain Mason, receiving this order with the rest, and knowing that Colonel Hildebrand knew the facts above related, went to him, and after talking a few minutes, casually asked who originated the order for regimental drill in the morning. Colonel Hildebrand picked up a paper from his desk and observed: "This is the order of General Sherman, but we know it will be a different drill on the morrow than

Before daylight a battalion under Major Powell passed through our picket lines, reconnoitring, and at once became engaged with the enemy's advance. An orderly was sent by Captain McCormick to brigade headquarters with a report of this fact, and the officers in command of the pickets received orders to hold their ground as long as possible, and if hard pressed to fall back slowly, which orders were strictly obeyed, the pickets becoming engaged at daybreak. This was probably the first time Ohio troops were engaged with the enemy at Shiloh, it beng in fact the opening day of that bloody contest.

At daylight the regiment was on its way to the drillground, but after having gone a few hundred yards, was overtaken by an orderly and ordered back, to breakfast and fall into line immediately. It returned, but before breakfast was over the orders were: '"Seventy-seventh, fall into line, quick! Company B will move to the front, deploy as skirmishers, and move forward to the Lee house." The regiment formed, and the skirmishers advanced rapidly across the bridge, about fifty yards in front, and were ordered by the captain to deploy to the right. Ina few minutes they were directly under fire of the enemy, and many were shot down - among the first killed being that noble soldier, George A. Booth, of Marietta.

On the night of April 5th, companies C and G, under Captains Sisson and McCormick, relieved company B, Captain Mason, on the picket line. When the pickets were changed that evening, the enemy was so near that his outposts could' easily be seen by our men. General Sherman had, the night before, ordered that on the morning of the sixth of April the Seventy-seventh regiment should be posted covering the open field to the right of the Lee house, near the advance picket line. In the morning it was found impossible to reach that position, as the enemy had forced the pickets to fall back, so that the skirmish line of the regiment met them between the Lee house and the creek which ran in front of the camp. 'The pickets were reenforced by the skirmishers, and the brigade formed in line of battle between the church and the creek, covering the road to Corinth. Here the battle opened sooon after sunrise by a heavy fire of musketry on both sides, assisted on the Union side by Taylor's Chicago battery. The enemy had also artillery engaged at this point. The line of the enemy as they came down the western slope could be distinctly marked in the woods by the glitter of their polished muskets in the sunlight, and the fire was most deadly from the ponderous French rifled muskets with which the Seventy-seventh was armed. This position was held, with one slight change, for about two hours, and the valley was strewn thickly with the enemy's dead, while our losses were also heavy. After a bloody conflict of some hours, the left of the brigade was turned, and the Seventy-seventh changed position so that its left rested on the old church.

It was here that Colonel E. C. Dawes, a Washington county soldier, then adjutant of the Fifty-third (in connection with Captain, afterwards Colonel W. S. Jones), distinguished himself by rallying a part of his regiment and fighting bravely. The overwhelming numbers of the enemy sweeping around the left rendered it necessary, as the day advanced, after many hours of gallant fighting, for the brigade to again change to the ridge further north, contesting the ground with the foe, step by step, and losing brave men by the score. Each chosen position was, in its turn, assaulted and carried by the enemy till about the middle of the afternoon, when the line was formed and held till the conflict of the day closed with the dusk of evening.

On the morning of the seventh the regiment was promptly in line, waiting orders to move to the attack, but as General Buell's army had arrived and joined General Grant's forces, these fresh troops led the advance; and before noon the enemy were in full retreat without the Seventy-seventh being actively engaged that day - though being in supporting distance of the advance line the regiment was only a part of the time under fire. By the middle of the afternoon it occupied its old camp at the church.

*On Tuesday morning, April 8th, General Sherman's division moved out the Corinth road in pursuit of the retreating enemy. General Breckenridge's division of Hardee's corps, with Forrest's brigade of Confederate cayalry, covered the enemy's retreat. A battalion of cavalry having reported to General Sherman that 'the woods was full of rebs," he asked Colonel Hildebrand to halt his brigade and send a regiment forward and 'clean out the woods." Colonel Hildebrand selected his own regiment whose position was in the rear of the brigade. The regiment moved promptly forward, and in a few minutes its skirmishers were engaged with the enemy. Coming forward into line and to a halt, a sharp fire was opened upon the cavalry brigade in its front, which proved to be Wirt Adams' Mississippians, Forrest's Kentucky cavalry, and the Texas rangers. In a few moments it was seen that the cavalry were about to charge, and bayonets were fixed to receive them. On they came with dashing impetuosity, discharging their double-barreled shotguns as they came, thus killing and wounding enough to thin out our short line of battle. When within a rod or two of our line they halted and emptied their revolvers on our gallant men, while still out of reach of their bayonets. 'hen a dash was made to make prisoners of the survivors, which was partly successful, as Captain McCormick (having his right arm broken by a gunshot), Captain Chandler, Lieutenant Criswell, and about thirty-five men were captured - several others of them being badly

*On the night of the seventh a large part of the regiment did picket duty all night in the rain, Lieutenant Jeseph J. Steenrod being in command of the pickets. There were three alarms during the night so the men got no rest. Captain Stevens having been wounded, was unable to go on the expedition on the morning of the eighth, so Lieutenant Steenrod was in command of company A and was killed in battle. He was a noble officer.

wounded. But for the timely order of Colonel Hildebrand bringing the Fifty-third and Fifty-seventh Ohio regiments to the rescue, the most of the regiment, and with it General Sherman, would have been made prisoners. The general had so much faith in the regiment, and appeared to doubt the report of his cavalry so much, that he felt sure of the success of the movement, and was almost abreast of the regiment when this powerful brigade of the enemy's best cavalry charged down upon its thinned ranks.

Among those kiiled in the battle on Sunday were noncommissioned officers George A. Booth, Lorain Burris, Jacob R. Batten, George A. Cavanaugh, John Cline, John P. Calvert, James Flemming, Benjamin M. Kimberly and John Sanford. Lieutenant O. S. Thomas was mortally wounded, and died May 31, 1862; and Sergeant Major G. B. West was wounded.

So great had been our loss in the first day's fight in killed and wounded, and by disease in camp, that the regiment took but about two hundred and ten men into this battle at Fallen Timbers," as it is sometimes called, about sixtyfive of whom it there lost. Among those killed here were Lieutenant Joseph Steenrod, Andrew J. Duvall, William L. Porterfield, John H. Kepburn, James M. Baker, Percival Nott, Daniel Sipple, Lyman Wyss, and Royal A. Wright, non-commissioned officers, with eighteen privates. Lieutenants Fisher, Fouraker, Garrett, White and Thomas Mitchell, were wounded.

The regiment lost in the battles of Shiloh, including the fight of Tuesday, one officer and fifty men killed, seven officers and one hundred and ten men mounted, besides. several reported missing in action - now almost certainly known to sleep on this bloody field in unmarked graves. Its loss was, with two or three exceptions, the largest of any regiment in the army. Three officers and fifty-three men were captured, the privates being paroled in a few days and the officers held till October, when they were paroled and soon exchanged.

Colonel Jesse- Hildebrand, himself a gallant officer, in his report as brigade commander, says: 'With regard to the officers and men who participated in the affair at Fallen Timbers, and at Shiloh, I am happy to bear testimony to the fidelity, bravery and devotion of all. Major B. D. Fearing, who was in immediate command of the Seventy-seventh Ohio volunteer infantry, was cool and brave, and acquitted himself with as much skill as an old officer of larger experience, and was not excelled by any other field officer who came under my observation." He also spoke of Captains Chandler and McCormick as meritorious officers - the latter being since brevetted major for 'meritorious services in the battle of Shiloh." Captain Mason, also, was distinguished for the part he took in these three days' fight.

