Chapter Four
Retyped for the page by Diane Payne
2000
In war, as in peace Sumner County has ever responded to the calls of duty. The pioneers themselves were for the most part battle scarred veterans, veterans in experience not in years. Almost every man of whom and a few women, and every boy that was large enough to handle a gun, had taken part in skirmishes with the Indians, and many men fought the British. General Griffith Rutherford, General James Winchester, General Daniel Smith, Colonel Anthony Bledsoe, Major David Wilson, Colonel Edward Douglass, Major William Cage, Major George Winchester, Captain William Bowen, Captain George D. Blackmore and others had held commissions in the war for independence. Isaac Bledsoe, some of the Wilsons, Frank Weathered, James Gwin, Nathan Parker, Hugh Rogan, David Shelby, George Gillespie, John Morgan, James White, some of the Neely's and others had fought in the ranks in the same war.
In the second war with the British, Sumner County furnished a company commanded by Captain Hamilton. This company served under Jackson and was at New Orleans. In the Seminole war, in 1836, a full company went out from Sumner and the three highest officers of the regiment to which the company was assigned were Colonel William Trousdale, Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Conn Guild and Major Joseph G. Meadows, all Sumner countians.
When the war with Mexico broke out Sumner County furnished three companies: the Polk Guards, officered by Captain Robert A. Bennett, Lieutenants J. M. Shaver and Patrick Duffey: the Tenth Legion, commanded by Captain S.R. Anderson, afterwards a Brigadier-General in the Confederate service: Lieutenants W.M. Blackmore and P.L Solomon: and Legion Second, commanded by Captain W.S. Hatton. The names of all of those who lost their lives are all inscribed on the monument erected by the people of the county in the cemetery at Gallatin. There are now living in the county two survivors of those companies: W. F. Clendenning and J. W. Rutherford.
Colonel Trousdale was twice wounded at the battle of Chepultepec and was brevetted Brigadier-General in the regular army for gallantry. William B. Campbell, afterwards Governor, who gave the famous command, "boys, follow me," and won for his regiment the title of the "Bloody First" was born in Sumner County.
Again, in 1861, when the sound of battle was heard throughout the land, the gallant sons of Sumner rallied around the Southern Cross and gave to the Confederate armies more soldiers than she had voters, and no more gallant men ever wore the gray. In all it furnished more than twenty-seven companies. The first to be formed was mostly raised by William B. Bate, and was commanded by Captain Charlton. Another was commanded by Captain Humphrey Bate, another by Captain D.L. Goodall. These formed a part of the Second Tennessee, of which William B. Bate was the first Colonel. After his promotion, Colonel W. J. Hale, now living in Hartsville commanded the regiment. The formation of other companies immediately followed, one under Captain James Barber, and another under Captain D. C. Douglass, were mustered into the Seventh Tennessee. Captain Barber died in December 1861, at Millsboro, VA. John D. Fry, First Lieutenant, was elected Captain and O. H. Foster First Lieutenant. Captain Fry was seriously wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, and being disabled for further services resigned. Lieutenant Foster was made Captain, and as such served until the close of the war. When the regiment was reorganized in April 1862, James Franklin was elected Captain in place of D. C. Douglass. At the battle of Cedar Run, August 9, 1862, he received a wound which necessitated his retirement from the service, and Robert G. Miller was elected Captain and served to the close of the war. Captain W. H. Joyner organized a company which was mustered into the Eighteenth Tennessee in June 1864. About the same time Captains Frank Duffey and James A. Nimmo raised companies which formed part of the Twentieth Tennessee. Captain Alexander Baskerville raised a company, which was mustered into the Twenty-fourth Tennessee. A little later in the same year, Captains J. L. Carson, William. A. Lovell, William T. Sample and John Turner raised companies which became part of the Thirtieth Tennessee.
In the last part of 1861, Captains Joyner and James L. McKoin raised companies, which were mustered into the Forty-fourth Tennessee. Captains C. L. Bennett, H. H. Boude, Mr. Griffin, Minnis, J. E. T. Odom, and Baxter Smith recruited companies for the calvary service. The first of the calvary companies to be raised in the county was in the summer of 1861, when Captain (afterwards Colonel) Baxter Smith raised a company of eight men. His company was attached to the Seventh Tennessee Calvary, and he was promoted to Major of the battalion. Afterwards the battalion was consolidated with other troops and formed the Second Tennessee Cavalry. Major Smith was then transferred and made the Colonel of the Fourth Tennessee, and commanded what was called the "Texas Brigade," and composed of his own regiment. Two Texas regiments and one Arkansas regiment, in the last campaign of the war.
