Praise for the 91st: A WV Sesquicentennial Moment
By Beth Vorhees and the Division of Culture & History
September 24, 2012 ·
Without a single loss of man, Union soldiers chased Confederate forces to the town of Buffalo on September 26, 1862, capturing three cavalry, killing five and wounding five.
Members
of the 91st Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry also seized all
of the Confederates’ camping equipment, thirteen horses, seventeen head of cattle, and eight to ten Enfield rifles.
An
article published October 2nd, 1862, in the Gallipolis Journal said that “Considering this was the first time
the 91st was under fire, after a night march of 22 miles, their
conduct deserves the highest praise.”
Union
Colonel John A. Turley and Colonel Joseph A.J. Lightburn said in a September 28tj,
1862, dispatch to headquarters that they learned “the strength and situation of
the enemy’s forces” after capturing a rebel scout.
That
said in their dispatch that “We pursued them into the town and to the river,
where they separated, panic-stricken.”
The
two colonels also gave the troops high praise for their bravery, saying “… not
a single officer or soldier of the Ninety-first faltered, and, as this is a new
regiment never before under fire, I cannot refrain from saying that they acted
like veterans and elicited my admiration.”