General Sherman, in published orders, speaks in high terms of praise regarding the firmness in which the Seventy-seventh held the position at Shiloh church against such fearful odds, and credited with saving from capture the Chicago artillery. He has since said much more in commendation of these gallant heroes, which it

After the battle and up to the capture of Corinth, May 3oth, the Seventy-seventh took a prominent part in the siege, being often under fire, and all the time engaged in building works and otherwise aiding to capture the place by regular approaches. It advanced in pursuit of the retreating enemy as far as Chewalla, and during June and until July 21st, it was on expeditions to Holly Springs, Mississippi, Moscow, Macon, Lagrange, Tennessee, and other places. July 21st, it reached Memphis, the regiment was ordered to Alton, Illinois, to guard prisoners of war and recruit its thinned ranks - relieving General Sherman's old regiment, the Thirteenth United States infantry.

Being recruited up to a minimum the regiment was ordered to join General F. Steele's expedition for the capture of Little Rock and other places in Arkansas, leaving on the thirty-first of July, 1863, for Helena, where it landed August 5th. It was here brigaded with the Forty-third Indiana and Thirty-sixth Iowa, as the Third brigade of the Third division of the Arkansas expedition, and marched on the eleventh for the State capital. The men were in fine condition, and endured the arduous march with commendable spirit. They exhibited the true spirit of tried soldiers in the various brushes with the enemy on the way. Halting a brief period at Clarendon and Duval's Bluffs, the army marched, on the first of September, across Grand Prairie without water, through a broiling hot sun in which many of the men were sun-struck, inflicting incurable if not fatal injuries, reaching Brownsville in the evening. On the fourth of September, the regiment made a feint on the enemy's position at Bayou Meteor, accompanied by a few pieces of artillery, shelling them from their position and returning to Brownsville. On this march the commanding officer of the regiment, Colonel William B. Mason, met with a serious accident; his horse becoming entangled in fallen telegraph wires, was unmanageable, and the colonel being thrown off with great force, received injuries which would ordinarily prove fatal, but a good constitution and the skill and care of Surgeon Wall enabled him to live through them.

On the tenth of September the army drove the enemy from Little Rock and entered the capital, where the whole army encamped till December. The forces of Generals Fagan, Marmaduke, Shelby, and others, were hovering in the vicinity and awaiting an opportunity to make an assault, and if possible retake the place. General Steele had the railroad repaired from Duval's Bluffs to Little Rock, and officers and men of the Seventyseventh were detailed to run it, as well as to guard sawmills in the vicinity while lumber was cut to build winter quarters. In this way, and in scouting the country, guarding supply trains to Pine Bluffs, and conducting court martial business, the officers and men were employed till December 20th, when almost all the men fit for military duty reenlisted as veteran volunteers - a movement towards reenlisting having begun in the regiment as early as October. On the 23d of December, the regiment started to Columbus, Ohio, where it arrived

January 10, 1864, and on the twenty-second of January, the men were mustered as veterans and furloughed for thirty days Colonel Mason, Captain McCormick, Captain Morris and Lieutenant Fisher, were appointed recruiting officers, and when the regiment reached Camp Dennison, the rendezvous, to start for the field, it had about two hundred recruits in its ranks.

Reaching its rendezvous February 26th, the regiment left, March trst, for Little Rock, where it arrived on the seventeenth. It was ordered to march with General Steele's expedition, and left on the twenty-third for Shreveport, Louisiana, to cooperate with Banks' Red River expedition. At Spoonville, April 2d, a skirmish took place, but the regiment lost no men. At Okalona, on the third, it was again under fire, having a prominent position and bearing itself creditably while aiding Colonel Goetz to drive a battery from its position. At*Elkin's Ford, on the sixth, it next met and assisted in driving the foe, as it did again at Prairie de Ann on the thirteenth. The army was attacked at Moscow on the thirteenth, but there was not much fighting. Arriving at Camden on the sixteenth, and driving out the enemy, it was learned fromm telegrams captured that General Banks' Red River expedition had been defeated. Our troops had started from Little Rock with only half rations of hard bread and quarter rations of pork, and had been long out of meat, subsisting partly on the country. General Clayton had started a supply train from Pine Bluffs to meet Steele's forces at Camden, but it did not arrive on time, and there was much suffering for food. After its arrival, General Steele ordered the thoroughly effective men of the brigade, except the guards at headquarters and at two mills that were grinding corn and the pickets of the division (which consisted of portions of the Seventy-seventh Ohio, Forty-third Indiana, and Thirty-sixth Iowa), to escort the empty wagon train back to Pine Bluffs, and on the twenty-third it crossed the Washita river on pontoon bridges and left Camden. Colonel Drake, of the Thirty-sixth Iowa, commanded the brigade, and Captain McCormick was elected by Colonel W. B. Mason as the senior officer present to command that portion of the Seventy-seventh that was detailed. About two hundred of the First Indiana and Seventh Missouri cavalry and a section of the Second Missouri battery accompanied the train. On the twenty-fifth of April this little force, guarding about two hundred and fifty wagons, found in battle array over six thousand mounted rebels at Marks' Mills, forty-five miles from Camden and about the same distance from Pine Bluffs. The enemy had taken another route from Camden and struck on our flank at this junction. The train was passing from Bayou Moro through woodlands over a narrow road, so it was stretched out some five miles long. In this condition it was not difficult for the enemy to divide the regiments at the cross-roads and attack them in detail. This was done, and their heavy force surrounded and captured the two other regiments, after a sharp fight. Hearing the battle open several miles ahead, while they were guarding the rear of the train, the commander of the detailed portion of the Seventy-seventh moved his command forward on the double-quick, passing wagons and pieces of artillery mired in the swampy Moro bottoms. Moving as rapidly as possible the entire distance, and coming up almost breathless to Marks' Mills, the detachment of the Seventy-seventh arrived only in time to find that their comrades had been captured, and that they must fight the battle alone. The entire force of the enemy, except a few hundreds left guarding the prisoners, now confronted the gallant Ohio boys. Quickly throwing out skirmishers to protect the flanks, Captain McCormick at once formed his command in line of battle, in a good position, and endeavored to protect the remaining half of the train. For more than an hour longer was the enemy held at bay by this little band of about three hundred men, amidst a hotly contested conflict of arms. Twice was General Cabell's brigade in front of our noble boys driven back, causing the brigade commander to ask them if they were "going to let that little handful whip them." Meantime, Adjutant Flemming and Quartermaster Fisher, who had been sent out to the crossroads to see if there was any danger of being flanked, reported that there was a heavy body of troops on the right, and another to the left and rear, threatening to surround the little Union band. These proved to be the brigades of General Dockery and General Shelby. Notwithstanding these fearful odds, the Seventy-seventh boys and their commander were unwilling to give up the conflict, but continued to pour well directed shots into the heavy lines of the enemy, defying the leaden hail which stormed around them. After keeping up this unequal contest for about two hours, the brave boys found their ammunition exhausted and themselves entirely surrounded and prisoners of war. The Union losses in this battle were two hundred .and fifty killed and wounded, and about one thousand prisoners, the wagons also falling into the hands of the enemy. The enemy's losses in killed and wounded were much heavier, owing to the fact that the battle was in 'a piece of woodland, where they were unable to see how small a force they were fighting. Believing General Steele had reenforced the train guard, they were unwilling to make a dash to surround them at once, lest they should meet with a decided repulse; and advancing slowly in heavy lines, they formed a good target for the Ohio boys, who caused them to remark (when they found how few of our men they had been fighting), that they were "'a dear lot of prisoners."

The enemy's loss was estimated at a thousand, killed and wounded. Three hundred and eighteen members of the Seventy-seventh, including eleven officers, became prisoners of war. They were marched, without stopping to eat or sleep, and almost without drink, sixty miles to the Washita river, before they were allowed an hour's rest. The commander of the guard apologized for this, and showed one of our officers the order of General Fagan, requiring him to cross the Washita before resting, lest General Steele should rescue the prisoners.

Captain McCormick was given the rank of brevet lieutenant colonel "for gallantry in the battle of Marks, Mills," and their commander says Captain McKitrick and Lieutenants Fulton, Scott, Marlow, Flemming, Mc-

Intire, David A. Henry, R. E. Smithson, Province, and N. B. Smith, also deserve well of this country for their part in the battle. They were all captured, as well as Lieutenants Atkinson, J. M. Mitchell, John Smith, Dye, Lund, Day and Black, afterwards commissioned, all of whom fought bravely.

