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Probably no county in the United States—Certainly none in the States that date their origin since the war of the Revolution—has a more brilliant military record than Hamilton county.  In the Indian period, during the last war with Great Britain, the skirmish with Mexico, and the great civil war, the men of Cincinnati and of Hamilton county at large, bore full and honorable part.  Their patriotism from the beginning has been clear and undoubted; their readiness to serve the country in any hour of its peril has been equally manifest, wherever the occasion for it exhibition has come.  From Fort Washington, near the old Cincinnati, marched the troops of HARMAR, of  ST. CLAIR, and of WAYNE, in several campaigns against the savages of the north country; and hence, much later, moved gaily out, likewise on the Hamilton road, and one bright May morning, the Fourth regiment of infantry in the Federal army, which formed the main stay of the beleaguered force at the battle of Tippecanoe.  From Hamilton county went large and gallant contingents in the War of 1812—15 and the war with Mexico;  and her contingent in the war of the Rebellion was numbered  many thousands--a very large percentage, indeed, of the entire force (three hundred and ten thousand six hundred and fifty-four men) recruited in the State of Ohio during the struggle.  It is doubtful whether any city in the Union furnished more men to the Federal cause, in proportion to its population, than Cincinnati.

The record of the entire country, in the regard, is greatly to its honor.  Of one hundred thousand two hundred and twenty-four men raised for the Union army in Ohio in, 1861 eight thousand one hundred and ninety-two or very nearly one-twelfth, were from this one county.  It has at any time, considering its numerous population, but an exceedingly light requisition upon it for drafted militia.  The total quota assigned it for draft during the was but two thousand one hundred and forty-eight, of which one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine were furnished in voluntary recruits, and the actual entire draft from Hamilton county, in the four years of war, was but a paltry one hundred and seventy-eight.  Thought some accident, neglect, or failure of calculation—for it cannot have been thought inability to procure the men, or other necessity—this still left the trifling deficit of ninety-five men.  But there were only twenty-three counties in all the State that were not deficient in the filling of their quotas; and six of the counties in which there was a shortage exhibit on their military record, notwithstanding the immense disparity of population, greater deficits that does Hamilton county.  The general work and record of the country during the bloody years are better shown by the statistical history of 1862.  Upon the first of September of that year, the number of enrolled militia in the country was thirty-nine thousand nine hundred and twenty-six, of whom the volunteers in the armies of the Union numbered fourteen thousand seven hundred and ninety five.  The number then ordered to be drafted was one thousand one and seventy-five; but so rapid were the enlistments, and so many errors were demonstrated in the figuring of the enrolling, recruiting, and mustering officers that the number was more than made good (credits of one thousand five hundred and twenty-nine men being obtained through volunteers and errors shown), and there was consequently no draft.
 

AT FIRST.

In almost the earliest day of Cincinnati and Columbia, as we have seen in chapter IX., and shall seen more fully hereafter, provision was made for an organized militia.  One of the first acts of Governor ST. CLAIR, after the election of Hamilton county, was the appointment of officers at these two places for a battalion of militia; and the protection and defense of the settlements, and the punishment of the marauding and murdering savages which had before proceeded in an irregular though effective way, was thenceforth under the eye of the Territorial government.  Some of the officers and men of the early companies greatly distinguished themselves afterwards in the battles of Indian warfare and War of 1812, and not a few laid down their lives upon the bloody fields.  Since the days of their enrollment, ninety years ago, Hamilton county has never been without an organized military force of her own.
 

HARMAR’S CAMPAIGN AND DEFEAT

About the middle of the year 1790, Governor ST. CLAIR, upon his return to Fort Washington from a protracted tour of official duty in the more distant parts of the Territory, beginning with the creation of Hamilton county at Cincinnati the previous January, had a prolonged consultation with General HARMAR, who had shortly before, in April, led an unsuccessful expedition against the Indians of the Scioto valley.  As a result of the council, it was determined to send a force against the Indians of the Maumee, whose depredations upon the settlements along the Ohio had become persistent and exceedingly annoying.  ST. CLAIR accordingly issued circular letters to the militia commanders in Kentucky, Virginia, and western Pennsylvania, calling out their troops to reinforce the regular army for this campaign.  The latter formed by two small battalions, commanded by Majors WYLLYS and DOUGHTY, with an artillery company of three field-guns.  The Pennsylvania and Virginia militia formed another battalion, under Colonel John HARDIN; and the Kentuckians mustered three battalions, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel TROTTER.  Virginia seems not to have sent enough troops to form a separate organization, and the whole force for the expedition consisted of but one thousand four hundred and fifty-three men, of who only three hundred and twenty were regular soldiers.  They were very poorly equipped, having few of the necessaries of military life, as camp kettles and axes; and their arms were generally in bad condition, many of them absolutely unfit for service.  Some of the Pennsylvanians had no arms whatever.  Not a few old and infirm men and mere boys also appeared among the militia.  The temper of the volunteers, too, was by no means good.  They were averse to act with the regular troops, and manifested considerable jealousy of them, giving the commander of the expedition, General HARMAR, a deal of trouble.  There were also unfortunate quarrels for precedence among the principal officers of the volunteers, in which they were stubbornly backed by the men of their respective commands.

On the twenty-second of September, Major WYLLYS arrived with his detachment of regulars from the garrison at the falls of the Ohio; on the twenty-fifth came Major DOUGHTY with part of the Fort Harmar garrison, and Lieutenant FROTHINGHAM followed soon after with the remainder.  The last of the Pennsylvanians came on the twenty-fifth.  The Kentuckians had not all arrived when the march began; but, as the tardy volunteers were dragoons and mounted riflemen, they were able to overtake the moving column, which they did on the fifth of October.

About the thirteenth of the previous month, General HARMAR moved his force from Fort Washington by a route represented to him by his guides as the shortest and best to the objective points of his campaign, and encamped about ten miles from the fort.  Had he been able here, as WAYNE afterwards was, in the Mill creek valley, to halt for better organization and equipment of his motley command, and for drill and other necessary preparations for the field, a happier story might be told of the result.  He decided to go on at once, however; and on the thirteenth of October the little army neared the Maumee villages.  Colonel HARDIN was detached with a company of regulars and six hundred militia, as an advance party to find the enemy and keep them engaged 

In July following, at Governor ST. CLAIR’S suggestion,  the Kentucky board of war—abode of leading citizens and militia officers authorized by Congress—determined upon an expedition against the Elk River Indians towns, in the present Indiana country.  It was to rendezvous at Fort Washington, and be under command of Colonel WILKINSON, of that post.  On the twentieth of July the Kentuckians duly arrived and mounted, and provisioned for thirty days, began to assemble at the fort, and on the first of the next month a column of five hundred and twenty--five men began the movement.  It marched first upon the Maumee villages, but without provoking and engagement, WILKINSON intending merely to feint in these direction, and on the sixth, after some skirmishing, reached an extensive Ouiatenon village call L’Anguille, on Eel river, near it debouchure into the Wabash.  It was captured and destroyed together with two hundred acres of corn  in the milk, a number of Indians being killed and others taken prisoners.  Among the latter were the sons and sister of the Ouiatenon chief or “King," as WILKINSON calls him in the official report.  Advancing to the Prairies of western Indiana a small Kakapo town was burned and the standing corn destroyed, and on the twenty-first of the month, after a march of four hundred and fifty-one miles from Fort Washington, he reached safely the falls of the Ohio, where the expedition was disbanded.
 

ST. CLAIR’S CAMPAIGN AND DEFEAT.

The Indians derived great encouragement from the retreat of General HARMAR, although exceedingly exasperated by the destruction of the villages and crops, and they harried the frontier settlements worse than before.  Another expedition became necessary to punish them, and also to establish a military post at an important strategic point, near the junction of the St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s rivers, at the head of the Maumee.  Governor ST. CLAIR, having been made a major-general in the regular army and commander in chief of the forces in the northwest, was entrusted with the command in this campaign, with General Richard BUTLER second in authority.  They began preparations early in 1791, and by the middle of July the first regiment of the Federal troops, numbering two hundred and sixty-nine men, reached Fort Washington.  Two thousand and three hundred militia and regulars, most of who were raw recruits, were soon gathered there, and after encamping for a season at Ludlow’s Station (now Cumminsville), six miles from the fort along which is now “Mad Anthony” street, the army marched, September 17th, to the Great Miami, where the city of Hamilton now stands, and where Fort Hamilton—named, like this county, from the then Secretary of Treasury—was built by ST. CLAIR’S men, a strong, well-constructed work, about one thousand feet in circuit.   Leaving a sufficient garrison and resuming the march forty-four miles further, the troops, halted again for twelve days, to build Fort Jefferson, six miles south of the present site of Greenville.  October 24th the final advance into the Indian country began, but under many difficulties.  ST. CLAIR was seriously ill with the gout, having to be carried on a litter; the men were deserting singly and in large parties; the trails were exceedingly difficult for artillery and wagons; provisions were scant, and the march proceeded very slowly and toilsomely.  Only about fourteen hundred men and eighty-six officers remained when the scene of action was reached, on the third of November.  This was upon a branch of the Wabash river, just south of the headwaters of the St. Mary of-the Maumee, which was the stream to which ST. CLAIR supposed he had arrived.  Fort Recovery was afterward built upon the battlefield, and a town of the same name still perpetuates its memory.

The very next morning at daylight, the Indians attached in great force.  The first pressure came upon the militia, who, as in HARMAR’S defeat, speedily gave way, and in their retreat threw two of the regular battalions into much disorder.  The enemy were however checked and temporarily driven back, but their fire was heavy and very deadly, particularly among the officers, and the raw troops were soon in precipitate fight, abandoning the camp and artillery, and strewing the line of retreat with their arms and accoutrements.  Major CLARK’S battalion courageously covered the retreat, and prevented the absolute destruction of the columns.  The race to the

rear was maintained without halt until Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles distant, was reached about sunset of the same day.  Eight hundred and ninety men and sixteen officers, more that sixteen per cent of the whole number engaged—were left dead or wounded in this engagement.  It is accounted them most terrible reverse the American arms ever suffered from the Indians—even more disastrous than BRADDOCK’S defeat.*  It was but a feeble remnant of the expedition that finally, four days after the defeat, found rest and shelter within the wall of Fort Washington.

Among the killed were General BUTLER, the hero of the Fort Finney treaty, and second in command of the expedition.  Lieutenant Colonel OLDHAM, and other prominent officers.  The wounded included Colonel WINTHROP Sargent, of Cincinnati, secretary of Northwest Territory, and the Viscount Malartie, a foreigner of distinction, serving as a volunteer aid upon ST. CLAIR’S staff.  He had been a captain in the guard of Louis XVI, but left it to join the Gallipolis colony, and volunteered as an aid-de-camp to ST. CLAIR when his expedition reached that point on its way down the river.  After the defeat and his wound, which was severe, he had no stomach for more Indian fighting, and soon made his way to Philadelphia, and thence back to France.

