OHIO STATEWIDE FILES  OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List
***********************************************************************
USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons.
Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain
the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative
of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof
of this consent.
***********************************************************************

OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest                    Volume 99 : Issue 337

Today's Topics:
  #1 DELAWARE COUNTY - PART 7             [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE]
  #2 Will:Ireton, 1845, Clermont Co.      [Ilikmyboat@aol.com]

------------------------------

X-Message: #1
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 12:15:01, -0500
From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER)
Subject: DELAWARE COUNTY - PART 7


HISTORICAL COLLECTION OF OHIO By Henry Howe LL.D., 1898

                        DELAWARE COUNTY PART 7

        The following is a rapid outline of that career:
        In the spring of 1861, W.S. Rosecrans was commissioned by the
Governor of Ohio Chief Engineer of the State of Ohio, with the rank and pay
of United States Colonel of Engineers. Answering his country's call,
however, as a citizen volunteer aide he organized the troops at Camp
Dennison, Ohio, and began the organization of Camp Chase as Colonel of the
23d United States Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
        As a brigadier-general in the United States army, he went to West
Virginia, fought the battle of Rich Mountain, and on the 23d or 24th of
July, 1861, succeeded McClellan as commander of the Department of the Ohio,
consisting of troops from West Virginia, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. While
in command of that department he defeated the attempts of General Lee to
penetrate West Virginia by Cheat Mountain and the Kanawha route, and
subsequently by way of Romney, and along the B. & O. road. The Legislature
of West Virginia passed a unanimous vote of thanks in recognition of his
services in defending the State, which was followed soon after by a similar
vote of thanks from the Legislature of the State of Ohio.
        In 1862 he submitted a plan for the campaign of that year auxiliary
to that for the movements of the Army of the Potomac, which plan was highly
approved by the general-in-chief and by the War Department.
        Early in April, 1862, he was ordered to Washington and sent to find
and conduct Blencker's Division to General Fremont.
        He submitted to the War Department a plan for the application of
the forces under Generals McDowell, Banks, and Fremont to occupy the
Shenandoah Valley and threaten communications with the South.
        In May, 1862, he was ordered to report to General Halleck, who
commanded our army in front of Corinth, Mississippi. Was put in command of
two divisions (Stanley's and Paines's) in front of that city, and when it
was vacated by Bragg and Beauregard he led the infantry pursuit until
ordered to stop.
        In June, 1862, he was placed in command of the Army of the
Mississippi, consisting of four divisions.
        In September, 1862, with two small divisions he confronted General
Sterling Price, and fought the battle of Iuka.
        In connection with the mention of his general system of army
management, it may be stated that he originated the marking of
photo-printing maps, and furnished his subordinate commanders with
information maps of the regions of military operations; established
convalescent hospitals for the treatment or discharge of chronic cases;
organized colored men into squads of twenty-five each, and equipped and
employed them as engineer troops; employed escaped colored women in
laundries and as cooks for hospitals, etc.
        On October 3d and 4th, 1862, with four divisions, he fought the
battle of Corinth.
        By order of the President he was placed in command of the
Department of the Cumberland and Army of the Ohio, relieving General Buell,
October 30, 1862. He reorganized this army, and established an
Inspector-General's system by detail from the line, also a Topographical
Department by detail of Brigade, Division, and Corps Engineers, and a
Pioneer Corps by detail of officers and men from the infantry. He also
reorganized both the cavalry and artillery.
        On December 31, 1862, and January 1 and 2, 1863, he fought the
battle of Stone River, against the Confederates under General Bragg, and
drove him behind the line of Duck river.
        From June 23, to July 7, 1863, he conducted the campaign of
Tullahoma, by which Bragg was driven out of his intrenched camps (at
Shelbyville and Tullahoma) in Middle Tennessee.
        After the battle of Stone river he was tendered, almost
simultaneously, a unanimous vote of thanks from Congress and from the
States of Ohio and Indiana.
        From July 7, 1863, to August 14, 1863, he was bringing forward
supplies, perfecting the organization of the army, and maneuvering for
Chattanooga, giving special attention to the rebuilding of a railroad, as a
necessary pre-requisite to success.
        From August 14 to September 22, 1863, he made the campaign of
Chattanooga, and fought the battle of Chickamauga, maneuvering the
Confederates out of the objective point covered by Lookout Range and the
Tennessee river.
        For his services at Chickamauga, he received a unanimous vote of
thanks from the National House of Representatives.
        After the battle of Chickamauga, he was engaged in making the
preliminary arrangements to constitute Chattanooga a new main depot, by
water and rail connections with Nashville, Louisville, and Cincinnati.
        Between October, 1863, and January 27, 1864, he presided over the
great Western Sanitary Fair at Cincinnati, which raised $325,000 for
objects of beneficence to Union soldiers. He also presided over the
Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair, which raised $525,000 for the same cause.
        On the 27th of January, 1864, he was placed in command of the
Department of Missouri, in which capacity he succeeded in defeating all the
objects and purposes of Price in Missouri, defeated him on the Big Blue and
at Maris des Cygnes, and drove him out in a state of disorganization, from
which he never recovered.
        He was also successful in exposing and defeating the objects of the
Order of American Knights.
        In January, 1866, he was mustered out as Major-General of
Volunteers and resigned as Brigadier-General in United States Army in 1867.
He was afterwards made Brevet Major-General.
        Up to the time of the battle of Chickamauga there was, neither with
the government nor amongst the people, a single doubt as to the genius or
ability of Rosecrans. Every step he had taken had been a successful step.
Every campaign and every battle had added to his laurels and his glory.
Rich Mountain had developed that penetrating sagacity without which no man
can ever rise to distinction as a soldier. In the subsequent campaign in
West Virginia he had with wonderful skill baffled and defeated the officer
who subsequently became the renowned Commander-in-chief of the Confederate
armies. At Iuka and Corinth his daring energy had blazed forth like a star,
guiding the way to two shining victories. At Stone river he had assailed
