Augusta College and Its Civil War Connection - Part II
At times, when researching various Civil War topics, I will come across a mention of a soldier, usually an officer, who attended Augusta College. If I had been intelligent, I would have kept track of these mentions, but alas, I did not. While I am working to obtain a full list of Augusta College attendees in an effort to document all those with a Civil War story, here are a few Augusta College alumni with Civil War military ties.
Durbin Ward - (born February 11, 1819) - Born in Augusta, Ward would move with his family to Fayette County, Indiana in 1823. Ward would attend Augusta College, then Miami University, before teaching school in Warren County, Ohio. He would become Thomas Corwin’s law partner, the latter would serve as Ohio’s fifteenth governor. Ward would become a politician as well, serving in the Ohio legislature. When the Civil War started, Ward would join the 17th Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a private, but would rise through the ranks, serving as major by the time the Camp Wildcat Mountain action in October 1861. At the Battle of Chickamauga Ward would be wounded in the arm, which was crippled for the rest of his life. He would be commissioned a brevet brigadier general of volunteers. After the war Ward would serve as a state senator and start a newspaper in Lebanon, Ohio. Ward would die on May 22nd, 1886 and is buried in the Lebanon Cemetery.
John W. Breathitt - 3rd Kentucky Cavalry (U. S. A.) - Born in Hopkinsville in 1825, Breathitt was a nephew of Governor John Breathitt, for whom Breathitt County is named. Elizabeth, the mother of John W., died in 1827, and John’s father James died in 1839. John was sent to live with an uncle in North Bend, Ohio. Along with attending Augusta College, John also studied law at Kenyon College, graduating, but never completing the requirements to become a member of the bar. John would wed in 1847, and when Kentucky through off its neutrality stance in September 1861, John would join the Third Kentucky Cavalry as captain of Company A. In May 1863 he was promoted to major. He would see service with his regiment until July 1865, participating in various campaigns, including the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign. After the war he would become clerk of Christian County, and later would serve as a county judge. He would also serve as postmaster of Hopkinsville. Breathitt would die on April 16, 1912, and is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Hopkinsville.
William Preston - Louisville native and later Confederate general, Preston was born in 1816. He would attend August College before furthering his studies at St. Joseph’s College and Yale, before graduating from Harvard. Like many Civil War officers, Preston was a pre-war lawyer, his practice being established in his hometown. He would serve in both the Kentucky house and senate as well as the lieutenant colonel of the 4th Kentucky Infantry during the Mexican War. As a Whig Preston would be elected to fill the vacancy of Humphrey Marshall. In the Buchanan administration would would serve as ambassador to Spain. When the Civil War started, Preston would become a colonel and serve on the staff of his brother-in-law, Albert S. Johnston. Later during the war he would be appointed as one of the Confederacy’s representatives in Mexico. After the war he would return to serve in the Kentucky house. Preston died on September 21, 1887 and is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.
Charles H. Grosvenor - Connecticut native and later Athens County, Ohio lawyer, Grosvenor served as major of the 18th Ohio Infantry Regiment. He would be promoted to lieutenant colonel and lead the regiment in that capacity at Chickamauga, where he would be slightly wounded. He would be promoted to colonel and then received a brevet promotion to brigadier general, both promotions occurring in 1865. After the war Grosvenor would return to his law practice, serve in the Ohio and then the United States House of Representatives as well as serve as National Judge-Advocate-General for the Grand Army of the Republic in 1886. He was appointed chairman of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Park Commission, holding that position until his death in 1917. He is buried in Athens, Ohio.
Hall Brothers - Confederate. Calvin D., Alfred J., William C., and Thomas J., from Pendleton County. At the time of this blog post there has been little evidence these men served, or served within Kentucky units. Some Kentucky men, during the neutrality period, did join Tennessee and Virginia units, so some of the Hall brothers might have served other states.
Joseph Doniphan - Serving as mayor during the Battle of Augusta (and claimed by Mary Coburn to have dressed in women’s clothing during the battle to avoid capture), Doniphan had already seen service during the Civil War. Born in 1823 in Augusta, Doniphan would also serve as a lawyer and a politician. He was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1849 to 1851, serve as mayor of Augusta from 1852 to 1854, and while serving a second term as mayor from 1860-1862 would also be commissioned as the lieutenant colonel of the 16th Kentucky Infantry, two companies of which were recruited in Bracken County (see this post for more about the 16th Kentucky). Doniphan resigned his commission in March 1862 and then serve as judge of the Kentucky’s Ninth Judicial District until 1868. Doniphan would die in 1873 and is buried in Augusta’s Hillside Cemetery. His younger brother William served in the 10th Kentucky Cavalry, another unit that has ties to the region.
Joshua T. Bradford - The noted oviarotomist and Federal commander during the Battle of Augusta, Bradford had also seen service during the war as a surgeon on William “Bull” Nelson’s staff. It was in this service, near the wetlands and swamps between Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee and Corinth, Mississippi that Bradford would contract the disease that would lead to his relatively early death. He was back in Augusta for some recuperation, but also to raise a Kentucky infantry regiment, of which he would be commissioned as colonel. Prior to the war he was solicited to come to Cincinnati to practice medicine there, but instead chose to stay in Augusta where he lived along what is now Riverside Drive, and is buried in Augusta’s Hillside Cemetery.
Robert W. McFarland - At the age of thirty-six, Robert McFarland was commissioned as captain of Company A of the 86th Ohio Infantry Regiment. The regiment was organized as a three months unit on June 10, 1862 at Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio. McFarland, from Champaign County, Ohio, not only attended Augusta College, but also Ohio Wesleyan. He received a teaching appointment at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where several of the men were recruited into the 86th. The 86th performed guard duty in western Virginia before mustering out of service at the end of September. A second version of the 86th was raised in July of the following year, this time at Camp Cleveland, to serve six months. Being initially involved with John H. Morgan’s Great Raid, the regiment took part in the capture of Cumberland Gap, and later a skirmish near the gap on November 12th. McFarland served in this version of the 86th, this time as lieutenant colonel. He and the rest of the 86th would be mustered out of service on February 10, 1864. After the war McFarland was the first professor of mathematics and civil engineering at the newly opened Ohio State University, appointed in 1873. In 1885, McFarland became the president of Miami University and continued in that office until 1888. He died in Oxford, Ohio, in 1910 and is buried in the Oxford Cemetery.