This page features accounts from pension records relating wartime experiences.
Rejoining Regiment after Parole from Prison
Pension Special Investigator Comments
He [Lt Col James Rowe] continued to enjoy good health with a single exception of a little bilious attack which lasted but a few days while the regiment was stationed in Kentucky in the month of September 1862. The weather being very warm and the water exceedingly bad, their was quite a number of similar attacks in the regiment at the same time.
Number 1
I [Byron Lutz] was a member of the same company while we were cutting and hauling logs to build winter quarters on Cotton Mountain in Va. in December 1862 he [Henry Thompson] got hurt in the groin and hip. I cant just tell the day of the month as we were sometime cutting and hauling logs. He got hurt and was unfit for duty while we were in camp on Cotton Mountain and also while we were in Camp Rosecrans at Cannelton Va and we left him in the hospital at Charleston when we left the Kanawha Valley in January 1863. He afterwards joined the regt at Carthage, Tenn, in the Spring of 1863. That I [John Hill] remember while in West Virginia at Camp Fenwick in Dec 1862, while getting out material to build winter quarters. That myself, Thompson and others were at work on detail in the woods or on the side of what was known as Cotton Mountain cutting logs to build our quarters. …that the claimant was falling a tree, on the mountain side, and in running to get away, fell in a sprawling way, or some way I have almost forgotten how, but that he injured himself in one of his hips and groins, the side of the mountain was very rocky. I know he had to quit work and layed around and complained of his hip and side or groin.
Number 2
…was ordered to Point Pleasant at the mouth of the Great Kanawha; thence up the valley to "The Falls"; and after a short stay here, to the southern slope of Cotton Mountain, on Laurel Creek, where we built winter quarters in which we had scarcely become settled when we were ordered back to the Kanawha to a place called Cannelton. Up to this time, my health [James Wolfe] was very good; my weight having increased from about 130 lbs. to about 150 lbs. Here jaundice took hold of me and, not being able to get anything to expel the poison from my system, diarrhea set in and continued from January 1863, until July 1863, …
Number 3
Solomon Stookey did have the measles on Jan 5 1863 at Camp Ruth Udell, or Cannelton, West Va. I personally examined him as I received a furlough of 20 days on that date.
Number 4
The claimant [Edward Cook] here present is my cousin… I was his bunkmate all the time. The first disability he contracted in the army was typhoid fever at Camp Fenwick, Cotton Mountain, W. Va., and he was taken to a house in which resided a man named Warner. I was at the time taking care of Cap. Brown also a cousin of mine. This claimant was brought to the same room in which I was taking care of Capt. Brown. I can not give you the exact date now, it was soon after Christmas, 1862. A short time afterwards they got leave to take Capt. Brown home and at the same time claimant was taken home to Chillicothe, O. The first sickness I had in the service was typhoid fever at Cotton Mt., W. Va. in January or Feb. 1862. I was brought home by Austin Brown and his mother Martha Brown (dead) who were there at Cotton Mtn. taking care of Capt. Allison Brown. They brought him home and as it was feared I would die they also brought me along being friends. I lay sick here for a long time and was six weeks in bed.
Number 5
In reference to David Hague’s case, I do not know positively how he was wounded, but the circumstances in the case are these. He and I were on picket guard together and were relieved at the same time, either at 8 or 10 o’clock P. M., the night being very dark. We started to our sleeping quarters together consisting of fence rails leaning against a fence. I was about four rods behind Hague when I heard the report of his gun, and I honestly believe that it was an accidental shot, and think that was the prevailing opinion of the company. … that on or about the 15th day of October 1862, while we were at Point Pleasant, Va., (I being then with my Co.) [he] at night of that day was out on picket duty, and while so out was injured by a ball passing through the 3rd finger of the left hand of [him] and entirely destroying said finger; the injury was reported as accidental, caused by a shot from his own gun; I have no doubt that it was an accident; [he] was a good soldier …
Number 6
… on a march up Kanawha Valley…October 1862 … we left him [David Pence] sick up in a corn-field, not far from the River, just in the sand. It looked like he was getting no attention, I went to see him, and had a talk with him, thought that poor fellow would die… We were marching up the Kanawha and he got down – unable to go – and we left him, and we left him in a cornfield until the ambulance came for him… I remember of pulling grass + weeds to make him a bed and the next morning he was sent to the hospital at Point Pleasant, W. Va. …
Number 1
Where we [James Patterson] crossed the Cumberland Riv, it was after night and we had to lay on the banks of the Riv. all night. The River had been out of banks and the ground was very wet. When we left Carthage for Murfreesboro, Tenn., we crossed the Cumberland at night again and was up all night.
