Philip H.   Sheridan was major figure in the military history of the United States in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Major General Phillip H. Sheridan (Photo courtesy of the National Archives)

Sheridan was born on March 6, 1831, in Albany, New York. His parents had immigrated to the United States in the year before Sheridan’s birth. In 1832, the Sheridans settled in Somerset, Ohio. Philip Sheridan’s father, like many other Irish immigrants, found employment on the canals and railroads. He was often away from home, leaving Philip to be raised by his mother. He attended common schools and, beginning in 1845, found employment as a clerk in local stores. Sheridan received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1848. He was suspended for the 1851-1852 school year for a conflict with another student. He graduated in 1853. He had military assignments across the United States, including Kentucky, Missouri, Texas, Oregon, and California. By the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Sheridan had attained the rank of captain.

Sheridan served in the Union Army during the Civil War. In the first year of the conflict, Sheridan served principally in Missouri as a quartermaster with the Army of the Southwest. In 1862, he participated in the Union’s offensive into western Tennessee and Mississippi. He was commissioned a colonel in May and then led a cavalry brigade in several skirmishes in Missouri. By the fall of 1862, Sheridan was promoted to brigadier-general and was operating with the Army of the Ohio. He commanded the Eleventh Division and participated in the Battle of Perryville. Following the dissolution of the Army of the Ohio, Sheridan became commander of the Army of the Cumberland’s Third Division and was promoted to the rank of major general. In 1863, he participated in the Battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga and helped secure eastern Tennessee for the Union.

In April 1864, Sheridan became the commander of all cavalry forces operating with the Army of the Potomac. While he had demonstrated his competence on the battlefield well before this point, it was Sheridan’s activities with the Army of the Potomac that earned him fame as a military leader. Sheridan drove General Jubal Early’s Confederate army from the Shenandoah Valley in the fall of 1864. He turned the Battle of Cedar Creek from a Union defeat into a victory by rallying Northern soldiers fleeing from the fight. His actions at Cedar Creek were immortalized in a poem, “Sheridan’s Ride.” In the years immediately following the Civil War, schoolteachers often had their students recite this poem. After completing his campaign against Early, Sheridan and his command participated in the siege of Petersburg and the surrender of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in 1865.

Following the Civil War, Sheridan commanded the Military Division of the Gulf of Mexico from 1865 to 1867. In March 1867, he became commander of the Fifth Military District of the South. The United States Congress, against the wishes of President Andrew Johnson, had divided the South into military districts. The Congress wanted to maintain a military presence, primarily to maintain law and order and to defend African Americans from southern whites in the states that had seceded from the Union in 1860 and 1861. Sheridan commanded troops in the Fifth Military District for seven months in 1867. Following this assignment, Sheridan took part in the Indian wars then underway in much of the Western United States.

Upon General William T. Sherman’s retirement in 1883, Sheridan became the commander of the entire United States Army. He died five years later, on August 5, 1888, after becoming ill while traveling in the West.

Source: Ohio History Central

In the spring of 1864, John Brough, the governor of Ohio, proposed that the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin enlist men to help defend their respective states during the American Civil War. Ohio would enlist thirty thousand new soldiers. Indiana and Illinois would furnish twenty thousand men apiece, while Iowa and Wisconsin would provide ten thousand and five thousand men respectively.

These Hundred Days’ Men were to serve as garrison troops throughout the North and in areas of the South that Northern armies had occupied. After Confederate General John Hunt Morgan’s raid into Ohio in 1863, Brough was especially concerned with preventing Confederate invasions of the North. The Hundred Days’ Men would allow regular soldiers currently serving as garrison troops to be sent to advancing Union armies. In this way, the Union might win the war more quickly, hopefully in one hundred or fewer days.

Reproduction of an engraved copper portrait of Governor John Brough. He was elected in 1864 during the Civil War and pledged to continue military support for the Union cause. Brough died in 1865 and did not complete his two year term. SOURCE: Ohio Historical Society Collection, John Brough, SC 2193, AL00571

The governors of these five states submitted their suggestion to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who placed the proposal before President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln immediately approved the plan. Ohio easily provided the federal government with its share of the Hundred Days’ Men. Nearly thirty-six thousand Ohio men actually reported for duty, exceeding Ohio’s requirement by six thousand soldiers. The other states that agreed to enlist One Hundred Days’ Men fell short in their pledges. The War Department accepted all of Ohio’s recruits, and the men were ready for duty within sixteen days of enlistment. These men did help the Northern war effort, but the larger armies failed to accomplish their primary objective — defeating the South within one hundred days.

The American Civil War did not end until the spring of 1865.

SOURCE: Ohio History Central

The Battle of Fort Fizzle was an uprising in Holmes County to protect local residents from federal provost marshals and deputies sent to Ohio to enforce the Conscription Act, which was also known as the Enrollment Act, during the American Civil War.

As the Civil War dragged on and the number of volunteers declined, in 1863, the United States government implemented the Conscription Act. This act required states to draft men to serve in the American Civil War if individual states did not meet their enlistment quotas through volunteers. The Conscription Act permitted drafted men to pay a commutation fee of three hundred dollars or to hire a substitute to escape service if they were drafted.

Many Northerners strenuously objected to the Conscription Act. Draft riots occurred in both New York City, New York and Boston, Massachusetts. Some Ohioans also opposed the draft. These Ohioans encouraged men to resist the draft or to desert once they were drafted. In Holmes County, approximately nine hundred men created a makeshift fort to defend themselves from federal officials sent to enforce the Conscription Act. These men were responding to attempts by the federal government to enlist men into the Union army during June 1863. A mob had attacked an officer sent to enlist men into the service, and a provost marshal captured the ringleaders responsible for the assault. A group of residents freed the four men arrested. They built Fort Fizzle to resist future attempts to arrest the ringleaders and to prevent the draft’s enforcement. They equipped themselves with guns and some sources say up to four artillery pieces, although it is very likely that no cannons actually were in the fort. Approximately 420 federal soldiers arrived to disarm the men and to implement the draft. A brief skirmish occurred, with the soldiers emerging victorious. Two draft resisters were wounded, but no other casualties resulted. The demonstrators dispersed into the woods, and the Battle of Fort Fizzle, as it became known, quickly ended. The soldiers continued to hunt for the protestors. Eventually a deal was brokered in which the four men originally arrested would surrender. When the men turned themselves in, a majority of the soldiers returned to Columbus.

This was just one of many protests that erupted in response to the draft in Ohio. Unlike the Battle of Fort Fizzle, government authorities easily put down most of these other uprisings without having to resort to violence.

