OH-FOOTSTEPS-L Archives

From: Tina Hursh <>
Subject: Bio: James M. Dalzell - Noble county
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 17:54:15 -0600

"Historical Collections of Ohio, Vol. 2" by Henry Howe, 1908

pg 353
James M. Dalzell
Atorney-at-Law

Mr. Dalzell practices law and cultivates a family. A troop of little girls
with one little boy are often at his heels on the street. Patriotism begins
at home and the hearthstone is its cradle. On my arrival at Caldwell that
sentiment I found at fever heat. It was just on the eve of Decoration Day
and the streets were full of children assembling to prepare for its
celebration, and among them was those of the Private. Mr. Dalzell is of
Scotch-Irish parentage, tall and wiry in person, with profuse yellowish
locks, which once in the wartime, when in Washington, caused him to retreat
from a band of music, who were after him for a blast, mistaking him for
General Custer.

pg 355 & 356
James M. Dalzell was born in Allegheny City, Pa., September 3, 1838.
When he was nine years of age his father removed to Ohio. Under great
difficulties he succeeded in obtaining an education, and was a junior at
Washington College, Pa., at the outbreak of the war.
He served two years as a private in the One Hundred and Sixteenth
O.V.I. After the close of thewar he studied law, filled a clerkship at
Washington, and in 1868 settled permanently in Caldwell. During his life
Mr. Dalzell has been a prolific and able writer for the press; his
championship of the cause of the private soldier of the revellion has been
spritited, fearless and influential. Over the signature of Private Dalzell
his writings have appeared in almost every newspaper int he land. In 1875,
and again in 1877, he was elected to the Ohio Legislature, but withdrew from
political life in 1882. He is a very able stump speaker, an ardent
Republican, and associate and friend of such men as Sumner Garfield, Hayes,
Sherman, and thier contmporaries.
Mr. Dalzell was the originator and author of the popular Soldiers'
Union, now held annually in all parts of the country. Mr. Dalzell takes
great pride in his work in behalf of John Gray, the last soldier of the
Revolution. In 1888 Robert Clarke & Co., of Cincinnati, prublished a volume
entitle "Private Dalzell." It contains "My Autobiography." "My War
Sketches," etc., and "John Gray." It is an interesting and valuable
publication. We quote a restrospect of his political life. "In an evil
hour, in the summer of 1885, I foolishely accepted a nomination to the
Legislature, was elected, and there ended my prosperity. After the election,
in October, my name was in all the papers, congratulations poured in on me
from every quarter, and I was invited to take the stump in Pennsylvania,
which I did, at a great waste of time and money. I thought nothing of it
then. It was only when, years after, I looked into an empty flour barrel
and hungry children's faces and felt in my empty pockets, that I fully
apprehended my folly. Four years I now spent in the maelstrom of politics,
whirled and tossed about at the caprice of fortune, without any power to
controt it. I look bak on it with pain...It is a grand game, and none but
grand men need try to play it. Let men of moderate abilities, like myself
keep out of it if they would escape the chagrin and mortification of
faulure, accentuated with the pangs of poverty."

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• Bio: James M. Dalzell - Noble county by Tina Hursh <>