General Steele, finding that the Banks expedition had met with disastrous defeat, was compelled to abandon Camden. Leaving the place in the night, by a pontoon bridge and a new road he had made, the enemy (which now far outnumbered his force) did not learn of his movements so as to overtake him till he reached the Saline river, at Jenkins' Ferry. Here, on the thirtieth of April, those of the Seventy-seventh who had not been at Marks' Mills (having been left at Camden because they were on picket and other guard duty), or not thoroughly equipped, or not fit for duty), were, with the rest of Steele's forces, engaged in a bloody battle. Fortunately the enemy was repulsed, and with heavy loss. In this encounter the Seventy-seventh lost, in killed and wounded, about half the number engaged, and a few were made prisoners. Part of the time they fought in water knee deep, the river being out of its banks. Those captured by the enemy at Marks' Mills, and at Jenkins' Ferry, were soon after marched about two hundred miles south, and confined for ten months in a military prison at Camp Ford, near Tyler, Texas, where thirty-eight of them died from starvation, exposure, and disease, and one, John Calvert, was shot dead, in a brutal manner, by a rebel guard, for getting too close "the dead line" when going for water.

Captain McCormick and Lieutenants Flemming, Scott, and Smithson, of the Seventy-seventh, and three men not of the regiment, escaped from the military prison one dark evening about the last of August, and started north, travelling by night with only the stars for a guide. Scott and Smithson travelled about a hundred miles and were retaken near Red river. The others marched about sixty miles towards the Union lines, but unfortunately the watch-dogs ona plantation got scent of them, and next morning two packs of blood-hounds, with squads of rebel cavalry, were on there track. After a tiresome chase through the tangled woods they were run down by the blood-hounds, and brought to bay. As orders were posted at the prison before they left that all prisoners who might escape should be shot if overtaken, the situation was considered one of peril. However, the enemy evidently took care to count the cost of such a course, as assurances were given by the cavalry that no harm should be done them if they would surrender. Being taken to Gilmore, a squad of fierce rebels, who probably never saw an army Union soldier, plied them with numerous insulting questions, which were answered in plain language without much care for the feelings of the doughty questioners. So they charged Captain Mc- Cormick with "treason to the State of Texas," and threatened to hang him for his pointed replies. The real soldiers of the guard seemed to relish the answers made to those who would insult an unarmed and defenceless prisoner, and they were restrained and advised to cease questioning if they could not endure the responses. The prisoners were returned to Camp Ford a few days after, where they awaited another opportunity to escape, finally made unnecessary by the arrival of the paroling officers so long and anxiously looked for in vain. On _ being paroled the survivors marched to Shreveport, Louisiana, about one hundred miles, where they were placed on transports and conveyed to the mouth of Red river, and there delivered into the Union lines February 25, 1865, except Lieutenants Flemming, Fulton, and Atkinson, who were held in Texas till the end of the war for attempting to escape.

On the expiration of the term of service, of the few original member who did not become veterans, and of those enlisted in 1862, and therefore could not reenlist, they were mustered out in 1864. ,

This left the command too small to maintain its organization as a regiment, and it was consolidated into a battalion of six companies, commanded by Colonel Stevens.

On the fifth of February, 1865, the battalion left Little Rock with General Steele for the Gulf department, and was at Fort Morgan, Alabama, when the paroled prisoners were released, and were near Mobile when they joined it. It was engaged in operations around Mobile, Fort Spanish, Blakely, McIntosh Bluffs, and other points in Alabama, in which Colonel Stevens and the boys won golden opinions, until June 1, 1865, when it took transports across the Gulf of Mexico for the Rio Grande, and remained on duty at Brazos and Clarksville, and then, from August 1, 1865, till March 8, 1866, at Brownsville, Texas, where it was mustered out and started for Columbus, Ohio, where the men were finally paid off and disbanded, March 26, 1866.

Only one of all Ohio's regiments remained longer in the service, and none served the country more faithfully, or suffered more for the cause of the Union.

Ninety-Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regimental Officers

Colonel Nelson H. Van Vorhes, mustered August 15, 1862, resigned March 22, 1863; Colonel Benjamin D. Fearing, March 22, 1863, mustered out May 19, 1865, on account of wounds; Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin D. Fearing, August 15, 1862, promoted to colonel; Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Putnam, jr., March 22, 1863, honorably discharged April 11, 1864; Lieutenant Colonel John C. Morrow, April 28, 1864, mustered out with regiment; Major Dioclesian A. Smith, August 10, 1862, resigned February 1, 1863; Major Douglas Putnam, jr., February I, 1863, promoted to lieutenant colonel; Major Elmer Golden, March 22, 1863, resigned December 8, 1863; Major John C. Morrow, December 8, 1863, promoted to lieutenant colonel; Surgeon Josiah D. Cotton, August 19, 1862, mustered out with regiment; Assistant Surgeon N. B. Sisson, August 16, 1862, resigned August 15, 1864; Assistant Surgeon J. D. Howell, August 20, 1862, resigned April 29, 1863; Assistant Surgeon A. M. Beers, August 26, 1864, mustered out with regiment; Chaplain Washington M. Grimes, December 1, 1862, resigned September 9, 1863.

Captain William Thorniley, mustered July 29, 1862, resigned April 9 1863; Captain Francis H. Loring, July 30, 1862, mustered out with reg". iment; Captain Alexander Higgins, July 30, 1862, resigned May 9, 1863; Captain William Beale Whittlesey, June 1, 1863, killed at Mission

Ridge November 25, 1863; Captain Hamilton Middleswart, July 20, 1863, mustered out with regiment; Captain James W. Merrill, October 2, 1863, honorably discharged May 24, 1864; Captain Joseph Stephenson, November 25, 1863, mustered out with regiment; Captain Bradley B. Stone, November 18, 1864, mustered out with regiment; First Lieutenant Hamilton Middleswart, July 23, 1862, promoted to captain; First Lieutenant Douglas Putnam, jr., July 25, 1862, promoted to major; First Lieutenant James W. Merrill, July 28, 1862, promoted to captain; First Lieutenant Joseph Stephenson, July 28, 1862, promoted to captain; First Lieutenant David E. Putnam, February 1, 1863, honorably discharged November 24, 1863; First Lieutenant George B. Turner, June 1, 1862, died of wounds December 1, 1863; First Leutenant Bradley B. Stone, July 20, 1863, promoted to captain; First Lieutenant Reason A. Bull, October 29, 1863, mustered out with regiment; First Lieutenant Charles A. Brown, June 14, 1864, mustered out with regiment; Second Lieutenant William Beale Whittlesey, July 23, 1862, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Thomas Day, July 26, 1862, resigned February 17, 1863; Second Lieutenant Bradley B, Stone, February 17, 1863, promoted to first lieutenant; Second Lieutenant George B. Turner, May 9, 1863, promoted to first lieutenunt.

The Ninety-second Ohio was organized at Marietta, Ohio, during the months of August and September, 1862. It rendezvoused at Camp Marietta, then in command of Colonel William R. Putnam. Nelson H. Van Vorhes, the colonel, reported and assumed command on the first of October, 1862. As an officer of volunteers he had been on active duty at the front since April, 1861, and while the regiment was organizing he was still on duty with General Mitchell in Alabama. Benjamin D. Fearing, the lieutenant colonel, had seen service; was at Manassas as a private, had served on the staff of Generals Slemmer and Crook in Virginia, while serving as adjutant in the Thirty-sixth Ohio volunteer infantry, and evinced soldiership at Shiloh in command of one of the regiments of General Sherman's division. All the officers were gentlemen of experience and courage.

The men were the pick of the district - young, active, quick to learn, eager to do their best at all times, and proud of the good name and character of their regiment. The first service performed was before the colonel, lieutenant colonel or major had reported or the regiment had been mustered. Adjutant Putnam, with companies A, B and D, was ordered to move to Gallipolis, Ohio, and garrison that post at the time the rebels were driving Lightburn out of the Kanawha valley. While there they made two expeditions into Virginia. These companies soon after rejoined, when the regiment, numbering nine hundred and forty-nine, rank and file, was mustered into the United States service, uniformed, and armed with Austrian rifled muskets.

