The 121st Regiment was organized at Delaware, Ohio,
during the summer of 1862, under Colonel William P. Reid,
Lieutenant Colonel William S. Irwin, and Major R. R. Henderson.  Major Henderson had considerable military experience, as he served as a private in the Thirteenth Regiment, O. V. I., under the first call of the President for three months.  He also served in the same regiment in the three years' serv-

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ice, was promoted to a Captaincy, and by reason of serious wounds in the battle of Shiloh was discharged from that regiment.
     More Union County soldiers served in the 121st O. V. I. than in any other regiment. Marcenus C. Lawrence was mustered in as Captain of Company A, Aaron B. Robinson as Captain of Company I, and a number of soldiers from the county served in Company C. Captain Lawrence was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and Captain Robinson was promoted successively to Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and Colonel of the regiment. Fifteen Jerome Township soldiers served in this regiment, and Lieutenant Robert B. Fleming, Otway B. Cone, and Lewis J. Ketch were killed in battle and several others were wounded.
     Company A went into camp with 102 men and Company I with 116.  Recruits were assigned to the different companies during their service, making the total number of enlistments 300, this being the greatest number of men from this county serving in any one regiment.  Of this number seventeen were killed, forty-two died of wounds and disease, eighty-two were wounded, and thirty-two were taken prisoners, making a total loss of one hundred and seventy-three.
     The 121st went to Cincinnati, crossed the Ohio River and went into camp at Covington. Ky., on the 12th of September.  At this place it was armed with a lot of condemned Austrian rifles, which were absolutely worthless.  The regiment then moved to Louisville and was attached to General McCook's Division. Inexperienced and without an hour's drilling, the regiment marched with General Buell's forces against Bragg's rebel army, and on the 8th of October was led into the battle of Perryville, where it received its first baptism of blood.  Many strong men were broken down in these first months of hard service and never afterward returned to their companies.
     The regiment was detailed to bury the dead at Perryville; then continued in Kentucky performing guard duty until January, 1863.  On the 31st of December, 1862, the regi-

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mental hospital was captured at Campbellsville, Ky., and S. B. Cone and James Cone were taken prisoners and paroled.  On the 1st of February, 1863, the regiment moved into Tennessee
and was employed in watching and protecting the right flank of General Rosecran's army, then stationed at Murfreesboro.
     About this time Colonel H. B. Banning was transferred to the command of the regiment ; the prisoners of Perryville had been exchanged and they, with many of the sick, returned to their companies.
     The 121st moved from Stone River with General Rosecran's army, and on this march was engaged in a slight skirmish with the rebel General Forrest at Triune, on the 3rd of June.  A few days later it occupied Shelbyville, Tenn., and after remaining there several weeks advanced to Fayetteville, where it continued until the 1st of September, when orders were received to join the Reserve Corps under General Gordon Granger and proceed to Chattanooga.
     On the 20th of September, 1863, the regiment was engaged in that memorable charge of Steadman's Division at the battle of Chickamauga, in which they drove the enemy at the point of the bayonet from the field and held it against repeated attacks until the close of the battle.  The 121st was the last regiment to leave the battlefield, and carried with them the flag of the Twenty-second Alabama Infantry, which was captured and borne away in triumph by one Solomon Fish, of Mill Creek Township, a member of Company C.  It is concluded that this timely aid of the Reserve Corps saved General Thomas' army from defeat.
     Captain Lawrence commanded the regiment on this occasion during the greater part of the battle, while yet ranking as a Captain, and Sergeant Otway Curry assumed command of Company A.
     The loss of the regiment in this engagement was eleven officers and eighty-seven men. Of Company A. Amos Amrine was missing; Thomas Marshall, John J. Ramage, Solomon Hisey, O. S. Myers, Henry F. Jackson and Samuel Walters were wounded, and Solomon Hisey was also taken

