USA > Tennessee > History of the Twentieth Tennessee regiment volunteer infantry, C.S.A > Part 33
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
392
HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH TENNESSEE REGIMENT
State's funds thus : "I advise that out of what is left of the Bank of Tennessee, the Common School Fund shall be, as far as pos- sible, replaced," etc. He further said: "The amount returned, $444,719.70, sold for $618,250, and was invested in 7:30 U. S. bonds."
When Colonel Battle returned with the archives of the State, he was arrested and put in prison. His wife and daughters applied to Col. Jordan Stokes to use his influence with Governor Brownlow to have him released, when Colonel Stokes replied: "Never mind, it will be all right, we three know each other ;" as if to say, we were old-line "Whigs" before the war. Your writer personally knew that when Colonel Battle returned home, he was penniless, he and his family did not have one dollar; and yet he through the long dark night of poverty, was the ever faithful, honest, and brave custodian of this fund, and gave an account of every cent.
After the war, Colonel Battle moved to Nashville, and in 1872 was appointed by Gov. John C. Brown superintendent of the State prison, which position he retained until his death, and it was said by those in authority that he inaugurated a number of important changes in the prison discipline. This grand old Roman laid down his life on Aug. 23, 1872, a victim of a severe attack of dysentery, and as his remains were being carried through the city of Nashville to their last resting place at Cane Ridge, the old ancestral home, the remnant of his old regiment accompanied them to the city limits, and with bowed and uncov- ered heads and hearts full of sympathy and love, bade forever adieu to one of the grandest types of manhood that the State of Tennessee has ever furnished.
The beginning of the war in 1861 found Joel A. Battle and his family wealthy, surrounded with all the comforts of a country life ; and when that terrible drama closed, they had not a roof to shelter them from storm, and two of the family had been slain on the battle field. This family was like thousands of other families of the South that came out of the war poverty-stricken, but this poverty was a passport for loyalty and courage.
Col. Joel A. Battle was a Knight of Pythias, and to show the
Digitized by Google
393
1
BIOGRAPHICAL SRETCHES
high esteem in which his brethren of this order held him, several years after his death a lodge was organized in Nashville, named Joel A. Battle Lodge in his honor, and a magnificent hall was built near the Peabody Normal College, at a cost of $15,000.
It can be said of Colonel Battle and his family that they were not like some, who never encountered danger, and remained behind the lines to fatten and grow rich off the misfortunes and absence of others. At Colonel Battle's death, he left to survive him his lovely Christian wife, one son, Captain Frank, and four daughters, namely, Miss Fannie, a noble representative of the Battle family, who has devoted her life to the relief of the poor ; Miss Sallie, who married Capt. Dick Herbert of the Twenty- fourth Tennessee Volunteers; and Miss Betty, who married Mr. Scales, and moved to Texas soon after the war, as did her younger sister, who married Captain Giles of the Eighth Texas Cavalry.
GENERAL THOS. B. SMITH. Written by DEERING J. ROBERTS, M. D.
Thomas Benton Smith was born at Mechanicsville, Tenn., Feb. 24, 1838. His father, James M. Smith, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was with the heroic and indomitable Jackson at the battle of New Orleans. He was born in Virginia in 1797, his parents migrating to Tennessee in the days of the pio- neers. He was engaged in the business of millwright, and was a manufacturer of cotton gins a good part of his life. His wife was Miss Martha Washington Page, who was born in Williamson Co., Tenn. Her family was of the highest standing in this, one of the most magnificent counties of the State, so well and widely known for the high attainments and refinement of her sons and daughters.
James M. and Martha W. Smith had a number of children born to them, but all died in early life except the subject of this sketch, his brother John, who was killed at Murfreesboro on the first days' engagement between the armies of Bragg and Rose-
26
Digitized by Google
394
HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH TENNESSEE REGIMENT
crans, and a sister now living, Mrs. Johnson Woods, who was first married to a Mr. Cloyd.
Thomas, the younger of the two brothers who attained man- hood, was educated in the country schools of his neighborhood until sixteen years of age. He showed remarkable ingenuity of mind in having patented a locomotive cow-catcher or pilot when he was fifteen years old.
