GREENVILLE – If imagining a 6-foot-4-inch Capt. J.C. Ullery charging through battlefields for the Union during the Civil War is difficult, help is available.
Garst Museum is the new home of Ullery’s Civil War uniform, complete with his engraved ceremonial sword and walking stick. His grandson, Paul R. Wright, recently donated the uniform to the museum.
“We are very fortunate to have this quality of artifact,” Clay Johnson, Ph.D, Executive Director of the Garst Museum, said. “The family researched and wanted to find an appropriate place deserving of this artifact. It is a good connection to the history here, as the family history has deep roots in Darke County. The wool uniform was hand-made in Piqua, Ohio, as the inside tag says. Officers had their uniforms tailored.”
According to David Manges, Military Collections Consultant for the museum, Ullery was from Miami County, of which Darke County was once a part.
“They wanted to be local to the Miami County area,” Manges said.
Ullery was commander of Company G, 100th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (O.V.I.). G Company and the rest of the 100th O.V.I. was organized at Camp Piqua, Oct. 3, 1862, and mustered out June 25, 1865.
During the war, the regiment lost 230 men: 10 officers and 107 enlisted men, who were killed or mortally wounded in combat. Additionally, three officers and 111 enlisted men died from disease, according to the Garst Museum press release.
The uniform donation was highlighted during a Garst Museum Veterans Day program, November 12. The event, second in the museum’s annual Speaker Series, featured speakers Dr. Edward Haas, Professor Of History at Wright State University and Pearl Harbor survivor Preston Parham, of Beavercreek, Ohio. Members of the Fort GreeneVille Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution were in charge of refreshments.
It seems both Manges and Johnson take their work very seriously at Garst Museum.
“Not only do we present the history, but we preserve the history. If you can do both — that’s a great thing,” Manges said.
For more information on the uniform or other museum happenings, visit www.garstmuseum.org.
