Other camps could be under state control and used only for the organization of regiments which could afterward be sent to the camp of instruction or elsewhere.

Railway lines and connections indicated some point in the Little Miami valley as the proper place for such a camp; and Mr.Woodward, the chief engineer of the Little Miami Railroad, being taken into consultation, suggested a spot on the line of that railway about thirteen miles from Cincinnati, where a considerable bend of the Little Miami River encloses wide and level fields, backed on the west by gently rising hills.

I was invited to accompany the general in making the inspection of the site, and I think we were accompanied by Captain Rosecrans, an officer who had resigned from the regular army to seek a career as civil engineer, and had lately been in charge of some coal mines in the Kanawha valley.

Mr.
Woodward was also of the party, and furnished a special train to enable us to stop at as many eligible points as it might be thought desirable to examine.

There was no doubt that the point suggested was best adapted for our work, and although the owners of the land made rather hard terms, McClellan was authorized to close a contract for the use of the military camp, which, in honor of the governor, he named Camp Dennison.
But in trying to give a connected idea of the first military organization of the State, I have outrun some incidents of those days which are worth recollection.