USA > Ohio > The history of Fuller's Ohio brigade, 1861-1865; its great march, with roster, portraits, battle maps and biographies > Part 32
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On the 29th of August, 1861, being then a little less than twenty-one years old he received from the Governor of Ohio, an appointment with authority to recruit a company of Volunteers for the three years' service.
The schools in which he had been teaching the preceding year had more than the usual number of large boys as scholars, and they furnished him quite a large squad of recruits, of the very best material for good soldiers, to start the proposed Company. They were also useful later on in securing other recruits. By this time the first excitement of enlisting had passed, and it was slow, difficult work to enlist men for three years' service. On November 8, 1861. he had. however, so far progressed, that he was commissioned a recruiting Second Lieutenant, on recommendation of the County Military Committee. He extended his recruiting efforts into other counties, having an arrangement by which men were uniformed as soon as enlisted. and from time to time, forwarded to Camp at Chilli- cothe. After long. hard work. and overcoming many discouragements, as well as receiving much friendly help, he succeeded in completing his com- pany.
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On January 16, 1862, he was commissioned Captain of it. This origi- nal company was obtained about as follows: From Hocking and Athen- Counties one-third from each. The other one-third from Ross. Vinton. Washington and Morgan Counties. In November, 1862, 22 men who had been enlisted for a new regiment to be called the 112th Ohio were assigned to the Company to fill up the losses it had sustained in the field. They were all or nearly all from Montgomery County. Other recruits came during the progress of the war principally from ti.e Counties named. The Com- pany had in all 166 members enrolled during the War. Eight of them were never with it in the field. A little over two-thirds of the whole membership were farmers by occupation. The other one-third repre- sented railroad men, teachers, physicians, clerks, students and nearly all the usual trades, such as carpenters blacksmiths. plasterers coopers mil- lers and the like. These latter were from small villages-none from large cities. The whole Company were native born American citizens, except twelve, these twelve had come from Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany and France, when young, to become American citizens.
During the original recruiting. the Company was expected to be Com- pany B of the 22nd Ohio Infantry Volunteers, but about the time it was full, in order to suit some changes, the authorities desired to take in Field Officers, the number of the Regiment was changed and it became Company H, 63rd Ohio Infantry Vols. It served as such throughout the War, re- enlisting as a Veteran Company, January 1st, 1864. Captain Jackson was present and on duty with his company and regiment practically all the time during its entire service of nearly four years, except about three months when he was disabled by severe wounds received in battle.
He commanded his company the first and larger part of the time, and and until he came into command of the Regiment the latter part of its service, first as Senior Captain and later as a Field Officer.
He was present and took part, among other things in the following operations : In Missouri under General Pope from Commerce to New Madrid, Capture of Fort Thompson and Island Number Ten. Down Mis- sissippi river to Fort Pillow and up Tennessee river to Pittsburgh Landing. The siege of Corinth including actions at Farmington. May 8, 9 and 28. 1862. The battles of Iuka and Corinth, escorting Straight expedition through rebel lines. At Memphis, Prospect and Decatur, Alabama, to Chattanooga and on the Atlantic Campaign. In actions at Resaca, Snake Creek Gap, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Atlanta and Jonesboro. Opera- tions against Hood's Army when it moved north in October, 1864. March to the Sea, Savannah, Pocataligo, Rivers' Bridge, Columbia, Goldsborough, Bentonville and Raleigh.
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COLONEL OSCAR L. JACKSON
In General Rosecran's battle of Corinth, Miss., October 3 and 4, 1862, the 63rd Ohio gained very distinguished credit for its immediate support of Battery Robinet. and for continued hard fighting on open ground sus- taining very great loss.
The Regiment is prominently mentionel in Greeley's History of the Rebellion Vol. 2, page 229.
"On the morning of the fourth, the enemy to cover preparations for their main charge advanced a skirmish line to within about 150 yards of Battery Robinet. It was well protected there by logs and fallen timber, and soon gave great trouble to the main line of our troops, then lying on the ground near Robinet.
"Five men from each Company present, of the 63rd Ohio were selected as skirmishers, Cap't Jackson put in command of them, with orders to advance and drive off the rebel skirmish line.
"It was pretty serious work, but they moved forward and succeeded in driving the enemy's skirmish line back considerable distance."
Near the close of this battle on October 4th, Capt. Jackson received two wounds. The more severe being a gun shot wound in the face, the bullet entering near the inner corner of the right eye, where it still remains imbedded in the frontal bone. He is mentioned in the official reports of the battle, now published in Vol. 17, page 191-2, Series I, Part 1, Reports, as
"A young officer of great promise, who is severely and it is feared mor- tally wounded, who held his Company in perfect order until two-thirds of his men were killed or wounded."
In latter part of May, 1863, when the rebels were seriously disturb- ing the navigation of the Mississippi river, Captain Jackson with Com- panies B and H of his regiment was sent from Memphis with a steamboat load of ammunition to Gen. Grant's Army at Vicksburg. He had five thousand cases of fixed ammunition, much of it percussion shells on the large new steamboat Luminary. His written orders were to not land on the way, under any circumstances. If the vessel became disabled to anchor in the river. To report at Helena, Arkansas, where a gunboat would be fur- nished to escort him past some extra dangerous places.
The trip was made successfully, and they saw a little of the siege at close range. Going down on 26th May at Island 65, above mouth of White river, a rebel Field Battery in plain view fired on a steamboat a little ahead of him. He had a piece of artillery on the bow of the Lumi- nary, and a couple of shells from it started the battery and no harm was done. On the return up the river on 29th May, at Yellow Bend, where the channel is close to the shore-rebels fired into them with musketry. But he returned the fire. The officers of the vessel put on steam and soon ran past them.
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He was, at different times in 1864 in command of his regiment a- Senior Captain in important movements. This included the operations to develop the purposes of Hood's Rebel Army, and drive it off the railroad when it made the Campaign around Sherman's army at Atlanta, with the action driving the enemy out of Snake Creek Gap and following Hood's Army to the Alabama line. Also later on at Savannah, Georgia, and mov- ing from there to Hilton Head and Pocotaligo, South Carolina.
He received promotions as follows : On January 28. 1865 commissioned Major of the Regiment and mustered afterward as soon as commission reached regiment. On June 6, 1865, commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the Regiment. On recommendation of his Brigade. Division and Corps Commanders, he was commissioned by the President, Colonel of U. S. Vols. by Brevet, to rank as such from 13th March, 1865 for gallant and meri- torious services during the war.
Colonel Jackson commanded his regiment in the operations around Goldsborough and in the movements of Sherman's Army from that place to Raleigh, North Carolina. He also participated with it in all the opera- tions immediately preceding the surrender of Johnson's rebel army. He was in the Corps Sherman was moving toward Johnson the day of the surrender. He saw the wild excitement of the steady old veterans of the Western Army, who yelled themselves hoarse and threw guns, cartridge boxes, canteens and knapsacks in the air, when they got the news of the surrender, on the march, and realized that the long war was over. This was the last hostile movement of Sherman's Army. During the opera- tions near Raleigh, he was sent, some time before the surrender, with a very large army train back to Goldsborough for supplies. In this move- ment he was in command of his own regiment and other details reported to him as guard and escort, and had the entire charge and responsibility of the train. Considering the size of the escort and train, his command in this expedition was in importance and responsibility fully equal to that of a brigade. In going and returning he marched about 100 miles through the enemy's country. Once had a bridge burned in front of him, and it was much of the time difficult to find passable roads, and places where streams could be safely forded. But the war was then drawing to a close as the rebel soldiers could well see. The enemy had forces in the vicinity, but they did not show their old time disposition to fight, and many Confederate soldiers came in and surrendered to him. At night they had quite a large camp of their own, but along side of the Union soldiers. They did not re- quire much guarding and were only watched enough to see that there was no treachery intended in their coming in and surrendering. A remarkable feature of the expedition, was the friendly feeling that appeared to spring
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up between the Union and Confederate soldiers and how ready the Union men were to divide their rations with the Confederates.
After the surrender of Johnston's Army to General Sherman, Col. Jackson marched his regiment by way of Petersburg, Richmond, Frede- ricksburg and Bull Run to Washington, and commanded it in the Grand Review at Washington. He then conducted it to Louisville, Kentucky, where it remained in camp until July 8. 1865, when it moved to Camp Dennison, Ohio, where under his direction the survivors of four years of service in the field were mustered out and finally discharged July 17, 1865. paid off and sent to their homes. He took the tattered flag and regimental colors, which had been carried through four long years of war, and de- posited them in the State Capitol at Columbus.
