Troy Times - Veteran - Co. B, 94th Ohio Regiment

December 4, 1862

WEBB, JOHN D. - At Nicholsville, Tennessee, Nov. 16th, 1862 of typhoid fever, Private John D. Webb of Co. B, 94th Ohio Reg't., in the 19th year of his age. Another soldier has fallen. Another noble spirit has gone to join the spirits of our illustrious dead. No more shall the sound of the drum at reveille call him to answer to his name. No more shall his youthful form be seen at the batallion or dress parade. His comrades in arms shall see his face on earth no more. He has gone to that country where war is a stranger and share the clash of arms _______ heard. John D. Webb was a young man of a mild and cheerful disposition, and had gathered to himself a circle of many friends. He volunteered in the month of August under Captain John C. Drury, who was then recruiting a company in Troy for the 94th Regiment. He went with the company from Troy to Camp Piqua, and from there with the Regiment to Kentucky. He was in the terrific fight at Chaplin Hills, where the noble Drury fell.--His comrades say that he stood firm and unmoved amid, the whistling the balls and the bursting of shells, and that he fought with heroic bravery on this field of carnage and blood. After the battle of Chaplain Hills, he went with the Regiment so far as Nicholsville, Tenn., where in the providence of God he was laid upon a bed of sickness to die, far away in a land of strangers, far away from his kind and tender mother to administer, unto his wants, and to gently wipe the clammy sweat of death from his dying brow and to close his eyes to all earthly objects forever, but far away among a strange people he breathed his spirit into the hands of that God who gave it, and offered his life as a martyr to the cause of Liberty. On the evening of the 14th of Nov. his father received a telegram from Lieut. McLaughlin, stating that if he wished to see his son alive he should come immediately to Nicholsville. His father started on the morning of the 15th with his friend Paul Knight to see his son. They arrived at Nicholsville on the 16th; but before they found him his spirit had fled and his body had been buried. As soon as the place of his burial was found, he was immediately disinterred and taken to Louisville, where he was enclosed in a metallic coffin. His father arrived at home with his remains on the 19th. His remains were followed to the grave on Thursday, Nov. 20, by a large concourse of mourning friends and relatives. He was buried in the Lostcreek burying ground, there to rest free from all of his toils until the angel shall stand with one foot upon the ____ and ____ other upon the land and shall cry time shall be no more forever. Then I trust we shall meet him in that land where the chilly winds of death shall never enter, and where we shall bloom forever in immortal youth. The name of John D. Webb with the names of Oliver, Drury, Coleman, and all other who shall fall in this struggle to defend these our liberties shall ever live in the hearts of the truly patriotic American citizen when the name of every traitor and sympathizer with this rebellion shall have become a stench in the nostrils of every true patriot. Let us then forget all of his errors and faults and ever cherish his memory and do honor to the spot where rests his heroic dust, and in the language of the following verses say,


Sleep, soldier of merit, sleep soldier of our country, history will record all of your noble deeds.


Your eye that was sparkling no longer is bright,
The hand of grim death has conquered its might,
Your heart that once for your country beat high,
To your bosom the cods of the valley are nigh.


Sleep soldier of merit, sleep gallant of yore,
The toils of this life with your now are o'er,
While the cedar is green, or the winds roll a wave,
Our tear drops shall moisten the turf of your grave. S. G. H.