ry perpetual.
He desired to mitigate and finally eradicate that evil. He had prayed
for the election of General Harrison for the sake of the country; he had
cast his first vote for Henry Clay, his second for General Taylor, and
his third for General Scott. But the old Whig party having ceased to be
a living organization, he gave his whole heart to the Republican party
and its cause, and by political speeches, and in other ways, helped
forward the movement in favor of equality of rights and laws. The insult
to the flag at Fort Sumter aroused to the intensest pitch the patriotic
indignation of a united North. At a great mass-meeting held in
Cincinnati, R. B. Hayes was selected to give expression to the loyal
voice, by being made chairman of the public committee on resolutions. It
is not needful to add that these resolutions had all the fire and
intensity of the popular feeling. The knowledge that it was his purpose
to enter the Union army having reached Governor Dennison, that officer
appointed Hayes major of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, June
7, 1861. With this appointment was coupled the appointments of W. S.
Rosecrans as colonel, and Stanley Matthews as lieutenant-colonel of the
same regiment. Colonel Rosecrans, with the other field-officers, had
just set to work organizing the new regiment, when Rosecrans was
appointed brigadier-general, and ordered to take command of the Ohio
troops moving in the direction of Western Virginia. Upon the promotion
of Rosecrans, Colonel E. P. Scammon, an officer of military education,
was placed in command of the Twenty-third.

After a brief period of discipline at Camp Chase the regiment was
ordered, on the 25th of July, to Clarksburgh, West Virginia, and on the
29th went into camp at Weston. We shall not follow it in this or in
subsequent campaigns, in its marching, scouting, skirmishing, or
counter-marching. It is enough to say, that in this first campaign it
assisted in clearing the whole mountainous region of Western Virginia
of a formidable enemy.

Major Hayes was appointed by General Rosecrans, on the 19th of
September, 1861, judge advocate of the department of Ohio, the duties of
which service he discharged about two months. He received his first
promotion, to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, October 24, 1861. Passing
over less important events, we come to the first serious battle in which
he was engaged.

THE BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN

Was fought on Sunday, Sep