ing for a just cause for which their mothers were praying, and I felt even then that I could in sadness. take the hand of the young soldier who fired the shot, in recognition of the fact that he was as faithful to his teachings as I was to mine.

One of the greatest friends we had while our company remained in Beverly was Mrs. Arnold, the wife of the most prominent citizen of the town. She was a strong Union woman and a faithful friend of our sick and wounded boys, often taking them home and caring for them, supplying delicacies which they could get nowhere else. Mrs. Arnold was especially interesting to us as being the sister and only near relative of Stonewall Jackson, the greatest military genius of the South, but of whom she seldom spoke except to express regret that he had taken up arms against his country. In her declining years she made her home at Shepard's Sanatarium in Columbus, Ohio, and one of the interesting features of our reunion here was the informal reception she always gave to the boys of Co. G. She died in 1912.

While at Beverly we had an opportunity to resume company drill and to become familiar with the duties of a soldier, especially that of camp and picket guard, upon which the safety of the camp depends.

On one occasion I induced the picket guard to let me through the line at night without the countersign. Next morning I put him under arrest for doing it. This was a lesson that was never forgotten. I should have been sent in under guard to headquarters by the Sergeant.

CHAPTER 6.

Advance from Cheat Mountain and our Experience With Foreign Adventurers.

When the spring of 1862 opened, our troops were ordered to advance on the Staunton road into the Shenandoah Valley, but Company "G" of the 32d Ohio was to remain at Beverly until the sick and wounded could be removed.

On April 20th an order came from the colonel to bring my company via Grafton on the B. & O. R. R., to Martinsburg and report to the regiment on Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley. En route I received. an order to stop off temporarily at New Creek, now called Keyser, to protect the railroad, for it was rumored that the enemy was coming to tear it up at that point. Here I was put in charge of a new style of battery, consisting of twenty small steel guns of one pound caliber for sharp shooting artillery practice. Some two weeks afterwards two foreign officers appeared and presented an order from General Fremont, then in command of the Army of the Shenandoah Valley, appointing them captain and lieutenant. respectively in the American Artillery, and directing them to proceed to New Creek and take command of an infantry company with a battery of artillery which

they would find there. The captain then produced an order directing me to turn over my company to Captain Von Otto by order of Major General Fremont.

The captain was very gracious and told me he belonged to the Austrian nobility and was an artillery officer on temporary leave of absence. His order gave him authority to draw on the post quartermaster for horses to take the company and battery to General Fremont's headquarters at Cedar Creek.

This whole proceeding seemed to me arbitrary and I felt that General Fremont was not warranted in depriving me of my command without a cause and taking my company from the regiment to which it belonged without the knowledge of the colonel under whose order I was acting, simply to accommodate some foreign adventurers; but as I was anxious to reach Cedar Creek and read a copy of the order to the company and put them under the orders of Captain Von Otto. General Fremont was better known in Europe at that time than any man in our army, having once been a candidate for the Presidency. He became surrounded by a lot of idle adventurers known as "Soldiers of Fortune", who rushed over here to assist us in our domestic troubles of which they knew little and cared less. They came to instruct us in the science of war, by which they hoped to reap some glory and a comfortable share of American gold.

One of them came to our camp in West Virginia the year before, when General Fremont was com

manding that department. He claimed to be a major from some European army and had an authority from Fremont to be placed in command of scouting parties. in search of the enemy, and "bring on a fight," the "bloodier the better," and "get his name up" as he said. But he was not given a chance and soon disappeared.

I was therefore not favorably impressed with Captain Von Otto and his Lieutenant, nor with the prospective value of the services and military instruction that Austria was about to furnish through the services of these men. Their manner and imperfect English when they undertook to instruct the company made their efforts seem ridiculous and the men would laugh at their mistakes. This would cause them to lose their temper and storm and swear until the drill became a farce. The arrogant way in which they treated the men destroyed respect.

As the captain was tall and slim he was referred to as "Tongs," while the lieutenant who was short and thick was known as "Tubs." "Tongs" and "Tubs" were the names by which they were known with the company, and this, the boys said was "the long and short of it."

Their idea of the relations maintained among officers was good enough, but their manner toward the enlisted men was overbearing and generally objectionable and not calculated to secure discipline nor respect from American volunteers.

One hot day, for example, the captain dismounted

with polite ceremony to talk to me, but with an overdone imperiousness he called to a soldier near by, "Here, fellow, hold my horse." The boy, I may mention, had been one of my school pupils and was one of my best soldiers. He is now the Honorable Charles W. Black, a prominent citizen of Iowa and late member of the state legislature. He obeyed promptly, but the flies were troublesome, and the horse with a sudden turn switched the captain slightly with his tail. Thereupon he became furious, cursed the boy and drew his sword as if to strike him. Of course I stopped him, saying that would not do in the American Army. Turning to me he was prompt to apologize. "Oh, don't apologize to me," said I. "speak to the boy". But this suggestion was quite foreign to his ideas of army discipline. The familiar relations between American officers and volunteer soldiers disgusted him, while his assumed superiority over the men disgusted them, and efficient cooperation was impossible. I felt sure that in this whole affair General Fremont had transcended his authority, that the President would not knowingly permit it, and I determined to make the issue before the war department in Washington.

About the middle of June, Captain Von Otto received an order to report with his new command to General Fremont near Cedar Creek and transportation was provided. The company's rifles had been boxed and I ordered Lieutenant Westbrook to have them put in a car. On arriving at Martinsburg, in