Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

Archibald Johnson Sampson was born June 21, 1839 in Cadiz, Harrison County, Ohio. He grew up on the family farm and attended the local schools, then attended Mount Union College graduating on his birthday in 1861. By then, the war had commenced and he enlisted in Co. C of the 43 rd Ohio Infantry as a Private, serving with the regiment until June 1862 when he was discharged for disability. By that time, he had been promoted to the rank of sergeant. Returning home to Uhrichsville, he was elected the superintendent of schools but the lure of army life proved too strong and he enlisted as a private in Co. C of the 5 th Independent Battalion of Ohio Cavalry in 1863. The 5 th Battalion was later merged with the 4 th Battalion to form the 13 th Ohio Cavalry regiment. Sampson was promoted to regimental commissary sergeant. Lt Archibald J. Sampson, Co. H, 27th U.S.C.T. In April 1864, Sampson was commissioned a first lieutenant in the 27 th U.S. Colored Troops and joined the re...

          In the days following the disastrous Sturgis expedition in June 1864, the sight in the Memphis camp of the 72 nd Ohio brought tears to the eyes of Surgeon John B. Rice of the regiment. “It is a sad sight to go into our old camp,” he wrote his wife on June 17, 1864. “So many familiar faces are missing, tents are vacant, and the cheerful aspect of everything as it once was is gone. I have delayed writing you in hopes of being able to give you some more favorable news in regard to the loss of men in the 72 nd , but the truth compels me to say that the first accounts I wrote you were perhaps not at all exaggerated. The loss in Buckland’s old brigade is as heavy as I have stated and that of the 72 nd will be 250 officers and men.” It was an unmitigated disaster. Surgeon John Birchard Rice, 72nd Ohio Infantry For the 72 nd Ohio Infantry, the Sturgis expedition into northern Mississippi in the opening days of June 1864 proved ...

In May 1863, the War Department authorized Major General Stephen Hurlbut, then commanding the District of West Tennessee headquartered in Memphis, to raise six regiments of colored troops from the thousands of freedmen who had surged into the area following the Union occupation of western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. One of those regiments formed later became the 59 th U.S. Colored Troops. Captain Edward Bouton of Battery I, 1 st Illinois Light Artillery was commissioned colonel, and the white officers of the regiment were chosen from the ranks of the Fifth Division of the 16 th Army Corps. Of particular interest to this blog was that a number of the officers appointed came from the 46 th , 53 rd , and 70 th Ohio regiments. Two soldiers of the U.S.C.T. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress To secure recruits, the local freedmen’s camps were canvassed for volunteers but the army also went into the surrounding area to “appropriate” slaves. Cavalry units would scour t...

Last week I traveled to Chillicothe, Ohio where I presented a talk to the Ross County Historical Society entitled "Death of a General: The Final Days of General Joshua W. Sill."  General Joshua Sill gravestone Chillicothe is an important place to me as it is the hometown of my great grandfather, and also the burial place of one of my Civil War ancestors. I can truly say that this ancestor inspired me on this path of researching the events of the Civil War. It started in the late 1990s when my grandmother gave me a Civil War discharge certificate of someone named James Morrow. "I know that we're related to him somehow, but I'm not sure how," she said. "Can you dig into and let me know what you can find out?"  After establishing our familial connection with him (he was my grandmother's father's grandfather), I started researching his Civil War service with the 1st Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. The more I read about their service, the more I...

The Battle of Pickett’s Mill, a relatively obscure battle fought in the opening month of the Atlanta campaign, occurred May 27, 1864 near Dallas, Georgia. It was a brief and ferocious fight and one of considerable importance to my family: my wife’s great-great-great grandfather George Saul was severely wounded during his regiment’s charge upon the Confederate works. Making it more tragic was the fact that Saul went into action with five of his cousins: at the end of the battle, three of them lay dead while he had been wounded. Only two of this group of six men escaped unscathed.         A wartime image of Private George Saul and who I believe is his cousin Corporal John Frees (sometimes spelled Freese)  of Co. F, 49th Ohio Infantry. George is standing at left. This image was taken between February-May 1864. George would be severely wounded at Pickett's Mills while his cousin John Frees was among the slain. (Photo courtesy of Dick Mann) ...