The citizens of Sumner County contributed to a fund sufficient to build a handsome monument to the Confederate heroes. It stand on the grounds of the Trousdale home, now the home of the Daughters of the Confederacy. The county erected a splendid monument to its heroes of the Mexican war, but many of the men who fought in the battles of the Revolution and the men who fell victims to Indian ferocity, sleep in unmarked graves.
In 1840 when the pension list was revised, the following named Sumner countians were on the
pension rolls, all of them being Revolutionary soldiers:
Willliam Bell, 82
William Beard, 86
William Bruce, 87
Elijah Bayless, 81
Samuel Cockran, Sr., 84
John Cleburn, 82
John Carney, Sr., 106
William Fortune, 94
James Gamblin, 90
Albert Hendrix, 80
Benjamin Haynes, 94
Richard Johnson, 80
Joseph Jackson, 84
John McMurtry, 86
John B. Miller, 79
William Morris, 80
William May, 85
Ezekiel Marshall, 82
John McAdams, 79
John McClung, 80
Henry Pitt, 75
James Pond, 75
Reuben Prewett, 80
Thomas Parish, 80
John Sloan, 82
Bathl. Stovall, 80
Hudson Thompson, 77
Hal. Malone, and probably others, refused a pension.
From the Sumner County News, October 14, 1899:
Hon. J. W. Blackmore
Sumner county furnished three companies for the war with Mexico, 1846-7. Two of these were in the First Tennessee Regiment Infantry, commanded by W. B. Campbell. These companies were commanded by Captains W. M. Blackmore and Robert A. Bennett, the former being known as the "Tenth Legion," and the latter as the "Polk Guards." The Tenth Legion was composed of volunteers from Gallatin and its vicinity, while, the Polk Guards was made up from enlistments at Hartsville and that neighborhood. These companies were enlisted for and served twelve months and there were about one hundred men in each company. S. R. Anderson, the Lieutenant-Colonel of the First Tennessee Regiment, was from Sumner county, as was also Major Richard B. Alexander, and was seriously wounded at Monterey. The third company was known as Legion Second, and was a part of the Third Tennessee Regiment Infantry, commanded by Colonel B. Frank Cheatham. This company was commanded by Captain William Hatton. Major Perrin Solomon, of the Third Tennessee Regiment, was a Sumner countian. Lieutenant Nimrod D. Smith acted as Adjutant of the First Tennessee for a while.
As in the late war with Spain, so it was in the war with Mexico, the inhospitable climate was often more destructive to life than the missiles of the enemy, and many a young life succumbed to the ravages of disease.
The First Tennessee Regiment won distinction and gained the praise of the General commanding the American forces for the valor and dash displayed by it in its charge on the enemy's defenses at Monterey on September 21, 1846. This regiment was brigaded at Monterey with the Mississippi Regiment known as the Mississippi Rifles, and commanded by Colonel Jefferson Davis, and were in Quitman's Brigade.
General Zachary Taylor, commanding the army, in his dispatch to Washington in regard to this battle, said: "The Fourth Infantry and three regiments of volunteers were ordered to march at once upon the heavy battery, which was pouring a continuous fire from five pieces of cannon. The Mississippi and Tennessee troops, preceded by three companies of the Fourth, advanced against the works, while the Ohio Regiment, entered the town to the right. The advance of the Fourth was received by so destructive a charge that one-third of the officers and men were instantly killed or disabled. They were compelled to retire until reinforced. The Tennessee and Mississippi corps, under General Quitman, pushed onward, and with the aid of Captain Backus, whose men occupied the roof of a house in the rear of the redoubt, captured it in gallant style, taking five pieces of ordnance, a large quantity of ammunition and several Mexican officers and men prisoners."
