New Year’s Day 1864 with the 103rd O.V.I.

The Civil War seems to show up in the news fairly often in the last few years. Unfortunately, mentions of it always seem to dwell on negative aspects of the War, rarely focusing on the incredible sacrifices made by the Northern soldiers to preserve the Union and free the slaves. 

Since it's a New Year, it's a good time for me to post this article I wrote for the Black Swamp Trader & Firelands Gazette. It's the story of how some soldiers from the 103rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry spent New Year's Day 1864 – 160 years ago.

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A Harsh Holiday: New Year’s Day 1864 with the 103rd O.V.I.

By Dan Brady

Spending the holidays away from home is always tough on the members of our Armed Forces, especially in times of war. But while our current fighting men and women often look forward to some special holiday meals, and visits at the battlefront from entertainers, political leaders and sometimes even their Commander in Chief, it was very different for the soldiers who fought in the Civil War. What were some of the hardships that Ohio’s Union soldiers experienced while spending New Year’s Day 1864 far from home? Fortunately, we have a written record of some of the experiences of the 103rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry (O.V.I.) to tell us. Let’s revisit January 1, 1864 and the following few days to find out how a private with a knack for foraging rang in the New Year with a resolution to find food for his comrades.

Personal Reminiscences and Experiences By Members of the One Hundred and Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry is a fascinating book with articles written by both commissioned officers and enlisted personnel about their time serving in the Civil War. Two men – Colonel P. C. Hayes and Private Thomas H. Williams – both chose to write about New Year’s Day 1864, which they spent at Strawberry Plains, Tennessee and would never forget.

Col. Hayes described the terrible conditions in which the members of the 103rd found themselves on that second New Year’s Day of their army life. “The weather was terribly cold; the ground was frozen hard and covered with snow; the wind blew shrill and piercing – the thermometer standing below zero. No clothing had been drawn since we left Knoxville, and the men were in a very destitute condition, having scarcely enough to cover their nakedness. There were not over half a dozen overcoats in the regiment. Blankets, also, were scarce and those we did have were worn so thin as to afford little protection against the cold. Under these circumstances the men suffered exceedingly. It was impossible to keep anything like comfortable.”

The men did their best to stay warm by keeping a large fire burning before the tents. But there was little they could do about their miserable food situation.

Col. Hayes described the lack of food. “On this cold, blustering, disagreeable day, just when the troops needed a double allowance of provisions, not a mouthful of anything eatable was issued. All that they had to allay their hunger was what they picked up in the country round about – and this was very little, indeed. The country in every direction had been overrun by hungry soldiers of both armies, and everything that could be found in the eating line, had been “gobbled up.” 

Col. Hayes observed that a few members of the regiment had gone out eight or ten miles from camp on that day and came back with nothing but a few ears of corn. 

Within a day or two, however, things began to look up a little. 

As Col. Hayes noted, “Fortunately, some of the men, during a foraging expedition, had chanced to come upon a small cornfield, which thus far had escaped the notice of both our own and the rebel troops. From this we obtained a liberal supply of corn, which lasted us for several days and until the Commissary was enabled to contribute somewhat to our sustenance.

Pvt. Williams of Company A wrote about his memorable New Year’s Day foraging expedition in his chapter of the book, and his experience may very well be the one of which Col. Hayes wrote. But as we shall soon see, there was much more to his story than merely gathering some corn that had been overlooked.

Pvt. Williams had begun New Year’s Day 1864 with a meager ration, which was distributed to the men of Company A by Orderly Sergeant Michael Dunke.

As Pvt. Williams noted, “The rations consisted of unbolted [unsifted] corn meal, and we stood in line, cup in hand, to get it while Mike gave it out with a table spoon, commencing with three spoonfuls for each man, saying to the men if there was any left he would come back along the line again, and when he got to the end of the line it was all gone. As none had been saved for himself he went without.”

Witnessing Sergeant Dunke’s unselfish action, Pvt. Williams wrote, “I noted this carefully, and while I had always thought much of him, this lesson to me was one that has always remained with me, and from that moment I knew him to be one of God’s true noblemen.”

After cooking and eating his corn meal, Pvt. Williams decided to do some foraging. 

Foraging could be quite dangerous. As Pvt. Williams wrote, “It was no easy task to go out in the country away from the army, to say nothing of the danger of being picked up by the enemy’s cavalry who might be scouting about, or the danger of some bush-wacker shooting a person from some place of concealment. All such things we had to take chances on when out foraging.”

After securing passes from the Captain, Pvt. Williams and a friend, Private Matthew Gooby, set out. Since both armies had been up and down the valley, the two men decided to cross the river and head south. Late in the afternoon, they came into a small valley, where they found an old man willing to sell them a bushel of wheat.

After purchasing the wheat, the two men carried it several miles to a small mill on a mountain stream. As it was quite late when they arrived at the mill, they spent the night there. In the morning, they woke the miller to grind the wheat for them. 

That’s when the miller told them the bad news: the wheat was “sick” and unfit to eat. (“Sick” wheat is the musty, inedible result when wheat with high moisture content is stored in bins without adequate ventilation and left undisturbed for a long time.)

Angry and surprised, Pvts. Williams and Gooby held their own “council of war” to decide what to do. Pvt. Gooby was in favor of going back, and doing something “desperate” if the man who sold them the sick wheat did not square the deal.

So they went back and confronted him. Pvt. Gooby told the man in no uncertain terms what would happen if he did not make things right.

“The old fellow said he thought the wheat was all right,” wrote Pvt. Williams, “but if we did not want it he would help us gather some corn, that yet stood on the stalks in the field, which he did, and we then shelled it. He then gave us a good-sized ham, all the corn we could carry, besides a good dinner, which settled it with us, and we carried our corn to the mill, getting there about dusk, and got the miller to grind it for us, which he could do, but could not bolt it, but he had a hand sieve which we used to screen out the hulls with. He asked us what he should do with the wheat. We told him that it belonged to the old chap from whom we got it, and whom we told could get it by going after it.”

The next morning, the two men had their corn meal baked into pone [a type of cornbread] and triumphantly returned to camp with all the food that they had found, which they shared with their comrades. When some of the other members of the regiment learned where Pvts. Williams and Gooby had been, they secured passes and headed out for the same place.

The bitter cold would continue, but for a little while at least, the 103rd O.V.I. would be literally corn-fed.

Col. Hayes said it best when he summed up those first days of 1864 for the men of the 103rd O.V.I. “It was such a New Year’s as none of us ever spent before, and certainly hope never to spend again,” he wrote. 

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Since I have an ancestor who fought in the Civil War, I have the privilege of being a member of Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), James A. Garfield Camp #142. It is a source of pride for our camp that one of our members, Peter J. Hritsko of Vermilion, Ohio was elected Commander-in-Chief of the SUVCW.

SUVCW Commander-in-Chief, Peter J. Hritsko

And if that isn't enough, Sister Sue Freshley, a member of the Eliza Garfield #142 Auxiliary (sister organization to the SUVCW) has been elected to the office of National President of Auxiliary to the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. 

Thus our local camp and auxiliary unit have the unique honor of having as members the top positions in each national organization. Unbelievable!

I've known Peter since kindergarten at Charleston Elementary School in Lorain, all the way through Masson Junior High and Admiral King High School, where we were both in the Marching Band. Peter's a terrific guy and you'll find no one more dedicated to the mission of the SUVCW, which is to educate and preserve the history and legacy of the Boys in Blue.