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Heretofore papers which have been read before this Commandery haverelated to personal reminiscences of campaigns and battles, with allthe interest which accompanies the personal element in such affairs.The preservation of these details is of great importance, not only forthe special interest which attaches to them, but because theyillustrate the larger actions and will be of value to futuregenerations, as showing the very body and features of the time. Howvaluable these minor matters are, we perceive plainly by the use madeof them as they are found in autobiographies and diaries of formergenerations. The knowledge of the manner in which people lived andthought and acted in private life throws light upon public affairs andpublic characters. It is interesting, and not unprofitable, to knowthat the Father of his Country in some wrathful mood swore roundly; orthat the Philosopher of the Revolution, in his younger days, trudgedin the streets of Philadelphia with a loaf of bread under each arm;or, when older, was very gay and festive in the gay and festivecapital of France.
I propose to continue in the same grave historical vein, but to treatof less important affairs. I propose to avoid the beaten track ofcampaigns, battles, marches and skirmishes, and the luxurious life ofLibbey or Andersonville prisons, and going back to the beginning ofthings, endeavor to explain how a volunteer regiment was raised andgotten into the field, and, incidentally, perhaps, to touch upon thecharacter of its officers and men.
The regiment of which I speak was the last to be organized in its[4]State under the call for three hundred thousand men, made by thegeneral Government in 1862. It was the last of that "three hundredthousand more" responding to the call of "Father Abraham," accordingto the popular ditty of the time. The recruiting was done by privateindividuals, and at their own expense, under the authority of theGovernor of the State. These private individuals, as a matter ofcourse, expected, as a reward for their labor and expenditures, to becommissioned