Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1862-11-13
Letter from the 98th Reg't.

'Nt"t'' -<it UtUW, tbC.
LEBANON, KY, Oct. 29th, 1862.
Eprroa CHRONICLE: Col. poorman is
about as busy as is possible for man to be.
lie is conmandant Of this post, and the
labor and business that ought properly to
devolye upon at least three men falls upon
his shoulders; but they are very strong
shoulders, and the head that rests upon
them has more energy in it than is contain
ed in the heads of three fourths of the Cen
erals commanding this army. l do not want
to Hatter either him or his peop.e, but it is
certain thatAe will never get the credit to
which he is entitled for his conduct in the
recent battle at Chaplin heights, excepting
that he will get-Las already got-the
warmest, best feelings of every man ip this
Regiments and no man in it will overy say
word against him, because they know-all
Of thcnl--that he acted well his part as a
brave aud gGlant soldier. . .g..
| expect my letter to be rather loose and
desultory 1t may possibly contain some
matters that will be OF interest to our peo.
pie. Poor little George Thompson his
death impressed me deeply. think it was
not more than four or five minutes before
his death that spoke to him, and said to
him, George, it looks as if we were going
to have very hot time, and that vcry soon. "
He replied, "Well, the gSth will do her
duty; and as passed him he smiled pleas
antly. | saw him in very few moments
alter, his pale face was upturned aud the
poor little slim arms were lying calmly by
his side, the blood tho warm life bloc |,
slowly trickling from the fatal wound in his
Observation-Disclosures his life hal al
ready gone to him who gave it. stopped
and looked ut him-l could not help it
aud my thoughts were very sad The sorrow
of his people at home for the loss of their
poor boy who now sleeps quietly beneath
the soil Of Kentucky, but with his grave
marked so that his body can be recovered at
any time; and as slight tribute to him
and you knew him well--no boy in the army,
acted more the part of soldier, more up
rightly and honorably, than did George
Thompson. He left US as brave soldier
leaves his comrades, commanding tn cir
highest respect and esteem, and all of them
regretting the loss ola good brave boy, who
always done his duty.
We have been here since last Friday even
ing, and will probably remain for some time
l think the idea is to give us chance to
recruit our Regiment. We left Camp
Steubenville with $50 men aud off ;es, ef-
fective and ready for duty. To day We
could not muster more than 400 men, and
think not 30 many. So you can perceive
that we have from one cause or another been
very considerably reduced. One of those
causes was tho ba tile OF Chaplin Heights,
where in killed and wounded we lost 225
out OF 675 men--juat. one. third ni those en-.
gagged.
I have conversed with large number of
Rebel prisopers recently, very many of
whom were in the Perryvlle fight. They
are being parolled asrapidly as possible, and
quite numberof them were in Mississippi
and Alabama Regiment with whom the 9Sth
Ohio did the principal part Of her fighting,
and you could not make them believe but
what the 9Sth had long been in the service.
When assured that it had been but little
over six weeks since we left camp and had
never smelt powder before, they we're very
strongly inclined to discredit the statement.
Some OF them are men OF very fine intel.
ligencc, but tho large majority are exceed
ingly iliterate and ignorant. One boy said,
in response to the question, "What do you
intend doing after you are properly ex-
changed ?" 81 intend to stay at home, and
when they get me away from there again,
it will be to put me in my grave l have
received more kindness and been treated
better since was taken prisoner than l
have since left home before" snd he felt
il. Another said that it would afford him
much pleasure if he could only hear of w.
L., Yancey joining the army--and then that
he had been shat. He sad that Yancey
did more towards encouraging and bringing
about this Rebellion than any man in the
South, and through his influence aud elo
luence hundreds were induced to enlist who
would not otherwise have done so, and yet
nc was not man enough himself to join the
irny. t.
Some very sorrowful and yet amusing
hings occur. A dozen or so of our wound.
ID boys and as many wounded Rebels were
alking together about the battle. One of
'ur boys, who had his left arm amputated
ust below tho elbow, was sitting on a
blanket before the fire, looking feoblo but in
good spirits and evidently rapidly improv-
ng. On his right sat Rebel boy--who
iad been wounded in the same fight, they
ooked very much aliko--about the same
'ze-and his arm had been amputated,-
cit arm-at as noar as possible the same
place. He looked well also Those two
boys were talking together about the fight,
and wondering if it might not be possible
that each Of them had shot Me other2 At
asst says the little secosh boy, IF did
,hpnt i O.. :. 0 |