During three years of the Civil War, Colonel John Beatty of the Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment dealt with drunkenness, desertion, insubordination and mutiny, and at one point tied a drunken mutineer to a tree until the man sobered up. He didn't shoot or dismiss the man, because everyone was needed for service. This emblematic event and many others are detailed in this history, illustrating how the Third Ohio experienced "combat" on the battlefield as well as on the campgrounds of Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Part of a brigade commanded by Colonel Abel Streight, the Third Ohio was charged with destroying the Confederate rail junction in Rome, Georgia. However, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest chased and fought the Third through Tennessee and Northern Alabama until exhaustion and wet ammunition forced the regiment to surrender to Forrest and his men on June 3, 1863. This book presents in full context the Third Ohio's Civil War experience, and includes a daily chronology of the regiment as well as a complete roster.