Knox County farmer John LeVoy Higbie is shown here in the 1860s. He was one of the state's Hundred Days Men in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War.
From left, Remnants of Union trenches preserved in a residential area of Bermuda Hundred. At right, John LeVoy Higbie’s wartime photo placed near the Howlett Line where the 142nd OVI dismantled a series of Confederate earthworks.
Knox County farmer John LeVoy Higbie is shown here in the 1860s. He was one of the state's Hundred Days Men in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War.
During the American Civil War, Ohio devised a strategy to recruit short-term soldiers, known as Hundred Days Men, in an attempt to alleviate the non-combat duties of frontline troops. Kyle Nappi is the great-great-great-great grandson of one of these men, John LeVoy Higbie. He has joined us on the blog to write about this family story.
By the Spring of 1864, the United States had suffered considerable strain in its effort to preserve the union and defeat the Confederacy.
“There was scarcely a family in the North who did not suffer sorrow that cannot be described,” one Yankee veteran recalled in his twilight years. “Hardly a fireside that did not mourn for a husband or lover, brother or friend, who went forth with pride, never to return.”
From left, Remnants of Union trenches preserved in a residential area of Bermuda Hundred. At right, John LeVoy Higbie’s wartime photo placed near the Howlett Line where the 142nd OVI dismantled a series of Confederate earthworks.
Knox County farmer John LeVoy Higbie is shown here in the 1860s. He was one of the state's Hundred Days Men in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War.
GALLERY: Knox County Farmer as a 100 Days Man in Civil War
From left, Remnants of Union trenches preserved in a residential area of Bermuda Hundred. At right, John LeVoy Higbie’s wartime photo placed near the Howlett Line where the 142nd OVI dismantled a series of Confederate earthworks.
Kyle Nappi photos, May 2021
The Point of Rocks field hospital for the Union Army is shown here at the Bermuda Hundred.
Library of Congress
Union earthworks are shown here at the Bermuda Hundred in 1864.
Library of Congress
Confederate (red) and Union (blue) positions are shown on this map of the Bermuda Hundred.
Library of Congress
National Colors of the 142nd Ohio Volunteers Infantry.
Ohio History Connection Flag Collection
Knox County farmer John LeVoy Higbie is shown here in the 1860s. He was one of the state's Hundred Days Men in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War.
Ancestry.com
Ohio had already sent 10 percent of its total population off to war. Nonetheless, Buckeye Governor John Brough drafted a bold proposal to encourage the recruitment of short-term soldiers from the Midwestern states in attempt to mount additional pressure upon the Confederacy.
On April 21, 1864, Governor Brough submitted the ambitious gambit to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and President Abraham Lincoln.
“The term of service to be one hundred days, reckoning from the date of muster into the service of the United States.”
“The foregoing proposition,” the President promptly replied, “is accepted … the Secretary of War is directed to carry it into execution.”
Thus, the Hundred Days Men were born. Ohio would furnish 30,000 new recruits, Indiana and Illinois would enlist 20,000 apiece, Iowa 10,000, and Wisconsin 5,000.
“The call was intended as a herald to the last great Union thrust that would topple the Confederacy like a sudden wind against a weakened tree.”
In the span of two weeks, the Buckeye state recruited 35,982 volunteers and organized them into 41 regiments.
“This prompt and energetic action,” Secretary Stanton relayed to Governor Brough, “exhibit an unmatched effort of devoted patriotism and stern determination to spare no sacrifice to maintain the National Government and overthrow the rebellion.”
Among the Buckeyes to answer this call to arms was John LeVoy Higbie, a married father of four and farmer in Knox County, Ohio.
On May 2, 1864, nearly two months shy of his 44th birthday, John mustered into Company A of the 142nd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI) at the rank of Private.
Undoubtedly, most enlistees joined to contribute indirect non-combat aid to the war effort, as outlined by Ohio’s Adjutant-General in his state-wide call for volunteers.
“The citizen soldiery will share the glory of the crowning victories … by relieving our veteran regiments from post and garrison-duty …”
However, to the great surprise and anger of some, 10 regiments of Ohio Hundred Days Men (including the 142nd OVI) were ordered to the frontlines of Virginia in June 1864.
“It is too late or not the proper time to question whether we have been wronged or not,” a Private in 142nd OVI penned to his parents. “It would be outrageous to send such troops as ours – unacquainted with battalion drill – directly into the front with old veterans.”
Despite the understandable trepidation of these volunteers, Secretary Stanton underscored the sense of urgency to Governor Brough.
“We want every man now,” he telegraphed. “They may decide the war.”
National Colors of the 142nd Ohio Volunteers Infantry.
Ohio History Connection Flag Collection
Higbie and his fellow bluejackets were dispatched to Bermuda Hundred, a neck of land between the James and Appomattox rivers.
Since May 1864, Union commanders had leveraged Bermuda Hundred as a staging area from where their armies sought to sever the rail lines between the nearby dixie cities of Petersburg and Richmond, the Confederate capitol.
