Private Samuel B. Loy

On January 31, 1862 Samuel B. Loy enlisted at Bellaire, Belmont County, Ohio.  Twenty-one years old, Loy had married Lauretta J. Wright the previous October.  Loy served as a private in Company H of the 61^st.  Re-enlisting on February 3, 1864, Loy contracted typhoid pneumonia later in the year.  He died at Camp Dennison on September 18, 1864.  Loy is buried at High Ridge Cemetery in Belmont County.  He was survived by his wife and two children.

Private Hugh Croy

On January 11, 1862 Hugh Croy enlisted in Columbus, Ohio.  In the 1860 census the 19 year old Croy was living in Franklin Township, Coshocton County, Ohio.   There he worked as a laborer, supporting Margaret Croy, 46, and William Croy, 16, likely his mother and brother.  After joining  the 61^st Croy served as a private in Company G.  He died of chronic diarrhea on March 3, 1864 at the general hospital in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  Croy is buried in Stones River National Cemetery (under the name “Crory.” 

Casualties of Second Bull Run

The September 24, 1862 edition of the Cleveland Morning Leader printed a list of Ohio soldiers at the Armory Hospital in Washington, D.C.  This included the soldier’s hometown, company, nature of the wound and condition.   Many of the soldiers had been wounded during the Second Bull Run campaign in August.  The list included the following members of the 61^st (names as they appear in the Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866 are in parentheses):

• Clark, Wm. H., Bellair [sic], Co. H, gunshot above left ankle, doing well.
• Fultz (Foulty, mustered in as Foultz) Geo. W., Painesville, Co. A, enlisted in Cincinnati, gunshot, broke right thigh, bad wound; doing well. 
• Gready (O’Grady), James D., Sandusky, Co. G.; gunshot, back; doing well.
• Shaver (Shafer), John.  New Springfield, Mahoning County, Co. D.  typhoid fever, very sick, convalescing.
• Whitesell (Whitesel), John.  Circleville, Co. C.  gunshot, breaking left leg above knee, doing well.

Corporal O’Grady and privates Clark and Shafer would be discharged from the army on Surgeons’ Certificates of Disability later in 1862 while private Whitesel would be similarly discharged on January 17, 1863.  Corporal Foulty died November 4, 1862 of the wound he received at Freeman’s Ford.

Private Henry Brocksmith

Henry Brocksmith (sometimes spelled “Brooksmith”) was born in Germany.  After immigrating to the United States Brocksmith married Maria Ann Taper in 1847 in New Orleans.  The Brocksmiths later settled in Cincinnati where Henry worked as a cooper.  On September 10, 1861 the 39 year old Brocksmith enlisted in the army and served as a private in Company F of the 61^st.  As the 61^st was transferred with the 11^th Corps from Virginia to Tennessee in the fall of 1863 Brocksmith injured his foot when it was crushed between railroad cars.  In February 1864 he was admitted to the hospital in Murfreesboro, Tennessee after contracting a fever.  There Brocksmith died of pneumonia on February 22, 1864.  Besides his widow he was survived by two daughters.  Brocksmith is buried in Stones River National Cemetery.

Private Lewis McGinnis

Lewis A. McGinnis was born November 8, 1845 to William and Sarah.  McGinnis helped on his family’s farm in Champaign County, Ohio until enlisting in the army at Columbus, Ohio on April 2, 1862.  McGinnis served as a private in Company A of the 61^st and mustered out April 3, 1865 at Goldsborough, North Carolina on the expiration of his service.  Returning to his family’s farm, McGinnis married Lavinia Hoak in Champaign County in 1870.  They would have a son and three daughters.  The McGinnises later headed west, farming near Danville, Illinois before settling in Audobon, Iowa.   There McGinnis served as the Clerk of the District Court and was also active in the Grand Army of the Republic.  McGinnis died in Audobon on March 26, 1932 and is buried there in Maple Grove Cemetery.