Colonel WILKINSON succeeded ST. CLAIR as commandant at Fort Washington; and in the following January, the troops being idle, he called for volunteers from the surrounding county to reinforce his two hundred regulars for an expedition to the scene of defeat, to bury the dead, and bring off the cannon and other pubic property that might have been left by the Indians upon the fields.The yeomanry of Hamilton county, and some of the neighboring Kentuckians, promptly responded and rendezvoused at the fort.  The snow lay two feet deep upon the ground, deeper than had been known since the white man’s occupancy of that region; and the ice was so thick in the Ohio that the Kentucky volunteers could not ferry their horses over, and had to cross them upon a still stronger tract of ice above the mouth of the Little Miami.  On the twenty-fifth of the month WILKINSON moved out, upon the trace opened by ST. CLAIR, and encamped the first night upon the hill south of Mount Pleasant, afterward occupied by Cary’s academy, and the second night at Fort Hamilton.  By the time he reached Fort Jefferson difficulties and hardships of the march were telling severely upon the detachment, and he determined to send back the regulars, retaining the mounted volunteers and the public sleds whereon to bring off the guns.  With those he reached the theater of ST. CLAIR’S disaster on the first of February, finding the snow there also deep, but not completely concealing the remains of the dead. As many of these as could be conveniently found under the circumstances were collected and buried in pits; but so many remained unburied that persons with WAYNE’S expedition eighteen months afterwards reported, doubtless with exaggeration (since the Indians carry off their dead), that six hundred skulls were found upon the field, and that is was necessary to clean the tents of bones before beds could be spread upon the surface.  Three gun-carriages were found and brought away, with some small arms; five others had been so damaged as to be useless.  The cannon has disappeared; but as the adjacent creek was covered with thick ice and snow, a thorough search in it, where it was believed they had been thrown, was not practicable.  They were subsequently found, however, and mounted on Fort Recovery, when they were used with effect during WAYNE’S occupancy of the battleground.  Evidences were observed of great cruelties inflicted by the savages upon the unfortunates of ST. CLAIR’S expedition who had been left wounded upon the field.  WILKINSON was not disturbed by the enemy during his brief campaign of humanity, and he returned quietly to Fort Washington where its object was accomplished.
 

WAYNE’S CAMPAIGN AND VICTORY.

The most vigorous measures on the part of the General Government were now necessary to preserve the frontier settlements in the northwest from destruction and to prevent the early reflux of the advancing wave of civilization. A competent leader was first in demand.  From a number of able officers of the army, most of them  Revolutionary heroes, whose names were submitted to President WASHINGTON, he selected the hero of the storming of Stony Point, the brave “Mad Anthony Wayne—he who showed so much method, withal in his madness.  In June, 1792, WAYNE reached Pittsburgh, with ample powers, and set about the slow, yet, as the sad experience of HARMAR and ST. CLAIR had proved, the indispensable preparations necessary to success.  He addressed himself at once to the recruiting and drill of the new “Legion of the United States,” which was presently, by a bloody victory, to pacificate the savages of the northwest.

Establishing a camp on the Ohio twenty-two miles below Pittsburgh—called “Legionville,” from the title of his army—he gathered, by December, a considerable force there.  About the last of April 1793, he moved it down the river to Fort Washington, and thence, as it was to numerous to occupy that work, out to a camp formed the Mill Creek valley, near the village of Cincinnati, about the spot upon which the gas-works were long afterward erected.  This camp was designed by him as “Hobson’s Choice,” since it was the only one in the vicinity which the high water of that spring made eligible for the purpose.

The following is Judge BURNET’S interesting note upon the selection of this camp:

On the arrival of General WAYNE, at Cincinnati, with the troops from Legionville, late in 1793, he ordered the quartermaster, with two or three of his officers, to make a careful examination of the grounds adjoining the town, and selected the most eligible spot for the construction of an encampment.  After a careful execution of the order, they reported that there was no situation near the town, on which the army could be conveniently encamped, and that the only ground which was in any degree calculated for the purpose was on the river bank, between the village and Mill creek.  The general replies, "if that be so, we have Hobson’s choice, and must take it.”  From that expression the place selected was immediately called ‘Hobson’s Choice,’ and has been known by that name ever since.  The general was evidently a reader of the Spectator, or was at least familiar with the term which has it origin in a notable chapter of that work.

Here the work of organization and drilling the soldiers went steadily on through the summer.   WASHINGTON wrote to WAYNE: “Train and discipline them for the service they are meant for; and do not spare powder and lead, the men be made marksmen.”  One of WAYNE’S sentinels at this time was posted upon a lofty mound which stood until 1841 at the intersection of Mound and Fifth Streets.  The force suffered much from fevers and influenza and desertion. WAYNE also found it difficult to obtain the mounted volunteers he wanted from Kentucky, as the militia of that State  retained the old prejudices, and disliked to serve with regulars.  All obstacles were, however, gradually overcome; and on the seventh of October, the faithful and well directed efforts of the Government to secure peace by diplomacy having so far failed, the army began an aggressive campaign.  It numbered two thousand six hundred regular troops, three hundred and sixty mounted militia, and thirty-six guides and scouts.  One thousand Kentucky volunteers, under General Charles SCOTT, joined it, soon after, at Fort Jefferson.  A strong position six miles in front of this work  was occupied on the thirteenth, and held for several months, while the “peace talks” with the Indians were renewed by commissioners of the Government.  On the sixth of November the Kentucky mounted infantry had a sharp affair with the Indians not far from Fort St. Clair, a work constructed near the present site of Eaton, Preble county, in which the whites lost some men and nearly all their horses.

