USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 68
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but considerate, free from ostentation, and a good talker, the Judge makes a stranger at once feel at ease in his com- pany; and, at his home in Lima, surrounded by the evidences of a useful and well-spent life, the Judge enjoys the affection of numerous friends, and the confidence and good wishes of his neighbors.
BUCKLAND, GENERAL RALPH POMEROY, was born at Leyden, Massachusetts, on the twentieth day of Jan- uary, 1812. His grandfather and father died from the im- mediate effects of military service in the cause of our country- the former, Stephen Buckland, who was a captain of artillery in the Revolutionary war, from East Hartford, Connecticut, dying in the Jersey prison-ship, near New York; the latter, Ralph Buckland, a volunteer in Hull's army during the war of 1812, dying at Ravenna, Ohio, from disease contracted while a prisoner of war. The following is a copy of a letter written by General Buckland's father about one year before his death :
" RAVENNA, September 12th, 1812.
"DEAR SISTER,-These lines will inform you that I am well. I have just arrived from Fort Malden, in Upper Canada, a prisoner on parole. I belonged to General Hull's army, and was sold, with the rest of my brother volunteers, to the British and Indians, by that traitor Hull. The distress the inhabitants have undergone by letting the Indians in upon the frontiers is beyond description. Plundered of every article of property and clothing, and hundreds of families massacred, adds to the scene of distress. But they will have to share the same fate, or worse, if possible. We have a fine army of ten thousand men within a two days' march of here, which will show them that a Hull does not command at this time. Governor Harrison has the command of this army, and will do honor to his country and himself. He com- manded at the Wabash, last fall, at the battle of Tippecanoe, and the Indians have not forgotten it. I have enjoyed very good health since I saw you last. Give my love to my mother and all our friends. I am in great haste, and can write no more at present. Yours, RALPH BUCKLAND.
"P. S .- You will write me an answer soon. I expect to go to Cincinnati in a few days, on public business."
The subject of this biography completes the family military record by his service in the great Rebellion. His father, acting in the capacity of land agent and surveyor, came to Portage County, Ohio, in 1811. In the winter of 1812-13, during the severe season, while an unbroken waste of snow stretched from the New England States westward, the father moved his family, in a one-horse sleigh, from their Massa- chusetts home to Ravenna, in this State, where, as stated above, he died only a few months after. His mother's maiden name was Ann Kent. Her father died at Mantua, Ohio, where he had moved from Leyden, Massachusetts. Some few years after the death of Ralph's father, his mother married Dr. Luther Hanchett, who then had four children by a former marriage. Six more children were born to them. The family were always in moderate circumstances. During his earlier years, Ralph lived with his stepfather and family, on a farm, but the greater part of the time, until he attained the age of eighteen, he lived with and labored for a farmer uncle, in Mantua, excepting two years, when he worked in a woolen factory, at Kendall, Ohio, and one year spent as a clerk in a store. In the winter he attended country schools, and the last summer (that of 1830) he attended an academy at Tallmadge, Ohio, where he made a commencement in Latin. In the following fall he embarked, at Akron, Ohio, on board a flat-boat, loaded with a cargo of cheese to be transported through the Ohio Canal, down the Muskingum,
Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers, to Natchez, Mississippi. At Louisville he secured a deck passage on the Daniel Boone, and worked his way by carrying wood on board. When he arrived at Natchez he had less than one dollar in his pocket, but he immediately found employment in a warehouse on the landing, where he remained a few months, but long enough to secure so thoroughly the confidence of his employers, that at the end of that time they put him in charge of two flat- boats, lashed together, and loaded with twelve hundred bar- rels of flour for the New Orleans market. On this trip he served his turn with the rest of the crew, as a cook. The voyage was successfully completed, and soon after landing, at the earnest solicitation of his Natchez employers, who had opened a commission house in New Orleans, he remained in their employ in the latter city. At that time drinking and gambling were quite common with young clerks like himself, but besides a natural disinclination to indulge in things of this nature, he was further strengthened in his resolution wholly to abstain from these evils by the untimely death of the book- keeper of the house in which he was employed, who was killed in a duel arising from dissipation. These resolutions have ever since been strictly kept. In his spare moments, of which he had many during the summer months, while at New Orleans, he pursued the study of the Latin and French languages, and several other studies. In June, 1834, he started for Ohio, on a visit to his mother, leaving New Orleans with the fixed idea of returning and making that city his future home. He had been offered several first-rate situations, but on arriving home, through his mother's solicitations, he was induced to remain in the North. After spending one year at Kenyon College, he began the study of law, in