not, I think, even possess the equivalent
of my poor pretense of military training. He was, however, a
typical volunteer Union soldier; brainy, brave, terribly in earnest,
always truthful, and what he did not know he made no pretense of
knowing, but set about learning. He had by nature the spirit of
a good soldier; as the war progressed the true spirit of the warrior
became an inspiration to him; and at Perryville, Stone's River,
Chickamauga, and on other fields he won just renown, not alone for
personal gallantry but for skill in handling and personally fighting
his command.

The 3d Ohio and most of the three-months' regiments at Camp Dennison
were promptly re-enlisted under the President's May 3d call for
three years' volunteers, and I was again (June 12, 1861) commissioned
its Major.

In early June, McClellan, who commanded the Department of Ohio,
including Western Virginia, crossed the Ohio and assembled an army,
mainly at and in the vicinity of Grafton.

He had issued, May 26th, 1861, from his headquarters at Cincinnati,
a somewhat bombastic proclamation to the people of Western Virginia,
relating in part to the recent vote on secession, saying his invasion
was delayed to avoid the appearance of influencing the result. It
promised protection to loyal men against armed rebels, and indignantly
disclaimed any disposition to interfere with slaves or slavery,
promising to crush an attempted insurrection "with an iron hand."

The proclamation closed thus:

"Notwithstanding all that has been said by the traitors to induce
you to believe that our advent among you will be signalized with
interference with your slaves, understand one thing clearly--not
only will we abstain from all such interference, but we will, on
the contrary, with an iron hand, crush any attempt at insurrection
on their part. Now that we are in your midst, I call upon you to
fly to arms and support the General Government.

"Sever the connection that binds you to traitors. Proclaim to the
world that the faith and loyalty so long boasted by the Old Dominion
are still preserved in Western Virginia, and that you remain true
to the Stars and Stripes."( 2)

This proclamation won no friends for the Union in the mountains of
Western Virginia, where slaves were few and slavery was detested.
The mountaineers were naturally for the Union, and such an appeal
was likely to do more harm than good.

The proclamation, however, was in harmony with the th