Source: Ohio History Central

Johnny Clem was a soldier in the service of the United States for most of his life. He was born on August 13, 1851, in Newark, Ohio. His actual name was John Joseph Klem. Although Clem was only ten years old when the American Civil War began, he immediately tried to enlist in the Union army. He left his school classes to drill with the Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. However, the Third Ohio, and many other units that passed through Newark, always rejected Clem because of his young age.

John Clem. Library of Congress description: "Sgt. John Clem, U.S.A.". John Lincoln Clem ( August 13, 1851 - May 13, 1937), was a United States Army general who had served as a boy in the Union Army in the American Civil War. He gained fame for his bravery on the battlefield, becoming the youngest noncommissioned officer in Army history. He retired from the Army in 1916, having attained the rank of major general, as the last veteran of the Civil War still on duty in the Armed Forces. SOURCE: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, LC-BH82- 4088.

Some accounts claim that Clem first had been permitted to join the Twenty-Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Other sources claim that Clem joined the Twenty-Second Michigan Infantry Regiment when it marched through Newark. Since Johnny Clem was too young to join the army officially, officers of the Twenty-Second Michigan contributed money to pay him a monthly wage. Soldiers provided him with a gun and uniform and trained him to be a drummer boy. Clem was finally allowed to enlist in the United States Army in May 1863, when he was only twelve. In the meantime, Clem had already participated in numerous battles and had become quite famous.

According to most sources, at the Battle of Shiloh, Clem demonstrated his calmness under fire. A Confederate cannonball supposedly smashed Clem’s drum while the boy was playing it. His reputation grew even more with his exploits at the Battle of Chickamauga. Confederate forces drove General William Rosecrans’ Army of the Cumberland from the field. During the retreat, a Confederate colonel ordered Clem to surrender. Rather than to give up, Clem raised his rifle and killed the colonel. Clem was captured later in the battle, but he managed to escape. Northern journalists reported Clem’s adventures to their readers. The drummer boy became an instant celebrity and earned nicknames like “Johnny Shiloh” and the “Drummer Boy of Chickamauga”. For his bravery at Chickamauga, Clem was promoted to the rank of lance corporal. He changed his name to John Lincoln Clem and remained in the army until September 19, 1864, when he was discharged.

Controversy currently rages over Clem’s wartime experiences. There is no doubt that Clem was present at Chickamauga, but historians increasingly question his purported exploits at Shiloh. Skeptics accurately argue that the Twenty-Second Michigan did not officially form until well after the Battle of Shiloh, so there is no way that Clem could have participated in the battle at least with this regiment. There is always the possibility that Clem served with another unit at that time, but if this is so, it has been lost to history. Some scholars now contend that Northern reporters enhanced Clem’s exploits to help promote the war effort.

Following the Civil War, President Ulysses S. Grant nominated Clem to become a student at the United States Military Academy at West Point. However, Clem repeatedly failed to pass the entrance exam. In 1871, Grant overlooked Clem’s failures and appointed him a second lieutenant in the United States Army. Clem remained in the army until 1915, when he retired. He was the last Civil War veteran to leave the United States military. He had risen to the rank of brigadier-general. Clem eventually settled in San Antonio, Texas, where he died on May 13, 1937.

SOURCE: Ohio History Central

Take “Johnny Clem” with you and your family as you visit Civil War sites and commemorative events in Licking County! Learn more about Licking County’s Civil War Sesquicentennial Passport Program. Check out the places Johnny has been visiting lately on Facebook.

Squirrel Hunters were civilian men from Ohio who assisted the federal government in defending Cincinnati, Ohio from Confederate attack in 1862.

In September 1862, Confederate forces under General Kirby Smith captured Lexington, Kentucky, in the second year of the American Civil War. Smith dispatched General Henry Heth to capture Covington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. Major General Horatio Wright, commander of Union forces in Kentucky, ordered General Lewis (Lew) Wallace to prepare Covington’s and Cincinnati’s defenses.

Upon arriving in Cincinnati, Wallace immediately declared martial law. All business owners were to close their shops, and civilians were to report for military duty. Wallace stated, “Civilians for labor, soldiers for battle.” Men in the regular army would fight on the battlefield, while the civilians would prepare trenches and other defensive features to prepare the two communities for attack. Cincinnati residents reportedly “cheerfully obeyed” the order.
Ohio Governor David Tod left Columbus, the state capital, and came to Cincinnati to assist Wallace. Tod immediately ordered Ohio’s adjutant-general to send any available troops other than those guarding Ohio’s southern border to Cincinnati. Tod also ordered the state quartermaster to send five thousand guns to equip Cincinnati’s militia. A number of Ohio counties offered to dispatch men to Cincinnati as well. Tod immediately accepted the offers on Lew Wallace’s behalf. He stated that only armed men should report and that railroad companies should transport the men for free and then later send a bill to the State of Ohio. Civilians from sixty-five counties numbering 15,766 men reported for duty at Cincinnati. These men became known as the “Squirrel Hunters.”

Governors portrait of David Tod that hangs in the Ohio Statehouse. He served as governor of Ohio from 1862 to 1864. As a Civil War Governor, Tod oversaw the recruitment of troops, established the Ohio Military Agency to aid Ohio soldiers and called up troops to defend the state's borders from attack by the Confederate army. (Ohio Historical Society Collection)

Many of the Squirrel Hunters had no military training and carried antiquated weapons. Despite these shortcomings, they still rallied together to help defend Ohio from Confederate invasion. City officials commandeered Cincinnati’s Fifth Street Markethouse to serve as a dining hall for the volunteers. Churches, meeting halls, and warehouses served as barracks. One day after he called for the volunteers, Governor Todd requested Ohioans to stop sending men for duty.

Discharge for T.M. Welsh from The Squirrel Hunter's. (Ohio Historical Society Collection)

Thanks to the actions of Wallace and Tod’, Covington and Cincinnati had adequate defenses to repel Heth’s advance within two days. Wallace quickly lifted martial law and allowed all businesses to reopen except for those that sold alcoholic beverages. By September 13, 1862, news reached Cincinnati that the Confederate forces were withdrawing from Kentucky and that Cincinnati was no longer in danger. Wallace earned the nickname “Savior of Cincinnati” for his actions in September 1862. The Squirrel Hunters returned to their homes.

To thank the Squirrel Hunters, the Ohio legislature, in 1863, authorized funds to Governor Tod to print discharges for these men from military duty. The discharges thanked the men for their patriotism and their willingness to sacrifice their lives in the defense of Ohio.

Text provided by Ohio History Central.

The Cleveland Grays is the longest-operating, volunteer militia unit in Ohio’s history.

Ohio Historical Marker. Source: Remarkable Ohio at www. remarkableohio.org

Founded in 1837, the Grays initially helped Cleveland officials in deterring crime. For the first twenty-four years of the organization’s existence, its members saw no formal military duty. This changed with the American Civil War’s outbreak in 1861.

