The Citizen-Soldier

The Citizen-Soldier, by John
Beatty

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Title: The Citizen-Soldier or, Memoirs of a Volunteer
Author: John Beatty
Release Date: January 27, 2007 [EBook #20460]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE CITIZEN-SOLDIER;
OR,

MEMOIRS OF A VOLUNTEER.
BY
JOHN BEATTY.
* * * * *
CINCINNATI: WILSTACH, BALDWIN & CO., PUBLISHERS, NOS.
141 AND 143 RACE STREET. 1879.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by
ELLEN B. HENDERSON,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

TO MY BROTHER,
MAJOR WILLIAM GURLEY BEATTY,
WHOSE GENEROUS SACRIFICE OF HIS OWN INCLINATION
AT THE
COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR, AND FAITHFUL DEVOTION
TO MY FAMILY AND BUSINESS,
ENABLED ME TO ENTER THE ARMY AND REMAIN THREE
YEARS,
THIS VOLUME
IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

INTRODUCTORY.

In the lifetime of all who arrive at mature age, there comes a period
when a strong desire is felt to know more of the past, especially to
know more of those from whom we claim descent. Many find even
their chief pleasure in searching among parish records and local
histories for some knowledge of ancestors, who for a hundred or five
hundred years have been sleeping in the grave. Long pilgrimages are
made to the Old World for this purpose, and when the traveler
discovers in the crowded church-yard a moss-covered, crumbling stone,
which bears the name he seeks, he takes infinite pains to decipher the
half-obliterated epitaph, and finds in this often what he regards as
ample remuneration for all his trouble. How vastly greater would be his
satisfaction if he could obtain even the simplest and briefest history of
those in whom he takes so deep an interest. Who were they? How were
their days spent, and amongst what surroundings? What were their
thoughts, fears, hopes, acts? Who were their associates, and on which
side of the great questions of the day did they stand? A full or even
partial answer to these queries would possess for him an incalculable
value.
So, sitting here to-night, in my little library, with wife and children near,
and by God's great kindness all in life and health, I look forward one,
two, five hundred years, and see in each succeeding century, and
possibly in each generation, so long as the name shall last, a
wonder-eyed boy, curious youth, or inquisitive old man, exploring
closets and libraries for things of the old time, stumbling finally on this
volume, which has, by the charity of the State Librarian, still been
preserved; he discovers, with quickening pulse, that it bears his own
name, and that it was written for him by one whose body has for
centuries been dust. Dull and uninteresting as it may be to others, for
him it will possess an inexpressible charm. It is his own blood speaking
to him from the shadowy and almost forgotten past. The message may
be poorly written, the matter in the main may be worthless, and the
greater events recorded may be dwarfed by more recent and important
ones, but the volume is nevertheless of absorbing interest to him, for by
it he is enabled to look into the face and heart of one of his own kin,
who lived when the Nation was young. In leaving this unpretentious
record, therefore, I seek to do simply what I would have had my fathers

do for me.
Kinsmen of the coming centuries, I bid you hail and godspeed!
COLUMBUS, December 16, 1878.
* * * * *
The Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry served under two separate terms of
enlistment--the one for three months, and the other for three years.
The regiment was organized April 21, 1861, and on April 27th it was
mustered into the United States service, with the following field
officers: Isaac H. Marrow, Colonel; John Beatty, Lieutenant Colonel,
and J. Warren Keifer, Major.
The writer's record begins with the day on which his regiment entered
Virginia, June 22, 1861, and ends on January 1, 1864. He does not
undertake to present a history of the organizations with which he was
connected, nor does he attempt to describe the operations of armies. His
record consists merely of matters which came under his own
observation, and of camp gossip, rumors, trifling incidents, idle
speculations, and the numberless items, small and great, which, in one
way and another,