Can you bring your command here tonight instead of waiting till tomorrow? If so, come armed.
William Dennison, Governor.
Thus early people began to learn that there is “no Sunday in war.” All that day the excitement increased. Those who took the time to go to church listened to sermons on the duty of the hour.
It was found impracticable to assemble the regiment in time to get away on Sunday and the Governor was informed by telegraph that it would leave early Monday morning. A dispatch from Capt. Dennis Kenny at Geneva told that Company F was “red hot” and could be ready to leave that night for the rendezvous at Cleveland. The necessary transportation was provided and the company reported before daylight. Company C. from Brooklyn, was equally prompt to respond, and half the people of that town accompanied the boys to the city to “see them off.”
During the forenoon of Monday—April 22d—there was the greatest activity among the members and friends of the regiment. The whole city was astir and fairly boiling with excitement. Thousands of people turned out, thronging the depot and the railroad leading to Columbus, to witness the departure of the soldiers. The latter were, of course, only provided with a “pick up” outfit, it being expected that all necessary clothing and supplies would be furnished by the state authorities.
In order to start the boys in as comfortable shape as possible the citizens contributed a sum sufficient for the purchase of one hundred and twenty blankets—all that could be found in Cleveland suitable for military use. The blankets were bought by Mr. Henry N. Johnson, and the following memorandum of the purchases is given as an item of interest:
| Number. | Price. | Amount. | |
| E. I. Baldwin | 12 | $ 1.48⅓ | $ 17.80 |
| Taylor & Griswold | 3 | 2.50 | 7.50 |
| Alcott & Horton | 92 | 2.00 | 184.00 |
| Morgan & Root | 13 | 1.75 | 22.75 |
| —— | ——— | ——— | |
| Total | 120 | $232.05 |
At about noon the regiment, numbering in all about one hundred and sixty men, embarked on a special train. There were hasty and tearful farewells and the train moved off amidst tempestuous shouts and cheers, the waving of flags and kerchiefs and the music of brass bands.
At that time no one had more than a vague and foggy idea of what war was. It had not yet become the serious matter that it was a few months later, and during the four long and bitter years that followed. The first volunteers went to the field with a grand hurrah, impelled by motives of the truest patriotism, but with no conception of the hardship and privation and blood and fire and death that were before them. The sickle was sharpened but had not been thrust in to reap its ghastly harvest. As yet there were no stretchers nor hospitals nor ambulances freighted with mangled victims; no miles of reddened earth strewed with the dead and dying; no long, weary marches, through heat and cold and storm; no ravages of wasting disease. All these were yet as an unopened book to these men hastening to the field, and to those who with moistened eyes and beating hearts bade them farewell and God speed. Only a few then believed that there would be much of a war—that the trouble would not all be over in sixty or ninety days.
The following is a roster of the regiment as it left Cleveland, the officers of the field and staff having been already given. A few men who joined some of the companies a few weeks later are included: