THE Regiment remained in Camp Chase, daily improving a drill and discipline, until the 27th of July, 1861, when, having secured arms, smooth-bore muskets, excepting the flank companies, which were armed with Enfield rifles, it marched from camp to the union depot, at Columbus, and took the cars for Virginia.
     The 23d and 24th left on the two preceding days, and the 26th followed the next day.
     The 25th made a handsome appearance, being uniformed in gray jackets and trousers, and, already well advanced in regimental drill, attracted very favorable attention as it marched through the streets of Columbus.
     During the entire service of the Regiment, one of its distinguishing features, was its easy, regular step, with a slight swinging motion of the body that always attracted favorable comment from reviewing officers.  This peculiarity is thought by many to have been acquired from Company A, commanded by Capt. Charlesworth, an old soldier, and one of the best drill masters in the Regiment.  From whatever source derived, it remained with the Regiment through all its vicissitudes.
     Grafton, Virginia, was reached on the afternoon of the 28th, and Col. Jones was given command of the Grafton District, with headquarters at that place, and the Regiment distributed along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad as follows:
Companies A, F and C - Camp Battery, Grafton
Company I - Fetterman
Company E - Iron R. R. Bridge and Fairmont
Company D - Fairmont and Barracksville
Company K - Farmington and Burnt Bridge
Company H - Mannington and Burton
Company G - Littleton and Belton
Company B - Camron
     Company A was afterwards sent to Rowelsburg and Oakland.
     The duties performed along the railroad were not particularly arduous, and much time was therefore given to drill, which afterwards proved of great benefit.  Several scouting parties were sent out from the different posts, and quite a number of bushwhacking gangs broken up without the loss of the man to the Regiment, and to the great relief of the loyal people of that section.  The constant drills, and rapid marches made after bushwhackers, gradually inured the men to the army life, and undoubtedly saved the lives of many, for during the entire war the deaths from disease were trifling compared to other regiments.
     On the 21st of August, 1861, the 8th Ohio was ordered to relieve the 25th, which was ordered to report to Brig. Gen. Reynolds, at Huttonsville, fifty-eight miles southwest of Grafton.  It left on the same day, going by cars to Philippi, where it remained all night.  The next morning early, the Regiment started on its first real march, and made eighteen miles with ease, although a drenching rain fell almost the entire day, rendering the roads heavy, and making necessary the fording of several streams where the water was waist deep.  It was five o'clock when the Regiment went into camp at Bealington, and very soon tents were pitched, fires built, and active preparations for supper being made, when a courier came galloping into camp, his horse covered with foam and himself with mud, and with orders for Lieut. Col. Richardson, (commanding in absence of Col. Jones, who remained in command at Grafton,) to push on with the Regiment to Beverly, where an attack was threatened.  The sight of the galloping courier had already quickened the blood, and when the bugle immediately sounded the officer's call, every one knew it meant a night march.  Six months afterward the coffee, under like circumstances, would have been drank, and the sow belly and hard tack eaten; but upon this occasion the fear was that the war would soon be over, and such a lucky chance to engage the enemy might not again occur.  It was a cash prize, to be seized at once; the partly made coffee was thrown upon the ground, frying pans turned upside down, and before the orders were really issued by the regimental commander the tents were being struck; in five minutes' time the Regiment had resumed its march, to the tune of "Old John Brown."  We were going over historic ground; where we were marching, the 14th Ohio, a few weeks previous, had an engagement with the rebels,  This was early in the war, so it was called the battle of Laurel Hill.  But the idea helped and although the rain was coming down steadily, there never were one thousand happier boys than started out on that night march over the mountain range.  The mountain streams became foaming torrents, making the fords deep and dangerous.  The night set in black as ink, and still the rain poured down.  The cheerful laugh and reckless sound gradually died out, excepting from a few fellows with an extra quantity of grit, and they, getting fewer responses, finally lapsed into sobriety.  On and on marched the Regiment, every man settling into a dogged determination to last it through.  Beverly was reached some time in the early morning and the boys, completely exhausted, did not wait for the wagons to come up with the tents, but threw themselves upon the ground in the rain and mud, and sank into forgetfulness.  It was the first march of the Regiment, and it made forty miles in a little over fifteen hours, over mountains, through gorges and ravines, fording deep streams, and with rain constantly falling.  Considering the circumstances attending this march, it is justly claimed by members of the Regiment to have been the severest march of the war, made by either side, and that history does not furnish a parallel.  After all, the march was useless; the enemy did not put in an appearance, and two days after reaching Beverly, the Regiment marched to Cheat Mountain pass.