Col. Jackson nad for a long time been the only Field Officer with the regiment. He was very much the youngest of the original ten captains when the regiment was organized. and he was the only one of them that served the whole term and came home with it.
General Charles E. Brown one of the original Captains, was then still in the service, but he lost a leg in battle 22nd July, 1864, on the Atlanta Campaign, when commanding the Regiment and was never able to be pre- sent with the regiment afterward.
After the War Col. Jackson studied law (having been registered as a student before he entered the army) was admitted to the bar, opened an office April 16, 1868 in New Castle, Pa., where he has since been in active practice to this time (April 1909).
He was elected and served a term as District Attorney from 1868 to 1871, and was County Solicitor from 1874 to 1880. He was appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania in pursuance of an Act of the Legislature a member of a Commission to codify laws, and served on it in 1877 and 1878. In 1884 he was elected as a republican a member of Congress of the United States to represent the 24th Pennsylvania Congressional Dis- trict which is composed of Beaver, Lawrence and Washington Counties. He was afterwards re-elected to Congress and served two full terms in suc- cession. In Congress he was a member of the Committee on Public Lands, and favored a policy of disposing of government lands to actual settlers. and a strict construction of grants previously made for other purposes. He was especially interested in tariff legislation, and before the Ways and Means Committee and in the House proceedings, favored a protective tariff and opposed the Morrison and Mills bills.
He was one of the members selected to deliver a memorial address in Congress on the life and services of Gen. John A. Logan. His speeches in favor of a liberal appropriation for building a national library at Washing-
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ton, also for the better government of Alaska and against President Cleve- land's vetoes of pension bills, commanded attention and were republished in newspapers in different parts of the country.
ITis address in the 50th Congress in favor of restoring General Rose- crans to a commission in the Army, in order that he might be retired on it, as a means of support in his old age, was considered worthy of being published at some length in Appleton's "Annual Cyclopedia" 1889, vol. 14. page 234.
After leaving Congress, he resumed the practice of law. In church matters he is a United Presbyterian. He is a Grand Army man and has served several terms as Post Commander and held some department and National positions.
When the Society of the General D. S. Staniey Division, of the Army of the Mississippi was formed, he was elected its first President. He is a · member of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee and has served as Vice President.
He has been President of the 63rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regi- mental Association for the past twenty years, and has attended every annual meeting of the association during that time.
The Sons of Veterans of his home city, New Castle, Pa., honored him by naming their Camp "The Oscar L. Jackson Camp."
He was elected in the 24th Pennsylvania District and served as a dele- gate to the Republican National Convention, that nominated Mckinley and Roosevelt.
He has crossed the ocean several times, and traveled extensively in Great Britain and Europe.
He has never married.
CAPT. ANDREW R. ROBISON. 39th O. V. V. I.
CAPTAIN A. R. ROBISON.
Thirty-ninth Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
Enlisted as Private, July 1861.
Promoted to Corporal, February 1862.
Promoted to Sergeant, September 1862.
Promoted to Second Lieutenant, July 1863.
Promoted to First Lieutenant, July 1864.
Promoted to Captain, January 1865.
He was mustered out with his regiment, never having missed a day's duty in his four years of service in the Army.
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CAPT. CHAS. M. HARRISON. Co. H, 63d O. V. V. I.
CAPTAIN CHARLES M. HARRISON.
Company H, Sixty-third Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
Charles M. Harrison was born in Monroe County, Ohio, 25th January, 1835. His mother was also born in the same county, near the town of Woodsfield. Her maiden name was Esther Hale. She was of English descent, and her people had for several generations, been citizens and resi- dents of this country.
His father. George T. Harrison was born in Virginia, and his people for several generations were citizens of Virginia. They were well to do. and people of property. George T. Harrison, his father, when a boy left his home, went to sea, and for some years led a seafaring life and saw much of the world. Having early acquired a dislike for the institution of slavery. when he quit the sea in 1831, he did not return to his Virginia home, and finally located in the free state of Ohio in Monroe County. He married there and made himself a home in which Charles was born. About 1843 the family removed to Athens County, Ohio, and located at what became
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CAPTAIN CHARLES M. HARRISON.
known as Canaanville. in that county, where they were living when the War of the Rebellion began.
