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16th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
Where was the regiment on
January 18, 1862
MORE MARCHING IN THE RAIN

On this day the soldiers of the 16th Ohio resumed their march in a pouring rain. The road had ended and they slogged through the mud up and through Hall's Gap and on to near Waynesburg, Kentucky, where they found refuge in old buildings and camped for the night. Cpl. Theodore Wolbach, Company E, in his post-war historical work on the 16th Ohio, describes this day and night most colorfully:

Cheerfully the boys broke camp and resumed the march, toiling up the muddy road that led through Hall's Gap. The enthusiasm of the morning decreased proportionately as the weariness, mud and rain increased. One by one the road side became strewed with fellows whose endurance could hold out no longer without a rest, and the rear guard found it a task to urge the poor fellows on. ... Still onward we marched on our wearisome way until the wretched little town of Waynesburg appeared in sight. ... Waynesburg was our encampment for this night; no tents came up, so in the mud and rain the boys crept into any shelter that offered itself. One squad, headed by Lieut. DeSilva, wandered around awhile, looking in vain for a dry place to creep into, feeling no doubt like the persecuted Nazarene when he said, The birds of the air have their nests, and the foxes have their holes, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. Perseverance has its reward, for finally the Lieutenant and his men found some pigs comfortably snoozing under a shed, and without hesitating or discussion routed the indignant porkers and appropriated their warm nest. ... Here and there small groups of men, unfortunate in not finding a dry place to stow themselves into, stood or sat gloomily around a fire that struggled for an existence against the falling moisture. The scarcely perceptible tread of some sentinel, the relief guards going their rounds, and the suppressed tones of conversation, furnished about the only audible sounds as the night wore on, until the gray light of advancing day drove the somber shades of night westward, when the wild, rolling revellie (sic] called the boys forth to prepare for another day's march through the mud.


period map showing approximate route of the 16th Ohio from Halls Gap to the vicinity of Waynesburg, Kentucky
image from Library of Congress
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