At Bermuda Hundred, Hundred Days Men like Higbie performed fatigue duties (labor tasks), picket duties (forward observers of enemy activity), and, on occasion, fought off Confederate attacks. However, some Union commanders questioned the utility of these hastily summoned Ohioans on the frontlines.
“They have scarcely had a musket three weeks, and many are reported to me who do not even know how to load,” lamented one Brigadier General.
Confederate (red) and Union (blue) positions are shown on this map of the Bermuda Hundred.
Library of Congress
On June 13, 1864, the 142nd OVI reached the Point of Rocks area of Bermuda Hundred. Assigned to the Tenth Corps of the Army of the James, these Buckeyes promptly marched to the extreme right of the Union’s fortified frontline.
“All troops of this command will be immediately assigned and take position in the breast-works, ready to repel any assault made by the enemy,” instructed General Orders No. 12 of the Tenth Corps. “Brigade and battery commanders will see that the troops are properly distributed…and will take every precaution to prevent surprise.”
After bivouacking in rifle pits and trenches for a week, the men of the 142nd OVI received orders to destroy a cluster of recently seized Confederate earthworks along the Howlett Line, which spanned some three miles between the James and Appomattox rivers.
“While engaged in this duty they were resisted by the Rebels … with the aid of other troops on the line, (the 142nd OVI) not only effectually completed the destruction, but drove the Rebels from the field.”
“Hardly a day passed without the (142nd OVI) or detachments from it being detailed for picket or fatigue duty.”
While Higbie did not keep a journal or diary throughout his soldiering, the wartime writings of other Hundred Days Men offer glimpses of life at Bermuda Hundred.
A fellow bluejacket in the 142nd OVI wrote, “from a point near our headquarters, on a clear day, we can see the smoke arising from the city of Richmond, the chief city of Rebeldom.”
Meanwhile, a solider in the 143rd OVI described, “our pickets and (the Confederate pickets) are in talking distance – about 30 feet apart – and drink from the same spring.”
Likewise, a solider in the 138th OVI penned to his wife, “I write this letter from my post on picket duty where I can see six or eight rebels … Towards Petersburg there has been continual firing of artillery … I fear the war will not be over in the next hundred days.”
Union earthworks are shown here at the Bermuda Hundred in 1864.
Library of Congress
At some point during his service at Bermuda Hundred, Higbie became ill and was treated in a nearby field hospital. There, he was mistakenly reported dead after a soldier died in a nearby bed. Amazingly, the erroneous news of Higbie’s death reached his family in Knox County.
Indeed, many Hundred Days Men contended with exposure, sickness, and disease which collectively took a more damning toll than Confederate bullets.
“I took 17 sick soldiers to the hospital for quinine,” one soldier in the 132nd OVI chronicled on Independence Day. “About half the regiment is unfit for duty.”
Seeking relief for his Buckeyes, which included the 142nd OVI, one Union Colonel penned an urgent appeal directly to President Lincoln.
“The unusual nature of our fatigue duties has born so heavily upon our unseasoned men together with the climate that, unless we are relieved, I have reason to fear our numbers will be so reduced by disease and death as not even to leave skeleton regiments to take home the middle of August.”
The bold request, however well intended, ultimately failed.
The Point of Rocks field hospital for the Union Army is shown here at the Bermuda Hundred.
Library of Congress
On Aug. 19, 1864, as the end of their term of service neared, the soldiers of the 142nd OVI departed Bermuda Hundred and began their journey back to Ohio.
On Sept. 2, 1864, exactly 100 days since their enlistment, the men of the 142nd OVI mustered out of service at Camp Chase in Columbus. While the regiment suffered zero battlefield deaths, disease, on the other hand, claimed 43 men and undoubtedly comprised countless others.
Higbie’s post-war pension application indicated that the ailments incurred in the field permanently impaired his health in later years.
Ultimately, the troop surge of Hundred Days Men did not defeat the Confederacy. Fighting continued unabated until the southerners finally surrendered in the spring of 1865. Notwithstanding, the contributions of Higbie and his Buckeyes were notable.
“The Ohio National Guard in 1864 did far more than was expected of it,” reflected Ohio’s Adjutant General. “I have never doubted … that the services of the Hundred Days Men of Ohio in 1864 shortened the war.”
On Sept. 10, 1864, President Lincoln issued an acknowledgment of appreciation to all such soldiers.
“The term of service of their enlistment was short, but distinguished … the National Guard of Ohio performed with alacrity the duty of patriotic volunteers, for which they are entitled to and are hereby tendered, through the Governor of their State, the National thanks.”
From left, Remnants of Union trenches preserved in a residential area of Bermuda Hundred. At right, John LeVoy Higbie’s wartime photo placed near the Howlett Line where the 142nd OVI dismantled a series of Confederate earthworks.
Kyle Nappi photos, May 2021
Author Kyle Nappi is the great-great-great-great grandson of John LeVoy Higbie. An alumnus of The Ohio State University, Kyle serves as a national security policy specialist in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. He is also an independent researcher and writer of military history (chiefly the World Wars), having interviewed ~4,500 elder military combatants across nearly two-dozen countries.
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