Number 2
I was a cook at Head Quarters, for Col. Glenn, while at Carthage, Tenn, and more or less while we were in camp, …
Number 3
I next saw him [Edward Cook] at Carthage, Tenn. on the Cumberland River, about April, 1863. He was then much slimmer and showed the effects of the fever but he was on duty and scouted around with us some weeks. I rejoined the company at Carthage, Tenn. sometime in Mar. 1863 as near as I can come to it. I went right on duty guarding the ford at Carthage on the Cumberland River. I gained strength and my health was fairly good until in June or July 1863 when on the march from Carthage to Murfreesboro, Tenn. when I took chronic diarrhea for which pensioned. I had had a touch of diarrhea before that occasioned by drinking poisoned milk which we got on a forage. Stokes cavalry went immediately and burnt the house down where we got this milk.
Number 4
That on or about middle of March, 1863, was in command of his company on a foraging expedition up the Cumberland river on a steamboat and in the vicinity of Granville, Tenn., [also reported as Ft Blount or Indian Fort] when said boat was attacked and fired into by rebels on the shore and the above name soldier [Samuel Pence] was wounded by the enemy in the left leg below the knee. That at the moment said soldier was wounded he was defending the boat …
Number 1
…during months of April and May, 1863,…he [Isaac Cook] contracted diarrhea from exposure, bad water and unwholesome food. This disease was aggravated by further exposure on the march from Carthage to Chattanooga, he being for about fourteen days on said march exposed to cold rains without tents.
Number 2
…until July 1863, when my stools were mainly green slime and blood. By this time, it took all the energy I [James Wolfe] could summon to enable me to keep on my feet; yet I did duty as 2nd sergeant of my company and was never left behind until the regiment left Big Spring, Tenn., when it was impossible for me to march with it to University Heights where it next encamped. But, when the wagons returned for some camp equipage, left behind, I succeeded in getting to ride to the place of rendezvous. About this time I was told that my only hope was to cease eating meat and drinking coffee and to eat vegetables instead which I did and by the first of September my bowels were healed and my stools natural, at which time we were at Tracy City.
Number 1
[Reason Cross] Gunshot wound of right thigh and resulting atrophy of same. An adherent cicatrix one inch in diameter eight inches above the knee joint on the antero outer aspect of thigh marks the point of entrance of a ball which passed upward and backward to a point on the posterior surface of thigh 11 inches above knee joint where it emerged leaving a scar one inch in diameter, dragging but not tender. The femur was struck and some splinters knocked from its surface, no vessels or nerves of consequence were injured.
Number 2
Sept. the 9th, the regiment started to join the brigade – Turchin’s – but at Bridgeport was ordered to report to Gen. Granger, who placed us with the 21st Ohio and 22nd Michigan, with Col. LeFever of the latter in command, and started us on the march toward Chattanooga. We rendezvoused near Rossville and on the following Sat. Sept. 19th, ’63, went into the fight on the left of the main army. Sunday morning, the 20th, directly after sun-rise we were hurried to Thomas’s assistance and were placed in the gap, at the right of his corps, which position we held until night – having twice repulsed the enemy – at which time being without ammunition and surrounded, we surrendered to those who came up at our rear.
