The National tribune., 1895-01-03
Who Forgot His Sword?
PATRIOTS SONS.
There Was No Cowardice or Disloyalty
About the 18th w. Va.

About the 18th W. Va.
EDITOR NATION AL TRIBUNE: As a mem
Der of the 10Th W. Va wish to say that
when Serg't Webster, of the 1st N. Y. battery,
charges the 10Th w. Va. with cowardice or
disobedience of orders at Cloyd's Mountain,
or any other place, he simply shows his
ignorance of what he writes about. As Gen.
Powell and Corp'l Allison state, the 18th
was not at the battle of Cloyd's Mountain.
While the 18th w. Va. likely did not
have so much hard fighting as the Sixth
Corps, it did have its full share, and what
ever duty it was called on to perform,
whether on the march or in battle, it did
willingly and well.
The 18th w. Va. was composed almost
entirely of young men from the farms and
forests, the mountains and valleys of West
Virginia.
AS Cannoneern says of the Vermont
Brigade, they were nearly all native Ameri-
cans. Many of them were lineal descend
ants of Revolutionary sres, and their officers
were their friends and neighbors. They,
too, were in dead earnest, but not from
batrsd of slavery, for some of them were
probably brought up in the belief that it
was right. They did not fight from State
pride, for when the 18th was organized their
native State was i'll rebellion. The new
State of West Virginia had not yet come
into existence. There was no States rights
about them. They believed in the Nation
and in the Union, and they fought for love
of these, and not from hatred pride.
Under Col w. b. Curtis, who commanded
the regiment through nearly all OF its active
service, and who was one of the bravest and
noblest men in battle that ever knew,
these farmer boys attained precision In all
military exercises that made them one Of
the very best drilled regiments in the serv-
ice. Gen. Sigel, after seeing them OH dress
parade March 81, 1864, said that in all his
military experience lie had never yet seen
regiment that could excel the 18th w. Va.
Almost exactly q year afierwaId, at a re-
view Of the Twenty fourth Corps by Gen.
Grant, the 18th was noticed as doing the
finest marching OF any regiment III the
corps.
II the 10Th boys learned the trade of war
well on the parade ground, they practiced it
equally well in action. At Piedmont, Va,
June 5, 1864, they carried the strongest part
of the enemy's fortified line, killed the rebel
Gen. William L. Jones, and took far more
prisoners than there were men in the regi
ment.
III tuc AoSaulD On 1LetS lilies aVOuHu
Petersburg, April 2, 1865, the 12th W. Va.
won distinguished honors, and was compli-
mented in q special order, and its eolors
surmounted by gold eagle, present from
Corps Commander Gen. John Gibbon, for
conspicuous gallantry in the assault and cap
ture of Fort Gregg, near Petersburg, Va, on
April 2 1863.
The 18th, with her comrades of the old
Army OF West Virginia. had the credit of
being the first infantry to come to the sup
port OF Sherid.n's Cavalry at Appomattox
Courthouse on the morning of April 8, thus
barring Lees road to Lynchburg, and COM
polling his surrender.
West Virginia was an obscure little border
State, considerable part of her people were
disIOyal, yet the troops she sent into the
Union army formed a larger per cent. OF her
population, and suffered larger per cent.
of loss than even those of Serg't Webster's
great State of New Yorktown X. PATTI
SON, Go. d, 18th w. Va, Plymouth, Kan.