A Private in the Union Army

                         A Private in the Union Army

                                                      By Dr. Peter L. Patton

            Before the Civil War started on April 12, 1861,  Robert Newton Gorsuch, then twenty-two years old, had enrolled as a student at Ohio Wesleyan College and was looking  forward to taking his first classes that fall.  But when President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion, Gorsuch put his collegiate plans on hold and in September, 1861, he volunteered for service as a private in the Union Army.

            In his surviving letters, Gorsuch never directly mentioned why he decided to enlist in the army.  The closest clue to his thinking on this subject is perhaps found in his frequent referrals to the “Seceshes”, and his desire to kill one in battle.  From these references it can be deduced that his primary motivation for joining the army was his belief that the Union had to be preserved.

Gorsuch joined the 16th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry that was formed on October 2, 1861, under the command of Colonel John D. DeCource.   The unit was officially mustered into service by Captain Belnap of the 18th United Regular at Camp Tiffin located at Wooster, Ohio.  Gorsuch signed a three year enlistment agreement, while others joined for a three month period.  The troops travelled by train from Wooster Ohio and reached Camp Denison on Nov. 28, 1861.  As Gorsuch wrote in a letter home on Nov. 29th:

…This camp is very large, as far as you can see it is nothing but tents and barracks.  Our barracks are new and good.  They are warm and no rain can get through them.  The roof is covered with pitch.  Each of us has a bunk to himself.  I brought a blanket and a comforter from Wooster and have plenty of cloths at night……..Our house has two stories in it.  We have a separate one to cook and eat in.  We will get our guns and overcoats soon.  The Colonel stopped in Columbus to bring them along.  Camp Denison is about fifteen miles from Cincinnati…..I expect to get two months wages soon which I will send home.

            The 16th Ohio remained at Camp Denison until Dec. 19th, 1861, when the men were issued their weapons.  The regiment marched to Camp Clay near Lexington, Kentucky around this time.  Before the regiment left Camp Denison Gorsuch sent all his unnecessary clothes and items home. 

I sent some things home just before we left Camp Denison.  I sent home that home guard jacket and my bible.  Si Martin sent a jacket along with my things.  You will find them at Baker’s.  I don’t mind whether I wrote to you about it before.  We had to send everything that we could spare home, as we got a nice dress suit and it fills our knapsacks so full.

 In a letter dated Jan 1, 1862, Gorsuch described the regiment’s rifles. 

…Our guns will shoot a thousand yards.  They are French rifles and have saber bayonets.  The bayonets are like swords.  You can take them off your gun and use them as a sword.  I could split a man’s head open at one blow with one of them.

            As both the North and the South expanded their military forces, they sought weapons from various sources, including other countries.  The French rifles that Gorsuch referred to were smooth bore muskets that shot a .69 caliber ball.  The musket may have been able to fire a thousand yards, but it was rarely accurate past fifty to seventy-five yards.   Both the North and the South purchased model 1853 Enfield muskets from England. 

            A lot of six hundred light two band Minnie muskets manufactured by the Belgium firm of O.P. Drissen & Cie that was supposed to be sent to the Brazilian Navy was instead purchased by the Federal government to help arm the growing Union Army.  Some of these were sent to Ohio and were marked with the State’s name on the butt stocks.  Both sides scrambled to obtain weapons from any source they could find.

            In the confusion surrounding the outbreak of the war, the Union Army, for some strange reason, sold five thousand, thirteen year old surplus rifles to a speculator at a price of $3.50 per rifle.  Once the army realized how short it was of rifles, it bought back these rifles a few weeks later for $22.00 a piece.

 Among the businessmen who profited from this sale was J.P. Morgan Sr., although his role in the affair was clouded for many years.  The speculator, who bought the rifles, Arthur Eastman, in turn, in a deal brokered by a New York Republican politician John C. Fremont, sold the rifles back to the army.  Records indicate that Morgan loaned Fremont $20,000 to make the transaction, and made back $26,343 at seven percent interest and received a commission of one dollar per rifle.  Morgan appears to have made a further $3,797.00 because he aided Fremont in securing additional loans for the sale from a businessman named Morris Ketchum.  Perhaps the blackest mark against Morgan was the fact that he had the sale of the rifles delayed until Fremont paid back the loan.  Like other wealthy men in the north, Morgan paid a substitute to take his place in the Union ranks.

