WHEELER’S CORPS, ARMY OF TENNESSEE By GEORGE B. GUILD NASHVILLE, TENN. 1913 Dedication To those comrades “who went with us but came not back again,” many of whom are sleeping in their blankets in unknown graves on the battlefields where they fell 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

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 o

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

General Bragg upon reaching Shelbyville went regularly into camp, and remained there some three or four months drilling, recruiting, and strengthening his army. General Wheeler, with his corps, was on the front watching the movement of the Federal army at Murfreesboro, scouting all the approaches, with an occasional scrap with the enemy, sometimes approaching the dignity of a battle. In January, 1863, Wheeler’s Corps was ordered to Fort Donelson with a view of capturing the garrison stationed th

In the latter part of September, 1863, just after the battle of Chickamauga, by order of General Bragg, General Wheeler was sent into Middle Tennessee with his cavalry corps. The Army of Tennessee was occupying the field they had so gallantly won at Chickamauga. He moved up the Cleveland Road to Red Clay, and forded the Tennessee River at or near Cottonport, some thirty miles above Chattanooga. The object of the raid was to cut off all supplies from the North for Rosecrans’s army, then at Chatta

We remained a short time in the vicinity of Bainbridge, Ala., getting horses shod, etc. Many soldiers who had been cut off while in Tennessee crossed the river at different points and rejoined their command. In rejoining the Army of Tennessee we again passed through the field of the battle of Chickamauga. Though it had been six weeks since we had seen it, much of the ravages of the battle were still to be seen. I regret to say that many of the bodies of the Federal soldiers were lying where they

After the Army of Tennessee had become settled in their winter quarters at Dalton, Ga., in December, 1863, criticism of General Bragg became hot and severe both on the part of the soldiers and the citizens, and a change of commander was demanded of the government; so much so that General Bragg tendered his resignation, and General Joseph E. Johnston was appointed in his stead. General Braxton Bragg was seemingly a cold, austere officer and a thorough disciplinarian, but no one ever doubted his b

On the 27th of July, 1864, General Hood ordered Wheeler’s cavalry to the rear of Atlanta with a view of beating off a Federal raid commanded by Generals McCook and Stoneman, having for its purpose the breaking up of Southern communications, releasing the large army of Federal prisoners at Andersonville, destroying manufactories, etc. Before leaving Atlanta General Wheeler divided his cavalry of about five thousand into two columns, Generals Dibrell and Iverson going to the left after General Sto

On reaching Lebanon, I came up with a squadron or more of the Fourth Georgia. They had been sent out on detached duty, and were trying to overtake the command. General Dibrell came in from White County with four or five hundred men, mostly recruits and returning absentees. We learned definitely that General Wheeler had passed over the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railway near Nashville, and that in passing Franklin he had a fight with the enemy and had gone farther south. General Kelly,

Gen. Wade Hampton assumed command as chief of cavalry, although General Wheeler retained command of his old corps. The Fourth Tennessee was sent up the east side of the Savannah River to protect the citizens and prevent the destruction of a large number of rice mills. Their first station was at the plantation of Dr. Chisholm, about thirty miles above Savannah, where we remained several days. The large rice mill immediately on the Savannah River was an immense frame structure, four stories in hei

After the wounding of the officers named in the foregoing chapter, Col. Henry Ashby, of the Second Tennessee Cavalry, succeeded to the position of major general of Hume’s Division; Col. Baxter Smith, of the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, to that of Col. Thomas Harrison’s brigade; Adjt. George B. Guild, to that of Captain Sayers, as adjutant general of the brigade; Maj. Scott Bledsoe, to the command of the Fourth Tennessee; and Lieut. E. Crozier was made adjutant of the Regiment. The enemy did not pur

After the battle of Bentonville General Johnston retreated to Smithfield, N. C., a distance of seventeen miles. Gen. Frank Cheatham, with two thousand of the Army of Tennessee, joined him there, and small squads of that army continued from time to time to come up, marching on foot from Corinth, Miss. A lull took place in the movements of the Federal army at this time. Generals Sherman and Schofield had united their large armies, and were deliberating on their next movement to encompass General J

