Blog – 105th Ohio Volunteer Infantry

Horatio M. Smith of Orwell, Ashtabula County, Ohio was 27 years old when he enlisted into Company K of the 105th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was made Quartermaster Sergeant and demonstrated an extraordinary ability to do this job. Career advancements came in rapid succession and by the end of the war he was a Major.

While Horatio experienced significant personal and financial difficulties in life after the war, this article from The Inter Ocean of Chicago reflects the great respect others had for his accomplishments. This young man, not yet 30 years old, made a substantial difference in the outcome of the Civil War

“Take for instance the quartermaster’s department. No small army can furnish or train quartermaster’s officers who are capable of handling a large one. In the war of the rebellion the Pennsylvania railroad was the great training school of the quartermaster. Outside of those who had that training, there were a few men as distinctly born for this position as poets are to sing. It required time to develop such. The gift was divine, exceptional, and indiscoverable, except by experience. Major Horatio M. Smith, the great post and department quartermaster at Chattanooga, by whose energies miracles were performed in supplying Sherman’s army during those months of daily conflict between that point and Atlanta, was a clerk in a country village store until Aug. 10, 1862, and was a second lieutenant, when the army occupied Chattanooga after the battle of Chickamauga. Accident showed General Thomas his merit. Within six weeks he was give charge of work that grew in variety and importance of character until the hopes of a great army rested on his shoulders and hundreds who were his superiors in preparation, experience, and what would seem essential qualities, were serving gladly and willingly under his orders. He was a man fitted exactly for that work, but such fitness could be determined only by experience, not by previous study or opportunity.”
The Inter Ocean, (Chicago, Illinois), 09-04-1898, page 19

To learn more about Major Horatio M. Smith, see his WikiTree profile: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Smith-136444

Lt. Colonel George Perkins issued this order on the occasion the disbanding of the 105th Ohio Volunteer Infantry on June 8, 1865. His words of farewell and remembrance resonate today for all who care about history and what it truly means.

“Headquarters, 105th O. V. I.
Cleveland, O., June 8, 1865
Officers and Soldiers :The time has come when we must say farewell. The day to which we have been looking forward for nearly three years, with so much anxiety, has at last arrived, and the word “Union” is for us, to have a new significance. You are now to return to your family and friends. You will receive the hearty welcome due to men who have periled their all for their country, and doubtless the warm reception which awaits you, and the abundant entertainment which will be provided you, will do much to obliterate the recollection of your struggles through swamps and mud of Carolina, sanguinary contests of Chickamauga, Mission Ridge and Perryville, and the short rations at Chattanooga, and enable you to look back upon the many incidents of your army life as scenes which, although you may never care to live through again, you nevertheless may be proud to relate.
When you started forth, the issue of national life or national death was, to some extent, involved in doubt and mystery. You return with the satisfaction of knowing that the authority of the national Government has been nobly and honorably vindicated, and its supremacy acknowledged from the Potomac to the Rio Grande.
During the period of your term of service, you have played no idle part, and not among the least proud of your recollections will be the fact that you served under such men as Rosecrans, Thomas, Sherman and Grant.
We come not back as we went forth. From an aggregate of one thousand and thirteen men we have fallen off to less than four hundred, While receiving the plaudits of friends, let us not forget to drop the tear of sorrow for those of our noble comrades who come not back with us; but whose graves dot the hillsides of Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia; and in the future let us not fail to offer a word of condolence, cheer and comfort to, and consider ourselves responsible for the sustenance and support of the wives and families of those who once numbered us as brethren. Let us practice charity, and recollect that the disabled soldier, and desolate family, demand our sympathy, our comfort, and our active aid.
Your conduct in the past gives me the strongest assurance that your return to civil life will be marked by the same order and decorum, and that you will, as you have been in the army good soldiers, at home be good and loyal citizens.
For your prompt and ready compliance with orders, for your active cooperation and support, for your many acts of kindness and courtesy, I return to you, officers and men, my hearty and earnest thanks.
I shall be happy at any time to meet you, and shall ever look back upon the period of my association with you as the proudest of my life.
With earnest wishes for your individual welfare and prosperity, I bid you, one and all, farewell,
(Signed) GEO. T. PERKINS, Lieut. Col.,105th Ohio Vols.
“The Summit County Beacon”, (Akron, Ohio), 22 Jun 1865, page 2

To learn more about Lieutenant Colonel George Perkins, see his WikiTree profile: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Perkins-9797