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Where was the regiment on
Saturday, October 8, 1864
Today the 16th Ohio, on board the steamer Luminary, continued their voyage north on the Mississippi River toward home. Having been in Natchez the day before, the boat docked in Vicksburg about 4:00 am. The troops spent about five hours in the city near which many of their comrades died in battle the year before. Cpl. Theodore Wolbach, Company E, records:
At 4 a.m. on the 8th we tied up at Vicksburg, spending about five hours looking around at the prominent features of this historic place where so many of the 16th died. Since the war the dead soldiers that were buried in the vicinity were taken up from the battlefields and hospital burying grounds and placed in a National Cemetery on a commanding elevation near the city. Here only twenty-three graves of the 16th men are marked with name and regiment, the balance among the long list of unknown.
The troops re-boarded their steamship and again headed north. A few miles up stream they stopped at Young's Point, Louisiana, to gather wood for the steamer. The 16th Ohio and Grant's army had spent most of the winter of 1863 in this location, suffering much disease and misery while recovering from the disastrous Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. They passed Milliken's Bend around noon and ran onto a sandbar about midnight, halting the boat for a short while.
Having started their journey home to Ohio late on the night of October 6, 1864, at Morganza, Louisiana, this period map shows the approximate route of the 16th Ohio on board the steamer Luminary, and the farthest, approximate position they reached on October 8, 1864.
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Modern day map showing the approximate route and location of the 16th Ohio on their voyage home from the war.
A - Approximate location of the 16th Ohio's primary camp at Morganza Bend, Louisiana. The regiment camped in the spot from July 4 to October 6, 1864.
B - Approximate point which the steamer Luminary reached about midnight on October 6, 1864.
C - Approximate point which the steamer Luminary reached about midnight on October 7, 1864.
D - Vicksburg, Mississippi, where the Luminary stopped for several hours on the morning of October 8, 1864.
E - Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, which the Luminary passed about noon on October 8, 1864.
F - Approximate point which the steamer Luminary reached about midnight on October 8, 1864.
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