Capt. J. W. Nichol, of Company G, says that of those living at this time, sixteen of them were young men on their way to join his company when the surrender occurred. The following are the circumstances in the case: Some weeks before the surrender, in 1865, he had sent his first lieutenant, Dave Youree, a most excellent and reliable officer, to Cannon and Rutherford Counties, Tenn., to obtain recruits. Just before the surrender Youree was returning to the command with the sixteen young men who had enlisted in said counties and whom he had sworn into the company and Regiment. Upon reaching the State of Georgia on their way to join the Regiment, then in North Carolina, they met General Forrest and his command and were informed of the condition of the Confederate army. At General Forrest’s suggestion, they remained with him, participated in his engagements around Selma, Ala., and surrendered with General Forrest’s command, receiving their paroles at Gainesville, Ala., in May, 1865, as members of Company G, Fourth Tennessee Regiment. The sixteen young men are certainly entitled to be named in the list of living in Company G at this time, for they gave the best evidence of their manhood and patriotism by leaving voluntarily their homes behind the lines under the forlorn and desperate circumstances surrounding them and the Confederate army.
Company H.
J. C. Ivey, Clear Lake, Tex.; Sam H. Bennett, Jasper, Tenn.; John Davis, Jasper, Tenn.; William T. Warren, Dayton, Tenn.; Zebulon Ballew, Sequatchie Valley, Tenn.; Billy Phelps, Sequatchie Valley, Tenn.; Robert Phelps, Sequatchie Valley, Tenn.
I have just received a letter from J. C. Ivey, of Company H, giving me the foregoing list of his company. I want to thank him again for the interest and assistance he has given me in preparing the facts for this narrative of the Regiment, and I feel that I ought to make his letter a part of the narrative. The letter is as follows:
Clear Lake, Tex., October 16, 1912.
Maj. George B. Guild, Nashville, Tenn.
My Dear Adjutant and Comrade: Your letter came in due time, and this is the first opportunity I have had to answer your question in regard to those still living of Company H. There were thirty-four who were surrendered at Charlotte, N. C. I shall never forget that sorrowful day when we gave up our guns. That morning our beloved General Wheeler came to our Regiment and announced that we were a subjugated people and, while the tears were flowing from his eyes, advised us to return home and make as good citizens as we had soldiers and all would come out right. So far as I know, not one of those that were with us in the closing of this sad drama ever went wrong in any way. As for those that absented themselves, I have had no communication with any of them.
I remain your old comrade,
J. C. Ivey.
Company I.