Number 3
An explosive ball entered the left hip near the joint, passed through the rectum and into the right hip, where it exploded, shattering and tearing that hip considerably. Pieces have worked out at time ever since. Recently an ulcer formed and he thinks another piece worked out. For five months after being wounded the discharges from bowels passed through the wound. During the first 15 days he [Thomas Doughman] was a prisoner of war and received little attention. Then he was in hospital at Chattanooga and for two months lay on his back which caused bed sores to form, when he was turned on his face and lay so three months and bedsores formed in front of hips and gangrene got in the sores so that it had to be burned out and the bones scraped. Claimant presents the following scars: Scar in left inguinal region beginning 1 ½" above Poupart’s ligament and extending down the thigh, 9 ½" in length and 4 ½" in width; result of gangrene; scar adherent, tender and considerable loss of tissue. Scar of entrance of bullet just back of left great trochanter, 1" in diam., tender, not adherent; slight loss of tissue. Scar of exit: 3" back of great right trochanter; 1" in diameter, tender, not adherent, slight loss of tissue. Scars of bedsores from tip of coccyx 7 ½" upwards and 7" wide; some loss of tissue from sloughing; scar not dragging or tender, except over lower part of coccyx where it is still discharging matter.
Number 4
… was most severely wounded in the right thigh just above the knee by a musket ball said musket ball struck him [John Compton] in the thigh just above the knee and penetrated and struck the bone and passed through part of the bone and through the thigh and came out nearly opposite to where it entered and after [he] was wounded he was taken back to Chattanooga and he remained there for a short time and was then taken back to the hospital at Nashville and remained there for some time. …[he] was at his post and in the line of his duty when wounded and in that said battle and that the next day this affiant assisted in removing [him] from the field of battle to the hospital and had to carry him about five miles…
Number 5
…[Whalon Metzger] received a severe gunshot wound in the left side, which affiant dressed on the night after the battle, and removed from the wound a piece of tin (probably a part of the covering of a button), driven in by the ball.
Number 1
… first day of February 1864…[Isma Troth] contracted hemiplegia resulting in partial loss of the use of the left arm & leg, while in a rebel Prison at Danville, Va., being exposed to the inclusion of the weather without sufficient clothing or fire …
Number 2
We were started at once for Richmond, Va. where we arrived Sept. 31, and remained for one month and a half in Pemberton building, when we were sent to Danville, Va., where we remained six months. Here the squad to which I [James Wolfe] belonged was placed in the upper-most story of a brick tobacco factory – styled Prison No. 3. The building had a tin roof and the room in which we were, not being ceiled overhead, the vapor arising during the night was condensed and frozen on the tin and, when the sun came up and warmed the tin, the frozen vapor was gradually melted and kept dripping constantly, on the floor; and there being no fire in the building during the winter, we suffered, not only from the intense cold of the weather, but also from the chilling damp produced by the dripping as above stated.
This exposure caused me to be attacked by nasal catarrh from which I have never recovered and which has finally produced the throat and lung trouble, which forms a part of the basis of my application for a pension. Here, also, because there had been some tunneling done, all the prisoners on the lowest floor were driven to the two upper floors and, only a certain number at a time, were allowed to go out to the privy. Sometimes there would be as many as one hundred waiting their turns to go. This often caused intense suffering and occasionally some one would be obliged to deposit his excrement or urine in the room. By this means, being often forced to hold my urine until suffering extreme pain, inflammation of the urethra and bladder set in and continued to be a source of trouble for eight or ten years after "The War."