the office of Gregory Powers, at Middlebury, and completed it with Whittlesey & Newton, at Canfield, being admitted to practice in the spring of 1837. During the winter of the previous year he spent several months pursuing his studies in the office of George B. May, who was then editor of the Toledo Blade. While the editor-in-chief was temporarily absent at this time, he acted for a few weeks as editor pro tem. Immediately after admission to the bar, with about fifty dollars in his pocket, loaned him by his uncle, Alson Kent, he started in quest of a favorable location for an attorney. The failure of the "wildcat" banks was what settled Ralph P. Buckland in Fremont, Ohio, his present residence. On arriving at that place, then known as Lower Sandusky, he found that he had not enough good money wherewith to pay a week's board. The outlook could not have appeared favorable to the young lawyer, but under the circumstances he was compelled to stop. He was trusted for a sign, opened a law office, and soon secured enough business to pay his expenses, which were kept down to the lowest pos- sible point. At this date he was not only without means, but even worse, he owed three hundred dollars for his expenses while a student, and for a few necessary law books. This, it would seem, did not affect the hopes he had of ultimate suc- cess, for eight months after opening up his law office in Lower Sandusky, while still worth nothing in a pecuniary point of view, he married Charlotte Boughton, of Canfield, Ohio. Although he was without means, his credit was good. He was strictly economical, temperate in all things, and diligent in business. His expenses during the first year of married life did not exceed three hundred dollars, and his business steadily increased, so that at the end of three or four years he had all that he could attend to. In these early days of
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his life he was very slender in build, and troubled, to some extent, with dyspepsia, but out-door exercise gained in trav- eling on horseback in connection with his professional busi- ness, particularly in attending the courts of adjoining counties, cured him of that complaint, and gradually increased his weight and physical strength. Mr. Buckland first appeared in politics prominently as a delegate to the Philadelphia Con- vention, in 1848, which placed General Taylor in nomination for the presidency. In the fall of 1855 he was elected to the State Senate, as a Representative of the Republican party, in that, the first, Legislature after its organization. He was re-elected in 1857, serving four years. He was the author of the law for the adoption of children, which was passed during his service in the Senate. In October, 1861, having been appointed lieutenant-colonel, he began to organize the 72d Ohio Infantry, and in three months it was ready for the field, with full ranks. On the 10th of January, 1862, he was mustered into the service of the United States. On the 24th of January he left Camp Croghan, at Fremont, with his regi- ment, for Camp Chase, where he was placed in command of the camp. He left Camp Chase, February 19th, 1862, and reported, with his regiment, to General W. T. Sherman, at Paducah, Kentucky. He was assigned to the command of the fourth brigade of Sherman's division. On the 7th of March he moved up the Tennessee River, and on the 20th encamped at Pittsburg Landing, the left of the brigade rest- ing at Shiloh Church. On the 3d of April he made a recon- noissance with his brigade some four miles to the front, and encountering some rebel cavalry pickets, had a skirmish with them. The next day Company B, of the 72d Regiment, having been sent by the major to scout outside the picket line, and fearing, from the want of experience in his officers and ·men, that they would get into trouble, he sent another company to find Company B, and return with them. Soon after sending the other company, considerable firing was heard in front, General Buckland, placing himself at the head of three companies, started in the direction of the firing. On reaching the top of a small hill, riding about ten rods in front of his men deployed in line of battle, he discovered Company B, surrounded by rebel cavalry ; and the rebels, just at that moment, gave a cheer, evidently preparatory to charging on Company B. He waved his hands to his men, indicating that he desired them to hurry up. As they came in sight of the rebel line, distant only a few rods, they opened a destructive fire, taking the enemy completely by surprise. The men charged upon the rebels, and drove them from the field, killing a number of horses and men, and capturing several prisoners, and saved Company B. While he was re- forming his line, to meet an evident charge back upon him by the rebels, Major Ricker came up with his 5th Ohio Cav- alry, and joined in a charge upon the rebels, driving them back on to the main line of the advancing rebel army, who opened a fierce artillery fire upon them. Discovering a large force of artillery and infantry, they prudently retired to their lines, taking with them some fifteen rebel prisoners. This affair was the first fighting of the great battle of Shiloh. At the organization of the 72d Regiment, those opposing en- listments had asserted that the subject of this sketch was a man of no courage, and that he would never venture in the field of battle. These statements had created some misgiv- ings among the soldiers and officers under his command; but after the first fight on that Friday before Shiloh, all doubts as to his courage or disposition to go into danger were scattered.
