125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regimen Part 2

125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regimen

On Sunday, the 25th of September, the 2nd Division, 4th Corps was ordered to proceed by rail to Chattanooga; Hood had started to move north. They moved up to Pulaski, TN, arriving on Nov. 3, 1864. In the meantime, Gen. Sherman had received permission to make his march to Savannah, leaving Gen. Thomas to take care of Hood, giving him the 4th and 24th Corps.

Thomas' troops fell back to Columbia in the face of Hood's advance. From there, they were to pull back to Nashville and defend the city. There was no plan to attack the enemy but to delay him long enough to give Thomas time to fortify the city and receive reinforcements.

While falling back towards Franklin, the regiment was part of the force ordered to Spring Hill to keep the road from Columbia open. It was at Spring Hill that the Confederates lost an opportunity to cut off the Union forces, now under the command of Gen. Schofield, Thomas having gone ahead to Nashville. Through a combination of pure luck and bumbling on the part of the Confederates, the entire force marched through on the way to Franklin within sight of the enemy who could have easily blocked the route. The 125th was positioned on the northern sector of the Spring Hill line, guarding the baggage train.

At Franklin, the Harpeth River had to be crossed and the bridges had to be repaired. Schofield's troops took up defensive positions in case of attack while the bridge was being repaired. The 125th stole away from their positions at Spring Hill along with the rest of Opdycke's Brigade during the night of Nov. 29 and acted as the rear guard on the march north to Franklin, stopping from time to time to form battle lines and repulse attacks from Nathan B. Forrest's cavalrymen, who were right on their hels. By the time they arrived at Franklin, the other two brigades of Wagner's Division were positioned out in front of the main line. Wagner ordered Opdycke to position his brigade with the other two but Opdycke angrily refused as his men had marched from Spring Hill in battle formation and had not had a chance to eat, make coffee, or sleep for the past 48 hours. Wagner, reportedly drunk at the time, gave in , saying to Opdycke to do as he pleased. The Brigade fell into reserve within the lines, 200 yards behind the Carter House along the Columbia Pike.

As the men of the 125th settled down to start fires for coffee, Hood's Army of Tennessee began its assault on the entrenched federals. Wagner had been ordered to pull in his two exposed brigades if the Confederates advanced but did not do so and they were soon overrun by the weight of the charging Confederates. As they ran for the main line, they obscured the rebel soldiers from the men behind the fortifications and the line was soon breached and the Rebels were pouring through.

When the men of the brigade saw what was happening, they reacted without having to be ordered. They abandoned their campfires, picked up their weapons and rushed into the fray. The men of the 125th rushed into the enclosed space back of the Carter House where they met the 29th Tennessee head on. Col. Opdycke, on seeing the rout of the men in the front lines, attempted to stem the fleeing soldiers. He resorted to striking out at them with his revolver until it broke. He dismounted and ran forward to join his old regiment. In the confined space at the rear of the Carter House, it was man to man fighting with the lines of the 125th being 4 men deep. Slowly the Confederates were pushed back across the main line.

The fighting continued on past dark and slowly died out but there was still sporadic firing past 10pm.. The bridge across the Harpeth was repaired sufficiently to allow the passage of the wagons, and the withdrawl from Franklin began . At 11pm, the 125th was withdrawn from the line and began their march to Nashville around midnight.

In Col. Opdycke's report on the battle (Dec. 10, 1864), he wrote "Generals Wagner, Cox, Wood, Stanley, and Schofield each have asserted that the First Brigade saved the day"

Losses of the 125th at Franklin were relatively light considering the intensity of the fight, one officer (Capt. Robert B. Stewart, Co. D) and 5 men killed. Two officers and 20 men were wounded , two men were captured, and one was reported missing.

The regiment went into camp outside Nashville and for the next two weeks spent the time on picket duty, enduring the cold and rain that persisted. On Dec. 15th, the Battle of Nashville began. The Fourth Corp moved out at 6am on the right flank of the Union line. The 1st Brigade crossed the Hillsboro Pike to attack positions held by Lowrey's Brigade of Loring's Division near redoubt No. 1. On the 16th, it was all over with the remnants of Hood's once proud army in full flight. The 125th participated in the pursuit of the enemy ending up in the vicinity of Athens, Alabama on last day of 1864.

For the next couple of months, the regiment moved around but their fighting was over. On April 10th, while near Knoxville, news of Lee's surrender was received and while camped at Knoxville, word of Johnson's surrender was met with a wild celebration on April 23. They finally arrived in Nashville on April 29. While at Nashville they took part in a Grand Review. During the review, Gen Thomas requested that (now) Gen. Opdycke deploy his command in line of battle and make a charge, saying he wished to see a charge by the men of the 4th Corps one more time.

The rest of the time spent in Nashville was taken up with inspections and drill, drill, drill. On June 2 orders came down announcing Company A was to be mustered out on June 8.. The rest of the regiment was anxiously awaiting their mustering out but rumors abounded that the 4th Corps would be sent to Galveston, Texas. The rumors turned out to be true and on June 14th, marching orders were issued. Company B was to remain in Nashville but the rest of the regiment boarded the steamboat "Longworth" at Johnsonville, on the Tennessee River on June 16 to begin the trip To Texas. They encamped below New Orleans (on the old battlefield where Andrew Jackson had defeated the British in 1814) until July 16 when they boarded the ship "Champion" and sailed out into the Gulf. It was a stormy voyage and many of the men were seasick and on July 19 they dropped anchor near the entrance to Matagorda Bay. The "Champion" had too deep a draft to enter the bay and had to stay off shore until the 23rd when the captured blockade runner "Zenobia" took the 125th ashore. They encamped on the Lavaca River, eight or ten miles from Lavaca Bay. The encampment was named Camp Irwin, since it was said it was on the identical site where Col. Irwin, of Gen. Taylor's army first camped on Mexican soil during the Mexican War. For the next two months, the men of the 125th fought off the boredom of garrison duty along with the oppressive Texas heat and insects until September 25th, when they marched to Port Lavaca and boarded the "Diana" for a run down to Indianola where they transferred to the steamship "Suwanne" . They were stranded inside the bar for three days before attempting to cross and when they did, the ship got hung up on the bar and all the men were ordered to go forward and they passed the bar and were on their way home.

At New Orleans they switched to the steamboat "Magnolia". The trip up the Mississippi was uneventful until shortly after 9am on October 9, the boat was rocked by an explosion. A cylinder head had blown out. One man from Company I was severly injured and several others received minor injuries. They could be said to be the last casualties suffered by the 125th. Arriving at Cairo, Illinois on October 12, the men boarded cars of the Illinois Central Railroad finally arriving back at Columbus on October 15. Two days later the 125th became no more as it was mustered out, exactly 3 years, 1 month, 1 day after it was formed. The growl of the Tiger was to be heard no more.