OHIO STATEWIDE FILES Diary of William H. Clough. 8th Ohio Infantry, pvt. Co. H ----------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Gary Riley GMRiley99@aol.com June 27, 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- Blanks are words I could not make out. Words with (?) marks mean I am pretty sure of the spelling but not entirely. Misspellings are as he wrote them. My heartiest thanks to Bob Szabo and Tom Schneider for their kind responses to my requests for help in finding William H. Clough. --- Diary of William H. Clough. 8th Ohio Infantry, pvt. Co. H. 5/24/1864 Line of Battle North Anna River This morning at 7 am through the very heavy fire and skirmishes and about 2 miles and took there first lines of works. ______ _____ away(?) strong and ______ our boys are in fine spirits but very mutch _____ ______ _____ ______ at 4 pm _________________________________ our line a little. Back over lines 6th ______ rebs fall back. 5/25/1864 Line of Battle Woods 1 mile from River. Our boys(?) yesterday was killed. 1 mortally W. 1 - slightly -3 - badly -3 . We build breastworks. Not much fighting. Very rainy today. 6/7/1864 1st Line of Battle before Richmond VA Fair and pleasant ______ until about when the rebs _____ in a ______ of _____ ______ the dead and we ______ no more fireing tonight. We buried our dead. The Johnnies buried _____ dead but a few we had a _____ ______ 5 today. 6/8/1864 Line of Battle before Richmond VA Very hot and dusty. The water is very poor. The rebs begin to shoot again this morning and we _____ the ______ . We had about 84 recrutes today for the regiment. 6/10/1864 Formed a line before Richmond. Very hot today. Many of the boys are getting sick. Our water is very poor and we do not get any regular sleep at night. This is 8 days that we have bin at the front. We are relieved at dark tonight and go back about 1/4 of a mile and form the 2nd line of battle. This is a little relief for us. I am got a bhinal? to wash our clothes. 6/11/1864 2nd line of battle before Richmond VA. Very hot and dusty. Our boys are all tired out and sleeping _____ of the day. We have bin exposed very mutch every day for 2 months and 8 days to the rebel fire. 6/12/1864 2nd line of battle before Richmond. Rather cool for the season. We have very cool nights in this country. It is very quiet here today. Not much fireing. We marched at dark. 6/13/1864 Bivouak near the James River after a march of ab 30 miles. We reached this point at 11 clock tonight. We are near Harrison's Landing. We marched all night and all day. The hardest march that we ever made. I am very sick today. We crost the Chickahominy River at ______. Very hot and dusty. 6/14/1864 Today we marched at about one O'clock and went to the James River and then waited until about 11 clock. Then went on board a ferry boat and went over the river and went about a mile and formed a line of battle and camped for the rest of the night. It is very hot and dusty. My health is very poor. 6/15/1864 We left here at 11 AM and marched about 24 miles to within 2 miles of Petersburg. We got there about 12 O'clock in the night and formed a line of battle. There has bin hard fighting here today. The rebs hold(?) Petersburg. I am sick today. 6/16/1864 Today we are having a very hard fight but strange. Today our regiment is not engaged. The 4th 5th and 7th of the 2nd corps are fighting at 5 pm. We charged there work and carey two lines and hould them. I am very sick today but keep around. Very hot today. 6/17/1864 1 line of battle near Petersburg VA. We are fighting most time today. We charged there work and take one battery of napoleon guns. The negroes fight well. We have very _______ fight at about 5 pm and 2 of our regiment are killed and a few are wounded. I am sick. 6/18/1864 Today we have driven the rebs about one mile more. Now about one mile from Petersburg. We have bin fighting all day. 6/19/1864 Today all has bin very quiet. There has not bin eney fighting today. Only our sarrnohus(?) and ______ as _______. A shell came over. 6/20/1864 Today has bin very quiet. Not much fighting on our front. Our corps was relieved at from the front at dark and marched back about 2 miles and camped for the night. It is very hot. My health is very poor. camp? 7, 1864 6/21/1864 We marched again at 8 O'clock am and marched about 6 miles and went into camp for the night. Not much fighting today. It is very hot and dusty. camp? 8, 1864 6/22/1864 This morning at 3 O'clock we marched about a 1/2 mile and was driven up into the line of battle in the woods and stayed all day until night. Then we went into the breastworks. It is very hot. We had a fight this afternoon. Our regiment was not engaged. 6/23/1864 Today we are still in our breastworks. Not much fighting today or with pickets. Very hot and dusty. 6/24/1864 Today at 9 am we are relieved from the front and march back about a mile and stay about and and then march back 2 miles into the woods. Very heavy fighting in the direction of Petersburg. 6/25/1864 This morning at 2 clock we are relieved. Our regiment our time being out and at day light we start for City Point 15 miles and get there at about 12 am. It was a very hard march. Very hot and dusty. We are to stay here tonight. 6/26/1864 This morning at 9 O'clock we go on board the maile steamer Northern Lights for Washington. It is very hot but we have very comfortable quarters. At 5 1/2 we get at Fortress Monroe and change mail. only stay 10 minutes. 6/27/1864 On board the steamer Northern Light. We are having a very fine ride on the Potomac. We entered the river at about 12 O'clock last night. At 11 O'clock today we land at Washington DC and proceed to the soldiers bed where we are to stop until we go to Ohio. It is very hot in this city. 6/28/1864 Washington DC We are still here. We are informed that we will go today. My health is very poor. We took the cars at 7 pm for Columbus. 6/30/1864 Board Ohio RR We are going very slow. The rebs cut the telegraph near gharfers(?) ferry last night. We crossed the Ohio River at 4 1/4 and then we got out the cars and had us wait until 12 O'clock at night. (This last sentence was crossed through) 7/1/1864 Board Ohio RR We are going very slow. We crossed the Ohio River at Belure(?) at 5 O'clock and then we had to wait until 12 O'clock before we got away. 7/2/1864 Columbus Ohio We arrived here at 10 O'clock today and went to the barracks for dinner and went back to the train and waited until 6 pm and then start for Cleveland(?). 7/3/1864 We arrived at daylight at Grafton and I got off and went Ebrion(?) and from there to Amhurst. It is a very hot day. 7/4/1864 Amhurst, Ohio Today I went to Mr. B. Clough on a visit. My health is very poor. I returned to Mrs. Gilsons at night. 7/5/1864 Amhurst, Ohio Very hot today. I am very unwell today.