Lorenzo Barnhart

The normal period of enlistment for Union soldiers was three full years, or until the end of the war (whichever came first). After their initial training, infantry units such as the 110th Ohio Volunteers were often hurried to the front to fill sudden gaps caused by battlefield losses that weakened, and sometimes destroyed, older regiments. The units remained active as long as possible; after forming up at Camp Piqua, Ohio, the 110th Ohio saw action in twenty-one separate battles.

In these memoirs, Private Lorenzo D. Barnhart expresses great pride in the role played by his unit in the days just before the battle of Gettysburg in the summer of 1863. The Ohio volunteers held up the entire Confederate army of Virginia for three days at Winchester, Virginia, before moving onto Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania...