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One IT as Engineer In Great Train RobberySix Mark township men rallied to the Northern cause and marched off to battle with the Union Army during the Civil War. Two of them were captured by Confederates.William J. Knight, one of the Mitchell Railroad Raiders, helped capture a Confederate train at Marietta, Ga. The Raiders planned to travel northward on the train destroying track and bridges behind them so that the Confederates could no longer operate the railroad.After the train was captured. Knight took over as engineer. The Raiders were immediately pursued by a Confederate train and overtaken before they could accomplish their mission.Eventually they were imprisoned in Chattanooga in aroom 13 feet wide and 13 feet feet deep. Undaunted, they escaped and scattered into the woods.Knight and another Ohio man W. W. Brown, hid in the woods by day listening to Confederate horsemen combing the area in search of them. They traveled at night using the North Star for their guide.After many nights of hard travel, they reached the northern corner of North Carolina. Here they found a family sympathetic to the Union Cause. The farmer contacted friends who helped Knight and Brown rejoin their regiment.After the war, Knight moved to Minnesota and opened a store.Lyman R. Critchfield’s impressive battle record was cut short by his capture near Jonesboro. Ga.. Nov. 30. 1864.His regiment, the 25th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, fought against Gen. Bragg in Kentucky and survived a siege at Knoxville, Tenn.After this they moved deeper into the South and participated in the Atlanta campaign. Crit-chfield was captured shortly after this and spent the rest of the war in a desolate prison in Andersonville.After his release he returned to Mark Tp. and married Mary C. Cole in 1868.George N. Rice, who did not move to Mark Tp. until after the Civil War, did serve in Union Army and fought in several important engagements including the second battle of Bull Run and Antietam.Rice was captured while guarding a supply depot andforced to march four days without food to Libby Prison where he was placed in a room with 226 other men.He was exchanged by the Confederates for one of their own prisoners in time to participate in the battle at Gettysburg.Later he was transferred to Hooker's brigade and joined Sherman’s March to the Sea.In 1878 he started a lumbering business on section 29 of MarkTp.Other Mark Tp. residents who served in the Civil War are: Chauncey E. Curtis, Curtis S. Elder, Andrew J. Byers Leander R. Hutchinson and James 0. Hutchinson.Elder’s family history records that he marched with Sherman. Leander Hutchinson was killed May 14. 1864.
Newspaper Details
The Crescent-News
Defiance, Ohio, US
Fri, Feb 07, 1969
Page 18
Full Page
Clipped by
Timothy T.
OH, USA 21 Apr 2018
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