Army of the Ohio

“ And marched to Bardstown where the regiment became part of the 15th brigade, commanded by General Milo Haskel; 6th division, commanded by General Thos. J. Wood; army of the Ohio, commanded by General Don Carlos Buell. In this brigade [2] the 26th regiment remained during the entire war, the other three regiments forming the brigade leaving us at different periods—the 17th Indiana to Wilders Mounted Infantry, the 58th Indiana became the pontooniers of the army of the Cumberland, and the 3rd Kentucky was transferred to General Harker’s brigade, remaining in the same division. ”

“ The great wheels plash the gurgling water. They move to the other side. The panting soldiers of the army of the Ohio rush on board. The steamer settles to the guards with her precious cargo of human life; recrosses the river in safety. The line of blue winds up the bank. It is Nelson’s division. McCook’s and Crittenden’s divisions are at Savannah. Lewis Wallace’s division from Crump’s Landing is filing in upon the right, in front of Sherman and McClernand. There will be four fresh divisions on Monday morning. The army is safe. Buell will not be pushed back to the Ohio. ”

“ An ambulance train was sent back to the battlefield after the wounded, returning late at night. Gen. Averill, with whom we were expecting to make a junction at this point, arrived with his command, making us, now, quite a formidable little army.
In the afternoon of June 7th, three hundred and fifty men and eight officers, under command of Capt. Chamberlin, were sent out to relieve the 28th Ohio, then doing picket duty. Part of the men were stationed on a hill where, just about a year before, they were permitted to rest for a few hours, when on their way to Richmond as prisoners of war. ”

“ At 5 o’clock on the morning of June 6th, the army pushed forward after the retreating enemy. When about two miles from Ackworth Station he makes a stand, and we wheel into line, the Twenty-ninth acting as skirmishers while the other troops were engaged in preparing rifle-pits. The Fourteenth corps now came up, forming on our left, and General Howard’s Fourth corps on our right. The position remained the same until June 10th, when the Twenty-ninth Ohio is sent forward on a reconnoissance. A large force of rebels are found to be strongly entrenched on Pine mountain. ”

“ Before leaving Legionville he had ordered a number of color flags for the sub-legions of the Secretary of War saying, [Pg 185] with the confidence of a man who could not but win, “they shall never be lost.”
Thus the third army of the United States floated down the winding Ohio in April, 1793. No other army on the Ohio, since the day Forbes’s and Bouquet’s British regulars left Fort Pitt, could be compared with it in discipline and trustworthiness. Harmar’s and St. Clair’s armies were rabbles beside it. ”

“ The weak, undisciplined, and bewildered army was hemmed in on every side, and the men were shot down as they huddled together or tried to straggle away, till half their number was left upon the field. Of course none of the wounded were spared. The Americans were tomahawked and scalped where they fell; one of the savages told afterwards that he plied his hatchet until he could hardly lift his arm. All the Ohio tribes shared in the glory of this greatest victory of their race,—Delawares, Shawnees, Wyandots, Ottawas, Chippeways, and Pottawottomies. ”

“ On 6 Dec., 1858, he became 1st lieutenant. At the beginning of the civil war he was appointed colonel of the 1st Ohio regiment, and in April, 1861, he was mustering and disbursing officer at Columbus, Ohio. He commanded his regiment at the first battle of Bull Run, and for his services there was brevetted major. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers on 3 Sept., 1861, and commanded a division of the Army of the Ohio in the Tennessee and Mississippi campaign. ”

“ To be left on the plains without works and both flanks exposed was a gross error. The 26th Ohio was the extreme right of this exposed line upon the plain. We saw the solid lines of Hood’s army as it advanced. We held this position but a short time. Those to the left of us being more advanced, owing to the lay of the ground, than we, were struck and broken, we fell back to the main line. Company E was less than 200 yards to the right of the Carter House and the main line was not broken at this point. We fought with other troops that occupied the works when we reached them. ”

