The History of the 118th Ohio Volunteer Infantry XXIIIrd. Corps: Where the grim cannon frown and the bayonets gleam

By Mike Klinger

This book is based on five-hundred letters, six diaries and the regimental surgeons day book. All new primary resources for the researcher. It is illustrated with 142 plates of photos of the men, maps, and sketches as well as some modern photography. This regiment spent 10 months guarding the Kentucky Central Railroad building blockhouses and was engaged in suppression of Confederate recruitment, spying and communications. They moved into East Tennessee and six months of 1/4 to 1/2 rations and their first battle at Mossy Creek. They then started into the Atlanta campaign loosing heavily at Resaca, Kennesaw and Utoy Creek. They took part in the campaign in Tennessee against Hood, fighting at Columbia, Spring Hill and holding a hitherto unrecorded critical flanking position at Franklin. They fought at Nashville and the pursuit of Hood. They then were transported to Cape Fear North Carolina. Assaulted Ft. Anderson and linked up with Sherman for the final movements resulting in the surrender of Johnson's Forces.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781098080822

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ISBN 978-1-0980-8080-8 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-0980-8081-5 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-0980-8082-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2021 by Mike Klinger

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Dictionary

Foreword

The gathering

Guarding the Kentucky Central Railroad, learning to be a soldier

Over the Mountains into starvation and combat

Marching to the sound of the guns

Tatterdemalions in appearance but heroes at heart

Seeing the Elephant with his tail up

Kolb’s Farm, Kennesaw Mountain

Chasing Hood

Butchery on a massive scale: Franklin

Nashville

Finishing the job, North Carolina

Retrospect

Roster

Deserters

Bibliography

Diaries

Index

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the men of the 118th O.V.I. Regiment, and especially to my ancestors: Pvt. Daniel P. Klinger, Pvt. John Jackson Klinger, Pvt. Asa Zeller, Pvt. Christen Alspaugh, and Pvt. Andrew Cook all in Co. F. Also, to my wife Pam who accompanied me on my travels and helped in the research and editing.

Thank you to my daughter Sarah, who was my personal IT specialist, to my three sons: Jacob and Todd who proof read and Ben who helped with the maps. To friends and co-workers who listened to Civil War stories endlessly, thank you for your forbearance. The personel of the Albion Ind. library went far above their requirements and to all of the Historical Societies and descendants who contributed to this book Thank you to the stat transfer center who helped me with constant computer issues and kept me from erasing it all! Thank you all. I would also like to thank the Hollingsworth ladies Joy and Jill for their editing work.

Dictionary

Army-made up of one or more Corps. Usually the union armies were named after rivers and have a THE in the title. Army of The Ohio. Confederate armies were named after states. Army of Tennessee.

Corps-made up of two or more Divisions named numerically with Roman numerals XXIII.

Division—usually made up of three or more Brigades, often also labelled by the Division Commanders name i.e. Rugers Division. 2nd Division

Brigade—usually 4-8 regiments to a Brigade. Named numerically and by the Brigade commanders name. Moore’s Brigade or 2nd Brigade

Regiment-Started the war with nearly 1000 men on the roles. With a Colonel as Commanding officer. The northern states tended to form new units instead of reinforcing the existing ones by replacing their losses. This was done because the Governor of a state gathered a lot of political favors by naming new officers. Unfortunately, it meant the oldest most experienced regiments wasted away and were consolidated. For example, the 99th O.V.I. was consolidated with the 50th O.V.I.

Battalion half or a third of a regiment

O.V.I. Ohio Volunteer Infantry

O.V.V.I. Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry

Company-Roughly started out at 100 men with a Captain in command. Ten companies and a Headquarter staff made up a regiment named by letter A–I. The J was skipped due to ease in confusion with the letter I. The ten Companies to a regiment applied to Infantry. Latter in the war some Heavy artillery units were converted to Infantry and as a consequence had more companies.

The unit could be written as;

The 118th O.V.I., 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, XXIII Corps, Army of the Ohio

Or

Motts regiment (rarely), Moore’s Brigade (frequently), Ruger’s Division Army of the Ohio, or a combination of both.