At the start of the American Civil War, both the North and the South had to rely on individual states to supply the armed forces with men and supplies. In the case of Ohio, Governor William Dennison turned to the Ohio militia to provide the federal government with necessary troops. The Ohio militia system had been in decline since the end of the War of 1812. With Great Britain’s departure from Ohio and the declining threat from Native Americans, Ohio’s citizens and their government had felt little need to support this system strongly for the state’s defense.

In April 1861, following President Abraham Lincoln’s call for seventy-five thousand volunteers to end the South’s rebellion, Dennison dispatched George McClellan and Jacob Cox to the state arsenal in Columbus to investigate the guns and other supplies that Ohio had on hand to help equip the militia units. The two men discovered a few crates of rusted smoothbore muskets, mildewed harness for horses, and some six-pound cannons that could not be fired. Despite the lack of equipment, Dennison encouraged Ohio communities to revive the militia system and to form units that they would send to Columbus, the state capital.

While the state militia system had deteriorated, numerous communities had maintained units. Among these units were the Cleveland Grays. This unit, numbering approximately forty-five men, quickly traveled to Columbus, answering the governor’s call. It served as part of the first two Ohio infantry regiments organized for the war, becoming Company E of the 1st Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Governor Dennison dispatched these regiments to Washington, DC, to protect the nation’s capital, on April 19, 1861. This was just four days after President Lincoln’s call for volunteers. The Grays served admirably during this conflict. It participated in all major battles in the war’s Eastern Theater.

Following the Civil War, the Grays became a social organization, with its members participating in balls and parades. With the Spanish-American War’s outbreak in 1898, 225 Grays’ members formed the nucleus of Companies A, B, and C of the 1st Battalion of Engineers in the Ohio National Guard. The men never saw combat, as the war ended before they had completed their training. A handful of Grays’ members also volunteered for duty against Pancho Villa in Mexico during 1916. They became Company F of the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. During World War I, the Grays saw their last service as a cohesive fighting unit. In this conflict, the unit’s members formed the basis of the 148th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

Following World War I, the Grays, once again, became a social group. As of 2008, the unit continues to exist, serving as an educational and philanthropic organization. The Cleveland Grays also operate a museum, the Cleveland Gray’s Armory Museum, in Cleveland, Ohio.

Cleveland Grays Armory. Source: Remarkable Ohio at www.remarkableohio.org

References and Suggested Reading

* Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of Rebellion, 1861-1866. Akron, OH: The Werner Company, 1893.
* Dee, Christine, ed. Ohio’s War: The Civil War in Documents. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007.
* Leeke, Richard. A Hundred Days to Richmond: Ohio’s “Hundred Days” Men in the Civil War. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
* Reid, Whitelaw. Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Generals and Soldiers. Cincinnati, OH: Clarke, 1895.
* Roseboom, Eugene H. The Civil War Era: 1850-1873. Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1944.
* Vourlojianis, George N. The Cleveland Grays: An Urban Military Company, 1837-1919. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2002.

In 1861, Camp Chase was established in Columbus, Ohio, to replace Camp Jackson. Governor William Dennison had ordered Camp Jackson’s creation as a meeting place for Ohio volunteers during the American Civil War. In April 1861, President Abraham Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand volunteers to end the South’s rebellion. Governor Dennison encouraged Ohio communities to form and to send militia companies to the state capital at Columbus for the governor’s use. Camp Jackson served as the training ground for these forces. Military authorities also reorganized these individual companies into larger military units at the camp.

A reproduction of a photograph depicting Union Civil War prison, Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio ca. 1860-1865. (Ohio Historical Society Collection)

While the state militia system had deteriorated throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, numerous communities had maintained units. These units existed primarily to march in parades and to provide young men with something to do in their spare time. Among these units was the Lancaster Guards. This company quickly answered the governor’s call and was the first militia unit to arrive in Columbus at Camp Jackson in 1861. It served as part of the first two Ohio infantry regiments organized for the war. Governor Dennison dispatched these regiments to Washington, DC, to protect the nation’s capital, on April 19, 1861. This was just four days after President Lincoln’s call for volunteers. Ohio’s governor sent other units to Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, to help defend Ohio’s southern border from a Confederate invasion. The soldiers at Camp Jackson usually remained at the camp for only a short time. After receiving a little training, military officials sent the men off to the war.

In 1861, the federal government authorized the creation of Camp Chase. Organized in Columbus, it eventually replaced Camp Jackson as a recruitment and training center for the Union Army. Camp Chase also served as a prison camp. Civilians loyal to the Confederacy and Southern soldiers were held inside the prison stockade. During 1861 and early 1862, most of the prisoners were from Kentucky and western Virginia and were arrested for their disloyal political sentiments. Following the Battles of Fort Henry and Donelson in February 1862, Union authorities detained numerous Confederate officers and enlisted men as prisoners of war at Camp Chase. During 1863, the number of prisoners housed at Camp Chase at one time was more than eight thousand men. Following the completion of a new prisoner of war camp at Johnson’s Island in Lake Erie, Union officials sent most of the Confederate officers at Camp Chase to this new location.

This image shows an aerial depiction of Camp Chase, a Civil War camp in Columbus, Ohio. (Ohio Historical Society Collection)

Living conditions at Camp Chase prison camp were harsh. While Union authorities never intentionally starved the prisoners, the primary goal of Northern officials was to feed and equip the men serving in their own army. This commonly resulted in shortages for the prisoners. The large number of men in close quarters also led to outbreaks of disease. During the winter of 1863-1864, hundreds of prisoners died in a smallpox epidemic. In November 1864, Union and Confederate authorities agreed upon a prisoner exchange hoping to alleviate the suffering of sick prisoners held by both sides. A total of ten thousand prisoners were exchanged.

During the course of the Civil War, over two thousand Confederate prisoners died at Camp Chase. Originally, prison officials buried the prisoners in a Columbus city cemetery. In 1863, the prison established its own cemetery, and the bodies already buried in the Columbus cemetery were re-interred in the prison cemetery. Following the war, thirty-one Confederate bodies from Camp Dennison near Cincinnati were moved to the Camp Chase cemetery. this brought the total number of Confederate burials to approximately 2,260.

The monument memoralizing Camp Chase in Columbus. (Ohio Historical Society Collection)

The Union military closed Camp Chase at the end of the Civil War. Most of what remains of the site today is two acres of land, consisting primarily of the Confederate cemetery. In 1896, William Knauss, a former officer in the Northern army, organized a memorial service for the dead Confederates. On June 7, 1902, a monument to the Confederate dead was erected at the cemetery. Memorial services have been held at the cemetery every year since 1896.

