The 26th Ohio Voluntary Infantry: The Groundhog Regiment
Presented by Jeff Hill

The Twenty-sixth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry was officially organized at Camp Chase (Columbus) from June 8-24, 1861 to serve for three years. As such, the regiment was one of the first to answer President Abraham Lincoln's call to defend the Union.

Throughout the War, nearly 1200 men were part of the 26th at one time or another, most as direct enlistment volunteers, but others as transfers from other regiments (most commonly the 97th OVI). During the war, 122 were killed or mortally wounded, 13 died as prisoners of war (most of them at Andersonville), 85 died from disease, 245 were disabled from combat, 112 were discharged (probably due to serious illness or injury), 48 transferred out to other regiments, 441 were mustered out at the end of their term, one deserted, and records are incomplete for 149 soldiers.

The regiment fought in many well known major Western Theater campaigns including: Stones River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Dallas, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Lovejoy's Station, Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville. The regiment also fought in dozens of lesser known battles or skirmishes. The regiment also is noted for routing famous Confederate General Forrest's cavalry on several occasions.

Source: 26th OVI Website

Our speaker: Jeff Hill is the webmaster of the 26th OVI website.  He is the descendant of two members of the regiment and is writing a history of the regiment which fought at Stones River, Chickamauga, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville.

To make a reservation: Use the Dinner Reservation Form on this website, send an email to or call 440-449-9311 and leave a message on the voice mail.

Please note: Meetings are held at Judson Manor at the corner of East 107th Street and Chester on University Circle in downtown Cleveland.  Map to Judson Manor

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Headquarters Army of the Potomac
March 2, 1865. Late p.m.

To Mrs. George G. Meade

Lyman has returned without waiting for my summons, he becoming nervous for fear some movement of Lee's might precipitate matters before he could get notice, and if the army should move, it might be a difficult matter to join it. He has been gone since the week before Christmas and brings with him a case or two of champagne, by way of apology for neglecting my birthday.

There is nothing new in the camp, except you may tell George the Third Infantry has reported, and is doing guard duty at headquarters in place of the "red legs'' as he dubbed them last year. Lyman was so taken by this inventive naming that he spent some considerable portion of his leave devising a new amusement, the collection and listing of curious names for regiments. With no more pressing matters to hand, these he read out tonight in my mess, asking our visitors their opinion as to the derivation of these names.

There are no less than three regiments which rejoice in the appellation “Persimmon”, including the 100th Indiana. That unfortunate state also boasts a 1st Artillery known as the “Jackass” regiment, which one trusts is rather more to do with their beasts than with their brains. Lyman placed my own 13th Pennsylvania “Bucktails” on his list, but remembering with affection their two weeks in my first command at the start of the rebellion, I banned their continued inclusion.

I allowed him to retain the 140th Pennsylvania infantry, who were once so burdened by huge Vincennes rifles, that they were unable to discard the cruel jibes of “Walking Artillery”.

Iowa laid claim to two fine candidates, viz. the 24th “Temperance” and the 37th “Graybeards”, the latter of which Lyman avers are required to be above the age of 45 years, limiting their active service to guarding railroads close to home.

From his own part of the world, Lyman has collected the 16th Connecticut “Plymouth Pilgrims, and the 10th Light Artillery of Massachusetts, known as “Sleeper’s”. I did not find this at all amusing, especially as he tiresomely repeated that they must be the “Light Sleeper’s”. We worked our way through a mixed bag of New Jersey Third Cavalry “Butterflies” and 8th Wisconsin “Eagles”, with every one guessing that the first was once gaudily uniformed. No one deduced that the latter proudly display an imprisoned bald eagle, disrespectfully named “Abe”, as it appears to me.

The sensation of the evening came when Lyman gave the nom de guerre of the 26th Ohio, to wit, the “Ground Hogs”. He says the regiment is so taken with its ability to dig tremendous holes without tools, that they see no shame in boasting a similarity to a verminous rodent. Such a sentiment is of course unremarkable in the Western armies.

Warren surprised our party by declaring it local lore in Pennsylvania, though how he heard of it I cannot speculate, that at about this time of year, if a ground hog sees its own shadow it presages six more weeks of winter. Perhaps, he announced to a general silence, if the boys from Ohio see their shadows there will be six further weeks of conflict, with the greatest event of the century to be expected on April 15th. I am determined that Lyman’s champagne is to be strictly rationed at table in future.

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Note: Though NOT drawn from The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major General United States Army published in 1913, the General assures us that these materials are, like him, completely authentic. General Meade will be pleased to respond to any questions or comments sent him at MajGenlMeade @ aim.com.

Mary Lincoln, in her efforts to raise money for Union soldiers and their families, has committed Lincoln to a talk before an audience at Washington's Ford’s Theater.

Note: The Lincoln Forum (www.lincolnforum.org) is an organization dedicated to enhancing "the understanding and preserving the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War."  Founded in 1995, the Forum meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on the anniversary of Lincoln's address at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery.

One of the much debated topics about the Civil War is which battle was the decisive battle. Much effort and time have been expended in support of one or another Civil War battle for this distinction. A great deal of energy and thought have also been devoted to the point of view that no Civil War battle merits this title. Herein is offered another nomination for this designation as well as the case for this contention. Note that the choice of the word "contention" is intentional, because the battle which is proposed as the most decisive is not one which is likely to be selected and which is instead likely to provoke disagreement.

Rather than championing this battle as the most decisive, the intent is to provide a different and hopefully thought-provoking point of view about a little known Civil War battle, the ramifications of which are greater than the apparent insignificance of the battle. The battle in question is Rocky Face Ridge, the opening battle of William Tecumseh Sherman's Atlanta campaign. This battle is nominated as the decisive battle of the war because it set the pattern for the entire Atlanta campaign, and the Atlanta campaign, as argued below, was the most significant military action in ensuring Union victory.

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