Very few regiments went through the war with the same Colonel, or remained in the same Brigade or Division throughout the war, some moved Corps, and some moved Armies.

Military terms;

Abattis—Entanglements, often made from the upper limbs of trees, the tips sharpened and pointing to the enemy, and staked down, placed in front of a position to be defended.

Breastworks—made of logs and rocks and covered with dirt, if time was available a firing step was made on the inside and a soldier stepped down from it to reload for better safety. The dirt was from this and a ditch on the outside. At Franklin in some places from the ditch to the top was 6-8 foot. A heavy log was placed along the top and called a head log. This was supported just high enough for the soldier to fire under. Other logs ran at a 90-degree angle from under the head log and across the trench behind the breastworks. The head log was supported by these logs and if an artillery round struck it, would roll across the defenders instead of crushing them in their trench.

Battery 2 to 8 artillery pieces.

Cars-Railroad cars

CDB Company Descriptive Books

Enfilade fire—to be able to fire into the side (flank) of the enemy.

G.A.R.—Largest of the veteran organizations Grand Army of the Republic

Members of the 118th could also belong to The Society of the Army of the Ohio, and The Society of the Army of the Cumberland for their service under General Thomas at Nashville. There was also the Union Army Union, a separate veteran organization.

Flank—To go around the enemies’ defensive position. This forces him to retreat or risk being attacked in the rear.

Joint Operation-Coordinated between the Army and the Navy.

M.I.A.—missing in action

W.I.A.—wounded in action

K.I.A.—killed in action

P.O.W—Prisoner of war

D.O.W—died of wounds

Disabled out no longer able to serve due to wounds or health

V.R.C. Veteran Reserve Corps when soldiers were too disabled to withstand returning to the field, but were capable of other service they were transferred to the V.R.C.

Skirmishers—Troops placed in front of a unit (from Regiment to Army sized) with the multiple purposes of preventing surprise by the enemy, suppressing the enemy skirmishers activity and to probe enemy lines. Essentially watching and trying to control no man’s land.

O.V.I.—Ohio Volunteer Infantry, other states used the same system for example M.V.I. Minnesota Volunteer Infantry.

O.V.L.A.—Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery

O.V.H.A.—Ohio Volunteer Heavy Artillery

O.V.C.—Ohio Volunteer Cavalry

Rank bottom to top numbers will be from Co. F there are very slight differences between Companies and this list is all who served at that rank in that company throughout the war. For example Capt. Wancop replaced Capt. Reul when the latter was wounded and disabled.

Pvt. Private by far the most numerical (72)

Wagoner (1)

Musician (2) used as stretcher bearers in combat

Corporal (Corp.) (10)

Sergeant (Sgt.) (7)

Officers and command staff

1st Sergeant (1)

2nd Lieutenant (Lt.) (1)

1st. Lieutenant (Lt.) (3)

Captain (Capt. (2)

The Field and Staff officer’s numbers also changed with losses and promotions

Hospital Steward (2)

Commissary Sgt. (2)

Quartermaster Sgt. (2)

Sgt. Major (2)

Officers

Chaplain (1)

Regimental Quartermaster (Q.M.) (1)

Adjutant (ADJ) (4)

Assistant Surgeon (Assit.Surg.) (4)

Surgeon (Surg.) (2)

Major (Maj.) (2)

Lieutenant Colonel Lt. Col. (3)

Colonel Col. (1)

Three months men. Early in the war regiments enlisted for three months, when everyone thought the war would be over soon. Late in the war State guard units were federalized for three or more months.

Provost Martial, Military police.

Foreword

I got interested in this unit as a teenager when I found out there were Klingers in Co. F. My Grandpa identified them as his Grandpa and Great Uncle. The search began there; it’s been a long journey.

