42ND OHIO REGIMENT
OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY

Source: History of Ashland Co., OH, Publ. 1880
(Transcribed by Sharon Wick)

     The Forty-second was organized at Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio, in September, October and November, 1861.  Colonel James A. Garfield commanded.  Ashland county furnished two full companies for the three years' service.  The company officers were:

COMPANY H - FORTY-SECOND REGIMENT.

     This company rendezvoused at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 27, 1861, and was mustered into the United States service for three years.  The following are the commissioned and non-commissioned officers and privates of said company, as enrolled:
 

     This company was mustered out at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, December 2, 1864.
     In an engagement near Memphis, Tennessee, Captain Seth M. Barber had the misfortune to be wounded in the foot, which subsequently required amputation, and was the occasion of his resignation, and subsequent assignment to the Veteran Reserve corps.

THE FORTY-SECOND REGIMENT.

     General Garfield appointed Peter B. Johnson, of Ashland, then over sixty years of age, train master.  He served three years in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and was honorably discharged.
     In December, 1861, the Forth-second was ordered to Kentucky.  In January, 1862, it arrived near Paintville, and on the eighth marched under Lieutenant Colonel Sheldon to the fortified position of General Humphrey Marshall, and found the works evacuated and provision carried away or destroyed.  Colonel Garfield followed Marshall, and on the ninth the battle of Middle Creek took place, and Marshall again retreated and burned his stores.  The Forty-second returned and passed up the Big Sandy and took possession of Pound Gap.  The campaign was disastrous to the volunteers of the Forty-second, eighty-five of whom died through exposure and disease.  In March the Forty-second was ordered to Louisville, where it was attached to the brigade of General George W. Morgan, and moved by rail to Lexington, and from thence marched to Cumberland Ford, with only three hundred and fourteen men fit for duty.  In June it marched to the rear of Cumberland Gap, amid continued skirmishing.  On the fifth of August, the Forty-second engaged and held back the advance of General Kirby Smith.  General Morgan, after consultation, finally evacuated the Gap and fell back to, and crossed, the Ohio river at Greensburgh.  The retreat was very rapid, and the men suffered severely for the want of clothing, proper food and rest.  In the month of November, Morgan's brigade passed down to Memphis, Tennessee.
     In December, the Forty-second was ordered to the Yazoo, and led the advance against Vicksburgh.  For three days the regiment held its position in line, when the army was compelled to retire.  In January, 1863, the forces proceeded to White River, and thence to Arkansas Post, and captured Fort Hindman with seven thousand prisoners, all the guns, small arms and stores.  The Forty-second then returned to the rear of Vicksburgh.  In the engagements which followed, the regiment sustained heavy loss.  After the surrender of Vicksburgh the Forth-second marched to Jackson, and participated in its capture, and then entered the Department of the Gulf.  It remained at Thebodeaux during the winter of 1864, and in the spring went on an expedition to Clinton, Louisiana, where it participated in a severe engagement.  It was also in several other small expeditions, and returned to Camp Chase where it was mustered out September 30, 1864.  The forty-second was engaged in eleven battles, in which it lost one officer and twenty men killed, and eighteen officers and three hundred and twenty-five men wounded.  Its tattered banners show hard service.

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