He had two brothers, Owen and William Henry, and five sisters, viz : Kate, now Mrs. Bonar,
Sade, now Mrs. Parkhurst.
Jen, now Mrs. Howell.
Lou, now Mrs. Michael, and
Nellie, who was Mrs. Goodell, now deceased.
He was the eldest of the children and pretty early in life was thrown upon his own resources for a livelihood. A little later he felt it to be his duty to earn what he could by labor, to assist his widowed mother. in the support of herself, and the younger children of the family. For these reasons he had but a small opportunity to acquire an education in the schools. He had been reared on a farm, and that was his work and business up to the time he entered the army.
In the fall of 1861 he determined to enlist as a volunteer soldier, and with that purpose in view went to Chillicothe. Ohio, to a camp where several Companies partly filled were being recruited to form a regiment.
He spent the day in Camp and made the acquaintance of Oscar L. Jackson, who was then and there making an effort to recruit a Company for three years' service. Jackson then had about one-third of a Company enrolled and in Camp with him, and Harrison finally concluded to enlist with him. He went home on leave to recruit and from time to time brought back with liim to camp other young men, his acquaintances and neighbors as recruits. In this way he very materially aided in filling up the Company which became Captain Jackson's Company H. of the Sixty-third Ohio Infantry Volunteers. With this Company Harrison served through the war almost four years. He was present for duty with it, and with the regiment substantially all the time of its service, as he was not much sick and but little absent.
He missed but few important movements or actions of the regiment. His only wound during the service, was a gun shot wound in the arm, received at Dallas on the Atlanta Campaign, when the enemy made the night attack on our front line. When asked immediately after he was wounded if he was bad hurt, he promptly answered, "No, the thing won't give a furlough." And he didn't go to the hospital.
He had the rare distinction of filling every position in the Company from that of private soldier to Captain. And it was the general judgment of his comrades of the Company, as well as his superior officers in the regiment that he filled every one of these positions well. He was appointed First Corporal at the organization of the Company, Sergeant November 1,
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1862, and First Sergeant, June 20, 1863. Commissioned Second Lieutenant May 25, 1864; First Lieutenant, October 25, 1864, and Captain, March 27, 1865.
After the battle of Corinth, October 4th, 1862, in which the Company sustained very great loss in killed and wounded he commanded it for about six weeks as Corporal, being the senior officer present.
The muster rolls on file in the War Department for October 31, 1862. are signed by him as Corporal commanding Company, a very unusual thing to occur.
Captain Harrison as a soldier and officer was prompt to obey orders and was also a strict disciplinarian. He was cheerful and kind with his men, looking carefully after their interests and welfare. In times of danger and battle, he was resolute and brave beyond all question. Of course, not entirely without faults, but he was a good soldier in the strictest sense in which the best soldiers use the term.
After his regiment was mustered out of service at the close of the war he returned to his old home in Ohio, and remained for a short time.
He then went West, and travelled in different parts of the country, finally entering the employ of the government in Indian Agencies. He was for a good many years employed in responsible positions by the govern- ment on the Cheyenne and Crow reservations.
In 1898 Captain Harrison returned to his old home in Athens County, Ohio, and settled down to his original occupation of farming. He is now a practical farmer with a taste for good stock in which line he is rather a successful dealer.
In 1899, he married Miss Mary Smith, a lady of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and a resident of the Captain's own neighborhood. They have in their happy comfortable home two children. The eldest a daughter, Ellen May Harrison and the other a son, Robert Smith Harrison.
The Captain retains his military taste and very much enjoys reunions of the survivors of his old regiment.
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CAPTAIN DANIEL T. THORNE,
Company K, Sixty-Third Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
Daniel T. Thorne, a citizen of Montgomery County, Ohio, in the Fall of 1862, being then about the age of 34 years undertook with others to recruit men at Dayton, Ohio, for a new regiment to be called the 112th Ohio. They were only partially successful, and in November of that year, they were transferred to the 63rd Ohio, and joined that regiment in the field in northern Mississippi. He was given a Captain Commission in the 63rd Ohio, in consideration of his recruiting services, was assigned to Com- pany K, and served with it during the following campaigns.