            The sanitary conditions in the camps were extremely poor during the Civil War, and more soldiers died from disease than through combat.  It should not come as a surprise that Gorsuch and many of his comrades became sick while they were in camp.   He informed his family on Jan. 1, 1862 that he had been ill.

…..I am in the hospital but am not very sick.  I had diarrhea for a good while which made me very weak.  The doctor has been giving me medicine for it and it has now stopped.  Camp diarrhea is very hard to cure….

            Diarrhea and dysentery were responsible for killing more soldiers during the Civil War than direct combat deaths.   The Union army estimated that 995 out of every 1,000 soldiers developed chronic diarrhea or dysentery during the war, and the source of these aliments can be traced directly back to the unsanitary conditions of the camps.  By the winter of 1862, nearly 200,000 Union recruits were released from service because they were physically unfit.  Contagious diseases such as measles, chickenpox, mumps, and whooping cough ran wild through camps where young men, who had never been exposed to these diseases before, had no immunity against them.  Add typhoid fever, pneumonia, and tuberculosis to the mix, and conditions became even more deadly.  In the winter of 1861, one Federal inspector wrote that the majority of Union camp sites were “ littered with refuse,  food, and other rubbish, sometimes in an offensive state of decomposition; slops deposited in pits within camp limits or thrown out of broadcast; heaps of manure and offal close to the camp.”

 On January 4, 1861, Gorsuch wrote:

I have got so much better and feel so well that I could not keep from letting you know I feel first rate for a day or so back.  Dr. says I am getting along very fast….I expect to be able to go into camp in a few days.  I am not taking medicine now, only a little to strengthen me.   

“Closed Bowel” medical complaints were commonly treated with what was called the “blue mass” which was a strange mixture of chalk and mercury.  For “open bowel” conditions, a plug of opium was used.  As these treatments suggest, the cure may have been as deadly as the medical condition the doctors were treating.

In another letter dated five days later, he penned:

I am well now.  I was to go to camp today but it was rather an ugly day and the Dr. thought I had better stay a few days.  I don’t care if he lets me stay in the hospital all winter.  It is nice and warm and we have good beds and plenty to eat.  I was over at the camp yesterday to see the boys.  Our camp is 1 ? miles from the hospital.  I was down to the city this afternoon.  I feel as stout as a horse and eat like a hog……. There has only been one man who died in our hospital yet and if he had acted right he need not have died.  He had diphtheria and did not let the doctor know for three or four days anything about it for fear he would burn his throat with caustic.  When the Dr. found out his throat was soar it was too late to do anything for him.  He was from Wooster.  Capt. Spangler is very sick.  He is going home.  (Captain William Spangler died at Millersburg, Ohio, on January 19, 1861.)

 During this period the regiment built and repaired various roads that were used to transport men and materials to General Thomas’ units gathered near Mills Creek.  During the Battle of Mills Creek, the regiment was called up during the fight to provide support, but flooding in the area of Fishing Creek prevented them from arriving until the fighting was over.

Gorsuch described the advance to his family:

The road between here and Lexington is just fifty feet deep with mud.  As we came here we saw over a hundred teams standing as some wagon would stick in the mud and the rest would have to wait till it got out.  There are six mules to each wagon and sometimes the mules would fall down and nearly bury themselves in the mud.

In the same letter, that was dated Jan. 24, 1862, Gorsuch described the battle to his family based on stories he had heard from other troops.

We did not get in here in time for the fight.  Our Reg. got here Sunday evening and the last of the battle was on Monday morning.  The battle was seven or eight miles from here.  Our forces completely routed the rebel, killing General Zolokoffer (Confederate Brig. General Felix Zollicoffer)….it was buried here yesterday.  Zollokoffer said in the morning that he would either whip us that day or eat his breakfast in hell.  I guess he will eat breakfast in hell several times before he whips us.  Colonel Fry of Kentucky shot him through the breast with a revolver.

During the battle, Zollicoffer, wearing a white raincoat, approached the 4th Kentucky, thinking that it was a Confederate unit that was accidently firing on its own troops.  A group of Union soldiers surrounded Zollicoffer and fired at him, as did Colonel Fry.  Although Fry is given credit for killing the general, the truth is that some other Union soldier may have inflicted the fatal wound.

Gorsuch went on to tell his family about one phase of the Confederate retreat:

When the rebels retreated they had two steamboats on the Cumberland River to cross in and they filled them and started.  Our artillerymen fired on them till they sank them and all on board.  Tis said that thousands were drowned and that the river was so full of horses (cavalry) that a man could have walked over on their backs.  Our men took 15 cannons and a large quantity of small arms.

