USA > Ohio > The history of Fuller's Ohio brigade, 1861-1865; its great march, with roster, portraits, battle maps and biographies > Part 31
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From that day he was always with his regiment and in command except for a brief period when he was Provost Marshal at Memphis, Ten- nessee, during the Vicksburg campaign and during a part of September and October, 1864, when he commanded the Brigade.
Whatever there was for a regimental commander in the Army of the Tennessee in the field to do. from 1862 to the spring of 1865, he did faith- fully and well. In the closing days of 1863 he had the great satisfaction of seeing his regiment re-enlist for the balance of the war. He commanded the regiment in all its battles and skirmishes during Sherman's advance to Atlanta, when for one hundred days the sounds of battle never ceased : also in the march to the sea, then turning northward, in the great campaign of the Carolinas, until he fell terribly wounded by a rebel shell at the cross- ing of the Salkahatchie. His career in the field was ended and war-hard- ened veterans wept as he was carried past them to the rear.
He was commissioned Brigadier and soon after Major-General and as soon as he could get around on crutches he was sent to Montgomery. Alabama, as Commissioner of Freedmen, Refugees and Abandoned Lands. All through the troublesome reconstruction times, he filled wisely and well the difficult position he held.
As a commander, he was firm but very kind, a good disciplinarian, cool in battle and brave as a man can be. He possessed in an eminent degree that moral courage, all too rare, to do his duty, that which was right, any- where and under all circumstances.
After the war, lie resumed the practice of law in New York City where he died about 1903.
Bellaire, Ohio, January 29th. 1907.
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CAPT. H. S. PROPHET. Co. I, 43d O. V. V. I.
COLONEL HINCHMAN S. PROPHET.
Forty-third Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
Colonel Hinchman S. Prophet is one of the notable men of the city of Lima. He has been closely identified with its development and interests for the past thirty-seven years, coming to the city, then a town of forty-five hundred people, in April, 1872.
During these years he has served the county, the city, the church, and the schools, in various ways, faithfully and well. Mr. Prophet is a lawyer by profession, and is the dean of the Allen County Bar, having been admit- ted February 2, 1860, in the supreme court of Ohio, 49 years ago.
On being admitted, he immediately commenced the practice of his pro- fession as partner of the late Judge J. A. Beebe, under whom he had finished his course of study.
At the first call for troops he enlisted as a private in the Union Army. and was elected Second Lieutenant. As the quota of 75,000 was full and
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the Governor would not accept the company, he immediately went to Colum- bus and enlisted in Co. C. 15 Regiment, O. V. I., which had been accepted by the Governor. He served three months in West Virginia. His regiment was engaged at Phillippi, Laurel Hill and Carrick's Ford. August 30th. 1861, he was mustered out at Upper Sandusky, where his company was enlisted. During the latter part of his service he was on General Charles W. Hill's non-commissioned staff.
On his return home he, with others, organized Company B., which at Battery Robinett at Corinth, Mississippi, where he fell mortally wounded. was attached to the 43rd Regiment O. V. I., and was elected Second Lieutenant. He was promoted to First Lieutenant and assigned to Com- pany H., and on the 5th day of December, 1862, was commissioned Captain, and afterwards assigned to Company H.
After the death of Adjutant Heyl, who was killed at Corinth, Miss., he acted as Adjutant, and was tendered the appointment, but declined.
At the battle of Corinth, October 3 and 4, Colonel Smith placed him in command of Company I. in which engagement he was wounded, but did not leave the field, but commanded his company until the battle was over.
In the official report of the battle of Corinth, Commanding Colonel Swayne made honorable mention of Captain, Prophet commending him for "conspicuous gallantry and efficiency in battle." On account of ill health, Captain Prophet resigned late in the summer of 1863, returning to Mt. Gilead; but he was not contented. He organized and officered the second regiment, Ohio Militia, having been commissioned colonel by Gov- ernor David Todd, but the regiment was not called into active service.
The record of the military services of Colonel Prophet is similar to that of every other good officer and soldier of the 43rd Regiment, he having participated in the marches, skirmishes and battles with his fellow soldiers during his services in the army.
In the fall of 1869, Colonel Prophet was elected to the Ohio State Senate from the 17th and 28th districts. While he was a member of this body he never missed a roll call or a vote: served on several important committees, among them, common schools and school lands and municipal corporations. One notable speech in debate on "Tariff for Revenue Only."
