E 
 ."B3S 
 
 Oljio's Preparations 
 
 for He Wei, 
 
Glass. 
 Book. 
 
 £Z2~S 
 
*..©pI§'S 
 
 Preparations for the War. 
 
 READ BEFORE THE 
 
 Ol^io Gorr;rnan6erv| of tlpe Military Oroei 
 
 of tl^e hov|al begioo of tlpe 
 
 Qoiteo States. 
 
 Late Brigadier-General United States Volunteers. 
 
 -# JANUARY 2, 1884. j£- 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 Peter G. Thomson, Printei 
 
 1884. 
 

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 I 3 / 3> 6 
 
Ot^io'^ 
 eD reparations for 3 t^eWar 3 
 
 S "^J© 3 3) 
 
 When our comrade, the Recorder, notified me to 
 prepare a paper for the next meeting, a young com- 
 panion sitting by my side (General Tom Wood) 
 interposed a caution that I should go no further back 
 in my reminiscences than the day of the Declaration of 
 Independence, which was the limit of his own memory, 
 and heeding his kindly admonition I begin my story 
 but a short period before the War of the Rebellion. 
 
 The State of Ohio, except a few uniformed volun- 
 teer companies, had no military organizations, and was 
 almost without a feasible system to raise forces for an 
 emergency. When my friend, William H. Lytle, was 
 elected a Major-General of the Ohio militia, full of 
 enthusiasm to revive a military spirit, and to bring this 
 ancient and honorable institution to a respectable posi- 
 tion, he claimed my assistance, not only as his friend, 
 but as an eltve of the government military school, a 
 claim recognized by all its graduates as a binding duty to 
 
■si'c ■ . A . . W 
 
 give the benefits of that education whenever and 
 wherever they can be useful to our country. 
 
 The task was a laborious, and not a very encouraging 
 one ; but, under the diligent co-operation of such men 
 as Colonel John Kennett and Colonel A. E. Jones, the 
 military spirit was kept alive and began to assume 
 form. Major Henry G. Kennett raised and organized 
 two companies of zouaves from the young men of the city, 
 Colonel A. E. Jones, nearly a regiment. The State 
 meanwhile gave no encouragement. Legislation was 
 needed to relieve the military organizations from the 
 heavy and necessary expenses attending the perform- 
 ance of their military duties, to provide armories, and 
 in other ways to encourage our young men to join 
 these companies. 
 
 Weil do I remember my first experience in lobby- 
 ing. Going to Columbus with my friend Lytle to 
 advocate the passage of a bill to help the volunteer 
 companies, in my innocence of the ways of politicians, 
 I pleaded the necessity that our State should be better 
 prepared to render military assistance to the General 
 Government, and, having passed the bill through the 
 House, how blandly one of our Senators induced me 
 to go home, by assuring me that the bill should 
 receive his favorable consideration, and my astonish- 
 ment to find that it was his vote that finally killed 
 the bill. The Senator could not be made to believe 
 in the necessity of the work we were trying to do. 
 Even when Fort Sumpter succumbed to the fire of rebel 
 guns, he told me that it was only a trick of S. P. 
 Chase to fire the northern heart. But the torrent of 
 loyalty that was swelling throughout the land, finally 
 swept the Senator into the current, and he came beg- 
 
* ■ • 5 • ■* 
 
 ging for a position in the then organizing forces. But as 
 he had no elements of a soldier he secured for himseli 
 a • position as Judge Advocate on General McClellan's 
 staff. My experience with the citizen soldiery had 
 been very limited, and I soon found that there were 
 some things I did not know, nor should have dreamed 
 of until my eyes were opened by one of the sub-of- 
 ficers of a company, innocently coming to me for advice. 
 A parade was about to take place of a battalion in 
 which were two companies known as the Montgomery 
 Guards and the Sarsfield Guards. On the day before 
 the parade a lieutenant of the Sarsfield Guards came 
 to enquire whether it would be better to turn out as the 
 Sarsfield Guards or the Montgomery Guards. To my 
 look of wonder, "I am," says he, "a lieutenant of the 
 Sarsfield Guards and orderly sergeant of the Mont- 
 gomery Guards, and the captain of the Montgomery 
 Guards is orderly sergeant of the Sarsfield Guards." And 
 so the two companies, in the most friendly manner, were 
 made up of each other, and when paraded at different 
 times were beautiful to behold, one clad in hibernian 
 green, and the other in our national blue ; but when 
 paraded together one of them was not there. 
 