He took part with his company and regiment in the operatione in northern Mississippi and southwestern Tennessee in November and De- cember, 1862, and in the fore part of 1863. He moved East with his com- mand in the Fall of 1863 in the general movement of troops from the Mississippi river toward Chattanooga. He took part with the regiment in Gen. Dodge's operations from Elk river south, including the crossing of the Tennessee river and capture of Decatur, Ala.
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In the Spring of 1864 he moved East to Chattanooga and joined in the Atlanta Campaign. He was present in command of his company and participated in the operations and actions at Snake Creek Gap, Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain and crossing of the Chattahooche
In the battle of Atlanta 22nd July, 1864, whilst in command of his Company and engaged in very severe action, he received a gunshot wound which entirely disabled him, and he was captured by the enemy.
He was kept a prisoner, his arm was amputated, and he was finally confined in prison at Savannah, Ga., where he died from the effects of his wound and the amputation October 5th, 1864.
He was a man of fine personal appearance, good habits, good character and in every respect a courteous gentleman.
He came to the army a civilian without any previous military training, but with a captain's commission, in a regiment that had then seen long and hard service in the field. He was placed in command of a Company, a large part of whose members were old soldiers and he had thus a very difficult position to fill. He at once devoted himself faithfully to acquiring a knowledge of his duties as an officer.
He was kind to his men, faithful in performance of duty, and as soon as the occasion offered he showed himself a brave and gallant soldier. Long before he was wounded and captured, he had acquired the confidence of his company, the respect of his fellow officers and was regarded as being one of the best officers of the regiment.
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LIEUTENANT MATTHEW F. MADIGAN.
First Lieutenant Company H, Twenty-seventh Ohio Veteran Vol. Infantry.
REGISTER-Born October 25, 1835, at Ireland. Enlisted as private in Cleveland, O., July 27, 1861, in 27th O. V. I. ; rendezvoused at Camp Chant. near Columbus, O., where we were mustered as Company G. 27th O. V. I., August 14, 1861 ; re-enlisted as a veteran in same regiment, at Prospect. Tenn., December 25, 1863; mustered out with regiment after the close of the war, at Louisville, Ky., July 11 1865: promoted Corporal and Sergeant September 1, 1863; Sergeant-Major, March 1, 1865; 1st Lieutenant, June 6, 1865, and assigned to Company H, same regiment.
HISTORY OF SERVICE-Missouri August, 1861, March, 1862, partici- pated in capture of New Madrid, Mo., and Island No. 10; siege and capture of Corinth, Miss., May, 1862; battle of luka, Miss., September, 1862; second battle of Corinth, October, 1862; in Col. Straight's raid, in April, 1863; while regiment was in Memphis was detailed in August, 1863, to go to Ohio to recruit for regiment ; participated in the Atlanta Campaign in the summer of 1864, and previous to General McPherson's death was de- tailed at his headquarters as Sergeant of Headquarters and Provost Guard ; when General Howard succeeded to the command of the Army of the Ten- nessee, remained at his headquarters during the "March to the Sea," capture of Savannah, and through the Carolinas ; at Goldsborough, N. C., returned to regiment to Washington, D. C., and participated in the "Grand Review" at Louisville, Ky., served as member of general court martial convened by order of General Force, mustered out with regiment at Camp Dennison, O.
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LIEUT. PETER ZINN. Co. F, 43d O. V. V. I.
LIEUTENANT PETER ZINN.
Company F, Forty-third Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
Peter Zinn was born in Mifflin Township, Franklin County, Ohio, May 29th, 1842. His father and mother came from Dutch families in Pennsyl- vania, whose ancestors emigrated from Holland some time in the Seven- teenth century.
His parents were born in 1801: Henry Zinn. Sr., in York County, Pennsylvania, and Sarah Agler in Franklin County, Ohio. They were married July 1st. 1825. In 1826 his mother received her dower of one hundred acres in Mifflin Township. Franklin County, Ohio. They set to work building a log cabin and to hew out of the forest a farm for their future home. Here they lived and died, father in 1872 and mother in 1876.
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