Civil War
Following the bombardment of Fort Sumter Sill resigned his teaching position and offered his services to the Governor of Ohio, who appointed him Assistant Adjutant General of the State in May 1861. Here he was occupied in the organization of the Ohio forces. In August 1861 he was commissioned colonel of the 33rd Ohio Infantry and accompanied Brig. Gen. William "Bull" Nelson in the Eastern Kentucky expedition.
He was then assigned as a brigade commander in Brig. Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel's division of the Army of the Ohio. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on July 16, 1862. Shortly thereafter, Sill was elevated to command of a division, though was soon reassigned to command a brigade in Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's division of the now-named Army of the Cumberland.
Sill took part in the bloodiest battle of the Civil War (in terms of percentage of casualties on both sides), the Battle of Stones River, just outside of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. On the first day of battle, while leading his men forward, he was killed by rifle fire. On the eve of the battle, Sill had been in conference with his commander, General Sheridan. When the conference adjourned and the attendees began to disperse, Sill and Sheridan mistakenly put on each others' coats. Sill was thus wearing Sheridan's coat at the time he was killed.
Read more about this topic: Joshua W. Sill
Famous quotes related to civil war:
“The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)