The Seventh Regiment: A Record

by George L. Wood

"'Their swords in rust;

Their souls with God in heaven, we trust.'

We would do well to pray with the hero of other days: "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Before us are two more rich offerings which the State of Ohio and Cleveland have laid upon our country's altar! They were preceded by Wheeler, Lantry, Pickands, Mahan, Vail, and others. We are here to mourn, to honor, and to bury the noble dead! They were the pride of our city and of Northern Ohio. Brave and honored representatives of a brave and honored constituency! Of one thousand eight hundred soldiers who have filled the ranks of the Seventh Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but little over a hundred now report for duty. Many of them sleep in patriots' and heroes' graves. Most of the remainder bear on their persons honorable marks of their patriotism and bravery. In honoring the representative, we honor the constituency.

"'But general remarks are not appropriate from me. At the request of the stricken widow and relatives of Colonel Creighton, I come to utter a few words of condolence, sympathy, and comfort, in this hour, to them and to us all, of deep affliction. Brother Foot will speak in behalf of the relatives of Lieutenant-Colonel Crane.

"'Colonel William R. Creighton was born in the City of Pittsburgh, in the year 1836 or 1837—the records are not in this city. In early childhood he was bereft of a father. He was baptized by the Rev. Bishop Uphold, now bishop of Indiana, of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

"'In his early teens, he served in the employ of Mr. A——, in an extensive shoe establishment. Subsequently, he chose the occupation of a printer, and spent three years in making himself master of his trade. Eight years ago he came to this city—was four years in the office of the Cleveland Herald. Also some six months in the City of Chicago. At the time of enlistment, he was in the employ of Mr. Nevans of this city. Early in life, he gave evidence that the tendencies of his nature were strongly military.

"'This was evinced by his connection with companies for drill in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and this city. When the bloody drama of this dreadful war was inaugurated, he was lieutenant of the 'Cleveland Light Guard.' He was not willing that the fair and majestic superstructure, reared by the superior skill, patient labor, and heroic suffering of our honored fathers—resting its deep foundations in the inalienability of the natural rights of all men, and in which the most indigent son of toil stands before the law the equal peer of merchant princes—should be torn down by perjured traitors and sworn enemies of mankind; not willing that these traitors and enemies should bury beneath the magnificent ruins of this superstructure our strength, and greatness, and safety, and peace, and very liberties; not willing that this young, yet powerful republic, should be so dismembered and disintegrated as to tempt the rapacity, and be an easy prey of the weakest of adverse powers; not willing that the principle, that 'Capital shall own labor,' the non-capitalled be the chattel of the rich, should rule all over this continent—that labor should be at once unremunerative and the badge of infamy, that thus there should be eternal antagonism between the indigent and the affluent, developing in intestine broils and civil feuds,—nor that the sun of liberty should go down upon an entire hemisphere, to rise not again for many generations; not willing that the forum, pulpit, and press should all be enslaved, and intelligence among the masses be rendered contraband; in brief, not willing that our Paradise should be converted into a Pandemonium.

"'Hence, no sooner had the news reached us of the assault upon Fort Sumter, and the call of the President for seventy-five thousand volunteers to rush to the defence of the life of the republic, than, with all the ardor of his earnest nature, Colonel William R. Creighton threw his all upon his country's altar, and appealed to his associates and compeers to do likewise.

"'His success in securing enlistments was commensurate with his zeal and known military skill. In a few days he was captain of a full company—the first enlisted in this city—which afterwards became Company A of the immortal Seventh Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. On the morning of the 3d of May, 1861, a beautiful Sabbath morning in the spring, emblem of life, youth, and beauty, this regiment started for the field of conflict, glory, and of death. And now, on a clear, serene Sabbath of the December of 1863, the dying month of the year, the first Sabbath of the month, and in the morning, after many hard-fought battles, the brave colonel and lieutenant-colonel of the gallant Seventh came back to say to us, in the mute silence of death, 'We have done what we could.' In terms and strains of true eloquence you will soon be told by Brother Peck, how bravely the colonel led the charges at Cross Lanes, Winchester, Port Republic, Cedar Mountain (not at Antietam, for he was at home wounded), Dumfries, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain, and fatal Ringgold,—and how he loved his brave command, and how they idolized him. But I will not anticipate, nor need I attempt encomium. His deeds praise him beyond the capacity of all human eloquence.

"'Of his social and manly qualities, one who knew him well is permitted to speak, in a letter of Christian sympathy, addressed to his widow—for the 2d of May, 1861, three days before leaving with his command, he was united in wedlock with Eleanor L. Quirk, of this city. In a letter, such as described above, the Rev. Mr. Brown, former pastor of Westminster Church, and for some months chaplain of the Seventh Regiment, says: