Jacob Shively of Ross County, Ohio, enlisted in the 89th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in August 1862 at the age of twenty-nine and served until the Grand Review in Washington in 1865. Hundreds of his letters to his wife, Mary, survive. They are published here in order, transcribed from the originals, with commentary and the record of the campaigns he marched through.
Start here
- A note on the transcriptions
- Some background: Jacob, the 89th, and the letters
- Jacob’s journeys: a brief travel log
- An interactive Shively experience
1862 — Enlistment, Cincinnati and Kentucky
- A call to arms — Letter 1
- Letter 2 — from Mary to Jacob, 31 August 1862
- Letter 3 — Jacob to “Sir” and Mary
- To the defense of Cincinnati
- Fort Mitchell, Kentucky — 5 September 1862
- Camp King, Kentucky — 7 September 1862
- Licking Battery, Kentucky — 13 September 1862
- Licking Battery, Kentucky — 14 September 1862
- Camp Shailer, Covington, Kentucky — 18 September 1862
- To Mary — 21 September 1862
- To Mary — 28 September 1862
- Kanawha Falls — 5 November 1862
1863 — Tennessee, Chickamauga and Chattanooga
- General Hospital, Gallipolis, Ohio — January 1863
- Maxwell House, Nashville (Zollicoffer Barracks)
- The Tullahoma campaign: taking Middle Tennessee
- Chickamauga: the regiment is nearly destroyed
- Missionary Ridge: the tide turns
A Thousand Thunders 