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1. Richard M. McMurry, Atlanta 1864: Last Chance for the Confederacy (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 37–38. 2. OR 32(2):537–38; Losson, Tennessee’s Forgotten Warriors, 118, 133–35. 6 “TENNESSEE, A GRAVE OR A FREE HOME” 1864–May 1865 After its loss at Chattanooga, the Army of Tennessee settled down for a winter during which Joseph E. Johnston and his officers would restore its strength and the confidence of its men. The new year of 1864 would see Harris continue his role as an advocate and morale-booster for the Tennessee troops in the army. And, with the Army of Tennessee no longer holding on even to the slightest sliver of the state, Harris would search for ways to stay in contact with his people and to continue his efforts to recruit Tennesseans for the Confederate war effort. With restless energy, he ranged across the western Confederacy, relentlessly pursing these two goals.1 Bragg’s reorganization of the Army of Tennessee the previous fall hit Tennessee units the hardest. Cheatham’s Division, formerly almost entirely composed of men from the Volunteer State, retained only Marcus J. Wright’s brigade for the Battle of Chattanooga. This created a great deal of dissension among the Tennessee troops, of which Harris was doubtless painfully aware. Back at Dalton on January 9, 1864, Harris wrote Secretary of War Seddon requesting that Johnston have the authority to undo Bragg’s changes. Carefully noting that the letter was written without Johnston’s knowledge or consent, Harris expressed the opinion that the Tennesseans would do better under their old commanders. A few days later, Johnston made the same request, and eventually obtained the authority to reconstitute the division to its former character.2 Another Tennessean disaffected by Bragg was Nathan Bedford Forrest. After leaving the Army of Tennessee in late September 1863, Forrest assumed command of West Tennessee, and by December, was back in the state raising a new com0 156 / isham g. harris of tennessee 3. Brian Steel Wills, A Battle From the Start: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest (New York: HarperCollins , 1992), 148–56; IGH to Jefferson Davis, January 16, 1864, 10 PJD 177–78; OR 32(2):601–2, 650. 4. Wills, A Battle from the Start, 45; James R. Chalmers, “Forrest and His Campaigns,” Southern Historical Society Papers 7 (October 1879): 449, 455; John Allen Wyeth, Life of Lieutenant-General Nathan Bedford Forrest (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1899), 23–24; “Isham G. Harris as Warrior and Fugitive,” Atlanta Constitution, August 1, 1897; William W. Chester, ed., “The Diary of Captain Elisha Tompkin Hollis, CSA,” West Tennessee Historical Society Papers 39 (December 1985): 83, 91. mand. After several of his usual hairs-breadth escapes, Forrest was back in Mississippi by the first of 1864, and met at Meridian, Mississippi, on January 13, 1864, with Leonidas Polk, the department commander, and Major General Stephen D. Lee, its cavalry commander, to report on his recent efforts. Likely present at that meeting, and certainly present at Meridian three days later, was Isham G. Harris . Harris returned with Forrest to his headquarters in north Mississippi, first at Como, and then at Oxford. In keeping with his efforts to exert influence on behalf of Tennessee commanders and troops, the governor lost little time writing President Davis that Forrest’s efforts at recruiting and organizing a command were suffering from competing demands from Mississippi state authorities and the Confederate War Department.3 Harris and Forrest were doubtless acquainted from their prewar days in Memphis . Forrest enlisted as a private soldier in June 1861, but several citizens of Memphis respected Forrest and petitioned Harris to offer him a command. Harris knew “Forrest well and had a high regard for the man.” The governor telegraphed that Forrest should go to Memphis, and with Polk’s help, “procured authority for him to raise a regiment of cavalry for the Confederate service.” Forrest embarked on a career that, as early as 1864, made him a legend. The cavalryman and his governor had had a number of opportunities to spend time together during the war, and Harris likely wanted to confer with Forrest about conditions in West Tennessee and the prospects for recruiting there, although a friend noted that Harris was “pining for action” at this time. An officer’s diary recorded that Harris spoke to his company on February 4 at Oxford, which was likely a common occurrence during that interval.4 While Harris was...

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