The "60 Round Boys"
This being a monthly history of the 55th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
For October 1999 by Bill Johnson

During the month of October, 1864, the 55th Ohio Infantry, along with the rest of the 20th Corps. Performed garrison duty in the occupied city of Atlanta, Georgia. Their time was spent in not only picket duty but also foraging details. As an example of the foraging done by the 55th Ohio, Lt. Col. Edwin Powers wrote: "while stationed at Atlanta the regiment went with the brigade to which it belongs on a foraging expedition to the east of Decatur, and returned on the fourth day thereafter… [T]he regiment subsisted upon the country, obtaining about 1,400 pounds of meat of various kinds and about 20 bushels of sweet potatoes, together with vegetables of other kinds, in amount which I am unable to estimate. Of forage obtained by this regiment alone it is impossible to say what was the amount. On the second day of the expedition this regiment, together with the 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry (in charge of which I was placed), went to the vicinity of Lithonia, where they filled about 60 wagons with corn, making about 900 bushels (averaging the loads at fifteen bushels each)."

 

Sources:
Trials and Triumphs by Hartwell Osborne, 1904
All Brave and True by Dan Munson, 1986.

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