A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF COMPANY “B” EIGHTEENTH REGIMENT OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY THREE MONTHS SERVICE WRITTEN BY JEWETT PALMER A MEMBER OF THE COMPANY FIFTY YEARS FROM THE DATE OF ENLISTMENT APRIL 22, 1861 -:- APRIL 22, 1911 * * * * * [Illustration: CAPTAIN FRANK BUELL] COMPANY B 18th Regiment Ohio Volunteers--Three Months Troops. The company was recruited by Frank Buell, at Marietta, Ohio, who was at the time Captain of the “Union Blues,” an independent company of the Ohio militia. It was enrolled from the 15th to the 22nd of April, 1861, though a few men joined as late as May 27th, the date of our arrival at Marietta from Columbus, on our way into Virginia. Governor Dennison accepted Captain Buell’s tender of the company on April 17th, and our term of service dates from that time. We left Marietta on Monday morning, April 22nd. The evening before, Sunday, the 21st, the company attended divine service at the Congregational church, where Rev. Thomas Wickes, D. D., the pastor of the church, delivered an earnest patriotic sermon. To this address, R. L. Nye, Esq., a member of the company, feelingly replied. Each member of the company was presented with a neat pocket edition of the New Testament by the Washington County Bible Society, through its president, Mr. Daniel P. Bosworth, Sr. At the close of this ceremony two of the members of the company, William Holden and Thomas H. North, were received into the church. Just before embarking on the steamer “Lizzie Martin” for Zanesville, on the morning of the 22d, a beautiful silk flag, provided by the women of Marietta, was presented to the company by Melvin Clarke, Esq., in a short patriotic address, to which Captain Buell briefly but earnestly responded, giving the company’s pledge that the banner never would be disgraced in its hands. Fully 3,000 people were assembled at the time on the “Common” in front of the Congregational church. I give the following description of the leave taking from the “Marietta Intelligencer,” of May 1st, 1861. “... Then followed the leave-taking, a scene that cannot be described. Here were fathers and mothers hanging upon the necks of sons in a last long embrace, wives clinging to their husbands in agonies of distress, brothers bidding adieu to brothers, friend giving friend his farewell greeting. Scarcely a dry eye was to be seen in the immense crowd. But the sorrow of parting, though it caused the tears to flow abundantly, was mitigated by the thought that children, kindred and friends--all were responding to the call of duty, they were going to defend the government to which we all owe our safety--our very existence. “The company was ranged on the hurricane deck, and as the boat moved out from the landing cheer upon cheer arose from the vast assemblage, hats were swung, handkerchiefs waved, and many a ‘God speed you,’ uttered, and the crowd slowly and sadly dispersed.”