He there had the opportunity of showing, under fire, that valor and determination were some of the strong points of his character. On the morning of the 6th, General Buckland's brigade was in line full one hour before the hard fighting began. He advanced his lines about two hundred yards on the left and about four hundred to the right, and met the enemy. The fighting was desperate for two hours, and the rebels were repeatedly driven back. To show the desperate fighting done by Buckland's brigade at this point, we quote from a letter of the Confederate General Basil W. Duke, pub- lished in the Cincinnati Gazette of May 28th, 1881 :
"Every demonstration against it [Buckland's brigade] was repulsed. Artillery was used in vain against it; some of the best brigades in the army moved on it, only to be hurled back and strew the morass in its front with their dead. The Confederate loss at this point was frightful. At last, after having held the position from seven or half-past seven A. M. until after ten A. M., every thing upon its right [left] having been driven back, and the Confederate artillery having reached a point where the guns could play upon its rear, it was abandoned as no longer tenable. The tenacious defense of this position, and the fact that by massing on his right, General Johnson turned it, when it proved impregnable to direct assault, ought to be of itself a sufficient explanation of the correctness of his plan of battle."
General Buckland's brigade maintained its ground until ordered back by General Sherman, and at the close of the fight his brigade occupied the extreme right of the Union line, about one mile from Pittsburg Landing, where it slept on its arms Sunday night. On Monday morning General Buck- land went into the fight with the only organized brigade in General Sherman's division, and was heavily engaged during the day. On one occasion, during the battle of the second day, being ordered to advance his brigade under a very severe fire from artillery and musketry of the enemy, there seemed, at the moment, to be some hesitation in the lines. General Buckland immediately rode up to one of the color-bearers, took hold of the staff, and conducted the bearer and colors to the desired point, followed by the cheers of the soldiers as they swept forward. General Lew Wallace remarked, on Tuesday morning, while riding over the ground occupied by the enemy in front of Buckland's brigade Sunday morning, that "judging from the dead bodies, here seems to have been the best and hardest fighting." General Sherman, in his re- port of the battle of Shiloh, gives General Buckland high praise for his courage and the good management of his brig- ade. In the advance on Corinth, begun on the 26th of April, sickness to a great extent prevailed in the ranks, and it re- quired the utmost courage and attention to prevent the men from becoming demoralized. Being in close proximity to the enemy, it was necessary to form in line of battle before day- light every morning. The men had become so weak and dispirited that few turned out. This condition was alarming, and foreboded fatal results in case of attack. To remedy this increasing evil, General Buckland took upon himself to arise before daylight, and with Dr. J. B. Rice and a lantern, went from tent to tent of the officers and soldiers, causing all complaints to be examined by the surgeon, and com- pelling all those whom the surgeon advised it would not injure to turn out. This proceeding made him very un- popular, and many bitter letters were written home concern- ing him. But the soldiers soon discovered that it was for their good, their feelings changed, and by open thanks they showed him their appreciation. From thenceforward he be- came universally beloved by his soldiers, and never was con-
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fidence more implicitly placed by soldiers in their commander than was placed by his soldiers in him-a trust that he never ceased to merit. General Buckland remained in command of the fourth brigade until the army reached Camp No. 6, on the 13th of May, where he was assigned command of the third brigade; but on the following day General J. W. Denver having reported to Sherman, by order of General Halleck, was put in charge of the third brigade, and General Buckland returned to the command of his regiment. In the fight be- fore Corinth his regiment was constantly under the fire of the heavy guns on the rebel battlements, and on the 30th of May entered the city, finding it deserted. On the 12th of Novem- ber, 1862, while at Memphis, he assumed command of the fifth brigade of Lauman's division, and formed part of the Tallahatchee expedition. Under orders from General Grant, who had learned of the capture of Holly Springs by General Van Dorn, he marched to retake the place, which was suc- cessfully accomplished. Soon after the brigade was assigned to the division commanded by Brigadier-general Ross, who, three days later, was placed under arrest, and General Buck- land, as the ranking colonel, assumed command of the di- vision, and marched it to Davis's Mills. On the 7th of De- cember, he was ordered to proceed, with several regiments and a battery of artillery, to attack Forrest, at Dresden, Ten- nessee, where Forrest had a force of four thousand men and ten pieces of