The Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War

During three years of the Civil War, Colonel John Beatty of the Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment dealt with drunkenness, desertion, insubordination and mutiny, and at one point tied a drunken mutineer to a tree until the man sobered up. He didn’t shoot or dismiss the man, because everyone was needed for service. This emblematic event and many others are detailed in this history, illustrating how the Third Ohio experienced “combat” on the battlefield as well as on the campgrounds of Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Part of a brigade commanded by Colonel Abel Streight, the Third Ohio was charged with destroying the Confederate rail junction in Rome, Georgia. However, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest chased and fought the Third through Tennessee and Northern Alabama until exhaustion and wet ammunition forced the regiment to surrender to Forrest and his men on June 3, 1863. This book presents in full context the Third Ohio’s Civil War experience, and includes a daily chronology of the regiment as well as a complete roster.

David D. Perry is a retired university lecturer in American and European history. He has visited and studied every major battlefield from the American Civil War to those of the Crimean, First and Second World Wars. He has been a Revolutionary and Civil War enthusiast who has marched with the celebrated Old Guard, 3rd US Infantry Regiment. He lives in Florida.

David D. Perry
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 213
Bibliographic Info: 33 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2024
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9511-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5377-8
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vii

Preface 1

Introduction: Bushwhackers and Bridge Burners 7

1. Old Rosy and the Paradoxical Cavalier 25

2. Muddle and Confusion 40

3. The Quickness of a Tiger 54

4. Bushwhackers and Scorched Earth 72

5. Men of Iron 85

6. Christmas Crept In 99

7. Make the Sign of the Cross and Go In 111

8. A Bluff Beats a Straight 126

Epilogue 141

Appendix A. Chronology (Annotated): Third Ohio

Volunteer Infantry Regiment 153

Appendix B. Roster: Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry 157

Appendix C. Ohio Generals During the Civil War 170

Appendix D. Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry

Regiment: Commands, 1861–1864 172

Appendix E. Major General Alexander McCook’s

Corps: Perryville 173

Appendix F. 14th Army Corps (Army of the Cumberland) 174

Chapter Notes 175

Bibliography 187

Index 199

“During the hectic years of the American Civil War, there was much confusion in the movement of men, leaders, units and Armies, but the history of a single unit sometimes clarifies events. This work follows the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment through the first half of the war. David Perry has done an exceptional job of researching the archives of many sources to flesh out the history of the regiment. In the words of those who were there, events and people come clear. The 3rd Ohio represents a microcosm of the military and the political as seen through the soldiers and the country’s press during the war. Thanks to Perry’s years of effort, a new glass is available to study America’s most tragic years.”—Robert L. Willett, author of Wandering the World Doing Good: A Senior Volunteer Saves the World