Gorsuch obviously obtained his information second hand because casualties were relatively light on both sides.  The union forces lost 39 men killed and 207 wounded, while the Confederates suffered 125 killed and 404 missing or wounded.  The Battle of Mills Creek was important because it, along with the Battle of Middle Creeks, allowed the Federals to penetrate the main Confederate defensive line in eastern Kentucky.  At the time, this relatively small battle was widely celebrated in the North because it was the first major Union victory during the war.

Like many Civil War soldiers, Gorsuch purchased certain items on his own to make his life in the army more comfortable. 

I wrote to you to get me a pair of hip boots made with legs as high as the knee and a flap to tie up in front over the knee if it should be muddy.  Have them put in the best style. I don’t care about having them nice but I want them good.  Number 9’s will fit me.  Have them made high in the instep and the soles drove full of tacks with large heads on them.  Send me a couple of dollars worth of paper and envelopes and some stamps and those shirts and a pair of socks or two, as the socks we draw here are not worth a cent.  Leave them all at Truckamillers at Nashville.

            By February 21, 1861, the 16th Ohio was stationed near Cumberland Gap in anticipation of another battle. 

Our men here are waiting for a favorable chance to attack the enemy at Cumberland Gap.  Every few days our men go up to the gap, run their pickets in, kill a few men, take some prisoners and horses and guns and then come back to camp.  The rebels are well fortified there and will fight hard as they have all the chance, but our general is bound to whip them.  Our General’s name is Carter, he is from Tennessee.  The river is so high we can not cross now, but as soon as the water falls I expect will go on to the Gap.  I wish we would start soon as I am tired of laying in camp doing nothing.

            As was the case in many wars, when things were going well, soldiers often thought the war would soon be over.  In the same letter, Gorsuch expressed the same thoughts.

Our troops have taken Bowling Green, Manapass Gap, and three or four forts in Tennessee and Missouri.  Our Major says that the war will soon be over, but I don’t want to go home until I see a battle and kill a Secesh.  I hope we will get into Tennessee before I go home.  I would like to see the Mammoth Cave before I go home.  If I go anywhere close I will see it.

For several days, the 16th Ohio waited for the river to drop, but the river still had not crested.  In a letter dated February 21, 1862,  Gorsuch observed:

The river has been very high since I wrote.  The people say it is higher than it was since 1826.  About midnight we found the water coming into our tent and we hardly had time to get our tents moved till the ground was covered with water.  There were two tents that could not get out.  I could not get off the camp ground for two days…We start for the Columbus Gap this afternoon.  Whether they will stand us a fight or not I can not tell but if they do they will get badly whipped.

            A month later, the 16th Ohio was still waiting to attack the Gap and the men were assigned various duties to keep them busy.  On March 20, 1862, Gorsuch wrote:

Nothing new has happened since I wrote.  We have moved across the river and encamped on a little hill.  It is a much healthier place than the other.  We drill every day three times…There are 10,000 men coming to reinforce us.  They have nine cannons.  We will not go to the Gap until they come.  My hair is all coming out.  I am nearly bald-headed.  The Dr. says it will grow in again.  We have had nice very nice weather for about a week and the roads had most dried up but last night it rained and it is still raining.  We have plenty to eat.  When anything happens here worth writing I will let you know.

            The 16th Ohio spent most of time around the Cumberland Gap waiting for reinforcements and mounting patrols.  Gorsuch described this period in a letter dated April 18, 1862:

Our company was out scouting last Sunday night.  Colonel de Courecy told Captain Edgar to pick twelve good men to go up to the Gap.  The rest of the company was left back about a mile.  I was one that went up close to the Gap.  It was about one o’clock at night when we started up the mountain.  We stayed till around 9, hidden in the woods looking at their works.  Lieut. Liggett was there yesterday.  He went into the Gap under a flag of truce.  He had a long talk with some of the rebel Col’s.  In a few days there will be 12,000 men here.  They are coming in regiment after regiment.  We are now in the in the 26th brigade, 4th regts. And the 16th and 2nd Ohio and the 14th and 22 Ky. Regiments commanded by Col. de Courcey acting as Brigadier General….. The Colonel said our company is the best one in the 16th regiment….We may attack the Gap in a few days and maybe not for some time.  We did expect to go soon be can’t tell now.

