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Bard’s Company of Ohio Volunteer Cavalry

1862

In the American Civil War, Ohio provided the federal government with 260 regiments of men, including infantry, artillery, and cavalry units. Ohioans also served in several other regiments from other states, most notably from Kentucky, West Virginia, and Massachusetts, as well as in federal units.

In the American Civil War, Ohio provided the federal government with 260 regiments of men, including infantry, artillery, and cavalry units. Ohioans also served in several other regiments from other states, most notably from Kentucky, West Virginia, and Massachusetts, as well as in federal units. Almost 330,000 Ohio men, including 5,092 African Americans, served in the Union military during the conflict.

Cavalry companies formed in Ohio became known as companies of Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. They served for varying lengths of time, averaging one hundred days to three years. On September 2, 1862, Captain S.W. Bard's cavalry company mustered into service at Cincinnati, Ohio. The men in the company were to serve one month.

In August 1862, Confederate forces under the command of Braxton Bragg and Kirby Smith had invaded Kentucky. Union officials feared that Bragg would assault Louisville, Kentucky, while Smith would attack Cincinnati. On September 2, 1862, Major General Lew Wallace, the commanding officer of United States soldiers in Cincinnati, issued an order, requiring each city councilman to organize the adult males in his respective city ward into one hundred-man militia companies. The city eventually provided Wallace with three regiments or thirty companies of infantrymen, plus a Bard's company of cavalry and Paulsen's artillery battery.

Bard's Company spent the next few weeks guarding the approaches to Cincinnati across the Ohio River, before being discharged from service in early October 1862.

On July 5, 1866, the United States Congress authorized payment for the members of Bard's Company equal to one-month's pay during the Civil War.

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