In his sixteenth year, his father having died, he was sent to the Nashville Military Institute (the University of Nashville), then under the management and control of Bushrod Johnson, who became a general of considerable reputation in the war between the States. After four years under the classic shades of this military school, Tom was sent to West Point, where he remained only one year, being a lieutenant in his cadet company. Return- ing to Tennessee and following the mechanical turn of his mind, he obtained a position at the shops of the Nashville and Decatur railroad, now an important link in the L. N. & G. S. system. Toward the close of 1859, he returned to his mother's home in Williamson county, at the instigation of his brother John, who told him that now the time had come to "prepare for war."
With the early spring months of 1861 we find him engaged in raising a company at Triune, which, uniting with a body of volunteers gathered by Gen. Joel A. Battle, became Company B of the Twentieth Tennessee. General Battle was elected captain, and Dr. Wm. Clark, first lieutenant, Thos. B. Smith, second lieu- tenant, and Wm. Mathews, third lieutenant. On the promotion of Battle to the colonelcy of the Twentieth, Smith became first lieutenant, but on account of his previous military experience, to him was left the moulding of Company B into the splendid body of soldiers it became, vieing with Company A, which was ac- knowledged to be the best-drilled company in the regiment, owing its proficiency, like Company B, to the untiring ability and energy of one of its lieutenants, Albert Roberts.
Ardent spirits both, to these two "file closers," one at the extreme right and the other at the left of the regiment, was in great measure due the development of the ten companies of raw recruits into one of the best "fighting machines" of the Confederate Army.
Digitized by Google
395
BIOGARPHICAL SKETCHES
At the reorganization of the Twentieth Tennessee at Corinth, Miss., in May, 1862, Thos. Benton Smith was elected colonel. At the head of this regiment, as he appeared in 1862, Colonel Smith was the physical embodiment of a magnificent soldier, with mental attainments and inclination that made him admired and respected by all who came in personal contact with him. Splendidly built, on grand proportions, a little over six feet tall, muscular, erect as an Indian, of a somewhat dark complexion, deep gray eyes, quiet and courteous in demeanor, cool, calm, and collected on all occasions, whether in genial conversation or in the thickest storm of shot and shell, with a most kindly interest in every man in his command, at all times approachable by any subaltern or private in the line, yet commanding the respect and esteem of those superior to him in military rank, he was the beau ideal of a soldier. His military history is given in the previous pages of this volume, and to him, as much as to any one, if not more, is certainly due the reputation, the renown, and the favor- able consideration of every general who commanded this body of men who have made the name and fame of the Twentieth Ten- nessee a term that will go down "in song and story" through the ever-coming years. The soldiers of the Volunteer State have much to be proud of, from "King's Mountain" even down to our latest essay at war's dread din in the Spanish-American affair of the present century, but to no body of her grand soldiery has more lasting fame attached than to the Twentieth.
Wednesday afternoon, on the field of Murfreesboro, Colonel Smith received a severe wound across the breast, the same ball passing through his left arm. This was the most serious injury he received from the enemy during the war. At the battle of Baton Rouge, in the early dawn, as he was leading his men through the Yankee encampment from which they had been driven, his horse was shot dead, and in falling pinned his leg to the ground ; but finding that he could extricate his leg by with- drawing his foot from his boot, the spur on its heel being driven into the ground, he did so, and was again at the head of his ad- vancing column, on foot, "with one boot off, and one boot on."
He followed the varying fortunes of war that came to the Twentieth through its many and severe trials. After the wound-
Digitized by Google
396
HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH TENNESSEE REGIMENT
ing of Colonel Tyler, who was his senior in rank at the battle of Missionary Ridge, he took command of Bate's old brigade, and was its commander during the succeeding winter at Dalton, and throughout the long and trying campaign from there to Atlanta. At the end of this one hundred days, in August, 1864, while in front of Atlanta, he received his commission from Richmond as Brigadier-General, C. S. A., and was entitled to enwreathe his three stars, as his "boys" had so enwreathed themselves in glory.
His command accompanied Hood into Tennessee, actively par- ticipating in all the engagements with Bate's division down to the battle of Nashville, where his work as a soldier, true and tried, terminated by his capture and subsequent confinement as a pris- oner of war at Fort Warren, where he remained until the close of the struggle.
The shadows of night were rapidly falling on a short winter's day, when with many of his command barefooted, half-clad, and wearied with a forced march from Murfreesboro, General Smith occupied a slight eminence among the Overton Hills just south of Nashville, having received orders from General Bate to "hold his part of the line at all hazards," and having repulsed repeated assaults by the enemy. The gallant Shy, commanding his old regiment, had fallen with his face to the foe, his hand clinched in death on the trigger of an Enfield rifle.
