The rough board that perhaps a comrade placed at the head to direct the footsteps of inquiring friends has long since rotted down; and the little mound they spread above their soldier breast has been leveled by the plowshare or the long years that have passed since then. But there the wild flower sheds its sweetest perfume to the morning air, and the song bird warbles its lay to the setting sun, and at night the stars of heaven, as they climb the Milky Way, look down and grow brighter as they pass.
CONTENTS.
| [Introductory] | |
| [I.] | Organization and Early Movements Outpost Duty at Franklin, Tenn.—Battle of Murfreesboro—Retreat to Shelbyville. |
| [II.] | From Fort Donelson to Chickamauga Fort Donelson—Woodbury, Tenn.—Trousdale’s Ferry on Caney Fork River—Resisting Rosecrans’s Advance on Shelbyville and Tullahoma—Bragg’s Retreat to Chattanooga—Wheeler’s Cavalry at Rome, Ga.—Battle of Chickamauga. |
| [III.] | Wheeler’s Raid into Middle Tennessee in 1863 |
| [IV.] | In East Tennessee Return to the Army of Tennessee at Missionary Ridge—Report of Lieutenant Colonel Anderson on the Battle of Chickamauga—Battles of Lookout Mountain and Orchard Knob—Missionary Ridge and Ringgold, Ga. |
| [V.] | Campaigning in Georgia Gen. Joseph E. Johnston Succeeds General Bragg as Commander in Chief—Remarks about General Bragg—General Sherman Advances on Dalton, Ga.—March to Atlanta, Ga.—Battles of Resaca and Kingston—New Hope Church—Kennesaw Mountain—Marietta and Atlanta—General Johnston Superseded by General Hood. |
| [VI.] | General Wheeler’s Capture of the Commands of Generals McCook and Stoneman Raid of General Wheeler into Tennessee in 1864—Behind the Lines. |
| [VII.] | In Tennessee, Virginia, and Harassing Sherman March through East Tennessee—Battle of Saltville, Va.—Return to Atlanta, Ga.—Sherman’s March to the Sea. |
| [VIII.] | The South Carolina Campaign Remarks about General Hood—Battle of Aiken, S. C.—Battle of Fayetteville, N. C. |
| [IX.] | In North Carolina Change in Brigade Officers—Gen. Joseph E. Johnston Succeeds General Hood and Assumes Command in North Carolina—Battle of Averyboro, N. C.—Bentonville, N. C. |
| [X.] | Further Movements in North Carolina, and the Beginning of the End Reorganization of the Army at Smithfield, N. C.—General Johnston Ordered to Greensboro, N. C.—Meets Confederate States Officials—General Johnston Confers with General Sherman, and an Agreement Made to End the War. |
| [XI.] | The End of the Struggle Surprise of the Army at Information of Surrender—Sherman-Johnston Capitulation Rejected at Washington—Another Agreement Looking to a Surrender on Terms Given General Lee at Appomattox—General Johnston’s Farewell Address to the Army—General Wheeler’s Address to the Cavalry. |
| [XII.] | Casualty Lists |
| [XIII.] | Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Other Officers |
| [XIV.] | An Address and a Speech |
| [XV.] | A Few Facts from History |
| [XVI.] | After the War |
| [XVII.] | General Bragg’s Kentucky Campaign in 1862 (By Baxter Smith) |
| [XVIII.] | Members of the Regiment Now Living |
| [Appendix] | |
| [Index] |
INTRODUCTORY.
Since the surrender of the Confederate army, in the spring of 1865, I have been frequently asked by members of the Regiment to write its history. I have always promised, but have failed to comply till now I find myself attempting it forty-seven years afterwards. Many of those who survived the surrender have died. Some have removed to parts unknown, and a very few remain from whom I can obtain necessary information. So I am forced to write mostly from a personal recollection, without memorandum or note. This I regret; for it forces me to speak of some, while I have forgotten others equally as worthy of mention. I offer this as my apology for an imperfect record.
It has been my effort to write a narrative of my own Regiment. Necessarily it can be of but little interest to the public, although it embraces a cursory history of the Army of Tennessee, of which it was a part. I see that some repetition appears in its pages, growing out of a predisposition to emphasize some facts, which I ask you to excuse.
CHAPTER I.
Organization and Early Movements.
The Fourth Tennessee Cavalry did not assume regimental form until General Bragg had returned from his Kentucky campaign, in the fall of 1862. It was made up of detachments that had served under different commanders since the beginning of the war. At its organization Baxter Smith was made Colonel; Paul F. Anderson, Lieutenant Colonel; W. Scott Bledsoe, Major; J. A. Minnis, Adjutant; W. A. Rushing, Sergeant Major; Marcellus Grissim, Quartermaster, with R. O. McLean, Bob Corder, and John Price his assistants; Captain Bone, Commissary, with Lieut. J. A. Arnold and Captain McLean his assistants; Dr. W. T. Delaney, Surgeon, with Dr. Tom Allen his assistant; Rev. W. W. Hendrix, Chaplain; Sergeant Finney, Ordnance Officer; J. A. Stewart and James B. Nance, Regimental Buglers; Bob Gann and Bennett Chapman, Wagon Masters.
The commissioned officers of the companies were: