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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 357
ment July 8, 1864; Maj. John S. Casement resigned May 23, 1863;
Maj. Frederick A. Seymour resigned March 29, 1864.
THE EIGHTH INFANTRY
"The Eighth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, like its immediate
predecessor, the Seventh, Avas first recruited under the President's call
for 75.000 troops "to put doAvn the rebellion." But the field life and
vicissitudes of the Eighth AA'ere experienced in a generally different
quarter from those of the Seventh, as AA'e find them only engaged in the
same battles at Winchester, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.
For, the Eighth Infantry the County of Erie contributed the greater
portion of Company E. The Avhole regiment Avas recruited between the
16th and 22d of April, 1861, and the 29th of the same month found
the men at Camp Taylor, near Cleveland, aAA'aiting orders to proceed to
the front, but this movement Avas not made until July 9, folloAving.
They did, hoAvever, proceed to Camp Dennison on the 3d of May. The
regimenlal organization Avas completed at Camps Taylor and Dennison,
and the boys Avere at once put through "a course of sprouts," in order
to make them as Avell informed on drill and military tactics as Avas
needed in field service. While in camp on the 22d of July, 1861, came
the President's call for 5,000 volunteers for three years'service, and in
ansAver to this call the Avhole body of the Eighth, save only Company I,
enlisted for three years and AA'as mustered into service on the 22d, 25th
and 26th of June, 1861. On the 9th of July the Eighth left for Grafton,
Virginia, in Avhich region were extensive operations between McClellan
and the rebel army under Garnett, the former then having much the
best of it.
The first, feAV Aveeks of regular army life for the Eighth were occupied
in guard and station duty at various points in the Allegheny Mountains
and along the line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and here they
suffered severely from fever, over 300 of the regiment being at one time
in the hospital and unfit for duty.
The Eighth AA'as first engaged at Romney, Virginia, on the 23d and
24th of September, and aftenvard on the 26th of October, in Avhich
engagements scA'eral men Avere killed and Avounded, but the regiment
proved that they had fighting qualities. These brushes ended the Avork
of the Eighth for the year 1861, but the next year, from January to
December, Avas almost a succession of skirmishes, attacks and battles,
the most important of Avhich were Winchester, Front Royal, Antietam
and Fredericksburg.
Early in January the regiment took part in the assault on Blue's
Gap. On February 14 they had a sharp but brief fight in Bloomey Gap,
and early in March moA-ed to the Shenandoah against the rebel army
under StoneAvall Jackson; but preceding that fight the Eighth made a
good record in skirmishing at Cedar Creek and Strasburg. This qualification
led the? regiment to be deployed as skirmishers on the evening
before, and the morning of, the battle at Winchester, but tOAvard evening