great-grandfather of Judith Corrigan

great-grandfather of Marilyn Dietz

 

Private     Co. I     29th Ohio Infantry

Dates of Service:  04 Jan 1865 - 13 Jul 1865

 

The 4th child and 3rd son of John W. and Betsy E. Davis Sharp, Milo was born the 17th of Oct., 1835, in Ashtabula Co., Ohio. [John W. Sharp, a native of Rutland County, Vermont, had served in the role of cooper with the U.S. Regular Army, an organization comprised of career soldiers and maintained through peacetime, from Jun 1st, 1829 for a period of 5 years.] Milo married Caroline Matilda Horton in Ashtabula Nov. 13th, 1856. They had children James L. on Jan. 31st, 1859, Frederick on Jun. 30th, 1860, and Charles Wyman in May 1862. 

 

Before Milo joined them, the 29th Regiment, Ohio Infantry had already been in the Battles of Winchester; Front Royal; Port Republic; Cedar Mountain; Bull Run; Antietam; Chancellorsville; and Gettysburg; had pursued Lee to Manassas Gap; and taken part in the Battle of Lookout Mountain. When Milo reached the regiment on the 4th of Jan., they were on duty at Bridgeport, Alabama, till May, 1864. They joined the Atlanta Campaign May 1- Sep. 8; participated in Demonstrations on Rocky Faced Ridge May 8-11; served in the Battle of Resaca May 14-15; took part in Battles about Dallas, New Hope Church and Allatoona Hills May 25-June 5; held Operations about Marietta and against Kenesaw Mountain June 10-July 2; Pine Hill June 11-14; Lost Mountain June 15-17; Gilgal or Golgotha Church June 15; Muddy Creek June 17; Noyes Creek June 19; Kolb's Farm June 22; took place in the Assault on Kenesaw June 27; Ruff's Station July 4; Chattahoochie River July 5-17; Peach Tree Creek July 19-20; the Siege of Atlanta July 22-August 25; Operations at Chattahoochie River Bridge August 26-September 2; the Occupation of Atlanta September 2-November 15; the March to the sea November 15-December 10; Buckhead Church December 2; the Siege of Savannah December 10-21; the Campaign of the Carolinas January to April, 1865; the Battle of Bentonville, N. C., March 19-21; the Occupation of Goldsboro March 24; the Advance on Raleigh April 10-14; Occupation of Raleigh April 14; Bennett's House April 26; the Surrender of Johnston and his army; the March to Washington, D. C., via Richmond, Va., April 29-May 20; and the Grand Review May 24. They moved to Louisville, Ky., in June and mustered out at Louisville, Ky., July 13, 1865. The Regiment lost during service 6 Officers and 114 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 1 Officer and 150 Enlisted men by disease. Total 271. [From https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UOH0029RI]

 

Following the war, Milo returned to farming in Ashtabula, where he and Caroline rapidly increased their family with Harriet Louise 1866, Roderick 1867 (died young), Samuel 1869 (died young), Royal Theodore 1869, John Hiram 1873, Evelina A. 1877, Henry D. Jun 1880, and Maud A., 1883. 

 

By June 1880, the patriarch John W. and his wife Caroline had relocated to Ashland, Newaygo, Michigan, joining another son Amos who had moved 15 years earlier. The following story is shared in her family tree (Davis/Farkas/Dougan/Sharp) by "chall461" on ancestry dot com, entitled, "Milo and Caroline move to Ashland, Newaygo, Michigan, USA": 

 

     "The move took place after their son, Charles Wyman, while working in the family garden, left a note on the hoe saying that he was going to hop a boxcar and go to Michigan. Charles Wyman's Uncle James E. Sharp lived in Michigan, having moved there in the 1870's. Charles returned to Ohio saying that he thought Michigan was a good place to live. So, in 1886, Milo and his family traveled to Michigan by train, with Caroline and the 3 girls riding in the passenger car and Milo and the 6 boys riding in a boxcar with the animals and the rest of their belongings. They purchased a place on Sand Creek Gully near Bridgeton." [- Taken from The Newaygo County History and Biographies]

 

Milo was enumerated in the 1890 Veterans Census from Ashland, receiving a pension for an "injury of [his] left leg." Milo continued to farm through 1910, but by 1920 he and Caroline, at age 84 and 80, had moved into town to live with their married daughter Eva Lutz and her family. [Eva's first husband was Halsey Beals, the son of Benjamin Beals. See Benjamin's biography here https://evagray2.jimdofree.com/our-ancestors/benjamin-beals-beales/.]

 

Milo and Caroline died within a few months of each other in 1922; they are buried in Ashland Center Cemetery, Grant, Newaygo Co., Michigan, as are so many of the extended Sharp family.

 

GRAVESITE: Ashland Center Cemetery, Grant, Newaygo Co., Michigan

Written by Dottie Piechocki, March 2020