He was a member of a special committee of five, appointed to visit the "Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home" at Xenia. On the return of this committee and acting on its favorable report and recommendation, the Home was bought for the state of Ohio. The friends of Colonel Prophet have reason to be proud of his record in state legislation.
For a third of a century he, and for nearly that length of time Prophet & Eastman, have been the attorneys for The Citizens Loan and Building
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Company, of which Mr. Prophet is one of the incorporators: and for twenty-four years the firm has been the attorneys for The Lima Locomotive and Machine Company.
He served the county four years as prosecuting attorney, the city four years as city solicitor. He served the city four years as mayor, being elected the last time in 1898 by the largest majority ever received by any mayor of the city. He declined re-nomination at the close of the last term.
He has served the educational interests of the city of Lima as county examiner, as city examiner and as a member of the board of education for more than twenty years, being president of the board for ten years. It is due to his vigilance that Lima can boast of the finest educational square in the state of Ohio, the Lima High School and the Franklin Ward Build- ing. Colonel Pronhat is a member of the "Army of the Tennessee," of "Fuller's Ohio Brigade." "The Union Veterans Union;" served as judge advocate general to the Department of Ohio for three years; served as national judge advocate general on the staff of General Louis F. Ellis, national commander-in-chief for one year. Colonel Prophet has been a member of Mart Armstrong Post No. 202. Grand Army of the Republic for many years. In the year 1898, he was appointed aide on the staff of General J. Cory Winans, who was chief of staff to National Commander- in-Chief James A. Sexton, of Illinois. In life he is strictly for a fair deal and justice to all.
In May, 1870, Colonel Prophet, without solicitation, was made a mem- ber of the Phonetic Society, established in Bath, England by Sir Isaac Pitman, the author of Phonetic Shorthand. He was the first stenographer in the North-west. He was a member of the Ohio Association of Stenog- raphy, and of the International Association. In later years he has devoted his time exclusively to the practice of his profession of the law.
Mr. Prophiet is a member of the Ohio and Allen County Bar Associa- tions.
JOHN W. SPRAGUE, Brevet Major General U. S. V.
BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN WILSON SPRAGUE.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY COLONEL OSCAR L. JACKSON, ,
Sixty-third Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
John Wilson Sprague was born at White Creek, Washington County, New York, April 4, 1817. His father, Otis Sprague, was an early settler of Worcester, Massachusetts, but removed in early life to Troy, New York. His mother was a daughter of Benjamin Peck. When a boy he attended the district school of his neighborhood and later at the age of thirteen years, entered the polytechnic institute at Troy, N. Y. He attended this school for some time, but did not graduate as he left it to engage in busi- ness. He was engaged for a number of years in the grocery business at Troy, N. Y.
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GENERAL JOHN W. SPRAGUE.
In 1845 he removed to Erie County, Ohio, residing at different times in the villages of Milan, Sandusky and Huron, in that County. He was there engaged in the shipping and commission trade, and served one term as County Treasurer.
Later on he organized and equipped a line of sail boats and steamers for lake traffic and was engaged in this business at the breaking out of the war in 1861. When the first call was made by the President for troops for three months' service he promptly offered his services and was chosen Captain of a company organized at his home village. This company report- ed at Camp Taylor near Cleveland, Ohio, but was not out of the state in the three months service. On the 19th day of May, 1861 it was assigned to the Seventh Ohio Infantry and ordered to Camp Dennison for reorganiza- tion for the three years' service. It there reorganized for three years, and he was retained as its Captain. On the 29th of June the Regiment started for West Virginia and went to near Somerville in that state.
On the 11th of August. 1861, Captain Sprague was given a leave of absence to go home. He went with a small party by way of Clarksville.
He started but had only proceeded a short distance from his own camp. when he was captured by rebel cavalry. He was taken as a prisoner first to Richmond, and afterward transferred to Charleston, South Carolina. On the 1st of January, 1862, he was sent to Columbia, on the 5th he was taken to Norfolk for exchange, and on the 10th he reached Washington City. Before rejoining his regiment, the 7th Ohio, which was still in West Virginia, he received word from his friend Governor Tod that he had commissioned him Colonel of the Sixty-third Ohio Infantry, a full regiment then in camp and ready for the field.
