The Doering Family of Carryall Township

Three Sons of Joseph Doering Who Served in the Civil War:

Willoughby H., Reuben F., and Mathias S.
By Deidre Oliver
oliverz@comcast.net

Mathias Doering was the youngest brother to enlist at 16 years of age. He served in the
National Guard as a private in 132nd Ohio Co. A and mustered in May 15, 1864 for 100
days service; left Columbus, Ohio for Washington, D.C., May 22, destined for the White
House on May 30th.
[Over 35,000 Ohio National Guardsmen were federalized and organized into regiments
for 100 days service in May 1864. they were designed to be placed in safe rear areas to
protect railroads and supply points, thereby freeing regular troops for Lt. Gen. Ulysses S.
Grants push on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. As events transpired,
many units found themselves in combat, stationed in the path of Confederate Gen. Jubal
Earlys veteran Army of the Valley during its famed Valley Campaigns of 1864. Ohio
Guard units met the battle-tested foe head-on and helped blunt the confederate offensive
thereby saving Washington, D.C. from capture.]
The regiment lost 47 men during service; 2 enlisted men killed, 45 enlisted men due to
disease. Mathias died of infection on 1 June 1964, seventeen days after he entered
service. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery.
Reuben Doering was 18 when he was mustered into the 14 th Regiment of the Ohio
Volunteer Infantry, Co. G, to serve three years. It is thought one reason the younger boys
enlisted was to help support their parents financially-their father was unable to farm due
to rheumatoid arthritis. In letters to his family Reuben writes often of sending his money
home and to make sure it was received.
After two years Reuben found himself in middle of the Battle of Chickamauga (a
Cherokee word that means River of Blood.); it involved the second highest number of
casualties in the war; 18,000 Confederate and 16,000 Union soldiers lost their lives in the
two day battle. Chickamauga was the most significant Union defeat in the Western
Theater and is thought by many to be the greatest Confederacy victory. Because the
Confederates controlled the battlefield for over two months, Reubens remains were sadly
never identified. His handwritten letters were found in his Pension File in the National
Archives, Washington, DC.

Willoughby Doering enrolled in 1861 as a widower-his wife having died the year
before-with two small children ages two and four. He served with the 14 th OVI, Co. G,

then with the 68th OVI, Co. C for three years service; entering as a private and exiting as a
Captain. Willoughby saw many intense battles including the siege of Vicksburg, the
Kenesaw Mountain campaign and was shot in the thigh during the siege of Atlanta
(which required many treatments).
After returning home he married again and had two more children. The American Legion
Post 253 in Antwerp was named after Willoughby Doering following his untimely death
by drowning in 1878 (while working for the Hub and Spoke Company of which he was
part owner with his brother Phaon).
(Interestingly, brother Phaon P. Doering escaped service due to his participation in the
California Gold Rush. After returning to Antwerp, he served for several terms on the
Village council and one term as County Commissioner).

Note: Deidre Oliver, a member of First Families of Paulding County, is a descendant

of Joseph Doering through his daughter Eliza Jane Doering, her great
grandmother. The family settled in the county in 1847.