16th Ohio Independent Battery of Artillery
14 Months in the Union Artillery - The Diary of Private Wallace Byrd
16th Ohio Battery, Sept. 1861 to Oct. 1862
Compiled and Edited by Larry Marple, 1998
HOW THE DIARY CAME TO BE PUBLISHED:
I am a school teacher and everyone who is aquainted with me knows of my passion for the Civil War. While teaching in a small town in Ohio, I had a parent bring me a small, leather-bound book with 1862 and the name W. Byrd written on the cover in faded ink. (This happened in the middle of class and nearly caused me to fall over). The parent permitted me to take the diary home and read it. It is written in very legible pencil. After a few days of inquiry, I finally bought the diary from the parent. This diary is one of only two known to exist of soldiers from Springfield, Ohio. The more I thought about it, the more the idea took root to transcribe the diary word for word, research the family, unit, soldiers, and civilians, and publish the diary for all who would like to read it. There are no graphic depictions of battles. This diary is just the everyday life of one Union artilleryman and his friends and family.
Copies of the diary can still be purchased.
They are $7.00, plus $1.50 shipping. If you are interested, please e-mail me.
Contained within the book are copies of the photographs of many of the men who served in the 16th Ohio Battery who are mentioned in the diary and copies of some of the diary pages. The book also contains a brief history and description of the Byrd family of Springfield, Ohio along with a list and description of some of the civilians mentioned in the pages of the diary. At the end of the book is a listing of the service of the 16th Ohio Battery along with descriptions of what happened to many of the soldiers mentioned in the diary.
Private Wallace Byrd
Springfield, Ohio
Born September 3, 1840
Died October 24, 1862
The Anthony Byrd
home (left) was
Wallace's boyhood
home in Springfield, Ohio.
Wallace's grave
(right) lies in the
Byrd/Snodgrass
Cemetery just 1/4
mile from the home.
6-pounder, Model 1841 Field Gun
Tube Length: 60 inches
Tube Weight: 884 pounds
Bore Diameter: 3.67 inches
Range (at 5 degrees elevation): 1523 yards
Powder Charge: 1.25 pounds
Shown below are the two types of projectiles (6-pounder round ball and 14-pounder James) the 16th Ohio Battery would have used early in the war when they were issued four 3.80 caliber James rifled model 1841 6-pounder field guns, and two 3.67 caliber model 1841 6-pounder smoothbores.
6-pounder solid shot attached to
wooden sabot and powder bag
(Called a "fixed round")
Sabot and bag are reproductions.
6-pounder U.S. case-shot
cut in half to show the lead balls,
sulfur matrix, Bormann time fuse
threads, and drilled
powder chamber
14-pounder James solid shot
for the James rifling system.