The Civil War in North Alabama

Steven, as you know, I've been 'tracking' the Army of Tennessee and also Gen. Hatch's US Cavalry during the period from early summer 1864 to war's end. Your postings here have been of considerable interest to me and hopefully others. . . . . .

Good story with lots of detail about Forrest's tricks. I saw reference to cavalry in Forrest's command but I didn't see any mention of Hatch's troopers.
 
Charges against Union colonel who plundered Athens

Charges against Union colonel who plundered Athens

Union Col. John Basil Turchin, who later became a brigadier general, was in command of the 19th Regiment Illinois Volunteers, 8th Brigade, Army of the Ohio, during the sack of Athens. His court-martial that took place in Athens and Huntsville was for these accusations:

Neglect of duty to the prejudice of good order and military discipline.
The accusation said he allowed his men to plunder Athens. Court documents said soldiers:

Threatened to shoot widow Milly Ann Clayton while taking items from her home.

Entered the post office and defaced about 200 Bibles, which they kicked and trampled.

Destroyed furniture at the home of M.E. and S.B. Malone and took their money

Acted rudely and violently toward women at Thomas S. Malone's home and took papers, saddles and other property, all valued at $4,500;

Destroyed medical instruments at William D. Allen's drugstore.

Took goods worth $3,500 from Madison Thompson's store;

Destroyed and took geological specimens and books from J.F. Sowell's office.

Used vulgar language in front of females at the home of John F. Malone while they ransacked the home, and debauched females in the Negro huts on the plantation.

Took merchandise from Samuel Tanner Jr.'s store.

Ordered the wife of R.S. Irwin to cook dinner for them at her home and made indecent and beastly propositions to her and her servant.

Fired inside the home of a Mrs. Hollingsworth and threatened to burn it, causing her to miscarry and subsequently die.

Raped a colored girl at Charlotte Hine's home.

Took clothes and papers from J.A. Cox's home.

Took $2,000 cash and goods from P. Tanner & Sons brick store.

Took and destroyed bonds and bills at William Richardson's law office.

Quartered an artillery company at J.H. Jones' home and cut bacon on the parlor carpets, chopped the piano and slept in the beds while wearing muddy boots.

Took $4,000 worth of notes from a safe at George R. Peck's store.

Destroyed books and took $5,000 in notes at John Turrentine's store.

Conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman.

For staying a week as a guest at a public house without paying for board and for failing to make a proper effort to prevent disgraceful behavior of the troops.

Disobedience of orders.

For violating Orders No. 13a from the Headquarters of the Department of Ohio, which states peaceful citizens are not to be molested in their person or property; compensation is due for use of private property for public services; only taking adequate provisions from citizens; and allowing a wife to remain in camp. Turchin's wife accompanied him.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges except violating regulations by having his wife near battle lines.

The court found him guilty on all counts except the charge of not paying for board and the charge of taking more than adequate provisions from citizens.
Turchin's wife, Nadine, persuaded President Lincoln to set aside the verdict and commission him a brigadier general.

- From the "Court martial of Colonel John B. Turchin: The Sack of Athens, Alabama," transcribed and edited by Robert Parham
I enjoyed reading about the plunder of Athens,Alabama. My Stephenson family lived in Limestone County,Alabama from 1822 to 1850. In 1860, they were living in Madison County,Alabama.
 
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North Alabama, with its Applachian spur was a place of confused loyalties mixed with doses of neutrality and opportunism during the war.

At the start of the war, union sympathies in the area led the Confederates to allow less than fully enthusiastic Culman county men to form a Mail Guard unit and promised not to deploy them. As the war drug on, the promise was broken and comnscription ordered.

This led to the formation of some vaguelly pro union guerillas bands, some of which deteriorated into banditry. Pro confederate locals formed Home Guard militia, but the two sides largely seemed to stay out of each others way. There were only about two armed clashes in Culman County during the initial years.

In 1863, Colonel Streight, when planning his raid, assumed that he would receive wide union support in the area. His force included two companies of Alabama unionist cavalry. What he found was alot of apathy. On one occasion, his men were cheered by local unionists. Yet, when his exhausted men needed to obtain fresh mounts in Culman county(?), the locals had hidden every horse they had and refused to cooperate.

The pursuing General Forrest received some, but not total support from locals in Limestone and Culman county. Though nobody tried to hinder the union escape, Forrest was shown an alternative trail through the hills in the Sand Mountain area and a local girl gave him information about a vital ford.

