Lieutenant Colonel James E. Daniel
The only record of this organization was found in Special Order Number 52, Adjutant and Inspector Generals 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. Their company letters in Mead’s Cavalry were as follows:
CAPTAINS
- Joel Cunningham, Co. “B”, Mead’s Cavalry
- J.E. McColum, Co. “D”, Mead’s Cavalry.
- J.T. Baxter, Co. “H”, Mead’s Cavalry.
- J.P. Henley, Co. “I”, Mead’s Cavalry.
- J.C. Jenkins, Co. “K”, Mead’s Cavalry.
- Jerome Root, Co. “L”, Mead’s Cavalry.
Captain L. C. Mead was first reported on August 15, 1862, in command of Partisan Rangers, when Major General E. Kirby Smith ordered him to operate in North Alabama and Southern Tennessee, reporting to the general in command nearest to him. Federal reports from that time until the end of the war make frequent references to Mead’s guerrillas, or bushwhackers, operating in North Alabama and Middle Tennessee. One such report dated May 27, 1864, said Mead’s Regiment of Partisan Rangers, attached to General Roddey’s command, was in Franklin County, Tennessee with 500 well mounted men, many of whom had enlisted since the regiment entered Tennessee. It is probable that some of the Tennessee companies were enlisted at this time.
No record was found of what happened to the battalion after it was organized except for the fact that I. P Henley was paroled at Chattanooga May 16, 1865 as lieutenant colonel of the 28th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment. From this it would appear that either Captain Henley’s Company never reported to the battalion, or that it was later transferred to the 28th Regiment of which Captain Henley became lieutenant colonel.
This unit history was extracted from Tennesseans in the Civil War, Vol 1. Copyrighted 1964 by the Civil War Centennial Commission of Tennessee and is published here with their permission. This history may not be republished for any reason without the written permission of the copyright owner.