TO CROWN MYSELF WITH HONOR; The Wartime Letters of Captain Asbury Gatch:
Captain Gatch of Milford commanded a company of men from Clermont County in the 9th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry that saw action during the Civil War in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina. A Milford resident, Knepp said the letters, written between February 1864 and July 1865, paint a portrait of a man of honor and conviction who dearly loved his wife and family. "Gatch often wrote about his wife's soft bread and how much he loved porterhouse steaks. These letters will give you a glimpse of every day life on the front," Knepp said.
Gatch's greatest contribution to the war effort came during Sherman's 1864 Atlanta campaign when he participated in the Rousseau raid. "The raid," Knepp said, "took place in Alabama and Georgia. It was designed to cripple the Confederate's defense of Atlanta by destroying railroads and military supplies." The revised edition contains additional explanatory notes and dozens of illustrations. "Two of the illustrations," Knepp said, "are remarkable because they depict scenes that Gatch was writing about."