The Marietta Daily Times, April 7, 1930, Section 1, page 12
Goes Back To Stirring Days of ‘61
Of the many hundreds of men who returned to Washington county to take up their places of abode at the close of the Civil War barely eighty are living today and each year sees the thinning ranks of the men who wore the blue gradually closing against the relentless adversary that knows not ultimate defeat.
Nearly 65 years have come and gone since the fall of the Confederate cause at Appomatox and the sturdy troopers who came back to civil life at that time largely have done their part in this world’s program of events. Scattered about the countryside today the wavering lines are slow to form at the bugle’s call and the surviving comrades largely are living out a peaceful existence made possible by a grateful nation that they risked all to preserve.
Will Miss Something
Many and interesting would be the life stories of these men and future generations to whom their recital will be denied will miss something that has made for a grand and glorious experience among Americans of today. History will record in a general way the stirring times that made of the sixties of the last century one of the outstanding decades in this country’s life, but the personal touch gained about the campfires where men of the Grand Army have been the central figures will be missing and no pen picture, however elaborately it may be drawn, can replace it.
In a general way these war veterans have spoken “the same language” and much that has been told by one of them can be related by another, and for that reason The Times publishes in this connection a brief biographical sketch of the experience of Capt. James R. Hyler of Reno. Captain Hyler is one of Ohio’s representative Civil War veterans. He is a native Ohioan. He spent more than four years with the colors. He participated in many of the decisive battles of the war, and he carries through his declining years the scars of two severe wounds that he sustained in action.
Amid Familiar Scenes
Captain Hyler and his good wife – each nearing the four score milestone of life – are living in ease and comfort in their attractive home at Reno. There, on the banks of the Little Muskingum river, they look out upon scenes long dear to them and reminiscent of their years of activity in the community, and their hospitable latchstring constantly is out to any and all who are so fortunate as to have their friendship.
This venerable couple are natives of Morgan county. Captain Hyler was born at Stockport and Mrs. Hyler was born at Hooksburg. There they lived at the beginning of the year 1861, and from there the former went forward as one of the 75,000 men who volunteered in response to Lincoln’s first call.
James R. Hyler – “Jimmie” as his boyhood friends knew him – was employed in the oil fields at Burning Springs, [West] Va., when Fort Sumter was fired upon – the shot that precipitated four long and bloody years of hostility.
Oil Country Forsaken
“Over night the oil country was forsaken and we all hurried to war,” is the way Captain Hyler tells about it today. He came to Marietta along with scores of others and here he signed the roll as a 90-day soldier “to help put down the rebellion.” With his comrades he was sent to Columbus to the state military camp and there he was inducted into the service. He was assigned to general duty and was sent to Grafton, [West] Va., to help guard the railroad bridges.
Before the 90-day enlistment had expired the people realized what was in store, and the rolls were opened for all who would re-enlist “for three years or the duration of the war.” Private Hyler was among the first to sign and he was accepted as a member of Company H of the 25th Ohio Infantry – one of the Buckeye regiments that was to carve its name permanently into the war annals of the nation.
Regiment Sent South
His first enlistment was on May 20, 1861. His second one was on June 26th of the same year. Following preliminary training at Fort Hayes at Columbus, he was sent South with his regiment, Colonel James A. Jones commanding. A few months later the commanding officer was transferred and was replaced by Colonel William P. Richardson of Marietta, who was destined to win lasting fame for his command and for his native city.
Assigned to the Army of the Potomac the 25th Ohio was one of the commands sent against Stonewall Jackson in the Virginia valley country and that meant activity from the first. Quickly seasoned by an active campaign of fighting this regiment never was spared and in the parlance of more modern warfare it would have been classed among the “shock troop” divisions of the Union.
Receives First Fire
At Cheat Mountain on September 12 and 13, 1861, the regiment was given its baptism of fire. Then followed Greenbrier, Camp Allegheny, Huntersville, Monterey, McDowell, Cross Keys, Freeman’s Ford, Second Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Hagerstown, Fort Wagner, Honey Hill, Deveaux Neck and Gregory’s Landing, Charleston and Swift Creek.
An imposing list of battles that, and they constituted more than three years of fighting that were full of action at every turn. Captain Hyler was wounded at Chancellorsville and again at Gettysburg, in the latter action so severely that he was sent to a hospital or rather to several hospitals for some months.
Three Terrible Days
“We had three terrible days at Gettysburg,” said Captain Hyler. “On the first day we were in General Barlow’s division and were sent against Longstreet. We had moved by forced march from Hagerstown, Maryland, and were sent into action almost as we finished that 25-mile hike. It was hot stuff there and we knew that we were facing the pride of General Lee’s great army.
“On the second day we fought at the Roundtops still in Barlow’s army and the fighting was desperate. We knew it was a critical situation and the men were told that we must stop the Confederates or the way to Washington was open to them.
On the third day of the fight our forces held the high ground more than a mile from our first day’s position, and there it was that the Pickett charge was launched. The 25th was in the thick of things and there is where I was wounded. That night, after I had been carried to an emergency hospital, the word was passed along that we were winning and that Lee and his army had turned back in the direction of Chambersburg and the South.”
Personal Experiences
Captain Hyler recalls many of his personal experiences in the war. Cross Keys, he declares, was the bitterest fight in which he participated. It was one of the main battles in the long valley campaign, and the Union army was confronted by Stonewall Jackson’s troops. “There was one time that we gave Jackson’s forces a real licking,” he remarked.
After receiving his wound at Gettysburg, and his long hospital period, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. He rejoined his regiment in South Carolina, then was detailed home as an enlistment officer. He was assigned to duty in Washington, Morgan and Muskingum counties. He secured a number of recruits here and took them South to his command. It is one of the saddest war experiences that of nearly a dozen young men whom he enlisted in this territory, not a single one lived to return home.
He quietly observed his 87th birthday on January 14th of this year. Mrs. Hyler is two years younger.