 There existed an independent military organization, 
 authorized by act of legislature, called the Guthrie Greys. 
 It was a well-drilled and well-appearing body of men, 
 embracing in its ranks many of the most promising- 
 young men of this city. It had many advantages 
 over the other military bodies, and for a long time 
 held aloof from them, refusing to recognize any supe- 
 rior authority except the Governor. This anomalous 
 condition of affairs did not conduce to create an effi- 
 cient military force, and until the independence was 
 
*. • 6 ■ • * 
 
 taken from this corps and it was placed under the 
 recognized military heads, there were continual mis- 
 understandings and jealousies, prejudicial alike to both. 
 All these difficulties at length disappeared, and the 
 several military corps were working harmoniously 
 together, when the rebellious mutterings broke forth into 
 open war. At the Hrst call for troops, our Rover regi- 
 ment was the first to tender its services to the Governor, 
 but the Governor not feeling authorized to accept the 
 regiment as a body, sent one company of the Rovers, 
 Zouaves, and Lafayette Guards, with a company raised 
 by Colonel Len A. Harris on the spur of the moment, 
 without delay to the defence of Washington. 
 
 The Guthrie Greys, Colonel Jones' Continentals, 
 the Sarsfield and Montgomery Guards, and the High- 
 land Guards responded nobly and promptly to the call, 
 each becoming the nucleus of a regiment. The Guthrie 
 Greys expanded into the Sixth regiment, the Continen- 
 tals, with fragments of the Rovers, Zouaves, and High- 
 land Guards into the Fifth regiment, and the Montgomery 
 and Sarsfield Guards into the Tenth regiment. 
 
 These regiments, with a regiment raised by Colonel 
 R. L. McCook from our German fellow citizens (the 
 Ninth Ohio), were taken by General Lytle to the race 
 course, and there formed Camp Harrison. 
 
 On the 25th of April, while on a visit to General 
 Lytle at his camp, I was ordered by General McClel- 
 lan to assume command of Camp Harrison. The disap- 
 pointment was great to General Lytle, who hoped to 
 command this brigade, but being a major-general he 
 had too much rank. The noble fellow, determined to 
 serve his country, threw aside his rank and became 
 colonel of the Tenth Ohio, which he gallantly led in 
 
many battles, and finally gave his life on the Held of 
 Chickamauga. 
 
 At Camp Harrison the four regiments were soon 
 and easily put into shape, and mustered into service. 
 The wags among the boys were full of mischief, and 
 put our friends in the city to needless alarm, by dole- 
 ful letters of their suffering and hardships, and aston- 
 ished me not a little when called upon by committees 
 with offers of provisions to feed our starving soldiers. 
 I had but to show the company kitchens, and the 
 cheerful spirits of the men to satisfy the committee 
 that they were victims of some shallow-pated wag. 
 
 The city authorities, alive to the wants of those who 
 were leaving, sent me the following letter : 
 
 Office City Clerk, City Hall, 
 
 Cincinnati, May 8th, 1861. 
 
 Brigadier-General J. H Bates, O. V. M., 
 
 Camp Harrison. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Will you please notify the commanders of the companies to send 
 to the Relief Committee of the City Council, a roll of their members 
 whose families will stand in need of assistance, impressing upon them 
 the necessity of being careful, as many impositions have been already 
 practiced. Respectfully, 
 
 Geo. M. Casey, City Clerk. 
 
 The regiments were ready for their arms, which 
 came in the shape of browned-barrel muskets, altered 
 from flint to percussion locks, and which the men 
 called "Old Brown Bess.''' They were not received as 
 graciously as was consistent with good discipline ; in 
 fact, one company refused absolutely to receive the 
 
». .8. 1 
 
 guns, demanding to have rifles or clubs ; but upon my 
 ordering them to be disbanded and sent out of camp 
 as mutinous, unworthy to be soldiers, they changed their 
 minds and took very kindly to Brown Bess. On the 
 17th of May, it was determined to abandon Camp 
 Harrison, and I was ordered to move my brigade to 
 Camp Dennison, and there to assume command, General 
 McClellan kindly lending me his own headquarters, a 
 dilapidated old stone building, of an order of style part 
 barn, part dwelling, and part store, wholly unfit to live 
 in, until he should come to take command in person. 
 