            Like most soldiers, Gorsuch worried about how things were going at home while he was gone.  In the same letter, he wrote:

John Culbertson’s note is in my Latin grammar in my trunk.  Tell Mary if she needs it to ask him for it.  Bell did not give his note.  Tell him you want it. If he doesn’t pay I will write to him.  I would like to know most mighty well whether you got the money I sent home or not.  I think if I was home and had nothing to do I could write more than you folks do.  I don’t get a letter a month from home.  Who is going to teach our school this summer?  Let me know about my money in the next one you write.  Direct as before.   

The 16th Ohio was involved in several actions during the month of April 1862.  Gorsuch wrote a fairly lengthy letter home on May 1, 1862, describing what he had been through.

I wrote to Pap on last Sunday; since then we have been to the Gap.  We went up with about 3,000 men, did not take any cannons as the object was to go a new route and see how near we could get and see if we could get cannons up there.  We went through the mud up the steepest mountains I ever saw.  We came on two of their pickets about half a mile from the Gap.  They fired on our advance guard as they came up the mountain but did not kill any.  When we got up the mountain we halted and two companies were thrown out as skirmishers with Colonel de Coucy as their leader.  They had not gone far through the woods when they were fired on by two companies of the enemy who were hid in the woods. The old Col. Drew his sword and hollered out forward double quick and catch them before they get into their breastworks.  Our fellows started on the run and away the rebels started for their breastworks but several of them fell before they got in.  The firing then commenced in earnest.  Several of them were shot off their breastworks as the Col. Saw them through the glass.

            The 16th Ohio did not come away from this action unscratched.

Three of our brigade were wounded.  One was shot below the left eye and passed out below the left ear, a flesh wound only.  He wanted to fight on but they would not let him.  He was in a Wooster company.  Another was hit in the forehead by a ball, knocking out a piece of the skull about the size of a half dollar.  It hit him sideways.  Another was touched on the temple enough to draw blood.  We were within three or four yards of them.   They fired cannons at us three or four times but after that we would not let them load them.  Whenever a man showed himself to load a cannon we would shoot him or chase him away.

            After this action Gorsuch and his fellow soldiers marched back down the mountain and returned to their original starting point.  They had spent two nights sleeping out in the open without any tents, but as he wrote home, the weather “was good”.  The letter continued:

The next morning we started back, came several miles, and stopped and waited for some time on General Carter’s Brigade which had gone on another road.  General Carter’s men shot one Georgian soldier through the leg, took him prisoner, had to cut his leg off, and left him in a house so his friends could get him.  The bullets came thicker than they did the other time I was there.  I shot from behind a log.

            On May 20, 1862, Gorsuch wrote about three confederate deserters that sneaked through the Gap and surrendered to the Union troops stationed in the area.

Three deserters came in from the Gap to us the other day and told us they had four thousand men there.  They think we have only four cannons and three thousand men.  We have two thirty pound guns. We have 22 cannons and twelve thousand men.  They look like the big saw logs we used to haul when they are stuck up on the wagon.  They are fourteen feet long and it takes twelve horses to haul them on good roads.  They are two twenty pounders, eight of the largest are parrott guns, the best cannons in the world and ten rifle guns nearly as good and four howitzers.

            The 16th Ohio regiment continued to spend most of May and the first few days of June preparing for the expected assault on the Gap.  Minor skirmishes took place between the pickets of both sides as they felt each other out before the big battle.  Gorsuch wrote home about this period on June 3, 1862.

Things are going off about as usual.  Night before last our pickets and those of the enemy had a skirmish.  It lasted for about an hour or so.  No one was hurt I believe.  The rebels have been reinforced and now number around 20,000 at and near the Gap.  We expect an attack and we are ready for them at any time.  We were all out in line of battle while the pickets were fighting.  We have thrown up works here to defend ourselves and have cannons placed so they cannot approach us without being badly cut up.

            Finally, on June 10, 1862, Union forces finally resumed their march toward the Gap.  This, no doubt, was a relief for Gorsuch and the other men of the 16th Ohio regiment who had been waiting anxiously for the assault for the last month.  He wrote a two page letter home on June 13 describing the advance.

