Commemorative events
This year is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. To mark it, the Springfield Historical Society will present the Springfield Civil War Symposium Saturday, May 7, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The event is open to the public. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for students. Lunch will be included.
Speakers include Fergus Bordewich, Nicole Etchenson, Mark Grimsley and Ethan A. Rafuse, all noted Civil War experts and authors.
A Civil War-themed tour of Ferncliff Cemetery is set for 6 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 6, with re-enactors telling the stories of soldiers buried there.
Make reservations before April 30 by calling 325-0657 Tuesday through Saturday.
Springfield sent many men to serve in the Union ranks.
A walk through Ferncliff Cemetery can serve as a history lesson about those who served.
As part of the Springfield Civil War Symposium, there will be a tour of Ferncliff with re-enactors presenting stories of the men who are burried there.
Here are brief biographies written by symposium organizer Paul “Ski” Schahner of some of the better known Civil War veterans in the cemetery.
Gen. Joseph Keifer
Joseph Warren Keifer became the leading representative of Springfield and Clark County in the Civil War. He was a member of the first graduating class of Antioch College’s law school and later served as a trustee in 1868.
Keifer enlisted as a private on April 19, 1861, one week after the attack upon federal troops at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S.C.
On April 21, 1861, he was commisioned as a major in the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI) for the standard three-month enlistment. Before his enlistment concluded, he was commissioned for three more years.
In all, he participated in 29 battles. On Feb. 21, 1862, Keifer was promoted to lieutenant colonel and then to colonel of the 110th OVI on Sept. 30, 1862.
He was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864, but resumed his command despite his injuries in August. On Nov. 30, 1864, he received another promotion to brigadier general in recognition for his courage.
During the war, Keifer was assigned to help quell the draft riots in New York City and chased after Gen. Joseph Johnston throughout North Carolina toward the end of the war.
During the last two years of the war, he commanded a brigade under General William Tecumseh Sherman before mustering out of the service on June 27, 1865.
He returned to Springfield to resume his law practice in July 1865. General Keifer served in many civic capacities after the war, with politics his special calling.
Keifer served in the Ohio Senate and then the U.S. Congress from 1877-85. He was elected speaker of the House of Representatives on Dec. 5, 1881, and held that post until March 1883.
When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, President McKinley appointed Keifer a major general assuming command of the 7th Army Corps with orders to enter Cuba, take possession of Havana and establish headquarters there.
He returned home after the war ended on May 11, 1899, and resumed his law practice. He died on April 22, 1932.
James C. Walker
Walker was born Nov. 30, 1843, in Clark County. When the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in Company K, 31st OVI and at the end of his three months of service, enlisted again at Chattanooga.
Walker served in every battle that the Army of the Cumberland participated in, about 81 engagements in all.
He received the Medal of Honor for courage displayed while defending against, then attacking Confederate troops holding Missionary Ridge, a key part of the Chattanooga campaign.
He mustered out of the service on July 20, 1865, and returned to Springfield. Eventually, he was appointed the city’s police chief.
Capt. Edward L. Buchwalter
Born on a farm in Ross County June 1, 1841, Buchwalter was promoted to sergeant in Company A, 114th OVI, in August 1862.
His first engagement during the Vicksburg campaign at Chickasaw Bayou with Gen. William T. Sherman introduced Buchwalter to the fortunes of war.
He later served under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant as well, and was wounded twice in battle. He was involved in combat in Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee and Misissippi.
He eventually was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the 53rd United States Colored Troops and was promoted to captain in May 1864.
He then served as provost marshal at Macon, Miss., before heading the Freedman’s Aid Bureau, which assisted newly freed black citizens. Buchwalter was honorably discharged on March 6, 1866.
S. Jerome Uhl
Born in Holmes County in 1841, Uhl in 1861 enlisted for a period of three months in Company E, 116th OVI. Once his enlistment expired, he re-enlisted in the fall, taking part in battles in western Virginia. He was a prisoner of war.
Following the war, he became an internationally, nationally and locally renowned artist, with many of his portraits hanging in museums and homes.
Capt. Charles Welsh
On Dec. 2, 1859, Captain Welsh stood guard as a member of the Virginia State Guards at the scaffold when the trap was sprung for the hanging of John Brown, the leader of a provisional army that tried to seize the armory at Harpers Ferry
Soon after Virginia’s secession from the Union, Welsh left the service, returning to his home state of Maryland. He enlisted in a Maryland regiment in the Union army and served three years.
He then came to Springfield and was instrumental in organizing the 152 OVI, in which Gov. Asa Bushnell served as captain. Welsh became captain of Company K and served for 160 days before being honorably discharged on Sept. 2, 1864.
Dr. Alexander Dunlap
Alexander was born in Brown County, Ohio, on Jan. 12, 1812. He graduated from Cincinnati Medical College in 1839. During the Civil War, Dr. Dunlap was commissioned by the state of Ohio to aid in attending the wounded at the battle of Shiloh in 1862.
Later he was in charge of the hospital boats which brought wounded soldiers from the battle of Vicksburg to the hospitals of the North.
After his military service came to an end, he returned to Springfield and practiced medicine for more than 50 years. He was elected president of the Ohio Medical Society in 1868.
Maj. Luther Brown
Born in Springfield in January 1832, Brown received his early education in local public schools and worked in a hardware store after classes. He later became senior partner in the hardware firm of Brown and McCord.
In the autumn of 1862, he entered the army as captain of Company I, 110th OVI and served honorably in Virginia and Maryland. Upon the recommendation of Gen. J.W. Keifer, he was promoted to major.
Brown was seriously wounded in the neck at the Battle of Monocacy, Md., in the summer of 1864. After his recovery, he was attached to duty as the provost marshal of the 3rd Division, 6th Army Corps.
After the war, Brown resumed his hardware business.
Jonathon ‘Hug’ Hook
“Hug” was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1826. In 1852, he was listed as living on Main Street between Race and Plum streets. He was the great-grandfather of noted Springfield historian Ann Benston.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Hook enlisted in the 44th OVI that was assembled at the Springfield Fairgrounds, where Davey Moore Park presently stands.
He fought with the 44th in many of its major conflicts, including the Battle of Lewisburg, Va., before being injured in October 1862 while retreating from Lexington to Richmond, Ky.
Hook recovered in Cincinnati General Hospital and later was discharged at Camp Dennison on June 27, 1863.
Asa Smith Bushnell
Born in Rome, N.Y., in 1834, Bushnell saw combat with the 152nd OVI, serving as its captain during the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign.
Edward C. Middleton
Even as a teenager, Middleton wanted to serve his country in the great conflict. Because he was too young to enlist, he met with sustained resistance from his parents until their neighbor indicated the need for a bugler in his company.
With his parents’ approval, Middleton enlisted in the 4th Ohio Cavalry, serving under General Sherman.
Once he entered camp, he realized that there actually was no position for a bugler, so he was given a musket and joined the infantry.
When his father recognized that, he wrote to President Abraham Lincoln, asking for his son’s release. Lincoln responded with a letter indicating that if he could find a substitute for Edward, his son would be released from duty.
However, while Middletown was in Georgia, his regiment was encountering the enemy, Middleton was captured by the Confederates while supposedly resting quietly in camp.
Edward was then sent to Andersonville prison in southern Georgia to spend the remainder of the Civil War as a POW.
He survived Andersonville and returned home. Eventually, he married and moved to Washington, D.C., before returning to Springfield to spend his later years.
Paul Schahner is a Springfield dentist with a strong interest in local history and the Civil War. He has written a book about the history of Ferncliff Cemetery.
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