 I found General J. D. Cox in command, having 
 his own brigade, composed of the fourth, seventh, eighth, 
 and eleventh regiments, and General Sleigh, with his 
 brigade, composed of the third, twelfth, and thirteenth 
 regiments. 
 
 The camp was put in train of instruction and dis- 
 cipline. The grand guard-mounting, under the personal 
 attention of Major H. G. Kennett, was brought into 
 good order and s} r stem ; the officers of the day and 
 the officers of the guard were instructed in their sev- 
 eral duties by him. The regiments were daily drilled 
 in company and regimental drills, the whole command, 
 at sunset, went through the ceremony of evening parade. 
 The adjutants, regimental and general, had so far im- 
 proved in their daily morning reports, that they ceased 
 to be returned from department headquarters, endorsed 
 in red ink, "respectfully returned for correction." 
 
 The medical department was learning its duties, 
 not only in caring for the sick and regulating the 
 hospitals, but was receiving lessons in literature, as 
 the following will show : 
 
 A surgeon's certificate recommending the discharge 
 
* • • 9 • ■ * 
 
 of a soldier afflicted with rheumatism, recited that the 
 man was suffering from chronic rheumatism, caused by 
 his limbs having been broken in a " railroad collision." 
 The certificate passed up through all the proper chan- 
 nels, receiving the approval of the general command- 
 ing his brigade, the approval of the general command- 
 ing the camp, was duly forwarded to the department 
 headquarters, duly returned, endorsed in red ink, " this 
 department is not informed that railroads ever collide." 
 The certificate was regularly sent back through all its 
 channels to the surgeon who issued it ; but whether the 
 red ink cured the rheumatism, or what became of the 
 man, was never transmitted through the proper chan- 
 nels, and this department remains uninformed. 
 
 In general the camp was in a healthy condition, 
 but some of the boys from the country had not fin- 
 ished their education before becoming soldiers, they had 
 left home without having had the measles and had to 
 undergo this seasoning in camp ; but the kindly minis- 
 trations of Sister Anthony and her associate sisters, Mrs. 
 Lauderback, Mrs. C. J. Wright, and other ladies from 
 Cincinnati, some of whom were daily at the camp, did 
 much to alleviate the sufferings of the unfortunate sick. 
 
 The matter of clothing did not proceed as rapidly 
 as was needed ; its deficiency was not only inconvenient, 
 but furnished cause of complaint and trouble, an in- 
 stance of which manifested itself in a certain regiment 
 refusing to turn out to drill. The colonel came to me 
 to ask what he should do. To my answer, "your 
 men must obey, turn out your regiment to drill," he 
 replies, "but they wont; shall I put them in the guard 
 house?" It was evident this colonel could not handle 
 a regiment ; I therefore told him to send his non-com- 
 
* • • IO • ■ * 
 
 misioned officers over to me. They came and I was 
 charmed with their bright and manly appearance, and 
 said to them : " Your colonel complains that your regi- 
 ment refuses to drill ; you are responsible for this. What 
 does it mean?" 
 
 Their spokesman said they had been told on leav- 
 ing home to bring only their oldest clothing ; that they 
 would be uniformed immediately on arriving in camp ; 
 their clothes had become ragged and worn out, and 
 they were ashamed to show themselves. My simple re- 
 ply was, "This is no excuse. They must obey orders 
 even if they have no covering but a shirt. Go back 
 and let me see the regiment out at once. 1 ' Five min- 
 utes after the regiment was forming on its parade 
 ground. I mention this only to show the material of 
 some of the regiments. 
 
 Every thing was progressing well, and we were about 
 establishing schools of instruction for the officers, when, 
 on the 25th of May, I received these two telegrams : 
 
 General Bates : 
 
 As rapidly as possible get your men ready to move. Inspect 
 arms and report how many fit for service. Keep this telegram 
 strictly to yourself, and do not even inform your staff which reg- 
 iments are most fit to move. 
 
 G. B. McClellan, 
 
 Major-General. 
 
 Brigadier-General Bates (Confidential) : 
 
 Issue, to-morrow, the clothing you have on hand to your best 
 regiments. Supply at least six, fully. Telegraph what is wanting 
 to furnish that number completely. Telegraph will be in operation 
 to-morrow. You had better come down to see me at my levee. 
 
 G. B. McClellan, 
 
 Major-General. 
 
* • . II • . * 
 
 These telegrams, received at about four o'clock on 
 Saturday afternoon, were acted upon immediately. The 
 eleven regiments were paraded for muster and inspec- 
 tion, and every man and musket personally examined 
 by nine o'clock p. m. When the parade was dismissed 
 there were eleven good regiments of ten thousand men 
 in all, well officered, and ready to take the field. A 
 military force any general would have been proud to 
 command. On Monday following, there was not left 
 of it all so much as an organized corporal's guard. 
 
 On the intervening Sunday, the governor and gen- 
 eral commanding the department, came to the camp 
 quite early in the day, and after a long conference to- 
 gether, concocted the following order, which had the 
 effect to throw the whole camp into chaos, and to make 
 it necessary to begin anew the formation of these 
 eleven regiments : 
 
 General Headquarters Adjutant-General's Office, 
 
 Columbus, O., May 26th, 1861. 
 Special Order No. 246. 
 
 The eleven regiments of infantry now at Camp Dennison, will 
 be organized for the three years' service, upon the following basis : 
 
 1. The elementary organization will be by companies. A ma- 
 jority of the members of a company must offer such service before 
 the company can be accepted. 
 
 2. Accepted companies are permitted to recruit from the rem- 
 nants of companies declining the three years' service, -and failing 
 to recruit sufficiently therefrom, then from other sources. 
 
 3. A company, when full, will nominate its officers by ballot, 
 for the approval of the commander-in-chief. 
 
 4. If all the companies of a regiment offer service as above, 
 the original regimental organization will remain unchanged, and 
 such regiment will proceed to nominate its officers for the approval 
 of the commander-in-chief. 
 
 5. If all the companies do not offer such services, the regiment 
 will be filled up by the assignment of other companies by the com- 
 
* • • 12 • . * 
 
 mander-in-chief, but in no case will the ballot be taken for com- 
 pany or field officers until the full complement of men for a company, 
 or the full complement of companies for a regiment, shall be made up. 
 
 6. The nominations made as hereinbefore provided, will be 
 approved by the commander-in-chief, subject to the following con- 
 ditions, in accordance with the request of the Secretary of War, viz: 
 that the officers nominated shall be of unquestioned patriotism and 
 morals, of military knowledge, and sound health. 
 
 7. The evidence required by the commander-in-chief of com- 
 pliance with the foregoing provisions, will be the certificate of the 
 general commanding at Camp Dennison, to whom the company 
 rolls will be returned. 
 
 8. Every company must report the names of those willing to 
 enter the three years' service by Tuesday noon, the 28th instant. 
 
 9. All companies reporting a majority for the three years' serv- 
 ice will be arranged in their respective regiments, and will proceed 
 to recruit the necessary complement of men within such time as the 
 general commanding shall determine. 
 
 10. The form of oath to be administered by the mustering 
 officer shall be for three years' service if the war shall so long 
 continue. 
 
 By Order of the Commander-in-Chief, 
 
 H. B. Carrington, 
 
 Adjutant-General. 
 
 It is needless to say, that this order, although framed 
 with some ingenuity, proved utterly impracticable. 
 
 One of the first manifestations of this order was to 
 stir up a rivalry for the offices, and night after night 
 meetings were held in the different companies ; speeches 
 made to ■ induce re-enlistments with promotion to the 
 orator, so that the camp became more like a scene 
 of political husting than a military encampment. 
 
 Another effect, more serious in its consequences, was 
 the efforts of those whose ardor had cooled and wanted 
 to get off, and yet were ashamed to acknowedge it, 
 in persuading their companions not to re-enlist so as to 
 be an excuse for themselves. 
 
