Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/345

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��HISTOEY OF EICHLAND COUITTY.

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��CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE FIFTEENTH REGIMENT.

Organization — Life at Camp Bartlet — Leaves for the Front — Life in the Field — Sent to Texas- MusTER-OcT and Return — The Second Cavalry — Its Srrvicb in the War — Roster.

��AT the same time, as has incidentally been noticed, that Col. Ford was raising the Thirty-second Regiment, various efforts were being made to recruit the Fifteenth by officers who had been in the same regiment in the three- months service. Mention of their efforts has several times been made in the course of this narrative. Hiram Miller, A. C. Cummins, A. R. Z. Dawson, A. M. Burns, Thomas E. Douglas, C. H. Askew and others, were all vigorously at work during the summer of 1861, immediately following the three-months service, and by the time the Thirty-second left Camp Bartley, the Fifteenth was so far recruited as to be able to occupy the camp, and commence drill there. The Thirty-second left Camp Bartley, Sep- tember 3. The next day, the Fifteenth, already numbering two full and several incomplete companies, entered. Moses R. Dickey had been commissioned by the Covernor as Colonel of the regiment, and had been actively engaged while recruiting went on. Once in camp. Col. Dickey established camp routine and discipline. Drilling the men in the manual of arms, in the handling of tents and camp equipage, and the various duties of a soldier's life, was the dail}' order. Recruiting was also actively car- ried forward. When the companies took pos- session of the camp, few if any of them were completely organized. That was, however, quickly done. The next day after they went into camp, the Shelby company elected their officers. A. C. Cummins was made Captain, as he had Been in the three-months service. That

��officer, before the war closed, raised three com- panies, every one of whicW he took to the field. He was with the Fifteenth three-3'eai's troops till about the 1 st of May, 1862, when he resigned and returned home. He was not here but a short time till he raised Company H for the Eighty-fourth Ohio Infantry, three-months ser- vice, and went with that company to the front, remaining with them till they were mustered out late in the fall.

The Fifteenth remained in Camp Bartley from September 4 till the 26th. All this time it was filling its ranks, drilling and receiving its camp equipage. By the latter day, it was fully organ- ized, and left Camp Bartley for Camp Dennison, where it received its arms. Its outfit being completed, on the 4th of October, the regiment left for the field. At Camp Nevin, near Nolin's Station, Ky., it was assigned to the Sixth Bri- gade, Second Division, of the Army of the Ohio, then commanded by Gen. W. T. Sherman, subsequently by Gen. Buell. On the 9th of December, 1861, the division marched to Bacon Creek, and, on the following day, the Sixth Bri- gade occupied Munfordsville. On the morn- ing of the 14th of February, 1862, the Second Division broke camp, moving in the direction of West Point, to embark for Fort Donelson : but, upon hearing of its capture, marched to Bowling Green. Crossing Barren River on the 27th, the command reached Nashville, Tenn., on the 2d of March. Here the army rested till the 16th, when the march to Savannah began, which point was reached on the night of April

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