Homegrown Yankees: Tennessee's Union Cavalry in the Civil War

16. Wheeler on the Railroads

1. OR, 38(3):673, 957; Castel, Decision in the West, 466; McDonough and Jones, War So Terrible, 286, 288. 2. Carter, First Regiment, 188–89. CHAPTER 16 Wheeler on the Railroads F ollowing the defeat of McCook’s cavalry south of Atlanta, Hood ordered Wheeler to “break the [rail] roads running from Nashville.” He also requested that Generals Forrest and Roddey, then in Mississippi and Alabama , attack the same two railroads. Wheeler’s command for the raid consisted of five thousand horsemen—mostly from Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama—in three divisions and a battery of six light artillery pieces. His Tennessee regiments included many men hoping for a brief visit at home. Wheeler hoped to take advantage of these visits to recruit additional troops. Clogged roads and the lack of forage led him to divide his cavalry into two or three detachments within supporting distance of one another.1 After McCook’s ill-fated raid, Brownlow’s regiment rode by rail to Nashville, seeing “unsurpassed . . . scenery” and manmade “earthwork and graves.” With bronzed faces and faded dusty uniforms, the Tennesseans marched through the streets of Nashville, a city accustomed to such comings and goings. Then the men pitched their tents under oaks and poplars at Camp Smith, overlooking the Cumberland River. Here visiting agents of the Christian Commission gave them writing materials, sewing kits, and religious literature. They spent a few of their own hard-earned greenbacks to purchase fresh fruits, including peaches and watermelons, from local peddlers. Until Wheeler threatened the capital, the regiment was dismounted along with others in Croxton’s brigade.2 260 The Atlanta Campaign 3. Eckel, Fourth Tennessee, 65–67; Goodwin, 4th Regiment, 35; TICW, 1:332. 4. Andes and McTeer, Loyal Mountain Troopers, 108–9, 117; TICW, 1:345, 349–50; William G. Brownlow to Johnson, Aug. 17, 1864, PAJ, 7:101; Jacob M. Thornburgh to Johnson, July 21, 1864, ibid., 46–47. 5. OR, 38(2):495–96; Castel, Decision in the West, 466. Leaving behind seventy-five casualties in Georgia, Major Stephens’s 4th Tennessee , reduced to “238 men and 29 serviceable horses.” returned to the District of North Alabama at Decatur to picket and scout. Sadly but understandably , the sacrifices of the raid below Atlanta, its aftermath, and the suffering of their families in East Tennessee overwhelmed some of them. Howard Isbel of Company F, for example, “shot himself in the head, causing death instantly.” He was the brother of Capt. John Isbel, commander of Company F, “who died a short time before.” Nevertheless, as part of Col. William F. Prosser’s First Brigade of Gillem’s Fourth Division, the 4th Tennessee soon was engaged in keeping General Roddey south of the Tennessee River.3 Spalding’s Second Brigade (5th, 10th, and 12th Tennessee) of Gillem’s division was stationed at Pulaski and Tullahoma. The 10th and 12th at Pulaski patrolled as far south as the Tennessee River, while the 5th at Tullahoma guarded small-town posts along the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. All three regiments captured, tried, and executed bushwhackers and guerrillas. Col. John K. Miller’s Third Brigade (8th, 9th, and 13th Tennessee), along with Gillem, had been ordered by Governor Johnson in August to free upper East Tennessee of guerrillas and of regulars commanded by John Hunt Morgan. Gillem arrived in Knoxville on August 17 before marching toward Bulls Gap.4 Wheeler’s command rode north out of Covington, Georgia, on August 10, his men mounted on overridden and underfed horses. Because of summer rains, his men faced swollen rivers and difficult-to-burn soaked railroad timbers . Some of the Rebels fired on a train and tore up track south of Acworth as others pushed on to demolish track and rustle cattle near Calhoun. As one of his divisions tore up track from Tifton toward Dalton, the rest of Wheeler’s command attacked Dalton. When his bluff to charge the fort there failed, Wheeler ransacked the town, desperately searching for corn for his horses.5 As Rebel skirmishers moved north on the fifteenth, they engaged 1,800 infantrymen—mostly blacks—of Maj. Gen. James B. Steedman’s command down from Chattanooga. Brig. Gen. John S. Williams’s brigade, about 500 strong, moved upon Tunnel Hill above Dalton, hoping to cave in the railroad Wheeler on the Railroads 261 6. OR, 38(3):323–24, 957–59; Castel, Decision in the West, 466; McDonough and Jones...