Oberlin and the Civil War
The majority of Oberlin residents supported abolition and young men eagerly enlisted to defend the Union and finally bring about the end of slavery. Over the course of the Civil War, over a thousand men from Oberlin, the surrounding area, and students of Oberlin College, served in the war. The following are resources that highlight this part of Oberlin’s history. Readers may want to start with the overview by Robert Fletcher in his second volume of A History of Oberlin College (pages 841-885).
History Features
7th Ohio Volunteers at Kessler’s Cross Lanes
Hiram Alonzo Pease: The Legend of a Principled Abolitionist
The 7th OVI at The Battle of Kernstown—March, 1862
The Squirrel Hunters: Citizen Soldiers and the Defense of Ohio in the Civil War
See also
Oberlin and the Civil War page of the Oberlin College Archives
About this Project
In James H. Fairchild’s 1883 book Oberlin: The Colony and the College, he estimated that 850 graduates or undergraduates of Oberlin College fought in the Civil War. AmeriCorps Member Richard Donegan spent over a year researching and compiling a list of resident and student veterans because no such list existed, save for the names of war dead on the Soldiers Monument now in Wright Park.
Donegan was with the Heritage Center as part of the Ohio History Service Corps program to place AmeriCorps members at locations throughout Ohio to assist with local history projects and events that commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
If using or citing this database, please credit: “Oberlin Civil War Soldiers Database compiled by Richard Donegan for the Oberlin Heritage Center, 2013.”
Who is included in the database?
The spreadsheet includes soldiers who could be proved (through enrollment records, militia records, census records) to have been Oberlin or Russia Township citizens at the outbreak of the war, and Oberlin College, Theology and Preparatory Department students (through the same records above as well as college and alumni records) of the same. Students who graduated in 1860 and were found to be living somewhere besides Oberlin were not included.
While the list is extensive and believed to be near complete, it is impossible to guarantee that every individual has been documented. Accuracy is also largely dependent on the accuracy of the original documents consulted.
It is our hope that this database will help family and researchers learn more about individual soldier lives and overall patterns of community participation in the Civil War. If you have suggestions, corrections, or information you want to add to the database, please contact us at history@oberlinheritage.org.
Fields of information included in the database:
Names of individuals
Rank
Unit
Company
Occupation at the time of enlistment
Age at entering service
Date of entering service
Period of service
Remarks about service
Oberlin Affiliation
Residence at time of enlistment
Place of birth
Date of birth
If deceased during or as a result of war, does the name appear on the Oberlin Soldiers Monument?
Participant in the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue (1858)
Citations
Additional notes