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Sherman and ordered to embark on the steamer Hiawatha and proceed down the river with the forces under his command, the objective point being Vicksburg, Miss.
     The whole regiment and its outfit of wagons, teams, etc., together with the Seventeenth Ohio Battery with its guns, horses and mules, were packed on this small craft.  Nearly every member of the battery was sick with the measles.  The horses and mules were placed on deck, their heads tied on either side, forming between them a narrow aisle.  Only partial rations of hard bread and roasted coffee could be had, the only resort being flour and green coffee, which required cooking and roasting.  It may have been a necessity, but certainly it was a bitter fatality.
     The only facility for cooking was a small stove on the after deck, to reach which it was necessary to run the gauntlet of two hundred pairs of treacherous heels and the filth of such a stable.  First, the coffee and the meat were cooked and eaten with hard bread, but the supply of the latter was soon exhausted and the men were forced to mix flour with water and bake it on the same stove.  With the best effort possible it was often 2 o'clock before all had their breakfast of the half-cooked material.  As if this were not all that flesh and blood could endure, cold rain continually drenched all who were not under cover, and for want of room many were forced to remain on the hurricane deck, famished with hunger and tortured with sleeplessness.
     All day and all night the little stove was used by men preparing the unhealthy rations which, while they staved off starvation, were not slow, in connection with other causes, in developing diseases that were equally fatal to those who were packed close in the ill-ventilated and overcrowded apartments.  Surgeon Henderson, with his assistants, labored incessantly to check disease and relieve the sufferings of the men, but typhoid, measles and erysipelas were masters, everything seemingly rendering them aid.  Death reaped a frightful harvest.
     On its way the regiment disembarked at Milliken's Bend

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on the 20th and made a forced march to Dallas Station, La., on the Vicksburg, S. & T. Railroad, a distance of twenty-eight miles over a narrow road cut through a dense cypress forest, over stretches of corduroy and thick intervening mud of the low marshes, burning depots and warehouses, destroying a large amount of railroad property, tearing up the track for miles, returning the following day in a pelting storm of cold rain, having marched fifty-six miles in less than forty hours.
     The regiment was taken on down the river to the Yazoo (the River of Death), and up that river to Johnson's Landing; there disembarked and marched to Chickasaw Bluffs and participated in the first attack on Vicksburg, where the Union forces were defeated.  Then proceeding to Arkansas Post, they took an active part in the assault upon the works, capturing 7,000 prisoners, losing ten killed and twenty-six wounded.  After this engagement it at once accompanied the army under Grant in the flank movement to the rear of Vicksburg and took part in the siege until the surrender, July 4th, 1863.  Then it marched on to Jackson, taking part in the siege until its evacuation on the 17th of July; thence back to Vicksburg.  and from there by steamer to Carrollton, La.  It was next engaged in what was called the Teche campaign, and participated in the battle of Grand Coteau on the 3rd of November.  This was a desperate fight against overwhelming numbers, the regiment losing 110 men killed, wounded and missing.
     In December the regiment was ordered to Texas, where it operated against Dick Taylor's forces until March, 1864, then returned to Brashear City, La., entered upon the Red River campaign under General Banks.  On the 8th of April they were engaged in the battle of Sabine Cross Roads, losing fifty-six men killed, wounded and missing.
     On the first of August the regiment, with the Thirteenth Corps, embarked for Dauphine Island, in the rear of Fort Gaines, and were the first troops to land in the rear of that fort and participated in the siege until the surrender on the

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8th, with 1,000 prisoners.  On the 1st of September the regiment returned to Louisiana, and in November proceeded to the mouth of White River, in Arkansas.  The regiment was so reduced in numbers by continued losses that a consolidation became necessary, which was effected by special order on the 18th of November, making a battalion of five companies called the Ninety-sixth Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel A. H. Brown commanding.
     Company B of Knox, E of Marion, and K of Union were consolidated, making Company C, commanded by Captain Evans. The battalion continued to operate in Arkansas until February, 1865, whence it removed to the rear of Fort Spanish, the key of Mobile, Ala., participating in the siege of that fort, which resulted in its capture on the 8th of April.
     A few minutes after the surrender the regiment was marching to the assistance of General Steele, who had for some days been investing Fort Blakely, fifteen miles north of Spanish Fort. Upon the arrival of General Granger's corps on the field General Steele's troops stormed the fort, capturing 5,000 prisoners.  This is said to be the last battle of the war.  The battalion then proceeded to Stark's Landing on the 11th, and took passage on the morning of the 12th in company with a fleet of gunboats across the bay for the city of Mobile.  A landing of the infantry was effected below the rebel stronghold and marched toward it. the gunboats sending shells of warning that we were upon them.  The reason of no response soon appeared in the form of a white flag.  After the surrender of Mobile the battalion joined an expedition to Nannahubbah Bluff, on the Tombigbee River, and also McIntosh Bluffs.
     The last volley fired by the Ninety-sixth was on the 12th day of April, at Whistler Station, seven miles above Mobile, in a lively skirmish with Dick Taylor's retreating forces.  The regiment returned to Mobile on the 9th of May, where it remained until mustered out, July 7th, 1865, excepting forty men whose term of service had not expired and who were transferred to the Seventy-seventh Battalion, Ohio Veteran

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Volunteer Infantry, and served as a detachment in that battalion until March, 1866.
     The Ninety-sixth, from the time of entering the field until the close of the war, was on continuously active and, most of the time, hard service.  The regiment marched 1,683 miles, and was transported by boat 7,686 miles and by railroad 517 miles, making a total of 9,886 miles.  The regiment participated in twelve battles, a score of minor fights, and the last shots fired by the regiment were on April 12th, 1865, three days after the surrender of Lee's army at Appomattox.  As shown by the official records, the losses, killed, died of wounds and disease, were three hundred and thirty-nine.