Civil War Letter on the Loss of George Holmes

Oct the 17th, 1863

Camp near Chattanooga, Tenn

Dear father and mother,

It is with the greatest of pleasure that I sit down to inform you that I am well at present and I hope you are all the same. I would write sooner but it is been so I could not write and it is so hard to content my mind long enough to write. It is lonesome here to me. You want to know all about George. I will tell you the best I can about him.

On the 20th of Sept about three o'clock we went in the fight and about four o'clock he was shot and I fell back to hunt him. I hunted about one hour and I found him and I ran and found a blanket to spread over him and I tried to git somebody to help me to bear him away but I could not get anybody to help and our men was a falling back and I had to leave him and the rebels got him and had him ten days and they fetch him to the lines and our men went after them and I found him the first day of Oct and was with him til he died. He died on the 10th of Oct a Saturday and was buried the 11th at five o'clock. He still thought that he would get well til about 24 hours before he died and he told me that he was not a going to ever see home again. That was awful sad to me. I asked him if he wanted to be took home and be buried at home and he said he wanted to be buried in that graveyard to the chapel. The night before he died he told me to go and tell the steward to come and pray with him and I went and told the steward and he came and prayed with him. Poor George prayed for his self. He was in so much misery he could not hardly pray but he prayed. I never was in such a fix in my life. It seemed to me I had no friends in the world of a night that would come and tell me he was a dying and I could not get to sleep for I was pretty near sick myself. I was up with him so much I could not sleep when I would lay down. He thought he would get well enough to go home in three weeks. He said he was a going to go to Nashville, telegraph to father to come after him. He told me to go and see Mitchell and get him for father and to hurry back and I started and I was gone but a little while and when I got back he was dead. He said that maybe father could get here before he died. He said that he called for father and said he was a sailing in a ship. Was the last words he said. I have got his clothes but I don't expect I can get to send them home. I haven't seen any chance yet. If I can get his coat and belt and sash home I don't care so much about the rest for the rebels took his money and all the other things they could find. I will have to close my letter this time. I want you to write some and often to me and let me know what you was doing the 10th and a Sunday in the afternoon. I will close my letter so goodbye from

William H Holmes

To his parents

Nimrod and Frances Holmes

George W Holmes (28 Apr 1841 - 10 Oct 1863)

1st Lt. Co. C. 113 Reg. O.V.I.

William H. Holmes (1843-1906)

Corporal Co. H. 113 Reg. O.V.I

As you can see his parents did put up a monument for George at the graveyard at the chapel as he wished. His stone is at Wesley Chapel Cemetery in Hilliard, Franklin County, Ohio.

George and William Holmes were elder brothers to my Great, Great Grandmother Martha Holmes Romick

Patch Boys in the Civil War

Harmon Patch Jr, 1845-1922 Co. I, 121st Ohio Infantry; Co. H. Veterans Reserve Corps, 15 Infantry Regiment. He enlisted at 17.

My Great, Great Grandfather James W. Patch was born in May 1856, the youngest of 10 children. In April of 1861, when the war broke out, he was 4. While he stayed home, three of his elder brothers enlisted:

Esley, Co. G., 17th Ohio, Apr-Aug, 1861; Co. I 121st Ohio, Sept 62-Jun 65.

Alemuel, Co. D. Regular Army, 1862-1864,

Harmon Jr. Co I 121st Ohio, Sep 62-Dec 64.

All three brothers made it through the war. Although Alemuel was admitted into the National Home for Disabled Soldiers in Dayton Ohio at the age of 52, then transferred to the Home in Marion, Indiana, where he died. I have frankly wondered about what we now call PTSD. All three of these men suffered for the rest of their lives.

Harmon Patch Sr. felt strongly about the war. This is from his obit.

[Harmon] was a patriot in the dark days of the rebellion. He not only gave of his means to clear his township from draft but gave three sons and one son-in-law to put down that rebellion to preserve the union and uphold the flag. Politically he was an Abolitionist before there was an Abolitionist, believing that slavery as it existed in the South was not only a great injustice to the negro, but also a disgrace to our nation and sin before God."

Marysville Tribune 26 August 1896 P4 c2

Civil War Service

Granville Robertson’s Civil War service according go his Obit.

He served two months as a private soldier in the Civil War; afterwards volunteering as a sharpshooter. He hired a substitute afterward, paying him $200 in money and signing over his bounty to him, amounting to $500 altogether. His substitute’s name was Benjamin Messer. He lives near Newton now Raymond.