Mary Ann (Ball) Bickerdyke was a nurse and health care provider to the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Bickerdyke was born on July 19, 1817, near Mount Vernon, Ohio. She enrolled at Oberlin College, one of the few institutions of higher education open to women at this time in the United States, but she did not graduate. Upon leaving Oberlin, Bickerdyke became a nurse. She assisted doctors in Cincinnati, Ohio, during the cholera epidemic of 1837. Ten years later, she married Robert Bickerdyke. The couple moved to Galesburg, Illinois in 1856. Robert Bickerdyke died two years later. Mary Bickerdyke continued to work as a nurse to support her two young sons.

Mary Bickerdyke was known as "Mother" Bickerdyke, due to her nursing of soldiers during the Civil War.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, residents of Galesburg purchased medical supplies worth five hundred dollars for soldiers serving at Cairo, Illinois. The townspeople trusted Bickerdyke to deliver these supplies. Upon arriving in Cairo, Bickerdyke used the supplies to establish a hospital for the Northern soldiers. Bickerdyke spent the remainder of the war traveling with various Union armies, establishing more than three hundred field hospitals to assist sick and wounded soldiers. During battles, Bickerdyke commonly risked her own life by searching for wounded soldiers. Once darkness fell, she would carry a lantern into the disputed area between the two competing armies and retrieve wounded soldiers. She was present at the Battle of Shiloh, the Atlanta Campaign, and many other engagements.

Both Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman admired Bickerdyke for her bravery and for her deep concern for the soldiers. She also earned a reputation for denouncing officers who failed to provide for their men. To assist the soldiers, Bickerdyke gave numerous speeches across the North, describing the difficult conditions that soldiers experienced. She also solicited contributions from the civilian population. The soldiers nicknamed Bickerdyke “Mother Bickerdyke” because of her continuing concern for them. General Sherman asked Bickerdyke to participate in the grand review in the nation’s capital following the Civil War. She led an entire corps down Pennsylvania Avenue. Sherman offered Bickerdyke a seat on the reviewing stand as the parade passed by, but Bickerdyke refused. She preferred to pass out water to the soldiers after the parade.

With the Civil War’s conclusion, Bickerdyke continued to assist Northern veterans. She provided legal assistance to veterans seeking pensions from the federal government. She also helped secure pensions for more than three hundred women nurses. Bickerdyke, herself, did not receive a pension until the 1880s. It was only twenty-five dollars per month. Bickerdyke moved to Kansas following the war, where she helped veterans to settle and begin new lives. She secured a ten thousand dollar donation from Jonathan Burr, a banker, to help the veterans obtain land, tools, and supplies. She also convinced the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad to provide free transportation for veterans hoping to settle in Kansas. Due to Bickerdyke’s efforts, General Sherman authorized the settlers to use government wagons and teams to transport the belongings of the veterans to their new homes.

Bickerdyke remained in Kansas for most of the rest of her life. She settled in Salina, Kansas, where she opened a hotel. She continued to fight for the rights of veterans. She moved briefly to New York, before returning to Kansas with her two sons. Bickerdyke moved later to California, hoping that a change of climate would restore her declining health. She settled in San Francisco, where she accepted a position at the United States Mint. Bickerdyke eventually returned to Kansas, where she died on November 8, 1901. She was buried in Galesburg, Illinois.

References and Suggested Reading

* Baker, Nina Brown. Cyclone in Calico: The Story of Mary Ann Bickerdyke. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1952.
* De Leeuw, Ad̬le. Civil War Nurse, Mary Ann Bickerdyke. New York, NY: J. Messner, 1973. РAvailable from Amazon.com
* Dee, Christine, ed. Ohio’s War: The Civil War in Documents. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007.     – Available from Amazon.com
* McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988.     – Available from Amazon.com
* Reid, Whitelaw. Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Generals and Soldiers. Cincinnati, OH: Clarke, 1895.
* Roseboom, Eugene H. The Civil War Era: 1850-1873. Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1944.
* Schultz, Jane. Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2007. – Available from Amazon.com

The court case Dred Scott v. Sandford fueled tensions between the North and the South that eventually led to the American Civil War.

Dred Scott was born a slave. During the 1830s, Scott’s owner, a surgeon in the United States army, took Scott to Illinois and Minnesota. At this time, slavery was illegal in Illinois and Minnesota was a free territory. In Minnesota, Scott married a slave woman, and she gave birth to a daughter. Scott’s owner eventually returned to Missouri, a slave state, with Scott and his family.

Commissioned by a "group of Negro citizens" and presented to the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, in 1882. Artist Louis Schultze. Public Domain.

Upon returning to Missouri, Scott sued for his freedom as well as that of his wife and daughter. He contended that his owner had freed him by taking him to a free state and then to a free territory. The same was true for Scott’s family members. The case, known as Dred Scott v. Sandford, entered the Missouri legal system in 1846. Scott won the initial case, but his owner appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the master. In 1857, the case reached the United States Supreme Court.

On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court issued its ruling. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the majority opinion of the court. He declared the Missouri Compromise to be illegal. According to Taney, the federal government did not have the power to limit where citizens could take their property, including slaves. Many Americans believed slaves to be a form of property. Taney and a majority of justices also argued that the case should never have come before the Supreme Court because Scott was not a citizen. The justices in the majority contended that African Americans were not United States citizens and could not bring lawsuits. Five of the other eight Supreme Court justices shared Taney’s view. Of the justices who ruled against Scott, five were Southerners. The one Northern justice who supported Taney received pressure from President James Buchanan to support the majority decision. The three dissenting justices were all Northerners and included John McLean from Ohio.

The Dred Scott v. Sandford case increased the tensions between the North and the South. Since the 1820s, the two regions had compromised on the issue of slavery’s expansion. One of the principal agreements had been the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The decision in the Dred Scott case declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. This opened the debate over slavery’s expansion once again. The decision helped convince many Northerners, including some Ohioans, that they now resided in a “slavocracy” — a government dominated by Southern slaveholders. The decision also helped divide the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions, as many Northern Democrats supported a state’s ability to limit slavery within its boundaries. All of these differences helped hasten the coming of the American Civil War.

References and Suggested Reading:

* Dee, Christine, ed. Ohio’s War: The Civil War in Documents. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007.
* Fehrenbacher, Don Edward. The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1978.
* Finkelman, Paul. Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford Books, 1997.
* Knepper, George. Ohio and Its People. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003.
* Roseboom, Eugene H. The Civil War Era: 1850-1873. Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1944.

SOURCE: http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=495&nm=Dred-Scott-v-Sandford

John Brown was an ardent abolitionist who, in 1859, led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, in hopes of securing arms to lead a slave revolt in the South. Viewed as a martyr by many, Brown was hanged for his actions.

