4th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment
1913 List and Narrative
The Fourth Tennessee Cavalry did not assume regimental form until General Bragg had returned from his Kentucky campaign in the fall of 1862. It was made up of detachments that had served under different commanders since the beginning of the war. At its organization Baxter Smith was made Colonel; W. Scott Bledoe, Major; J. A. Minnis, Adjutant; W. A. Rushing, Sergeant Major; Marcellus Grissim, Quartermaster, with R. O. McLean, Bob Corder, and John Price his assistants; Captain Bone, Commissary, with Lieut. J. A. Arnold and Captain McLean his assistants; Dr. W. T. Delaney, Surgeon, with Dr. Tom Allen his assistant; Rev. W. W. Hendrix, Chaplain; Sergeant Finney, Ordinance Officer; J. A. Stewart and James B. ance, Regimental Buglers; Bob Gann and Bennett Chapman Wagon Masters.
The commissioned officers of the companies were:
Company A. – Captain, D. W. Alexander; First Lieutenant, Rice McLean; Second Lieutenant, J. N. Orr; Third Lieutenant, Charles Beard. Recruited in Marshall County, Tennessee.
Company B. – recruited in Sullivan County, Tennessee
Company C. – recruited in Smith County, Tennessee
Company D. — recruited in DeKalb and Wilson Counties, Tennessee
Company E. — recruited in Cannon County, Tennessee
Company F. – recruited in Wilson County, Tennessee
Company G. – recruited in Cannon and Rutherford Counties, Tennessee
Company H. – recruited in Hamilton County and Bridgeport, Alabama
Company I. – recruited in Fentress County, Tennessee
Company K. – recruited in Wilson, Sumner and Davidson Counties, Tennessee
Company L. – recruited in Knox County, Tennessee
The Regiment was assigned to a brigade composed of the Eighth Texas, Eleventh Texas, First Kentucky, and Fourth Tennessee Regiments and Malone’s Alabama Battalion, Col. Tom Harrison as Senior Colonel commanding the brigade, Maj. Gen. John A. Wharton commanding the division (Gen. Joe Wheeler’s Corps, Army of Tennessee), and sent to Franklin, Tennessee, on outpost duty. General Bragg, with the infantry force, was at Murfreesboro, confronting General Rose-crans’s Federal army at Nashville.
It is well enough to state here that there were two Fourth Tennessee Cavalry Regiments in the army – Colonel Stearns’s Fourth Tennessee and Colonel Smith’s Fourth Tennessee. They had been serving in different departments of the army, one under General Forrest and the other under General Wheeler, most of the time, and we did not know the fact until late in the war. Both had made character under that name, and each tacitly agreed to remain as they had been known, which they did. At the date of the organization of the Fourth Tenn-essee Cavalry Regiment it numbered one thousand men, rank and file, made up principally of stout, healthy, and vigorous young men.
Fourth Tennessee Cavalry Regiment is as follows:
Company A: Killed – J. C. Bell, in Bragg’s Kentucky campaign, 1862; James Reed, at Perryville, Ky.; W. J. Curren, at Morrison Station, Tn.; Frank Crockett, at Morrison Station, Tn.; W. J. Neil, at Morrison Station, Tn.;
Henry Allison, at Morrison Station, Tn.; Sam Farrow, at Morrison Station, Tn.; Z. Spencer, at Fort Donelson, Tn. 1863; James Dark, at Chickamauga, Ga.; James M. Turner, at Newman, Ga., 1864; Jessie Marlin, in Wheeler’s Middle Tennessee raid, 1864; John Hopkins, at Perryville, Ky.; William Sandifer, at Resaca, Ga.; W. F. Lunn, at Perryville, Ky.
Company A: Wounded (partial list) – Capt. D. W. Alexander, at Murfreesboro, Tn.; First Lieut. A. R. McLean, at Tunnel Hill and Chickamauga, Ga; Lon Fagan, at Fort Donelson, Tn. 1863; Polk Hutton, at Murfreesboro, Tn.; Jo Yarbrough, at Franklin, Tn. 1862; Charlie Ransom, at Murfreesboro, Tn.; Sam Waller, at Murfreesboro, Tn; W. R. Wynn, at Murfreesboro, Tn; George Slaughter, at Perryville, Ky; John R. Mallard, at Buckhead Church, Ga, 1864; James Arnold, at Resaca, Ga, 1864; Billy Wilson, at Tunnel Hill, Ga; Tom Fagan, at Fort Donelson, Tn. 1863; Ben Nevels, at Fort Donelson, Tn.; P. A. Lyons, at Griswoldville, Ga, 1864.
Died of Disease During War (partial list) – James Davis, James Gentry, David Watts, Tim Hare, Nick Oglesby, James Thompson, Newt Hargrove.
