A Journal of the American Civil War: V4-1

By Theodore P. Savas

Balanced and in-depth military coverage (all theaters, North and South) in a non-partisan format with detailed notes, offering meaty, in-depth articles, original maps, photos, columns, book reviews, and indexes.

Co. F defending the Confederate Heartland – 5th OH Cavalry in the Shiloh Campaign

• Language: English
• Publisher: Savas Publishing
• Release date: Dec 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781954547278

Book preview

DEFENDING THE CONFEDERATE HEARTLAND:

Company F of Henry Ashby’s 2nd Tennessee Cavalry

James L. Mohon

Many accounts of the American Civil War are characterized by the glory of battle and the great destruction of life and property caused by the collision of opposing armies. Less is known about the day-to-day struggles and trials of the individual regiments, and less still about the companies that made up the regiments. Any account attempting to describe the day-to-day story of the men who fought in the Civil War must include a discussion of the soldier’s enemies, which included disease, deprivation, the elements, and loneliness. In most Confederate companies, disease alone claimed many more lives than did four years of clashes with Federal forces. This essay examines the effects of war on a single company by tracing the exploits of Company F of Henry Ashby’s 2nd Tennessee Cavalry.

Company F was a typical cavalry company. It performed scouting and picket duty, engaged in frequent skirmishes with Federal cavalry and, less frequently, participated in pitched engagements. Early in the war, the Tennesseeans provided courier service between brigade headquarters and the headquarters for the Department of East Tennessee at Knoxville. Company F participated in several raids into enemy territory designed to cut enemy communications and supply lines, capture cattle, horses, mules, munitions, and supplies for use by the Confederate Army of Tennessee. During major battles, the company joined other units in attacking enemy cavalry and operated in the rear of enemy armies, destroying their supplies and capturing equipment. The company also found itself serving as part of the rear guard, protecting its own army and assisting in orderly withdrawals during several retreats at various times during the conflict.¹

Company F, first known as Tullos’ Rangers, was organized in Knoxville on July 6, 1861 as part of the 1st East Tennessee Cavalry Battalion under the command of Lt. Col. Benjamin M. Branner² The company was originally led by Capt. John M. Bridgman, and was accepted into Confederate service December 23, 1861 at Beech Grove, Pulaski County, Kentucky. A total of 132 soldiers have been identified as having been members of Company F at one time or another during the war. The effective strength of this company was seldom more than 100 men, most of whom hailed from the middle and upper Sequatchie Valley—Bledsoe, Sequatchie, and Cumberland Counties—with a few from surrounding counties. Most were farmers, a few were merchants, blacksmiths and gunsmiths. Although several could not read or write, most had attended local schools for three or four months each year while growing up. Only a handful had attended academies and colleges. While nearly ninety percent were literate according to census records, the men cannot be considered a particularly well-educated or scholarly group.³

Many of the men had grandfathers or other relatives who had seen service during the American Revolution, the Indian Wars, or at the Battle of New Orleans at the end of the War of 1812. At least one-fourth of the men composing Company F came from families who were slaveholders. It is likely that an equal number were closely related to slaveholders through their extended families, or by marriage.⁴

Physical characteristics are available for twenty-one of the 132 Company F men. These data indicate they were somewhat taller in stature than the general population. The tallest was 6 feet, 3 inches; the shortest was 5 feet, 6.75 inches. The average height of those for whom information is available was 5 feet, 10.3 inches. One-fourth were said to have a dark complexion, the rest were light, fair, or ruddy. One-half had dark hair, while the others had light and brown hair. Only two of this group had dark eyes, while half of the balance had blue eyes; the others were listed with hazel and grey eyes.⁵

Four muster rolls exist for Company F during the period when it was part of the 1st and 4th Battalions (July 1861 to the end of February 1862). We know that seventy-seven men enlisted in the company at Knoxville, Tennessee on July 6, 1861, for a period of twelve months. The salary for private soldiers was $12 per month, plus 40 cents per day for each horse furnished by a recruit. At the beginning of the war most men provided their own mounts. Travel pay was provided from their homes to Knoxville, which was about 100 miles for the Bledsoe County men.

Captain Bridgman, of whom little is known, was promoted to the rank of major on August 29, 1861, with George H. Finley taking his place as captain of Company F. Company lieutenants included A. R. Couk, James W. Walker and James M. Fraley. Sergeants were William A. Smith, William W. Henson and John R. Roberson. Maj. P. Swafford was promoted to sergeant on October 1, 1861.⁶ Corporals included James M. Abbott, Leander T. Billingsley and Richard Gist. Anthony Griffith was the bugler. During August, twenty-three more men joined the company at Big Creek Gap, Tennessee. Six more joined at Post Oak Springs in September and October. Company strength the first fall of the war stood at 105, the largest number at any time during the conflict.

The initial composition of the company changed almost immediately. Two men, George Hotchkison and Dilliard Williams, were discharged because of physical disability during the fall of 1861. Three others, Timotheus Davis, James H. Herron and Leroy Knight, died—probably of disease—during August and September of 1861. One other company member, Isaac E. Walker, found that army life was not his longsuit and deserted. Another young cavalryman, Joshua K. Gentry, was arrested September 23, 1861 by civil authorities for murder. There is no record that he ever rejoined the company, and his fate with the civil justice system is unknown.

