When the roster of our company neared completion, the men were gathered into camp on the old Fair Grounds at Zanesville, August 13th, 1861. Here we began the A B C of our military education. I had been chosen Captain; Albert Spaulding, First Lieutenant; and Ulysses Westbrook, Second Lieutenant.

One day a young stranger came into camp and introduced himself as Sheldon Guthrie of New Orleans, a relative of the prominent and highly respected family of that name in Zanesville. As he wished to enter the service, his uncle, Austin Guthrie, sent him to me. He said he had five years' training in a military company at home, for such had long been the fashionable athletics of the young men of the South. He frankly asked a lieutenancy, but said he would be content with whatever I could give that would be of most value to the company. He was a serious and self-possessed young man and deeply impressed with the advantage the South possessed through the years of military training its young men had received. He responded gladly to my invitation to visit us for a few days, and the next morning when I gave him a squad to drill I noticed with satisfaction. his familiarity with the regulations, and the prudent ability with which he applied his knowledge.

After his enlistment I appointed him First Sergeant of the company and I have always felt that much of the good military character which our company maintained was due to his efficiency; and I am pleased to record that he served throughout the war and com

manded the regiment as Lieutenant Colonel at its close. He afterwards returned to the South, and died in 1912. This company was the first three-year company that entered the service from Muskingum County.

On September 1st, 1861, I received an order to report with my company to Colonel Thomas H. Ford at Mansfield, Ohio. As the company of one hundred men marched in column to the railroad station, the streets were lined with fathers, mothers, sisters and sweethearts, laughing, cheering and crying; and with prayers for our safety they bade us good-bye. All this impressed us with the solemn importance of the mission we had undertaken. On September 4, 1861, our company was mustered into the United States service and assigned as Company "G" to the 32nd O. V. I., Colonel Thomas H. Ford commanding.

We were then sent to camp Dennison near Cincinnati where we received our equipment, and were armed with old, long-barreled, large-calibered, muzzle-loading muskets. These had been discarded by the Austrian government and bought for our use, as the best that could be got at that time. Conspirators in Buchanan's administration had transferred to the southern states all the artillery and small arms they could secure. The Secretary of War (Floyd) sent an order to Pittsburg for the shipment of a large consignment of new artillery to New Orleans. This was prevented by the citizens of that loyal city.

After ten days of drill practice we were ordered on the 10th of September, to Cheat Mountain Gap for

GROUP OF BOYS OF CO. "G," 32p O. V. I.

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the purpose of checking the advance of Brigadier General R. E. Lee into western Virginia. While we were preparing for this movement I received a telegram from home saying that my father was dangerously ill. I went home at once and two days after my arrival he died. He had been seriously concerned about the prospect of his adopted country's trouble. He had given two of his three sons to the chances of war. In the delirium before his death he talked of war and pictured scenes of strife as if he were with Colonel Ford and the regiment. In a lucid moment he called me to him and said, "William, take good care of Robert and be a father to him in my place." Then looking up with a confident smile, he died.

After the funeral my brother Robert and I, with some others of the company, followed the regiment to its station at Cheat Mountain Gap in western Virginia, a dreary place of an altitude of 2,500 feet and covered with a thick growth of pine trees, except a clearing of about three acres on which stood an old log cabin known as "Soldier White's Tavern." This served as a stopping place for travelers on this, the principal road to east Virginia, and was the only habitation for twenty miles through the mountains.

We found the boys of our regiment with axes hard at work clearing ground for our tents. A place to drill was out of the question.

The 9th and 13th Indiana and the 25th Ohio Regiments had, the week before, repulsed the enemy commanded by Brigadier General Robert E. Lee in an