WAYNE’S army, now called the “Northwestern,” wintered at the new camp on the Stillwater branch of the Miami.  It was fortified, and many cabins put up during the season.  WAYNE gave the group of huts and fort the name of Greenville, which was retained for the flourishing town that now covers its site.  Here he awaited the arrival of the convoys with provision, and continued his preparation for the struggle.  About the last of December a detachment was sent forward to the field of ST. CLAIR’S defeat, which built and garrisoned Fort Recovery there.  Under the wall of that work an escort of one hundred and fifty men, commanded by Major MC MAHON, was attacked by a thousand Indians, led by LITTLE TURTLE,  the noted Miami chief; but they were beaten off, after a severe action, with great slaughter.  The next month WAYNE was joined by sixteen hundred mounted volunteers from Kentucky, and on the twenty-eight of July, 1794, he began his first movement against the enemy.  August 8th the army reached Grand Glaize, near the union of the Auglaise and Maumee, were Fort Defiance was built, and Wayne despatched a firm but conciliatory message to the Indians.  In reply they sent word that if he would wait ten days longer at Grand Glaize, they would decide for peace of war; but he would not wait, and continued his movement until the eighteenth of August, when he reached a place forty-one miles from Grand Glaize, where ascertaining that he was almost in the presence of the enemy, he began to throw up a light work called Fort Deposit, to cover the trains and heavy baggage of the army.  On the morning of the twentieth, moving cautiously down the north bank of  the Maumee about five miles, the advance guard was ambuscaded by the Indians, and received so severe a fire that it was driven back upon the main body.  The enemy was very favorably posted in high grass and among trees felled by a tornado—which gave the action the name of “the Battle of the Fallen Timbers.”  Among these it was impossible for the cavalry to operate with effect on a considerable part of the line of battle.  They were promptly moved against the enemy’s flanks, however, while the front line of infantry charges the savages, which it did with such impetuosity as to oust them speedily from their converts, and in less that an hour to drive them more than two miles and disperse them so thoroughly that the battle was not renewed.

The brunt of this gallant affair was borne by less than nine hundred of WAYNE’S men, opposed to more than twice the number, representing the Miami, Delaware, Ottawa, Shawnee, and Wyandot tribes, and led by several of their bravest chiefs.  A number of Canadian militia and British regulars, with their officers, were also on the field as auxiliaries to the savages, and some of them were killed in the fight.  In the spring of this year a fortification had been constructed by the British in the neighborhood of the battle ground, upon the territory of the United States.  To the vicinity of this (Fort Miami) WAYNE now moved, and while engaged in a spirited correspondence with its commander, in regard to the intrusion of the British upon Federal territory, occupied his army with the devastation of the Indian villages and cornfields above and below the British posts.  Included in the destruction where the buildings and other property of Colonel MC KEE, the British Indian agent and “principal stimulator,” as WAYNE calls him, of the war on the side of the savages, having been personally present on the field of the Fallen Timbers.

Having laid waste the country for miles about the fort, WAYNE returned to Fort Defiance, and on the fourteenth of September moved toward the junction of the St. Josephs’ and the St. Mary’s, where the Government had for years desired to plant a military work, and where he built one whose name is perpetuated by the city of Fort Wayne, at the same place.  About the middle of October the Kentucky contingent, which had become mutinous and troublesome, was marched back to Fort Washington and mustered out of service.  On the twenty-eighth the remainder, except a sufficient garrison or the new fortification, moved to Fort Greenville, where it wintered.  The several tribes, notwithstanding constant British instigation to the contrary, one after another decide to sue for peace.  Messages to that effect were received in December and January by the commanders at Forts Wayne and Greenville; prisoners were exchanged and in the summer of  1795 a great gathering of the leading men of the tribes at the latter place resulted in the treaty of Greenville, bearing final date August 3rd, of that year.  It was ratified by the Senate of the United States in December; and so, through WAYNE’S carefulness and foresight in preparation, his masterly strategy in the construction and occupancy of a chain of military post into the hostile country, and

In the spring of 1794, while General WAYNE was for a time in or near Fort Washington, he was directed by President Washington to dispatch a force to Fort Massac, on the  Mississippi, to intercept an irregular, filibustering army, understood to be in preparation in Kentucky, and expected to invade Louisiana for the conquest of that province, then under Spanish domination.  WAYNE detached Major DOYLE, with a company of infantry and  artillery, to perform the service, which, with other energetic measures undertaken by WASHINGTON, effectually broke up the schemes and intrigued mainly instigated, in Kentucky and elsewhere, by the agents of M. GENET, then the French Minister to this country.  The “French party” had enlisted the sympathies of the governor and other prominent men in Kentucky, and arranged for the rendezvous of two thousand men at the Falls of Ohio (Louisville) to constitute an army of invasion; so that movement thus checked, in part from Fort Washington, was really somewhat formidable.
 

A VERY SHORT CAMPAIGN

seemed to be made necessary in southwestern Ohio at one time during the latter part of the first decade of this century, by the suspected hostile conspiracies of TECUMSEH and his brother, the PROPHET, who resided at Greenville from 1805 to 1809.  They were visited there by many Indians of influence and martial prowess; who were roused almost to frenzy by the intrigues of the PROPHET and the eloquent appeals of TECUMSEH.  So strong because the signs of hostility at last that war was confidently expected.  The militia of this region were called out and rendezvoused at Dayton, supplies gathered, wagon-and pack-trains organized and other preparation made.  The scare was shortly over, however; and the troops, after about a fortnight’s service was disbanded.  One regiment was out from Hamilton county, commanded by Colonel John S. WALLACE, of which Dr. John BLACKBURN, of Cincinnati, was surgeon.
 