Photographic reproduction of a portrait of abolitionist John Brown who lead a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia and intended to start a slave revolt, ca. 1855-1859. Ohio Historical Society, SC 2416, AL00524

Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut. He spent most of his youth in Ohio. He herded cattle during the War of 1812 for General William Hull, and upon the war’s conclusion, he assisted his father in a tannery. In 1816, he moved to Massachusetts, seeking to become a minister. Brown married in 1820, and in 1825, he moved his family to Pennsylvania, where he opened his own tannery.

As a child, Brown’s father instilled a deep hatred of slavery in his son. He encouraged his son to view the Bible as the truth and argued that God opposed slavery. As an adult, Brown proved to be an unsuccessful businessman. Over time, he decided to dedicate his life to destroying the institution of slavery. Brown served as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. He also helped organize some African Americans in the North into a self-defense organization. Many blacks in the North lived in fear that slave owners would come to the North and claim African Americans as runaway property. It was hoped that a self-defense league would provide African Americans with protection against these claims. The organization could also protect African Americans from attacks by people seeking to drive the blacks from their homes.

By 1850, Brown became convinced that God had selected him to lead enslaved African Americans to freedom. He believed that God condoned the use of violence to end slavery. Following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Brown moved to Kansas with five of his sons. They intended to help make Kansas a free state. On May 23, 1856, Brown, four of his sons, and two additional men rode into Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas, a village of several slave-owning families. Brown and his followers killed five men in front of their wives and children. This brutal act was one of many that caused the territory to be called “Bleeding Kansas.” Brown immediately became known for his violent opposition to slavery, and many people both feared and despised him.

Brown gained national attention in 1859. On October 16, Brown led a group of twenty-one men on a raid of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (modern-day West Virginia). A federal arsenal was in the town, and Brown hoped to capture the buildings and the weapons stored inside of them. He then intended to distribute the guns and ammunition to slaves in the region. He hoped to create an army of African Americans that would march through the South and force slave-owners to release their slaves. Brown and his men succeeded in capturing the arsenal, but local residents surrounded the buildings, trapping the abolitionists inside. A detachment of United States Marines arrived and stormed the arsenal on October 18, capturing seven men, including Brown.

The state of Virginia charged Brown with treason. During this time, slave states commonly accused people who encouraged or led slave rebellions of treason against the state. The court found Brown guilty and sentenced him to death. On December 2, 1859, Brown was hanged. He became a martyr for many Northerners. Some of these people feared that the United States had become a government dominated by Southern slave owners. Many Southerners became convinced that all abolitionists shared Brown’s views and his willingness to utilize violence. John Brown’s Harper’s Ferry raid raised issues for the presidential election of 1860. It also was one of the events that led to the eventual dissolution of the United States and the civil war that followed.

Brown’s actions also created numerous problems for Ohioans. By the mid 1850s, the Republican Party had formed in Ohio, and its candidates campaigned on a platform of limiting slavery. Many non-Republicans believed that Republicans sought the complete overthrow of slavery. Ohio Democrats used Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry to label the Republicans as extremists.

References and Suggested Reading

* DeCaro, Louis A., Jr. Fire from the Midst of You: A Religious Life of John Brown. New York: New York University Press, 2002. – Available from Amazon.com
* Dee, Christine, ed. Ohio’s War: The Civil War in Documents. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007.     – Available from Amazon.com
* Finkelman, Paul, ed. His Soul Goes Marching On: Responses to John Brown and the Harper’s Ferry Raid. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995. – Available from Amazon.com
* Knepper, George. Ohio and Its People. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003. – Available from Amazon.com
* Oates, Stephen B. To Purge This Land with Blood: A Biography of John Brown. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1970. – Available from Amazon.com
* Peterson, Merrill D. John Brown: The Legend Revisited. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2002. – Available from Amazon.com
* Quarles, Benjamin. Allies for Freedom: Blacks and John Brown. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1974. – Available from Amazon.com
* Roseboom, Eugene H. The Civil War Era: 1850-1873. Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1944.
* Scott, Otto J. The Secret Six: John Brown and the Abolitionist Movement. New York, NY: Times Books, 1979. – Available from Amazon.com
* Villard, Oswald Garrison. John Brown, 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty Years After. New York, NY: A.A. Knopf, 1943. – Available from Amazon.com

Like some residents of other Northern states, numerous Ohioans strenuously objected to the American Civil War. Various reasons existed for the reluctance of these Ohioans and their fellow Northerners to support the Union.

A sizable number of white Ohioans, especially those living along the Ohio River, had migrated to the state from slaveholding states. While opponents of the war could not legally own slaves in Ohio, many of them had family members residing in the South who did own African American slaves. These people often sympathized with slaveholders, agreeing with many white Southerners that the federal government did not have the power to limit slavery’s existence. These Ohioans preferred political compromise rather than warfare.

Other Ohioans had economic ties to the South. These Ohioans either operated businesses in the South or engaged in trade with Southerners. These Ohioans feared that a war would hurt them financially, as it theoretically could end trade between Ohio and the Southern states.

Some Ohioans did not support the war for religious reasons. Numerous groups in Ohio objected to violence due to their religious beliefs. These people included members of the Society of Friends, the Mennonites, the Amish, and several other denominations. While these groups did not formally protest the war, many of their followers refused to participate in the conflict. Some members of these faiths violated their religious teachings and did take up arms against the Confederacy. While groups like the Quakers opposed violence, they also believed that slavery was equally unjust and against God’s will.

Later, some Ohioans began to oppose the Civil War after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862. That document declared that the slaves in areas still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863 would receive their freedom on that date. By issuing the proclamation, Lincoln made ending slavery one of the North’s war aims. Many Northerners, including some Ohioans, were willing to fight to reunite the nation and to secure a government where the majority ruled, but they were unwilling to fight a war to terminate slavery. This was especially true among some soldiers from the working class. These men feared that, with slavery’s end, African Americans would migrate to the North, taking jobs away from the white workers. Several Northern soldiers, including some Ohioans, deserted from the Union army in protest of the Emancipation Proclamation.

A final and, perhaps, most important reason for anti-war protests was the draft. In 1863, the United States government implemented the Conscription Act, which was also known as the Enrollment Act. This act required states to draft men to serve in the Union military if individual states did not meet their enlistment quotas through volunteers. The Conscription Act permitted drafted men to pay a commutation fee of three hundred dollars or to hire a substitute to escape service if they were drafted.