Col. Sprague joined the Sixty-third Ohio Infantry and on February 10th, 1862, moved with it to report to General Sherman at Paducah, Ken- tucky. On arriving at Paducah, he was immediately ordered to proceed, and report to General Pope at Commerce, Missouri. Under that officer, Colonel Sprague participated with the Regiment in the operation at New Madrid, Fort Thompson and Island Number Ten, and then joined the army at Pittsburg Landing. He took part in the operations usually called Siege of Corinth, including the actions at Farmington May 8th and 28th, 1862, and later capture of Corinth. He commanded the Regiment in the battles of Iuka 19th September and battles of Corinth 3rd and 4th October. 1862.
At Iuka the Regiment was only slightly engaged and had but few casualties, but at the battle of Corinth, it had very hard fighting the second day, on open ground without any protection and sustained very severe loss. It had that day almost one-half of its men in action, killed or wounded. Following this he took part in the general operations in northern Alabama
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and Mississippi, extending sometimes into Tennessee, and from Memphi- southward along the Mississippi river.
In the Fall of 1863, he moved with his regiment under General Sher- man eastward toward Chattanooga. He did not go as far as Chattanooga as his regiment was part of the force detached to secure the railroad lead- ing to Decatur, Alabama, under command of General Dodge. At Prospect. Tennessee, on January 1, 1864, the 63rd Ohio Infantry re-enlisted as veterans for three years more, having the largest percent of men present. to re-enlist, of any Ohio Regiment.
Shortly after, the Regiment returned from its veteran furlough, Col. Sprague commanded it in the operations of Gen. Dodge in crossing the 'Tennessee river, in small new made boats, at night, and making a success- ful night attack on Decatur Alshamn Immediately after this Generar Dodge formed a new brigade composed of the Forty-third and Sixty-thir Ohio, the Twenty-fifth Wisconsin and the Thirty-fifth New Jersey, and assigned Colenel Sprague to the command of it. From this on Colonel Sprague was a brigade Commander.
May 1st, 1864, the brigade started from Decatur via Huntsville for Chattanooga, arriving on the fifth. It there joined the main part of the Army of the Tennessee to which it belonged, under the command of General McPherson, forming part of the Grand Army under General Sherman.
Colonel Sprague was actively engaged during the entire Atlanta Campaign. At Resaca, at Dallas, and at Decatur on 22nd July he was conspicuous for coolness and bravery.
At Decatur Col. Sprague was covering and guarding the trains of the entire army, consisting of over four thousand wagons containing almost all the available supplies for the army. He was attacked by superior numbers, and the contest continued for more than four hours, but by his own bravery and ability, no less than by the courage and prompt obedience of his men the enemy was finally repulsed, and only one wagon was lost. His brigade lost two hundred and ninety-two men killed and wounded, in this action. Colonel Sprague was appointed Brigadier-General on the 29th of July, 1864. He was one of the number especially recommended by General Sherman for promotion on account of gallant and meritorious services during the Atlanta Campaign.
General Sprague moved with Sherman on the March to the Sea and thence northward on the Campaign of the Carolinas. He commanded the brigade on its March from Raleigh through Richmond to Washington, and participated in the Grand Review.
At Washington he was relieved of his command in the Army, and was assigned to duty as Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of Refugees,
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GENERAL JOHN W. SPRAGUE.
Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, with headquarters at St. Louis, Missouri The district under his charge comprised the states of Missouri, and Kansa. and subsequently the Indian Territory. In September 1865, Gener- Sprague's headquarters were removed to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he remained until November 1865, when he resigned and returned home. In the meantime he was offered the position of Lieutenant-Colonel of the Forty-first United States Infantry which he declined to accept, and he was also brevetted Major-General of Volunteers to rank from the 13th of March, 1865.
After the war General Sprague devoted himself to railroad business. He was manager for several years of the Winona and Saint Paul Railway with office at Winona, Minnesota. In 1870 he was general manager of the western division of the Northern Pacific Railway. This position brought him to the Pacific Coast and he was active in establishing and building up the city of Tacoma, Washington. He was concerned and interested in many business enterprises in that locality. In 1883, he had the honor of driving the golden spike on the completion of his division of the railroad, and soon afterward resigned on account of impaired health.
General Sprague died at his home in Tacoma, Washington, on the 24th of December, 1893, in the 77th year of his age. He had been in feeble health for a number of years, and his death at the time it occurred was not unexpected to either himself or his family.
General Sprague, at his funeral, was honered by the people of Tacoma as their most distinguished soldier and citizen, Grand Army Posts, Military Companies and Civic Societies attended in bodies, whilst municipal and business corporations sent representatives. A camp of the Sons of Veter- alls that had been called in his honor "John W. Sprague Camp" attended in a body and citizens generally did all in their power to show their higl. regard for him, and their desire to do honor to his memory.
In religious affairs Gen. Sprague was a Presbyterian and had been a church member for many years.
He was married three times, his first wife a Miss Wright died before they had been married a year. She left to survive her a daughter, still living at his death, who is now Mrs. J. W. Wickham. His second wife was a daughter of Hon. G. W. Choate. She left to survive her four sons, whose names are Otis, Winnie W., Charles and C. W., all still living at his death. His third wife who survives him is a sister of his first wife.
General Sprague was a large man of fine personal appearance, tall. straight and well proportioned. He was a man of good address, genial, pleasant manners, and great business qualifications.
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FULLER'S OHIO BRIGADE
As a soldier and officer he was of much more than ordinary ability. fully able for the positions he held. Not reckless, but prompt, efficient. and brave beyond all question.
Not wholly without faults and mistakes he always showed the good soldierly qualities in the field, in face of the enemy, that endeared him to his comrades, who will ever hold his memory as a soldier in the high regard it deserves.
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GEN. CHARLES E. BROWN.
GENERAL CHARLES ELWOOD BROWN.
BY COLONEL OSCAR L. JACKSON.
Charles Elwood Brown was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, July 4, 1834, of Quaker lineage, and of those who were among the early pioneers of New Jersey and Virginia. Left an orphan in early childhood, he was reared on the farm of his maternal grandfather in Highland County, Ohio. At the age of sixteen, he entered the preparatory Academy at Greenfield, and subsequently attended Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, where he gradu ated in 1854. In college he was a class mate, and room mate of Benjamin. Harrison, late President of the United States.
On July 4, 1857, he was married to Anna Elizabeth Hussey, daught of Dr. Zimri Hussey of Chillicothe, Ohio. Immediately after his marriage he moved to Louisiana, where while tutoring at Baton Rouge he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and subsequently commenced the practice of
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law. In 1859, he returned to Ohio and took up the practice of law at Chillicothe.
On the call for three years' troops in 1861, he promptly offered hi- services on September 2, assisted in recruiting a Company which became Company B, 63rd Ohio and of which he was commissioned Captain. October 23, 1861.
Captain Brown took the field with his regiment, and was continuously with it in command of his Company in all the earlier part of its service. He took an active part in all the operations at New Madrid, Missouri. Capture of Fort Thompson and Island Number Ten, and Siege of Corinth, including actions at Farmington, May 8th and 28th. He commanded his company at the battle of Iuka, September 19, and Corinth, October 3rd and 4th, 1862. He is given very distinguished credit in the official report of the battle of Corinthi for coolness and daring under a fire of musketry so severe that 48 percent of the regiment was killed and wounded, and he was the only officer of the left wing of the regiment not disabled.
Is also especially mentioned for the capture of a Captain and bugler of the enemy's artillery, driving off the battery and securing one of the caissons.
He was in the engagement at Parker's Cross Roads. Dec. 30, 31, 1862. and took part in 1863 in all operations of the regiment in northern Missis- sippi and Alabama, and vicinity of Memphis, Tenn. In latter part of 1862. and early part of 1863, he at different times was temporarily in command of his regiment as senior Captain. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment March 20, 1863, and as such commanded it at different times during the year next ensuing. Commencing at Decatur, Ala., March 10, 1864, Colonel Brown was the permanent commander of the regiment for a long time. This included operations around Decatur and the march from there to Chattanooga. He was present in command of the regiment, and took part with the Army of the Tennessee on the Atlanta campaign. including among others the following operations and battles, viz .: Snake Creek Gap, Resaca, crossing Oostanaula River, Dallas, Kenesaw, crossing Chattahoocheeiver, advance on Atlanta and engagement at Decatur, Ga .. on 22nd July. The regiment was very actively engaged and under severe fire at Decatur on the 22d July. The regiment was under his command the greater part of this battle, and during the action Colonel Brown received a very severe gunshot wound, which at once necessitated the amputation, of his left leg, close to the hip. His injuries were so severe that he was never again able for field service, and never rejoined the regiment. He remained in service till the end of the war, serving as Provost Marshall of Cleveland, Ohio District, from February 21, to July 8, 1865. He was com- missioned as Colonel of the regiment but not mustered and was commis-
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GENERAL CHARLES E. BROWN.
sioned as Brigadier General of Volunteers to rank as such from March 13, 1865, for gallant and meritorious conduct on the Atlanta Campaign.
