Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/352

 $ w_

��l^

��338

��HISTOEY OF KICHLAND COUNTY.

��CHAPTER XXXV.

THE SHERMAN BRIGADE.

Earliest Steps — Me. Sherman's Arrival in Mansfield — Note — Interview with Brinkerhoff — Commence- ment OF Recruitino — Wm. Blair Lord — Captains Gass, McIlvain, Ayers and others — Sklection OF Camp Buckingham — Arrival of Maj. R. S. Granger — His forjier Life, Character and Standinu — He puts the Camp under Military Discipline — Organization of the Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Regiments — The Cavalry and Artillery — Senator Sherman's Letter to the Brigade — Quarter- master Bbinkeehoff detached from the Brigade — The Brigade's Departure for the Front — Its Disintegration as a Brigade — Rosters and Histories of the Sixty-fourth, the Sixty-fifth, the Cavalry- and the Artillery.

��WHEN the Thirty-second andFifteentli Keg- iments left Mansfield, quiet from camp life resulted. Companies were still being enlisted, but they were those credited to other counties, whose recruiting officers came to Mansfield and its vicinity for men to fill their ranks. The count}- furnished a good many men in this wa}- ; more than were really credited to it.

The Government was needing still more men. The war was assuming its real proportions, and the North was rising to meet the conflict. One of the best men in the halls of Congress at that time was John Sherman, now the honored Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and brother to the veteran who led an arm}- through the heart of the enemy's country. Mr. Sher- man had been active in the discharge of his duties during all the opening years of the war, and had gone as far as his station would per- mit. He was needed in the legislative halls and there he remained, doing, meanwhile, all he could to aid the volunteers.

In September, 1861, soon after the Thirty- second had departed for the field, and while the Fifteenth was still in camp, Mr. Sherman was commissioned to raise a brigade to consist of two regiments of infantry, one squadron of cav- alry and one battery of artillery. In order to raise this brigade, Mr. Sherman came to Mans-

��field Saturday, the 21st day of September, and at once set about the task.* At that time, Mr. Sherman was living on West Market street in the house now occupied by Mr. A. L. Glrimes. Immediatel}" on his arrival, he sent for Mr. Roe- liff Brinkerhoff", afterward Gen. Brinkerhoff, who then resided tw-o doors west, in the house now occupied by Mathew Lind. Mr. Sherman stated to Mr. Brinkerhoff that he had authoritv to raise a brigade of troops, and that it was nec- essar}' and in compliance with his own wishes to do it as quickly as possible. He indicated that his plan would be not to issue any commissions to officers, except as Recruiting Lieutenants, until they would earn the commission b}' re- cruiting men. He also indicated the number of men he would expect a second lieutenant's commission to bring ; also a first lieutenant's, and a captain's. He further stated, however, that he must have a quartermaster at once, as

��* On the Jay Mr. Sherman came home, S. M. Wolff, Michael Keiser and Alexander Mcllvaine had sworn in, at Miller's Hall, at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, twenty-one men, who had organized themselves into a rifle company, intending to join an independent rifle rpgiment organizing in the western part of the State. They had enlisted in all about thirty men. Mr. Sherman sent fir Mr. McUvaine, and desired his services to aid in recruiting the brigade. He then learned of the organization of this rifle company. Mcll- vaine would not act until he had seen his associates, Wol ft' and Keiser. They at once s^,id, when the subject was broached to them, that it would be difficult to recruit a company for a foreign county if a camp was to be established near home, and advised that tlie company be transferred the Sherman brigade. This was done ; the company was given the first place in the Sixty-fourth, and Mcll- vaine made Captain.

��^ d

��t) Y^l

�� �