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I was born in Gainsboro, Frederick County, Virginia, nine miles northwest of Winchester, on the first day of December, 1838. My mother's maiden name was Heironimus, an old family of that county, dating back of the Revolutionary war. When I was three years old my father removed to Springfield, Hampshire County (in what is now West Virginia), an adjoining county, where I spent my boyhood days as most other boys do, in learning a trade and going to school, where I received a fair English education for those days.

In March, 1855, when I was in my 21st year, I cut loose from the parental roof and took Horace Greeley's advice to "Go West and grow up with the country." I landed in Cass County, Missouri, in which state I remained, living in different counties, until the spring of 1861, when the signs of the times indicated war, and I concluded to go back to old Virginia. I left Sedalia, Mo., the 8th day of April, 1861, and returned to Frederick County, Virginia, where my father was engaged in farming, having moved back to that county during my absence.

After leaving Sedalia I went to St. Louis, and there got on board a steamboat bound for Pittsburg, Pa. After passing Cairo, Ill., we heard of the firing on Fort Sumter, and saw bills posted at the different towns we passed calling for 75,000 troops for ninety days to protect Washington and put down the rebellion. Then we knew that war had commenced.

Various opinions were indulged in by the passengers, some saying that the North did not need that many troops, and that it would all be settled in less than ninety days. But, alas! vain hope! How little we knew of the struggle that was before us. I parted with my fellow passengers at