David H. Wallick

A New Husband Goes to War

David H. Wallick had only been married four months when he rode into Millersburg, Ohio on August 9, 1862 and enlisted in the Union Army. He was a thirty-year-old farmer and it would be interesting to know why he left hearth and home so quickly after marrying his seventeen-year-old bride, Sarah Moore. Although he may not have known it at the time of his enlistment, David was a father-to-be. A daughter, Margaret, was born to the couple sometime in 1863 while David was deployed south, fighting the Rebels.

The eighteen-month war had already intruded into David's family. His younger brother, Henry M. Wallick, had been swept away by war fever after the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter in the spring of 1861. President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve ninety days to help crush the southern rebellion and more than enough men volunteered, Henry being one of them. After Henry fulfilled his three-month obligation he returned home to reenlist for three years with the 67th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Perhaps by the summer of 1862 David believed it time for him to make a contribution to the Union's war effort.

We know that Elijah Wallick, David's cousin, enlisted on the same day, and that the two served in the same regiment and company. The first two years of their service appears to be somewhat uneventful. Then, on September 24, 1864, Elijah was chosen to be part of a relief expedition to embattled Fort Henderson at Athens, Alabama. About two hundred men from the regiment were dispatched to Athens and twenty of them, including Elijah, were from Company G. All the men who were dispatched to Fort Henderson were captured, then incarcerated at Cahaba Prison in southern Alabama. Fate was more kind to David as he was ordered to stay in camp with the remainder of his company.

Most of the duties of the 102nd were rear echelon assignments such as guarding trains, repairing bridges, and providing post security. Although these duties appear to be mundane and less than exciting, there was always the danger of attacks from Confederate cavalry and guerrillas. General Nathan Bedford Forrest became a legend in the war by attacking Union supply stores and creating havoc in the rear areas of the Federal lines. He is also the Confederate general who captured both Elijah and William Wallick.

The Civil War was hard on the Wallick families from Holmes County. Four of their sons were wounded, captured, killed, or physically broken during the war. David's brother, Henry, was killed in action at the Battle of Chester Station, Virginia in the spring of 1864. His cousin, William D. Wallick, died of disease early in the war after being in service only two months. Elijah was spared a horrific death in the icy waters of the Mississippi River only because he was separated from his comrades when released from Cahaba Prison — so severely ill when paroled that he required a long hospitalization. Eighty-one soldiers from Elijah's regiment perished April 27, 1865 on their way home from the war in the steamboat Sultana explosion.

David is the only soldier from Holmes County where there is no mention of his coming to any physical harm or illness during the war. That is not to say that he was never sick or injured, only that no incident was bad enough to be recorded in his company records.

After the war David and his cousins returned to Holmes County, but not for long. By 1869 all three of the surviving Holmes County veterans — Charley, Elijah, and David — had moved out of Ohio and into the new western lands. Charley and Elijah relocated to Iowa and David moved to a farm near Olathe City, Kansas. All three became prosperous ranchers and farmers. He farmed and raised livestock until his death on December 1, 1909.

Comrades-in-Arms · Brother & Cousins