The Tennesseans spent the summer and early fall of 1861 in the Cumberland Gap area and Big Creek Gap, in Campbell County, Tennessee, where they were involved in general reconnoitering duties and engaged in occasional small skirmishes with their Northern counterparts. In early October they were scouting at Post Oak Springs, in Roane County, and later in the month moved past Wartburg, in Morgan County, and Jamestown, in Fentress County, on to Monticello, Kentucky. By December 26, the Tennesseans were on the north side of the Cumberland River in Kentucky, near the point where Pulaski, Russell and Wayne Counties intersected. Captain Finley’s Company F was part of the Confederate force under Brig. Gen. Felix Zollicoffer initially deployed to defend the Cumberland Gap. Zollicoffer, a Maury City, Tennessee native who had extensive pre-war experience in both journalism and politics, marched his force to Mill Springs on the Cumberland River on November 29. Early December found a threatening Union force under Brig. Gen. Albin F. Schoepf, positioned at Somerset, Kentucky with orders to prevent Zollicoffer’s crossing of the river. Schoepf was unable to stop the Tennessean from moving to the north bank early in December, where he encamped his army at Beech Grove. Instructions for Zollicoffer to hold his former position south of the river were received just one day after he crossed the Cumberland deeper into the Blue-Grass State. Unfortunately for the Confederates, Zollicoffer’s lack of military experience evidenced itself when, with the river rising in his rear, he failed to withdraw his command. Major General George B. Crittenden, Zollicoffer’s superior sent by Richmond to rectify the quickly-deteriorating situation, reached Mill Springs on January 3, 1862. Two weeks after Crittenden’s arrival on the scene, a second Federal column, this one under Brig. Gen. George H. Thomas, had moved into the area and was camped at Logan’s Cross Roads. Confronted by superior Union forces and unable to retreat over the rain-swollen Cumberland, Crittenden decided to attack Thomas at dawn on on January 19 and cripple him before Schoepf could march to his assistance. It was a bold plan.⁷

The approach to the field of battle was difficult and included a night march through cold rain and mud, during which Lt. Col. Branner’s Battalion brought up the right-rear of the Confederate army. Zollicoffer’s Confederates lashed out and struck advance Union pickets from Thomas’ army at daylight. The engagement that followed, popularly known as the battle of Mill Springs, was a Confederate disaster. Zollicoffer was killed by a Union volley early in the fighting after he mistakenly rode into the enemy lines. Confusion permeated the ranks of Crittenden’s green troops following Zollicoffer’s death. To make matters worse, many of the soldiers were armed with ancient flintlocks, which would not fire in the rain. Crittenden, according to a later editorial, ordered the dispersal of the Confederates with every man to look out for himself. Confederate leadership, such that it was, could not prevent the rout that followed, as Thomas’ Unionists drove the Rebels in disorderly retreat from the field. Although the bulk of the Southern army—including Branner’s Battalion and Company F, which brought up the rear of Brig. Gen. William H. Carroll’s Brigade—managed to get across the Cumberland River using a steamboat and barges, Crittenden lost over 500 men killed, wounded and captured in the fiasco. His hasty decision to attack Thomas was costly in other respects as well. His defeat left much of his army’s equipment, supplies, and a dozen artillery pieces in Union hands. The exact number of casualties suffered by Branner’s Battalion is not known, but Captain Finley’s [formerly Bridgman’s] Company F emerged from the fighting unscathed. Many, however, lost their horses during the campaign north of the Cumberland River.⁸

After the fighting at Mill Springs, Finley’s Company F returned to East Tennessee and was at Powells Valley when two more enlistees, George W. Apperson and Thomas J. Gallaher, joined in March and May, respectively, of 1862.⁹ A major reorganization was in the works for the battalion, and on May 24, Branner’s 4th Cavalry Battalion was consolidated with Lt. Col. George R. McClellan’s 5th Cavalry Battalion to form the 1st Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, under the command Col. Henry M. Ashby. Finley’s Company F retained the same alphabetical designation in the new regimental organization.¹⁰

Col. Henry M. Ashby

Confederate Veteran

Little is known of Henry M. Ashby’s early years. He was born in Virginia in 1836, a member of the distinguished Ashby family line which produced several celebrated military officers, including Turner Ashby of Shenandoah Valley fame. In 1860 Henry Ashby lived in the home of his uncle, Daniel F. Cocke, in Hamilton County, Tennessee, where he described his occupation as trader.¹¹ Ashby was not a stranger to Branner’s Battalion. He had enlisted on July 6, 1861 at Knoxville and had been elected captain of the battalion’s Company C. The young Ashby was well liked by his men, and when the 1st Tennessee Cavalry was formed, Captain Ashby was elected as the regiment’s colonel. It would be a long association.¹² In 1906, a former member of his staff praised his former commander:

From the first to the last of his service Col. Ashby was on the front, always in the face of the enemy; and his ability, vigilance, and efficiency are attested by the fact that at no time during the four years of service was any body of troops, large or small, under his command surprised by the enemy. Personally he was one of the most genial of gentlemen, and no officer of any rank was more devotedly loved or implicitly trusted by his troops. Few officers were better known in the Army of Tennessee, and his superb horsemanship, particularly when mounted on his favorite Bayard, was the admiration of all who knew him. Whether in camp, on the march, or in battle, Henry M. Ashby was a born soldier.¹³

The spring reorganization brought changes at both the regimental and company levels. All officers and noncommissioned officers of Company F were relieved of duty on May 24, 1862. Although the sergeants and corporals remained in the company, all were reduced in rank. A private from within the company, Spencer Clack Stone, was elected as the company’s new captain. Captain Stone was born about 1828 in Marion County, Tennessee. He was the last son of Gen. William Stone, a military veteran of the Creek War and the Battle of New Orleans, and a political veteran of the United States Congress, where he had served two