OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS

Ohio
in Service of our Country

25TH OHIO VET.
VOLUNTEER INFANTRY
IN THE WAR FOR THE UNION
Author: Edward C. Culp
(Topeka, Kan. G. W. Crane & Co., printers & binders, 1885)


(continued)

CHAPTER VII.
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Changes in Regiment - New Commander -
Presentation of Sword to Maj. Gen. R. H. Milroy

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     THE Regiment remained in camp until June 12th following, during which time the brigade and division commanders were changed, the division being commanded by Brig. Gen. Francis C. Barlow,,, and the brigade by Brig. Gen. Adelbert Ames, both efficient and gallant officers.  Col. Richardson being absent on account of wounds, the regiment was commanded by Lieut. Col. Jere. Williams.
     Several changes also occurred among the officers of the Regiment.  Lieut. Col. Charlesworth was discharged on account of wounds received.  Major Jere. Williams was promoted to lieutenant colonel.  Capt. John F. Oliver, Company F., was promoted to major, but never served in that capacity with the Regiment, being appointed provost marshal of one of the districts of Ohio.  Capt. John W. Bolus, Company C, was commissioned major, but very soon afterwards discharged on account of disability.  Capts. Askew, Company I, Crowell, Company E, Higgins, Company H, Jones, Company B, Lieut. Merryman, Company I, and Quartermaster A. J. Hale, resigned, the latter being succeeded by Commissary Sergeant David R. Hunt.  Several new officers were promoted from the ranks,.  But four of the original officers remained with the regiment, and they had all received promotion, viz., Col. Richardson, Lieut. Col. Williams, Capts. Nat. Haughton and John W. Wood.
While the officers and enlisted men purchased a handsome sword and sash, and sent them by Lieut. Col. Charlesworth to Maj. Gen. R. H. Milroy, then commanding a division in the 8th army corps.  The testimonial was an expression of esteem and affection toward a former commander.  The following letter from Gen. Milroy acknowledges acceptance of the gift:

HEADQUARTERS 2D DIVISION, 8TH ARMY CORPS,}
WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA, MAY 6th, 1863.}

Col. William P. Richardson, and Officers and Privates of the 25th Ohio Volunteer Infantry:
     I was agreeably surprised today by the appearance of Lieutenant Colonel Charlesworth, of your Regiment, at my headquarters.  Of course, being an old comrade-in-arms, and an honored and gallant member of your Regiment, he received at my hands a most cordial welcome.  Before I had recovered from the agreeable recollection which his presence suggested, in your name he presented me with a sword, the dress and service scabbards of which are richly ornamented with jewels, and a sash and belt of corresponding elegance; and also handed me your flattering and affectionate letter of presentation.  This letter is signed by all the officers and men of your gallant Regiment that have served under my command.  You are all aware of my dearth of language, and will not, I am certain, judge of the emotions excited in my heart by this greatest surprise of my life, from the mode in which I may express them.  Your Regiment was a part of the first brigade which I had the honor to command.  You endured the rigors of a Cheat Mountain winter, participated in driving the rebels away from the territory now comprising West Virginia, across the Alleghenies and the Valley of Monterey, and gallantly led the Union forces in the battle of Bull Pasture Mountain.  As a part of my command you served in the arduous campaigns under Fremont, in the Shenandoah Valley, and fought with unfaltering courage at Cross Keys.  During the Whole time you served under my command, you all, officers and privates, conducted yourselves like men who had engaged in the struggle which now convulses our country from no venal motive, but from a conscientious conviction of duty.  Shortly after the battle of Cross Keyes, against my wish, and greatly to my regret, you were transferred to another command, but as you remained in the same army corps with my brigade, I was an eye-witness of your fidelity and courage in the campaign of the Rappahannock, and at the last battle of Manassas.  When your Regiment first became a part of my command, it was near a thousand strong.  It has sine been strengthened by recruits, as I have been informed, not less than three hundred.  It now numbers about five hundred.  The Regiment has not, to my knowledge, been disgraced by a single desertion, and has suffered, in consequence of its good discipline an strict attention of its officers, but little from the ordinary causes of mortality.  The great majority of the eight hundred missing from your ranks have been disabled in battle, or repose in honorable graves on the Alleghanies, Bull Pasture Mountain, at Cross Keyes, along the lines of the Rappahanock, or on the plains of Manassas.  As the sun of the Union rises with increased splendor above the storm of battle, it is consoling to hope that those who have been gathered to their fathers have not died in vain.  The consideration that this present is made to me as their former commander, at the expiration of nearly a year after the severance of that relation, by the survivors of so many hard-contested fields, and of such a heroic band, invests it with a peculiar significance and value.  I would have preferred that the gift had been less costly, for it derives none of its importance, in my estimation, from its intrinsic worth.  The brief and affectionate letter of presentation, accompanied by the signatures of the donors, is as highly prized, and will be as carefully preserved by me, as the costly present which it represents.  Rest assured, brother soldiers, of my heartfelt wish that you may survive to witness, in the restoration of the Union of your fathers, the fruition of your sacrifices and labors.  With feelings of admiration, gratitude and respect, I am, fellow-soldiers,
              Very truly your friend,
                          R. H. MILROY, Major General

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