On October 7, 1862, the regiment was ordered to Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and made a part of the brigade of Colonel Gilbert. It took part in the expeditions up the Kanawha under General Cox, before whom the rebels retreated and were finally, after some skirmishing, driven beyond the mountains.

At Gauley Bridge it was transferred to brigade commanded_ by General Hugh Ewing and went into winter quarters, building log huts at Loupe creek, a few miles below Kanawha Falls. They were permitted to enjoy these comforts but a short time, when they were ordered to join the brigade of General George Crook and were stationed at Tompkins' farm on New river, which was at that time the outpost of the army of the Kanawha valley.

After the dark days of December, 1862, when the country struggled under the discouragements of Fredericksburgh and the seemingly indecisive battle of Murfreesborough, General Crook's brigade was hurriedly taken by transports to Nashville, Tennessee. The trip occupied over fourteen days and was attended with many hardships on account of the crowded condition of the boats. Remaining at Nashville about three weeks the regiment was ordered to proceed to Carthage, Tennessee. The trip occupied a week, and in no way was it more comfortable than our journey to Nashville. Many of the men were compelled to sleep in the hold, full of foul air, and became impregnated with disease which soon deyveloped itself.

Those two months spent at Carthage will never be forgotten. Daily, for weeks, one or more burial parties fired the last salute over the grave of a comrade as he was committed to mother earth, in a town where no one sympathized with them, and where each grave was counted as taking away one more of their enemies. In less than two months over ninety men were buried.

The colonel, N. H. Van Vorhes was here compelled to resign on account of sickness, and Lieutenant Colonel Fearing was promoted to colonel. Major Smith haying resigned, adjutant Putnam, by request of the officers, was made major, and after promotion of Colonel Fearing, was made lieutenant colonel.

Health once restored, the regiment was ordered south of the Cumberland and joined with the brigade the army of the Cumberland at Murfreesborough. The brigade, which was still under the command of General Crooks, was assigned to General Reynolds' division, Fourteenth army corps.

The regiment moved from Murfreesborough on the twenty-fourth of June, 1863, supporting Wilder's mounted infantry - one of the brigades of Reynold's division at Hoover's gap. The enemy were met and driven back, as they were pressing Wilder and attempting to recover the ground he had taken.

The march over the table lands of Tennessee,. through a continuous rain - rains twenty-one days in succession - bivouacking nightly in mud so deep and soft as to make it necessary to cut boughs to lie on. Mouldy crackers and musty coffee, wet sugar and some bacon, are pleasant themes for the survivors to dwell upon now.

On Elk river the news of Gettysburgh and Vicksburgh was announced in the evening of July 4th and was hailed by a salute from the combined artillery of the army. Despondent hearts took courage; and with better weather and better supplies and full of hope, the regiment camped at Big Springs, Tennesse, resting and enjoying the change as only tired soldiers can.

While here General John B. Turchin, the old Hungarian soldier, assumed command. His vigorous efforts to secure green corn, blackberries, and fresh vegetables, speedily eradicated all traces of scurvy and disease contracted at Carthage, and put the regiment in good condition, mentally and physically, for active work. They bivouacked by the springs at University Place and foraged in the valleys, moving over the mountains and through

On the second of September the regiment crossed the Tennessee river, at Shell Mound, in flatboats. On the third it led the advance over Sand Mountain, and onthe next day moved to Trenton, Georgia. From here the brigade crossed the Lookout ranges, overcoming the seemingly impossible obstacles in so doing, and descending the Coopers gap into Mcl.emoes cove, passed up the valley into Catlett's gap.

While here quite a sharp skirmish occurred, and the regiment held the head of the gap. Skirmishing continued here for parts of two days, and the Ninety-second was busily engaged.

On September 18th a night march was made (one that will never be forgotten by those participating in it) to Chickamauga. The regiment engaged the enemy on that bloody field, under Turchin, on the nineteenth and twentieth, and formed a part of the rear guard that saved the army. On the nineteenth, early in the day, Colonel Fearing was wounded and carried from the field, the command devolving upon Lieutenant Colonel Putnam. Lieutenant Merrill was wounded severely, captured and sent to our lines under a flag of truce.

On Sunday afternoon Turchin's brigade made the charge necessary to open connection with Granger, coming to reenforce General Thomas, who gave the command in person to the Ninety-second to lead the charge, which was made left in front. This charge is described by Van Horn, in his "Army of the Cumberland :"

The charge was made with great vigor, and the enemy was completely routed. Turchin's brigade drove this daring force entirely beyond Baird's left, capturing more than two hundred prisoners. This brigade ; : A 7 was posted by General Thomas, on the road leading through the ridge to the Dry Valley roads, to hold the ground, while the troops from the right and left passed by.

In this battle Lieutenant David E. Putnam, adjutant, was woundedand discharged onaccount of wounds, and George B. Turner, orderly sergeant of company F, was promoted to first lieutenant and made adjutant. Captain John Brown was mortally wounded, and soon after the battle died; also, Lieutenant G. T. Okey received a dangerous shell wound. W. B. Whittlesey, second lieutenant of company F, was promoted to first lieutenant, and on resignation of Captain Thorniley, of the same company, was promoted to captain in June, 1863; hence was in command of his company in this battle.

The regiment returned to Chattanooga, living in dog tents, with cold, wet weather, insufficient rations, etc., yet bore all with patience and fortitude. They made several reconnoissances and were ready for duty on a moment's notice. They formed a part, with Hazen's brigade, of the forlorn hope sent to open connection with General Hooker's arming corps, who were coming to the relief of the beleaguered and nearly starved army. As General Turchins described it: 'Chattanooga was surrounded by two lines of fortifications, one built by brave men and one composed of dead mules, starved to death for their country's cause."

Point, and were ferried over as the boats came down. The movement was so carefully planned, and executed with so much skill, that the enemy was taken completely by surprise, and perfect success crowned the effort. The army was revictualled and reenforced.

About November zoth the preliminary movement for the capture of Mission Ridge commenced. The Ninetysecond, with Turchins' brigade, had been for some time expecting orders to assault, being in position for several days. On the afternoon of November 25th, the final assault was made. Captain Middlesworth, of company F, in connection with the skirmishers of the Thirty-sixth and Eleventh Ohio, cleared the rifle pits at the foot of the ridge. The brigade was ordered forward at double quick, and swept every obstacle before it. This charge has often been described. General John C. Breckenridge, who commanded the enemy's lines in front of this brigade, told the writer that the audacity of the attack - the sight of the steadily moving lines, silent but terrible in its advance - so demoralized his men that they became unmanageable, and, at last, gave way, not until there was almost a hand-to-hand encounter near the summit.

About half way up the hill the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Putnam, fell wounded. Soon there after Captain Whittlesey was shot through the heart, but said to his men "Go on, I'm killed," and breathed his last. 'The men went on, sweeping over the top, in company with the Thirty-sixth, while the enemy retreated down the side.

The summit once gained, no rest was found by the breathless and worn column, as a force of the enemy came hastily from the left to reenforce their fleeing comrades. Here, while rallying the men for this assault, Adjutant Turner received his death-wound, being struck in the head by a large minnie ball. He lived for some days, however, but sank away.

By the death of these two young men, Washington county offered up her choicest material, and their funerals (on the same day) will ever be remembered. Both were brave and faithful officers. Lieutenant Townsend, of Athens county, was also killed, who was an excellent officer. The loss of the regiment was, in this assault, thirty-three per cent. of the officers and ten per cent. of the men. They took many prisoners and two guns.

The next day the regiment, under command of Captain Wheeler, started in pursuit of the enemy and returned soon to Chattanooga. Remaining here until February, 1864, when, under command of Captain I. C. Morrow, Major Golden having resigned, Fearing and Putnam both absent from wounds, they started south towards Dallas. They were engaged at Rocky Face Gap, losing heavily, some of the wounded being buried in the woods. From here they moved to Ringgold Gap, doing out-post duty. Here Captain Morrow was promoted to lieutenant colonel vice Putnam mustered out on account of wounds. Colonel Fearing returned in March, and Lieutenant B. B. Stone of company G, who was promoted from orderly sergeant, was made adjutant. The regiment took an active part in that campaign through Dallas. On the twenty-seventh of July, they were in line of Atlanta.

