In late January, 1862, the 55th Ohio Volunteer Infantry finally received its marching orders to take to the field. Pvt. William Keesy of Company I relates to the activities of preparing to march;"On the 24th day of January, 1862, Camp McClellan was broken up, our tents were struck, our baggage loaded, the line formed, a few military maneuvers, cheers three times three, for old Camp McClellan, and it had gone into history.
"We were marched into town and quartered in Norwalk that night. It fell to the lot of Company I to quarter in the old Whittlesy Hall. The several companies had their respective places in the city. The ladies of the city furnished hot coffee, sweet cakes, pies and other viands and gave us a very festive time. On the 25th we boarded the Lake Shore train provided for us and we were off for the front. By night we reached Cleveland, then on to Bellaire, and on the 26th we crossed the Ohio River on an old barge and a steam-boat.". . . We boarded the train on the B. & O. railroad to Grafton, Va. The journey by rail was without special incident, further than that these military trains were a new thing under the sun, and to most of these twelve hundred men this was a very great journey. In those days people did not have the time, means, nor disposition for travel as today. Many of these men had never been out of their native county. Then there was the war excitement. Every town, every crowd along the way, was lustily cheering us. Flags were floating, banners waving, bands playing, the officers' orders, clank of arms, bright arms and gay dress of the officers, all helped to intensify the excitement. 'On to Richmond' was the watchword.
"On the morning of the 27th of January, 1862, we found our train at break of day standing on the bank of the Tigress river, and at the foot of the lofty hills near Grafton, Va. Can any one imagine the feelings of the uninitiated soldier now, when he steps out of the car just as the gray streaks of the morning's light begin to creep over those mighty everlasting hills, the dark curtain of the past night still hanging over the river. The camp-fires for cooking the morning meal are beginning to flicker all along the side of our train. But there is a realizing sense also that we are on the border of the enemy's ground. Who knows what wily bush-whackers may be lurking on the opposite bank of that river, ready to draw a bead upon these living targets now! What if the enemy should come in force and surround us here! Suppose they are even now bringing some heavy guns up on the opposite side of those hills! Would it not be much safer farther north than here?"Sources:
Trials and Triumphs: A Record of the Fifty-Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry by Hartwell Orsborne, 1904, A.C. Clurg & Co., Chicago.
War, As Viewed From The Ranks by William Keesy, 1898.