ONE LOCAL FAMILY’S CIVIL WAR CONNECTION - Linda Higgins

Among the numerous historical items of local interest in the Ottawa County Museum is a large framed American flag from the 19th century. The handwritten note attached to the flag itself announces:   

“This Flag Presented to Post 113

by John D. McRitchie

last surviving member of

Geo. R. McRitchie Post

 of

G.A.R.”

This is not a Civil War battle flag but a presentation flag, and it represents an important piece of McRitchie family history.

George R. McRitchie was born in 1839 to John and Elizabeth Richardson McRitchie, originally from Scotland and among those shipwrecked on Port Clinton’s shores in 1836. (A description of the shipwreck is presented in an earlier article, written in October of 2022.) John D. McRitchie, born in Bay Township in February of 1845, was a son of David (brother to John, George’s father) and Jane Yule McRitchie, who were also involved in the shipwreck. John D. and George R. McRitchie were therefore cousins, and both fought in the Civil War.

John volunteered for service in October of 1864, taking the place of his brother-in-law, Charles Darr, who had been drafted, but had family obligations. John, in Company E, 64th Regiment, OVI, Third Brigade of the 2nd Division of the 4th Corps, fought at Lookout Mountain and Chattanooga, among other battles, until October of 1865.

George attended Oberlin College for one term, then taught at the Hineline school near Mud Creek from 1860 until he enlisted in August of 1861. He served in Company G, 100th Regiment, OVI, until June of 1861. He was driving rebels when he stopped with his men to eat near Marietta, Georgia. He moved from behind a tree to let his men know that the food was ready when a hidden rebel shot and killed him. His men wrapped him in his blanket and placed him in a casket they had made of cartridge boxes. They buried him under a tree near a road about six miles outside Atlanta, Georgia. The members of the G.A.R. Post in Port Clinton eventually named the local post in his honor.

After the war, John married Sarah Leggett on Christmas Day 1866 in Port Clinton. They lived in Bay Township on the James Leggett farm, and had eight children: six daughters and two sons. John farmed, but also held local offices as constable, assessor, trustee, and township clerk. He served as an officer of the G.A.R. McRitchie post for a time. In 1891 the family moved to 111 Laurel Avenue in Port Clinton, then in 1928 to 418 Monroe Street. Sarah died that same year and their oldest, a daughter, and youngest, a son, died before John did.

John D. McRitchie was the last of Port Clinton’s Civil War veterans when he died after a fall in his home at age 87, in May of 1932. According to the Ottawa County News, May 20, 1932, he’d been “looking forward to the Memorial Day observation when he would be the lone representative of the Grand Army of the Republic, yet he realized that to be present would mean a tax on his strength.”  American Legion Post No. 118 carried the flag-draped casket from his home to Lakeview Cemetery, where a “firing squad fired a volley and a bugler sounded taps.” He was buried with military honors.

No doubt there are countless other stories of Port Clinton’s Civil War soldiers, as told by their families. And most of those families’ names would be familiar to local citizens today because these descendants serve the community. The museum also holds some of these families’ items that help tell their stories.