In this charge the First Tennessee suffered heavily in killed and wounded and won for itself the name of the "Bloody First." Many noble Sumner countians gave up their lives in this charge at their country's behest, while others were maimed for life. Here Booker H. Dalton and John F. Ralphfile, of the Polk Guards, and, First Corporal Julius C. Elliott, Peter Hinds Martin, Edward Pryor, Benjamin Soper, Isaac Inman Elliott and Thomas Jones of the Tenth Legion were killed, and Lieutenant J. Cam. Allen, of that company, lost a leg. History states that there were one hundred and twenty American soldiers killed at the battle of Monterey. Eight of these were Sumner countains, so out of every fifteen killed in that battle, Sumner county mourned one dead son or six and two-thirds per cent of the slain in that engagement. Out of these three companies, forty-five men died of disease contracted in the service in the war with Mexico.
The Third Tennessee Regiment was formed about the close of the war, after the First Regiment had been mustered out, and this regiment reached Mexico after the fighting had ceased.
The First Tennessee Regiment participated also in the investment and siege of Vera Cruz and in the battle of Cerro Gordo, April 18, 1847, where Samuel W. Lauderdale of the Tenth Legion was killed.
General W. B. Bate was a soldier in the war with Mexico, first as a member of a Louisiana regiment, and afterwards as a Lieutenant in Captain Hatton's Company of the Third Tennessee Regiment, and acted Adjutant of that regiment. Sumner county sent, in the person of General Wm. Trousdale, another distinguished soldier to the war with Mexico. He was Colonel of the Fourteenth Regular Infantry, but commanded a brigade in the operations of the army in the capture of the City of Mexico, and was wounded and brevetted for gallantry in the storming of the heights of Chepultepec, and was given honorable mention in General Scott's report to the Government. Sumner county sustained in the war, as she had every war before and has in every war since, her title to the name of the "Volunteer County of the Volunteer State."
By the liberality of its citizens the county erected, in 1848, a stone monument in the cemetery here to the memory of her sons who died in that war, but time and the elements have so wrought upon it that it is now toppling over, and soon even "Old Mortality," with chisel and hammer, could not preserve from utter defacement the names of those who are inscribed on its of honor. To preserve these names and the inscriptions on this monument we present them hereunder:
Glory followed their train, and by their death, was increased. Their fame is all that survives them. In their graves, all their remembrances are buried. Virtuous and esteemed in life, they have become glorious and immortal in death.
May our country never feel the want of such heroes.
John F. Ralphfile - Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; received wound in the battle of Monterey on 21st day of September, 1846, and died on the day of September, 1846; aged 30 years.
Briscoe Hatchett - Born in Sumner county, Tennessee; died in Camargo on the 24th day of September, 1846; aged 21 years.
Joseph Marshall - Born in Sumner county, Tennessee; died in Camargo on the 5th day of September, 1846; aged 21 years.
Richard Latham - Born in Sumner county, Tennessee; died in Jallappa on the 3d day of September, 1847; aged 26 years.
Thomas Young - Born in Macon county, Tennessee; died in Lomita on the 9th day of August, 1846; aged 28 years.
King Carr - Born in Sumner county, Tennessee, died in Camargo on the 10th day of September, 1846, aged 23 years.
Booker H. Dalton - Born in Sumner county, Tennessee; killed in battle at Monterey on the 21st of September, 1846; aged 30 years.
Thomas E. Harris - Born in Smith county, Tennessee; died in Camargo on the 8th day of November, 1846; aged 27 years.
George Barker - Born in Sumner county, Tennessee; died at his father's in Sumner county, on the 12th day of December, 1848, of disease contracted in service of United States Army; aged 21 years.
William Gambell - Belonged to Captain Hatton's company. Born in Sumner county, Tennessee; died at his uncle's in Sumner county, Tennessee, about the 16th day of November, 1846, of disease contracted service of United States Army; aged 21 years.
First Corporal Julius C. El1iott - Born in Sumner county, Tennessee; died at Monterey on the 3d day November, 1846, of wounds received in battle on the, 21st day of September, 1846; aged 21 years.
Peter Hynds Martin - Born in Sumner county, killed in battle at Monterey on the 21st day of September, 1846; aged 22 years.
Edward Pryor - Born in Sumner county, Tennessee; was killed in battle at Monterey on the 21st day of September, 1846; aged 23 years.