artillery, but on arriving there on the morn- ing of the 29th of December, he found that the enemy had evacuated it the same day. He continued his march, through Paris and Huntington, Tennessee, in pursuit of Forrest, sub- sisting entirely on the country, arriving at Jackson, Tennessee, January 8th, 1863. On the 20th of March he joined General Sherman's corps, in front of Vicksburg, and participated in a series of battles and skirmishes, which occurred in the move- ments to the rear of that city. During the siege he was always active and vigilant, and at times much exposed. On the 19th of May, on foot, at the head of his brigade, he marched down the Grave-yard Road, under a terrific fire of musketry and artillery from the enemy's works, and taking a position along the first parallel ridge, to support an assault on the rebel works, he maintained his place until after the assault, on the 22d of the month. Although he was con- stantly exposed, and his men were shot down around him in great numbers, he escaped uninjured. His gallant bearing at the head of his brigade in the siege of Vicksburg attracted special attention. While on duty, on the 24th of September, by the fall of his horse, his right wrist was broken. By this injury he was incapacitated for active service, but continued to command his brigade (except for a short time) until, on the 26th of January, 1864, General Sherman placed him in com- mand of the District of Memphis, where his administrative abilities were exemplified and his integrity of character was clearly manifested. The incidents connected with General Forrest's night raid on Memphis shed the strongest light on General Buckland's traits of character. But for his courage, decision, and promptness of action, the rebel forces would have taken possession of the city, and have captured large stores of government property. General C. C. Washburne was at that time in command of the department, and had liis headquarters in the city. General Buckland commanded the district. Most of the troops, under the command of General A. J. Smith, had been sent in pursuit of Forrest, but by a piece of strategy the latter had eluded his pursuers, near Oxford, Mississippi, and made a rapid march to Memphis.
He captured the cavalry patrol, rushed over the infantry pickets, and under the cover of the darkness preceding the dawn of Sunday, the 21st of August, entered the slumbering city. General Washburne was surprised at his headquarters, his staff and orderlies captured, and he narrowly escaped the enemy's clutches. He was in a building near that occu- pied by his officers, and being opportunely awakened, with only his pants on, he made good his escape to the fort below the city. General Buckland was aroused by the pounding on his door by the sentinel. The rebels were then in possession of a considerable portion of the city. At once realizing the full extent of the danger, and determined not to be captured without a struggle, but still without the least idea of the num- ber of the enemy surrounding him, General Buckland rallied about one hundred and fifty men, at the same time ordering the rapid firing of an alarm gun, which served to awaken his own troops and alarm the enemy. Placing himself at their head, he instantly attacked the body of rebels collected near General Washburne's headquarters. He was outnumbered four to one. He swept the enemy before him down the streets; his numbers increased, and in such spirit was the attack conducted, and so rapidly was it carried on, that in less than an hour every rebel was driven from the city. A sharp battle immediately ensued in the morning, on the Her- nando road, in the outskirts of the city, between the Union troops under General Buckland and General Forrest's entire forces, in which the latter were defeated, and turned in full retreat. A few weeks after these last occurrences, in answer to a letter of General Buckland's concerning events at Mem- phis, the present situation, and his prospects of being elected to Congress, General Sherman wrote him a private letter, from which we make the following extract:
"I know on all occasions you will do your best. I attach little importance to Forrest's dash at Memphis. He is a devil of a fellow, and I wish I had a few such ; but they don't make permanent results, like such men as you do. I entertain for you not only a measure of respect but also of affection. I think you are right now in going to Congress. That is national. 1 did not want to see you return to private life on account of the labor of war. We must have the assistance of the best men in the nation to reinvigorate it. In Congress you take a na- tional position, strengthened by a practical knowledge of the labor, responsibility, sleepless anxiety, and personal danger of war. Your mind can skip the personal and selfish for the patriotic and real. You know also that words now must be mistrusted, and men judged by their acts. Opinions may be soft, pleasant, and flowing, but the real man must act and not talk. Indeed I do value your friendship. Poor McPherson was dear to us both, and well do I remember, in our first Shiloh days, how he always hunted out your camp. What- ever may befall us, believe me that I feel for you more than usual esteem and personal friendship, and feel gratified in knowing it is reciprocated."
