Putnam County OH Civil War Veterans- Story of Co. D of the 21st Regiment OVI: a Virtual Cemetery

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Putnam County OH Civil War Veterans- Story of Co. D of the 21st Regiment OVI

The 21st Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry Union Army was mostly an all-volunteer unit, with the exception of a few draftees, that served for both ninety-day and three-year enlistments and fought in some of the war's bloodiest battles including Stones River, Chickamauga, the Atlanta Campaign and Sherman's March to the Sea. On April 27, 1861, volunteers from throughout northwestern Ohio were organized into the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Camp Taylor, near Cleveland Ohio. The recruits hailed from the counties of Putnam, Hancock, Defiance, Wood, Ottawa and Sandusky. Many were farmers and farmers' sons who had spent years taming the Great Black Swamp, a huge, black, liquid mire that still blanketed a good portion of the region, in order to cultivate the rich soil beneath it. The following excerpts are personal recollections of Edward Settle Godfrey (MoH), BG USA(Ret) while serving during the 3-month period of service, and other soldiers he served with, in the summer of 1861. Company D, 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry was a family connection of twelve cousins and one uncle. Seven of them were officers. And they sustained the only casualties in the only engagement the Company had, with Second Lieutenant Guy Pomeroy being fatally wounded and Captain Thomas G. Allen being killed.The former expired on an Ohio River steamboat while being taken to Gallipolis, Ohio. Captain Allen had said-- "If I am killed I want to be shot right here," placing a finger at the center of his forehead. And that was where the bullet struck.First Lieutenant Charles William Allen, a student of medicine under Dr. Charles Moore Godfrey and brother of the Captain, reenlisted and died at home of wounds received at the battle of Chickamauga in September, 1863. Those brothers lie under a double monument erected in Pomeroy Cemetery, Ottawa, Ohio, and Second Lieutenant Guy Pomeroy also lies nearby.