This is a regimental history of the 118th O.V.I. The regiment was formed in 1862 and enlisted for 3 years. The Companies came mostly from the western counties on the southern edge of the Great Black Swamp, and from those counties running down the Ohio/Indiana borderlands to Shelby County. There was also one stray Company, (K) formed in Mansfield. There is no other book-length history of this unit. They belonged to The Army of the Ohio for most of their combat life. There is also no history written of that Army (my next project). Therefore, little is known of what they accomplished. They were a good solid western regiment. They only failed once, in an assault they should not have been ordered to make. No regiment in the Union army could have done more that day. This regiment suffered terrible privations while in East Tennessee. They fought the Atlanta campaign sick on their feet. They were in a critical spot to help destroy Hoods Army at Franklin and then rolled over the Rebels at Nashville. This history is written on the substantial framework of 500 pages of letters and 6 diaries. The company day books and Official Record’s allowed me to cross check facts. Pension records filled out some of the wound information. Surgeon Beach (the Regimental Surgeon) made a lot of notations about events in his log. One caveat: the Ohio Roster was woefully inaccurate in that it was missing men’s names; even one killed in action, and does not mention many who were wounded. Descendants may notice variations in spelling of some men’s names, some changing the spelling of their names themselves. I found three or four spellings of the same man’s last name. For example, Klingers in the same family sometimes spelled it Clinger.

The goal of this work is to be the primary resource for the 118th O.V.I. However it is not just a tale of thier battles. It is also the story of their struggles for survival against disease, starvation and and the unrelenting battering they suffered from loss of friends and comrades. In addition, if they exspressed political opinions I tried to include that with context.

I also hope that the men quoted in this work will become a primary resource to be used for any historian wishing to use a primary resource for all of the campaigns these men were involved in. Many of these sources have never been published a small group were published during the war and not since. This work can make these men part of the historic story.

When possible, I explained some of the medical terms and situations. I was a critical care nurse for 40 years and an Army medic before that, so some of the explanations are from my own training. Landscape descriptions are from walking the battlefields where possible and from historic photos. Captain Reul’s letters were written in Gothic script German, and it was difficult to find people who can translate. While giving a lecture in Sydney Ohio, I met a Civil War enthusiast named Ernst Schmidt who said his parents wrote to him in that script. Ernst was interesting in his own right; he was a U-Boat officer in WWII. Ernst translated to modern German, Margaret Klinger translated to English. I hope you enjoy our trail through history as much as I have enjoyed discovering it.

Mike

TOC Flags, Regimental Corps

Remains of the National Colors of the 118th O.V.I. Courtesy the Ohio Historical connection

Remnants of the National and Regimental flags and paintings

What the national Colors of the 118th looked like before service at the front Courtesy the Ohio history Connection

Regimental colors after combat Courtesy The Ohio State History Connection

Remnants of the National and Regimental flags and paintings2

Regimental Colors as they should look. Courtesy The Ohio History Connection

XXIIIrd Corps Flag print in authors collection

Corps, Division and Brigade flags

TOC Flags, Regimental Corps_2

2nd Division XXIIIrd Corps flags print in Authors collection

TOC Genl. Burnside and Gray

Generals Burnside and Gray courtesy the Library of Congress

TOC Genls. Schofield and Cox

Generals Schofield and Cox courtesy of Mark Weldon

TOC Genls. Cooper, Ruger

Generals Cooper and Ruger courtey The Library of Congress

TOC Genls. Couch, Carter

Generals Couch and Carter

TOC Genls. Thomas and Schofield and staff

Generals Thomas and Schofield

TOC Genls. Judah, Hascal

Generals Judah and Hascal

TOC Col. Orlando Moore

Colonel Orlando Moore Top photo

TOC Genl Thomas Young, Govenor

Genl Thomas Young and as Govenor

Photos credit to Campaign to Nowhere by Davis Smith

TOC Col. Mott, Adjt. Russel

Colonel Mott courtesy David C. Smith

TOC Group photo officer o118t

Believed to have been taken while the regiment guarded the Ky.

Central RR. Authors collection 1. Col. Mott 2. Lt. Col Young 3. Major Lester Bliss 4. Capt. Charles Gloyd 5. Adjt. David Williams 6. Capt. Sidney Moore 7. Capt. Amos Moore 8. Capt. William Taylor. Lt. David Doty.

Only the two Moore’s and Doty served throughout the war.

