8th Ohio Infantry The 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry ( or 8th OVI ) was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War . It served in the Eastern Theater in a number of campaigns and battles , but perhaps is most noted for its actions in helping repulse Pickett ' s Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg . Three - months regiment . On April 12 , 1861 , Confederate forces that had recently seceded from the Union fired upon Federal controlled Fort Sumter in Charleston , South Carolina . In response to the attack , President Abraham Lincoln called for 75 , 000 volunteers to put down the rebellion . Hundreds of men from northeastern Ohio were quick to respond , volunteering for three months of military service . The 8th Regiment was organized in Cleveland between April 18 and May 4 , 1861 . In June , the regiment moved via train to Camp Dennison near Cincinnati for training and garrison duty . It mustered out June 22 , having not left the Buckeye State . Among the early recruits in Company F was Fremont dentist Everton Conger , who later in the war led the cavalry that tracked down and killed President Abraham Lincoln ' s assassin , John Wilkes Booth . Conger did not re - enlist in the regiment after his term expired , instead joining the 3rd West Virginia Cavalry . Another future notable who initially served in the 8th Ohio was William E . Haynes , who would become a U . S . congressman from Ohio . Three - years regiment . Early service . Many of the three - months men reenlisted for three years on June 22 – 24 , and the regiment was mustered in on June 26 under Col . Herman S . DePuy of Sandusky . On the evening of July 8 , the regiment loaded onto trains and traveled to Grafton , Virginia , termed the “ seat of war ” by Lt . Col . Franklin Sawyer . From July 1861 through March 1862 , the 8th OVI was a part of George B . McClellan ’ s army in the conflicts during the West Virginia Campaign . During this time , the regiment fought a series of small skirmishes around Mount Beverly , Mount Grafton , and Mount Romney in the Appalachians , but saw no serious combat . On March 1 , 1862 , the 8th Ohio moved to Winchester , Virginia , located in the Shenandoah Valley . There the regiment was brigade d with the 4th Ohio , 14th Indiana , and 7th West Virginia Infantry . During the next two and a half years , this brigade would primarily serve in the Army of the Potomac and would become known as the " Gibraltar Brigade . " Initially , the brigade was commanded by Brig . Gen . Nathan Kimball of the 14th Indiana in Maj . Gen . James Shields ' s division . While in the Shenandoah Valley , the 8th OVI participated in its first real battle , Winchester , where it attacked and defeated a portion of Stonewall Jackson ' s force , while suffering almost twenty - five percent casualties . In all , the 8th listed forty - six men as killed or wounded . In September 1862 , during the Maryland Campaign , the 8th OVI and the rest of the II Corps hastily marched northward in pursuit of Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia . The two armies met near Sharpsburg , Maryland , along the banks of Antietam Creek . Here , the 8th experienced what to date was its hardest fighting of the war . Kimball ' s brigade repeatedly attacked Alabama troops under D . H . Hill stationed in a sunken road during the Battle of Antietam , taking 50 % casualties but eventually pushing through the defensive line at a cost of 162 officers and men killed or wounded . In early December , replenished by new recruits , the 8th Ohio participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg , where it was initially assigned as skirmisher s after crossing the Rappahannock River on pontoon bridges . The regiment took shelter inside a cluster of buildings in the town of Fredericksburg approximately 150 yards from the Confederate line . From the comparative safety of their position , the men witnessed the series of bloody and futile attacks on Marye ' s Heights ordered by Ambrose Burnside . After firing relentlessly for hours from the houses and with its ammunition exhausted , the 8th Ohio withdrew under heavy enemy fire to the rear of the Union line . Following the disaster at Fredericksburg , the 8th Ohio encamped until April 1863 in the town of Falmouth , Virginia . In May , Lt . Col . Franklin Sawyer and the regiment ( and most of the II Corps ) served as reserves during the Chancellorsville Campaign . Gettysburg . On June 3 , 1863 , elements of Lee ' s army began heading away from Fredericksburg towards the Shenandoah Valley . In response , the Union army , under first Joseph Hooker and then George G . Meade , slowly began to pursue Lee into Maryland and subsequently into south - central Pennsylvania . The 8th OVI lost a number of men to sunstroke and heat exhaustion during the brutal march northward , but arrived near Gettysburg , Pennsylvania , late in the day of July 1 and took up a defensive position along Cemetery Ridge with 209 men in its ranks . When James Longstreet and A . P . Hill launched attacks aimed at rolling up the Union line from south to north , the 8th was quickly shifted to a position near the Emmitsburg Road , where it engaged in a series of attacks and counterattack s on July 2 with Mississippi troops under Brig . Gen . Carnot Posey , while the rest of the brigade ( now under Col . Samuel " Red " Carroll ) was sent to Cemetery Hill to reinforce the embattled XI Corps . After a restless night , the 8th held their position in the fields west of Emmitsburg Road , duelling with Confederate skirmishers for much of the morning of July 3 . Following a lengthy cannonade in the early afternoon , over 12 , 000 Confederates under George Pickett , Isaac R . Trimble , and Johnston Pettigrew stepped off from Seminary Ridge and marched towards the Union line on Cemetery Ridge . Facing a force several times its number , the 8th Ohio held its advanced position and was able to flank portions of a Virginia brigade under Col . John M . Brockenbrough . Assisted by artillery fire from Cemetery Hill and Ziegler ' s Grove , the 8th succeeded in routing much of Brockenbrough ' s force , the first brigade to ever break and flee during Lee ' s tenure in command of the Army of Northern Virginia . The 8th then shifted and poured fire into the flank of other Confederate regiments . As the assault waned , the regiment collected over 300 prisoners of war . As the Ohioans reentered the Union lines , they were given a salute of arms and cheers from the other regiments . The 8th Ohio rested on July 4 before joining the Army of the Potomac in the pursuit of the retreating Confederates into Virginia . It served in the subsequent Bristoe and Mine Run Campaign s , but saw no further significant combat in 1863 . 1864 actions . The 8th OVI did not see significant fighting until the Overland Campaign . On May 8 , the regiment halted a Confederate assault on the Union lines in the dense woods known as the Wilderness . The next day , the regiment was again attacked and managed to hold its ground despite serious losses . After fighting at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House , the 8th marched southward as Ulysses S . Grant continually sidestepped Lee and relentlessly moved towards Richmond and Petersburg . With only three weeks left in their original three - year term of enlistment , on June 1 the regiment was sent forward in the ill - fated attacks at the Battle of Cold Harbor , where it again suffered considerable casualties before withdrawing . After the attack at Cold Harbor , the regiment was placed in reserve until its enlistment expired . On June 24 , the 8th OVI withdrew from Petersburg and was sent back to Ohio . A number of men stayed in the service and were transferred to Company A , 4th Ohio Infantry on June 24 – 25 . After days of celebrations and salutes , the regiment officially mustered out of service on July 13 , 1864 , with only 168 men left in the ranks . The 8th Ohio lost during service 8 officers and 124 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded , and 1 officer and 72 enlisted men by disease ( a total of 205 fatalities ) . After fighting in most of the major campaigns of the Army of the Potomac , the 8th Ohio had acquired a reputation as one of the best fighting units in the Union army . It is memorialized with monuments at Antietam and Gettysburg , as well as an inscription at the Soldiers ' and Sailors ' Monument in Cleveland ' s Public Square . Its national battle flag is in the collection of the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus , and some artifacts and records in the Western Reserve Historical Society . Medal of Honor recipients . Three men from the 8th OVI received the Medal of Honor for their actions during the Civil War :