Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, vol 1 (April 1861-November 1863) | Page 9

to buy military material or
even to protect the little the State had. The federal government had
occasionally distributed some arms which were in the hands of the
independent uniformed militia, and the arsenal was simply an empty
storehouse. It did not take long to complete our inspection. At the door,
as we were leaving the building, McClellan turned, and looking back
into its emptiness, remarked, half humorously and half sadly, "A fine
stock of munitions on which to begin a great war!" We went back to the
State House, where a room in the Secretary of State's department was
assigned us, and we sat down to work. The first task was to make out
detailed schedules and estimates of what would be needed to equip ten
thousand men for the field. This was a unit which could be used by the
governor and legislature in estimating the appropriations needed then
or subsequently. Intervals in this labor were used in discussing the

general situation and plans of campaign. Before the close of the week
McClellan drew up a paper embodying his own views, and forwarded it
to Lieutenant-General Scott. He read it to me, and my recollection of it
is that he suggested two principal lines of movement in the West,--one,
to move eastward by the Kanawha valley with a heavy column to
co-operate with an army in front of Washington; the other, to march
directly southward and to open the valley of the Mississippi. Scott's
answer was appreciative and flattering, without distinctly approving his
plan; and I have never doubted that the paper prepared the way for his
appointment in the regular army which followed at so early a day.
[Footnote: I am not aware that McClellan's plan of campaign has been
published. Scott's answer to it is given in General Townsend's
"Anecdotes of the Civil War," p. 260. It was, with other
communications from Governor Dennison, carried to Washington by
Hon. A. F. Perry of Cincinnati, an intimate friend of the governor, who
volunteered as special messenger, the mail service being unsafe. See a
paper by Mr. Perry in "Sketches of War History" (Ohio Loyal Legion),
vol. iii. p. 345.]
During this week McClellan was invited to take the command of the
troops to be raised in Pennsylvania, his native State. Some things
beside his natural attachment to Pennsylvania made the proposal an
attractive one to him. It was already evident that the army which might
be organized near Washington would be peculiarly in the public eye,
and would give to its leading officers greater opportunities of prompt
recognition and promotion than would be likely to occur in the West.
The close association with the government would also be a source of
power if he were successful, and the way to a chief command would be
more open there than elsewhere. McClellan told me frankly that if the
offer had come before he had assumed the Ohio command, he would
have accepted it; but he promptly decided that he was honorably bound
to serve under the commission he had already received and which, like
my own, was dated April 23.
My own first assignment to a military command was during the same
week, on the completion of our estimates, when I was for a few days
put in charge of Camp Jackson, the depot of recruits which Governor

Dennison had established in the northern suburb of Columbus and had
named in honor of the first squelcher of secessionism. McClellan soon
determined, however, that a separate camp of instruction should be
formed for the troops mustered into the United States service, and
should be so placed as to be free from the temptations and
inconveniences of too close neighborhood to a large city, whilst it
should also be reasonably well placed for speedy defence of the
southern frontier of the State. Other camps could be under state control
and used only for the organization of regiments which could afterward
be sent to the camp of instruction or elsewhere. Railway lines and
connections indicated some point in the Little Miami valley as the
proper place for such a camp; and Mr. Woodward, the chief engineer of
the Little Miami Railroad, being taken into consultation, suggested a
spot on the line of that railway about thirteen miles from Cincinnati,
where a considerable bend of the Little Miami River encloses wide and
level fields, backed on the west by gently rising hills. I was invited to
accompany the general in making the inspection of the site, and I think
we were accompanied by Captain Rosecrans, an officer who had
resigned from the regular army to seek a career as civil engineer, and
had lately been in charge of some coal mines in the Kanawha valley.
Mr. Woodward was also of the party, and furnished