121st Regiment

Ohio Volunteer Infantry

Company H

Welcome to the home page of the 121st Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

Member of The Army of the Ohio, The Great Lakes Brigade and the First Federal Division

Company H. 121st Ohio Volunteer Infantry

Company H of The 121st Ohio Volunteers was formed in 1992 by the Marion County Historical Society to provide a group of re-enactors to portray people of the 1860s at local events, schools, fairs, and parades .
The unit has also participated in large national events at places like Bull Run, Stone’s River, Reseca, Lexington SC, Bentonville NC, Nashville, Shiloh and Antietam, Gettysburg and Chickamauga
The group also possesses a full scale 14 pound James Rifle (Civil War period cannon) which enables us to demonstrate Civil War Artillery. Every member of the 121st over the age of 18 who wishes to learn the artillery drill will have the opportunity to do so. 

(Monument to the 121st at Chickamauga)

Brief History

The 121st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry

The One Hundred and Twenty-First Ohio was organized at Camp Delaware, Ohio September 11th, 1862 by Colonel William Reid of Delaware, Ohio The individuals making up the 985 officers and men mustered that day were from Delaware, Knox, Logan Marion, Morrow and Union Counties. The majority of whom were farmers and without a knowledge of even the first principles of military tactics.
The regiment was equipped at Camp Dennison, north of Cincinnati and quickly moved across the Ohio River to join the Army of the Ohio under General Don Carlos Buell. The Regiment saw its first action at Perryville, Kentucky on the 9th of October. Just three weeks after joining the army.
After some extensive training the unit was moved into Tennessee in early 1863 and attached to the Army of the Cumberland. In April of 1863, the 121st was placed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry B. Banning, a Mt. Vernon, Ohio Lawyer and late of the 125th Ohio Volunteers (Opdycke’s Tigers) In September of 1863 it served with Granger’s Reserve Corp on Snodgrass Hill during the Battle of Chickamauga. In November the regiment was engaged on Missionary Ridge during General Grant’s Battle of Chattanooga and was soon after moved with part of the Army of the Tennessee under General Sherman to the relief of the Army of the Ohio at Knoxville, Tennessee.
In the spring of 1864 the 121st Ohio moved with General William T. Sherman’s Grand Army in campaign against Atlanta. Among its battle records are places such as Buzzard’s Roost Gap, Rome, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta and Jonesboro. Due to his actions during the Atlanta Campaigns and Chickamauga Colonel Henry B. Banning was brevetted a Brigadier General of Volunteers for gallantry. The 121st was placed under the command of Lt. Colonel Aaron B. Robinson and he would continue in that position until the regiment was mustered out.
When General Sherman organized his march to the sea in the late fall of 1864, the 121st, with the 14th Corp under Major General Jeff C. Davis made up a part of the Army of Georgia. After their arrival in Savannah they continued on through the Carolina’s where their last engagement was in March of 1865 at Bentonville North Carolina. The Regiment continued on to Washington D.C. where it participated in the Grand Review in May of 1865 and was mustered out of service on June 11th, 1865.

(Newspaper print of the 121st crossing the Ohio River at Cincinnati)

Schedule updated 04/07/05

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Editor - Sgt. Dan Merchant, Co. H 121st OVI

E-Mail - Co. H 121st OVI