On May 9th, 1861 Union General George B. McClellan moved troops from Ohio into western Virginia to secure the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad after Union northwestern Virginian soldiers became concerned by the increased Confederate military presence and activity on the tracks and stations of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, a railroad line near the Mason-Dixon [...]

On April 15, only days after the bombardment of union occupied Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for seventy-five thousand state militiamen to serve for 90 days. Ohio was expected to enlist thirteen regiments of one thousand men each. Two of the regiments were to be sent directly to Washington for defense of [...]