While the negotiations stated in the foregoing chapter were being had between Generals Johnston and Sherman Lieutenant General Hardee, who had been left at Smithfield in command of the Confederate army, commenced his move northward through Raleigh. The enemy, becoming active, moved also; but they did not come in sight until we were passing Durham Station, where we left the line of the railroad, marching in the direction of Chapel Hill. The enemy appeared in our rear and vigorously cannonaded the

Before closing this short narrative I have concluded to make a final effort to obtain a list of the casualties of the Regiment during the war. To get this now, forty-seven years after, I have been limited to very narrow resources; for but few men of the companies are living to-day, and they are old and feeble—many of them in mind as well as body. I have, however, seen a few personally and addressed letters to others asking information under the following heads: First, the names of such of their

The Confederate army had five full generals, ranking in date of their commission as follows: Samuel Cooper, whose headquarters were at Richmond, Va., the capital, and who was never assigned to the field; Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnston, and G. P. Beauregard. All of them had resigned from the United States army to join the Confederate States army. Joseph E. Johnston was fourth on the list, but he was the highest ranking officer who had thus resigned. He was assigned to t

The Woodbury (Tenn.) Press of September 19, 1878, published the following upon the occasion of the first reunion of the Regiment after the war: Address of Adjutant George B. Guild. I rejoice in my heart to meet so many of you. More than thirteen years have passed away since, in the Old North State, by order of superior officers, you laid aside the equipments of war and furled forever the flag you have loved and followed—often in victory, sometimes in disaster, but always in honor and with a sold

The Southern States furnished the Federal army with the following: Foreigners in the Federal army were as follows: The Federal army in its report for May, 1865, had present for duty 1,000,576, while it had present equipped 602,598. The Confederate army in its report for April 9, 1865, had 174,223 paroled and 98,802 in Federal prisons, making a total of 272,025. As the armies stood at time of surrender: 1. The State of New York with 448,850 and Pennsylvania with 337,936 Union soldiers aggregated

The assassination of President Lincoln was in a special way most calamitous to the citizens of the South. It intensified and augmented to the highest degree the angry passions engendered by four years of war and postponed for years that reconciliation of the two sections that the surrender of the Confederate armies should have brought about, happening as it did when the North was ablaze with bonfires in exultation over the downfall of the Confederate government; for General Lee had evacuated Pet

In June, 1862, after the retreat of the Confederate army from Corinth to Tupelo, Miss., in view of important movements to the northward had in mind by the Confederate authorities, it was deemed wise by General Bragg, who had succeeded to the chief command of the Army of Mississippi, to transfer Col. N. B. Forrest to Gen. E. Kirby Smith’s Department of East Tennessee, in order that he might operate on Buell’s line of communication with Nashville and Louisville, as well as Cincinnati. At Tupelo th

The following is a list of members now living (from latest information) who either surrendered with the Regiment or were honorably discharged therefrom for disability incurred during the war: Field and Staff. Col. Baxter Smith, Chattanooga, Tenn.; Adjt. George B. Guild, Nashville, Tenn.; Sergt. Maj. W. A. Rushing, Lebanon, Tenn.; Surgeon W. T. Delaney, Bristol, Va.; Assistant Surgeon J. T. Allen, Caney Springs, Tenn.; Acting Quartermaster R. O. McLean, Nashville, Tenn.; Acting Assistant Quarterm

A. An extract from a letter of Gen. Marcus J. Wright to Thomas Nelson Page, author of “Robert E. Lee the Southerner,” dated September 26, 1907, says: From all reliable data that could be secured, it has been estimated by the best authorities that the strength of the Confederate armies was about 600,000 men, and of this number not more than two-thirds were available for active duty in the field. The necessity of guarding a long line of exposed seacoast and of maintaining permanent garrisons at di