44th OVI/8th OVVC

[Dorwin Black]

Does anyone else in the group have an ancestor that served in the 44th OVI or in the 8th OVC?  I have been (somewhat obsessively) researching the service of my gg grandfather, Jerome Black, who was a private in Company K (Fayette County) of the 44th OVI and transferred into the 8th OVVC in January 1864.  He was with the detachment that served in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign with General Sheridan (in Averell's Cavalry division).  He and two of his comrades were captured, either at or immediately after, the Battle of Fisher's Hill.  There was a false report sent home that they had been executed by Mosby's Rangers which caused months of grief for his mother, but they were actually sent as POWs to Libby Prison. 

 In early October 1864, they were transferred from Libby to Salisbury Prison in NC.  On December 1st, suffering severely from the hellish conditions at Salisbury, he and one of his fellows agreed to enlist in Tucker's Pioneer Regiment CSA, which was then recruiting from POWs at Salisbury.  They were sent to Columbia SC where they spent December drilling (Columbia resident Mary Chestnut makes several mentions of Tucker's Regiment in her diaries).  In late December or early January they were sent to Charleston SC where (according to Jerome's statement in his pension files) they did no duty. In February 1865, he was treated for frostbite at Confederate hospital No 10 in Charlotte NC.  

He claims in his pension file that the only service he performed while a member of Tucker's Regiment was to help in building a corduroy road in North Carolina.  I assume this would place his unit somewhere behind the front infantry lines of Johnston's Army constructing a road to help move the wagons and heavy artillery pieces.  According to his records, he escaped on April 22, four days before Johnston's surrender.  Making his way by night  and hiding by day (according to his statement), he made his way to the Union lines in early May.  He had an interview with General Kilpatrick who gave him a pass to return to his unit, which was then stationed in West Virginia.  He had to make his way back to his unit via Washington DC, where he got stuck for awhile because his pass had expired; but by early June he had returned to his unit.  He continued to serve with the 8th OVC until discharged on July 31st.