Benjamin Soper - Born in Sumner county, Tennessee; was killed in battle at Monterey on the 21st day of September, 1846; aged 21 years.
Isaac I. Elliott - Born in Sumner county, Tennessee; was killed in battle at Monterey on the 21st day of September, 1846; aged 22 years.
Samuel W. Lauderdale - Born in Sumner county, Tennessee; killed in battle at Cerro Gordo on the 18th of day April, 1847; aged 21 years.
John D. Watson - Born in Sumner county, Tennessee; died at Matamoras on the 18th day of August, 1846, aged 22 years.
William L. Cantrell - Born in Sumner county, died his father's home in Sumner county on the 20th day October, 1846, of disease incurred in service of United States Army; aged 21 years.
William Bradley - Born in Sumner county; died in Camargo on the 11th day of September, 1846; aged 24 years.
Zaccheus D. Wilson - Born in Sumner county; died in Camargo on the 31st day of August, 1846; aged 23.
Thomas Jones - Born in England; killed at Monterey on the 2d day of October, 1846; aged 43 years.
Pleasant V. Bell - Born in Sumner county; died in City of Mexico on the 10th day of January, 1848; aged 28 years.
Powhattan Childress - Born in Sumner county; died in the City of Mexico on the 31st day of December, 1847; aged 19 years.
Joseph Henry - Born in Sumner county; died in the City of Mexico on the 1st day of January, 1848; aged 19 years.
Henry W. Perry - Born in Pennsylvania; died in City of Mexico on the 5th day of January, 1848; aged 22 years.
Patrick Saunders - Born in Sumner county; died at Vera Cruz on the 19th day of December, 1847; aged 18 years.
Joseph S. Tennison - Born in Sumner County; died the City of Mexico on the 13th day of January, 1848, aged 19 years.
Marley Young - Born in Sumner County; died at Molino del Rey on the 5th day of May, 1848; aged 22 years.
John G. Kirby - Born in Sumner County; died at Penal, Mexico, on the 10th day of April, 1848; aged 26 years.
Joseph Rhodes - Born in Sumner County; died in hospital at New Orleans on the 18th day of June, 1848; aged 22 years.
Joseph Taylor - Born in Sumner County; died at Pueblo, Mexico, on the 5th day of June, 1848; aged 21 years.
Joseph Blair - Born in Sumner County; died here at his father's house on the 6th day of August, 1848, of disease incurred in service of U. S. Army; aged 23 years.
William Curry - Born in Sumner County; died here at his father's house on the 5th day of August, 1848, of disease incurred in service of United States Army; aged 19 years.
Alexander R. Schell - Born in Sumner County; died at Jalappa on the 17th day of December, 1847; aged 18 years; buried here.
Albert King - Born in Sumner County; died at Jallappa on the 14th day of May, 1848; aged 33 years.
Richard C. Ainsworth - Born in Sumner County, died in City of Mexico on the 29th day of June, 1848; aged 26 years.
Josephus Zarecor - Born in Sumner County, died on the Gulf of Mexico on the 29th day of June, 1848; aged 22 years.
Aser Lemons - Born in Sumner County, died on the Mississippi river on the 10th day of July, 1848; aged 21 years.
Stephen Goarley - Born in Sumner County, died at Memphis on the 19th day of July, 1849; aged 18 years.
James T. Leddy - Born in Sumner county, died at Memphis on the 21st day of July, 1848, of disease incurred in service of United States Army; aged 20 years.
William Turner - Born in Sumner county, died at Memphis on the 21st day of July, 1848, of disease incurred in service of the United States Army; aged 22 years.
James K. Frazier - Born in Sumner county, died at his father's in Sumner county on the 16th day of November, 1848, of disease incurred in service of United States Army; aged 25 years.
Eli Robertson - Born in Sumner county, died at his father's in Sumner county on the 5th day of August, 1848, of disease incurred in the service, of the United States Army; aged 22 years.
James H. Hogan - Born in Sumner county, died at his father's in Sumner county on the 23d day of August, 1848, of disease incurred in the service of the United States Army; aged 21 years.
William Henry - Born in Sumner county, died at his father's in Sumner county on the 20th day of December, 1848, of disease incurred in service of United States Army; aged 21 years.