Number 3
We were captured with the Regiment at the battle of Chickamauga, Ga, Sept 20th 1863. [James F. Brown] was taken sick while in prison at Danville, Va, in late fall or winter of 1863, and sent to prison hospital. Shortly afterwards, I was stricken with typhoid fever and sent hospital and placed in same ward with [him]. The Doctor pronounced his sickness fever, …, but it resulted in pneumonia. When [he] grew better, he was assigned to nurse me for a time, and later sent back to prison. Sometime afterward, I think early in 1864, Brown was returned a very sick man with typhoid fever and scurvy – losing some of his teeth. I was stricken with paralysis of left side in February 1864, and we remained in hospital together, until in May 1864, we were exchanged and sent to Annapolis, Md. While in hospital there Brown experienced a relapse. His mother was sent for and as soon as he could travel, Brown was taken home by his mother.
Number 1
Prisoner of war records show him [Charles Harrison]…confined at Richmond, Va, 30 Sep 1863. Sent to Macon, Ga., 7 May 1864. Confined at Camp Asylum, Columbia, SC., no date. Escaped from Charlotte, NC, 15 Feb 1865… I next saw him in prison at Charleston, SC, about Sept. 1864. I messed with him from that time on for some 4 months when he escaped from prison, I think at Columbia, SC. While with him in prison he suffered greatly from colds, malarial influences, lack of shelter and insufficient food. He complained of aches and pains generally and especially of something like rheumatism and trouble in chest and throat.
Number 2
Prisoner of War records show him captured at Chickamauga, Ga, Sept. 20, 1863, brought from Atlanta, Ga., and confined at Richmond, Va., Sept. 30, 1863. Sent to Macon, Ga., May 7, 1864. Escaped from Columbia, S.C., Nov. 26, 1864, reported at Knoxville, Tenn., Dec. 27, 1864…Clarksburg, Ohio, May 16, 1865. I hereby certify that I have been the regular attendant physician on Lieut. J. V. Baird since his arrival home from Rebel Prisons. When first call I found him suffering very much from scurvy and rheumatism contracted while a prisoner, about two weeks afterwards he suffered an attack of typhoid, pneumonia, the result of exposure from which he is now slowly recovering.
At the battle of Chickamauga all that was left of the Regt was captured on Sunday evening, Sept 20 /63. I [Edward S. Scott] was at that time 2d Lieut Co. G. Capt. Adams + myself with some ten or fifteen other officers were taken to Libby Prison Richmond Va reaching there Oct 1st 1863. On the night of Feb 9th /64, Capt. Adams and myself, in company with a Lieut Higbee of the 22d O.V.I. escaped through the famous tunnel and traveled in company till we reached our lines at Williamsburg, Va, near noon of Feby 19 /64, after being out (9) nine days and nights. The weather for the last few days of this time was extremely cold, (following a snow storm) and our sufferings were intense. By these and from lack of food Capt Adams was much reduced in strength. I distinctly remember the one night Lieut Higbee + myself were obliged to support him between us for some distance till we reached a shelter.
I was collar sargeant at that time and [Henry] McQuinniff I believe was on of the collar guards, but I am not shure of that. On the afternoon of that day we assaulted the Rebel lines. While on the advance McQuinniff fell near me. I did not stop but advanced with the line some distance when we were repulsed and fell back past the place where McQuinniff had fallen, he had moved a short distance. I did not see his wound then nor since, was told he was wounded in the groin. He was carried to the rear as I saw and sent back. Ball entered on inner side of right thigh about 6 inches below the pubis and came out 2 ½" below the trochanter on the outer side.
Number 1
May 16th, ’64, we were sent to Andersonville, Ga., and entered the prison May 21st, ’64, where we remained until the 10th of the following Sept. Here I [James Wolfe] suffered from scurvy which caused the muscles of my lower limbs to contract, to such an extent, that I could not walk up hill, except by going sidewise and my bowels being yet tender, when captured, on account of the diarrhea before mentioned seemed now to be particularly affected; but instead of a return of diarrhea I became badly constipated and with constipation came piles in a very severe form causing extreme pain while at stool and profuse bleeding. This was rapidly dragging me down until we reached Charleston S.C.
