William Henry Chamberlin

History of the Eighty-first Regiment Ohio Infantry Volunteers: During the War of the Rebellion William Henry Chamberlin

In preparing this Book it has been my aim to present the History of the Begiment as distinctly as possible, and yet to make the account of its operations intelligible to the general reader, by giving such accompanying descriptions of Battles and Campaigns as were necessary. Up to the beginning of the Savannah Campaign, I was able to obtain the facts requisite for this plan, but from that time to the close of the War, I was compelled to relinquish the general account of the movements of the rest of the Division, Corps and A rmy, and confine myself simply to the doings of the Eighty-F irst Ohio. This, however, does not detract from the interest of the story to those who passed through those Campaigns, as their own knowledge of events will serve to supplement this account. It may be well to record here that the cost of publishing a sufficient number of copies to supply one, gratis, to each member of the Regiment serving between the dates of June 1, 1868, and January 1, 1866, was defrayed by an appropriation from the Regimental Fund. There was no provision for the expense of portraits in the appropriation for publishing the Book; hence, inasmuch as it was suggested that they would form a desirable feature, I issued a circular to all the Officers requesting them to permit the insertion of their portraits, at their expense, and naming the lowest sum at which it could be done. The result is before the reader. No one will regret more than myself the absence of many familiar faces, especially of the dead but it is too late now to remedy it, and I feel that I have used every means in my power, without success. The design of producing this little work originated in the belief that such a record, in a permanent form, would be acceptable to the living as a memento of their suffering and services in the War of the Rebellion, and that it also might serve as a slight tribut
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)