In the spring of 1864, after three bloody years of civil war, victory seemed within reach for the Northern armies. John Brought, Ohio's energetic wartime governor, offered his state's militia for 100 days of federal service. These men were ordered east for duty in forts, railways and prisons, where they freed veteran troops for the last great push against Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy. History soon overtook the Ohioans, however. They fought at Monacan, and under the watchful eye of Abraham Lincoln at Fort Stevens. They battled Mosey and other feared southern guerrillas in Virginia and West Virginia. They fell to John Hunt Morgan's cavalry in Kentucky. They toiled and fought against thunderous Petersburg.
Drawn from Civil War diaries, letters and eyewitness accounts, A Hundred Days to Richmond tells the complete story of Ohio's 100-day men for the first time. Their individual tales are unique and memorable. Readers hear from not only generals and colonels, but also from the ranks – from a schoolteacher who taught himself artillery, a farmer turned drummer, college students who swapped books for muskets. Many disliked leaving their families, businesses and farms, but they shouldered their arms and went anyway, hoping to bring an end to the war. Some found themselves battling not only tough rebel enemies, but also heat and disease, tornadoes and cannon fire, and the horrifying conditions in southern prisons.
A Hundred Days to Richmond contains the contradictory hope, fear, determination, horror, humour and grit that were the Civil War. Its voices are uniquely, unmistakably American.