Captain Keyes

Captain Edwin Keyes was the ranking officer in Company B, 116th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, until he was wounded twice (in the knee and elbow) in the Battle of Lynchburg, June 18, 1864. His wounds occurred as he was leading the 116th in the Union attackers' deepest penetration of the Confederate lines, during which the regimental colors were briefly planted on the enemy works.

With the failure of that assault, the tide of battle turned and Capt. Keyes was left behind and captured in the hasty Union retreat. He died a month later, July 19, in a Confederate hospital, one of many in the Lynchburg area.

After the war, along with many other Union dead who had been buried at Southern battlefields, hospitals and prisons, he was interred in the Poplar Grove National Cemetary, just behind the former Union seige lines near Petersburg, VA, where his gravestone may still be seen.

Apparently, Capt. Keyes was extremely popular not only with his own Company but among the entire regiment, as attested to by the resolution adopted by his fellow officers when they learned of his death some months later. Col. Wildes of the 116th published this resolution in his Record of the 116th (page 166), as well as a brief biography and many references to his exceptional capabilities.