During August and September the regiment was in the neighborhood of Atlanta, taking parts in the charge at Jonesborough, Georgia. On the fourth of October, they broke camp and joined in pursuit of Hood, crossing the Chattahoochie.

At Kingston preparations were made for the march to the sea under Sherman, the sick provided for in hospitals, baggage sent to rear or destroyed, etc. On the sixteenth, they started. This march has been fully described, and no attempt to do so is needed here. They met the enemy at Bentonville, North Carolina, March 21st. Here Colonel Fearing, who was in command of a brigade, having been brevetted brigade general, was severely wounded in the hand, necessitating the amputation of a portion of it. Passing through Goldborough, Durham Station, and Raleigh, North-Carolina, they moved onward through Virginia, reaching Washington on May 1gth and taking part in the ever memorable grand review of the Twenty-fourth. Having orders to be mustered out of service, it was transported to Columbus, Ohio, and on the nineteenth of June, 1865, the Ninety-second Ohio volunteer infantry ceased to exist.

Their first colors were literally worn and shot into shreds, the second set now in the flag room at Columbus are mute witnesses of their regiment's history as they bear on their folds in letters of gold these names: Hoovers Gap, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Rocky Face Atlanta, The March to the Sea, Savannah, and the Carolinas.

The Silver Grays

Among the many military organizations of Washington county for home defence, none was more self-sacrificing and patriotic than the one we have now to consider. The Silver Grays were among the very first to step forward and form in martial array at the beginning, and their moral influence in the community was great. Their appearance on parade, marching and going through the manual of arms was inspiring, and if a man had any of the martial spirit in him, the sight of these venerable men keeping step to the music of the Union was sure to arouse it.

Two of the members, William Warren and Junia Jennings, prepared the following account of the company in 1866, and we give it substantially as we find it:

Monday forenoon, April 22, 1861, was the time of the departure of the first company of volunteers from Marietta to aid in putting down the Rebellion, the Union Blues, - over one hundred men - under command of Captain Frank Buell. It was an effecting occasion, such as was never before known in Washington county, and may never be again. Strong men's nerves gave way, and the patriotic tear and firm resolve were seen upon every face. There was a brief speech by George P. Buell, esq., and amid cheers, the firing of cannon, and the waving of flags, the volunteers embarked upon the Muskingum packet from the common in front ot the Congregational church, thousands of people being assembled.

The citizens then repaired to the court house and organized a meeting to take into consideration the state of public affairs. Hon. William A. Whittlesey, the mayor of Marietta, being called to the chair; secretaries and committees were appointed. Colonel William West, then in his sixty-sixth year, arose and said:

'«Mr. chairman, I hold in my hand a resolution which I wish to offer for the consideration of this meeting. Such is the excitement of the occasion that I am not in the situation to either do justice to myself or the subject I wish to present; therefore, without comment, with the indulgence of the house, I will submit the resolution."

Silence reigned throughout the crowded house, and the colonel, with a voice tremulous with the deep feeling that pervaded all present, read:

'Resolved, That we, the citizens of Washington county, whose ages are sixty years and upwards, for the protection of our homes, our firesides, and our country's liberties, form ourselves into a military organization, to be called and known as the Silver Grays, of Washington county."

A rush was made to be the first to enroll their names. James Dutton, being a little lame, had started first and had his name first down, followed by William Warren, second; Colonel West, third; Thomas Porter, fourth; Junia Jennings, fifth; and soon. Subsequently, men of forty-five years and upwards were enrolled.

It was resolved that each member of the company should supply himself with ammunition. The commissioned officers had red sashes, the rank and file, blue. A uniform was agreed upon, but circumstances did not favor its procurement. They were armed at once. George W. Barker, William Warren, and F, Wheeler were appointed a committee to ask the county commissioners to procure a flag to be raised on the court house.

Through the exciting days of 1862, especially when the rebels pressed upon the border everywhere throughout the whole line, in August and September, the Silver Grays were out in full force and vigor. In the spring of 1863 their guns were taken by authority for use by a company of younger men, and that ended the Silver Grays, who, it is justice to say, did all the duties they were called upon to perform, and did them well. 'That they would have done excellent duty in repelling invasion, had it ever occurred, there is no doubt. Several of the members were deaf, and these were compelled to watch their comrades' motions to know what order the captain gave. Several used canes.

Their motto as set forth in the first article of their cor stitution was: ''The Union, the Constitution, and the Flag of our Country, for the sustaining of which we pledge out lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

ARTICLE 4. The company shall meet for exercise or other duty at such time and place as shall be determined on by the company on Saturday of each week at 2 P. M., provided that the captain or any other commissioned officer of our company is hereby empowered and required in cases of danger or emergency to cause a fire bell to be rung, which shal] be a signal for the company to assemble at the court house at a minute's warning.

Colonel William West was first elected captain, but declined; Major George W. Barker was then elected, but his time of service was short. For a time they met every evening, at five o'clock, for drill.

Commissioned Officers

During the war Marietta was prolific in fifers and drummers. 'The first to enter the service were those who joined the Eighteenth Ohio volunteer militia, in the three months' service.

Ebenezer Corey and Louis Fourgeres were the musicians of company B, the old Union Blues. After the Eighteenth entered Virginia they were distributed along the Baltimore & Ohio railroad as guards. Ebenezer Corey was appointed drum major of the Eighteenth June 6, 1861, and soon went to Marietta to recruit a martial band.

This resulted in the enlistment of nine young men, most of whom knew nothing of the use of fife or drum, but who became quick learners. On June 17, 1861, they started for Virginia, learning the notes on the way. They were - Charles Holden, George K. Jenvey, William Jenvey, John Tenney, Henry Langley, Frank R. Brenan, Fred Regnier, James Judd, and Henry Corey, and others, among whom were Manly Warren, Louis Fourgeres, and Stephen Mass, from Washington county; they made the 'Pony Section," so called from their size and age.

At Bridgeport they drilled and practiced - result a few tunes and sunburnt ears. They then went to Clarksburgh, still training for the war, when they, with the whole regiment, were transferred to Oakland, and made a fruitless march over the mountains under General Hill, after General Garnett's rebel forces. As the time of the regiment had expired, one hot July day they came back to Marietta and awaited patiently their discharge, with hardly a taste of hard service.

Their martial strains awoke many responsive chords in the hearts of the patriotic people, and the band was invited to take a trip up the Muskingum to Zanesville. Every courtesy was shown them along the route, and they awakened the valley by their ringing music. At Zanesville and Beverly they were treated with especial favor.

On their discharge five enlisted in Buell's battery; three with the major in the Thirty-sixth Ohio volunteer infantry, in a fine band, which timed the steps of many brave ones in their march to duty and victory; one went into Huntington's battery, and one in the Second West Virginia cavalry. All did brave duty through the war. One of whom died in the service - Charles A. Holden. Such was the "Pony Section."

Fantry, Ohio National Guards

In response to the call of Governor Brough the Fortysixth regiment, Ohio National guards, numbering six hundred and fifty-four men of Washington: county, reported for duty at Marietta on the second day of May, 1864. Subsequently the Ninety-sixth battalion, of Vinton county, was consolidated with the Forty-sixth regiment, forming the One Hundred and Forty-eighth regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry. The regiment was mustered into the service on the seventeenth and eighteenth of May. 'The officers were all Washington county men, except Major Edmiston and Captains McDowell and McCormick. The colonel had been a captain in the Thirty-sixth Ohio; the lieutenant colonel had been a lieutenant in the Seventy-seventh Ohio; and the major had been a captain in the Eighteenth Ohio. Several of the line officers, also, had been in the service, and nearly the whole regiment had been tried, briefly but laboriously, during the Morgan raid of the previous year. Company A, in particular, had been called out repeatedly, and on two or three occasions had been sent to Virginia, when the border was threatened. An unusual proportion of the men in this company were students of Marietta college and merchants, and it is worthy of remark that during one hundred and thirty-six days' service it was the only company in the regiment that did not lose a man by sickness.

