The Citizen-Soldier | Page 2

enter into and affect the life of a soldier. In short, he
has sought simply to gather up the scraps which fell in his way, leaving
to other and more competent hands the weightier matters of the great
civil war.
Many errors of opinion and of fact he might now correct, and many
items which appear unworthy of a paragraph he might now strike out,
but he prefers to leave the record as it was written, when cyclopedias
could not be consulted, nor time taken for thorough investigation.
Who can really know what an army is unless he mingles with the
individuals who compose it, and learns how they live, think, talk, and
act?

THE CITIZEN SOLDIER;
OR,
MEMOIRS OF A VOLUNTEER.
* * * * *
JUNE, 1861.
22. Arrived at Bellaire at 3 P. M. There is trouble in the neighborhood
of Grafton. Have been ordered to that place.
The Third is now on the Virginia side, and will in a few minutes take
the cars.
23. Reached Grafton at 1 P. M. All avowed secessionists have run away;
but there are, doubtless, many persons here still who sympathize with
the enemy, and who secretly inform him of all our movements.
24. Colonel Marrow and I dined with Colonel Smith, member of the
Virginia Legislature. He professes to be a Union man, but his
sympathies are evidently with the South. He feels that the South is
wrong, but does not relish the idea of Ohio troops coming upon
Virginia soil to fight Virginians. The Union sentiment here is said to be
strengthening daily.
26. Arrived at Clarksburg about midnight, and remained on the cars
until morning. We are now encamped on a hillside, and for the first
time my bed is made in my own tent.
Clarksburg has apparently stood still for fifty years. Most of the houses
are old style, built by the fathers and grandfathers of the present
occupants. Here, for the first time, we find slaves, each of the wealthier,
or, rather, each of the well-to-do, families owning a few.
There are probably thirty-five hundred troops in this vicinity--the Third,
Fourth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and part of the Twenty-second Ohio,
one company of cavalry, and one of artillery. Rumors of skirmishes and

small fights a few miles off; but as yet the only gunpowder we have
smelled is our own.
28. At twelve o'clock to-day our battalion left Clarksburg, followed a
stream called Elk creek for eight miles, and then encamped for the
night. This is the first march on foot we have made. The country
through which we passed is extremely hilly and broken, but apparently
fertile. If the people of Western Virginia were united against us, it
would be almost impossible for our army to advance. In many places
the creek on one side, and the perpendicular banks on the other, leave a
strip barely wide enough for a wagon road.
Buckhannon, twenty miles in advance of us, is said to be in the hands
of the secession troops. To-morrow, or the day after, if they do not
leave, a battle will take place. Our men appear eager for the fray, and I
pray they may be as successful in the fight as they are anxious for one.
29. It is half-past eight o'clock, and we are still but eight miles from
Clarksburg. We were informed this morning that the secession troops
had left Buckhannon, and fallen back to their fortifications at Laurel
Hill and Rich mountain. It is said General McClellan will be here
to-morrow, and take command of the forces in person.
In enumerating the troops in this vicinity, I omitted to mention Colonel
Robert McCook's Dutch regiment, which is in camp two miles from us.
The Seventh Ohio Infantry is now at Clarksburg, and will, I think,
move in this direction to-morrow.
Provisions outside of camp are very scarce. I took breakfast with a
farmer this morning, and can say truly that I have eaten much better
meals in my life. We had coffee without sugar, short-cake without
butter, and a little salt pork, exceedingly fat. I asked him what the
charge was, and he said "Ninepence," which means one shilling. I
rejoiced his old soul by giving him two shillings.
The country people here have been grossly deceived by their political
leaders. They have been made to believe that Lincoln was elected for
the sole purpose of liberating the negro; that our army is marching into

Virginia to free their slaves, destroy their property, and murder their
families; that we, not they, have set the Constitution and laws at
defiance, and that in resisting us they are simply defending their homes
and fighting for their constitutional rights.

JULY, 1861.
2. Reached Buckhannon at 5 P. M., and encamped beside the Fourth
Ohio,