General Buckland remained in command of the District of Memphis until the 22d of December, 1864, and on January 6th following he tendered his resignation, at Washington, to the Secretary of War, and was duly mustered out of serv- ice. August 3d, 1866, he was commissioned brevet major- general, United States Volunteers, to rank from March 13th, 1865, for meritorious service in the army. Without having sought or expected political favor, and while still serving in the army, he was nominated for Representative in the Thirty- ninth Congress, and without having gone home to further his interests, he was elected by the people of the Ninth District of Ohio. In obedience to their wishes, he left the military for the civil service of his country. In 1866 he was re-elected to
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Congress. During the whole of the four years he served on the Committee on Militia, and Banking and Currency. At the close of his congressional career General Buckland re- sumed his law practice, a field of labor in which before the war he had attained distinction, and he is now still actively engaged in the labors of his profession. His influence and example and active co-operation in every laudable enterprise contributed largely to the growth and prosperity of the city of Fremont. He erected the first substantial brick block in Fremont, a three-story building of four store-rooms with a public hall in the third story, considered, at the time, a great and hazardous enterprise. In 1853 he erected one of the finest dwellings then in Northern Ohio, and subsequently the three-story brick block at the corner of Front and State Streets. A notable adornment of the city are the beautiful shade-trees that line its streets. The first planted were the stately maples extending from the court-house round the cor- ner of Main and Croghan Streets, in front of the humble residence General Buckland then occupied, and which led the way to what is now admired as a chief ornament of the place. In every public enterprise for the interest of the town he was one of the first to propose and one of the fore- most to act, relaxing no effort and withholding no help until the thing had been pushed to complete success. In 1870 he was elected president of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, located at Xenia, which position he filled for four years. On the 30th of January, 1875, General Buck- land, Hon. R. P. Ranney, and Dr. W. S. Streetor, as guests of Henry A. Kent, of New York, sailed from that city, in the sailing yacht Tarolinta, for the West Indies. They visited Martinique, Barbadoes, Trinidad, Grenada, Santa Cruz, St. Thomas, Porto Rico, San Domingo, and Jamaica, returning to New York, April 19th, after having sailed about seven thousand miles. General Buckland was a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention that nominated General Hayes. It is well known that his labors and influence contributed largely to the success of the nomination. For three years, from 1878, he held the position of government director of the Union Pacific Railroad. General Buckland's career has been measured by a success that adds one more example of what may be attained by a boy born outside of the pale which is presumed to inclose the advantages and the means necessary to success, viz., influen- tial friends and parental wealth. Left an infant at the death of his father, whose letter, embodied in this sketch, shows him to have been a man, the impress of whose character was worth more than an estate to his son, he made his own way in the world, and will leave as an inheritance to his children the record of a successful life (judged by what it has accom- plished), and of a character for integrity, honor, and noble impulses, worthy of all imitation. In his family, General Buckland has always been kind and considerate of the in- terests of each. With the wife of his youth, who still lives, he came to his Lower Sandusky home, and together with marked mutual esteem, they, each in their sphere, worked to prosper, sharing alike with cheerfulness and hope the privations of the beginning. Suited to each other, as no man and wife could be better, they each lived happily in each other's confidence and love, to enjoy together in an unusual degree the comfortable surroundings their industry has enabled them to secure for themselves, and have always shared the pleasures of travel and social enjoyment, for which the later public and official life of General Buckland afforded unusual opportunity.
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