Otterbein Civil War Soldiers Biography

            George Washington Schrock, or Wash, was born on November 27, 1839 to parents George Washington Schrock Sr., and Rachel Vause Inskeep Schrock. His family moved to Ohio in 1840 and played a key role in the development of the Westerville area. For this role, Schrock Road was named in honor of George Schrock Senior. The Schrocks lived on a 137 acre farm just west of 3C highway where Wash worked as a farmer with his nine siblings.

            Wash volunteered for service on August 5, 1862 with Company A of the 95^th Regiment of the Ohio Voluntary Infantry. Also members of the regiment were his two cousins, Henry and William. Henry served in Company A with Wash, and William in Company H. The 95^th started its career with a tragic loss, with eight dead, forty-seven wounded, and more than six hundred taken prisoners. After six months of training and reorganization from November of 1962 to May 14, 1863, the regiment was able to experience actual success. Their most famous success is undoubtedly at the siege and assault attacks on Vicksburg, in which they directly assisted Grant.

            Surviving letters from the war record Wash’s bravery and courage, while also expressing his chagrin with the army and longing for more communications from home. From September of 1864 to February of 1865, company muster rolls reveal Wash’s absence due to sickness at the convalescence camps in Memphis, Tennessee. It was during this period, in the winter months of 1864-1865, that Wash appeared to have found God. Unfortunately, it was just in time.

            Tragically, Wash received a mortal wound twenty-four hours before Robert Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. On April 8, 1865, at the Battle of Spanish Fort, Wash was sitting forty yards behind the trenches behind a stump looking out, when he was hit in the head by a musketball. He was carried into the trenches by two fellow soldiers and sent to the U.S. General Hospital in New Orleans. He died seventeen days later, on April 25, 1865, and was buried in Calmette, Louisiana. As his obituary suggested, his family and friends had sustained a great loss, but for his courage and self sacrifice, “his memory shall live [on] as long as men love liberty.”

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