82ND OHIO REGIMENT
OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY

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

     The Eighty-Second was recruited in Ashland, Logan, Marion, Union and Richland counties, for three years.  It was commanded by Colonel James Cantwell, who was killed in the second battle of Manassas.  The regiment was mustered into service December 31, 1861, and contained nine hundred and sixty-eight men.  Ashland county had one company, K.  Its officers were:

     Company K was mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, July 24, 1865.  We are unable to make out the mortality list from the roll; but by reference to the regimental service, which follows, it will be seen that company K performed arduous duty, and that its ranks were greatly thinned by disease and athe casualties of war.

THE EIGHTY-SECOND REGIMENT.

     In January, 1862, the Eighty-second was ordered from Kenton, Ohio, its place of rendezvous, to West Virginia, and went into camp near the village of Fetterman, for instruction and drill.  In the spring the regiment, in the brigade of General Robert Schenck, was sent to various points in pursuit of guerillas, after which it was ordered to go to the aid of General Milroy, near McDowell.  The Confederate forces were attacked by Generals Schenck and Milroy near Bull Pasture mountain, and compelled them to retreat.  The Eighty-second then joined General John C. Fremont, and passed by rapid marches through Petersburgh, when the battle of Strasburgh occurred, and the enemy again retreated under Stonewall Jackson.  The column passed on to Cross keys, where a running fight ensued, and Jackson crossed the Shenandoah, destroying the bridge and marched leisurely away having scattered the forces of General Shields.  The tardiness of Freemont in the pursuit of Jackson, practically ended his military career.  Severe campaigning followed.  The troops returned to Middletown, and General Siegel took command of the division.  The Eighty-second was transferred to an independent brigade, commanded by General Milroy.   On the seventh of August Siegel's corps moved to Culpeper; and on the ninth toward Cedar Mountain, where a battle was going on.  Milroy moved to the front to relieve exhausted troops; and on the night of the tenth, the enemy retreated.  The Eighty-second destroyed Waterloo Bridge, and skirmished continually for ten days.  The second battle of Manassas took place, and Colonel Cantwell, in leading a charge, was killed.  The Eighty-second was much exposed and suffered severely in the battle.  The National forces were finally compelled to withdraw to Centerville.  In September the Eighty-second moved to Fort de Kalb, Siegel's headquarters.  On the twenty-fifty it advanced to Fairfax Court House, and the campaign closed with the attempt to capture the heights of Fredericksburgh.  The Eighty-second was transported to the division of General Schurz, and by him designated as a battalion of sharpshooters.  In April, 1863, the Eleventh corps moved on the Chancellorsvillecampaign, crossing the Rappahanock, and Kelley's Ford, and the Rapidan, at Ely's Mills; and on the thirtieth arrived within three miles of the battle ground.  The battle opened May 2nd, and the Eighty-second and others deployed with fixed bayonets, and fell back to the rifle-pits.  The Eighty-second held its position; but regiment after regiment was pressed back under the terrible charge of the forces of Stonwall Jackson, and it finally fell back.  It took a new position, having but one hundred and thirty-four men with the colors.  Here Captain Jams J. Beer, a gallant young officer from Ashland county, fell.  After the batlee, the remaining members of the Eighty-second returned to its old camp near Stafford.  In June, the Gettysburgh campaign commenced.  The Eighty-second participated in that arduous campaign.  It was ordered to move over the plain to assail, with its brigade, the Confederate works.  In the attempt it lot twenty of its remaining men.  The gaps were promptly filled, and the Eighty-second advanced within seventy-five years of the Confederate lines.  It went into the battle with twenty-two commissioned officers, and two hundred and thirty-six privates, and of these, nineteen officers and one hundred and forty-seven men were killed, wounded, or captured.
     The balance of the regiment brought the colors, tattered and torn by shot and shell, safely from the field.  After the retreat of the Confederate forces, the Eighty-second performed patrol duty at Catlet's station.  It was then attached to the army of the Cumberland, and was in the battle of Mission Ridge.  Then came a defeat and a retrograde movement to Knoxville.  General Longstreet, of the Confederate army, retreated on the approach of the Northern forces.  The ranks of the Eighty-second were so thinned by disease and battle that when General Sherman reached Goldsborough it was consolidated with the Sixty-first Ohio.  These regiments continued with Sherman until his army reached Washington city, by way of Richmond and Alexandria, on the nineteenth of May, 1865; and then proceeded by rail to Louisville, Kentucky, and on the twenty-fifth of July returned to Camp Chase, Ohio, where it was paid and discharged on the twenty-ninth.  No regiment in modern times performed more arduous duty than the Eighty-second.  Very few of its young heroes survived the horrors of the battle field and returned to the family circle.

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