Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

     Each Memorial Day, I make it a point to visit one of our nation’s war dead at a local cemetery- this year, my family and I chose to pay tribute to the memory of Captain Franklin John Sauter of Co. B, 55 th Ohio Volunteer Infantry who is buried at Fort Meigs Cemetery here in Perrysburg. Captain Sautter was killed in action May 2, 1863 during the opening moments of Stonewall Jackson's flank attack at the Battle of Chancellorsville.  Gravestone of Captain Franklin J. Sauter of Co. B, 55th Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Fort Meigs Cemetery. It is unclear as to whether Captain Sauter is actually buried here or if his remains are still in Virginia- he is not listed as being buried at Fredericksburg National Cemetery but as there are so many unknowns there from Chancellorsville, its possible that his remains are in an unmarked grave.       Captain Sauter was born in 1838 to John and Helena Sauter of Perrysburg, Ohio. In the fall of 1861, he was commissioned as a Second Lieuten

The Battle of Scary Creek, Virginia was fought July 17, 1861 upon a series of hills along the banks of Scary Creek at the junction with the Kanawha River in western Virginia. Confederate forces under Captain George S. Patton had emplaced a masked battery that commanded the river road and an important bridge over Scary Creek in days previous to check the Union advance up the Kanawha. Patton commanded a force of several independent companies in Virginia state service, along with a few cannon from Hales Artillery under Lieutenants James Welch and Charles Quarrier, the entire force numbering roughly 800 men. Union Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox determined to send out a reconnaissance force of roughly 1,000 men consisting of the 12 th Ohio Infantry under Colonel John Lowe, about 100 troops from two companies of the 21 st Ohio Infantry under Colonel Jesse S. Norton, a cavalry company under Captain John S. George, and two rifled cannon under Captains William S. Williams and Charles S.

     While the focus of this blog over the past year has largely been on offering first-hand accounts of the many bloody battles in which Ohio troops nobly (and ignobly) fought, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to offer these examples of song and verse. I think each of these are fascinating pieces of Americana, and provide some insight into how the men viewed themselves and their contribution to winning the war. I haven’t seen many bits of poetry by Ohio Civil War soldiers in which they focus on their regiment, so while I can’t say that these pieces are unique, they are certainly unusual. Findlay resident Sergeant Erastus A. Biggs of Co. A of the 21st Ohio was mortally wounded by an artillery shell December 31, 1862 at the Battle of Stones River and died the following day.       It is noteworthy that each of these pieces date from before Chickamauga; the first three were published in late July 1861 as the original three months’ regiment was preparing to be mustered out.