Draft riots occurred in both New York City, New York and Boston, Massachusetts. Some Ohioans also strongly objected to the Conscription Act. Many of the opponents were members of the anti-war or “Peace” section of the Democratic Party and encouraged men to resist the draft or to desert once they were drafted. In Hoskinville, residents attempted to hide a deserter from government authorities. The local federal marshal called in soldiers to arrest the deserter. In Holmes County, nine hundred to one thousand men created a makeshift fort to defend themselves from federal officials sent to enforce the Conscription Act. These men were responding to attempts by the federal government to enlist men into the Union army during June 1863. A mob had attacked an officer sent to enlist men into the service, and a provost marshal captured the ringleaders behind the assault. A group of residents freed the four men arrested. They built Fort Fizzle to resist future attempts to arrest the ringleaders and to prevent the draft’s enforcement. They equipped themselves with guns and four artillery pieces, although some scholars doubt that any cannons were actually inside of the fort. Approximately 420 federal soldiers arrived to disarm the men and to implement the draft. A brief skirmish occurred, with the soldiers emerging victorious. Two draft resisters were wounded. The demonstrators dispersed into the woods, and the Battle of Fort Fizzle, as it became known, quickly ended. The soldiers continued to hunt for the protestors. Eventually a deal was brokered in which the four men originally arrested would surrender. When the men turned themselves in, a majority of the soldiers returned to Columbus. This was just one of many protests in response to the draft in Ohio. Unlike the Battle of Fort Fizzle, government authorities easily put down most of these uprisings without having to resort to violence.

Clement Vallandigham and the Peace Democrats

Several Ohioans participated in a peace convention during early 1861. The convention was held in Washington, DC, and the delegates hoped to convince President Abraham Lincoln to either agree to the Confederacy’s demands to get its citizens to rejoin the Union or simply to let the Southern states leave the United States. Lincoln ignored the peace convention’s attempt to end the conflict peacefully. Politically, most people who participated in the peace convention affiliated themselves with the Democratic Party. These people became known as Peace Democrats.

Clement Vallandigham was the best known Peace Democrat in Ohio. He helped organize a rally for the Democratic Party at Mount Vernon, Ohio, on May 1, 1863. Peace Democrats Vallandigham, Samuel Cox, and George Pendleton all delivered speeches denouncing General Order No. 38. In April 1863, General Ambrose Burnside, commander of the Department of Ohio, issued General Order No. 38. Burnside placed his headquarters in Cincinnati. Located on the Ohio River, just north of the slave state of Kentucky, Cincinnati had a number of residents sympathetic to the Confederacy. Burnside hoped to intimidate Confederate sympathizers with General Order No. 38.

General Order No. 38 stated:

The habit of declaring sympathy for the enemy will not be allowed in this department. Persons committing such offenses will be at once arrested with a view of being tried or sent beyond our lines into the lines of their friends. It must be understood that treason, expressed or implied, will not be tolerated in this department.

Burnside also declared that, in certain cases, violations of General Order No. 38 could result in death.

Vallandigham was so opposed to the order that he allegedly said that he “despised it, spit upon it, trampled it under his feet” He also supposedly encouraged his fellow Peace Democrats to openly resist Burnside. Vallandigham went on to chastise President Lincoln for not seeking a peaceable and immediate end to the Civil War and for allowing General Burnside to thwart citizen rights under a free government.

In attendance at the Mount Vernon rally were two army officers under Burnside’s command. They reported to Burnside that Vallandigham had violated General Order No. 38. The general ordered his immediate arrest. On May 5, 1863, a company of soldiers arrested Vallandigham at his home in Dayton and brought him to Cincinnati to stand trial.

Burnside charged Vallandigham with the following crimes:

Publicly expressing, in violation of General Orders No. 38, from Head-quarters Department of Ohio, sympathy for those in arms against the Government of the United States, and declaring disloyal sentiments and opinions, with the object and purpose of weakening the power of the Government in its efforts to suppress an unlawful rebellion.

A military tribunal heard the case, and Vallandigham offered no serious defense against the charges. He contended that military courts had no jurisdiction over his case. The tribunal found Vallandigham guilty and sentenced him to remain in a United States prison for the remainder of the war.

Vallandigham’s attorney, George Pugh, appealed the tribunal’s decision to Humphrey Leavitt, a judge on the federal circuit court. Pugh, like his client, claimed that the military court did not have proper jurisdiction in this case and had violated Vallandigham’s constitutional rights. Judge Leavitt rejected Vallandigham’s argument. He agreed with General Burnside that military authority was necessary during a time of war to ensure that opponents to the United States Constitution did not succeed in overthrowing the Constitution and the rights that it guaranteed United States citizens.

As a result of Leavitt’s decision, authorities were to send Vallandigham to federal prison. President Lincoln feared that Peace Democrats across the North might rise up to prevent Vallandigham’s detention. The president commuted Vallandigham’s sentence to exile in the Confederacy. On May 25, Burnside sent Vallandigham into Confederate lines.

Some Peace Democrats resorted to more radical means, including subversion, to protest the Civil War. Some of these men formed secret societies such as the Sons of Liberty. Members of these organizations resided primarily in Northern and Border States. In February 1864, Clement Vallandigham was elected supreme commander of the sons of Liberty. Ohio government officials estimated that between eighty thousand and 110,000 Ohioans belonged to these organizations, but most historians discount these numbers as being dramatically higher than the group’s actual numbers.

Rumors circulated throughout the North during 1864 that the Confederate sympathizers intended to free Southern prisoners at several prison camps, including Johnson’s Island and Camp Chase in Ohio. These freed prisoners would form the basis of a new Confederate army that would operate in the heart of the Union. Supposedly, General John Hunt Morgan, who had raided Ohio the previous year, would return to the state and assist this new army. The plot never materialized. William Rosecrans, assigned to oversee the Department of Missouri, discovered the planned uprising and warned Northern governors to remain cautious. John Brough, Ohio’s governor sent out spies to infiltrate the sympathizer groups. These men succeeded and stopped the uprising before it could occur. Confederate supporters hoped to capture the Michigan, a gunboat operating on Lake Erie near Sandusky. They would then use the gunboat to free Confederate prisoners at Johnson’s Island. Union authorities arrested the plot’s ringleader, Charles Cole.

While some Ohioans did openly oppose the Civil War, these people remained a distinct minority. Most Ohioans supported the war and a very large number of them volunteered for military service. Nevertheless, at least to some degree, the war protesters caused difficulties for both the state and federal government and hampered the government’s abilities to wage the war.

References and Suggested Reading

* Dee, Christine, ed. Ohio’s War: The Civil War in Documents. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007.
* Klement, Frank L. The Limits of Dissent: Clement L. Vallandigham & the Civil War. New York, NY: Fordham University Press, 1998.
* Knepper, George. Ohio and Its People. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003.
* Reid, Whitelaw. Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Generals and Soldiers. Cincinnati, OH: Clarke, 1895.
* Roseboom, Eugene H. The Civil War Era: 1850-1873. Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1944.
* Vallandigham, Clement Laird. Speeches, Arguments, Addresses, and Letters of Clement L. Vallandigham. New York, NY: J. Walter, 1864.
* Vallandigham, Clement Laird. The Trial of Hon. Clement L. Vallandigham, by a Military Commission and the Proceedings Under his Application for a Writ of Habeas Corpus in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio. Cincinnati, OH: Rickey and Carroll, 1863.
* Vallandigham, James L. A Life of Clement L. Vallandigham, by his Brother, Rev. James L. Vallandigham. Baltimore, MD: Turnbull Brothers, 1872.