“ The army was completely jaded, having been on the march since early morning, and rest was imperatively demanded. The General, however, called for two picked regiments to go out and destroy the bridges that cross the Appomattox, near Farmville, and thus cut off the enemy’s retreat in that direction. The 123d Ohio and 54th Pennsylvania were selected, and with a squadron of the 4th Massachusetts cavalry, the whole under command of Gen. Theodore Read, at once started. They met the head of Lee’s army near the point designated, and at once bravely attacked them. ”

“ It is, however, to be understood, that such parts of the Ohio militia as have not joined the army, will be permitted to return home on condition that they will not serve during the war; their arms, however, will be delivered up if belonging to the public. ”

“ On the 20th we crossed Peach Tree Creek and gained a ridge about half a mile south, when our division of the 4th and the 20th corps were to establish a line. The Confederate army, now commanded by General Hood, had concentrated in front of this position, intending to crush us while we were in the confusion of crossing the stream, and did make a most furious attack when but part of the line had gained position. Those not in line, being close, countercharged, driving the enemy and establishing a connected line. ”

“ Their dead lie all along the valley from the Potomac to Lynchburg; they are sleeping where they fell, at Antietam and Gettysburg, on the heights of Fredericksburgh, and through the dark thickets of the Wilderness. They lie in the dark forests’ of the Peninsula all the way up to Deep Bottom, and around Petersburg. Along the tangled morass near Hatcher’s Run, and the Weldon Road, their graves mark the fierce conflict. Brave Old Army of the Potomac, long suffering, gallantly fighting, 113your reward has come; never again will the boasted army of Northern Virginia meet you in equal conflict ”

“ Conscious of the dynamic power of mind in action as the best of fortresses, Ohio keeps no standing army but that of her school-teachers, of whom she pays more than twenty thousand; she provides a library for every school-district; she counts among her citizens more than three hundred thousand men who can bear arms, and she has more than twice that number of children registered as students in her public schools. ”

“ The whole army feels deeply mortified over the loss of the brigade at Hartsville; report says it was captured by an inferior force. One of our regiments did not fire a gun, and certainly the other two could not have made a very obstinate resistance. I am glad [192] Ohio does not have to bear the whole blame; two-thirds is rather too much.
10. During all of the latter part of last night troops were pouring through Nashville, and going southward. Our division, Rousseau's, moved three miles beyond the city, and went into camp on the Franklin road. ”

“ They are first to criticize the acts of those who are in the first ranks; and raise the question, “where are your trophies?” There is not a true soldier in our army but will bear me out in my statement.
The enemy were here scattered; some going out through Owen county, while Morgan himself took the pike toward the Ohio river through Claysville, crossing the Maysville and Lexington pike at Mayslick, and on through Mt. Sterling. Col Garrard’s brigade following in his trail picking up stragglers until we lost him in the mountains of eastern Kentucky in his retreat to Pound Gap. ”

“ The public reception of the First Regiment Ohio Light Artillery (3 months) at their home as before related practically closed the military career of that command; however, a large number of the men enlisted in other commands, notably into the First Ohio Light Artillery (3 years) the term being for three years or during the war. It was soon found that through the emergency of affairs at the opening of trouble and the improper muster in and muster out as state troops that the men had no proper standing on the rolls of the Army of the United States. ”

“ You could constantly hear the officers’ command—“Steady men! Go slow!” Time flew by like a dream. The enemy’s line in the lower works at the foot of the ridge became demoralized and they left before we reached them. The reverse side of their works offered us no protection from the artillery and infantry fire from the top, and by a common impulse, without orders, we continued the charge up the side of the ridge. We had the usual double line formation, the 26th Ohio in the front line, the 15th Indiana supporting 150 to 200 paces in the rear. ”

