| John Hoover | 15th U.S. Infantry |
| by Jennifer Albert |
John Hoover was born in 1838 and became a private in the 1st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company A. He entered the service on April 16, 1861, at the age of twenty-three in response to President Lincoln asking the Union to raise 75,000 volunteers to serve for three months. In the Roster of Ohio Soldiers compiled by William McKinley et. al. Hoover was listed as having mustered in at Lancaster, PA on April 29, 1861 by Alexander McD. McCook the 1st Lieutenant 3rd Infantry U. S. A. as the mustering officer and mustered out August 3, 1861, in Columbus, Ohio by Howard Hanshaw, Captain Topographical Engineers, U. S. A. mustering officer.1 Once home Hoover attended Otterbein University Senior Preparatory the academic year ending 1862. He died two years later in November of 1864 and is buried in Ohio in Miami County.
Hoover’s regiment organized on April 18, 1861. in Columbus, Ohio two days after he entered the service. Company A was comprised of Lancaster guards from Lancaster, Ohio. The Company was ordered to Washington DC and left Columbus the morning of April 19, 1861, arriving at their destination early in May and assigned to General Schenck’s Brigade, which was part of General Tyler’s division hereafter referred to as the 1st division and was comprised of over 12,000 men making it the largest division with the 3rd division being the second largest having only around 7,200 men. The 1st division was actively engaged in the Battle of Bull Run, VA during July of 1861.
1 William McKinley Jr., Roster of Ohio Soldiers 1861-66, War of the Rebellion, Vol 1. (Akron: The Werner Company, 1893), 2.
Bibliography
Biel, Timothy Levi. Life in the North During the Civil War. San Diego: Lucent Books, 1997.
Hankinson, Alan. First Bull Run 1861. Danbury: Grolier Educational, 1997.
McKinley, William Jr. and Samuel M. Taylor and James C. Howe. Roster of Ohio Soldiers in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-66. Vol. 1. Akron: Werner Company, 1893.
Varhola, Michael J. Everyday Life During the Civil War. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 1999.
Volo, Dorothy Deneen and James M. Volo. Daily Life in Civil War America. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998.