When news of Fort Sumpter’s fall in April 1861 reached the
county, Union meetings were called through which men enlisted
for three months or three years. Leaders were John
Campbell, Ralph Leete, Col. E. Nigh, Dr. B. F. Cory, W. W.
Johnson, C. G. Hawley, Thomas McCarty, C. W. McCoy and C.
Hall. Ironton City Council issued a proclamation wanting no
hostilities with its neighboring towns in Kentucky and
Virginia, and had it delivered to each town. The county
commissioners appropriated $5,000 as a fund to help support,
as needed, families of volunteers from the county.
By July 18, 1861 there were 535 Lawrence Countians away on
active duty, many of them serving in western Virginia (now the
state of West Virginia). Home Guard units sprung up in
Ironton (German Co. of volunteers) and in every village with
174 regimented in Proctorville. Just across the river
from Proctorville at Guyandotte, Va., what was termed as “the
meanest Secessionist Hole” along the Ohio River, existed.
By October, 1,210 countians were away in service, representing
over one-third of the county’s voting population.
In November, a battle raged for possession of Guyandotte
between Union troops who had occupied the town and a Rebel
Guerrilla Cavalry which resulted in the burning of the town.
Lawrence County men fought in many of the major battles of the
war and the many fallen were to be later honored at Ironton’s
first Memorial Day ceremonies in 1868, three years after the
war ended.
In all, 3,357 Lawrence Countians served in the Civil War
including 224 from Aid Township, 106 from Decatur, 233 from
Elizabeth, 205 from Fayette, 105 from Hamilton, 180 from
Lawrence, 258 from Mason, 274 from Perry, 251 from Rome, 153
from Symmes, 233 from Union, 268 from Windsor, 152 from
Washington, 206 from Upper and 507 from Ironton.
The Spanish-American War in 1898 was to find more Lawrence
Countians in uniform, serving in Cuba and the Philippines,
resulting in extending American holdings into the Western
Pacific and the Caribbean.
