FROM THE PUBLISHERS. T an early date in the progress of the War the most casual observer of passing events could not fail to see the conspicuous part the men of Ohio were preparing to take in. its prosecution. Watchful attention to the rapid developments of the time, and the tremendous issues involved in the great struggle, was sure to intensify feeling already enlisted. That the doings of Ohio Soldiers and Statesmen in the War should be fitly chronicled and published in a convenient and permanent form, was a decision more easily made than carried into execution. The difference in the present instance is measured by an interval of more than four years, and the labor of not less than two persons during an equal period in preparing this work for the press. The collecting of materials in MSS. obtained by correspondence and conference with thousands of people located at widely extended points, with the labor of collating the facts given, and condensing them into narratives of such proportions as would bring the whole into reasonable compass for publication, has been much greater than could have been readily foreseen, or than is likely to be appreciated by the inexperienced. To these difficulties are to be added the numerous obstacles which are sure to arise in getting a work of this magnitude through the press in the time anticipated, whatever allowances for delays may have been originally made, and complicated as in the present case in the destruction by fire of one-half the stereotype plates, when the volumes were nearly two-thirds finished, and by the fact that the work has grown to be onefourth larger than calculated for. The groups of portraits were engraved from time to time, by RITCHIE, ROGERS, and other eminent artists, as photographs were secured from reliable sources from which to produce them. The original intention was to have these include no person who had not attained the rank of Brigadier-General (excepting a few heroes of lower rank who had fallen in the service); gradually, however, exceptions were suggested in favor of such as had discharged the duties of their brevet rank, and finally the sketches were extended to include notices-in many instances far too brief of all officers of like rank appointed from the State. The two volumes contain three times the amount of matter usually published in volumes of similar size, and in a dress not less attractive, even when as profusely illustrated, and present facts equal to what are ordinarily given in a dozen volumes published under Legislative authority. The prices put upon the work, in its several styles of binding, are the same per volume as those affixed by the publishers to "Appleton's New American Cyclopedia," while the style of publication is more costly and the contents one-half greater. Thus, reliance for remuneration M189337 is based upon large sales at moderate prices to the soldiers and their hosts of friends. Only thus can a return be expected for the twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars expended in producing the book, not to speak of profit on the venture. On this score, however, the publishers have no reason to be especially fearful. Several thousand copies have found purchasers in advance of publication; and, as heretofore arranged for, the work will continue to be delivered only to subscribers by duly-authorized agents. The work is believed to be incomparably more complete than any similar one undertaken in any other State, and on a plan not attempted elsewhere. Published to portray the patriotic efforts of the people of Ohio, the deeds of her soldiers, and of those who were at once her sons and the Nation's cherished leaders in the fierce struggle, the work will be found singularly free from the fulsome and vapid praise which was so striking a feature in works on the war published during the heat of the contest or at its close, to catch the sympathies of the public. Our author, with his careful, fearless, and polished pen, will doubtless find many eager readers, and be the means of exciting much discussion among the thinking men of the Nation. PREFACE. N effort is made in these pages to present some leading facts in the illustrious record of the State of Ohio during the war of the Great Rebellion. It is sought, first, to exhibit the home history of the State through the long struggle; second, to present in whatever fullness of detail may be possible, the careers of the General Officers from Ohio, whether born in or appointed from the State; and third, to trace in outline the history of each regiment sent out, with the roster of its officers, and the leading facts in its organization and service. The work owes its origin to Mr. WILLIAM H. MOORE, the senior partner of the house by which it is published. As early as in the summer of 1863 he visited me in Washington to arrange for its preparation. Its main features were then agreed upon, and he straightway set about procuring such facts for it as were then accessible. I desire now to add that but for his zeal, courage, and energy the work would probably have failed of completion. It was a part of the contract made by Mr. Moore on behalf of the publishers, that they should procure for me all books, documentary matter, personal statements, etc., necessary for the preparation of the work. In pursuance of this arrangement, they have employed persons of apparent fitness for such service to visit the armies in the field, and, since the close of the war to wait upon officers of regiments, Generals, private soldiers-upon any one, in short, who might be thought able to contribute any fact not yet known or cast light upon any occurrence hitherto illunderstood. With the material thus furnished my own work began. Many of the statements I was able to correct or modify from personal knowledge—many more