I hereby acknowledge the assistance I have had from Comrade Capt. R. O. McLean for a report of casualties of his old company. He made a visit to Marshall County to confer with the few surviving comrades before submitting the list. He was a citizen of Marshall County when his company was first organized in 1861. He was then elected a lieutenant, when the company was sent to West Virginia, and he served through the campaign Gen. R. E. Lee made in that section. The company returned to Tennessee in 1862. When the company was reorganized, he did not offer himself as a candidate; and when it was attached to and formed part of the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, in 1862, he was made assistant to the quartermaster, Capt. Marcellus Grissim. When Grissim was killed, McLean supplied his place as quartermaster, surrend-ering as such at Greensboro, N.C., in 1865.
The following is a list of members now living (from latest information) who either surrendered with the Regiment or were honorably discharged therefrom for disability incurred during the war:
Company A: Dr. Tom Allen, Caney Spring, Tn.; Joe Yarbrough, Lewisburg, Tn.; James Tippett, Greenville, Tex.; Thomas Sherron, Chapel Hill, Tn.; William Edwards, Chapel Hill, Tn.; Scott Davis, Lewisburg, Tn.; Joe Yarbrough (second) Lewisburg, Tn; W. R. Wynn, Lewisburg, Tn; Polk Warner, Lewisburg, Tn.; Ben Jobe, Paris, Tn.; Jim Wilbern, Oklahoma; Melville Porter, McKenzie, Tn; William (“Dutch”) Alexander, Chattanooga, Tn.; Gid Alexander, New Orleans, La.
The following (taken from Mrs. Kitty Davis’ Scrapbook) is The Muster Roll of the “MARSHALL RANGERS” – Conpany A., Fourth Tenn. Cavalry, Harrison’s Brigade, Wharton’s Division, Wheeler’s Corps, CSA as it left Nashville for Virginia, July 18th, 1861. The Company was sworn into service June 18th, 1861, at the Fair Grounds in Nashville, by James G. Pickett:
Commissioned Officers:
D. W. Alexander, Captain
W. H. McLean, 1st Lieutenant
W. C. Green, 2nd Lieutenant
R. O. McLean, 3rd Lieutenant
Non Commissioned Officers:
S. J. Allen, 1st (Orderly) Sergeant
John W. Champ, 2nd Sergeant
M. M. Swaim, 3rd Sergeant
R. E. Cocke, 4th & Sergeant
Ed. J. Neil, 5th Sergeant
A. R. McLean, 1st Corporal
T. A. Allen, 2nd Corporal
David Watts, 3rd Corporal
J. J. Finney, 4th Corporal
Charlie E. B. Woods, Bugler
W. R. Wynn, Bugler
Zach Wallace, Farrier
W. S. Lamb, Blacksmith
Privates:
R. H. Alexander
J. G. Aydelotte
Charles A. Baird
J. C. Bell
Robert Brown
W. J. Brown
Doc Byrd
L. M. Byrd
B. F. Chapman
G. W. Claiborn
G. J. Clarke
John Clinton
N. J. Cocke
A. W. Corlett
F. M. Crockett
James Davis
Scott D. Davis
Minor W. Eakin
J. H. Ellison
N. W. Farrow
John Ferguson
J. G. Fields
R. E. Fields
J. R. Fisher
W. D. Fraley
John Galloway
J. M. Gentry
Watt Gentry
Thos. Giles
Ed. Hamilton
G. W. Hargrove
N. Hargrove
Timothy Hargrove
David Harmon
W. F. Hooker
G. W. Leonard
Humphrey N. Liggett
J. T. McCrory
John R. Mallard
Jesse Martin
W. C. Maxwell
J. B. Montgomery
Wm. J. Neil
Nick Ogilvie
M. T. O’Neal
J. L. Orr
J. M. Parsley
Stephen A. Porter
Charles Ransom
Granville Ransom
John W. Reavis
James Reid
G. W. Reynolds
James Rhodes
William Riggs
Jack Ring
John Ring
W. Thos. Shearin
J. A. Sheffield
E. A. Shipp
G. W. Slaughter
Hugh Slaughter
Elijah Sledge
Thomas Smith
Green Smithson
Sylvester Smithson
D. D. Stanley
J. N. Stanley
Mitch. Tankersley
Lee Terry
J. C. Thomas
J. K. P. Thomas
James Thomas
E. D. Thompson
W. F. Thompson
W. F. Tucker
M. J. Turner
Fletcher Wade
William Wade
R. S. Walker
J. B. Walls
J. B. Warren
W. J. Williams
William Wilson
Bud Woodall
Ed. W. Woodard
Thos. W. Young
The Company surrendered near Charlotte, NC, May 4, 1865, within a few days of four years of active, hard service. The “RANGERS” were among the first, if they were not the first, mounted Company furnished by the State for actual Confederate service.