5th Ohio Infantry - Organization and Service

Organization and Service

The 5th OVI was organized at Camp Harrison near Cincinnati on 20 April 1861, for three months service. The men were mustered into service on 8 May. The regiment moved to Camp Dennison on 23 May, and was on duty there until 20 June.

After its initial term of enlistment expired, the regiment was reorganized on 20 June 1861, for three years, under Colonel Samuel H. Dunning. The remaining three-months men who did not re-enlist in the new regiment were mustered out on 24 July.

The 5th served in western Virginia for most of the balance of the year. In 1862, the regiment was sent into Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, where it suffered significant casualties during the First Battle of Winchester in March. At the subsequent Battle of Port Republic on 9 June, the Buckeyes lost 244 killed, wounded and prisoners. Its ranks much depleted from the Valley Campaign, the 5th served in the defenses of Washington, D.C. under John Pope and participated in the Northern Virginia Campaign.

The 5th Ohio was heavily involved in the fighting at the Battle of Antietam on 17 September 1862. The 5th was part of Major General Joseph Mansfield's XII Corps and Lt. Col. Hector Tyndale's Brigade, along with the 7th Ohio Infantry, 66th Ohio Infantry, and 28th Pennsylvania Infantry. Entering the battle in support of Joseph Hooker's I Corps, Tyndale's brigade inflicted heavy casualties on Alfred H. Colquitt's brigade and helped drive the Confederates out of the Cornfield. Pushing the Confederates south to the Dunker Church, Tyndale's men held the area until the afternoon when lack of supports, heavy losses and low ammunition compelled them to fall back.

In 1863, the partially replenished 5th OVI fought in the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville and then served in the Gettysburg Campaign. Transferred later in the summer to the Western Theater and becoming part of the XX Corps under Joseph Hooker, the 5th participated in the Battle of Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The following year, the 5th served in the forces under William T. Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign and was part of Sherman's March to the Sea and the subsequent operations against Confederate-held Savannah, Georgia. In the spring of 1865, the regiment served in the Carolinas Campaign.

During the Civil War, the 5th Ohio participated in 28 battles and sustained a loss of more than 500 men killed, wounded and prisoners.