On the twenty-third of May the regiment left Marietta for the field. Scarcely had the train passed out of sight of the town when an accident occurred to it, on the Union branch of the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, by which Jeremiah Stuckey, of company A, was killed. John H. McKimm, of Athens county, and Alexander S.

Nugent, of Franklin, Pennsylvania, students in the preparatory department of Marietta college, who were accompanying their friends in the regiment to Parkersburgh, were killed. William Hildebrand, William Flemming, and First Lieutenant Gates were seriously injured. Lieutenant Gates went forward with the regiment, but he had received such internal injuries that, coupled with pneumonia, it resulted in his death on the thirty-first, six days after the regiment had arrived at Harper's Ferry. This accident, together with the subsequent death of Lieutenant Gates, cast a gloom over the regiment and throughout the community from which its members had been gathered. Although the youngest officer, and one of the youngest men in the regiment, no one was more generally known and more universally beloved than Charles Beman Gates. The various testimonials of affection and regret from the college societies with which he was connected, and from the officers of his regiment, are evidences of the high esteem in which this youthful, Christian patriot was held by his associates.

After remaining about two days at Harper's Ferry, the regiment moved to Washington, and on the ninth of June left that city for White House, on the Pamunkey. On the eleventh it left White House, arrived at Bermuda Hundred on the twelfth, and on the thirteenth went into General Butler's intrenchments at the front. On the sixteenth seven companies, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Kinkead, left Bermuda Hundred for City Point. On the ninth of August, by the explosion of an ordnance boat at City Point, three men of the regiment were killed - S. E. Graham, of company H, Joseph H. Smith, of company D, and Joseph D. Clarke, of company A. Young Clarke was only about seventeen years old, was a member of the preparatory department in Marietta college, and was the oldest son of Colonel Melvin Clarke, of the Thirty-sixth Ohio, who was instantly killed while gallantly leading his regiment at the battle of Antietam, September, 1862. Sire and son, both instantly killed in their country's service, are buried side by side in the Marietta Mound cemetery. The total loss of the regiment by death was forty. On the twenty-ninth of August the One Hundred and Forty-eighth Ohio left City Point, and arrived at Marietta on the fifth of September. On the thirteenth a public dinner was given to the regiment by the citizens of the county, and on the fourteenth it was mustered out of the service.*

The War Editors

Any account of the eventful period of the war for the Union would be incomplete without some notice of the war editors of Washington county, the men who stood by the administration of Abraham Lincoln and encouraged the people at home and the soldiers in the field with brave words and patriotic sentiments.

T. L. Andrews was editor of the Marietta Zntelligencer during the first year, and did much towards sustaining a healthy public policy. A. W. McCormick was the editor of the Marietta Republican at the beginning and so continued up to late in the fall of 1861, when he raised a company and went into the Seventy-seventh regiment. E. Winchester edited the Home News, and his local column was always a mine of interest both to soldiers and citizens. In June, 1862, R. M. Stimson purchased and combined the Home Mews and Intelligence and christened the new paper the Marietta Regésfer.

All these editors did good work for the cause of the Union. Although Mr. McCormick differed in politics from the administration, yet he stood by the Union, and soon threw down the pen and took up the sword for his country. To Mr. Stimson, however, we are indebted for steady, unflinching support, and for work that told in the county. His proprietorship of the Marietta Register spanned the halcyon days of the Republican party in Washington county, which service the people have shown their appreciation of by twice sending him to the State senate.

Don Carlos Buell

major generaland commander of one of the principal Union armies in the War of the Rebellion, son of Salmon D. and Eliza Buell, was born March 23, 1818, on a farm owned by his grandfather, Judge Salmon Buell, which has since become the site of the town of Lowell, on the Muskinggum river twelve miles above Marietta. He was named after an uncle, Don Carlos Buell, a young lawyer of Ithica, New York, who entered the volunteer service as a captain of artillery, and died in the Canada frontier, in the War of 1812. The lines of his progenitors on both sides come together again in the sixth preceding generation in the person of Samuel Buell born at Windsor, Connecticut, September 2, 1641. Judge Salmon Buell, on the grandfather's side, a lawyer by profession, was born in New York in 1764, served at the age of sixteen in the Revolutionary war, and became a senator and judge of the court of appeals of New York. He moved to Marietta about the year 1816, and in 1824 to Hamilton county, where he Gied in 1828. Captain Timothy Buell, the grandfather on the mother's side, was born in Connecticut in 1768, moved to Marietta in 1789, and died on his farm three miles above that place in 1837. He served in the War of 1812, represented Washington county in the legislature, and was sheriff of the county several years. Soon after the death of his father, which occurred in August, 1823, the subject of this sketch was taken under the care of his uncle, George P. Buell, esq., of Lawrenceburgh, Indiana; and with an intermission of about five years passed in Marietta under the roof of his stepfather, - George W. Dunley, esq., he remained with his relations at Lawrenceburgh until 1837, when he was appointed to a cadetship at West Point. He was graduated and commissioned in the army in 1841, and served in the Florida war and in the west until the Mexican war. He served through that war from the beginning to the end; par- ticipating in the battles of Ralo Alto, Resacca de la Ralma, Monterey, the siege of Vera Cruz, and the battles of Contreras and Cherubusco, and received the brevet of captain and major. He was severely wounded in the battle of Cherubusco. The following record of his grades up to 1850 is taken from Gardner's Military Dictionary, published in that year:

Don Carlos Buell, cadet in 1837; second lieutenant Third infantry first of July, 1841; first lieutenant June, 1846; brevet captain for gallant and meritorious conduct in the several conflicts at Monterey, Mexico, twenty-third of September, 1846; distinguished in battle of Cerro Gordo; brevet major for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Cherubusco, twentieth August, 1847, and severely wounded in the latter; assistant adjutant general, January, 1848.

He was on duty in Washington in 1848, and subsequently, up to the war of the Rebellion, served as assistant adjutant general at various department headquarters, in the east, west, south, and on the Pacific, and in the war department at Washington. In December, 1860, he was sent by Mr. Floyd, Secretary of War, to Charleston, South Carolina, with verbal instructions for Major Robert Anderson, who was in command of the Government troops in the harbor, under the critical circumstances which the movement of secession had already created. After inspecting the forts, and making some suggestions with reference to their preparation for defence, he communicated verbally to Major Anderson the instructions he had received, and then a written memorandum of them, foresceing the responsibility which coming events were likely to throw upon that officer. This memorandum, which is published in the Robinson record, has a historical interest, since it contains the authority upon which Major Anderson took the decisive step of abandoning Fort Moultrie, and concentrating his command in Fort Sumter.

You are aware of the great anxiety of the Secretary of War that a collision of the troops with the people of this State shall be avoided, and of his studied determination to pursue a course with reference to the military force and forts in this harbor which shall guard against such a collision. He has, therefore, carefully abstained from increasing the force at this point, or taking any measures which might add to the present excited state of the public mind, or which would throw any doubt on the confidence he feels that South Carolina will not attempt, by violence, to obtain possession of the public works, or interfere with their occupancy.

But as the counsel and acts of rash and impulsive persons may possibly disappoint these expectations of the Government, he deems it proper that you should be prepared with instructions to meet so unhappy a contingency. He has, therefore, directed me, verbally, to give you such instructions.

You are carefu'ly to avoid every act which would needlessly tend to provoke aggression; and for that reason you are not, without evident and imminent necessity, to take up any position which could be construed into the assumption of a hostile attitude. But you are to hold possession of the forts in this harbor, and if attacked you are to defend youself to the last extremity.

The smallness of your force will not permit you, perhaps, to occupy more than one of the three forts, but an attack on, or attempt to take possession of, any one of them, will be regarded as an act of hostility, and you may then put you command into either of them which you may deem most proper to increase its power of resistance.

You are also authorized to take similar steps whenever you have tangible evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act. D. C. BURLE, Assistant Adjutant General.

