ON THIS DAY: Tuesday, Oct. 8, 1861

In Kentucky, Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman unhappily takes over the Union Department of the Cumberland from Brig. Gen. Robert Anderson, who is suffering from nervous exhaustion. Sherman himself is in a state of nervous anxiety, in no condition to take responsibility for a region where he see dangers in every direction. Sherman’s command will not end happily.

In western Virginia, cold, wet weather plagues Ohio’s soldiers, and sickness spreads. Forty men of the 7^th Ohio are reported sick today, including 1st Lt. William H. Robinson of Company G, which had been organized in Ravenna. Robinson dies later today and is taken to Grafton for burial. Elsewhere in the Kanawha region, Maj. Rutherford B. Hayes of the 23^rd Ohio writes wife Lucy of his experiences in the past 24 hours. While he was working in the rain, helping load sick men into wagons for transportation back to Ohio, word came of an “enemy attack.” Hayes rushed three-quarters of a mile from the hospital to his camp, only to find the alarm arose from no more than an enemy scouting party driving in the Union picket guards. In the meantime, many sick soldiers, panic stricken, fled the hospital, going three or four miles down the road during the rain in a needless attempt to escape.

ON THIS DAY: Wednesday, Oct. 2, 1861

The Cleveland Morning Leader announces that Capt. Joel F. Asper of Company H, 7^th Ohio Volunteer infantry, will be in town tomorrow to recruit enlistees for “the crack regiment of Ohio.” Unmentioned is the fact that at this early stage of the war, the 7^th is also one of Ohio’s most shot-up regiments. Late in August, the regiment, under the command of Col. Erastus B. Tyler of Ravenna, Ohio, had been assigned picket duty near Cross Lanes (also known as Kessler’s Cross Lanes), in the Kanawha region of western Virginia. Acting independently (and therefore unable to support one another), the regiment’s several companies took up positions on neighboring hills. Early on the morning of August 26, Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd’s larger force of Confederates surprised and overwhelmed the scattered units of Ohioans as they were making their breakfasts. Routed, the battered Ohio regiment disintegrated in retreat, half its surviving members finding their way to Union forces at Gauley, the other half to the vicinity of Charleston. In post-war accounts, the regiment was said to have suffered at least 120 men killed, wounded, or captured, but a modern estimate published by the National Park Service estimates there were 245 Union losses to 40 Confederate. Hoping to whip up recruits for his depleted ranks, Captain Asper calls the 7th “the bravest and bully regiment of Ohio.”

Can anyone supply more information about the fight at Kessler's Cross Lanes on Aug. 26, 1861? Was Colonel Tyler ever disciplined for positioning his troops so poorly?