Ohio in the Civil War

Introduction - Ohio in the Civil War
Ohio contributed more men as Union soldiers than any other state, except New York and Pennsylvania. Nearly 320,000 Union soldiers came from Ohio. It also provided greatly to the supplies of the Union Army throughout the war.

Ohio provided 230 regiments of infantry and cavalry, 26 light artillery batteries, 2 heavy artillery regiments, and 5 independent sharpshooter companies. Before the war, Ohio was a major stopping place for the Underground Railroad; 5,092 free blacks were part of the Ohio regiments.

The following Union generals were from Ohio: Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Philip H. Sheridan, and several others.

Ohio Military Units
Most units were numbered; however, some were named. See the table below for lists of the regiments, battalions, batteries, and unassigned companies.

The information in the lists of Ohio military units comes from the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors web site. This web site can also be searched by the name of a soldier. The Ohio Civil War Genealogy Center by the Ohio Genealogical Society uses the same data as the CWSS, but its search engine is much more flexible, allowing for searches by partial name and Soundex.

Ohio Units by Number or by Name Union Units 1st-8th 9th-22nd 23rd-65th 66th- 115th 116th- 165th 166th- 200th A to Z Ohio Units by Type of Unit Union Units Infantry Cavalry Artillery Sharp-shooters Colored Troops Unassign- ed Units

Union Service Records
The index to the federal service records of Union volunteers from Ohio is:


 * Index to Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Ohio United States. Adjutant General's Office.


 * Smith, Elijah Parsons. The diary of Elijah P. Smith. (Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1974),.

For more information on service records see Union Service Records.

Union Pension Records
Civil War Pension Index Cards – An of veterans who served in the U.S. Army between 1861 and 1917 is available on FamilySearch. Each card gives the soldier’s name, application and certificate numbers, and state of enlistment; it might include rank and death information. most records are of Civil War veterans, but the collection also includes records for veterans of the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, the Indian Wars, and World War I. For more information see Union Pension Records.

The index to the Union pension records for all states is:


 * Pension Index File, Alphabetical

Names and residences of persons receiving federal pensions in 1883 can be found in:


 * Index to Ohio Pensioners of 1883. This includes veterans of the Civil War and the War of 1812 or their widows.

1890 Census Veterans Schedules
1890 Census Veterans Schedules - The "Special Schedules of the Eleventh Census (1890) Enumerating Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War" (NARA M123) are available online for the state of Ohio. The schedules list Union veterans and their widows living in Ohio in 1890. For more information on the 1890 Veterans Schedules see Union Census Records.

State Records
Records of Civil War soldiers were also kept by county and state officials. These include:


 * Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion: Original Muster In &amp; Muster Out Rolls of Ohio Military Organization in the Civil War, 1-3 Year Enlistments, 1861-1866 (Salt Lake City, Utah, Genealogical Society of Utah, 1959-1960),  Rosters are arranged by name of regiment and give enlistment and service information about each soldier.


 * Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion: Muster In &amp; Muster Out Rolls of Ohio Military Organization in the Civil War, 1861-1866, 3-Month Enlistments  Arranged by regiment.


 * Official Roster of the Colored Troops of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion: Original Muster In and Muster Out Rolls of the Civil War, 1-3 Year Enlistments, 1861-1866 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1962),


 * Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866 The files were compiled by the Works Progress Administration in 1938. (Bethesda, Maryland : University Publications of America, c1993),


 * Roster Commission 'Official roster of the soldiers of the state of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866.' (Bethesda, Maryland : University Publications of America, c1993),.

Rolls of Honor
A published roster is also available in:


 * Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866.

Prisoners of War

 * Burials and prisoners' records,1861-1896

Biographical Sketches
Officers


 * Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Her Generals, and Soldiers

Soldiers Homes
National Old Soldier Homes

For records of national old soldier homes, including the one in Dayton, Ohio, which served Ohio and nearby states, see:


 * Registers of Veterans at National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1937 Includes general indexes for each of the 12 homes, but some individual volumes are indexed separately. These may list a soldier's name, date and place of enlistment, rank, military unit, length of service, date and place of discharge, place of birth, age, physical description, religion, occupation, previous residence, marital status, nearest relative, pension, home admission and discharge dates, disability, death date, or cause of death. Though most were Civil War soldiers, veterans of other wars were included.