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prisoner. Of Company I, Lieutenant Fleming, Harrison Carpenter and James Harden were killed, and Captain A. B. Robinson, A. R. Gage, George Deland, John S. Gill, John W. Bryan, James M. Lucas, Sheridan McBratney, Thomas Page, John G. Rupright, Edwin Sager and Richard White were wounded.
     After the battle of Chickamauga the regiment shared in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge, and in the march to the relief of Knoxville, then remained quietly in camp at Rossville until entering upon the Atlanta campaign.  Captain Lawrence was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in November, 1863, and was in command of the regiment during the winter of 1863 and 1864, Colonel Banning being home on recruiting service.  On the 2nd of May, 1864, the 121st started on the Atlanta campaign. Companies A and I and two other companies were selected to make a dangerous charge upon Buzzards' Roost, which was successfully done with but little loss, then shared in the battle of Dalton a few days later, having passed through Snake Creek Gap, and from that point until the fall of Atlanta, September 1st, the regiment was continually under fire. It was in the engagement at Resaca and, as a part of General J. C. Davis' Division, was at the capture of Rome, Ga.  At the battle of Kenesaw Mountain the regiment held the extreme right of the Union forces, and with fixed bayonet charged up nearly to the breastworks of the enemy in a vain effort to drive them from their strong position.  A deadly cross-fire of shot, shell and grape killed and disabled 150 out of less than 400 of the 121st.  With few
exceptions all were killed or wounded in the open field in front of the enemy's works, in about five minutes.
     Company A lost in this engagement John G. Perry, killed; O. B. Cone mortally wounded, and Henry F. Jackson, F. B. Hargrove, L. A. N. Craig. Henry Coats, W. H. Goff and Hiram Laughry wounded.
     Company I lost, on the 20th, James Chapman, killed; on the 22nd A.  Drake and John Vanderau were wounded, and on the 27th Edward Phillips, Alexander Scott. L N. Dillon,

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A. C. Rosecrans, John Kuhlman and Jeremiah Kirk were mortally wounded, and George Deland, J. Q. Converse, William H. Bonnett, A. W. Davis, Van Dix, Alexander Gandy, Wesley Hawn, George Holloway, Josiah Knight, C. P. Morse, David Rea, H. McVay, John A. Wood, James A. Snodgrass, Daniel Cooperider, J. P. Goodrich and John Reed were wounded, and Lewis Ketch was killed.  The two companies lost twelve killed and died of wounds and thirty wounded.
     From the 9th of July until the 17th the regiment was engaged on the banks of the Chatahoochie River; on the 18th and 20th it routed the enemy and occupied their position at Peach Tree Creek, Company A losing two men — S. B. Cone and John Jolliff — wounded in this engagement, and on the 22nd joined its brigade and took position on the right of the National line, three miles from Atlanta.  In the movement upon Jonesboro it took the advance, acting as skirmishers for the Second Division, leading the Fourteenth Corps.  Captain Henderson of Company K and John Cooperider of Company I were wounded in this battle, and John Ports of Company A was killed.
     On the 2nd of September Atlanta surrendered, and on the 6th the regiment went into camp near that city.  The 121st entered the Atlanta campaign with 428 non-commissioned officers and men and eighteen commissioned officers.  Four officers were killed and eight wounded.  Twenty-two men were killed, two hundred and five wounded, and one captured.  On the 29th of September the regiment joined the expedition against Forrest's rebel cavalry, and having driven him across
Tennessee into Alabama, returned and marched in pursuit of Hood's army.
     On the 2nd of October Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence resigned, and on the 19th Colonel Banning left the regiment and the command devolved on A. B. Robinson, who had been promoted to Major and was mustered on the 17th of September.  Major Robinson was afterward promoted to Colonel

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and commanded the regiment from the fall of Atlanta until the close of the war with marked ability.
     The 121st joined General Sherman at Rome, Ga., and marched with his army to the sea. After the fall of Savannah the regiment moved through the Carolinas, taking an active part in the engagement at Bentonville, losing six men killed and twenty wounded.
     Company A lost John Sparks killed and J. L. Porter, T.
Prosser, J. G. Irwin, and J. C. Warner wounded; and Company I lost C. B. Miller killed. Captain C. P. Cavis mortally wounded, and P. Vanderau and James Dunn severely wounded.
     The regiment joined the National forces in the march to Washington, was present at the Grand Review, and then proceeded to Columbus, Ohio, where it was mustered out on the 12th day of June, 1865.
     The 121st was one of the fighting regiments, and the Jerome Township boys who served in the regiment had a most remarkable record for hard service.  They participated in a number of the hardest battles fought by the Army of the Cumberland, and the losses in killed, died of wounds and disease were 349, including nine commissioned officers.
     Many of the facts in this brief history of their services were furnished by Colonel A. B. Robinson and other members of the regiment.
     The large number of casualties is the best evidence that can be given of the dangerous service rendered by these companies, and the members are justly proud of the record of the One Hundred and Twenty-first.