1864 brought more union control and the raising of an entire regiment of union cavalry. It also led to the creation of confederate guerilla groups and greatly increased fighting. A certain number of the confederates were not local, but were from TN. One of their favorite tactics was to state raids in Culman and Limestone counties by riding into the area and sheltering with a local family. They would then be given a hit list of pro union households, espescially those with men serving in the union. These farm stead would then be attacked and the men killed if possible. The raiders would then leave the county.
 
Lt. Col. Bushwacker Johnston, Captain Frank B. Gurley, Col. Lemuel Green Meade, Captain Young's Mining Corps.


There's a lot of untold stories about North Alabama's time during the war.
 
I have a question. My Sylvester Brown Stephenson claimed he finished the war with the 27th Tennessee Cavalry. Was he with the 27th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion which I have seen in connection Lemuel Green Meade? He joined Ward's Artillery in Madison County,Alabama and Ward's Artillery was overrun at the Battle of Selma on April 2,1865. The account seems to be true by the record of Joseph Dedman.
Joseph Dedman
Ward's Alabama Artillery Battery CSA. Enlisted 2-9-1863 by Lt. Spotswood at Huntsville. Admitted to General Hospital in Selma, Alabama 4-3-1865 (Hospital Register 6491). Complaint was Vulnus Sclopeticum (Gunshot Wound). Died on 4-16-1865.(ADAH) His burial site is unknown at this time.
So, Sylvester did not have much time to fight with the 27th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion. Lee surrendered on April 9,1865.
 
I have a question. My Sylvester Brown Stephenson claimed he finished the war with the 27th Tennessee Cavalry. Was he with the 27th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion which I have seen in connection Lemuel Green Meade? He joined Ward's Artillery in Madison County,Alabama and Ward's Artillery was overrun at the Battle of Selma on April 2,1865. The account seems to be true by the record of Joseph Dedman.
Joseph Dedman
Ward's Alabama Artillery Battery CSA. Enlisted 2-9-1863 by Lt. Spotswood at Huntsville. Admitted to General Hospital in Selma, Alabama 4-3-1865 (Hospital Register 6491). Complaint was Vulnus Sclopeticum (Gunshot Wound). Died on 4-16-1865.(ADAH) His burial site is unknown at this time.
So, Sylvester did not have much time to fight with the 27th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion. Lee surrendered on April 9,1865.


I haven't ever heard about the 27th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion being with Meade. Meade was just a Col. and his unit was the 25th Alabama Cavalry Battalion and not the 27th Tennessee. His Lt. Col. Bushwacker Johnston surrendered in May 1865 I believe and Meade didn't come out of hiding in the mountains to surrender and take the oath until fall-winter of 1865.
 
SquirrelHudson,
Thanks for replying. Unfortunately there is not much information on the 27th Tennessee Cavalry or 27th Tennesee Cavalry Battalion. I wonder if this L.G. Mead below is the same as Lemuel Green Meade.
"The only record of this organization was found in Special Order Number 52, Adjutant and Inspector Generars Office at Richmond, Virginia, dated March 3, 1865 which read as follows:

"The following Companies of Tennessee Cavalry raised within the enemy lines by Captain L. G. Mead under authority of the War Department are hereby organized into a battalion to be known as the 27th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion: Captains Jerome Root's, J.E. McColum's, J. C. Jenkins', J. P. Henley's, Joel Cunningham's, J. T. Baxter's." The order went on to specify that the Alabama companies raised under the same circumstance were to be organized into a battalion known as the 25th Alabama Cavalry Battalion. No muster rolls of the battalion organization were found, but these companies were previously mustered as part of Mead's Cavalry, CSA, of which no rolls are available in the Tennessee files." [1] I found this at familysearch.org.
This is Sylvester's application in which he mentions the 27th Tennessee Cavalry.
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/sylvester-brown-stephensons-application-for-the-southern-cross.119354/#post-1246277.
His application is at the top of this thread.
 
SquirrelHudson,
Thanks for replying. Unfortunately there is not much information on the 27th Tennessee Cavalry or 27th Tennesee Cavalry Battalion. I wonder if this L.G. Mead below is the same as Lemuel Green Meade.
"The only record of this organization was found in Special Order Number 52, Adjutant and Inspector Generars Office at Richmond, Virginia, dated March 3, 1865 which read as follows:

"The following Companies of Tennessee Cavalry raised within the enemy lines by Captain L. G. Mead under authority of the War Department are hereby organized into a battalion to be known as the 27th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion: Captains Jerome Root's, J.E. McColum's, J. C. Jenkins', J. P. Henley's, Joel Cunningham's, J. T. Baxter's." The order went on to specify that the Alabama companies raised under the same circumstance were to be organized into a battalion known as the 25th Alabama Cavalry Battalion. No muster rolls of the battalion organization were found, but these companies were previously mustered as part of Mead's Cavalry, CSA, of which no rolls are available in the Tennessee files." [1] I found this at familysearch.org.
This is Sylvester's application in which he mentions the 27th Tennessee Cavalry.
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/sylvester-brown-stephensons-application-for-the-southern-cross.119354/#post-1246277.
His application is at the top of this thread.