     The regimental records do not show that a single death resulted from the march to Beverly.  This good fortune may be attributed to the hardening process experienced along the Baltimore & Ohio R. R.
     On the morning of the 25th August, the right wing of the Regiment marched to the summit of Cheat Mountain, followed the next day by the left, and a camping place was selected.  It was indeed a dismal outlook.  The 24th Ohio and 14th Indiana where already in camp on the summit, on the right of the pike.  The 25th's camp was on the left, and near the fort then being laid out, afterwards completed and known as Fort Gilbert. 
     The history of the Rebellion furnishes no instances of greater suffering, excepting in rebel prisons, than that experienced by the troops on the summit of Cheat Mountain, in the fall and winter of 1861.  One-half the force was daily engaged at work upon the fort, or upon picket duty; for three months rain or snow fell almost daily, and as the men of the 25th were totally unprovided with overcoats and had only light summer suit drawn at Camp Chase, and with one thin blanket each, their sufferings can hardly be imagined.  Horses were chilled to death, and one man frozen to death while on picket.  While deaths were occuring every day in the 14th Indiana and 24th Ohio, the 25th had its usual good fortune, and lost no member from disease.
     Cheat Mountain camp remained comparatively quiet, until the morning of the 12th of September, when a wagon train on its way to the valley for supplies was surprised and captured by a body of rebels.  John Truxell, private, of Company D., was driving one of the wagons; he fired twice, killing one man, and severely wounding another, when he fell mortally wounded, being the first man in the Regiment killed in an engagement with the enemy.  One of the teamsters escaping brought news of the attack, and Companies H and D were immediately sent in pursuit of the rebels, and were soon engaged skirmishing, and upon being reenforced by companies from the 24th Ohio and 14th Indiana, drove the enemy to the main body, which was in position between the summit and the valley.  About this time, another attack was made from the Green Briar road, and appearances soon indicated that the camp was entirely surrounded.  Prisoners brought in during the afternoon by Company D stated that the enemy numbered 10,000 and were under the command of General Robert E. Lee.  Col. Kimball, of the 14th Indiana, commanding the brigade, immediately made preparations for a vigorous defense.  All men not capable of the most arduous duties, were placed in the defenses; the tents and standing obstructions removed, and all available men thrown as skirmishers into the dense growth of pines and laurels.  For eight days, skirmishing was almost continuous, and the enemy appeared surprised at the apparent strength of the position.  On the eighth day, reenforcements arrived from the valley, bringing supplies of provisions, by that time very much needed.  For two days more the rebel commander made some feeble attacks, but was quickly repulsed, and the next day withdrew his forces to Green Briar, greatly discomfited.  For this failure General Lee was relieved from command in Western Virginia, and for some time afterwards held an unimportant command in South Carolina.  Before the close of the war, he became known throughout the world as the great rebel general.
     In this affair on Cheat Mountain, Company H, Second Lieut. John T. Wood commanding, was the first company in the Regiment to actually confront rebels, and both officer and men laid the foundation for steadiness which was not impaired during the war.  Detachments of K, under Lieut. Nat. Haughton, and E, under Lieut. John W. Bowlus, were sent on independent expeditions, and both were successful in unmasking strong positions of the enemy.  The expedition under Lieut. Bowlus was a remarkable one.  Selecting sixty men, all dressed in the gray uniform of the Regiment, he managed, during the dusk of the evening, to enter and pass through the rebel lines; meeting at daylight a large detachment of the rebels, he secured a good position in the mountains, and kept the rebels back from 7 until 11 a.m.  The rebel force was under Col. John A. Washington, who fell in the engagement, with over sixty of his men.  Bowlus escaped with trifling injury.
