Finding Grandpa Saul

We’ve known for many years that my wife’s family are descendants of George Saul who served in the 49^th Ohio during the Civil War.

I’ve previously shared his remarkable story of being severely wounded at the Battle of Pickett’s Mill, a little-remembered engagement of the Atlanta campaign where his regiment lost half of the men it took into action. {see “Inside the Crime of Pickett’s Mill: Voices of the 49^th Ohio.”} But until today, we had never visited his grave in Seneca County and it was frankly a visit long overdue.

          George Saul was born March 7, 1845, in Liberty Township, Seneca County to George and Mary (McEwen) on the farm a few miles northwest of Tiffin, Ohio. As he became a teenager, George watched as cousin after cousin marched off to war, most of them with the storied 49^th Ohio which was raised in Tiffin and the surrounding area and was led for most of the war by William Harvey Gibson, a notable local politician and famed orator.  The 49^th Ohio was the first Ohio regiment to enter Kentucky and played an important role in many of the major western theater battles including Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge.

Private George Saul stands at left as a young recruit beside his cousin Corporal John Frees of Co. F, 49th Ohio in an image we believe dates from when the regiment was on veteran's furlough in Ohio. Within months, John Frees would be killed at Pickett's Mills while George would sustain a nearly mortal abdominal wound that would trouble him for the next 60 years. 

          George Saul elected to join the 49^th Ohio when they came home on veterans’ furlough in February 1864. Exactly a week before his 19^th birthday, he signed the rolls as a high private in Co. E. No doubt, family ties made the 49^th Ohio a natural choice as no less than six maternal cousins also served in the regiment, three of them in Co. E. George’s older brother John had gone off to war with the 55^th Ohio and died of disease in 1862. One wonders how his parents felt about another one of their sons going off to war. 

Choosing to enlist in a veteran regiment was really a right move for a lot of reasons, the key one being enlisted with close family who were veterans gave George a chance to learn the army ropes much more quickly than with a newly raised regiment. It was little things like this that could make the difference between life and death in the field.

          George’s active service with the regiment was relatively brief. Moving south with the regiment in March 1864, he took part in just a few engagements before being wounded at Pickett’s Mills. His wound was so severe that it ended his active service; he bounced around various army hospitals in Tennessee and was discharged for his wounds June 2, 1865, at Nashville, Tennessee. During the Atlanta campaign, four of his six cousins had been killed and wounded. The close-knit Saul and McEwen families paid a high price, indeed.  

          After the war, George returned home to farm and on December 23, 1873, married Mary Ellen Zeis, the daughter a local farmer who also attended the Methodist church in what was then called Cromers. The couple had two children: Viola Belle who would later marry James Sheridan Doran (my wife’s great-great grandfather) and Milo Saul.  George spent the rest of his life farming near Cromers and when he passed November 1, 1924, at the age of 79, he was laid to rest at Shiloh Methodist Cemetery in Cromers.

          Finding the cemetery wasn’t difficult but it is rather out of the way. Located at the intersection of West County Road 592 and Chapman Road just a few miles west of Route 53, the cemetery is located across the street from what used to be Shiloh Methodist Church (built in 1921). It’s a small cemetery and right away, I noticed that most of the graves had the familiar name of Zeis on stone after stone. Finding George’s stone took hardly a minute as it’s a) both good-sized and b) one of the few that didn’t say Zeis.

          My son Sam accompanied me on this trip and it was a neat feeling to introduce him to his great-great-great-great grandfather, share a bit of George’s story, and explore the rest of the cemetery where he found numerous other relatives including Grandpa Viola and Grandpa Sheridan Doran just a few graves to the south of their parents. We took a few pictures including one of Sam holding a picture of George next to the stone and one of me holding an 1891 reunion ribbon for the 49^th Ohio next to the stone.

          Today, Cromers is a very quiet farm community of just a few homes. The area is pancake flat and has remarkably rich soil; it’s been well-cleared and farmed for approaching 200 years. This was the community from which George went to war 160 years ago this year and being able to see some of creeks, fields, farms, and features deepened our appreciation of his experience.

Yours truly with the 1891 49th Ohio reunion ribbon 

          One question that came to mind centered on that reunion ribbon: did George Saul attend the 1891 reunion? One would think so: the reunion was held in nearby Tiffin and George (and his family) thought enough of his military service to have “Co. E, 49^th O.V.V.I.” carved into his stone. But the only way to find out for sure was to peruse the microfilm holdings at the Tiffin Seneca County Library and see if any period newspapers existed giving an account of the reunion.

          We were in luck: the Tiffin Tribune provided extensive coverage of the reunion which marked the 30^th anniversary of the regiment entering service. The reunion was held Thursday September 10 and Friday September 11, 1891, and proved a banner occasion for Tiffin. “Every citizen seemed to take a kindly interest in making the day a joyous one for the men who left homes, parents, wives, children, and friends and risked their lives to save their country,” reported the Tribune. “Many of the businesses on the principal streets were decorated and presented a holiday appearance. A large banner bearing the words ‘Welcome 49^th’ was stretched across Market Street where each and every one would see it on their way to headquarters at City Hall.”

Sam holding a copy of a wartime image of his great-great-great-great grandfather

          By Thursday morning, a total of 362 veterans of the 49^th were in attendance, including 32 men from George Saul’s Co. E. At noon, the old regiment formed into line and headed by the 6^th Ohio band (National Guard) they marched to the fairgrounds for lunch and speeches by Mayor Abbot, Lieutenant Colonel Luther M. Strong, and Colonel William H. Gibson. Overall, roughly 2,000 people attended the reunion.

          That evening, a large campfire “fed with rails to the true in wartime manner” was built on the north side of the campgrounds and the veterans and their families gathered for the highlight of the evening. “The old soldiers gathered around it and in a mild way lived again the experience of camp life,” stated the Tribune. “A large number of comrades did not sleep at hotels or boarding houses but laid down to rest on pallets of straw around the campfire and undoubtedly dreamed they were again in camp, waking in the morning to hear the call of the bugle, and the roar and thunder of battle.”

Another Co. E comrade who attended the 1891 reunion was Sergeant William Percival Noel of Star City, Indiana. Noel served in the 90-days 21st Ohio early in 1861 before enlisting in the 49th Ohio in August. He would serve throughout the war. Promoted to the rank of sergeant when the regiment went home on veteran's furlough, he was wounded December 16, 1864 during the Battle of Nashville. 

          “The evening was spent in a variety of ways,” the paper continued. “Some gathered in the grandstand and listened to the tales and addresses of General Gibson and other comrades; some gathered around the glowing campfire and related tales of the war.” Included at the end of the article was a lengthy list of all the 49^th Ohio veterans who attended the reunion and nestled within the ranks of Co. E was printed “Geo. Saul, Cromers.” One wonders that if Grandpa Saul was at the campfire that the subject of Pickett's Mill had to come up. Wish we could have been there to hear what he had to say...