Group photo of 118th officers taked in Kentucky

Photos credit to Library of Cogress Patterson authors collection

TOC Lt. Col. Sowers, Surg. Patterson

Col. Sowers courtesy Find a gravePhotos

TOC Col. Isaih Pillars Surgeon Beach

Col Pillars Allen County History Surgeon Beach

Chapter One

Ohio in the War Whitlaw Reid 1868

The gathering

The Federal Army was hungry and it fed on men. In July of 1862 President Abraham Lincoln went to the state larders and called for more. Ohio responded with over 58,0001 men. The men for this regiment came mostly from the western border counties of Ohio and the southern reaches of the Great Black Swamp.

Carpenters and Smiths oiled their tools and stowed them. Shop keepers sold out, or their families took over. Lawyers and teachers crated their books. Farmers walked away from crops in the field. In August and September of 1862, the corn was just starting to turn, canning was in high production and the second cutting of hay was in the mow. Apples still ripened on the trees. These volunteers started their walk on the dusty roads of Ohio in late summer. Along the roads they walked, sumac and poison ivy had just started its annual race to turn scarlet. These men had, as yet, not learned the swinging cadence of the route march, which the western troops developed. It would later allow them to cover vast distances. So, they walked. Some hitched rides on buckboards and farm wagons. In the ditches and swamps, cattails were just starting to molt. Red wing blackbirds perched and waved in the breeze on the cattail stalks, they are considered bad luck in coal country; the red looked like blood on coal. (I wonder how many of the doomed they showed up for.)

Thistle had its purple heads and Queen Ann’s lace spread delicately along the banks. Swarms of mosquitos rose from the swamp land. Flies (the counterpart to a horse drawn society) were everywhere, and in multiuple varieties. The humidity and heat were oppressive. Stiff breezes scattered the flying insects and replaced them with falling yellow Elm leaves, the first of the broadleaf trees to shed. The smells of summer rolled over them. Stagnant green water in the ditches, hog, cattle, and horse manure steamed in the heat waiting to be spread on the fields when the crops were off. The men’s own sweat dripped in their eyes and stained their shirts.

They were heading to the enlistment stations scattered around the counties. Men were already there who began raising companies, calling on the locals’ patriotism or appealing to small town boys with tales of adventure, skipping the gruesome realities of war. The recruiters were hoping to be made an officer or already promised the position. From the enlistment sites they moved to Camp Lima built for just two regiments to join.

Camp Lima was established for the 81st O.V.I.1 to fill its ranks. It had gone to war one year earlier with only eight companies. Five more companies joined it from Camp Lima. Another Regiment the 99th O.V.I. began to form. Such was the volunteer spirit that too many men responded. Petition was made to the Governor and the 118th O.V.I was also formed.

These 1862 men had some of the naiveté of 61 knocked out of them. The casualty figures from the churchyard of Shiloh and a number of other bloody fields had done that. Bloodless war was a lie, as was the thought the war would be over in three months. The men coming out in 1862 knew some of the dead. They had been neighbors, brothers and family. They went in for three years knowing full well it would be a long grinding struggle. They were however raw, untested, and as every soldier before or since, most thought they would be the exception. They would survive; they would win battles and glory; they would not run or die of dysentery fowled in their own bloody stool. Certainly, they would come home with nothing more than a light saber scar to impress the girls. They were inexperienced and cocky enough to not have had all the bluster and overconfidence knocked out of them. Eventually, they became very practical combat soldiers.

Major General John M. Schofield who commanded the Army of The Ohio, with which the 118th saw the most combat, wrote a description of the veteran western troops that he served with.

Forty-Six Years in the Army Maj. General John M. Schofield

These Ohio troops were considered rawboned westerners; He described them well. He wrote "The veteran American soldier fights very much as he has been accustomed to work his farm or run his sawmill: he wants to see a fair prospect that it is ‘going to pay’ "1

These Western troops were free thinkers and their diaries and letters home express their outlooks perfectly. They were wary, not willing to trust their government or their politicians completely. They nonetheless trusted their lives and futures to the ideals of the nation. They debated these ideals early in the war in letters to their hometown newspapers, and, later, around campfires. There were Abolitionists in small numbers who revolted against what they saw as a flawed constitution, which allowed slavery and was a sin against God’s law. There were, by far, more Unionists who thought the states’ rights movement advocating secession were traitors. They thought

"This was one nation indivisible, a place unique in world history, illuminated by the Enlightenment created by and for all people, not just the privileged."2

The South’s attempt to divide this great nation was an attack on that belief. There were also those who were immigrants that fought against the perceived Oligarchic class system of the slave owners. There were veterans of the 1848 revolutions for democracy that swept across Europe. Some of these immigrants equated the Southern class and slave holding system to the feudalism of Europe, which they had fled. One company raised in Deep Cut was enlisted a couple miles from Kossuth, named after the famous Hungarian revolutionary and orator.

