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9. Mounted Infantry
- Louisiana State University Press
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1. Clements to Johnson, Nov. 3, 1862, Andrew Johnson Papers, LC. 2. Edwards to Johnson, Sept. 30, 1863, PAJ, 6:389–91; ibid., 5:287n; BDTGA, 2:163. CHAPTER 9 Mounted Infantry C ongressman Andrew J. Clements of Macon County urged Governor Johnson in November 1862 to have twelve-month soldiers recruited in the Cumberland River valley. Having taken refuge in Kentucky in 1861, the physician , who knew the situation on both sides of the river, proposed establishing a camp “near Carthage or Gainesboro.” Because the border area had already “furnished a large number of volunteers,” few additional residents would enlist for three-years’ service. But if unionists could “go into camp [nearby] to protect their homes” while committing themselves for only one year, enough men could be recruited to guard the section “from the Cumberland river to the mountains.” Governor Johnson also began to hear from others about shorter enlistment terms for home guards. Regardless, if the new soldiers were to pursue guerrillas, they would need to be mounted.1 Not everyone favored the idea. Opponents included Richard M. Edwards, who still hoped to reassume command of the 4th Tennessee. Writing in September from Chattanooga while recruiting, Edwards argued that this policy of having one-year recruits would discourage three-year enlistment and prevent filling regular regiments. One-year units would be weak and undisciplined, their behavior would provoke enemy retaliation, and their weapons would fall into the hands of Rebels. The former legislator believed that one-year unattached units would operate similarly to companies “mainly of deserters from Bragg’s army” in the 1st Alabama and Tennessee Vedette Cavalry (USA), such as Capt. Calvin Brixley’s command, “robbing stealing and plundering both parties alike and . . . burning houses and committing outrages.”2 150 Middle Tennessee and Beyond 3. Nashville Union, Sept. 26, 1863; OR, 30(4):150; TICW, 1:354–60. 4. Wilson, Under the Old Flag, 1:332–33; Edward G. Longacre, Grant’s Cavalryman: The Life and Wars of General James H. Wilson (Mechanicsburg, Pa., 1972), 101–2. Despite such opposition, in September 1863 Governor Johnson authorized the raising of one-year mounted Union-guard regiments to receive “the same pay, rations, clothing, & c.” as other Union soldiers. He called upon these units to suppress “the rebellion, and all freebooting and marauding combinations.” In a telegraph message to Secretary Stanton in early October, he spelled out the urgency of arming these men to serve “in Genl. Rosecrans’s rear in putting down guerrillas, guarding the Railroads & in co-operating with the various military posts.” During fall 1863 some guard regiments began to be designated as mounted infantry. Johnson eventually created eight of them, four in Middle Tennessee and four in East Tennessee. The Union guards operated mostly in three areas: along the East Tennessee & Georgia Railroad, from the upper Cumberland toward Sparta, and west of Nashville toward the Tennessee River.3 But before the Union army mustered in any of these mounted infantry as regiments, opposition came in early 1864 from the new crusading chief of the Cavalry Bureau in Washington, Brig. Gen. James Harrison Wilson. His bureau controlled the issuing of horses, equine equipment, and arms for mounted troops. Wilson opposed mounting additional regiments until others already mustered had adequate strength in men, horses, weapons, and availability of forage. Unfortunately for Wilson, Congress had already authorized twenty thousand mounted infantry to serve in Kentucky. He only temporarily prevented supplies and horses from going to companies forming for Tennessee. But after he left the bureau in April 1864 to serve under Grant in Virginia, Johnson got his way—horses, equipment, and arms for his one-year regiments as well as their muster into the U.S. Army. Many of the horses, however, had to be impressed from the countryside.4 In September 1863 Johnson authorized Abraham E. Garrett, a thirty-threeyear -old Livingston lawyer, to recruit a battalion of one-year mounted infantry . Garrett had already served in a Kentucky regiment with which he gained “knowledge of the country, and . . . experience in guerrilla warfare.” General Gillem instructed him to protect the people west of the Cumberland Mountains and south of the Cumberland River as well as in Macon County, Clement ’s home county north of the river. Recruits from throughout the area and even Kentucky formed their companies at Carthage during early 1864. Each [3.85.63.190] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 02:41 GMT) Mounted Infantry 151 5. Andrew J. Cropley to Johnson, Jan. 6, 1864, PAJ, 6...