Booknotes: The Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War

New Arrival:

• The Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War: "Obstinate Devils" from Middle Fork Bridge to Cedar Bluff by David D. Perry (McFarland, 2024).

Over roughly 150 pages (including preface and introduction), David Perry's The Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War: "Obstinate Devils" from Middle Fork Bridge to Cedar Bluff offers readers a briskly paced overview of the three-year regiment's Civil War service in Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky.

Mr. Dyer tells me that the Third was organized in June 1861 and saw its first action in western Virginia during McClellan's successful campaign there. This is the Middle Fork Bridge of the book's subtitle. The regiment went on to serve with Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio, where it marched south through Middle Tennessee, eastward across northern Alabama, and back north into the heart of Kentucky (fighting at Perryville). When Buell was dismissed his command (including the Third Ohio) was reorganized into the Army of the Cumberland under William S. Rosecrans. The regiment fought at Stones River and was one of the unfortunate regiments assigned to Abel Streight's disastrous raid targeting Rome, Georgia that ended in surrender. Upon exchange, the unit was assigned rear area duties, often chasing Confederate cavalry raids, and was mustered out of service in June 1864.

Perry's main narrative essentially ends with the regiment's surrender to Nathan Bedford Forrest's pursuers near Cedar Bluff, Alabama in May 1863. The final year of service is summarized in a single paragraph. The epilogue briefly discusses postwar reunions. The appendix section includes a unit chronology from the 1861 campaign in Virginia through the May 3, 1863 surrender; a unit roster; a list of Union generals from Ohio; and a trio of organizational notes explaining the Third's place in the order of battle over the course of its war service.