Lake County Ohio GenWeb
This information comes from History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Williams Brothers, Philadelphia, 1878 page 45, originally from Ohio in the War by Whitelaw Reid.
At the commencement of the war it was organized and officered as follows: Colonel, William S. Rosecrans; Lieutenant-Colonel, Stanley Matthews; Major, Rutherford B. Hayes.
The position of these officers has been quite different since those days,--in fact, too well known to need repetition. Under command of Colonel E.P. Scammon, the Twenty-third went into active service in West Virginia, meeting with the new and exciting events common to inexperienced soldiers, which were almost forgotten amid the sterner and sad realities of active warfare.
The regiment participated in the battles of Carnifax Ferry, Virginia, September 10, 1861; Giles Court-house, May 10, 1862; and had the honor of opening the battle of South Mountain, September 14, 1862, where it lost thirty-three men killed and eighty wounded, among the latter being Rutherford B. Hayes, now President of the United States. As an incident of this battle it is said that the Twelfth and Twenty-Third Ohio and Twelfth and Twenty-third North Carolina-Companies B on each side-were directly engaged with each other. The Twenty-third, under command of Lieutenant-Colonol Hayes, was in the advance on that day. It was ordered at an early hour to advance up the mountain and attack the enemy. From behind stone walls the enemy poured a destructive fire into the Federal ranks at very short range. The command of the Twenty-third fell upon Major Comley after Lieutenant-Colonel Hayes was wounded, the latter again making his appearance on the field, with his wound half dressed, and fought against the remonstrances of the whole command, until carried off. Near the close of the day at Antietam a change was made by the division to which the Twenty-third belonged, and it was exposed to a large force of the enemy posted in a corn-field in the rear of the left. Its colors were shot down, and at the same time a feint was made in its front. The colors were planted on a new line at right angles with its former front, and the regiment formed a line in the new direction, and opened fire upon the enemy, who retired. The division withdrew, but no order reached the Twenty-third, and it remained on the field until the division commander returned and ordered it to the rear. The Twenty-third assisted in heading off Morgan's command at Buffinton's Island and then returned to Charlestown, West Virginia, and afterwards joined General Crook's forces for a raid on the Virginia and Tennessee railroad. May 9, 1864, the Twenty-third fought at Cloyd Mountain. The enemy occupied the first crest of the mountain, defended by artillery and rudely-constructed breastworks. The hill was steep, thickly wooded, and difficult of ascent, and skirted by a stream of water two or three feet deep. At the word of command the regiment advanced across the stream to the foot of the mountain, under a heavy fire of musketry and artillery, without returning the fire of the enmey. A furious assault was made upon the enemy's works, carrying them, with two pieces of artillery. The struggle at the guns was of the fiercest description. The Confederate artillerymen attempted to reload their pieces when the Federal line was not more than ten paces distant. The Twenty-third was with Hunter in the attack on Lynchburg, and in numerous skirmishes and battles in the Shenandoah valley. At Winchester, July 24, 1864, it lost one hundred and fifty-three men. At the battle of Opequan, September 19, Hayes' brigade had the extreme right of the infantry. Moving forward under fire, the brigade came upon a deep slough, forty or fifty yards wide, and nearly waist-deep, with soft mud at the botton, overgrown with a thick bed of moss. It seemed impossible to get through it, and the whole line was staggered for a moment. Just then Colonel Hayes plunged in with his horse, and under a shower of bullets and shells he rode, waded, and dragged his way through,--the first man over. The Twenty-third was ordered by the right flank over the slough. At the same place men were suffocated and drowned; still the regiment plunged through, re-formed, charged forward again, driving the enemy. The division commmander was wounded, leaving Colonel Hayes in command. He was everywhere exposing himself as usual; men were falling all around him, but he rode through it all as though he had a charmed life. No reinforcements as promised; something must be done to stop the fire that is cutting the force so terribly. Selecting some Saxony rifles in the Twenty-third, pieces of sevnty-one calibre, with a range of twelve hundred yards, Lieutenant McBride was ordered forward with them to kill the enemy's artillery horses, in plain sight. At the first shot a horse drops, immediately another is killed, and a panic seems to seize the artillerymen, and they commence limbering up. The infantry take the alarm, and a few commence running from the intrenchments, and the cavalry, which had been hovering upon the flanks, swept down upon the enemy, capturing them by regiments, and the battle was at an end. The Twenty-third fought at North Mountain, September 20, 1864, and at Cedar Creek, October 19,-a day that is a household word over a whole nation. The Twenty-third was mustered out on the 26th day of July, 1865, at Cumberland, Maryland, and was paid and disbanded at Camp Taylor, Cleveland. Ohio.
Back to Lake County in the Civil War | |
Please note: If you have other Lake County resources or corrections please contact the webmaster at CynthiaGenWeb@gmail.com | |
Last updated 23 May 2005 |
© 2002-8 Cynthia Turk |