Number 2
[I] was confined in Andersonville Prison from May 1864 to April 1865. During my confinement in said Prison, I became acquainted with H. H. Redkey also a prisoner of the 89th Reg Ohio Infantry, and occupied with him a tent made of our blankets from June 1864 until we were discharged. As prisoners during our confinement said Redkey was all of the time sick with scurvy in the legs and mouth and was most of the time unable to be around or help himself. …and while on march to Atlanta Ga I was taken prisoner of war + sent to Andersonville Ga. After being in about one week I found Comrade Henry H. Redkey. I would knot of known him if he had not recognized me first and made his self knowen to me, on account of his being afflicted with stomach rheumatism heart scurvy and he appeared to be so feeble that he could barelly walk. He was taken to the hospital after he became so disabled that he could not care for his self. It was during June, July and August 1864, when I was helpless – unable to walk and during this time I first discovered that I had rheumatism in my back and running through my hips, down into my legs – the worst on my left side. …I only know that I had intense pains in my back, hips and legs, while I was in prison as I have stated and that for a time I was unable to get around at all and I know that I have been affected in this way ever since that only the trouble has gradually increased all the time. I was perfectly helpless in this account a part of the time while I was in Andersonville, Ga. prison. It was during this same time, while I was a prisoner that the heart, stomach and bowel trouble developed. I had treatment I suppose for all them disabilities while I was in prison – such as it was. They did not give me much treatment for the reason, as they stated to me, they did not have the medicine to do anything with.
[Edward Scott] was wounded on the 20th of July, 1864, at Peachtree Creek, Ga., while commanding his company on the skirmish line, a musket ball passing through his left wrist in such a manner as to render amputation of the left hand necessary the same day.
- to which place we went on leaving Andersonville – where I [James Wolfe] traded a gold pen and silver holder – which had belonged to one of my comrades who died at Andersonville – for potatoes and by eating these received temporary relief. After remaining two weeks at Charleston, we were sent to Florence, S.C. where I was paroled Dec. 9th, ’64, and transferred from the confederate flag-of-truce to our own Dec. 11th, ’64, at Charleston. I was then taken to Annapolis, Md. and sent from there home on furlough.
[Solomon Stookey] had chronic diarrhea on the Carolina Campaign… Was 1st Lieut commanding Co F 89 O.V.I. From Pee Dee River to Goldsboro was not able to keep command of his company. At Goldsboro about the 1st week in April his company F was transferred to me and Lt Stookey was sent to the hospital. I was in command of Co F until we arrived at Washington D.C.
Rejoining Regiment after Parole from Prison
At the expiration of this furlough I [James Wolfe] again reported at Camp Chase and was sent to my regiment, arriving in Washington the morning before Lincoln’s assassination and at Alexandria later in the day. From this place I was send around Hatteras to Morehead City; thence to Goldsboro, where, on account of the expectation that Johnston would soon surrender, we were detained until the event transpired, when we were sent back to Newbern; thence across the sounds to Fortress Monroe; thence to Alexandria again where I first joined my regiment just in time for "The Grand Review" and of course in time to be mustered out with the regiment.
…they know of their brother Martin [Boots] giving their father some money soon after he volunteered in the U.S. service; that as well as they recollect the amount was twenty-five dollars; that he was home on a furlough at the time and just prior to his leaving the state of Ohio; that the said money was given him to buy a cow with, and father bought a cow with the same from their uncle, James Solars; they further state that they have no recollection of him ever sending his parents anything more while in the service. With one exception, I think the claimant [Daniel, Martin’s father] is about the dullest man I ever saw. The exception is the son Harvey. He came very near proving that he didn’t know anything. After I finally got him to "guess" at his age, I wanted him to say how old he was when his brother Martin died, and asked him to take 24 from 38 and tell me what his age was. He studied for full five minutes and had to give it up. Both he and the claimant are too dull and stupid to be dishonest or to frame a plausible falsehood.