William Ransom Tuttle (1837-1922) was born in Woodbury, Connecticut. His parents moved to Burton, Ohio, in 1838, and his brother, John, was born there in 1840, and his sister, Ann, was born five years later in Clarendon, Ohio. In July 1862, Tittle enlisted in the 105th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteers and was given the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. The 105th was a Western Reserve regiment and the company to which Tuttle was assigned, Company E, was composed of volunteers from Geauga County. Immediately after organization, the regiment was ordered to proceed to Lexington, Kentucky, by train and from there on foot to Louisville where the green regiment might face immediate action. This did not happen, but according to Whitelaw Reid's account, the forced march ". . .was the baptismal campaign for the One Hundred and Fifth, and it told sadly on both officers and men . . .[it] was completed September 5th the men arriving at Louisville footsore and exhausted. Many were afflicted with chronic dearrhea and fevers, the majority of whom never recovered, but were discharged or died in hospitals." (Whitelaw Reid,
By the beginning of October, the men of the 105th had been partially trained but in their first major encounter with the enemy at Perryville, Kentucky on October 8, 1862, with Union forces numbering 60,000 against a Confederate force of 22,500 with a reserve of 10,000, General Terrill's whole brigade (of which the 105th was a part) was routed. The Union forces eventually drove the enemy back, "winning" the battle, but the losses were heavy; one-third of the 105th was struck at Perryville. The Colonel commanding the Second Brigade became officer in charge after the wounding of Division Commander Brigadier General Jackson and the death of Brigadier General Terrill and Colonel Webster.
At Perryville, also called Chaplain Heights, Lieutenant Tuttle served as Acting Assistant Adjutant General to General Terrill. On the day of the battle, he received a promotion to Captain and was given command of Company H. The 105th participated in the battles of Hooker's Gap, Tennessee; Chickamauga, Georgia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Mission Ridge, Tennessee; Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia; and the siege of Atlanta, Georgia. The soldiers in the 105th marched more than four thousand miles. Captain Tuttle was detailed as Assistant Provost Marshall on General Sherman's staff. He was mustered out in June 1865 with the rest of the 105th, having served his three-year enlistment.
According to Whitelaw Reid, "Of the thirty-seven officers that went into the field with the regiment, but eleven returned to be mustered out of it. . .Of the one thousand and thirteen men who left Cleveland in 1862, only four hundred and twenty-seven were mustered out there in 1865." (Reid, II, page 571.).
The William Ransom Tuttle Papers, 1862-1863 and undated, consist of military papers and pertain mainly to the activities of the 105th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The collection consists of regular orders, general orders, special orders, special field orders, circulars, and instructions from army, division, and brigade headquarters. There are battle reports in manuscript and published forms, loyalty oaths, ordnance invoices, official telegrams, absentee and casualty reports, a detail book, and several non-official letters.
This collection will be useful to researchers studying the American Civil War and the activities of soldiers and officers who served in the 105th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The experiences of soldiers in Company E of the 105th Regiment, which was composed of volunteers from Geauga County, Ohio, are documented in the collection. The 105th Regiment served in battles at Perrysville, Kentucky; Hooker's Gap, Tennessee; Chickamauga, Georgia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Mission Ridge, Tennessee; Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia; and the siege of Atlanta, Georgia.
The collection is arranged by document type and then chronologically.
Processed by Carol Hull in 1971.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 3545 William Ransom Tuttle Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Mrs. Len Young Smith, daughter of William Ransom Tuttle, in 1971.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.