The Project Gutenberg EBook of Some of My War Stories, by Allen Ripley Foote

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Title: Some of My War Stories
A Paper Read before the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal legion

Author: Allen Ripley Foote

Release Date: April 14, 2010 [EBook #31991]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Some of My War Stories

A Paper
Read Before
The Ohio Commandery
of the
Loyal Legion

By
Allen Ripley Foote
October 1, 1913

Some of my War Stories

BY ALLEN RIPLEY FOOTE

Private: Co. B. 3rd Michigan Infantry; Second Lieutenant: Co. B. 21st
Michigan Infantry.

Read before the Commandery of the State of Ohio, Military Order of the
Loyal Legion of the United States. Stated meeting, Cincinnati, Wednesday
evening, October 1, 1913.

When, in 1861, President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to enlist
for a three months' service to uphold the authority and preserve the unity
of the United States, I, a boy of nineteen, sought the first opportunity
that offered, to enlist. I was at the door of the recruiting office long
before it opened.

Dr. D. W. Bliss, who afterward became a famous army surgeon and was one of
the surgeons who attended Presidents Lincoln and Garfield, gave me the
required physical examination. When measuring my height he said--"Raise
your heels, you are a little short."

Before my regiment was mustered in, the call came for 300,000 volunteers
to enlist for a three-years' service, and we were mustered in for three
years.

My regiment was ordered to Washington as soon as it was ready to move.
Clad in grey uniforms and armed with old muzzle-loading Harper's Ferry
muskets, which had been changed from flint locks, we made a valiant
appearance and received ovations from the populace of every city and
village through which we passed. This is especially true of Ohio. At one
station all of the ladies of the town turned out loaded with small
bo