Saturday, June 22, 2019

The Colonels of Greenwood - Lewis D. Campbell

Lewis Davis Campbell was born August 11th, 1811, in Franklin, Ohio.  Like many officers of the Civil War, his occupation was lawyer.  Prior to the war he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1849 to 1858, and would serve in the same capacity after the war from 1871-1873.  He was appointed U.S. Minister to Mexico from 1866-1867.

Campbell's brother-in-was was Colonel Robert Reily of the 75th Ohio.  Campbell was appointed colonel of the 69th Ohio on October 2nd, 1861, but would resign on August 9th, 1862 after facing charges of "Drunkenness and Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and a Gentleman While on Duty", another commonality among officers during the Civil War.  These charges, though unproven, caused Campbell to write of his resignation "the unfriendly relations and incompatibility of feeling which subsist between some of the officers and myself...the constant strain on my physical and intellectual energies for the last nine months in recruiting the regiment and endeavoring to make it effective."

The 69th had been raised in southwestern Ohio, organized in Hamilton and Camp Chase, and guarded railroads in Tennessee until seeing its first major action at Stones River.  William B. Cassilly would take over as colonel of the 69th after Campbell's resignation.

Campbell would pass away on November 26th, 1882 in Hamilton.  He is buried in the Hill Section, Lot 468.


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