A Cool Discovery

I live in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County, named for Ben Franklin. Many of Ohio’s 88 counties are named for Founding Fathers or for heroes of the Revolutionary War. Only a handful are not. The county immediately to the east of Franklin County is called Licking County, named for the Licking River, which meanders through the county. Recently, I’ve had a number of cases in Licking County, so I’ve been traveling to Newark, Ohio, which is the county seat with some degree of regularity.

I had a court appearance in Newark yesterday, and I took a different route than the one I normally take. When I reached the lovely college town of Granville (home of Denison University), I headed east on State Route 16, and, as I reached a golf course with the interesting name of Raccoon International, I spotted a new-looking state historical marker just beyond the entrance to the golf course. As I got closer, I could see that the marker was to Maj. Gen. Charles Griffin, the final commander of the Army of the Potomac’s 5th Corps (pictured here).

I was running late for my hearing, so I didn’t have time to stop. When I got home, I did a little digging was surprised to learn that Griffin had been born and spent most of his childhood in Granville, and that the handsome white farmhouse where the marker stands was his childhood home. This was a new one on me; I had not realized that Griffin was a Buckeye prior to yesterday. Griffin was a member of the West Point Class of 1847 and spent his entire military career in the Regular Army in the years prior to the war, including teaching artillery tactics at West Point. He was promoted from captain commanding a Regular battery to brigadier general of volunteers and assumed command of a brigade of infantry, meaning that he never served with a regiment of volunteer infantry.

The house still stands, and is in good repair. There’s quite a bit of text on the marker, so next time I have a court appearance in Newark, I’m going to have to time the trip so that I have time to stop and at least read the marker, and, hopefully, get a photo of it.

It was a cool discovery to make, and adds yet another important Union general to the list of the Buckeye State’s contributions to the Northern victory in the Civil War.