could be verified from published documents or from official reports on file at the War Department-still others could be compared with the versions given in the reports of battles and of investigating committees, and in other documentary matter published by the Rebel Congress, of which I was fortunate enough to procure nearly complete sets at Richmond. And on many points a residence of over a year at the South since the close of the war had given me additional light. That these facilities have been used to the best possible advantage I dare not hope; but that they have been used honestly and conscientiously, I trust the succeeding pages may make clear. The book has been written without any theories of the war to sustain, and without any pet reputations to build up. I have striven earnestly to write always in the spirit of those golden words that stand as mottoes upon the title page of this volume-to avoid the custom of awarding wild, violent praise to the common performance of duty-to remember that whoever has committed no faults has not made war-to promote the honest growth of a soldier's renown by simply telling what he did. And if I have had any theory whatever that has influenced my expressions, it has been that of the gruff, good Count Gurowski, that the real heroes of this war were the great, brave, patient, nameless People. It is quite probable that I shall have very few readers to agree with the estimates placed upon the performance of many of our most distinguished Generals. It is a National habit to go to *For a general guide as to the events of the war, constant use has been made of Mr. Greeley's " American Confict"--a work with which I have not in all cases been able to agree, but which has always seemed to me a marvel of comprehensiveness and condensation. extremes. At first we could endure no comparison for the young commander of the Army of the Potomac but with Napoleon; after a time we could scarcely hear without impatience any defense of him from the gross charges of cowardice and treason. At first we denounced the man who fought Belmont and Pittsburg Landing as a drunkard and an incapable; now we echo the words of Sherman that he is the legitimate successor of Washington, and believe him the greatest General of the century or the continent. It is not by any reflection of such popular verdicts that honest History can be written. Yet I have experienced too many proofs of the generous consideration given by our people to honest convictions, to have any doubt as to the kindly reception they will extend to these frank statements of opinions that have not been formed without much study, and are not expressed without conscientious care. It is doubtless impossible, in a work of this magnitude, to avoid errors. No page not even the briefest sketch of a cavalry company or independent battery-has gone to the printers without being carefully revised or rewritten. The rosters of the regiments have been first taken from the rolls of the Adjutant-General, then compared with the War Department Volunteer Register, and finally corrected and enlarged in almost every case by some officer of the organization concerned; every page has been again and again revised. After all, in so many names, and dates, and brief accounts of great transactions, many errors must have escaped notice; but it may be safely affirmed that, in the main, the record of Ohio soldiers as here presented, is incomparably more complete and correct than any, official or unofficial, that is elsewhere accessible. It has been earnestly desired to add to the work an unique collection of incidents in the war, narratives of personal experience, sufferings in Southern prisons, and the like-the materials for which were mostly furnished by Ohio private soldiers. But the work has already swelled far beyond the limits to which it should have been restricted; and it becomes an unfortunate necessity to omit this further illustration of the lives and works of the men in the ranks. For the same reason some mention of the Western gunboat service must be left out. I am specially indebted to Major Frank E. Miller (of Washington C. H., Ohio) for intelligent and valuable assistance in reducing to shape the vast mass of material placed in my hands by the publishers. He has also prepared the exhaustive indexes which accompany the work. Hon. William T. Coggeshall, Private Secretary to Governor Dennison (who has since died at his post as United States Minister to Ecuador); Hon. William Henry Smith, Private Secretary to Governor Brough, and subsequently Secretary of State; F. A. Marble, Esq., afterward Private Secretary to Governor Brough and to Governor Anderson, and Edwin L. Stanton, Esq., of the War Department, have placed me under obligations for valued assistance in many ways. I have also to thank the Adjutant-General and the Governor of Ohio for access to any documents among the State archives which it was needful to consult. Finally, to a whole host of the soldiers of Ohio, for the kindness which loaded me with whatever facts were asked, and for the delicate consideration which intrusted these to me to be used according to my own sense of fitness, I can never sufficiently express my obligations. No General or other officer of Ohio has failed to furnish whatever I sought; and no one (with a single exception) has asked that any feature in his career should be concealed or any other extolled. And now as this labor, which for nearly two years has engrossed my time, is brought to an end, I lay aside the pen regretfully. Here are many pages, and many efforts to do some justice to features in the war history of our noble State. No one can better understand how far they fall short of the noble theme. And yet who can write worthily of what Ohio has done? CINCINNATI, December 24, 1867. W. R. |