THE TIPPECANOE CAMPAIGN.

It is probable that many other man of Hamilton county, besides the gallant commander, General William Henry HARRISON, were out with him in the campaign of 1811, against the Indians of the Indian country; but the names are not now ascertainable.  The sole note of the history of the campaign, connecting Cincinnati and the county with it, which we find, is in Mr. E. D. MANSFIELD’S Personal Memories.  He was then a little boy, residing with his father at Ludlow's Station, on the Hamilton road, upon which he remembered seeing the Fourth regiment of infantry march from Cincinnati on a pleasant morning in May, on their way to the ultimate victory of the campaign at Tippecanoe the following November, where they found the main body and chief hope of the American army.  The renowned won by General Harrison in the campaign also reflects from the honor upon Hamilton county, although he was then residing at Vincennes as governor of Indiana territory.
 

THE WAR OF 1812-15

Early in the spring of 1812, before this struggle had been full enlisted, the President made a requisition upon the State of Ohio for on thousand two hundred militia.  More than enough to fill the quota were soon raised many of them from Hamilton county.  There were ordered by Governor MEIGS to rendezvous at Dayton, on the twenty-ninth day of April.  By the fourth of May one thousand four hundred troops, mostly volunteers, were encamped at Camp Meigs, three miles above the place, and one hundred more were added with a week.  Generals CASS and GANO, the latter a Cincinnatian, were in command, under the governor, who was commander-in-chief.  The force was divided into three regiments, lead respectively, by Lewis CASS.  Duncan MC ARTHUR, and another Cincinnati soldier, James S. FINDLAY, who although a general in the militia, consented to take a colonel’s place.  May 25th the equipment of the troops being measurable complete, Governor MEIGS formally surrendered the command of the Ohio contingent to General HULL, of the United States army, who was to lead away to the disgraceful surrender at Detroit.

Upon the outbreak of the contest, Governor MEIGS had called out the First Division on the Ohio militia, which rendezvoused in Hamilton county, at HUTCHINSON’S tavern (Later Jacob HOFFNER’S in Cumminsville), on the road from Cincinnati through Colerain.  Mr. MANSFIELD says the volunteers presented a motley appearance, dressed as they were in a great variety of apparel, some with hunting-shirts, some with butternut jackets, and others in more fantastic costumes.  Many of the men had rifles or other arms; but most of them drilled with sticks and cornstalks in place of firelocks.  When the governor’s call was made, the response was generous from this county, as from other parts of the State.  Two companies volunteered at once in Cincinnati.  One was a mounted infantry, commanded by Captain John F. MANSFIED, a nephew of Jarred MANSFIED, the surveyor-general.

He was in the HULL surrender with his command, but was presently released.  He was extremely mortified by the terrible disgrace, and also taking a fever while crossing Lake Erie, he died soon after his return to Cincinnati—“of fever and a broken heart,” says his cousin, Mr. MANSFIED, in his Personal Memories.  Captain MANSFIELD is thus further eulogized by his distinguished relative, Hon. E. D. MANSFIELD, in his Memories of Dr. Drake:
He was a most extraordinary young man, whose character produced a more intense and enduring impression upon those who knew him than did any one of whom I have ever heard.  The impression made upon others—an impression deep and durable—is the highest testimony to the reality of a great and noble character.  The fleeting effect of brilliant, genius, or the doubtful applause given to talent without virtue, may be possessed by many; but it is seldom were find that perfection of character which demands a praise which never wavers and which no time destroys.  Still more seldom do we find in such kindly affection as draws within its embrace the hearts of both strangers and friends.  Such was the character of Captain Mansfield; and I judge it only by

Returning after HULL’S surrender, in an open boat on the lake and river, he was seized with an autumnal fever.  Enfeebled by disease, he was not less broken in spirit; and his sensitive mind seemed to have sunk under the strain of disgrace and disappointment.  In this state Dr. DRAKE found him, when returned to Cincinnati.  No power of medicine or care of friend availed against his deep-seated malady of mind and body.  He was already delirious, and soon sank to the grave.  He was only in his twenty-fifth year; and one so young, so unassuming, and so full of worth, was never so much lamented by so many who knew what worth was.  The public honors paid to his memory—not a few—were small compared to the tribute of sorrows poured out by hearts bound to him by no tie of nature, but endeared by strong affection.

Neither the roll of Captain MANSFIELD’S company (the Cincinnati Light infantry), nor of Captain J. W. SLOAN’S dragoons (the Cincinnati troop), nor or any other company known to have been from Hamilton county, is in the office of the adjutant-general of The State; and we have been unable to recover any such roll from private hands.  The rules of the adjutant-general’s office at Washington do no permit the copying of military rosters, there through fear of frauds in the procurement of bounty lands and otherwise.  Another company that went out from Cincinnati during the war was that of Captain CARPENTER, and Captains MC FARLAND and Hugh GLENN are said to have had Hamilton county companies in this service. But we are likewise unable to present of copy of there rolls of honor.  The entire regiment commanded by General FINDLAY from the Miami country.  The two companies first enlisting marched to join HULL’S army with the Fourth United States infantry, which had crossed from Newport Barracks to take the road northward and a sermon was preached to them before stating, on the fourth of May, 1812, by the Rev. Dr. WILSON.  Mr. MANSFIELD thus related the incident, at a pioneer celebration in 1874:

Just before they set out they were called into the First Presbyterian church, corner of Main and Fourth streets, to hear an address from Dr. Joshua L. WILSON.  The test was in substance: “Cursed be he that goeth not forth to battle, and cursed be he that keepth back his hand from blood.”  The brave, earnest, patriotic WILSON never hesitated to speak his mind, and speak it freely.  That noble army was surrounded without a cause; and none who did not know those me can know with what anguish and sorrow and indignation that surrender was received.

