at
Vicksburg National Military Park In April 1861,
Governor William Dennison appointed Ewing as the brigade-inspector of Ohio volunteers. He served under
Rosecrans and
McClellan in
western Virginia. Ewing and his sister argued that Sherman's requests for men and material in Kentucky had been denied in Washington, and that the charges of insanity had been part of a conspiracy orchestrated by Adjutant General
Lorenzo Thomas. President
Abraham Lincoln praised Sherman's "talent & conduct" publicly to a large group of important officers, and later banished Thomas to a meaningless post on recruiting duty in the
Trans-Mississippi Theater. After Antietam, Ewing was placed on sick leave because of chronic
dysentery, and was promoted to Brigadier General on November 29, 1862. He transferred West and served throughout the
campaign before Vicksburg, leading the assaults made by General Sherman; and upon its fall was placed in command of a
division in the
XVI Corps. Prior to the
Battle of Chattanooga, Ewing's command led a diversionary raid that resulted in the destruction of the Empire State Iron Works in
Dade County, Georgia, which was being refurbished to increase the South's manufacturing capability. Sherman considered Ewing his most reliable division commander. Their release coincided with that of Pierce's book,
Our Old Home. As early as 1860, Pierce had written to Davis about "the madness of northern abolitionism", and other letters uncovered stated that he would "never justify, sustain, or in any way or to any extent uphold this cruel, heartless, aimless unnecessary war", and that "the true purpose of the war was to wipe out the states and destroy property." On August 11, 1864, Burbridge ordered soldiers from the 26th Kentucky to select four men to be taken from prison in Louisville to
Eminence, Kentucky, to be shot for unknown outrages, and on August 20, several suspected Confederate
guerrillas were also to be taken from Louisville and executed. General Ewing declared their innocence and sought a pardon from Burbridge, but he refused to give the pardon and the men were shot. In his autobiography, Ewing describes an incident in October 1862 with Colonel Augustus Moor, who had struck a member of Ewing's regiment with his sword when the enlisted soldier had fallen out of a march. Ewing immediately confronted Moor. In his own words: Colonel Moor quickly apologized. While General Ewing respected the discipline of the
German regiment, he preferred a different atmosphere in his own command, better suited to Americans. He was capable of recognizing the military tradition of other units while accommodating the unique needs of his own. General Ewing was ordered to North Carolina in 1865, and was planning an expedition up the Roanoke river to co-operate with the
Army of the James, when Lee surrendered. In 1864, Ewing suffered an attack of
rheumatism, and received treatment several times thereafter, often being confined to his chair. He was likely prostrated with illness as Commander of Louisville during Burbridge's madness in Kentucky. He was made a
brevet major general on March 13, 1865. After leaving the Army, he experienced painful attacks for the rest of his life, often bedridden for periods of up to forty days. ==Postbellum career==