Page:Journal history of the Twenty-ninth Ohio veteran volunteers, 1861-1865.djvu/17



The author of this volume has honored me with an invitation to write an "Introduction." A book without a preface would be an anomaly: in other words, out of harmony with established usage; not strictly important, but answering much the same purpose as the "whereas" preceding the resolutions of the convention.

I have not been permitted to read the author's manuscript, yet I do not hesitate to assure the reader that as he peruses the pages of the book he will find much to entertain and profit. To the veteran who enlisted and fought in the historic "Twenty-ninth Ohio Veteran volunteer infantry" it will be read with especial interest. The eye will moisten, and the heart swell with mingled emotions as he is reminded again of the varying scenes of the camp, the march, and the battle. Others, too young to remember anything of the war, but who have heard the stories of the conflict from their fathers, will read this historic sketch of the old regiment with the greatest avidity.

We well remember the author as "Hamp," the drummer boy of Company B, his boyish look, with his neatly-fitting suit of blue, and the tenor drum suspended from his neck, while with nimble fingers he plied the ebony sticks in beating the tattoo, reveille, or the "long roll."

He has done a real and invaluable service to his comrades in gathering up and condensing in neat and durable