Ashland County OhArchives Military Records.....History Of The 120th Ohio Volunteer Infantry 
Other War 
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History Of The 120th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.

  This regiment was organized at Camp Mansfield (the old Camp Buckingham), near
Mansfield, Richland county, in August, 1862, under President Lincoln's call for the
second 300,000 men. October 17, 1862, it was mustered into the United States
service, and in little more than a week after it had taken the field, near
Covington, Kentucky, where it was camped about a month. November 27th it embarked on
transports at Covington, December 7th reported to General Sherman at Memphis,
Tennessee. In Sheldon's brigade, Morgan's division, Army of the Tennessee, it
received its baptism of fire in Sherman's unsuccessful movement against the rear
defenses of Vicksburg, and was laying a pontoon bridge over Chickasaw Bayou and
under fire during the battle of that name. It was in the battle of Arkansas Post,
charging directly on Fort Hindman, and was the first to enter when it capitulated,
the first to plant the National colors on its parapets. A dreary encampment at
Youngs Point, Louisiana, followed, where bad water, bad food and an unaccustomed
climate wrought havoc in its ranks, measles, fever and other diseases incident to
such a condition of affairs putting more than half the men of the regiment on the
sick list in February, 1863. When the army was reorganized for Grant's Vicksburg
campaign, it was assigned to Gerrard's (Third) Brigade, Osterhaus' (Ninth) Division,
McClermand's (Thirteenth) Army Corps. The corps moved up to Millikens Bend in March,
and the Third Brigade occupied New Carthage. Thompsons Hill (or Port Gibson) was the
first regular battle of the One Hundred and Twentieth in this campaign. It took part
in the assaults on Vicksburg, as before narrated, and having seen the "impregnable"
city surrender, went with Sherman on the Jackson campaign, then returned to Black
River Bridge, thence into camp at Vicksburg. August 8th the Thirteenth Corps was
sent to New Orleans, and the One Hundred and Twentieth went into camp at Carrollton,
a suburb of that city, till September 8th, then to Berwick City, Opelousas, and
Plaquemine, remaining at the latter place till near the close of March, 1864, then
moved to Baton Rogue. Engaging in Bank's ill-fated Red River expedition, it embarked
with its corps on the "City Belle." May 3d, at about 4 A. M., the boat was attacked
near Snaggy Point, shot and shell were poured into it by five thousand of the enemy
who could not be touched in return, and after a gallant resistance, the boat, being
disabled, was surrendered. The loss in dead and wounded was terrible in this
regiment, and two hundred of its men were among the surrendered. They were marched
at once to Camp Ford prison pen, near Tyler, Texas, where for thirteen months they
endured the horrors we have already faintly portrayed. Those who escaped capture
reached Alexandria more dead than alive, after a forced march of twenty-three miles.
November 25, 1864, at the mouth of White river, the regiment was consolidated with
the One Hundred and Fourteenth Ohio Infantry, furnishing five companies to the
consolidated regiment. Later the depleted ranks were made a part of the Forty-Eight
Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, and the men who survived the enemy's bullets and
the ravages of disease till that regiment was mustered out, were discharged with it.
Many of the prisoners at Camp Ford were among the unhappy victims of the "Sultana"
explosion, described in these pages. Companies B, C and F of the One Hundred and
Twentieth were mainly recruited in Ashland county.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

1669 Two Hundred Years. 1865

THE MILITARY HISTORY OF OHIO.
ITS BORDER ANNALS, ITS PART IN THE INDIAN WARS, IN THE WAR OF 1812, IN THE MEXICAN
WAR, AND IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION, WITH A PREFIX, GIVING A COMPENDIUM OF THE
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, HISTORY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, SKETCHES
OF ITS SIGNERS, AND OF THE PRESIDENTS, WITH PORTRAITS AND AUTOGRAPHS.

ILLUSTRATED.

SPECIAL LOCAL DEPARTMENT, IN EDITIONS BY COUNTIES, GIVING A ROSTER OF OHIO'S RANK
AND FILE FROM THE COUNTY LN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION, REGIMENTAL HISTORIES, WITH
HISTORIES OF ITS G. A. R. AND LADIES' AUXILIARY POSTS, and CAMPS OF SONS OF
VETERANS.

H. H. HARDESTY, PUBLISHER, NEW YORK, TOLEDO AND CHICAGO.
1886.

[COPYRIGHTED.]
ROLL OF HONOR
OF OHIO'S RANK AND FILE FROM ASHLAND COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION





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