A Tale of Brave Ulysses: The 64th Ohio at Stones River
S ent out on picket on the night of December 31, 1862, Private Ulysses Greene of the 64 th Ohio recorded the scenes that greeted him upon the moon-swept battlefield of Stones River. “By the pale light of the moon, we could see that every ditch and gulley was filled with mangled corpses of men who had that morning entered the fight in the pride of their strength and in the enjoyment of health. The field was covered with the debris of the fight- guns, swords, broken down gun carriages, and dismounted cannons, all in one promiscuous wreck and ruin. I could dwell longer on this dreadful scene but you are doubtless tired already of so long an epistle,” he wrote. Private Greene’s missive first saw publication in the February 6, 1863, edition of the Bucyrus Journal . During the Stones River, the 64 th Ohio was part of Colonel Charles G. Harker’s brigade along with the 51 st Indiana, 73 rd Indiana, 13 th Michigan, 65 th Ohio, and ...