Strong, Hiram, 1825-1863

Hiram Strong was born on October 28, 1825 in Centerville, Ohio, the only child of Dr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Strong. He died on October 7, 1863, in his thirty-eighth year, as a result of wounds received on September 19 during the battle of Chickamauga.

Details of Hiram Strong's early life are sketchy. He attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1846 with a B. A. degree. He came to Dayton in 1847, where he commenced the study of law. In 1849 he received the M. A. degree from Miami University, and in the same year was admitted to the Montgomery County Bar.

He began the practice of law in partnership with William E. Bartlett, and in 1853 joined with Lewis B. Gunckel. The firm of Gunckel and Strong became one of Dayton's leading law firms and lasted until Hiram accepted a commission as Lt. Colonel in the Union Army in August, 1862. In 1852, one year before his partnership with Gunkel, Hiram married Harriet A. Conover, age twenty-four, the sister of his lawyer friend Wilbur Conover. Hiram and Harriet had four children, sons William and Nathaniel (Nattie) and daughters Hannah and Martha (Mattie).

Col. Strong was highly respected in the Dayton community, both as a lawyer and as a person. In an address before a joint meeting on March 3, 1900 of the Dayton Historical Society and the Montgomery County Bar Association, Lewis Gunckel described him as a model for the younger lawyers of the day.

Gunckel remarks were based on a paper he presented to the bar association twenty years previously. Gunckel listed five qualities which Hiram possessed which, in Gunckel's view, constituted fitness for the bar: * The necessity for continued study; * honesty and integrity in all things-just in financial matters but with the client and the court; * exemplary personal habits - be shunned vulgarity and detested pettiness in legal practice, demagoguery in politics and hypocrisy in religion; * a preference for peacemaking and amicable settlements, especially in family dispute, rather than acrimonious litigation; * a high regard for the dignity of the legal profession - new clients or cases could not be bought at the expense of his political opinions or his personal or social influence.

In his personal life, Col. Strong's highest priority was spending time with his wife and four young children. He was intimate with few, but was kind and obliging to all.

Although reserved by nature and apparently timid, Hiram Strong did not avoid danger when duty called. On August 5, 1862, Hiram volunteered in the Union Army for three years of service with the Ninety-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry then being formed in Dayton and Montgomery County. He did this not out of a desire for military life or ambition, but out of a sense of duty to his community and for the common good, giving up his home family and a successful law practice. Without his solicitation or knowledge, the rank of lieutenant colonel was conferred on him. Again, he accepted out of a sense of duty, and so became second in command of the Ninety-third Ohio after Col. Charles Anderson. When Col. Anderson resigned his commission in February 1863, Hiram Strong became commander and was promoted to colonel on March 8.

Like many officers and soldiers in the Union forces, Col. Strong had no military knowledge when he entered the army. He had to learn "on the job." This he did very well, helped by his private self discipline and sense of duty. He won the confidence of his superiors and the respect of his men. Under his supervision the Ninety-third Ohio became one of the best disciplined units on active duty.

Most of Col. Strong's correspondence during his military service was with his wife, and expressed how much he missed his home and family. But several letters contain reference to the troop movements and events of the period, and give a picture of army camp life. Conditions in the army camps were difficult for soldiers and officers alike, and Col. Strong endured his share of hardships. In time his health was undermined and he became susceptible to severe bouts of diarrhea. On July 23, 1863 he asked for and was granted, a twenty-day period of sick leave, and returned home until August 14, barely a month before the fateful Battle of Chickamauga, on September 19-20. For several months before Chickamauga, Col. Strong had been considering resigning his commission, citing from time to time his disappointment with the lack of progress in the War, the resignation of Col. Anderson in February, and his own health problems. But each time his sense of duty strengthened his resolve to remain true to the course of his three-year service commitment.

From the beginning of July, 1863 until after the return of Col. Strong from his sick leave in Dayton, the Ninety-third Ohio had remained in occupation of the city of Tullahoma, Tennessee. On August 17, Col. Strong led the regiment on a march into Alabama. The regiment crossed Lookout Mountain on September 5 established camp in Lookout Valley, Alabama, about forty miles south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, to await further orders. By September 18 the Ninety-third Ohio had joined with other forces of the Army of the Cumberland, under Gen. William Rosecrans, at Chickamauga Creek in northern Georgia, and engaged in heavy combat while carrying out picket duty. On September 19, Col. Strong was ordered to move the Ninety-third to join Gen. George Thomas brigade on the opposite front. The regiment was fully engaged in battle with Gen. Braxton Bragg's Confederate forces from the middle of the day until nightfall, in the course of which Col. Strong was mortally wounded by an enemy bullet.

After Col. Strong's death on October 7, his body was returned to Dayton and the funeral was held on October 12, 1863. An account of the funeral in the Dayton newspapers expressed how personal was the loss felt by the City for her fallen hero.

From the guide to the Hiram Strong Papers, 1862-1863, (Dayton Metro Library)