After Shiloh, L.G. Mead left as an infantry Captain and came home to recruit a partisan ranger cavalry unit. Given the close distance between Paint Rock, Alabama and Tennessee it's not doubt that some men came across lines and got recruited. He may have recruited those companies but I highly doubt he led them as I keep reading everywhere he only led the 25th Alabama.
 
SquirrelHudson,
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. The 27th Cavalry or 27th Cavalry Battalion will remain a mystery. What I think happened was that Sylvester made is way back to Madison Co,Alabama after the Battle of Selma and still had some fight left in him and joined some local unit until the war ended. His father lived in Madison Co,Alabama in 1860. Sylvester was living in Giles County,TN in 1870.
I appreciate your help.
 
SquirrelHudson,
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. The 27th Cavalry or 27th Cavalry Battalion will remain a mystery. What I think happened was that Sylvester made is way back to Madison Co,Alabama after the Battle of Selma and still had some fight left in him and joined some local unit until the war ended. His father lived in Madison Co,Alabama in 1860. Sylvester was living in Giles County,TN in 1870.
I appreciate your help.


Any time! I'm not a complete aficionado on the war in North Alabama but I do my best considering it's local history.
 
According to the report submitted by Col. Wallace Campbell, dated November 24, 1864: on September 24, while in the town of Athens, attempting to hold the commissary stores, Col. Campbell saw that the Confederates had captured the depot. Col. Prosser arrived with the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry. Campbell ordered Prosser to charge his cavalry through the town square and then retake the depot from the Rebel troops, but Prosser refused to obey the order, due to his concern for the horses of his cavalry. Campbell then had 30 cavalry troopers dismount, took them and 2o men of the USCT, and on foot, charged through the public square and then drove off the Rebels at the station and put out the fire the Rebs had set. They had captured a Confederate surgeon and a private. According to Campbell's report, the Confederate private told him that Gen. Forrest was in town with 10 to 12 thousand troops. Next, Colonel Campbell ordered Col. Prosser to remain "at or near the fort." Again, Prosser refused to obey the order, stating that he did not think the fort could be held, even with the presence of his regiment. It was at this point that 1st Lt. Sam Kneeland of the 18th Michigan, serving as Acting Assistant Adjutant General to General Granger, who was presently at Decatur, he thought it best that he would write a dispatch to General Granger informing him of the situation at Ft. Henderson, and ask for re-enforcements, give the dispatch to Col. Prosser to deliver to Gen. Granger. 1st Lt. Kneeland took responsibility and he ordered Prosser to deliver the dispatch, possibly saving Prosser from facing charges for refusing to obey orders given by Campbell.
At first, I could find little information if the 2nd Tennessee went with Prosser to Decatur, but according to the re-enactor Sam Campbell, in his article, stated that, along with a black guide, Prosser's troops went with him. I wish I knew what source told him that.
What followed I am not totally clear on, but it appears, according to General Granger, that after he received the dispatch from Kneeland, he ordered Col. Prosser and the 2nd Tennessee to return north to Athens, to attempt to drive off the enemy forces known to be at the plantation of Jack Harris, 22 miles west of Decatur. He also ordered a detachment, consisting of men from the 18th Michigan and the 102nd Ohio, to take the train from Decatur to Athens, to re-enforce Ft. Henderson. Col. Prosser's command managed to drive the Rebel forces back to Athens, but discovered the forces of Gen. Forrest between him and Ft. Henderson. Prosser managed to "extricate his command from this position with considerable skill" and returned to Decatur. Upon his return, he informed Granger of the situation in Athens and at Ft. Henderson. Granger had already sent the detachment, led by Lt. Colonel Elliot, but Granger "gathered together all available forces," at the Decatur fort, "without leaving the posts defenseless" and put together 250 infantry and 250 cavalry and headed north. Before they arrived there, Granger got word that the fort had surrendered, and the detachment was captured.
So, in regards to the movements of Col. Prosser, am I correct in my assessment?
If anyone gives me a response, please notify me at my email address, [email protected], so that I will know to return to this site to read the response.
 
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