Some of My War Stories

Some of My War Stories by Allen Ripley Foote is a speech read aloud in front of the Ohioan Civil War soldiers. Excerpt: "When, in 1861, President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to enlist for a three months' service to uphold the authority and preserve the unity of the United States, I, a boy of nineteen, sought the first opportunity that offered, to enlist. I was at the door of the recruiting office long before it opened. Dr. D. W. Bliss, who afterward became a famous army surgeon and was one of the surgeons who attended Presidents Lincoln and Garfield, gave me the required physical examination. When measuring my height he said—"Raise your heels, you are a little short." Before my regiment was mustered in, the call came for 300,000 volunteers to enlist for a three years' service, and we were mustered in for three years."