It is late March 1863. Nearly two years have passed since the April 12 bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.
As history, the Civil War is fast approaching its midpoint, but of course the people living along the shore of Sandusky Bay in 1863 do not know that. It will be two more years before Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865, when Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia and the Civil War effectively ends.
Battle scrimmages, wagon tours over the battle grounds with first or third person narrations, living history demonstrations and memorial services were among the topics discussed at Saturday’s meeting at the Meigs Musseum of the planning committee for the 150th observance of the Battle of Buffington Island, July 19-21.
The photo featured here was pulled from a postcard, which was submitted by Donna Webb, of Glenford, who found it among the possessions of her mother, Virginia Harris Smith.
Webb wrote this about the photo, “In going through some old pictures of my Mom’s I came across an old postcard type picture that is titled “Answer to the First Call”
150 years ago this week the 125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was situated in its first war zone deployment. It was settled in the community of Franklin, Tenn., 18 miles south of Nashville. Franklin had a pre-war population of 1,500 souls.
The 125th was well-populated with Trumbull County boys. Kinsman, for example, sent more men, 34, to the 125th than any other unit.
Allan Johnson III stands near his father, Allan Johnson Jr., and holds a bullet in his hand.
The bullet is a link between the 54-year-old, his 87-year-old father and his great-great-grandfather, Civil War veteran and public servant Brevet Maj. Gen. Alvin Coe Voris.
When I was a student at General Sherman Junior High School in Lancaster during the 1970s, I visited the childhood home of the school’s namesake.
The Sherman House Museum, located at 137 E. Main St. in Lancaster, is the birthplace of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman. His younger brother, U.S. Senator John Sherman, was also born in the home. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places and has served as a memorial to the family since 1951. It’s operated by the Fairfield Heritage Association.
In 1962 a historical marker commemorating the 100th anniversary of Brigadier General Albert G. Jenkins’ Civil War raid into Ohio was erected in the Buffington Island Memorial Park at Portland.
For some unknown reason, it was removed some years ago, stored and forgotten, according to Karen Hassel, Regional Site Coordinator for the Ohio Historical Society.
“Blue coats, brass buttons and gold braid … gray bearded faces and bodies of soldierly bearing despite the weighing burden of years — are the picturesque
and distinctive features of Springfield’s guests of honor who are arriving with every train and interurban.”
— Springfield Daily News, June 1912
Plans had been in the works for months.
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