Photograph of McGinnis from the October 20, 1910 Audobon Republican (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87057928/1910-10-20/ed-1/seq-5/)

Corporal Jacob Haller

On March 3, 1862 Jacob Haller enlisted in Cleveland, Ohio.  The 20 year old served as a private in Company D of the 61^st.  Promoted to corporal on December 9, 1862, Haller died of rheumatic carditis at General Hospital #9 in Nashville, Tennessee on November 28, 1863.  The Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers Who Died in Defense of the American Union, Interred in the National Cemetery at Nashville, Tennessee lists Jacob Haller as interred in that cemetery as “unknown.”

List of Deaths printed in the Nashville Daily Union, December 6, 1863
from https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025718/1863-12-06/ed-1/seq-2/.

Special thanks to Mike Collins, Great-Great-Grandson of Henry Collins, Co. E of the 61st OVI, for sharing the article from the Nashville Daily Union.

October 1862 Sick and Wounded

On October 20, 1862 the Ohio State Journal published a list of the sick and wounded Ohio soldiers then in Washington hospitals.  The list was submitted by A. M. Gangewer, Secretary of the Ohio Soldiers Relief Association.  This association was established earlier that year to keep Ohio’s local aid societies and sanitary commissions informed on the condition of Ohio soldiers in Washington’s hospitals.  The October 20th list included the following members of the 61^st then in Washington’s Epiphany Church Hospital:

G. Hawks, Co. C, wounded in head

A. Bope, Co. K, sick

D. Williams, Co. B, sick

C. Worley, Co. K, sick

Gangwer’s report also included that John V. Renney, who had been in Emory Hospital, rejoined the 61^st while F. Oswalt died on September 28^th. 

Private Frederick Oswalt’s headstone at the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery

Private Michael Dwyer

Michael Dwyer, a native of Ireland, settled in Cincinnati, Ohio after immigrating to the United States.  In 1854 he married Johannah Divine and they would have one son.  Working as a laborer before the war, the 32 year old Dwyer enlisted on October 4, 1861, joining a company then being raised for the 50th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  Following the consolidation of the 50^th with the 52^nd and 61^st regiments on April 23, 1862 Dwyer served as a private in Company F of the 61^st.  On November 25, 1863 he died of typhoid fever at the Marine Hospital in Cincinnati.  According to The Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866 Dwyer was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati although his final resting place within the cemetery isn’t known.

Sergeant William Whims

William Whims was born in Bellaire, Ohio on May 27, 1838 to Henry and Henrietta Davis Whims.  In 1861 Whims joined the Virginia Snake Hunters, an independent company led by John Baggs, a fellow resident of Pultney Township, Belmont Count.  The Snake Hunters operated in northwest (West) Virginia between Wheeling and Charleston.  On February 15, 1862 Whims enlisted in the 61^st which was then recruiting in Bellaire.  After the regiment was organized that April he was appointed a sergeant in Company H.  Whims served as sergeant until March 31, 1865 when he mustered out at Goldsboro, North Carolina.  Returning to Ohio, Whims took a job in Columbus with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, working as a clerk and yard master.  In 1879 he married Lyda Stein.  Whims was admitted to the state hospital in 1908 and he died there of bronchial pneumonia on July 15, 1910.  Whims is buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in Columbus.

Corporal Henry Powers

18-year-old Henry Powers enlisted March 1, 1862 in New Lexington, Perry County, Ohio.  His father, William, a native of Ireland, worked as a laborer before his death in September, 1861.  Providing financial support for his mother, Martha, and three siblings may have motivated Henry to enlist and while in the army Powers regularly sent a portion of his pay to his family in Perry County.  Appointed a corporal in Co. G of the 61^st, Powers served with the regiment until the Battle of Gettysburg.   There on July 1, 1863 he was mortally wounded.  According to Sergeant William Little of Co. G, Powers was wounded in the left thigh when the regiment was engaged in the fields north of town.  When the 61^st retreated he was left behind and died in enemy hands.