We started (our brigade foremost) for a place called Wilson’s Gap 20 miles below Cumberland Gap to cross into Tenn. with all of our force.  We came within five miles of the foot of the mountain at noon the third day and waited till evening when two companies out of each regiment were sent forward to take possession of the top of the mountain before the enemy knew that we were coming.  Our company was one of them.  The companies from our regiment went before.  Twenty men were sent forward as an advance guard, of which I was one, to see that no enemy was ahead.  We gained the top of the mountain without any trouble, and those who were advance guard lay down to sleep and others were sent out as pickets.  At daylight we were waked by the firing of guns close to us. Three rebel cavalry came up not knowing that we were there and our fellows fired on them.  (our company).  They shot one through the hand, when they all jumped off their horses and took down the mountain through the woods.  We got all their horses, a double barreled gun, and a sword and a pistol.  The horses were good ones.  Our pickets stayed where they were and others were placed at other points.  I was a little to the left of that place.

            A few hours after twenty-five cavalry came up and hitched their horses at the foot of the mountain and came up on foot. Our fellows (our company) fired on them wounding six, two of whom died in the course of an hour.  They kept riding up and down the road in the valley all day.  Some of our men went down into the valley but could not get close to the cavalry, but fired at them about a half a mile off breaking the arm of one, making them break and run. Our brigade are all in the valley now and have been for several days.  The rest of our force is about three miles from here on the other side.

            General Spears took Big Creek Gap yesterday, whipping the rebels like the deuce.  This gap is ten miles from here.  We took everything they had.  The first night we came down here our pickets fired at one o’clock, but we did not get up.  The next morning we had another brush.  Yesterday a lot of us were out trying to get something to eat.  Si Martin, Tom Linn, J. Cornell, and myself were together. A lot of men from Tanneyhill’s company were out and about seventy-five rebel cavalry dressed like ours came close to them and motioned them to come toward them but they stood still. They then fired on our fellows, who returned their fire, killing a lieutenant’s horse.  They left as fast as possible.  We did not see any where we were, which was about two miles out.

            Cumberland Gap has been evacuated.  The rebels have gone to Knoxville.  We expect to go to Knoxville soon.  General Mitchel has taken Chattanooga below Knoxville.  Wheat is the most ripe here and the farmers are cutting grass.  There are some nice farms in the valley and the people live well and know something.  When we go out we can get plenty to buy.  There is an academy close to us which the rebels used as a hospital.

            On the evening of June 14th, Gorsuch added a postscript to the letter he wrote the day before.

Nothing of much importance has happened today.  Six of our companies lay in ambush for some rebel cavalry down the valley and would have taken all of them if a rebel citizen had not told them of us being there.  There are but very few rebel citizens in this valley—nearly all union.  One “secesh” hid everything he had when he found that we were coming, but his neighbors told us where they were and we got them.  He had meat, corn, oats, wheat, and everything.  We expect to leave tomorrow for the railroad someplace.  I should not wonder if it were Knoxville.  I may not get to write for some time.  Our opportunities for writing will be very poor until we get to Knoxville.  Write to me regularly and tell the others why I don’t write if they ask you….I go out on picket tonight.  I am going to try and take a secesh prisoner.  We took two today.

            Gorsuch had no idea how prophetic his warning to his family that he would not be able to write to them would prove to be in the months ahead.  They would not receive another letter from him until August, when he was able to describe the rather amazing events that overtook him and Company B during a battle near Tazewell Tennessee on August 6, 1862.  At some point during this time, he witnessed at least one military execution.  On another occasion, his company captured what he described as a “bushwhacker” who had been shooting at them.  This man was apparently a southern sympathizer and not a confederate soldier, and he was subsequently marched out into nearby woods and executed.

            On the morning of August, 6, 1862, the 16th Ohio Volunteer infantry regiment was ordered up to the line in order to relieve the men of the 14th Kentucky.  Around ten o’clock in the morning, B and E companies were ordered out in front of the regiment to act as a picket line.  Companies D and F, in the meantime, were ordered to take up a position to the right along Main Hill Road, also as pickets, while Companies C and G were to act as a reserve force.  An hour later, the picket line was attacked by Confederate troops.  Gorsuch was not able to send his family a letter until August 18, 1862.

You have doubtless heard at this time that I have been among the missing at the late fight of Tazewell.  Well I was a prisoner of war for ten days but have been exchanged and am now with the boy at the all right side with care and ready to try the devils a rip the first time I get a chance.  We were exchanged yesterday evening and reached the camp about 11 o’clock last night.  The old camp family rang with yells when we came in.

