As I continue to do research into various Civil War topics, I stumble across other stories and people. I thought I had covered all the "full bird" colonels buried in Spring Grove, then come across a Confederate (covered in a previous post), and now another colonel, who commanded the 111th U.S.C.T. and died during the war.
Colonel William H. Lathrop was born May 4th, 1833 in New York and was living in Cincinnati before the start of the Civil War. Lathrop was first commissioned as a 1st Lieutenant with the 39th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was eventually promoted to Major. He was later assigned to the 3rd Alabama U.S. Colored Infantry as a field officer. The unit was later consolidated into the 111th U.S. Colored Infantry. Lathrop attained the rank of Colonel when the 111th U.S.C.T. was formed in June 1864. The regiment was involved in action at Pulaski, Tennessee and then ordered to defend captured territory near a railroad line at Athens, Alabama. The soldiers built an earthworks fort that they were forced to defend when attacked by Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest. A sharp fight erupted on September 24th that carried into the following morning. The black soldiers feared capture to Forrest knowing that he and his men ruthlessly murdered the black soldiers who surrendered at Fort Pillow in April in what was labeled as a massacre. Colonel Lathrop was either killed in the battle trying to defend the garrison and save his men from slaughter or died of disease at Camp Dennison, the latter indicated on the roster of the 111th. Despite his courageous attempts the fort was eventually surrendered the following day and most of the Union defenders were captured (this action is known as the Battle of Sulphur Creek Trestle). Lathrop was initially buried near the scene of the battle but was removed and brought back to his home in Cincinnati where he was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery in March 1865.
William H. Lathrop is buried in Section 46, Lot 30.
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