Armistead Thompson Mason Cockerill
Armistead Thompson Mason Cockerill, son of Joseph Randolph and Ruth Eylar Cockerill, was born in Locust Grove, Adams County, Ohio, in 1841. He was educated in the West Union schools. At the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion, he was twenty years old and had just commenced the study of law in his father's office. He, however, took up the cause of the Union with great enthusiasm and began at once to enlist men for Captain Moses J. Patterson's Company D, 24th O. V. I., for three months' service in which he was commissioned First Lieutenant, June 13, 1861. His company and regiment re-enlisted for three years, and on November 16, 1861, he was made Captain. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, December 31, 1862; to Colonel, October 23, 1863. He was mustered out June 24, 1864. The regiment was part of the Army of the Cumberland and took part in the battles of Cheat Mountain, Greenbrier, West Virginia; Shiloh, Corinth, Perryville, Woodbury, Tennessee; Tullahoma Campaign, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, Tennessee; Ringgold, Buzzard Roost, Georgia. He was a soldier of great gallantry, as his promotion would indicate, and as Lieutenant Colonel, he commanded the regiment.
After the war, he lived in Hamilton, Ohio, but his health was impaired by long and arduous service, and he returned to West Union, Ohio, where he died in 1870, and is buried beside his father. He left a son named for himself and who is now residing in Hamilton, Ohio.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900