"In the spring of 1864, after three bloody years of civil war and with victory seemingly within reach for the Northern armies, John Brough, Ohio's energetic wartime governor, offered his state's militia for 100 days of federal service. Ordered east for duty in forts, railways, and prisons, they freed veteran troops to make the last great push against Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy."--BOOK JACKET. "Drawn from Civil War diaries, letters, and eyewitness accounts, A Hundred Days to Richmond tells the complete story of Ohio's "hundred days" men for the first time. Their individual tales are unique and memorable. We hear not only from generals and colonels, but also from the ranks - from a schoolteacher who taught himself artillery, from a farmer turned drummer, and from college students who swapped books for muskets. Many disliked leaving their families, businesses, and farms, but they shouldered their arms and went anyway, hoping to bring an end to the war."--BOOK JACKET.