An Ohio Civil War medal awarded to Private Patrick Newton, a Veteran...

An Ohio Civil War medal awarded to Private Patrick Newton, a Veteran soldier of the 61st Ohio Infantry Regiment who served between February 1862 and July 1865, during which period the regiment saw service at the battles of 2nd Bull Run, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg

State of Ohio Veteran Civil War Medal (P. Newton Co G 61st Regt Inft) good very fine £300-£400

Footnote
Patrick Newton, aged 30, mustered into service as a Private in Company ‘G’, 61st Ohio Infantry Regiment on 2 February 1862. At the end of his term of service in 1864, he reenlisted as a veteran soldier and was transferred to Company ‘G’, 82nd Ohio Infantry Regiment when the 61st was consolidated with the 82nd on 31 March 1865. Newton was finally mustered out of service on 5 July 1865 at Camp Dennison, Ohio.

The 61st Ohio Infantry Regiment was organised in the State at large in March, April and May, 1862, to serve for three years. It left for the field in Western Virginia on May 27, and at Freeman’s ford had its first fight with the enemy, a part of Longstreet’s corps. It took part in the second battle of Bull Run and covered the retreat of the Federal forces on the Centerville turnpike toward Washington. In the battle it lost 25 men killed and wounded. At Stafford Court House it established winter quarters and remained there until April, 1863. It was engaged throughout the entire battle of Chancellorsville and lost 4 officers wounded, besides a large number of men wounded and 5 killed. At Gettysburg it opened the battle, being thrown out as skirmishers, and was so roughly handled that it was compelled to fall back to Cemetery Hill. In this action the regiment lost heavily in killed, wounded and prisoners. In September it was transported to the Army of the Cumberland and was engaged in a fierce fight at Wauhatchie, Tennessee, defeating and driving the Confederates across Lookout Creek. In this fight 3 were killed and a number wounded. It was in the assault on Missionary Ridge moving round to the extreme left of the Federal lines to prevent a flanking movement on the part of the enemy. In March, 1864, it re-enlisted, was furloughed home, and then returned for the Atlanta campaign. It participated in the bloody action at Resaca, losing several men, and performed its part nobly during all of the succeeding campaign. The regiment lay at Atlanta until it started with General Sherman’s army on its ‘march to the sea’. It then marched up through the Carolinas and at Goldsboro, North Carolina, on 31 March 1865, was consolidated with the 82nd Ohio, the combined regiment taking the name of the latter organisation.

The State of Ohio Civil War Medal
The State of Ohio authorised Tiffany & Company of New York to provide 20,000 medals to recognise those soldiers from Ohio who re-enlisted from the State under War Department General Orders, No. 191, which called for “Veteran Volunteers”. These were soldiers who completed their three-year tour of duty and then signed up for further duty as a Veteran Volunteer. The medals were distributed in the summer of 1866 and are officially engraved with the name and unit to the reverse field of the medal. Based on the British Crimea medal, the suspension was attractively but poorly designed, resulting more often than not in only the disc surviving. Approximately 319,000 men from this State fought for the Union, with less 6.5% being awarded this medal.

Of the States that fought for the Union, only West Virginia, Ohio, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut, issued officially named or numbered medals to its servicemen in significant numbers. Even then, bar to soldiers in West Virginian service, this was to a small number of men that actually served in each State during the War and a fraction of the over two million servicemen who fought for the Union.