Capt Reuls Obit. Aug 1879

Captain Reul, Co. F was also a 48er3 and these men felt it was the same fight for the equality of man. At least one fought because he thought it only a small step from enslaving the black man to enslaving the poor white man.4 Considering the fights in the coal fields and the company stores of later years, he was not far wrong. There were war Democrats in large numbers and Lincoln Republicans in larger ones. All of them eventually came to trust each other and a select group of officers that would prove their worth. They were at first loquacious, writing frequently and keeping diaries. Combat slowed that for many. They were too busy trying to stay alive.

Opportunities for writing became less frequent. Many did not have the literary skills to express what they were seeing. Great tragedies beggar the English language. Description failed them. Few could possibly explain it. For those not in it, too often the tales of horror became just war stories, instead of a heartfelt need to unload. Men turned inward to the regiment. The men with them understood, without a word.

Pvt. William Jones Co. F studied at Oberlin College, a hotbed of Abolitionism and resistance to the fugitive slave law. He brought his extracuriccular learning to the field.

Color Sgt Mann Findlay newspaper May 15th 1863

Letter Sgt. Charles Mann to Findlay newspaper

Lima Weekly Gazette Aug. 20 1862

Camp Lima,

The military committee of your district may raise the 118th maximum regiment of Three Years Men to rendezvous at Camp Lima. Committees will designate company officers and set them at work to recruit to the 22nd inst. The appointment and mustering in of company officers can follow and be made at Camp Lima…

Chas W. Hill

Adjutant General of Ohio"1

Col. Pillars was not slow in giving permission to men to raise companies. These men in turn did not waste time in getting started. Dr. Rudolph Reul of Delphos brought his company into camp four days after receiving permission to recruit. Some brought experience such as Dr. Reul, later Captain of Co. F. He had been a revolutionary in Germany.1 So had others, who had rebelled against the nobility for democracy. Some regarded the oligharchic class system of the slave owning society as equating to the royalty and serf system of of Europe.

Capt. Reuls Bio. Delphos Herald

Many recruits and officers had been "three months men"2 and brought that experience. There were men from Shelby County who had served as General John C. Fremont’s body guard, The Benton Cadets.2 There were even a couple of Mexican war vets as well.

As companies started to arrive apprehension began to build as to the appointment of the regimental Colonel.

The arrival of officers into any military command always engenders concern. After all, in combat these soldiers’ lives depended on the leadership of these officers. It mattered a great deal to these men who got appointed. Above and beyond the combat leadership would he be a martinet, a stickler for detail, would he have sober judgement, would he BE sober or a drinker? Would he look after their supplies, or worry about himself? Would he be a political appointee with no experience? Would he be a fool or an intelligent officer? Some of those questions were answered outright, some took time. Mostly, they got lucky.

Colonel Motts Bio. Auglaize

Colonel Samuel F. Mott1 of Auglaize County was appointed to the responsibility. He came with good political connections having served in the Ohio Legislature. More importantly to the rank and file he had military experience. He first served as an 18-year-old in Captain Charles Colerick’s Company in the campaign to support Texas secession from Mexico. It was with them he engaged in his first skirmishes. Twenty-five years later, he organized a company for three months service in the 20th O.V.I… Elected Captain by his men he next heard the rattle of musketry on the fields of West Virginia. They were in action at Richter W. Virginia and the pursuit of General Robert Selden Garnett who was killed in the action, being the first General officer from either side killed. At Motts term of his enlistment he returned to Auglaize County, and raised another company this time for the 31st O.V.I. He was appointed to the command of the 118th nearly a month after the first recruits had gathered. He would join them in the field in Kentucky.3

Company Descriptive Book CDB

Company Descriptive Book CDB_2

CDB counties enrolled in