1st OVI Marches to Louisville, Kentucky

On September 7, 1862, William Patterson, and the 1st OVI, were in the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee.  On September 10, in response to Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s move through Kentucky towards Louisville, Union General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of Ohio, which included the 1st OVI, began to pursue Bragg’s Army arriving in Louisville on September 26, before Bragg’s forces could occupy the city.  According to “Ohio in the War,” the march was “extremely arduous” and the soldiers “suffered greatly.”  The weather was extremely hot, the roads dusty, and there was almost a total absence of drinking water due to a drought that dried up creeks and ponds, the main source of water for Union soldiers.  Many men died from heat stroke and heat exhaustion during the march.