The commencement of the civil war found General Buell a lieutenant colonel, and a little later colonel, and the third officer in rank in the adjutant general's department of the regular army. He was under orders for duty on the Pacific coast in April, 1861, and sailed for San Francisco a few days after the firing on Fort Sumter. He was commissioned a brigadier general and recalled to Washington in August. In September and October he organized and disciplined a division in the army of the Potomac, and, on the twelfth of November was assigned to the command of the 'Department of the Ohio, composed of the States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, that portion of Kentucky east of the Cumberland river, and the State of Tennessee, with headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky." Next to the department of the Potomac this was regarded the most important command in the contest which was then opening. The condition of affairs in Kentucky was thought to be extremely critical. One-third of the State was in the possession of the rebel forces, under whose protection a provisional government was inaugurated at Russellville; while further invasion was threatened from East Tennessee by Zollicoffer through Cumberland Gap, and by Humphrey Marshall from Virginia through Pound Gap. It was affirmed that the Union element was confined in a great part to the old men, and that the mass of the young men were on the eve of joining the rebel ranks; and many persons believed that a strong and prudent hand was required to preserve the State from a condition of practical, if not avowed revolt. The Government had in the State a new and imperfectly organized force of about twenty-five thousand men, while General Sherman, who had recently relieyed General Anderson in the command, reported to the war department that the occasion demanded two hundred thousand men. Under these circumstances General Buell assumed command at Louisville on the fifteenth of November, relieving General Sherman, and entered upon the task before him. That task was to gather in the raw regiments that were forming in the different States of his department; organize, equip, and discipline an army; maintain the supremacy of the Union; control the secession element, and give confience to the loyal citizens of Kentucky; expel from its borders the armed forces of the Confederacy, and carry the arms and authority of the Government into the States in rebellion. Those who fail to keep in mind the general state of confusion and excitement which pervaded the country at that time, the passion and energy of the insurrection, the magnitude of the physical obstacles to be overcome, the total lack of military training and experience among the people, and the scarcity of available officers for the various staff functions, will not appreciate the difficulty of the work to be performed, or do justice to the services of that early period of the war, in comparison with those of a later date, when the military arm of the Government had by practice grown strong and skilful, and the power and confi- dence of the confederacy had received its first fatal shock. The army which General Buell then formed and put into the field, called the army of the Ohio, afterwards the army of the Cumberland, was the largest of the original army organizations except the army of the Potomac, and it assumed from the first an efficiency and esprit de corps which gave it a marked prominence in the subsequent events of the war.

While the work of organization was going on, the aggressive attitude of the enemy had to be counteracted, and, as is usual under such circumstances, the temper of the southern people and the enthusiasm of revolution gave to their troops a sort of efficiency which had to be offset by the steadier methods of discipline in the northern armies. The main Confederate line at Bowling Green under Albert Sidney Johnson, menaced Louisville, and its partisan cavalry, rendered exceptionally efficient for such service by the pcrsonal qualities of the material, and operating in a hot, unfriendly population, produced results which were altogether out of proportion to its numerical strength. To repel an invasion in northeastern Kentucky under General Humphrey Marshall, a brigade was organized and placed under the command of General Garfield, then colonel of the Forty-second Ohio infantry, who defeated Marshall in several engagements, and drove him out of the State.

Headquarters Department Of The Ohio

Str: The brigade organized under your command is intended to operate against the rebel force threatening, and indeed actually committing, depredations in Kentucky, through the valley of the BigSandy.

The actual force of the enemy, from the best information I can gather, does not probably exceed two thousand or two thousand and five hundred, though rumor places it as high as seven thousand. You can better ascertain the true state of the case when you get on the ground.

You are apprised of the position of the troops placed under your command. Go first to Lexington and Paris, and place the Fortieth Ohio regiment in such position as will best give a moral support to the people in the counties on the route to Prestonburgh and Piketon, and oppose any further advance of the enemy on that route. Then proceed with the least possible delay to the mouth of the Big Sandy and move with the force in that vicinity up that river and drive the enemy back, or cut him off. Having done that, Piketon will probably be the best position for you to occupy to guard against further incursions.

Artillery will be of but little if any service to you in that country. If the enemy have any it will encumber and weaken them rather than strengthen them.

Your supplies must mainly be taken up the river; and it ought to be done as soon as possible, while the navigation is open. Purchase what you can in the country through which you operate. Send your requisitions to these headquarters for funds and ordnance stores, and to the quartermaster and commissary at Cincinnati for other supplies.

The conversations I have had with you will suggest more details than can be given here. Report frequently and fully upon all matters concerning your command.

and his troops for their successful campaign against the rebel force under General Marshall on the Big Sandy, and their gallant conduct in battle. They have overcome formidable difficulties in the character of the country, the condition of the roads, and the inclemency of the season; and, without artillery, have in several engagements, terminating with the battle on Middle Creek on the eleventh inst., driven the enemy from his entrenched positions, and forced him back into the mountains with the loss of a large amount of baggage and stores, and many of his men killed or captured.

in December, the confederate general, George B. Crittenden, recently assigned to the command of General Zollicoffer's column, crossed the Cumberland river nearly opposite Somerset, fortified himself at Mill Spring, and threatened central Kentucky. On the thirty-first of December General George H. Thomas was sent with his division, to attack him. The battle of Mill Spring, with a signal victory to the Union arms, was the result of this expedition. Various other expeditions and operations of minor importance, were also executed.

Isend you a sketch of the country about Somerset, which shows more of the roads than your maps. We conversed about the advance on Zollicoffer through Columbia, and if you remember my idea it is hardly necessary to add anything on the subject. It is for you to move against his left and endeavor to cut him off from his bridge, while Schoepf, with whom of course you will communicate, attacks in front. The maps will indicate the proper moves for that object. The result should be at least a severe blow to him, or a hasty flight across the river. But to expect the former, the movement should be made rapidly and secretly, and the blow should be vigorous and decided. There should be no delay after your arrival. It would be better not to have undertaken it if it should result in confining an additional force merely to watching the enemy.

Take such portion of the cavalry from Columbia as you think necessary. Draw all the supplies you can frorn the country, and move as light as possible.

Having accomplished the object, be ready to move promptly in any direction, but wait until you hear from me, unless circumstances should require you to move without delay, as I may want you to proceed from there to the other matter about which we have conversed.

George H. Thomas

Brigadier general commanding First division, Lebanon. HEADQUARTERS FiRsT DIVISION DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, CAMP NEAR WEBB'S CROSS ROADS, KENTUCKY, \ January 13, 1862. Brigadier General D. C. Buell, commanding department of the Ohio,

GENERAL: After two days of the hardest work I have reached this place, sixteen miles from Columbia, with the advance brigade of my division. The provision. and ammunition train with a portion of one brigade is still in the rear, and will probably not reach here to-night. The road which has been represented as good, is the worst I ever saw, and the recent rains have made it one continuous quagmire from Columbia to this place. Weare still seventeen miles from the position of the enemy by the shortest road, viz: that across the headwaters of Wolf creek, leaving Harrison to the left. This road is represented by my scouts as much worse than the roads the command has already passed over. It is next to impossible to procure either forage or subsistence in the country, and entirely impracticable to haul over this road at this season of the year. It is therefore necessary to do one of two things, either to go to Jamestown and eventually down the river to Burkesville, thereby cutting off all communication between Mill Spring and Nashville by the river, or work our way by this road to Somerset and join General Shoepf. We can never get supplies in any other way. Should my division proceed on to Somerset, it would be impossible to get down the river by the road on this side during the winter, and as Shoep!'s force is sufficient to keep the enemy in check, I would respectfully suggest that the troops now with me proceed at once to Jamestown and eventually to Burkesville, from which point their services can be made available in any operations in the direction of Bowling Green. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GENERAL: I have received your letter of the thirteenth, from Webb's Cross Roads. You will, before this time, have received my letter of the same date, sent with your messenger. I hope that letter will have determined your action. It is not sufficient to hold Zollicoffer in check. He must be captured or dispersed. I think the situation offers the opportunity of affecting the former. If you consider your force insufficient, telegraph me from Somerset. The lines have been extended to that place. It will not be desirable to march your command to Somerset, but rather take a position in front of the enemy, so as to draw your supplies from Somerset, and be in convenient position to move down upon him. I am assured that you can get an abundance of forage from the country in the direction of Liberty. If you can buy meal, don't haul flour, It is not necessary to subsist your command, but it is not

I am aware that the roads are in a horrible condition. They must be improved. The only way to do that effectually, when trains are to pass over them several times, is to corduroy or puncheon them, sixteen feet wide. I have given orders for this to be done on the Danville and Somerset roads. General Schoepf sends a regiment on that duty from Somerset, and General Wood, with three regiments, is to do the same from Danville. See that it is pushed forward energetically from Somerset. It ought to be completed in a few days.