Brigadier-General J. W. Sprague, in a letter to Secretary of War Stanton, recommending that Colonel Brown be promoted to Brigadier- General, said this of him :
"He is a gentleman pure in morals, and high toned Christian principles, a lawyer by profession and an accomplished scholar. He was distinguished for gallantry at battle of Corinth, Oct. 4, 1862. He commanded his regiment the entire campaign against Atlanta until the battle of July 22, 1864, when he lost his left leg. while his regiment was engaged with more than four times its number."
"Col. Brown during his entire service in the army has been dis- tinguished for industry and close attention to duty showing rare judgment and skill in commanding men."
General Brown resumed practice of law at close of War at Chillicothe. President Grant appointed him U. S. Pension Agent at Cincinnati and he removed to that city and served as Pension Agent to close of Grant's ad- ministration. He was elected to 49th Congress as a Republican, from the Second Ohio District being a part of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, and re-elected to the 50th Congress. He was afterward elected a State Senator from the First Ohio District to the 74th General Assembly.
Gen. Brown died May 22, 1904, at his home in College Hill, a suburb of Cincinnati. From his army wound and loss of his leg he was a great sufferer as long as he lived, and his death eventually resulted from it.
Gen. Brown was a man of fine personal appearance, an honorable gen- tleman of strict integrity who was deservedly held in high esteem, alike by comrades in the Army and fellow citizens at home. He left a widow and five childrer, Mrs. Fred W. Reed. and Mrs. Horace B. Henderson of Min- neapolis, Minn., Mrs. Frederick P. Siddall of Los Angeles, Cal., Miss Mabel Brown and Charles P. Brown, attorney at law, Cincinnati, Ohio.
One son, Jacob Newton Brown, an attorney-at-law, died September 13, 1893, and Gen. Brown's widow died January 1, 1908.
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COL. OSCAR L. JACKSON.
COLONEL OSCAR LAWRENCE JACKSON,
Oscar. Lawrence Jackson was born in Lawrence County (then part of - Beaver County), Pennsylvania, September 2, 1840. His ancestors were Scotch-Irish, and early settlers in the state. His great grandfather, Samuel Jackson, was born in the highlands of Scotland, resided for a few years in north of Ireland, emigrated to the United States, landing in South Caro- lina, and after residing there for a short time, removed north and settled about 1797, on a tract of land one mile south of the present city of New Castle, Pa. A large part of this land has ever since remained in the posses- sion of the family and is now (1909) owned by his father. His great grandmother Jackson's maiden name was Janet Stewart, born in highlands of Scotland. She was a sister of John Carlyle Stewart, who laid out the town of New Castle, Pa., in 1798, and who built there a few years later. among other improvements, a forge, where the first bar iron was made, west of Pittsburg in western Pennsylvania. His grandfather, James Jack- son was a soldier in the American Army in the War of 1812, and his
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brother, Edwin W. Jackson was a Union soldier in the Civil War. He has also a brother, David P. Jackson, a sister, Mary Jackson, and half sisters, Anna Jackson and Jane Jackson.
His mother's maiden name was Nancy Mitchell, a native of Indiana County, Pa., and a descendant of Scotch-Irish emigrants from County Caven, Ireland, who settled in the Susquehanna Valley, Penna., where her father, Matthew Mitchell was born in 1795. Her mother's maiden name was Nancy Smith, a daughter of George Smith, also of Scotch-Irish de- scent.
Col. Jackson's father, Samuel S. Jackson was born August 19, 1815, and is now (April 1909) still living and a resident of Lawrence County. Pa
Oscar Lawrence Jackson was reared on a farm, educated in the Com- mon Schools, fansy fiili Select School, and Darlington Academy, and when a boy clerked for a short time in a country store. He taught pub- lic school in Starr Township, Hocking County, Ohio, the year before the commencement of the War of the Rebellion. Teaching in two different districts, one term each. Starr Township is south-east of Logan, the county seat of Hocking County, and adjoins the counties of Athens and Vinton. During the Presidential Campaign of 1860 he attended political meetings. marched with the Wide-Awakes, and made some Republican addresses. In this way he acquired during the year, a larger acquaintance with people. than would usually be expected in so short a time, by a young country school teacher coming from another State into a community, an entire stranger. This finally resulted in his serving during the War in an Ohio Regiment, although a citizen of Pennsylvania.
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