21st Ohio Infantry
| 21st Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry | |
|---|---|
| Active | April 1861– July 1865 |
| Country | United States of America |
| Allegiance | Union |
| Branch | Infantry |
| Type | Regiment |
| Engagements | |
The 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Mostly an all-volunteer unit, with the exception of a few draftees, the 21st Ohio served for both ninety-day and three-year enlistments and fought exclusively in the Western Theater. It saw action in some of the war's bloodiest battles including Stones River, Chickamauga, the Atlanta Campaign, and Sherman's March to the Sea.
On April 27, 1861, volunteers from throughout northwestern Ohio were organized into the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Camp Taylor, near Cleveland, Ohio. The recruits hailed from the counties of Hancock, Defiance, Wood, Ottawa, Sandusky and Putnam. Many were farmers and farmers' sons who had spent years taming the Great Black Swamp, a huge, black, liquid mire that still blanketed a good portion of the region, in order to cultivate the rich soil beneath it. Other early volunteers were merchants, lawyers, school teachers, blacksmiths, politicians and a county sheriff who was a veteran of the Mexican-American War. Of the soldiers in the regiment, Captain, Americus V. Rice, would become a brigadier general by the end of the war. In addition, among the privates, Thomas W. Custer and Edward S. Godfrey, both would later win the Medal of Honor (Custer won two). Both later fought with the Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Godfrey survived and eventually retired as a brigadier general.
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