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author has the material in hand to do it, as well perhaps, as any other can do it, is his apology for attempting it. Another thing from another point of view is the fact that he knew nearly every man in the regiment personally, and knows the survivors, having been for ten years past the president of the Regimental Association, makes it a pleasure to write of their deeds in the old days. Having to depend upon personal letters for many of the facts and dates, it seems impossible to give a picture of the army life without in some measure introducing the personal element, and I know the members of the old regiment will understand and appreciate this and allow me to use this seemingly egotistical method, because it is about the only one possible for me.

The service of the regiment may properly be divided into four great campaigns; the first, the campaign in West Tennessee and Mississippi, culminating in the surrender of Vicksburg and the opening of the Mississippi river, cutting the Confederacy in twain; the second, the campaign culminating in the battle of Mission Ridge, the relief of Knoxville and the saving of Chattanooga and the State of Tennessee from the hands of the enemy; the third, the Atlanta campaign, resulting in the capture of that city and the driving of Hood to the northwest, where his expedition was to culminate in defeat at Nashville; the fourth, the campaign called "The March to the Sea," and through the Carolinas, resulting in the surrender of General Johnston to General Sherman and ending the war. Volumes have been written and volumes more will be written of these campaigns, but it is only my task to show what one regiment did in these conflicts. It is hard for the great historian in the discussion of generals, their plans of campaign and feats of strategy, to get down to as small a force as a regiment, but the real force that made battles and gained victories was the regiment, for they were the units of the great whole. Often the critical position was held by a single regiment and the fate of the whole army depended on the courage and devotion of this unit. Often a bri

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gade, or a division, in the midst of a terrific fight have been relieved by the bold attack of a single regiment on the flank of the enemy. That brigade or division may lose heavily while the relieving regiment may come off almost unscathed, and the historian who counts service by losses fails to understand the value of the service of the regiment.

Again circumstances often had much to do with the duty and responsibility of a regiment. When our regiment was sent to Louisville in the autumn of 1862, there was no thought on the part of any of us but that we should join the Army of the Cumberland. But the lack of suitable guns delayed us for a time at Louisville, and when we were ready to move we were ordered down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Memphis and joined the Army of the Tennessee, with which we were connected through all our service. We were afterwards associated in the Mission Ridge and Atlanta campaigns with the Army of the Cumberland, but it was always the Army of the Tennessee, at the head of which the gallant James B. McPherson was killed at Atlanta, on July 22, 1864. He was succeeded by General John A. Logan on the field, who being so unfortunate as not to be a graduate of West Point, was compelled to go back to his corps command when General O. O. Howard was made commander of the Army of the Tennessee. They were both good soldiers, but one was a volunteer and the other a regular, and the regular won the place, as he usually did.

Another thing in the history of a regiment growing out of the unit is the fact that the men of the regiment become personally acquainted with each other and thus are more closely linked together. Brigades may change, and usually do with each campaign, but the companies of a regiment as a general rule remain together. Hence, when any member of the regiment does some creditable act it reflects credit upon all the members of the regiment and all take pride in it. Likewise any act of dishonor casts reproach upon all, so men felt that the good name of the organization was to be maintained as well as

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the good name of the individual. When his regiment has a creditable and honorable record there is nothing but pride in the way a man will tell of his connection with it. Such is the record of this regiment, written as it is on the pages of a nation's history, that no man was ever connected with it who is not proud to say, "I was a member of the old 99th Indiana Infantry." To put in a permanent form the record of their deeds and make a roll of honor on which to inscribe their names to be read by the generations to come, is the purpose with which this history is written.

At the end of the thirty-five years more than three hundred members of the regiment survive and are filling

their places in the "world's broad field of battle." When I began preparing this work I was in hopes to be enabled to give the fate of every man, but there are some still "unknown." When the war was over they scattered and went east, west, north and south and in new surroundings, formed new ties, married and settled down, and one day sickened and died, perhaps, and the link that bound them to the comrades of the old days was severed never to be reunited again on earth. For twenty years after the war the regiment had no organization or reunions, and all that time here and there one was passing away and no report was made, so that there are some now of whose fate we are unable to learn. When the survivors began to hold reunions and notices of it were published, there was a rousing of old memories and from all parts of the country came responses from old comrades, who found awakening in their hearts an ardent desire to meet them, or to hear once more from the men with whom they toiled and suffered in the days of old. There is a common tie that binds all the survivors of the old Grand Army together, but the strongest tie is that of regimental comradeship. It then becomes personal, for it is both the man and the soldier that we know. Because of this fact the colonel of a regiment comes to embody in some measure the spirit of his command and becomes a center of unity. A brigade, division, or corps commander seems so far off that he does not come into the scope of vision of the soldiers, like their own colonel.

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