This account of the 89th Ohio is from Whitelaw Reid’s Ohio in the War, Vol II. New York: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, 1868. Additions are in brackets. Follow links to chapter chronology pages and images.

Chapter 1. The 89th Ohio was enlisted chiefly from the rural districts in the counties of [Brown,] Clermont, Highland, and Ross, under the call for volunteers of 1862. The regiment went into quarters at Camp Dennison by companies, from the 10th to the 20th of August, and was fully organized and mustered into the service on the 26th of that month. It numbered one thousand, including officers and men. The field and staff officers were selected from the several counties in which the regiment was raised. John G. Marshall, of Brown County, was commissioned Colonel; James W. Rowe, of Ross, Lieutenant-Colonel; and Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph D. Hatfield, of Clermont, Major; Lieutenant Spargur, of Highland, Adjutant; H. Bradley, of Clermont, Surgeon; S. B. Crew, of Clermont, First Assistant Surgeon; Colin Spence, of Clermont, Second Assistant Surgeon; Rev. A. W. Beall, of Clermont, Chaplain; and James W. Patterson, of Highland, Quartermaster.

Chapter 2. On the 3d of September the 89th marched through the streets of Cincinnati, and halted on Third Street to listen to a short, patriotic speech from Governor Tod, delivered from the steps of the Burnet House. Crossing the Ohio River on a pontoon bridge, the regiment went into camp three miles in the rear of Covington, Kentucky.

Chapter 3. The enemy, under Kirby Smith, having fallen back without making an attack on Cincinnati, the 89th was ordered to Western Virginia and arrived at Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, on the 5th of October. After remaining in camp a few days at this place, the regiment was brigaded with the 37th Ohio and 8th Virginia, and, under the command of Colonel Sieber of the 37th, marched up the valley of the Great Kanawha, expecting to find the enemy posted in some strong position ready to give them battle; but meeting with no resistance, the regiment passed on reaching the Falls of the Great Kanawha, at the foot of Cotton Mountain, on the 3d of November. After remaining at this point two weeks, the 89th ascended the mountain and went into winter-quarters five miles from Fayetteville C. H. During the time the regiment lay at this place it suffered with camp fever, causing the death of some and disabling of others.

Chapter 4. Shortly after the battle of Stone River the 89th, with the 92nd Ohio, was ordered to Nashville, Tennessee, to re-enforce General Rosecrans. Two gunboats joined the fleet of nine steamers at Cincinnati, and passing ahead arrived at Louisville on the night of the 30th of January, 1862. On the 3d of February, at eight o'clock at night, the fleet arrived at Dover, on the Cumberland River, two miles above Fort Donelson. The 83d Illinois was in Dover almost surrounded by the Rebel General Forrest’s cavalry, three thousand strong. The Rebels had twice charged the works, been repulsed, and were getting into position to make the third attempt when the gunboats hove in sight. Lieutenant-Colonel Smith of the 83d Illinois passed quickly aboard, gave directions where to aim, and the astonished Rebels were greeted with the bursting of shell in their midst, causing a hasty retreat under cover of the night, leaving their dead on the field. The arrival of our forces saved the post, as the ammunition of the 83d Illinois was exhausted, and they expected at the next charge of the Rebels to be compelled to surrender or be massacred. The Confederate Colonel, McNary, and two hundred of Forrest’s men were found dead on the field the next day, while the loss of the 83d was thirteen killed and fifty wounded. This was the first battlefield the regiment had seen, and it was amply sufficient to impress it with the realities of war.

After remaining at Dover two days, the fleet passed on to Nashville, arriving at that city on the 7th of February. On the 9th the troops were landed and went into camp on the Franklin Pike, some five miles from the city. While here the weather was rainy, and the regiment suffered severely from measles and influenza. Lieutenant Clement Thomas was one of the victims. While at this camp Lieutenant-Colonel Rowe was, on account of failing health, obliged to resign his commission. Colonel Marshall having also resigned, Major J. D. Hatfield was promoted to Colonel and assumed command of the regiment.

On the 22d of February, having been organized with the 36th, 11th, 92nd Ohio, and 18th Kentucky, into what was known as Crook’s division, the 89th broke camp and marched back to the city where, embarking on transports, it arrived at Carthage, Tennessee, on the 25th, and went into camp. The object of this expedition was to prevent the enemy from making inroads into Kentucky, and to was joined by Colonel Stokes’s cavalry and General Spear’s division of Tennessee troops, and after various scouts and skirmishes with John Morgan’s guerrilla cavalry marched, on the 5th of June to join Rosecrans’s main army at Murfreesboro’. It arrived there on the evening of the 8th of June and went into camp one mile from the city. After remaining at Murfreesboro’ until the 24th of June, the 89th, with its brigade, under General Reynolds, joined in the movement against Bragg at Tullahoma. The regiment met with sturdy opposition from the enemy the first day out. At Hoover’s Gap it supported Wilder’s brigade of mounted infantry in a sharp encounter, in which the enemy lost over one hundred killed and wounded; National loss fourteen killed and forty-five wounded. This was the first time the 89th had advanced under fire and witnessed the scenes of a battle-field strewn with dead and wounded. That night the rain poured down in torrents, but the skirmish-line was held all night, next day, and far into the night ensuing, when the enemy fell back under cover of darkness. The 89th, with the rest of Rosecrans’s army, suffered terribly in this campaign from the incessant rains, which flooded the whole country and made it almost impossible to supply the army with rations.

By the 8th of July the enemy had been driven to Chattanooga and beyond. The whole army halted; Reynold’s division (in which was the 89th), went into camp near Decherd, a station on the railroad some fifty miles from Chattanooga. During this campaign the 89th was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel William H. Glenn, who entered the service as Captain of company A, and had been regularly promoted up to the position of Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment. Colonel J. D. Hatfield had been dismissed from the service by court-martial, for expressing disloyal sentiments. The position of Colonel was tendered to Lieutenant-Colonel Glenn, but was declined by him, on account of not being possessed of a military education. Thereupon General Crook had Captain C. H. Carleton [sic Carlton], of the regular army [4th Infantry], and a graduate of West Point [class of 1858], appointed and commissioned Colonel of the 89th.

About the middle of July, 1863, while the 89th was in camp, near Decherd Station, in Tennessee, Colonel Carleton took command, and commenced a thorough course of drilling of both officers and men. While in this camp, General Crook was transferred to the army in the Shenandoah Valley, and General Turchin took his place in command of the brigade.

About the middle of August, the 89th was detached from the 14th Corps and sent up to Tracy City, in the Cumberland Mountains, six miles from Cowan Station, to guard that point and destroy the enemy’s saltpeter works, at Nickojack Cave, while the main army moved forward to Chattanooga. After remaining at Tracy City three weeks, orders came for the regiment to rejoin the command without delay. On the 10th of September it moved, and on the 12th, meeting with Granger’s reserve corps at Bridgeport, was temporarily attached to one of his brigades, and on the 13th started on a forced march to join the main force under Rosecrans, at Rossville, Georgia.

Chapter 5. On the morning of the 19th the 89th moved out in Granger’s corps to the skirmish-line, and engaged in the great and bloody battle of Chickamauga. During the afternoon, ten of the regiment were wounded while advancing the skirmish-line. At nine o’clock on Sunday morning, September 20th, the battle commenced, and raged for seven hours. During the afternoon the 89th went into the hottest of the fight, and with the 21st Ohio and 22nd Michigan, held its position until darkness began to settle like a pall upon the ground, when a division of the enemy came up in its rear, surrounded and captured it entire.

Lieutenant Walker, of company D, was shot through the heart and left on the field, and Granville Jackson, of company G, fell and died amid the strife, a Minie ball passing in at his mouth and out at the back of his neck. Sergeants Benjamin L. Pratt, J. W. Phillips, John Kehner, Corporal Wesley Bragdon, and privates John Mahany and J. Blackstone, were known to be killed. Lieutenants Mallow, of company E, and Barton, of company B, and 52 privates were wounded and sent to the rear, and a number of others were left mortally wounded on the field, to perish in the hands of the enemy. Colonel Carlton, Lieutenant-Colonel Glenn, Assistant Surgeon Purdam, Captains S. A. Glenn, Day, Gatch, Barrett, Adams, and Lieutenants Fairfield, Harris[on], Prentiss, Beard, and Scott were captured and sent to Libby Prison. Colonel Carlton managed to be exchanged in a few months; Captain Adams and Lieutenant Scott made their escape through Colonel Straight’s underground passage, and got safely within our lines; Lieutenant-Colonel Glenn was sent to Charleston, South Carolina, and placed under fire of our guns, and was exchanged ten months after his capture. The non-commissioned officers and privates were sent to Belle Isle, and from there to [Danville and] Andersonville, where a majority of them died of starvation and exposure.

Falling back on Chattanooga, our army went into the intrenchments. Monday morning at nine o’clock, Surgeon Crew of the 89th, sick with jaundice, and just able to ride on horseback, found himself half a mile in front of our line of battle, with forty wounded, twenty sick, and seventy-five well men, all that was left of the 89th. No other commissioned officer being present, the command devolved on the Surgeon. With two ambulances and a few stretchers, at ten A. M., he started for Chattanooga, five miles distant, passed through our line of battle, and arrived there at two, P. M., leaving the wounded in hospital, and reporting the men to the officer in command. For a few days this remnant of the 89th was attached to the 92d Ohio, but becoming dissatisfied, Captain Harris, of the 36th Ohio, took command, and the 89th resumed its own name and organization.

Chapter 6. Captain Jolly, who had been at home recruiting, arrived at Chattanooga the day after the battle with the sick who had recovered. He was promoted to Major, and took command of the regiment, Major Hays having resigned on account of physical disability. The 89th soon mustered two hundred men, and, under Major Jolly, established a respectable standing. For six weeks it lay in camp in the marble quarry at Chattanooga, with shell bursting over its camp, from Lookout Mountain, and joined in the shout of victory as the enemy gave way and fled. The next day, when the charge was made on Mission Ridge, Major Jolly, at the head of his little band of two hundred men, led them to victory in the front of the attacking column.

Chapter 7. After the battle of Chattanooga, or Mission Ridge, the 89th remained in camp at Chattanooga until the 22d of February, 1864, when the 14th Corps made a reconnoissance [sic] and demonstration on the enemy’s works at Dalton, Georgia. The First Brigade of Third Division made a partial charge on the enemy’s works at Rocky Face, on the 25th, in which the 89th had two men killed, ten wounded, and two captured.

Chapter 8. On the 13th, 14th, and 15th of May, the 89th engaged in the fight at Resaca, but without loss. Near Kenesaw, Colonel Carlton rejoined the regiment and took command; thereafter the 89th bore its part in the almost constant fighting for four months, up to and into Atlanta. While at Atlanta Colonel Carlton got leave of absence, was detailed in charge of the post at Chattanooga, and never returned to the regiment. Lieutenant-Colonel Glenn, who had returned from his captivity, having been in prison one year, took command of the 89th, which he continued to hold up to the end of the war.

Chapter 9. After participating in the expedition against Hood, in his mad attempt to capture Nashville, the 89th was at its post in Sherman’s grand march to the sea. It was at the taking of Milledgeville, Georgia, and supported General Kirkpatrick in the cavalry fight at Waynesboro’. It was also at the capture of Savannah on the 21st of December.

Chapter 10. The regiment remained in camp at Savannah over a month; crossed the Savannah River thirty miles above the city on the 5th of February, 1865, into South Carolina, and participated in the thorough destruction of the plantations, cities, and towns of that seditious State. It was at the crossing of the Cahawba River with the 14th Army Corps, when the pontoons gave way twice from the force of the swollen and raging stream, and engaged in the fight at Averysboro’ and Bentonville, North Carolina, on the 18th and 19th of March; Chapter 11 was at the capture of Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, and at the surrender of Johnston on the 27th of April, 1865.

On the 30th of April the 89th with the 14th Corps left Holly Springs, eight miles from Raleigh, and marched to Richmond, Virginia, reaching there on the 7th of May, having made one hundred and eighty miles in eight days. Remaining three days in Richmond the march was resumed, and Arlington Heights, overlooking Washington City, reached on the 19th of May. On the 23d the 89th witnessed the grand review of the Army of the Potomac, and on the 24th participated in the triumphal pageant of Sherman’s army, marching down Pennsylvania Avenue and past the White House.

After two years and nine months’ service the remnant of the 89th was mustered out at Washington City on the 7th of June, 1865, and ordered to report at Camp Dennison, Ohio, there to receive pay and final discharge. Proceeding out west, via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the regiment reached Parkersburg, West Virginia, on the evening of the 9th, crossed over into Ohio and took cars on the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad at twelve o’clock, and from thence made a triumphant procession to Camp Dennison, receiving the cheers, refreshments, and plaudits of the grateful and patriotic people of Ohio.