            Our regiment did about all the fighting and cut the enemy up badly.  Our Company and Captain Tanneyhill’s were out on picket duty about a half mile from the rest and were flanked and cut off by the enemy.  Captain Edgar was killed and some twenty-five taken prisoner.  Captain Tanneyhill and a portion of his men were taken also.  The 16th was all cut up only two companies and one half being at one place. We had our cannon along with us on picket and it was ordered back before we were and barely made its escape.  The two and a half companies of our regiment were drawn up in a line across the road.  They opened the ranks and let the cannons pass through on the dead run as a full regiment of the enemy were making the charge to take it.  As soon as it passed through the ranks were closed and our men poured a volley into them which made them fall back. They started again with the awful lest yell supported by another regiment.  Our men fired a volley into them and then charged on them and drove them back 400 yards. 

            During this time our little band fell back and took a new position and thus retreated and fought as they went.  While this was going on we kept two regiments off of the point we held.  We were at last ordered in and came on double quick, and before we were aware of it we ran right against a regiment of the enemy who occupied the ground where we supposed we would find our own men.  They fired on us killing Captain Edgar and wounding our Sergeant Major and one of Tannyhill’s men.  The Sergt. Major had both his arms broken, a shot in the feet, and one through the breast.  Although so badly cut up he is recovering. The Captain was shot in the back of the head.

            Some of our men took back to the right and escaped by scattering out in small squads and breaking through the woods.  A fellow in our company from Millersburg by the name of Paul Wilder came across a Lieut. Colonel some distance from his regiment and took him prisoner.  Wilder had an awful time getting through as the Sesesh were everywhere.  He came near running into a rebel regiment but Wilder told him it was our regiment and took him around.  Wilder is fairly worshipped by all, both officers and men.

            Captain Tanneyhill and a portion of each company took the other side of the road and lay in the woods over five hours and the enemy on every side of us, sometimes within twenty yards of us.  At least one of them ran onto us.  He took back and we took the other direction.  We had not got gone far till I and the three others who were in front ran onto some of them.  We told them to throw down their arms and surrender or we would shoot them, but just then about two came out of every bush and fired on us, the balls just whistling around our ears.  We broke back and ran like the deal throwing our guns and accoutrements in every direction.  We then got together and hollered for them to come down and we would surrender as we were surrounded.  They acted more like wolves than anything else when they took us.

            We were under very sharp fire three times that day and after the first fire I was not a bit more scared than I am at this minute.  They used us very well while we were prisoners, but we slept every night in the woods without blankets.  We had the same to eat that they did themselves, which is bread and meat only.  If I was kept a prisoner a month I would die.

            In the same letter, Gorsuch described what happened to a letter he lost during the battle.  It resurfaced in an unexpected place.

            You will be surprised to learn that I am a correspondent of a paper at Atlanta, Georgia, called the Southern Confederacy.  I read the letter in one of them while I was a prisoner written by my honorable self.  The editor hoped that a ball had found its way to the heart of the vile traitor who wrote it.  I had commenced a letter to send home and had written a sheet of fool’s cap, giving the rebels the deal.  It was in my knap sack which I lost.  They had it word for word. 

            In early September, 1862, the 16th Ohio was transferred to Manchester, Kentucky to resupply.  On the 19th of September, the regiment was reunited with the remaining Union forces that had been stationed near the Gap who had been forced to retreat from their positions due to the lack of supplies.  The Confederate forces harassed the Federal forces to within twenty-five miles of the Ohio River.  The 16th Ohio was then sent to Portland Ohio where it rested until it was shipped to Charleston, Virginia on October 21st.  On October 31 he wrote home describing the situation at Charleston:

            This frosty morning finds us about 80 miles up the Kanasha Valley at Charleston where we expect to meet the enemy, but they are true to their old custom ran as soon as they found we were coming.  Floid was command of the rebels I believe.  They had built strong works to defend themselves but did not fight….There has been fighting all along this valley from one end to the other since the war commenced.  I have seen many places where marks of the battle could be seen….I have not heard anything from my boots yet.  I would like to have them for my shoes are pretty thin for this weather.  We had snow a few days ago and the weather was very disagreeable.  I was on picket the night it snowed as such is always my luck…The steamboats are thick on the river here carrying provisions, clothes, etc., to the army at this place.

            In his next letter, dated Nov. 9th, Gorsuch described how he and his comrades tried to stay warm during the cold weather. 

