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13. Fort Pillow
- Louisiana State University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
1. David J. Temple and William H. Herron to Johnson, Aug. 11, 1863, Andrew Johnson Papers, TSLA; TICW, 1:353, 426, 432; Ward, River Run Red, 74–75, 215; PAJ, 6:615n; Eighth Census of the United States, 1860, Census Office, RG 29, NA; Bradford’s Battalion, CSR; William F. Bradford, Jonathan F. Gregory, John L. Poston, and Cordy B. Revelle, ibid.; Alvan C. Gillem to Bradford, Sept. 23, 1863, TAGO Papers, RG 21, TSLA; Gillem to Maj. S. Medans, Sept. 23, 1863, ibid.; Gregory to Gillem, Dec. 1, 1863, ibid.; Charles L. Lufkin, “‘Not Heard from since Apr. 12, 1864’: The Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry, U.S.A.,” THQ 45 (summer 1986): 133–39, 139n. CHAPTER 13 Fort Pillow B y August 1863, Indiana officers from Fort Pillow found “hundreds sku[l]king in the woods—in the Counties of Lauderdale—Dyer—Tipton, and Haywood—ready and eager to go in the service” of the Union army. At occupied Union City, attorney William F. Bradford had enlisted a home guard devoted to “driving out guerrillas.” In late September he began recruiting a cavalry regiment under authority from Governor Johnson. General Gillem promised him that the army would feed his recruits and clothe them with uniforms once they were mustered. Bradford enlisted three undermanned companies while Kentuckian Jonathan F. Gregory, a recruiter for Hurst’s 6th Tennessee at Paducah and to whom Bradford promised a captaincy, raised a fourth company, which he took on several scouts. During the winter John L. Poston, a Haywood County farmer, completed the organization of a final company from his home county that was armed but never mustered. Poston’s popular second in command, 1st Lt. Cordy B. Revelle, moonlighted at Fort Pillow in the illicit trafficking of cotton.1 Men in their twenties represented about half of Bradford’s Battalion, with the others about equally divided between those under twenty and over thirty. Most of the soldiers and their officers hailed from Obion, Dyer, Haywood, and Lauderdale, counties in the northwest corner of Tennessee that border 212 West Tennessee and Beyond 2. Ward, River Run Red, 76; Bradford’s Battalion, CSR; Mack J. Leaming, William L. Cleary, and John C. Barr, ibid. Since this work describes both regiments—one of which never reached beyond battalion strength—and the writer wants to avoid reader confusion, the West Tennessee unit will be referred to whenever possible as Bradford’s Battalion. Members of Company A, 13th Tennessee Cavalry to Johnson, Sept. 20, 1864, Johnson Papers, TSLA. 3. TICW, 1:353; Ward, River Run Red, 76, 410n. Kentucky and the Mississippi River, and worked small farms to support their families. More than one in ten—some of whom opposed secession—had deserted from the Confederate army. Despite objections from others, three enlisted men from Illinois regiments, Mack J. Leaming, William L. Cleary, and John C. Barr, became lieutenants. The unit never reached beyond battalion level (and it is referred to as Bradford’s Battalion in its Compiled Service Records ), nevertheless then and later, it was widely known as the 13th Tennessee Cavalry. Since another 13th Tennessee Cavalry formed in East Tennessee during 1863 and reached regimental strength in 1864, the state changed the West Tennessee regiment’s title in August 1864, five months after the battle at Fort Pillow, to the 14th Tennessee Cavalry.2 In fall 1863 Colonel Waring’s brigade occupied Union City. Waring spelled out the rules for the entire post. In addition to requiring his and Bradford’s men to answer the usual roll calls—three stable calls and two drill calls— Waring forbade them to engage in certain pursuits, including firing weapons except in the line of duty, horse racing (except as he desired), burning wood from the abatis as firewood, or venturing beyond the post for more than two miles. An order in mid-November from General Hurlbut, commanding at Memphis, allowing “detached Brigades . . . to impress . . . able-bodied persons liable to military duty as may be required to fill up the existing Regiments and Batteries” possibly added a few men to Bradford’s Battalion.3 In mid-January 1864 the battalion moved from Union City to Columbus, Kentucky, for Companies C and D to be mustered and mounted. Then joined by Gregory’s Company A, the unit marched in early February to Fort Pillow. On February 21 it received battery support from Lt. Alexander Hunter’s Company D, 2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery of forty men and two field guns. From the...