The seeds of that pernicious plant, Nullification - offspring of Satan and the Stygian hag - first saw the light of day in South Carolina, in the year 1832. Nourished by the south, and watered by John C. Calhoun, it grew lustily until 1861, when it burst upon our nation in the phase of one of the most gigantic rebellions that ever tore through the entrails of any country, submerging us at once in a sea of war and tears. When the call for help came, it was nobly responded to by the citizens of Greene County. The Seventy-Fourth was principally formed at Xenia, the Ninety-Fourth contained two companies, from this county, and the One Hundred and Tenth was formed from Greene, Miami, and Darke. We subjoin the following from “Ohio in the War”.

This regiment was organized in camp at Xenia, Ohio, in October, 1861, to the extent of seven companies. On the 24th February, 1862, it was ordered to Camp Chase, where three full companies were added, making the complement, and aggregating nine hundred and seventy-eight men.

The regiment was ordered to the field on the 20th of April, 1862, reported at Nashville, Tennessee, on the 24th of the same month, and went into camp near that city. While here, it was thoroughly drilled, and portions of it detailed for provost duty at Nashville. The first real service performed by the regiment, was on its march over the Cumberland Mountains with General Dumont, in June. Immediately thereafter, it was detailed as guard to the railroad between Nashville and Columbia, and continued to perform that duty during the month of August. It returned to Nashville, September 3rd, and remained there during the blockade of September, October and November, 1862. During this period, the regiment was engaged in several skirmishes in the vicinity of the city.

In December, it was placed in the Seventh Brigade Eighth Division (Negley’s), formerly part of the center (Ten). Fourteen Army Corps, department of the Cumberland.

When General Rosecrans made his movement on Bragg lying at Murfreesboro, the Seventy-Fourth marched with a division and corps. On the 29th of December, it went into the Stone River, and remained in it until nightfall of January 3rd 1863: was hotly engaged December 31st, and was one of the regiments selected to charge across Stone River, January 2nd, against Breckinridge’s rebel corps. The Seventy-Fourth went into battle with three hundred and eighty effective men, of whom it lost, in killed and wounded, one hundred and nine, and in prisoner, six.

On the organization of the army at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, February, 1863, the Seventy-Fourth was assigned to the Ten brigade (Miller), Second Division (Negley’s), Fourthteenth Army corps (Thomas’s) and during the stay of the army at that place, in guard duty on the fortifications. At this place several changes took place among the officers; Colonel Moody, Major Bell, and Captain Owens, McDowell, and Ballard resigned, which made necessary the following promotions: To Colonel, Josial (late Lieutenant Colonel of the Eighteenth Ohio); to Captains Mills, Armstrong, McGinnis, Tedford, and McIllravy; to First Lieutenant, McMillen, Hunter, Hutchinson, Weaver, and Bricker; to 2nd Lieutenant, Adams, Scott, Drummond, and McGreary.

On the movement toward Chattanooga, June 23 1863, Seventy-Fourth was in the column, and participated in the battle of Hoover’s Gap, June 24; Dog Gap, Georgia, September and Chickamauga, September 19th and 20th; arriving at the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, November 24, and 25th, 1863.

While at Chattanooga a majority of the men re-enlisted as volunteers, from January 1, 1864. About the same time Captain Fisher was promoted to Major.

Entitled, as they were, to thirty days furlough at home,the regiment left Chattanooga on the 25th of January, 1864, and arrived at Xenia, Ohio, where it was received with the greatest kindness, and hospitality in the power of the patriotic ladies of that beautiful city to bestow. On their way home, everywhere in Ohio, the members of the regiment were recipients of the most marked kindness and consideration.

The regiment reassembled at Xenia, on the 17th of March, and before leaving for the field, passed resolutions returning their hearty thanks for the unbounded kindness with which they had been treated, and making the utterance of the word “Xenia” by visitors to their camp in the field, a talismanic password to their hearts and hospitality.

The regiment being reorganized, numbered, with the addition of one hundred recruits, six hundred and nineteen men.

The Seventy-Fourth, once more ready for the field, started for “the front” on the 23rd of March, 1864, and on the 12th of April rejoined its brigade at Graysville, Georgia. Remaining in this camp until the 7th of May, it started with the army on the Atlanta campaign-that long and arduous march, so famous in the history of the rebellion. One day’s history of this campaign was that of the next. For over one hundred days the regiment was under an almost continuous fire of rebel musketry and artillery. At Bussard’s Roost it was specially engaged, and in an attempt to storm that stronghold, on the 9th of May, lost sixteen men killed and wounded; and at Resacca, May 15th, nine men killed and wounded. In the engagement of the 27th of May, the conduct of the Seventy-Fourth, and other regiments of the Third Brigade, elicited from the division commander the following commendatory notice:

HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, FOURTEEN ARMY CORPS.

NEAR DALLAS, GA., MAY 28, 1864

COLONEL: General Johnson desires to express to you his high appreciation of the gallantry exhibited by the noble troops of your brigade in the night engagement of the 27th instant. The admirable spirit displayed by them on that occasion is above all things, desirable and commendable. Soldiers animated by such courage and fortitude are capable of the very highest achievements.

(Signed) E. F. Wells. A. A. G

At Kenesaw Mountain, the regiment had a most arduous and perilous duty to perform. For two weeks it was under a constant fire of musketry and shells. It was also engaged at the Chattahoochie River, Peachtree Creek, and in front of Atlanta. At the battle of Jonesboro, it made three distinct charges on the afternoon of September 1st, and lost two lieutenants and twelve on-commissioned officers and privates, killed, and twenty-five privates wounded. For this gallant achievement, the regiment was included in the following complimentary notice:

HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, FOURTEENTH ARMY-CORPS

Jonesboro, September 2, 1864

CIRCULAR.

The general commanding the division congratulates the officers and men of the Second and Third Brigades on the success of their splendid assault on the enemy, September 1, 1864. They charged a strong entrenched double line, passing over swamps and through thickets under a murderous fire of musketry; dragged the enemy out of his works at some points, and drove him from them to others. The troops apposed to them were the most celebrated for obstinate fighting of any division of the rebel army. There conduct of all was gratifying to our commanding general, and the day should be remembered and celebrated by every soldier engaged in the battle.

By Order of Brigadier General W. P. Carlin.

(Signed) G. W. Smith, A. A. G.

The aggregate loss of the Seventy-Fourth in this campaign was eighteen killed and eighty-eight wounded. The battle of Jonesboro ended the Atlanta campaign. The rebel general Hood’s unexpected dash for the rear of General Sherman’s army, for the purpose of cutting his communications, rendered it necessary for a movement of the national army to counteract it, and the Seventy-Fourth, with its brigade and division, counter-marched to Kingston, Georgia.

By this time several of the officers resigned and were mustered out, namely: Colonel Given, Captain McMillan, Armstrong, and Baldwin, and Lieutenants Adams and Baldwin.

The Seventy-Fourth was the last regiment to leave Kingston on the new campaign through Georgia. Thus it severed the link that connected it with the north on the 12th of November; and moved with Sherman through Georgia, arriving at Savannah without casualties December 21, 1864. it left Savannah with the army, on the 20th of January, 1865, on what was called the South Carolina campaign.

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