            ….It has been snowing some yesterday and the night before, has been pretty cold…Jent Cornell  and I went up to town yesterday to try and get a stove to put in our tent but could not buy any.  We hunted over the town in deserted secesh houses till we found a coal stove and took the upper part of it and carried it to camp.  It does very well and keeps our tent warm.  We are all seated around it writing or something else.  I have a big boil on the left side of my face which is mighty sore and my face is much swelled….I have not got my boots yet and am afraid I never will.  I wish they would come for my shoes are done and I don’t want to draw another pair if I thought I would get the boots….The talk now is that we will go down river to Louisville or Memphis.  I hope we will.  The paymaster has not been here yet but will be this week.  I have one dollar and twenty-five cents of the two dollars that Pap gave yet.  We can get anything we want at this place if we have the money.

            In his next letter, which was undated, Gorsuch informed his family that the regiment was on the move and now at Covington Barracks in Kentucky. 

            Here we have been laying for three or four days on board a boat.  I was passed off today by an officer and while walking over the city with Jim McClure (whom I found here) the boat started and I was left.

            I am with John tonight.  Col. French advises me to report in Cin. And get transportation to the Regt which I do in the morning.  I sent $50 home to Enos and Co.  I wrote to Pop he should get it soon.  If you or Lide or Angie want any get it by my orders.  I want  you to have it if you want it.

            I got my boots yesterday.  They are very tight but I think I can wear them.  We go to Memphis Tenn.  Jim McClure’s Regt are under marching orders for Memphis also.

            On Nov. 22, 1862, Gorsuch wrote another letter home describing how he caught up with his regiment after the steamboat left without him.

            We are now encamped at Memphis—arrived here yesterday. I wrote to you at Covington about being left behind.  I went to Louisville on a boat and from there went to Cairo Ill by railroad.  I got there several days before the regiment and waited till it came.  It cost me nothing to come and I saw a great deal of Ind and Ill.  I was all over Louisville.  It is a nice city.  Cairo is about the size of Millersburg and is built right in a mud hole. 

            In the same letter, Gorsuch discussed the new tents the men were issued.

            We do not know where we will go to from here or how soon.  After this each soldier has to carry his own tent.  They are small and are called soldier’s shelter and are calculated for one man.  It will kill half the men to carry such a load.  I expect the next thing we will have to carry the mules and the wagons.

                        The final paragraph continued the saga of his boots.

            My boots are so small that I could not wear them and had to sell them.  I sold them for the same they cost.  They raised a big boil on my right instep.  We are now so far south that it will not be cold and I can get along with shoes.

            On Dec 12, 1862, Gorsuch wrote a letter to his sister Angie.  This is the last letter that was saved by the family from him, although he no doubt wrote many others after this date.

            Tose Patton is a little girl that lived on the banks of the Cumberland River where we were encamped.  Our camp is called is called Camp Patton after their name.  After the regt left and moved away several miles I was sent back to the old camp to guard some sick of small pox to kept them from moving around.  She gathered some strawberries and brought them to where I was on guard and gave them to me.  She also gave me a magazine to read while I stayed which was three days.  She is a smart little girl.  This is a sister of Rosie Patton.

            …I have been very near sick for most three weeks, did not take much medicine but am now well and on duty…We marched yesterday with our knapsacks five miles to see the forts (old John said, but all he wanted was to make a show) and back without ever stopping to rest.  We marched right through the fort and came back.  I was never much more tired.  I saw some of the awfulness cannon.  All the rebel army could not whip us out of this fort.  We have a nice light bread here.  I hope we will stay here.

            Although Gorsuch’s letters after this date have been lost, other men from the regiment often mentioned him in their letters home.  He was a particularly good friends with a drummer in the regiment named Thomas B. Linn.  The two men shared quarters for much of the war and Linn describes Gorsuch as almost a brother.  He describes the two searching for sweet potatoes and pumpkins, chickens, and other food stuffs. 

            On July 31, 1863, Gorsuch left for home from Cairo Illinois on a thirty day furlough.  He became extremely ill while he was visiting his sister Sarah while he was on his way back to the regiment.  Although no mention can be found as to the cause of his illness, his sister’s husband, who was a doctor, apparently treated him effectively, for he was up and walking within a week.

