Ironton Register 13 Sept. 1888 – Thomas Gilruth who lives in Hamilton Township did his part in putting down the rebellion in the 1st Ohio Light Artillery Battery F. He went out in 1861 and fought throughout the war and brought home a scar as testimony that he was there. Among those in Battery F who lives in Hamilton Township were Charles Oakes, Thomas Sharp, George Davidson, William Kelly, and Charles Jarvis.
When Mr. Gilruth stepped into the Register office the other day, we touched him for a “Narrow Escape.” Being a modest sort of man, he wanted to put it off, but we finally prevailed upon him to give us his closest call.
“It was the Battle of Murfreesboro on Stone River on New Year’s Day in 1863. I remember it was New Year’s Eve for the general had intended to give us a ball on Christmas but having failed would certainly give us one on New Year’s. Well, the ball came sure enough, in the shape of a very fierce battle. Our Battery took up a position near the left of the line and there had a hot interchange of shells. When the line to our right began to fall back and of course, our Battery had to go with it. We took up a position near the railroad and we got our piece first in position and began shelling the reb line. Imagine our surprise when three reb Battery let loose on our little gun.” said Thomas Gilruth.
“Now an artillery duel is not a pleasant thing. The missiles don’t come quite as thick and fast as minnies but they make more of a fuss when they do come. They came howling, screeching, and tearing. Sometimes a fellow can see a big call coming and dodge it, but he has to watch very closely, and for this, he doesn’t have the time nor can he watch when they come several at a time, as was this case. It rained shells for a moment and right then was the hottest instant in all my army experience. Men and horses were killed, and caissons dismantled, but in all the dreadful experience of that moment, I only got a wound on my hand. A flying shell burst and hurled a fragment there. I was glad to get off with that much for it was a grand place to mangle a fellow.
“Another one of our Battery’s soon got into position and this attracted the rebs fire and relieved us, but I had to go to the rear as my wound disabled me for further work just then. But I will never forget that moment when in reply to a single ball at the rebel line more than a dozen pieces let fly right at the spot where we were and the balls shrieked so near that I almost felt they were aiming at me. It makes me shiver to think about it.
“After that wound, I couldn’t be veteranized, but I went into the Veteran Reserve Corps where we were armed with rifles. One day when a squad of us was cleaning our guns I met the narrowest escape of my life. One of the boys had his rifle barrel off the stock and had it filled with soap suds and was giving it a good cleaning when the thing went off and the ball cut a lock of hair from my right temple. So, you see ‘didn’t know it was loaded’ is about as dangerous as a battle.”
Quad-City Times, Davenport, Iowa, 12 Mar 1976 – A letter from James Henry Gilruth to a granddaughter traced the family’s history back to 1783 when the patriarch of the family, Thomas Gilruth, emigrated from Scotland to the United States. He first settled at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, near where the city of Pittsburgh now stands. It was in a fort at a place called Belleville, W.Va., that little James Gilruth was born.
George Washington was president at the time. The Thomas Gilruth family later migrated further down the Ohio River to the French Grant in Ohio and settled for life on the banks of the river. There were no schools for many years, so Thomas Gilruth taught his son James to read from the family Bible. When James was about 10, a school was started across the Ohio River from the Gilruth homestead, in the little village of Greenupsburgh, Ky., and Thomas took his son across the river in a canoe every morning to school. One of his classmates was Harriet Boone, daughter of the famous pioneer Daniel Boone.
0 Comments