The Union Army

Civil War History

To Colonel Timothy R. Stanley, a Federal brigade commander at the Battle of Stone's River, one disaster after another seemed to befall his troops. Not only did one of his colonels appear on the field of battle too drunk to command, but the fighting was chaotic and indecisive, and the Federal artillery supporting some of his troops ran out of ammunition. Worst of all, Stanley's preferred regiment was suddenly ordered to make a bloody, unauthorized charge by an officer from another division and sustained "murderous" casualties.

The Federal force ordered to make the disastrous, unauthorized assault at Stone's River on December 31,1862, was Colonel Stanley's own regiment of volunteers, the 18th Ohio Infantry, which he had helped to organize at the beginning of the war. Although "already breathless from fatigue," the soldiers of the 18th Ohio plunged into the flame of battle without question when ordered. "The enemy from the cover of the woods met us with a withering fire," reported their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Given. "My men bravely charged upon the hidden enemy and drove them back into the woods, where they held them at bay for some twenty minutes." When the regiment finally withdrew, its ranks were tragically thinned. "They acted with that bravery expected of well-disciplined troops," reported Colonel Stanley. "They stood manfully and bravely [against] the appalling fire of a much larger force...."
The Battle of Stone's River ended in a stalemate that cost more than 12,000 Federal casualties, and Colonel Stanley wasted no time reporting the debacle. "Before the smoke of battle is over, and while the dead lie uninterred," he wrote his superiors, "I desire to make the following important report." The bloody chaos he cited was not unusual during the Civil War; along with the war's countless acts of courage and sacrifice were numerous examples of bloody bungling and costly miscalculations.

The 18th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was organized in May of 1861 in Parkersburg, Ohio, as a 90-day regiment. By the time the regiment's enlistment period neared expiration, it was obvious the war would last much longer than three months. In the fall of 1861, the 18th Ohio was reorganized as a three-year regiment, and in November was sent to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, as part of the Army of the Ohio. The troops served in the Federal advance on Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1862, and in the Federal occupation of Nashville, Tennessee.
During the war's second year, the regiment served in expeditions against Huntsville, Alabama; in Federal operations near Pulaski and Bridgeport, Tennessee; on guard duty along the Tennessee & Alabama Railroad; and in the siege of Nashville. After the Battle of Stone's River, the regiment was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland and served in the Tullahoma and Chickamauga Campaigns.

At the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19-21,1863, the regiment played a key role in holding back Confederate advances which could have produced an even worse Federal defeat. "The Eighteenth Ohio and the Eleventh Michigan, forming the first line, opened a rapid and effective fire, which checked the enemy," reported Colonel Stanley, who was seriously wounded while commanding a Federal brigade at Chickamauga. "All responded...with cheers of triumph," Stanley recalled, "and the enemy thus fled in dismay...strewing the ground with killed and wounded. Being hard pressed, I gave the order, after firing a number of rounds, to fall back...." Despite the Confederate victory at Chickamauga, Federal forces successfully withstood the siege of Chattanooga; made important advances at Lookout Mountain, Orchard Knob and Missionary Ridge;
and opened the Southern heartland to Federal invasion.

The 18th Ohio was engaged at Rossville Gap, Orchard Knob and Missionary Ridge, then was reorganized as part of Stanley's Brigade to conduct important engineering duty in the reopening of the Tennessee River near Chattanooga. The regiment was engaged in the construction of two steam ferryboats, among other engineering activities, until the infantry's three-year enlistment expired. The troops were mustered out of service on • November 9,1864. Some volunteers from the 18th Ohio, joined by troops from four other Ohio regiments, were then organized into the 18th Ohio Veteran Infantry, which was engaged at the Battle of Nashville in December of 1864, and ended the war doing guard duty at Augusta, Georgia. The 18th Ohio Veteran Infantry was discharged at Columbus, Ohio, on October 22,1865.