In 1861 Captain James J. Morrison resigned his commission in the United States Cavalry, returned to his home in Cedartown, Georgia, and was soon authorized by the Confederate War Department to raise a regiment of cavalry. This book is the first complete history of the First Georgia Cavalry, who saw action in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and North Carolina. A regimental roster includes more than 1,600 names with details of service provided, along with pre-war service, death and burial information in some cases.
In the Saddle is the touching story of a memorable Civil War unit, and covers the first days of the war, the middle war with its exhausting battles, skirmishes and cavalry raids, and the end of the war with depleted ranks, death and surrender. The unit distinguished itself in battle from the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, to the pathos and drama of the Atlanta battles, and in harassing Shermans blue hosts on his infamous march of destruction to the sea. The story is told using narratives, military sketches, and letters of members of the 5th Georgia from the teenage boy from the back woods of Georgia who enlisted in 1862 and served for the balance of the war, to the men who were captured and endured life as a Northern prisoner of war, their story is one whose voices call to us from the past. Supplemented with vintage photographs and drawings, In the Saddle offers rich and rewarding reading.
"Cracker Cavaliers: The 2nd Georgia Cavalry under Wheeler and Forrest documents the regiment's participation in major campaigns of the western theater, including the Atlanta Campaign and Sherman's March to the Sea from an ordinary soldier's perspective on the Civil War."--BOOK JACKET.
"The best regiment of either army, North or South"--this was the description of Cobb's Legion offered by Confederate General Wade Hampton during the Civil War. This large and experienced unit played a crucial role for the South throughout the war. Their actions in more than 130 battles and other engagements over the course of the war are the subject of this book. Additionally, biographies of the officers and the nearly 1500 men of the regiment are included, as well as records of those who died, deserted, or were prisoners of war.
Provides a brief history and "certain information such as organization, campaigns, losses, commanders, etc." for each unit listed in "Marcus J. Wright's List of Field Officers, Regiments, and Battalions in the Confederate States Army, 1861-1865."--Intro., p.xi.
Of all the states in the Confederacy, Tennessee was the most sectionally divided. East Tennesseans opposed secession at the ballot box in 1861, petitioned unsuccessfully for separate statehood, resisted the Confederate government, enlisted in Union militias, elected U.S. congressmen, and fled as refugees into Kentucky. These refugees formed Tennessee's first Union cavalry regiments during early 1862, followed shortly thereafter by others organized in Union-occupied Middle and West Tennessee. In Homegrown Yankees, the first book-length study of Union cavalry from a Confederate state, James Alex Baggett tells the remarkable story of Tennessee's loyal mounted regiments. Fourteen mounted regiments that fought primarily within the boundaries of the state and eight local units made up Tennessee's Union cavalry. Young, nonslaveholding farmers who opposed secession, the Confederacy, and the war -- from isolated villages east of Knoxville, the Cumberland Mountains, or the Tennessee River counties in the west -- filled the ranks. Most Tennesseans denounced these local bluecoats as renegades, turncoats, and Tories; accused them of betraying their people, their section, and their race; and held them in greater contempt than soldiers from the North. Though these homegrown Yankees participated in many battles -- including those in the Stones River, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, East Tennessee, Nashville, and Atlanta campaigns -- their story provides rare insights into what occurred between the battles. For them, military action primarily meant almost endless skirmishing with partisans, guerrillas, and bushwackers, as well as with the Rebel raiders of John Hunt Morgan, Joseph Wheeler, and Nathan Bedford Forrest, who frequently recruited and supplied themselves from behind enemy lines. Tennessee's Union cavalry scouted and foraged the countryside, guarded outposts and railroads, acted as couriers, supported the flanks of infantry, and raided the enemy. On occasion, especially during the Nashville campaign, they provided rapid pursuit of Confederate forces. They also helped protect fellow unionists from an aggressive pro-Confederate insurgency after 1862. Baggett vividly describes the deprivation, sickness, and loneliness of cavalrymen living on the war's periphery and traces how circumstances beyond their control -- such as terrain, transport, equipage, weaponry, public sentiment, and military policy -- affected their lives. He also explores their well-earned reputation for plundering -- misdeeds motivated by revenge, resentment, a lack of discipline, and the hard-war policy of the Union army. In the never-before-told story of these cavalrymen, Homegrown Yankees offers new insights into an unexplored facet of southern Unionism and provides an exciting new perspective on the Civil War in Tennessee.
Thomas W. Colley served in one of the most active and famous units in the Civil War, the 1st Virginia Cavalry, which fought in battles in the Eastern Theater, from First Manassas/Bull Run to the defense of Petersburg. Colley was born November 11, 1837, outside Abingdon, Virginia, and grew up knowing the daily demands of life on a farm. In May 1861, along with the other members of the Washington Mounted Rifles, he left his home in Washington County and reported to camp in Richmond. During the war, Colley received wounds on three different occasions: first at Waterloo Bridge in 1862, again at Kelly’s Ford in 1863, and finally at Haw’s Shop in 1864. The engagement at Haw’s Shop resulted in the amputation of his left foot, thereby ending his wartime service. The first modern scholarly edition of Colley’s writings, In Memory of Self and Comrades dramatizes Colley’s fate as a wounded soldier mustered out before the war’s conclusion. Colley’s postwar reflections on the war reveal his struggle to earn a living and maintain his integrity while remaining somewhat unreconciled to his condition. He found much of his solace through writing and sought to advance his education after the war. As one of an estimated 20,000 soldiers who underwent amputation during the Civil War, his memoirs reveal the challenges of living with what many might recognize today as post-traumatic stress disorder. Annotations from editor Michael K. Shaffer provide further context to Colley’s colorful and insightful writings on both his own condition and the condition of other veterans also dealing with amputations
The 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry Regiment fought over three years, from March 1862 to General Johnson’s surrender in April 1865. It played a major role in Kilpatrick’s Cavalry Corps on Sherman’s March to the Sea; told as an overview of operations and through the diary of Sergeant William H. Harding. Confederate histories have often reported the regiment decimated and defeated in every battle, but this study presents the truth of the matter for the first time. Fighting in Judson Kilpatrick’s 3rd Cavalry Division during Sherman’s campaign through Georgia and the Carolina’s doing everything that could be expected of them and acquitted themselves honorably against the Confederate commanders – Joseph Wheeler and Wade Hampton. This volume is the definitive study of the 5th Ohio and Kilpatrick’s campaign in Sherman’s army from Atlanta to the end of the war. Bonuses include the diary and letters of Commissary Sergeant William H. Harding present in Company K of the 5th OVC from August 1862 to July 1865.
The Damnedest Set of Fellows tells the story of one of the finest artillery batteries in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Fighting in almost every major battle in the war's Western Theater, their first baptism of fire occurred at Tazewell, in East Tennessee. Later, they battled at Champion Hill in the Vicksburg Campaign, at Missionary Ridge and Tunnel Hill near Chattanooga, and throughout the Atlanta Campaign, at Missionary Ridge and Tunnel Hill near Chattanooga, and throughout the Atlanta Campaign. Later, they fought upon the snowy fields of Nashville, and finally at Salisbury, North Carolina, where they manned their guns despite having no infantry support. Known for their passionate individualism, disdain for army regulations, and their fighting spirit, their battalion commander later wrote: "Every man ... thinks himself as good as a brigadier general...and don't mind telling you if the occasion offers." Once, following the Vicksburg campaign, they even defied a direct order from Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The crucible of war molded the men of the Cherokee Artillery into a true brotherhood. Their annual post-war reunions further strengthened that bond. As a Rebel veteran observed: "It is said with truth that war will bring out the [true] character of a man quicker than anything else. We were fortunate in finding so many good, true men as we had with us ... and feel bound to them as with ties of blood." The Damnedest Set of Fellows tells the tragic, heroic story of that true "band of brothers." -- Dust jacket.
