Ladies and gentlemen, as we discussed in our last offering, the Highland County Historical Society is honoring John Mills Barrere (1800-1888) on a banner that is hanging at the corner of East Main Street and South East Street in Hillsboro near the Highland House Museum.

Barrere was 62 when the Civil War broke out. He helped to organize the 60th Ohio Volunteer Regiment, went to war with the regiment as adjutant, and had to have part of his arm amputated after being wounded at Harper’s Ferry.

John Mills Barrere had five sons who served in the Civil War – three of whom didn’t return.

The first was Thomas Jefferson Barrere, born in 1834, who joined the 89th O.V.I. and went off to join General John C. Fremont and fought in several engagements. His entire regiment was captured during the Battle of Chickamauga, which was fought Sept. 19-20, 1863, and he subsequently was taken to the notorious Andersonville Prison in Georgia, where the U.S. sergeant died nearly a year later on Aug. 24, 1864 of scurvy at around the age of 30. He is interred in the cemetery at Andersonville National Park.

Thomas’ brother, William Barrere, born in 1836, was a second lieutenant of Company G of the 175th O.V.I. and was also held prisoner for several months but he survived – only to be placed on the ill-fated steamship Sultana, which exploded on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865. He perished in that tragedy, the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history. He was also about 30 years old when he died.

The last and youngest brother, Bebee Barrere, born in 1841, joined the 1st Ohio Cavalry at age 19, and he died in a hospital in Kentucky on Oct. 23, 1862 of disease.

John Mills Barrere’s gravesite monument still stands in the Hillsboro Cemetery, with tribute paid to Thomas, William and Bebee.

However, the three Barrere brothers weren’t the only family members who died as a result of the Civil War.

Hazard Perry Barrere, a brother of John Mills Barrere, was born in 1814. According to accounts, Hazard was a merchant in New Market and a general businessman in Highland County for many years, but was attacked with typhoid fever. Though his life was spared, it left him disabled for the balance of his days and forced him to retire from all active business. He married Eliza Morrow, and was the father of six children; three were still alive when he passed away in 1885 – Marietta, Magnolia and D. Morrow. Of the deceased, Hazard Perry Barrere enlisted late in the Civil War, served in Company H of the 1st Ohio Cavalry, and was killed in battle at Cleveland, Tenn., on Nov. 27, 1864.

Hazard Perry Barrere was just 19 years old. He has a monument in the New Market Presbyterian Cemetery in Highland County, but is buried at the Fort Hill Cemetery in Cleveland, Tenn.

The Civil War, America’s bloodiest conflict, cost nearly 1,100,000 casualties and claimed more than 620,000 lives.

Let’s pause for now, and we’ll continue next time.

Steve Roush is vice chairman of the Highland County Historical Society Board of Trustees, a vice president of an international media company and a columnist and contributing writer for The Highland County Press. He can be reached by email at [email protected]