The general commanding has the gratification of announcing the achievement of an important victory, on the» nineteenth inst., at Mill Spring, by the troops under General Thomas, over the rebel forces, some twelve thousand strong, under General George B. Crittenden and General Zollicoffer.

The defeat of the enemy was thorough and complete, and his loss in killed and wounded was great. Night alone, under cover of which his troops crossed the river from their intrenched camp and dispersed, prevented the capture of his entire force. Fourteen or more pieces of artillery, some fifteen hundred horses and mules, his entire camp equipage, together with wagons, arms, ammunition, and other stores to a large amount, fell into our hands.

The general has been charged by the general in chief to convey his thanks to General Thomas and his troops for their brilliant victory. No task could be more grateful to him, seconded as it is by his own cordial approbation of their conduct.

The subject of a general plan of campaign to be executed as soon as the necessary force was prepared, received the early attention of the new commander, and in a letter, written twelve days after his arrival in Louisville, he submitted to the general-in-chief, General McClellan, his views on that subject. The same plan was, a little later, proposed to General Halleck, who commanded the adjoining department - Missouri. The main confederate force in the west, under the command of General Albert Sidney Johnston, with headquarters at Bowling

Green, Kentucky, occupied Bowling Green, fortified behind Barren river. Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland; Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, and Columbus, on the Mississippi. General Buell's plans proposed that Halleck, with a land and naval force, should attack the centre of this line on the Cumberland and Tennessee, while we attacked or turned Bowling Green and moved directly on Nashville. This plan, substantially, was at length executed, though without the concert which, would perhaps, have given better results. General Halleck was not prepared to cooperate when invited, and finally moved without concert, having no idea of furthur progress than the capture of Fort Henry. But the prompt reenforcements, amounting first and last to twenty-four regiments, with artillery, sent by Buell to the river expedition, and his movement upon Bowling Green and Nashville, brought about a more complete and extended success than Halleck contemplated.

The authorship of the general plan of these operations has been the subject of considerable disscussion, though it is difficult to see how there should be any dout't about the matter. It has been claimed by General Grant for himself, and General Sherman claimed it for General Halleck; the letter on which Grant's claim is based was dated the twenty-ninth of January, and only proposed to capture Forts Henry and Donelson, and the official records show that the subject was not broached by Halleck before the twentieth of January. The following are the letters in which the plan was proposed to Generals Mc- Clellan and Halleck, by General Buell, on the twentyseventh of November and third of January respectively:

My DEAR GENERAL: - I have not written you very frequently because I could not write definitely, and because such, perhaps exagerated, importance do I attach to secrecy in these matters, that I have hesitated to put my own thoughts to paper, and I now ask you to keep them to yourself. It is certainly possible that in the end you may have to observe how far the consummation will have fallen short of my plans.

I hope you have not supposed that the introduction of the reenforcements through this point has had any reference to a defence of Louisville. That has not entered my mind at all. I assume that to be safe in any event. I do not place high estimate on Buckner's force at Bowling Green, and I have no such thought as that he will attempt to advance. His position is purely defensive, and he will be quite content if he can maintain that. I have, therefore, thought of no such thing as fortifying Louisville. Sherman threw up a little work at the mouth of Salt river. It may have been judicious when he did it. I have not seen the necessity of it since, though it does no harm.

If you will look carefully at the map you will see that Louisville affords the best base that can be taken for land operations from the north upon any part of Tennessee. The railroad to Lebanon curves around to the northeast behind Salt river, giving, besides the Nashville railroad, three good pike roads, which converge to a point of easy communication for three columns about Glassgow - one by the mouth of Salt river, coming into the railroad at Elizabethtown, one by Bardstown and New Haven, and coming into the direct pike road to Gallatin and Nashville, and one by Lebanon, Shepherdsville, and Greensburgh into the same road, whtle Lebanon junction, New Haven, and Lebanon form convenient points for the departure of as many columns. Lebanon also affords a point of departure for a column on East Tennessee as short as any route; for wagon transportation as short as the route from Cincinnati by Lexington, and shorter and less attended with delay by railroad. Nothing could be more convenient. This point has the further advantage of bringing everything under my eye. I could know nothing of what would be done from a base at Cincinnati. These advantages will not fail to impress themselves upon you without going more into detail.

behind Salt river, all the plans I have in view at present concur. Beyond that they diverge, and may be stated briefly thus: First, to establish a sufficient force before Bowling Green to hold Buckner there, while a column moves into East Tennessee by Somerset, and the route we had in view; second, to hold him in check while a column moves rapidly past him on Nashville by the turnpike via Gallatin; and third, holding him in check at Bowling Green and throwing in columns on both the Somerset and Nashville routes. The choice of these must depend on circumstances, which may vary in the meantime, or which may not now he clearly perceived. In conjunction with either of these should be the movement of the flotilla columns up the Tennessee and Cumberland, so as at least to land and winter near the State line, and cut off communication between Bowling Green and Columbus, and, perhaps run directly into Nashville. A strong demonstration should, at the same time, be made on Columbus by the Mississippi. The details of all this, such as the destruction of railroads, so as to cut off communication, and a thousand other details, | do not go into, nor is it necessary. You can imagine them all.

All this, I hope, you will at least say looks plausible; more than that, I hope it is reasonable, and believe it is practicable though I would not like you to forget that circumstances not fully foreseen may mar it in part. For the water movements, means are necessary which Ihave not the control of; that is, gunboats and transports. The troops which you promise from Missouri could be used for the purpose, and ought to move at my signal. I should take the troops from Paducah for one of them, and replace them by those which probably would not be as well disciplined and equipped.

Thus far I have studiously avoided any movements which to the enemy would have the appearance of activity or method. The points occupied are pretty much the same as when I arrived, except that a regiment has now and then been moved into position, and Thomas has gradually been closing in upon Lebanon. I shall in a couple of days, at most, complete the matter of organizing brigades and divisions as the troops come in, and begin to get them into position. We are now '(lying around somewhat loose," and I shall not care much if some of our fragments have to look sharply after themselves. Weare at the mouth of Salt river, Elizabethtown, Nolin, Columbia, Campbellsville, at the points on the Lebanon railroad, Somerset, London, Crab Orchard, and Dick Robinson, and on the lower Green river. The latter force is composed mostly of Kentucky regiments, half organized. I shall probably keep them to make a demonstration on Russellville and Hopkinsville at the proper time. We have occasional stampedes at the outposts, but I do not allow myself to be much troubled about them. Such an one we have now on the lower Green river, where Breckenridge is said to be advancing with eight thousand men. He may have two thousand five hundred or three thousand. Another at Somerset, where Zollicoffer is said to be crossing with ten thousand. He may have four or five thousand, and he may cross a regiment or two.

As the troops come they go into camp five miles from the city, under Mitchell, who is attentive and subordinate, and where they replenish their worn out clothes and outfit and goto drilling. Nelson has been in camp a day, and, I am informed, has already got into a difficulty with Mitchell; and, if I am rightly informed, has behaved very absurdly. As he is a veteran, some allowance must be made for him.

There are at Indianapolis seven regiments ready for service, but demoralized by the proximity of friends and the want of discipline and instruction. I propose to form them intoa reserve and camp of instruction at Bardstown, which is a convenient place in many respects. I can make no use of them in an advance. The Kentucky regiments are only partially organized, and can be but little used at present.