August 5, 1812, orders were sent by Governor MEIGS to General John S. GANO, at Cincinnati, to march immediately with three hundred men of his division to Urbana, in charge of Captain SUTTON.  They were to be “under the command of a major,” and furnished with a blanket and knapsack, arms and ammunition.  “Volunteers under the law of Ohio will be preferred,” wrote the governor.  No public money was in had for the purpose of recruiting or equipment; the credit of the Government was low, and many of the military and naval operations of the war conducted only under pledges or pecuniary obligations for which private persons became responsible.  This order gave General GANO a similar opportunity.  Fifteen days after the order was despatched he wrote:

I had to get Major BARR to join me to put our note in bank for three thousand five hundred dollars, payable in ten days, which is all we raised, and the bills on Government will not command the cash here—there are so many drawn they cannot be accommodated.

I have six as good companies as I have seen in the State; for have marched from here yesterday to join two others at Lebanon, where they will elect their.  The detachment is as follows; Captain JENKINSON, with him company of artillery, fitted completely with muskets, etc., etc.; Lebanon Light infantry, in exactly the same uniform as Mansfield’s company; for companies of riflemen completely equipped one company one hundred strong.  All can instantly fix bayonets to their rifles; the others every man a tomahawk and knife.  The whole are volunteers, except the light infantry of Lebanon.

On the sixth of September, 1813, when the events of the war were rapidly thickening, Colonel Henry ZUMALT, of Cincinnati, was ordered by General GANO to march his regiment of Militia, near eight hundred strong, “this evening, if possible,” to Dayton, thence to Franklinton, the present western division of Columbus.  He was to be joined on his way by two companies from Hamilton and two from Lebanon.  Extra pay was offered if the troops should be called into actual service.  He was instructed to procure musicians, if possible; and an order was given on Major MORTON for fifty stand of arms and accoutrements.

The story of the war need not be recounted here.  It will be sufficient if some mention of the deed of Hamilton county’s sons is made.  This was admirable done by General HARRISON in after-dinner speech at the celebration of the forty-fifth anniversary of the settlement of Cincinnati and the Miami country, held in Cincinnati on the twenty-sixth of December, 1833, by natives of Ohio.  We extract in full that portion of his address referring to their exploits:

Your young orator [Joseph LONGWORTH, esq.] has mentioned the performances of our own Buckeye population in the late war, in terms as eloquent as they were just.  I could not think of trespassing upon the patience of the company by recounting the merits of all who distinguished themselves; but I cannot resist the gratification of informing the citizens of Cincinnati that they have amongst their number somewhat were as conspicuous for their gallantry as any from Ohio or elsewhere. As those who are truly brave are always backward and retiring, I think it probable that the anecdotes I shall relate are unknown to the greater portion of the inhabitants of this city.  To do full justice to my gallant friend whom I perceive at some distance on my right [Major GWYNNE], I must necessarily recount the circumstances which afforded the opportunity for distinguishing himself to which I have referred.  The siege of Fort Meigs had continued some days, when the enemy, despairing of making an impression upon our works from their position in from, took possession of one on our right flank, on which, in the night, they erected two batteries, with the view of enfilading our lines.  It became necessary to dislodge them, and a sortie for that purpose was ordered.  I had no means of ascertaining the force by which there batteries where defended.  But it was impossible to suppose it very small, and allow their commander the possession of any military knowledge, as a large river separated them from his main body.  It became necessary, therefore, to make the detachment ordered on this duty as strong as circumstances would permit.  It was composed of the companies of the Seventeenth and Nineteenth regiments of that line, then in the fort; that former rose in Kentucky, the latter in Ohio.  The whole rank and file of both regiments was about three hundred and fifty.  To there were added the battalion of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Petersburgh, Virginia, volunteers of about one hundred, and a small company of Boone country, Kentucky, militia for flankers.  The aggregate of the detachment being about five hundred rank and file, were put under the command of Colonel John MILLER, of Ohio, the commandant of the Nineteenth regiment.  These troops were drawn up in a deep ravine which flanked the fort, to prevent, if possible, the enemy from knowing the object they were intended to accomplish.  Before the advance was ordered the troops were addressed, and the necessity of the succeeding and the motive for every one to perform his duty pointed out.  There were ordered to advance with trailed arms to pre-

The advance was made in line, the regular troops on the left, their centre directly opposite the batteries of the enemy, on their right the Pittsburgh and Petersburgh volunteers, and the Kentucky company of militia still farther on that flank.  From the shape of the ravine from which the advance was made, trhe regular troops had reached the summit before the volunteers, and the latter were in some measure masked by the hill, when the whole of the enemy’s fire was poured upon the regulars.  The meditated attack was discovered by the enemy, who looked into the revine by climbing trees, and were of course prepared to receive it.  The effect of the fire was dreadful, as may well be supposed, from a thousand Northwestern Indians and upwards of two hundred British troops in position, delivered from the corner of a wood upon troops in line marching through an open plain.  I have always been of the opinion that the loss was greater for the numbers engaged, and for the period that the firing lasted, than has ever occurred before or since in America.  A moment’s halt was necessary to close the ranks and to disencumber them of the killed and wounded.  This was done with the precision and coolness of a parade exercise.  In another moment the “march! march!” was given by the gallant commander, and the whole line, regulars and volunteers rushed upon the enemy.  They did not remain to receive the shock, although still possessing the advantage of position, and then outnumbering the assailants by three to one.  With the exception of the extreme left flank of Indians, their whole like, British and Indians, and TECUMSEH, the commander of the latter, fled; the British to their boats and the Indians to the swamps.  The company to which your fellow-citizens, Major  GWYNNE, then lieutenant of the Nineteenth infantry, was attached, was on the right of the line of regulars.  The battle being over in front, he discovered that on the right the Kentuckians were still engaged with the Indians who had composed the enemy’s extreme left, and that they had cut them off from our line.  Seeing that the danger was pressing, without waiting for orders he changed the front of his company, charged the Indians on the rear, relieved the brave Kentuckians, and, with their assistance, completely routed them.  That Major GWYNNE by this bold and prompt movement saved many valuable lives, there can be no doubt.  The highest reward bestowed upon a Roman soldier was given him who saved the life of a Roman in battle.

But I perceive that there is another Buckeye at the table who merited well of his country under my command in the late war.  I am persuaded that a relation of the circumstances will not be unacceptable to the company.  When the enemy were first discovered advancing on Fort Meigs, and their Indians had already encircled the fort, it became necessary to send orders to Brigadier-General Green Clay, who was, as I know, advancing with a brigade of Kentucky militia to join me.  As it would have been improper to, send a written order, when there were so many chances of its falling into the hands of the enemy, a person was wanted who, to the qualities of sagacity, bravery, fortitude, and perseverance, united unquestionable patriotism.  For a service of that character it is not unusual to command its performance by an officer.  Your fellow-citizen, Major OLIVER, at that time an officer of the commissariat, proffered his services.  They were accepted, and he performed the duty to my entire satisfaction. The hazard of the undertaking was very great, and it was of that kind that even the bravest men would dislike to encounter.  The fame which is acquired by such a death, is one of the strongest motives to distinguished actions in the field.  If Major OLIVER, had perished on this occasion, and the chances were greatly against him, he certainly would have been “wept” by his numerous friends, but to requite what has been already given, he would have been “unhonored and unsung.”  What have been rewards of Major GWYNNE and Major OLIVER from their country for the services they rendered, I cannot say.  Indeed, it appears that the Buckeyes have been rather unfortunate in that respect although always in the hour of danger and on the day of battle, they appeared to have been frequently overlooked in the division of the spoil.

A glance at the president of the day [Major Daniel GANO] reminds me of the important services rendered by his father; and he is the proper representative of that father, in is within the rules that I should mention them.  When I first saw the late Major-General John S. GANO, it was in the hard winter of 1791-2, at the head of some forty or fifty volunteers, united with a body of regular troops, on an excursion to the scene of the disastrous battle-ground of the preceding fourth of November.  An uncommon fall of snow made it necessary for General (the Colonel) WILKINSON, who commanded the detachment, to have the infantry and proceed with the mounted volunteers. The great depth of snow prevented the accomplishment of the pious purpose of burying the dead, for which the enterprise was undertaken.  In a few weeks from the time, Captain GANO again joined us on the hazardous expedition to erect the fort which was named St. CLAIR.  With similar small bodies he was ever on the alert—ever ready to afford any assistance in his power toward the protection of the frontiers, until the general peace with the Indians in 1795.  In the last war he served under my command as major-general at the head of Ohio quota of militia, and during my absence on lithe northern frontier he commanded the Ninth Military district, as general-in-chief.  I can state with confidence that in all of these situations, whether at the head of forty men or of some thousands, he discharged his duty with the strictest fidelity, usefulness, and honor.

It is unnecessary for me to speak of the military services of my long tried and valued friend immediately on my right [General FINDLAY].  It is well known that at the head of a gallant regiment of volunteers, disciplined by himself, he served on the first northwestern campaign of the late war.  It is equally well known that, if his advice and that of his gallant compeers (the other colonels of the army) had been adopted, the campaign would have had a different result, and the honor of our arms would not have been tarnished by an inglorious surrender.
 

THE MEXICAN WAR.

Upon the requisition of the President under an act of Congress approved May 13, 1846, Ohio was called upon to furnish three regiments of infantry to the army being prepared for the invasion of Mexico.  They were promptly raised and forwarded, notwithstanding many citizens of the State were opposed to the war, and one of them had said, upon the floor of Congress, that, were he a Mexican, he would welcome the Americans “with bloody hands to hospitable graves.”  Colonel CURTIS, George W. MORGAN, and A. M. MITCHELL commanded the first regiments despatched.  The next year a fourth regiment was called out, and sent to the field in command of Colonel Charles H. BROUGH, who did some years after in Cincinnati.
Of the entire Ohio contingent, however, the roll of but one company is on file in the adjutant-general’s office at Columbus.  It is that of Captain Otto ZIRCKER’S command, in the Fourth regiment of Ohio Volunteers, commanded by Colonel BROUGH.  The regiment was mustered into service at Cincinnati, and mustered out at the same place July 18, 1848.  The following nmes are recorded upon the roll of Captain ZICKEL’S company as those of Hamilton county men:

Musician Henry SNYDER

The  rendezvous at Cincinnati was at “Camp Washington” established for the purpose of this was in a convenient locality near Mill creek, upon ground now covered, in part by the city workhouse and the house of refuge.  The headquarters of the camp are still shone, in a long low building, now used for the residence and saloon keeping, not far south of the workhouse.  The district yet bears the old name, though not in a corporate capacity, it now and for many years past being a part of the city.
 