State Soldiers' Home


 * Located in Sandusky; Ohio Veterans Home (Sandusky, Ohio). Veterans Home Records, 1889-1995. Sandusky and Georgetown

Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home

The Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home-Ohio Veterans' Children's Home closed. All records (social, medical, and education) were sent to the Ohio Department of Education in Columbus, Ohio.


 * Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home. 1898. A Roster of Honorably Discharged Ex-Pupils of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, Xenia, Ohio: Giving Dates of Admission and Discharge, Present Occupation and Address of Each, So Far as Known. (Xenia, Ohio: Home Weekly Print). Libraries with book


 * Ohio Veterans' Children's Home. 1995. Ohio Soldiers' &amp; Sailors' Orphans' Home, Ohio Veterans' Children's Home, Student Records, 1869-1995. (Xenia, OH: Ohio Veterans' Children's Home, Records Dept.). Student records include date of birth, date of admission, county of origin, and notations regarding whether records on file contain social service records, medical records, education records, and/or admission card only. Libraries with book

Cemetery Records
Resting Places, at Lest We Forget, African American Military History

USCT Burials in Shelby County, Ohio

Internet Sites

 * Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System has the information listed above and may have additional historical information. Searches can be made by name of a soldier or sailor. Information about cemeteries battles, prisoners, medals of honor and national parks is also included.


 * Ohio in the Civil War, by Larry Stevens, includes brief histories of the regiments, bibliographies of regiments, and often lists of companies with their counties. It also includes a great bibliography of Ohio Civil War sources.


 * Ohio Civil War Genealogy Center, by The Ohio Genealogical Society, has a search for names of Union Soldiers in Ohio units, a search for the surname in the Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal, and a search of the index of the Society of Civil War Families of Ohio Roster. The roster uses the same data as the Civil War Soldiers &amp; Sailors System, but has a much more flexible search engine.


 * The Civil War is an online encyclopedia of Ohio history.


 * Bibliographies of Ohio Civil War Units lists by type of unit, then by regiment books, Internet sites, etc., about the regiment.


 * Ohio History Central, by the Ohio Historical Society, an online encyclopedia of Ohio history.

Other Sources
Books


 * Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal. This publication is devoted exclusively to Ohio and Ohioans in the Civil War.


 * Ohio. Roster Commission. Official roster of the soldiers of the state of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866. (Akron [Ohio] : Werner Co., 1886-1895)


 * Baker, Scott. Civil War soldiers buried in Wyandot County, Ohio : war of the rebellion, 1861-1865. ([Ohio] : Ohio Genealogical Society. Wyandot Tracers Chapter, 2000)


 * Dee, Christine, ed. Ohio's War: The Civil War in Documents. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007).


 * Clark, Peter H. The Black Brigade of Cincinnati. (New York: NY: Arno Press, 1969). FHL 973 M2cl.


 * Leeke, Richard. A Hundred Days to Richmond: Ohio's "Hundred Days" Men in the Civil War. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999).


 * McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988).


 * Reid, Whitelaw. Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Generals and Soldiers. (Cincinnati, OH: Clarke, 1895). Volume 1 on fiche 6118088 (12 fiche); Volume 2 on fiche 6118089 (11 fiche) and (Bethesda, Maryland : University Publications of America, c1993)


 * Roseboom, Eugene H. The Civil War Era: 1850-1873. (Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1944).


 * Stevens, A. Parsons. The Military History of Ohio: its Border Annals, its Part in the Indian wars, in the War of 1812, in the Mexican War, and in the War of the Rebellion: Giving a Roster of Ohio's Rank and File ... in the War of the Rebellion, Regimental Histories, with Histories of its G.A.R. and Ladies' Auxillary Posts, and Camps of Sons of Veterans. (New York: H. H. Hardesty, 1886, c1885). 316 p. Warren County Edition. (6 fiche)

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)
Grand Army of the Republic founded in 1866 - 1956, was the largest veteran’s organization in the country after the Civil War. It was a fraternal organization members were veterans of the Union Army, US Navy, Marines and Revenue Cutler Service who served in the American Civil War. The group supported voting rights for black veterans, and lobbied the U.S. Congress to establish veterans' pensions. In 1890 the membership was 490,000.

In 1888 there were 654 posts and 41,486 members in the state of Ohio

GAR Posts in the State of Ohio

The FamilySearch Catalog list records of the Ohio Grand Army of the Republic.

Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
With the death of the last member of the Grand Army of the Republic the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War was formed.