24th Ohio before Shiloh

Reading battle accounts and narratives give us the overall view of how a battle went. Thankfully, the trend has been to give both the general view and that from the ranks. Thanks to collections of letters and memoirs these narratives are rich with detail and anecdote. Reading the after action reports from the Army Official Records of the War of Rebellion give some interesting insight into those in command. The difficulty in choosing an individual unit to write about is that there is not always a lot of information about that unit. I chose the 24th Ohio as one of the units in my novel because it represented an interesting role in the second day of battle and, as I was born in Ohio myself, I wanted to vicariously experience what a possible ancestor of mine might have gone through in volunteering.

Like many regiments from Ohio after they mustered in, the 24th found itself in West Virginia and its first engagement at Cheat Mountain. Like many regiments raised in the early months of the war, the 24th found itself brigaded with many regiments who'd not been in an engagement before. The battle experienced at Cheat Mountain in West Virginia bears some interesting scrutiny.

A search through the correspondence in the official records reveals the importance of the Cheat Mountain pass as both Confederate and Federal messages refer to this pass and its passing of control between the two sides and a controversy in the confederate command about who was to have built fortifications at the pass to hold it. Subsequent to losing the pass, there was an inquiry into the battle and General Garnett's and Colonel Pegram's role in the loss. In a report advanced by Colonel William C. Scott of the 44th Virginia Infantry who was criticized for not coming to Pegram's aid, Scott had been ordered to occupy a defensive position on the Buckhannon road and defend it to the last man. While Scott was following his orders, Pegram was being forced out of his position on the Rich Mountain pass and the whole of the Confederate position commanded by Garnette fell apart. A full description of the campaign can be found here: http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/battle-rich-mountain.htm.

The 24th Ohio would meet Scott's Virginians a few days later after the Rich Mountain fight on Cheat Mountain, where again Scott was criticized for not having fortified his position there. Having no entrenching implements and having executed a forced march the night of the Rich Mountain fight, Scott's brigade was in little condition to face the federals.

What is interesting about this early war episode is the number of future generals who participated, namely George B. McLellan, William S. Rosecrans, and John C. Pegram. Mclellan would be promoted upstairs, as it where, to replace the ailing and disfavored hero of the War with Mexico, Winfield Scott. Rosecrans would be promted to Brigadier General and Pegram and would be captured and later paroled. Garnett would die leading his brigade against the federal center at Gettysburg as part of Pickett's division and Pegram would be promoted to Brigadier General and served almost to the end of the war. Pegram held a variety of command and staff positions, commanded a division of Forrest's Cavalry Corps at Chickamauga, an infantry brigade in Early's corps and was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness and finally killed in 1865 days before the war ended at Hatcher's Run.

In the course of their occupation of the Cheat Mountain pass, the 24th Ohio would face off against another future civil war notable, that of Robert E. Lee, dispatched by Richmond to attempt to recover the lost ground in West Virginia to notable failure. The 24th Ohio would stay on Cheat Mountain until ordered west in November, 1861 to be added to Buell's Army of the Ohio where they then enter into the drama of the battle of Shiloh.