the rebel army under Gen. Bragg in its own chosen position, retrieved by
his personal exertions what on the first day's conflict had seemed to be
disastrous defeat, inspired the soul of every soldier under him with his
own lofty resolve to conquer or die, and with matchless vigor, energy and
skill fairly compelled success to alight upon the Union standards, and
gained a victory which electrified the nation and the world. In the
Tullahoma campaign he had exhibited a talent for strategy equal to Napoleon
in the campaign of Ulm, and without the loss of a regiment, a gun or a
stand of colors, had driven Bragg from his whole line of entrenched camps,
and expelled him from Middle Tennessee.
        Rosecrans had been too successful. He had raised himself to too
exalted a height. The fatal halo of supposed invincibility glimmered around
his head. No soldier ever was or ever will be absolutely invincible, but he
who is believed to be so must maintain the reputation or fall to a lower
level than what he rose from. Nay, he must not merely succeed thereafter in
attaining the object at which he aims: he must attain it in the manner that
public opinion marks out for him, and scarcely dare achieve less than the
impossible.
        The limits of this sketch will not permit a discussion of the
campaign in August and September, 1863, and only the conclusions can be set
down, which, by a prolonged and conscientious study of the whole history of
that campaign, have been arrived at.
        The object that Rosecrans had in view when he commenced his great
movement on the 23d of August, 1863, was to relieve East Tennessee from
Confederate occupation and get possession of that central key to the
Confederacy, the city of Chattanooga. The place was defended by Gen.
Bragg's army which from the first was fully equal in numbers to that under
Rosecrans and soon became greatly superior. The all-knowing soldier who
commanded the Union army knew from the first that Bragg could easily be
reinforced, that every effort would be made by the Confederate government
to save Chattanooga, and that his own force was inadequate to the mighty
task he had before him. Hence he begged, pleaded and implored for
reinforcements which were within easy reach, which were persistently denied
him, but which when the campaign was ended came up in such numbers that had
a third of them been sent to Rosecrans before he began his march across the
Tennessee and the mountains to maneuver Bragg out of Chattanooga, would
have enabled him not only to get possession of that stronghold, but to
utterly destroy the army opposed to him.
        Chattanooga could not be obtained without a battle. To assail it
directly would be simply madness. Rosecrans therefore began that splendid
series of maneuvers to the southward of the city which carried his army
into Georgia and threatened the Confederate communications with Atlanta.
Bragg retired out of the city and marched southward, taking up such
position that he could, at any time, return on shorter lines and compel
Rosecrans to fight a battle for the prize. The Union general expected this,
and had prepared accordingly. But while he was concentrating his army, that
which he had clearly foreseen occurred. From every quarter of the
Confederacy troops were hurried to Bragg's assistance. From Mississippi,
from Mobile, from Savannah they came, and from virginia the powerful corps
of Gen. Longstreet was hurried to North Georgia to overwhelm the
comparatively feeble army under Rosecrans. In round numbers, 40,000 Union
soldiers were to contend with 75,000 Confederates to see which would
finally hold Chattanooga.
        Before the Union army was fully concentrated the Confederates
assailed it, and the awful battle of Chickamauga began. The first day the
assailants were repelled at all points. The second day they rushed through
a gap in our lines caused by a miswording or misunderstanding of orders,
and separating the right wing of our army from the centre, overwhelmed that
wing. Our centre and left stood firm; Rosecrans seeing this and that the
enemy who had overwhelmed our right might push up the valley (which the
right had been covering) into Chattanooga, hastened to rally the right, to
get the troops left behind in Chattanooga as guards to our stores and
reserve artillery, in proper shape, and to prepare a new position for the
army at Rossville in case the centre and left should also be compelled to
retreat. It was here he showed the greatness of the true soldier who leaves
nothing to chance; it was here he specially proved his worthiness for the
highest command. As fast as he could do so, he urged  portions of the
rallied troops to the assistance of that part of the army which still held
the field; he sent word of all he was doing to the brave Thomas, who was so
grandly resisting the enemy's onset, and gave new courage and confidence to
that veteran by assuring him when he felt he could no longer hold his
position on the field the new lines would be ready for his reception. It
was this knowledge that inspired Thomas with the stern determination not to
retreat in the face of the foe at all. And he did not retreat. He held his
own until nightfall, suffering dreadful loss, but always inflicting more
than he suffered, and when the last effort of the foe had been repelled,
retiring leisurely to the new lines which the genius of Rosecrans had
marked out for the army.
        The next day the Confederate forces, who did no know that they had
gained any victory, and who had really retired from the battle-field at
night as far as our own soldiers had retired, came slowly and cautiously up
towards the new Union lines, took a careful look at them, heard the loud
cheers of the Union legion as Rosecrans rode along them, and decided not to
attack! The great object of the campaign, the great prize of the battle,
namely, the city of Chattanooga, was in possession of the National troops,
and never again went out of their hands.
        And this was the campaign, this the battle, with which some have
associated the terms "failure" and defeat!" The gallant Army of the
Cumberland had crossed a great river, toiled over two chains of mountains,
and, under the leadership of the brightest military genius that the war
developed, had completely deceived the enemy and maneuvered him by masterly
strategy out of his stronghold, then had baffled all his efforts to regain
it, had fought nearly double its own numbers for two days, suffering a loss
of 15,000 men and inflicting a loss of more than 18,000 upon the enemy, had
held the field until it retired of its own choice and after all firing had
ceased, then leisurely assumed the new position which its great leader had
prepared, and then defiantly awaited another attack which its awfully
punished foe did not dare to make. And it held the city it had won and for
which the battle was fought. Was all this failure and defeat? The blood of
every soldier who fell upon that gory field cries out against the falsehood!
        Abraham Lincoln's clear eye perceived the truth; he saw that the
skill of Rosecrans had assured relief to East Tennessee, had cut the line
of the enemy's defence by rail, had secured the key that was to unlock the
treasure-house of the foe, and had opened the way to the very heart of the
Confederacy. He telegraphed Rosecrans, as well he might, "be of good cheer;
we have unabated confidence in your soldiers, in you officers in you."

