7th Ohio impression

[Brady]

Howdy all I was looking for some help to put together a really solid 7thovi impression. From what I've found so far it looks like the 7th got forage caps frock coats 42 Springfields and Enfield muskets and 1855 knapsacks. I'm wondering what type of accoutrements they received and how they're uniforms changed from early war to late war.
Thanks
Brady Rusinek

[PMFerringer]

Re: 7th Ohio impression

Brady,

The best place to start is with the unit quartermaster records. If you can't find those look up to the brigade level. Start with an online search or specific books on the unit. If you can get access to the regimental records that would be your best bet.

Good luck!

[James Brenner]

Re: 7th Ohio impression

The Bully 7th Ohio, eh? The good news is that there's a fair amount of material available on the unit. There are several published books available on the 7th that you should start with. Lawrence Wilson's, Itinerary of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 1861 to 1864 isn't a great book, but it's not bad. It has a lot of extracts from the Official Records and that's to the detriment of personal anecdotes. George Wood's, Record of the Seventh Ohio was originally written in 1865 and is a little more informative. Both books, by the way, have been reprinted. Richard Staats, The Bully Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry (Heritage Books: Bowie, MD, 2003) is primarily a chronological compilation of letters to the various newspaper editors. It's probably more appropriate for your needs than the other two. Timothy Mieyal's 1998 Kent State University masters thesis, A Story of Valor: the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, is on the shelves at the main campus library and may be available on line. Several NE Ohio newspapers carried letters from the soldiers and they will most likely be your best source for information. Three Cleveland papers are obvious choices: the Herald, the Morning Leader, and the Plain Dealer. They are all on microfilm and I believe the Leader is available on the Chronicling America website. Both the Western Reserve Chronicle and the Ashtabula Weekly Telegraph also have several letters. A few of the less obvious newspapers can also be useful. For example, the Weekly Perrysburg Journal of 18 July has a letter in which the writer states they are fully equipped, but have no canteens, "but many would rather go without them than use the India rubber things which others have." Also, be sure to check out Larry Stevens' website: http://www.ohiocivilwar.com/ for a very good bibliography.

Finally, in case you want to narrow down your newspaper research, here are the towns/cities of origin for the companies: A, B, and K, Cleveland; C, Oberlin; D, Painesville; E, Huron; F, Franklin Mills (Kent); G, Ravenna; H, Warren; I, Youngstown. Bear in mind, though, that as the war progressed, the newspapers printed fewer and fewer letters.

This ought to keep you busy and I hope this helps.

Jim

[Brady]

Re: 7th Ohio impression

Thanks gents I'll look into getting those books. I'm hoping someone can answer this though, and I guess this could apply to any northern unit, when muskets were issued did soldiers receive the corresponding cartridge boxes? For example when a soldier in the 7th received his 1842 musket did he get the 1861 pattern .69 cal round ball cartridge box or did he get whatever was on hand.
Thanks,
Brady

[Will Hickox]

Re: 7th Ohio impression

Don't forget the rooster badge!

http://talesfromaop.blogspot.com/201...er-riddle.html