During the American Civil War, fifteen members of the McCook family from Ohio fought for the Union, earning them the nickname, “The Fighting McCooks.”

Although scholars disagree on the exact number of McCooks who fought in the Civil War, it appears that Daniel McCook and eight of his nine sons took up arms for the North, as did his brother, John McCook, and his five sons. Individually, the two families were known as the Tribe of Dan and the Tribe of John. Together, they came to be referred to as the “Fighting McCooks”.

Photograph of an oil painting by Charles T. Webber titled "The Fighting McCook's" done in 1871. The painting depicts members of the McCook Family who served in the Union Army during the Civil War and the pre-Civil War Navy.

Daniel McCook, the patriarch of the Tribe of Dan, lived in Carrolton, Ohio, before the Civil War. He received a commission as major and lost his life in the Battle of Buffington Island in 1863. George McCook, Dan’s son, was a brigadier-general and served as an Ohio Attorney -General before the Civil War. Other members of the Tribe of Dan included Latimer, Robert, Alexander, Daniel, Jr., Edwin Stanton, Charles Morris, and John James. Latimer attained the rank of major. Confederate guerrillas murdered him while he lay wounded in the back of an ambulance in Tennessee during 1862. Robert rose to the rank of brigadier-general and also died in Tennessee. Alexander became a major general and survived the war. Edwin also was a major general. Although wounded severely three times in the conflict, Edwin survived the war. He eventually became the governor of the North Dakota Territory and was assassinated. Daniel McCook became a brigadier-general and was killed in 1864 at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. Charles Morris was the first McCook killed in the war, dying from wounds he received at the First Battle of Bull Run. John James survived the war with the rank of colonel.

The Tribe of John included the family patriarch, John McCook. A doctor in Steubenville before the war, he served as a volunteer surgeon during the Civil War. Other members of the Tribe of John included Edward, Anson, Henry, John James, and Roderick. All members of the Tribe of John survived the Civil War. Edward and Anson attained the rank of major general. Henry and John James each attained the rank of lieutenant and served as chaplains in the Union Army. Roderick became a commander in the United States Navy.

Fourteen of the McCooks became officers. Four of them died in service to their country. The Fighting McCooks’s dedication to the Union war effort made them well known in the North.

References and Suggested Reading

* Dee, Christine, ed. Ohio’s War: The Civil War in Documents. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007.
* Knepper, George. Ohio and Its People. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003.
* Reid, Whitelaw. Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Generals and Soldiers. Cincinnati, OH: Clarke, 1895.
* Roseboom, Eugene H. The Civil War Era: 1850-1873. Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1944.
* Whalen, Charles, and Barbara Whalen. The Fighting McCooks: America’s Famous Fighting Family. Bethesda, MD: Westmoreland Press, 2006.

Credit: Ohio History Central, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=589&nm=Fighting-McCooks

Photo Credit: Ohio Historical Society, The Fighting McCook’s, H 39534, SC 4461, AL00548

During the nineteenth century, many women joined charitable organizations. These groups allowed women to expand their roles in American life without challenging society’s expectations for women. During this era, many people believed that women should be homemakers, but increasingly, women joined reform organizations, hoping to enhance moral values in their fellow Americans. The Female Moral Reform Society was one such organization. The Society existed across the United States. Ohio women founded several chapters at the local level in the 1830s.

One of the most successful chapters of the Female Moral Reform Society was founded in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1835. Ultimately, the Oberlin group became the fourth largest chapter in the country. Its success was based on its recruitment of women students from nearby Oberlin College. Many of the students were concerned that if they did not join they would be viewed as having low morals. Oberlin’s chapter of the Society, like others, stressed the importance of its member’s behavior and standards of dress. Members agreed not to do anything that might have a negative effect on their reputation or corrupt their morals, such as dancing or reading novels.

The various Ohio chapters of the Society met in Cleveland in 1840 to agree on goals. In the early 1840s, the Female Moral Reform Society in Ohio focused on issues such as temperance and legal reform. In 1842, the Society submitted petitions to the Ohio legislature demanding that politicians make adultery a crime punishable with prison time. State legislators subsequently voted against the bill.

In the 1850s and 1860s, membership in the Female Moral Reform Society declined. Women were drawn into a number of other organizations, such as local benevolent associations. During the Civil War, the society disappeared entirely as women participated in organizations that provided aid for troops and their families.

While the Female Moral Reform Society only lasted approximately thirty years, the organization’s impact was immense. It was one of the first national organizations for women. It allowed women to escape the private sphere and to play a role in the public sphere. The group united many women together and helped convince them to play an active role in bettering the United States. Many of the Female Moral Reform Society’s members eventually became active in the women’s rights movement, the abolitionist movement, the temperance movement, and other attempts to reform America. This organization helped show both men and women that women could and should play an active role in American life.

Portrait of Betsey Mix Cowles (1810-1876) from the 1909 edition of Henry Howe's "Historical Collection of Ohio." She was known for her contributions to education, abolitionism, and women's rights in Ohio. Photo courtesy of The Ohio Historical Society.

References and Suggested Reading:
* Booth, Stephane Elise. Buckeye Women: The History of Ohio’s Daughters. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2001.
* Knepper, George. Ohio and Its People. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003.
* Roseboom, Eugene H. The Civil War Era: 1850-1873. Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1944.
* Weisenburger, Francis P. The Passing of the Frontier: 1825-1850. Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941.

Credit: “Female Moral Reform Society”, Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=889

Photo Credit: Ohio Historical Society, AL03953, 977.1 H838h2 http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=88

The Battle of Buffington Island was the only major Civil War engagement fought in the State of Ohio.

On July 8, 1863, Brigadier-General John Hunt Morgan, a Confederate cavalry leader, led approximately two thousand soldiers across the Ohio River into southern Indiana. Morgan’s superiors had dispatched the cavalry leader into northern Kentucky to cause disorder among the Union military. Morgan exceeded these orders by crossing north of the Ohio River, but he did create turmoil for the United States army.