THE WAR OF REBELLION.

It would require a huge volume to write, in full detail, the honorable record made by this country during the great civil war.  Special chapters will be given in this work to “Cincinnati in the War,”  “The Siege of Cincin

 Camp Harrison, north of Cincinnati; established by order go Governor DENNISON, and name from the ex-President HARRISON.

 Camp Clay, at Pendleton, in the eastern suburbs of Cincinnati.

 Camp John McLean, near Cincinnati; named for Justice MC LEAN, of the United States Supreme court.  The Twenty-fifty Ohio infantry, commanded by Colonel N. E. MC LEAN, a son of the judge, was quartered here.

 Camp Gurley; named from the Hon. John A. GURLEY, one of the members of Congress from Cincinnati.

 Camp Dick Corwine, also near the city; named from Major Richard M. COWINE.

 Camp Colerain, near the place of that name, ten miles north of Cincinnati.

Mention is also made of Camp Wheeler, near Union Ridge, in this county, where “Todd’s Independent Scouts” made their headquarters in July 1863.

In September, 1861, the Thirty-first Ohio infantry rendezvoused at the orphan asylum in Cincinnati; and may other public buildings in and about the city were temporarily used for quarters at various times during the war.

The great camp, however, one of the most famous cantonments in the county at the time was Camp Dennison, near Madisonville, in the eastern part of the county, on the Little Miami railroad, seventeen miles from the then limits of Cincinnati.  It was named from the Hon. William DENNISON, governor of the State at the outbreak of the war, at whose request a site for such camp was selected in the latter part of April 1861, by General ROSECRANS, then a retired army officer in business in Cincinnati.  One of the prime objects in establishing a large encampment in this region was to give a feeling of security to the people of the city, in view of the doubtful position of Kentucky at this early state of the war.  Captain George B. MC CLELLAN, president of the Ohio & Mississippi railroad, also a young officer of the regular army, who had resigned to engage in civil pursuits, had been appointed by Governor DENNISON  major-general of the Ohio militia; and by his invitation ROSECRANS accepted the post of topographical engineer upon his staff, and proceeded to select the camp.  The site chosen was a stretch of level land, not very broad or long, but sufficient for most purposes of the camp.  The ground was necessarily leased at the high rates put upon by the owners; and the governor was much blamed for what was deemed an extravagant outlay.  It was name from him by General MC CLELLEN, who was put in command of the camp, but soon left to assume his new duties as major-general in the regular army.  At first it was in charge of the State, and gave the governor and other Ohio officers infinite trouble through complaints of bad treatment, insufficient food, clothing, tents, arms, etc., and other ills.  It was early turned over to the General Government, however; and was on of the two great camps (The other being Camp Chase) maintained by the United States in Ohio during and for some time after the Rebellion.  Scores of regiments were recruited or rendezvoused, equipped, and drilled here. Countless thousands of “boys in blue” passed its gates going into or out of the service, or returning from rebel prison pen to refit for the field. Little of now remains, save a glorious memory, the cemetery where rest its hero dead, and the old sign at the entrance.  The very name of the post office maintained there, sad to say, has been changed.  The old camp, however, with all its bustle in the pomp and circumstance of war, will long live in the recollections of the myriad citizen-soldiers who from time to time inhabited it.

The military committee of Hamilton county should not pass without a notice.  Its intelligent activity and patriotic zeal, in aiding the recruitment of troops and otherwise forwarding the Federal cause, were eminently serviceable to our armies, and were gratefully acknowldeged by the authorities of the State and the Union.  It was originally appointed by Governor DENNISON, and was maintained, with some changes in its personnel, until the close of the war.  At the end of 1863, it was composed as follows: General Joshua H. BATES, chairman; W.H. DAVIS, secretary; Hon N. W. THOMAS, Colonel A. E. JONES, W. W. LODWICH, John W. ELLIS, Francis WEISNEWSKI, Thomas SHERLOCK, Eli MUSHMORE, Amzi MAGILL.  Its headquarters were of course in Cincinnati.

It may here also be observed that, besides the long list of general officers in the service, who reflected honor upon Cincinnati, and who will be enumerated hereafter, the county elsewhere furnished to the Northern armies distinguished soldiers in the person of Brigadier-General Jacob AMMEN, of Lockland, and brevet Brigadiers Thomas Kirby SMITH, of Colerain, E. Barrell LANGDON, of Linwood, and Benjamin C. LUDLOW, of Cumminsville, a native of the old Ludlow’s Station, at the same place, besides many of lesser rank.

We now come to
 

THE IMMENSE ROSTER

of Hamilton county contingent in the late war.  It has been compiled from the rolls in the bureau of the Adjutant-General of the State, where every courtesy and convenience have been kindly afforded for the work...  Happily, few Rebellion rolls are missing from this great collection, except in some cases of three-months regiments or companies; and fortunately, too, for twenty-nine regiments of infantry, eight regiments of cavalry, and seven batteries at the time this compilation was made, the records had been reduced to such system and shape that it was possible to present a full roster of each of these commands.  For the others, the muster-in rolls must in general suffice, as in usual histories of this