Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Note:

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_

This ebook was transcribed by a native of the state of Ohio.

This book transcription is dedicated to Thadeus “Ted” Slade, also a native Ohioan and the biggest Civil War history buff I know.

Further notes can be found at the end.

JOURNAL HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-NINTH OHIO VETERAN VOLUNTEERS, 1861-1865.

ITS VICTORIES AND ITS REVERSES.

And the campaigns and battles of Winchester, Port Republic, Cedar Mountain, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain, Atlanta, The March to the Sea, and the campaign of the Carolinas, in which it bore an honorable part.

BY

J. HAMP SECHEVERELL,

(LATE COMPANY B.)

CLEVELAND:
1883.

COMRADES AND FRIENDS:

On the twentieth anniversary of the organization of the Twenty-ninth regiment Ohio Veteran volunteer infantry, Comrade J. H. SeCheverell was instructed to prepare a history of the same, and the undersigned were appointed a committee to supervise its publication. Comrade SeCheverell, after months of perplexing labor, completed the manuscript which was examined by us in Cleveland, July 19, 1882. It was then decided to issue fifty proof copies of the work to be put into the hands of members of the regiment for such additions or corrections as should be found necessary. This was done, and after the return of the proofs and the incorporation of whatever corrections they contained, Comrade SeCheverell visited Akron, and spent several days with Colonel Schoonover, to whom was intrusted the corrections for that vicinity, and it is with no small degree of satisfaction that we now present the work to the comrades and friends of the regiment with our hearty endorsement, believing it _as complete and perfect as it is possible to make it_.

DAVID W. THOMAS, }
THOMAS W. NASH, }
THADDEUS E. HOYT, } Committee.
ERWIN F. MASON, }
CHAUNCEY H. COON, }

CLEVELAND, OHIO, February 1, 1883.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE.

In the following pages no attempt at literary gush is made, the design being simply to preserve from oblivion the record of the valiant deeds of this, the bravest of the brave regiments from the Buckeye State, that in the dim, distant future, when each comrade shall have answered to his last earthly roll-call and gone to the “grand review” with the many whose bones now repose in that far away country of the orange and the magnolia, those left behind may not forget the sacrifices made, and the untold dangers endured for that flag, the beautiful, starry emblem of a now united people, whose supremacy preserved for them the blessings of this great country, the best beneath the ethereal vault of heaven.

The data from which the journal portion of the volume is composed was obtained from members of the regiment, who certify to its correctness. Colonel Jonas Schoonover furnished, from Atlanta to Washington.

The reader will mark the entire absence of personal laudation so common in works of this class, and the crowding of a few favored ones to the front to the exclusion of the hundreds of equally brave and meritorious men in perhaps lowly positions. That the fortunes of war brought many forward with flattering prominence is most true, and that thousands who wore the simple blouse of blue and carried the musket were possessed of merit as great is also true. To have been a member of the Twenty-ninth Regiment Ohio Veteran Volunteers is glory enough for a lifetime. If you did your duty, it is well; if you failed, printers’ ink will not make a hero of you. Then let each be content with the happy assurance that he did what he could for the flag.

The writer would acknowledge in an especial manner his obligations to L. D. Drum, adjutant-general of the United States army, for the very complete casualty list at the close of the volume; also, to Samuel B. Smith, adjutant-general of Ohio, Hon. E. B. Taylor, Colonel Edward Hayes, Jonas Schoonover, Captain R. H. Baldwin, George W. Holloway; the members of the very efficient revisory committee, Captains D. W. Thomas, T. W. Nash, Lieutenant T. E. Hoyt, Sergeant E. F. Mason, and C. H. Coon; the Ashtabula Sentinel, Jefferson Gazette, and the Akron Daily News, for numerous courtesies extended to him, during the preparation of this work; and to each comrade and friend who has aided him in his labors, to name all of whom would require many pages. He has conscientiously endeavored to make the volume free from errors. If he has succeeded it will be the first of its kind. However, such as it is, it is presented to the regiment and its friends with the belief that it contains much of value.

JEFFERSON, OHIO, February 1, 1883.