When the adjutant general of the state ordered the organization of the militia he enlisted in Co. D. 1^st Regiment in Union County, and was elected second Lieutenant. He served in that capacity during the organization but was never call into actual army service. John Hartshorn was colonel of the regiment and A.P. Hill was government drill master.

Richwood Gazette March 6, 1913. P. 1 c 4.

This a copy of the 1890 Veterans Schedule.

100 Days Men

Ancestry.com is offering free records for a week to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. As a result I have been thinking a lot about my family's service. I will be highlighting the soldiers in my family and their service for the next several days.

One of the things I am fascinated with is the Ohio "100 days Men"

The principal person behind the 100 days regiments was Ohio governor, John Brough. He visited Washington and offered President Lincoln 30,000 (in the end 38,000) Ohio men for a hundred days. Four other western states (Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin) also raised regiments. The 100 days men were meant to serves as guards for bridges, fort and railroads thereby releasing the soldiers to mop up the war but many ended up in the thick of battle. While ending the war in 100 days was a noble idea and an ambitious plan; its failure was by no means the fault of the men who served. In the end, the regiments did far more than was expected of them.

There are several good books that speak to this unique part of history.

History of the 133 regiment. O.V.I. and Incidents Connected with its Service During the "War of the Rebellion", by the Historian of the Association of its survivors, S. M. Sherman, M.D. 1896

A Hundred Days to Richmond: Ohio's "Hundred Days" Men in the Civil War, Jim Leeke, 1999.

Veterans Day Remembrance of Jacob Romick

My Great, Great, Great Grandfather Jacob Romick was in the army twice. In 1841 and again during the Civil War. What a conundrum. I knew about his Civil War service since he has a military gravestone and I have a copy of the receipt for the stone and his pension record. But I had no idea that he was in the army twenty years earlier too.

According to the "Descriptive and Historical Register of Enlisted Soldiers of the Army" Jacob Romick was enlisted by Lt. Bradford in Columbus, Ohio in the 4 Artillery Co. F. on 29 January 1841. He was 21. He was discharged as a Private in July of 1843 in Fort Monroe, VA with a disability.

He returned to Ohio, married Rachel Britton on 30 Sept 1844 and they had 8 children: Mary M, Hosea, Charles M., Rachel L., Jacob E., William, George W. called General, and John T.B.

Flash forward twenty years.

Lt. Jacob Romick was one of the 100 Days Men in the 133 Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Active from 6 May 1864 to 6 Aug 1864, these volunteers along with thousands of others were to help the Union achieve victory in 100 days. You know that did not happen. His pension record indicates that he was an invalid. (I wonder what the original 1843 disability was and if he was injured again.)

I am still digging to learn more about him and his service. I did find out on the 1841 enlistment record that he was born in Fayette County, Ohio (something new I did not know.) and that he was 5 foot 9 inches tall and had brown hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. It also had his occupation as a saddler. (That might explain why he kept going to war.)

Now if only I could figure out why was in the army at all in 1841. The Texas situation was over and the Mexican American War had not yet begun. I really do love history.

Civil War Reenactment

Long Pond Ironworks hosted the 6th New Hampshire and the 12th Alabama regiments for a civil war reenactment this weekend. I popped in for a dose of history. While chatting with one of the officers about the heat and the need to always wear their wool jackets buttoned to the neck, he told me in a loud stage whisper that there was going to be a skirmish. One of the scouts had just reported some of the Rebs marching through the woods. I skedaddled to the killing fields, as it were. On the way, I shook hands with Abe Lincoln. He had come to see his boys in action. Pretty bold of him, I have to say.



The boys in blue marched down the hill toward the Alabama camp. On the barked order from their commander, they hid behind trees, stumps and a stone wall to prepare their guns. As the two sides fought back and forth advancing and retreating though the haze of smoke and the smell of gunpowder, I thought about all of those men that fought in that war. I have at least 2 great, great grandfathers that fought, one from each side: Granville S. Robertson and Jeremiah Wood. My father’s family at the time was living in Virginia, my mother’s in southern Ohio. Both of them made it through the war; came home, made babies and 140 years later, I am researching their involvement. I do not have pictures of either one of them, so I offer these from today’s event.



Did your family fight in the Civil War? On which side?