 |
| Push to enlarge. |
Sixth Independent Battery Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery
John C. Weber,Private; Age 18; Enlisted October 21, 1861, for 3 years. Mustered out October 21, 1864; On Expiration of term of service.
John C. Weber tells how he joined the Sixth, at the Mt. Vernon Reunion of 1897.
When Lieutenant Baldwin was recruiting in Akron for the battery I wasn't quite seventeen ; but I took the war fever and had it bad. I was a runt of a boy, but I made up my mind I was going in that battery. I couldn't see just how I was going to make the riffle, for my father, who kept a hotel in Akron, was dead against it. He wouldn't listen to it for a single minute.But I kept getting warmer and warmer till finally I couldn't stand it any longer. On the 21st of October I walked into the recruiting office and told Baldwin I wanted to list. He asked me how old I was and I said "Eighteen last August.".
I guess
Baldwin thought I was lying, but he went through all the red tape, told me to sign my name, and swore me in as a recruit. Of course I never let on at home, and nobody there knew anything about it till the lieutenant started with his men for Mansfield.This was two or three weeks after I enlisted. I thought if I could only give father the slip and get to
camp it would be all right At the time for the company to start I sneaked away from home and joined it at the depot Before I could get aboard the train I felt somebody take hold
of my ear. It was father, and he didn't let go till he had got me home.
I lay low and kept quiet for a week, and father thought I had given it up. Lieutenant Sanders had raised a squad of men for the Sixty-fourth. When he started for Camp Buckingham, I
stole away from home, got on the train and went with him.I joined the battery and then I thought everything was lovely. But after I had been in camp about a week I got a telegram from a friend in Akron, telling that father was going to start the next day to take me home. This made me sick. I went to Lieutenant Baldwin and we both went to Captain Bradley to talk it over.
I told them that I would go and stay in the woods while they coaxed father to let up. They advised me not to run away from him, but to go down and meet him at the depot, and I did. I wanted him to go right out to camp, but he made me go with him to a hotel and stay all night.
The next day we went out to camp and had a big talk. The officers tried to have him consent to my going but he still refused, and Captain Bradley told me I had better go home with him.
I don't believe I ever felt so bad in my life, but of course I couldn't help myself. So I went back and stayed about ten days. In some way or other I managed to raise twenty -
five dollars and one night I jumped on a train and returned to camp. Father saw that I was bound to go. and he wrote me that he would not oppose me any longer if I would come
home and say good-by. I would have gone but I didn't get a chance, for the next day we got orders to start for Louisville. That's the way I got into the battery.
History of Summit County Ohio.
JOHN C. WEBER, a retired business citizen of Akron, formerly president of the Akron Foundry Company, and for a number of years a leading factor in the city's commercial life, was born August 20, 1844, at Monroeville, Huron County, Ohio.
When he was three months old his parents
moved to Akron. He attended the public and
parochial schools connected with the Catholic Church until prepared for St. John's College at Cleveland, Ohio, where he spent two
yeai-s. Then he was a student in the Christian Brothers' College at Dayton for one year.
In 1860 he became a clerk in the general
store of P. D. Hall at Akron, where he remained until October, 1861. He then enlisted
in the Sixth Ohio Independent Light Battery,
which became a part of General Sherman's
brigade, and saw his first active service at the
battle of Shiloh. His battery was sent all
through Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky
and its next serious engagement was at Perryville in the latter state.
Mr. Weber participated in the battle of Stone River, and in the fol-
lowing .June started with his comrades on the
Chattanooga campaign, in which they took
part in the battles of Hoover's Gap, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. Thence they
went to East Tennessee to take part in the At^
lanta campaign. The Sixth battery participated in all the hard battles of this memorable period, Rocky Face Hill, Buzzards'
Roost, Dalton, Resaca, Adamsville, Calhoun,
Pumpkinvine Creek, New Hope Church, Pick-
ett's Mills, Lost Mountain, Pine Top, Kenesaw
Mountain, Chatahoochee River, Vining Sta-
tion, Atlanta, Jonesboro and Lovejoy Station.
From Atlanta his command was attached to
the army under General Thomas at Galesville, Alabama, where Mr. Weber's term of
enlistment expired. During the Atlanta cam paign he had served as an orderly for the
chief of artillery on the staff of General Wood.
After a visit home, Mr. Weber returned to
Nashville, Tennessee, where he remained un-
til the close of the war. He wa« then engaged
for two years in a grocery business at Akron,
after which he went to California by way of
the Isthmus of Panama. He spent some three
years visiting the different states of the West,
before returning to Akron. He tiaen became
iis.sociated as traveling salesman with the
wholesale drug house of George Weimer, with
which he remained connected for three years.
In 1875 he superintended the erection of the
Weber Block on Howard Street, Akron, a
fine two-story business structure 60 by 100 feet
in dimensions.
In 1876 Mr. Weber went to
Cleveland, where he became associated with
the C. E. Gehring Brewery Company, where
he continued in busine.ss until 1885, then re-
turning to Akron. He purchased the inter-
est of William Gray in the tinware and house
furnishing goods firm of Jahant & Gray, and
for fourteen years confined a large part of his
attention to this enterprise. He also built the
plant of the Akron Foundry Company, of
which he was president, but disposed of his
interest in 1899.
In 1874 Mr. Weber was married to
Emeline Oberholtz, and they liave five chil-
dren, namely: Eva, who is the wife of E. W.
Donahue, residing at Akron: C. Irene, Susie
M. and Bertha T., residing at home; aiid
Florenz, who is a.ssistant superintendent of
the Columbia Gas and Electric Light Company, of Cincinnati. Mr. Weber and familv
belong to St. Bernard's Catholic Church. He
is a Knight of St. John, a Knight of Columbus, a member of the Catholic Knights of
Ohio, and of the Catholic Knights of America.
He belongs to Buckley Post, G. A. R., and
is a member of the Lincoln Farm Associa-
tion. He is also connected with the Commercial Travelers' Association, of Cleveland.
Mr. Weber has always enjoyed the recrea-
tion of travel and has seen almost all sections
of his native land. Several years since, after
retiring from the environments of business, he
took a tour through Europe, accompanied by
his son. He has never taken any active part
in politics and would never consider any of-
fice of a political nature, but he accepted a
position on the Humane Association when
proffered him by the Humane Society of
Akron.
Death: October 23, 1920.
Burial: Saint Bernards Cemetery, Akron, Summit County, Ohio.
