Jacob D. Kocher was born in 1824 in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. He later moved to Marion County, Ohio and married Elizabeth Truitt, who was from SenecaCounty. Together they had five children, three girls and two boys, Charles and George Kocher. Jacob earned his living as a farmer and stood at five feet six and one-half inches tall. His complexion and hair were dark and his eyes were hazel. On December 3, 1861 at the age of thirty-eight he left his wife and children and enlisted in the 82^nd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry in MarionCounty. His enlistment was to be for a term of three years and he was assigned to Company “D” and made a Private in the Union Army.

    In May of 1862 he first experienced combat at the Battle of McDowell, in Virginia. He then went on to fight in the following engagements: Cross Keys, VA (June 8, 1862); Cedar Mountain, VA (August 9-11, 1862); Freeman’s Ford, VA (August 22, 1862); Great Run, VA (August 23, 1862); Waterloo Bridge, VA (August 24, 1862); Second Bull Run, VA (August 28-30, 1862); Chancellorsville, VA (May 1-6, 1863); Gettysburg, PA (July 1-3, 1863); Wauhatchie, TENN (October 27-28, 1863); Mission Ridge, TENN (November 22-26, 1863); march to Knoxville, TENN (November 27 to December 4, 1863); Resaca, GA (May 10-16, 1864); New Hope Church, GA (May 25, 1864); Culp’s Farm, GA (June 22, 1864); Peach Tree Creek, GA (July 20, 1864); siege of Atlanta, GA (July 23 to September 2, 1864); Sherman’s March to the Sea (November 15 to December 10, 1864); Sandersville, GA (November 25, 1864); Monteith Swamp, GA (December 9, 1864); siege of Savannah, GA (December 10-21, 1864); Carolina Campaign (January 17 to April 26, 1865); Averysboro, NC (March 16, 1865); and Bentonville, NC (March 19, 1865).

    On January 1, 1864 he re-enlisted for another three years of service and in April of that same year he was promoted to the rank of Corporal. He, however, did not make it through his service time without suffering both from battle wounds and illness. Jacob D. Kocher was admitted several times to Union hospitals for diarrhea, intermittent fever, and a boil. On May 25, 1864 at the Battle of New Hope Church, in Georgia, he was slightly wounded in his hand. A fellow soldier of his, Daniel Zachman, even mentioned Kocher in one of his letters home. “JacopKocher, William Smith and several more of our Company are wounded.” Jacob would then receive another wound on March 19, 1865 at the Battle of Bentonville. He was shot in the head by a musket ball near the left temple leaving him partially blind. The rebels then took him prisoner and sent him to Libby Prison in RichmondVirginia. He was then paroled on March 30 and taken to a hospital in Annapolis, Maryland, where his wound was treated. Unable to return to service he was discharged on June 23, 1865 at Camp Chase Ohio.

    Once out of the Army Jacob returned to his wife and children in Marion County, Ohio. However, he suffered from impaired vision and headaches from his wound and this prevented him from working all of the time. So, he then requested to get a disability pension from the Army because the wound was sustained in combat. The military, however, at first rejected him because they said that their records did not show him even being wounded. This was cleared up after signed letters from his former commanders, Capt. Crickett and Capt. Regis, were sent to the Army, which confirmed that he had sustained the wound during the Battle of Bentonville. The most likely reason that the Army did not have records of his wounding was because they had him confused with a Jacob E. Kocher. Once this was settled the Army denied a pension to him again because the examining surgeon, W W Phillips, stated that there is no clear proof that the impairment of vision had any thing to do with the wound received in battle and said that the problem was simply he was getting old. Jacob appealed this and even got a lawyer, H.T. Van Fleet, to fight for his pension. A second examining surgeon, R.L. Sweny, even that the “disability did occur in the service aforesaid in the line of duty.” However, the Army denied him once more and around 1871 Jacob D. Kocher was struck and killed by a locomotive, probably because he could not see it coming.

 

History of 82nd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry

 
Jacob's Muster Reports

Jacob's POW/WIA/Discharge Reports

Jacob's Pension Request

Jacob's relationship to Sean Williams

Bibliography