David Wallick

From Tuscarawas Valley to the Northwest Prairie

Jacob Wallick moved from the hill country of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, to the beautiful Tuscarawas Valley in eastern Ohio. This valley was the conduit through which most of the descendants of Hans Michael moved in their migration to western lands. By 1853 Jacob was sixty-eight years old and had raised all seven of his children. Both he and his wife Elizabeth then accepted the late-in-life challenge of leaving Tuscarawas County after calling it home for nearly forty years. He trekked across the state with four of his sons — John, Daniel, Emanuel, and David — and settled on the rich northwest farmlands of Van Wert County, Ohio.

All of Jacob’s sons were married when they left Tuscarawas County, but only David had any children at the time. By 1864 we find him a middle-aged man with a farm to tend and five children to raise on the Van Wert prairie. However, the war was to very suddenly intrude upon David and his family. He never volunteered, nor was he drafted like his brother Daniel, but he did serve in the Ohio militia — later called the Ohio National Guard.

The Ohio National Guard and the 100-Day Men

The Ohio National Guard can directly trace its roots to the American Civil War. From colonial days there had always been a local militia system in the country, but during the Civil War the term “national guard” was adopted for local militia organizations. At the beginning of the 1861 war, most of the existing state militias were incorporated into Federalized volunteer regiments, so the duty of home defense fell to new units of men who were exempted from Federal service: youths, middle-aged men, and a few veterans who had completed their active duty.

In the spring of 1864 David Wallick was a member of the Ohio National Guard, and his company, like many others across the North, was called into active duty for 100 days. President Lincoln had asked the northern state governors that thousands of these “One Hundred Days Men” be mustered into Federal service and sent to less dangerous rear areas for duties such as guarding railroads, supply depots, and enemy prisoners. Ohio alone supplied over 35,000 troops who were organized into regiments, federalized, and transported to the eastern theater of the war. This call-up of the state militias allowed more experienced volunteer regiments to be free for combat duty.

The massive buildup of soldiers was needed in Virginia for the Union offensive of 1864, commonly referred to as General Grant’s Overland Campaign. A few national guard units did see combat during this bloody thrust, but David and the 139th Ohio National Guard were first deployed in Washington, D.C. for garrison duty, then moved to a little peninsula called Point Lookout, Maryland, jutting into Chesapeake Bay, to guard Confederate prisoners of war.

Point Lookout — The Prison at the End of the Peninsula

Point Lookout State Park is located at the mouth of the Potomac River on Chesapeake Bay. Today the 1,042-acre facility offers numerous vacation activities plus a Civil War Museum. Before the war the peninsula had primarily been a destination for tourists. But by 1862 the strategically located cape was used only for military purposes.

At the beginning of the war the Union army established a hospital at Point Lookout, with twenty buildings configured as if spokes in a wheel. However, because of the large number of prisoners taken at the Battle of Gettysburg, the peninsula was soon transformed into a Confederate prison — officially called Camp Hoffman, though rarely referred to by that name. By the summer of 1863 the camp was constructed to house 10,000 prisoners, but within a year it held as many as 20,000 Confederates. The prison was operational for almost two years, and over 50,000 soldiers were incarcerated during that time.

According to historical records, there were no permanent barracks erected for the prisoners. The Rebels were confined to 40 acres of sandy beach within a fifteen-foot stockade fence. The climate was brutal, especially in mid-winter and summer, and the prisoners had only tents for shelter throughout the year. The northern prison guards were harsh, and there was little food, fresh water, or firewood for comfort or cooking. Officially, in twenty-two months 3,584 prisoners died at Point Lookout. However, depending upon whose narratives one reads, some death tabulations climb as high as 14,000. What is not in dispute is that this prison had horrible living conditions with inadequate shelter and little food.

With a wife and five children, David may have thought it better to join one of the home guard units than take a chance on being conscripted into Federal service. Membership in the national guard made him exempt from the draft. Exactly when he became a guardsman is unknown. He could have been a militiaman well before the war, or he could have joined the national guard shortly after seeing his older brother Daniel drafted into military service in the fall of 1862. Whatever the truth may be, we find David in the spring of 1864 a farmer with a large young family, living in Van Wert County, and receiving news that his national guard company had just been called up for active duty by President Lincoln for the next 100 days.

Home to Van Wert County

David returned home to Van Wert County just in time for the fall harvest of 1864. His wife, Mary Ann, had to rely on help from family and friends throughout the summer to keep the Wallick farm and household together. When David marched off to war earlier that spring, he left behind five children ages twelve, ten, eight, three, and an infant.

The only other Wallicks to have left behind so large a brood while serving their country were “Daviess” Michael from Indiana, who also had a wife and five children, and Abraham Wallick from Iowa, who enlisted with six children and — unbeknownst to him — twins on the way. Michael and Abraham, however, left their large families for three years, not just three months.

David continued to farm in Van Wert County for the rest of his life. And there he died on May 24, 1911, at 83 years old. David and Mary Ann Wallick are buried in Tomlinson Cemetery, Van Wert, Ohio.

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Burial — Tomlinson Cemetery, Van Wert, Ohio

David Wallick, born November 21, 1827, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Died May 24, 1911, Van Wert County, Ohio. Age 83. Buried alongside his wife, Mary Ann Wallick. — Scott Alan Wallick Collection

Comrades-in-Arms · Brothers & Fellow 100-Day Men