* . . i 3 • • * 
 
 The Sixth, Ninth, and Tenth regiments of my own 
 brigade were the first to perfect their organizations, and 
 to be mustered into service ; the other regiments were 
 more slow. 
 
 Although the order authorized the mustering in of 
 separate companies, yet, when at the request of Col- 
 onel Loren Andrews (a zealous and .good officer) who 
 said he had seven reliable companies ready for mus- 
 ter, and he was sure that the mustering of these once 
 begun, the other three companies would catch the 
 enthusiasm and fall into ranks, be mustered in their 
 turn, and thus complete his full regiment. I ordered 
 the mustering officer to proceed. I was met with a 
 positive order from headquarters forbidding such action, 
 and notifying me not to begin a muster unless sure of 
 the entire completeness of the regiment ; that the Gov- 
 ernment would receive only complete regiments. Of 
 course the order was obeyed ; but I took the liberty of 
 a citizen to suggest that as an army of five hundred 
 thousand men was called, it would be advisable to ac- 
 cept and muster by companies, or even single men, 
 who once in service could be formed into regiments. 
 As the war progressed this course was adopted. 
 
 The inconvenience of this narrow construction of the 
 call was felt in more than one instance. A colonel 
 would report his regiment as ready for muster, and 
 when paraded, and the men called upon to take the 
 oath, a half or a fourth of them would refuse, and 
 thus prevent the mustering of any. 
 
 Again the changes of organization without separating 
 the two organizations — three months' and three years' 
 men — worked changes of the officers. Companies would 
 have duplicate captains, duplicate lieutenants ; regiments 
 
* • H • * 
 
 duplicate field officers. In vain, authority was requested 
 to correct this anomalous condition by transferring super- 
 numerary officers and men. The only replies were 
 in impracticable orders and suggestions. 
 
 The whole seemed an interminable muddle ; but, 
 determined to save this fine body of officers and men, 
 and to accomplish their organization, there seemed but 
 one course to pursue. Explaining my plans to Gen- 
 eral Cox, on whose judgment I greatly relied, and who, 
 throughout had freely and willingly borne his share of 
 the work and ably assisted me, and with his advice I 
 ordered every officer and man who was not ready to 
 immediately re-enlist for three years, to leave the camp 
 and go home, and there await further orders. Gov- 
 ernor Dennison heartily seconded this act by promptly 
 furnishing the necessary transportation for the men to 
 travel. The discordant elements left; the regiments 
 rapidly organized ; were mustered into the service 
 for three years, and the work was done. 
 
 After all this, came a letter from the authorities at 
 Washington with a plan to settle the whole trouble. 
 General McClellan called a council of the generals 
 and colonels in my office, and read the document. 
 It thanked and complimented the men for their patri- 
 otism in coming forward to defend their country, and 
 assured them that their services should be received. It 
 then went on to provide, that when, b}' the re-organi- 
 zation a company had two captains, both should serve. 
 The three months' captain should become the junior 
 to his successful rival and so on. This looked like 
 bringing back the old confusion, and when my opinion 
 was asked as to what should be done, I unhesitat- 
 ingly replied, w ' file the document in your pigeon hole 
 
* . . i 5 • • * 
 
 and never let it see daylight. The troops are ready 
 for the field. Let the responsibility rest where it belongs." 
 
 It appeared to me that the issuing of order No. 246 
 was a mistake ; that it hazarded the loss of eleven line 
 regiments. To propose re-electing all the officers 
 when the urgency for troops was so great, was worse 
 than trading horses while crossing a stream. 
 
 I have yet to learn why the men who were will- 
 ing to do so, could not have been re-enlisted for 
 three years without disturbing the existing organiza- 
 tions. Nearly all of my own brigade had already 
 pledged themselves to at once re-enlist. The places of 
 three months 1 men could have been supplied by recruits 
 as their times expired, and the troops could have 
 been used in the meanwhile, thus entailing but little 
 loss of time. 
 
 However, the reorganization, notwithstanding the 
 apparent turmoil and fuss, was accomplished in about 
 thirty days, and may stand as a valuable lesson to 
 any other general who may hereafter have the luck 
 to command another Camp Dennison. 
 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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