“ We built a temporary line of works within 200 yards of theirs, holding this position until they again retreated. The night of May 15, bridges were floated and the Oostanaula River crossed, the 4th corps taking the advance, driving Johnston’s rear guard. On the 17th, our division (Newton now commanding, Sheridan having been ordered to the Eastern department) was in the advance. One brigade deployed. In the evening two brigades were deployed and the enemy’s lines driven until a line of works was developed. Artillery was freely used, the 26th Ohio losing over twenty men. ”

“ Time has convinced all reasonable men that war in theory and practice are two distinct things. Many an honest patriot, full of enthusiasm, zeal, and thirst for glory, has in practice, found himself unequal to the actual requirements of war, and passed to one side, leaving another in his place; and, now, after two years, Ohio has in the field one hundred and twenty-six regiments, whose officers now are qualified, and the men of which would give tone and character to the new recruits. To fill these regiments will require fifty thousand recruits, which are as many as the State could well raise. ”

“ Remembering that General Grant, General Sherman, General Sheridan, the three greatest soldiers of the war, were all Ohio men, we might be tempted to claim that without these the war would not have been won for the Union, but it is safer to claim nothing more than that Ohio gave the nation the generals who won the war. Our three greatest soldiers were only chief among many others under whose lead Ohio sent to the war some three hundred and twenty thousand men, during the four years of fighting, a force almost as great as that of whole nations in other times. ”

“ The record clearly shows that the Ohio Light Artillery regiment was taken into Virginia under authority of and for service with the United States Government. Such was the understanding of the soldiers and of the Federal officers under whom they served, and the character of their service was distinctly national.
The regiment was not called into the service of the State of Ohio alone, but of other States. Every State is an integral part of the Union which the Federal Government is, under the Constitution, bound to protect against invasion. ”

“ Not, perhaps, in the course of the whole war, did Ohio send to the field a regiment of men whose whole souls were in the cause so firmly, and whose faith in the perpetuation of this glorious government of ours, was so pure, as the gallant One Hundred and Twenty-third. With officers, both in the field and line, who were not only brave and competent, but gentlemen on all occasions ”

“ At Wauhatchie, on the 10th day of December, 1863, the Twenty-ninth Ohio, though now reduced to less than three hundred effective men for duty, almost to a man re-enlisted for three years more, should the war so long continue, and were given a thirty-days’ furlough home for the purpose of recruiting. The headquarters of the regiment was established at Cleveland, Ohio. ”

“ In one single month one hundred and sixty-five thousand men were recruited into service. Once, within four weeks, Ohio organized and placed in the field forty-two regiments of infantry—nearly thirty-six thousand men; and Ohio was like other States in the East and in the West. ”

“ Never in the history of the world was such a response witnessed to the call of any country. Men left their implements of husbandry in the fields and rushed to the recruiting stations. The executives of the States were pressed with applications to raise companies and batteries under the call of the President.
Under this call thirteen regiments of infantry were assigned to Ohio. In fifteen days 71,000 troops were offered to Governor Dennison to fill the quota of the State. Camps were now established at different points in the State, and troops ordered to rendezvous. ”

“ At daybreak on the 14th of June I received a written order to take the 110th Ohio Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel W. N. Foster, one company of the 116th Ohio Infantry, commanded by Captain Arkenoe, and L Company of the 5th Regular Battery, six guns, commanded by Lieutenant Wallace F. Randolph, and occupy an open, isolated earthwork located three fourths of a mile west of the fortifications on the heights between the Romney and Pughtown roads, but in sight of the main works. The earthwork was barely sufficient for one regiment. ”

“ He examined the wound and remained with the company, the blood spurting from the top of his shoes at each step until he was ordered to the hospital by Colonel Young after the battle was over. No organization in the battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga [Pg 25] carried their banner higher on the roll of fame than did the 26th Ohio.
The following day, November 26, the two divisions, Sheridan’s and Wood’s, of the 4th corps, were ordered to march to relieve General Burnside, besieged at Knoxville. We were expected to live largely from the products of the country (now largely exhausted) . ”