            When the regiment was first formed, the color guard, which protected the regimental flag, consisted of six sergeants and corporals from each of the companies, but starting with the Battle of  Thompson’s Hill in Missippi on May 1, 1862,  Gorsuch became the sole standard bearer.  The regiment went on to fight in the following battles:

Champion’s Mill, Miss……………………………………………………May 16, 1863

Big Black River, Miss…………………………………………………..…May 17, 1863

The first assault on Vicksburg, Miss…………………….………………May 19, 1863

Vicksburg, Miss…………………………………………………………..May 22, 1863

Siege of Vicksburg, Miss……………………………..………May 19 to July 14, 1863

Jackson, Miss…………………………………...………………July 9 to July 16, 1863

Alexandria, La………………………………………………………….April 26, 1863

Red River Expedition………………………………………..May14 to May 16, 1863

            The 16th Ohio Volunteer infantry Regiment received orders on Oct. 6. 1864 to proceed to Columbus Ohio for discharge. The 16th Ohio ceased to exist as a unit because the men felt that the regimental organization would be changed and thus would lose its integrity.  The remaining men opted not to reenlist.  On October 31, 1864, the men received the reminder of their pay and were officially discharged from the service.  Of the 1,191 men who originally enlisted in the regiment, only 477 remained to be mustered out. 

            The regiment suffered a total of 251 deaths from all causes.  Two officers and sixty men were killed in combat, while another 185 died from disease.  Two men drowned, one committed suicide, and one died of his wounds after accidently being shot.  One hundred and eighty-eight men were wounded.  A further 186 men were discharged with a certificate of disability, and 38 were transferred to The Veteran’s Reserve Corps.  When the regiment was discharged, 90 new recruits were transferred to the 114th Ohio to serve out their enlistments.

            During their three years of service, the men of the 16th Ohio Regiment travelled over 1.621 miles by foot, 1,285 miles by rail, 1,200 miles by steamship, and 3,619 miles by steamboat.  They fought battles in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

            After the war, Gorsuch never did attend college as he intended before the war started.  He expressed to family and friends that he felt as if he would be three years behind those who he had had enrolled with before the war began.  Over 85,000 men in the north were able to pay a $300.00 commutation fee and avoid military duty.  So many wealthy young men, in fact, could afford this fee that university enrollments in the north barely dropped during the Civil War.

But there was another reason why Gorsuch decided to forgo college.  He had fallen deeply in love with a young woman named Elizabeth Hutchison, whom he had known since childhood, and he did not want to postpone marrying her for another three years so he could finish his studies.  They were married on Dec. 12, 1865.

            Shortly after his marriage, he and his bride moved westward to Pellsville, Illinois, a small village that no longer exists today.  He became a farmer and over the years they had eleven children; three boys and eight girls.  He strongly encouraged all of his children to pursue their education, and one of his happiest moments occurred when his daughter Edith graduated from Northwestern University.  Family members report that there were tears in his eyes when she received her diploma. 

            Always interested in education, Gorsuch decided to seek and later win an election for his county’s superintendant of schools.  Running on the Republican ticket, he decided not to seek reelection four years later after his party lost power.  After this, he accepted a position with a company that produced in furniture and other equipment for schools.  He then resumed farming for a time before he gained an appointment in the Revenue Department and moved to Pekin, Illinois.

            Over the years Gorsuch entertained both the men and the officers he served with at his home in Pekin on numerous occasions.  When he visited Chicago he would search out men who wore little bronze buttons that indicated they served in the Civil War and talk to them about their time in the service.  The veteran’s of the Grand Army of the Republic became an organized political organization and in Illinois alone, they formed 582 local “posts” with nearly 30,000 members.  On the Sunday before Memorial Day, the old soldiers would don their old uniforms and march into local churches carrying the grand old flag as a tribute to those who lost their lives during the war.  Gorsuch served as commander of the Post in Paxton, Illinois for many years.

            Three of his grandsons fought in World War One, and several of his great grandsons, as well as one great granddaughter, took part in World War Two.  One of his great grandson’s, Robert Smith died wading through chest high water during the invasion of Tarawa in the Pacific. 

            Only four of Gorsuch’s children survived him by the time he died in 1912, at age 73.  As often happened during that time period, some of his children died in infancy and others  passed on in childhood.  One of his daughters, Mary Stella, married Jo Clarence Smith in 1886, and one of their daughters, Cora, later married Charles Patton, who is the grandfather of the author of this article.  In addition to the letters used in this article, the author has a Minnie bullet that Gorsuch dug out of a tree after the Battle of Chickasaw, and the Grand Army of the Republic Medal that he was awarded after the war.  The author’s son has shown great interest in these objects, thus insuring that Gorsuch’s story will continue on for several more generations to come.