     The casualties in the Regiment were very light, being John Pratt, Company B, Charles Farenbeck, Company K, and John Truxell, Company D, killed, and Noah Stump and Henry Barnup, Company E, wounded and captured.
     During the balance of the stay of the Regiment on Cheat Mountain, several expeditions were sent out, commanded variously by Major George Webster, Lieutenants Nat. Haughton and John W. Bowlus.  The country was decidedly poor, and as the great art of subsisting upon the enemy had not yet become popular, these expeditions were without much profit, excepting as educators.
     On the 27th September, a promising young officer of the Regiment, Capt. John M. Moseley, of Company I, died of typhoid fever.
     Nothing of importance occured upon the mountains until the 3d of October, when an expedition against the rebel camp on the Green Briar was undertaken, under the direct command of General Reynolds.  The troops composing the expedition were the 24th, 25th and 32d Ohio regiments, (the latter regiment, under Col. Tom. Ford, having recently arrived,) the 14th, 9th, 13th and 17th Indiana regiments, and Daums', Howes' and Loomis' batteries.
     This rather formidable force marched from the summit before daylight, and at 8 o'clock in the morning the advance drove in the rebel pickets, killing and wounding several and taking a few prisoners.  The Confederate troops retired in good enough order to their fortifications, which were well calculated for a good defense, occupying, as they did, the range of hills south of the river, and with an open valley in front extending well on both flanks.  Our troops were, after considerable artillery firing, placed in position under the direct fire of the rebel batteries, and ordered to remain steady until orders were given to charge.  For two hours the troops were maintained in this position, and although it was the first time they were under an artillery fire, they behaved fully as well as at any later period of the war, perhaps better.  It is true, that the rebel guns were wretchedly served, and but few shells were fired, as they seemed to have a limited number.  But they kept up a pretty lively noise, and threw a good many solid shot, nearly every one going over the heads of the men into the side of the hill.
     General Reynolds finally made up his mind that the position was too strong to carry, and withdrew his forces to Cheat Mountain, "the main object of the expedition having been accomplished."  What the main object of the expedition really was, will now never been known.  We had enough material, eager for a fight, to have easily taken the position, and in either regiment there were half a dozen subaltern officers, who with the next two years' experience, would unhesitatingly have attacked and carried such works with half the number of troops we had on  the field.  It was early in the war, and the fruit had not yet matured.
     Lieut. Colonel Wm. P. Richardson commanded the Regiment, and the following is an extract from his official report:
     *   *   *   "When the order to retire was given, my Regiment remained drawn up in line of battle under a heavy fire from the enemy's guns, until all the regiments had passed, when we followed, bringing up the rear in good order.  We brought off all the wounded, and buried all the dead.  Colonel Jones was prevented by severe illness from taking command of his Regiment.
     "Wounded:  John Everingham, Alex. Pemberton and Michael Mulgrove, all of Company." 
     The above engagement was called the Battle of Green Briar.  A rather amusing experience will be remembered by the boys.  They had not yet received their overcoats, and had suffered severely in consequence.  The 25th was the last regiment to leave the summit, and when they reached the valley the sun came out very warm.  The 24th Ohio had preceded our Regiment, and their overcoats becoming burdensome, as their patriotism warmed, they threw them away, and for miles they were scattered along the road.  The 25th boys were in a condition to appreciate the overcoats, and gathered them up.  All day long, through the sweltering heat, the boys clung to the coats and carried them back to camp with the idea that they were appropriating abandoned property, which really was the case; but the next day Col. Kimball issued an order for the coats to be turned over to the 24th.  It raised quite a row, and some of them at least still lie buried on the mountain.  It seemed to us that the 24th Ohio pleaded the baby act in the overcoat business, and from that time on there never was any real warm friendship between the two regiments.