Crossing into Indiana, Morgan’s Raiders spread false rumors that the Confederates intended to attack Indianapolis, Indiana. Rather than doing this, the men spent five days in southern Indiana, procuring supplies and horses from Northern civilians. On July 13, as the Indiana militia descended upon Morgan’s men, the Confederates entered Ohio, near the Hamilton-Butler County line. Morgan led his men to the outskirts of Cincinnati, where he spent the night of July 13-14, within sight of the Union Army’s Camp Dennison. The next day, Morgan divided his men. He sent a small portion of his men through Warren, Clinton, Fayette, Ross, and Jackson Counties, while the main force traveled through Clermont, Brown, Highland, Pike, and Jackson Counties. The larger group crossed the Scioto River at Piketon and proceeded to Jackson, where it reunited with the smaller detachment. The reunited Confederates proceeded east through Jackson, Gallia, Vinton, and Meigs Counties, in an effort to reach the Ohio River.

On the night of July 12, Ohio Governor David Tod issued a proclamation, calling out the Ohio militia to protect the southern counties from Morgan’s Raiders. Many militiamen did not hear of the proclamation in a timely manner. The Confederates faced little opposition until July 18, when they encountered a small earthwork, defended by Ohio militiamen. Severely outnumbered, the militiamen retreated under the cover of darkness. However, their presence had allowed Union cavalry, under Brigadier-General E.H. Hobson, to catch up to the Confederates. Union General Ambrose Burnside also had sent Northern soldiers and gunboats to patrol the Ohio River. Morgan’s men attempted to cross the Ohio River at a ford near Buffington Island. The Confederates succeeded in getting a small number of men across the river before Union gunboats and soldiers under Hobson and General H.M. Judah arrived.

A battle ensued at Buffington Island. The Northern force numbered approximately three thousand men, while Morgan’s Raiders included 1,700 soldiers. Some uncertainty exists about the battle. Morgan hoped to lead his men across the Ohio River, and Union soldiers and gunboats intercepted him. Morgan did not file a battle report, and the Union officers involved left out many details in their final reports. Estimates for the number of wounded or killed Southerners range from fifty-two to 120 men. Union soldiers captured an additional eight hundred to 1,200 men. Among the captured men was Morgan’s brother-in-law. Northern soldiers lost twenty-five men in the battle, including Daniel McCook of the Fighting McCooks. During the Civil War, fifteen McCook family members fought for the North, earning these men the nickname, the Fighting McCooks.

Morgan’s remaining men managed to break through the Union lines and continued in a northerly direction along the Ohio River, hoping to find a place to cross. Twenty miles from Buffington Island, Morgan’s Raiders found an unprotected crossing. Several hundred of the Confederates succeeded in crossing the river before Union gunboats arrived. Morgan and his remaining soldiers retreated westward through Meigs and Gallia Counties and then moved in a more northeasterly direction through Vinton, Hocking, Athens, Perry, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Guernsey, Harrison, Jefferson, Carroll, and Columbiana Counties. At Salineville, in Columbiana County, Union Cavalry under the command of Major W.B. Way and Major G.W. Rue surrounded Morgan’s Raiders and succeeded in capturing Morgan and most of his command. Morgan’s capture marked the end of his raid of the North.

The Northern soldiers took Morgan and most of his captured men to Columbus, The enlisted men were confined in the Camp Chase Confederate prison camp, Morgan and several of his officers were confined in the Ohio Penitentiary. Morgan arrived there on October 1. He and several of his men immediately made plans to escape. They tunneled out of their cell into an airshaft on November 13, 1863. They remained in their cell until November 27, when Morgan and six of his soldiers utilized the airshaft to reach the prison yard. They then fashioned a rope from their prison uniforms and scaled the wall. Utilizing some of the one thousand dollars that his sister had smuggled into the prison inside a Bible, Morgan purchased a train ticket to Cincinnati. He then made his escape across the Ohio River into Kentucky. Morgan returned to the Confederate military but lost his life less than a year later on the battlefield.

Morgan’s Raid netted few positive results for the Southern military. It did provide some hope to Confederate civilians that their military could still succeed following the Northern victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in early July 1863. It also caused fear among Indiana and Ohio residents and cost several of these people some personal property that the raiders had seized. Almost 4,400 Ohioans filed claims for compensation with the federal government for items that they lost to the Confederates during the raid. The claims amounted to $678,915, with the government authorizing compensation in the amount of $576,225. While the Confederates succeeded in instilling fear in the civilian population, the raid inspired many of these people to fight even harder to defeat the Confederacy. In addition, the Confederate military lost a large number of veteran cavalrymen. Morgan also failed to destroy any railroad tracks, bridges, or supply depots. The raid caused no significant harm to the transportation and communication infrastructure of the North. The Raid had as many negative effects as positive ones for the Confederacy.
Entry of Morgan’s Raiders into Washington, Ohio

References and Suggested Reading

* Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of Rebellion, 1861-1866. Akron, OH: The Werner Company, 1893.
* Dee, Christine, ed. Ohio’s War: The Civil War in Documents. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007.     – Available from Amazon.com
* Duke, Basil Wilson. History of Morgan’s Cavalry. Cincinnati, OH: Miami Print and Publishing Co., 1867.
* Knepper, George. Ohio and Its People. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003. – Available from Amazon.com
* Ramage, James A. Rebel Raider: The Life of General John Hunt Morgan. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986.     – Available from Amazon.com
* Reid, Whitelaw. Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Generals and Soldiers. Cincinnati, OH: Clarke, 1895.
* Roseboom, Eugene H. The Civil War Era: 1850-1873. Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1944.
* Senour, Faunt Le Roy. Morgan and His Captors. Cincinnati, OH: C.F. Vent, 1864.     – Available from Amazon.com
* Thomas, Edison H. John Hunt Morgan and His Raiders. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1975.     – Available from Amazon.com

Entry provided by: http://ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=470&nm=Battle-of-Buffington-Island

In February 1862, General Ulysses S. Grant, a native Ohioan, led a Union force that captured Fort Henry from the Confederacy.

On February 4, 1862, Union warships transported soldiers under Grant’s command to Fort Henry. Located in Tennessee, Fort Henry guarded the Tennessee River. Nine Union ships under the command of Flag Officer Andrew Foote opened fire on the fort on February 6. Before the Northerners attacked, Confederate Brigadier-General Lloyd Tilghman evacuated the majority of his troops. The Confederates traveled to Fort Donelson, a post located approximately ten miles away along the Cumberland River. Tilghman left only some artillerymen inside Fort Henry to return fire to the Union’s attack. After two hours of bombardment, the Southerners surrendered. Grant’s force then advanced on Fort Donelson, capturing this installation on February 16.

The Northern victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson were the first significant ones for the Union in the western theater of the war. They also gave the Northern military unfettered access to the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, allowing the Union to gain deeper access into the South and an easier means to transport troops and supplies. These victories enhanced Northern morale, including that of Ohioans. Previously, many Northerners were demoralized by Southern victories at the Battles of First Bull Run and Ball’s Bluff in 1861. The Battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson also signaled Grant’s ascendancy as a prominent military leader for the North.

Entry provided by: http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2094&nm=Battle-of-Fort-Henry