        -continued in part 8-

------------------------------

X-Message: #2
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 18:38:30 EDT
From: Ilikmyboat@aol.com
Subject: Will:Ireton, 1845, Clermont Co.


WILL FOR ROLAND IRETON

Please held before the Court of Common Pleas of Clermont County and State of 
Ohio at Term 1845

     The Last will and testament of Rowland Ireton late of the said county. 
Deed was brought before the Court and was proved by the oaths of Elijah 
Larkin, John W Larkin the writings thereto whose testimony was reduced to 
writing & it appearing from the testimony so ordered that said Rowland Ireton 
at the time of making said will was of sound mind and memory free from any 
restraint and over twenty one years of age the court order said will & the 
proof so reduced to writing be recorded
                              Will to wit
     I Rowland Ireton of the County of Clermont in the State of Ohio to make 
& publish this my last Will & Testament in manner & form following that is to 
say First it is my will that my funeral expenses & all my just debts be fully 
paid.  Second I give devise & bequeath to my beloved wife Sarah Ireton all 
the Balance of my Estate both Real & Personal to be enjoyed by her during her 
natural life should there be more personal property left at my  deceased ? my 
said wife may need for her convenience & support I desire that the surplus 
should be sold & the proceeds equally divided among my children or their 
heirs and after the decease of my said wife I desire that my real Estate 
should be equally divided amongst my children or in case the decease of any 
of my children their share or shares to be divided amongst their children or 
heirs and lastly I hereby constitute and appoint my son Anthony Ireton to be 
the executor of this my last will & Testament revoking and annulling all 
former wills by me made & ratifying & confirming this & no other to be my 
last will & Testament.
     In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand & Seal this 30 day of 
May AD 1846.
Signed Published & declared by the above named Rowland Ireton as for his Last 
will & testament in presence of us who at his request have signed as 
Witnesses to the same:
Elijah Larkin
John W Larkin
William W Larkin

--------------------------------

End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #337
*******************************************