OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Ohio in the Civil War Pt 11 *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 November 11, 1999 *********************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio Diaries of S. J. Kelly Plains Dealer Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley *********************************************************************** Ohio In The Civil War -- Pt 11 General John Beatty-- Gen John Beatty was born near Sandusky, Ohio, Dec. 16, 1828. His education was obtained at the district school of the pioneer settlement. His grandfather, John Beatty was an anti-slavery man of the James G. Birney school; from him Gen John Beatty in his boyhood his first political tenets, and to these he adhered all his life. In 1852 he supported John P. Hale for Presidency. In 1856 he cast his vote for John C. Fremont. In 1860 he was the Republican presidental elector for the district which sent John Sherman to Congress. When the war broke out in 1861, he was the first to put his name to an enlistment roll in Morrow County. He was elected to the Captaincy of his company, subsequently made Lieutenant Colonel, then Colonel of the Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and in 1862 advanced to the postion of Brigadier General of volunteers. He was with McClellan and Rosecrans in West Viginia, summer and fall 1861; with General O.M. Mitchel in his dash through southern Kentucky, Middle Tennessee and Northern Alabama in the spring of 1862. Returning with General Buell to the Ohio River, he joined in the pursuit of Bragg, and on Oct 8,1862, fought at the head of his regiment in the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky. In December following, he was assigned to the command of a brigade of Rousseau's division, and led it through the four days battle of Stone River, closing on the night of January 3,1863, with an assault on the enemy's barricade, on the left of the Murfreesboro turnpike, which he carried at the point of the bayonet. He was with Rosecrans on the Tullahoma campaign, and after the enemy evacuated their stronghold, overtook them at Elk River, drove their rear guard from the heights beyond, and led the column which pursued them to the summit of the Cumberland. While the army rested at Winchester, Tennessee, he was president of the board to examine applicants for commissions in colored regiments, and continued in this service until the army crossed the Tennesee river and entered on the Chattanoga campaign. In this advance into Georgia his brigade had the honor of being the first of Thomas' corps to cross Lookout mountain. He was with Brannan and Negley in the affair at Dug Gap, and took part in the two days' fighting at Chickamauga, Sept., 1863, and in the affair at Rossville. At the reoganization of the army of the Cumberland he was assigned to the command of the second brigade of Davis' division Thomas' corps, but was with Sherman at the battle of Mission Ridge; and when the rebel line broke he led the column in pursuit of the retreating enemy, overtook his rear guard near Graysville, where a short but sharp encounter occurred, in which Gen. George Many, commanding the opposing force, was wounded, and his troops compelled to retire in disorder. Subsequently he accompanied Sherman in the expedition to Knoxville for the relief of Burnside, and the close of this campaign ended his military service. General Beatty was elected to the Fortieth Congress from the Eighth Ohio District, and re-elected to the Forty-first and Forty-second Congresses, serving first as member of the Committee on Invalid Pensions, then as Chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, and finally as Chairman of Committee on Public Printing. In 1884 he was one of the Republican electors-at-large, and in 1886-7 a member of the Board of State Charities. In 1873 he was engaged in the business of banking at Columbus, Ohio. *********************************************** It would be impossible to make an exact estimate of the number of men who entered the National army in Ohio during the war for the preservation of the Union according to Gen John Beatty. Those embraced in regimental and company organizations of the State can, of course, be enumerated, and, with some degree of accuracy, followed to the time of their death, discharge, or final muster out; but these organizations did not by any means include all the patriotic citizens of Ohio who left peaceful home to incur the risks of battle for their maintence of national authority. Five regiments credited to West Virginia were made up in large part of Ohio men; the same may be said of two regiments credited to Kentucky; also of the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Colored Infantry, and of two regiments of United States colored Troops. In addition to those enrolled in regiments credited to other states, thousands entered the gun-boat service, of whom at this time, Ohio has no record, while thousands enlisted in the regular army. From the best prepared statistics of the Provast Marshal-General and Adjutant-General of the U.S. A. and the adjutant- general of Ohio, excluding re-enlistmnts, " squirrel-hunters" and militia, and including a low estimate for regular enlistments in the army and navy not credited to Ohio, it is found that Ohio furnished of her citizens 340,000 men of all arms of the service for war; reduced to a department standard, they represent 240,000 three-year soldiers. The State contributed in organized regiments; 26 regiments of Infantry, for three months. 43 regiments of Infantry, for 100 days. 2 regiments of Infantry, for six months. 27 regiments of Infantry, for one year. 117 regiments of Infantry, for three years. 13 regiments of Cavalry, for three years. 3 regiments of artillery, for three years. To these should be added twenty-six independant batteries of artillery, and five independant companies of cavalry. 6, 536 Ohio soldiers were killed outright in battle. 4,674 were mortally wounded and subsequently died in the hospital. 13,354 died of disease contracted in the service. In brief, 84 Ohio soldiers out of 1,000 enlisted men lost their lives in the war of the rebellion. The loss of Ohio officers is known to have reached 872, nearly ten percent, of the grand total of officers. In the two hundred and thirty-one regiments, twenty-six independat batteries of artillery, and five independant companies of cavalry which entered the field from Ohio, there were but 8,750 drafted men; all other members o the organizations referred to be volunteers. It should be observed, however, that the patriotic impulses of many who voluntered during the later years of the war were to some extent stimulated by the offer and payment of liberal bounties. This fact, without being permitted to detract at all from the credit of the soldier who accepted the money, should be remembered to the honor of the loyal citizen who paid it cheerfully and promptly. No army ever had a more abundant and sympathetic support than that accorded by the loyal men and women of the north, who carried forward with intense energy the ordinary business of civil life, while sons, brothers, and husbands were in the field. Indeed, when we consider that more than one-half of the male population of Ohio was in the army, that probably one-half of those who remained home were unfitted by age or physical infirmity for military service, and very many others were held to their farms and offices by business obligations, which could not be honorably disregarded, or family ties it would have been cruelty to sunder, we shall be at some loss to determine whether those by industy and liberality made it possible for an army to live, are less or more credit from the country than those who fought its battles and won its victories. To the young there is nothing more attractive than war and nothing more precious than martial honors. It must occur, therefore, that the brother who remains at home to provide for the wants of the household, and attends to interests which cannot be wholly abandoned, often makes a greater sacrifice of inclination and exhibits a more unselfish devotion to duty that the one who dons a uniform, with its music, banners, and loud hurrahs. marches to the front. It would be very difficult in any work, and wholly impracticable in this, to mention by name the private soldiers of Ohio who rendered faithful service to the country, or to make special reference to those who were killed in battle and interned hurriedly in made graves in the fields where tey fought. There were none so obtuse, however, as not to know that in patroitism and courage, and frequently in education, wealth and natural capacity, the private soldier of the Union army was the full equal of those under whom he served, and to whose orders he gave prompt and unquestioning obedience. In war, as in politics, all cannot be leaders, and often in both speres the selfish and incompetent, push clamorously to the front, while men of superior merit stand modestly back, content to accept any place in a good work to which accident may assign them. *********************************************** Continued in part12.