On this day the soldiers finished breaking their camp at Camp Tiffin, near Wooster, Ohio, and left on their journey to Camp Dennison, just northeast of Cincinnati, and the war beyond. Cpl. Wolbach describes the trip:

Few men of that camp will ever, while they live, forget that cloudy, cheerless November day, when we broke camp and formed that long blue line in the road, and started for the Wooster depot to embark for Camp Dennison. From the northern verge of the good town of Wooster, all the way to the railroad, our march was greeted with cheers and shouts, and waving flags and handkerchiefs. A vast multitude of men and boys, in their wild enthusiasm, surged and crowed [sic] around us. As we neared the depot the crowd increased. When we had entered the cars they rushed to the car windows for a final hand-shake and good-by.

Long that train stood there at the Wooster Depot, with the 16th O.V.I. aboard. Sad faces, and heavy hearts lingered, to wave the last farewell to the boys in the cars. In the dusk of evening, when lamps were lighted throughout the city, the engine ahead whistled and panted, the train began to move, a loud yell burst from the excited crowd, which was answered back by the departing regiment.

There is a rumbling roar, we are crossing a bridge, another, and still another, and so on, till the fourth is passed, and the lights of the city are crowding away into the distance, the windows are closed, and the boys settled down to an all night ride.

The 16th Ohio was on its way. The trip of about 180 miles would take all night and into the next day. The troop train passed through the state's capitol, Columbus, at daybreak. It kept heading south and west until it arrived at Camp Dennison, about 15 miles northeast of Cincinnati, at 1:00pm.

Private Peter Perrine, Company C, describes their introduction to Camp Dennison:

When we arrived found the camp nearly under water. Wading through the mud we went into partly finished barracks.

And Cpl. Wolbach adds:

Camp Dennison is reached; some of the barracks we are to occupy, are roofless and without bunks. The weather is misty and cold, and we occupy the unfinished buildings with no relish.

1854 railroad map of Ohio showing a possible route of the 16th Ohio from Camp Tiffin, in Wooster, through Columbus and to Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, Ohio

Image from Library of Congress