On that fated December evening, General Smith noticed a man near him fall forward, with the blood gushing out of the left side and back of his head. On looking to the rear and left, he saw the "Stars and Stripes" pushing forward on his left, well to the rear ; the line on his right had melted away, the blue line was to his right and also well to the rear; the assaulting columns in front were repulsed, but the hosts advancing both on the right and left rear showed him, as did the scattered fugitives fleeing in all directions, only too plainly that the day was lost; and drawing his handkerchief from his pocket and waving it above his head, he commanded the little squad near him to "cease firing." Yes, all was gone but honor. He had obeyed orders, and had held the line at all hazards. The inevitable had come.
The little rise among the Overton Hills soon swarmed with Blue, and having been taken in charge by three soldiers, General
Digitized by Google
397
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Smith was marched northward over the ground so thickly covered with the Federal dead and dying, and after getting about 160 yards to the rear, nothing but desultory shots being heard getting farther and farther toward the south, he was met by a man who disgraced the uniform worn by "Pap Thomas," Grant, Sheridan, McPherson, and others. To Brigadier-General Jas. Winning McMillan, U. S. A., of Clark Co., Ky., a soldier who had served in the Mexican war, and whose father fought with Washington, is due the credit (?) of striking an unarmed prisoner in the pres- ence of three soldiers armed and wearing the uniform he so dire- fully tarnished, having this prisoner under guard ; yes, of striking him with his sabre, not once, but three times over the head, each blow cutting through the hat, and the last felling his victim to the earth. When carried to the Federal field hospital, the sur- geon, on examining the wound, remarked: "Well, you are near the end of your battles, for I can see the brain oozing through the gap in the skull." He was both right and wrong-the battles of the Confederate and Federal forces were near the end ; but our gallant boy general, so youthful for his rank, so true and tried as a soldier, survived this dastardly deed; but for the last twenty- eight years has been an inmate of the Central Hospital for the Insane of his native State, the result of a wound received as the government for which he had been so faithfully striving was crumbling away. Oh the shame of that wound to the perpetrator ! And as to the subject of this brief sketch, what shall we say? "There's a Destiny that shapes our ends Rough, hew them as we will."
Yes, -
" The saddest words of tongue or pen, Are these, -. "
COL. WM. M. SHY.
Written by DEERING J. ROBERTS, M. D.
Wm. M. Shy was born in Kentucky about the year 1838 or '39. His father and mother were living on a farm near Franklin at the opening of the war between the States. One son, Dr.
Digitized by Google
398
HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH TENNESSEE REGIMENT
Louis Shy, at that time living in Perry county, organized the Perry Guards, which became Company G, of the Twentieth Tennessee. Having become disabled by breaking his ankle by a fall from his horse on the first march the company made, he was discharged from service. A younger brother applied for enlistment in the Twentieth, but was pronounced unfit for mili- tary duty by the examining surgeon.
" Bill " Shy, as he was popularly known in the regiment, en- listed as a private in Company H, and was mustered into the service at Camp Trousdale with the rest of the company. At the organization of the regiment he was appointed one of the regimental color guard. He passed through the battle of Fishing Creek, and early in the following spring was elected a lieutenant of his company.
At the reorganization of his regiment in front of Corinth, in May, 1862, he was made captain of Company H, and no more effective or faithful company commander was ever selected. He was a friend of each and every member of his company.
Of an unusually quiet disposition, he was not much given to words, but when he did speak, it was to the purpose. He was unquestionably a man rather of deeds than words. Modest as a woman, and as gentle, kindly to all with whom he came in contact, in time of battle he was the embodiment of courage, determined and brave to a degree. In the hottest of the fight, in the dash of a charge, he was always calm and collected; with no excitement at any time, as calm and cool under the hottest fire of shot and shell as by the reminiscent campfire indulging in reveries of home and stories of the days of peace.
Promoted to be major of the regiment in 1863, the rank of lieutenant-colonel soon followed, and when Col. Thos. B. Smith received his commission of brigadier-general, Lieut .- Col. Wm. M. Shy became colonel of the Twentieth Tennessee. He led his regiment most gallantly through the remainder of the Dalton- Atlanta campaign, at Jonesboro, and on to the fatal field of Franklin, to Murfreesboro with Bate and Forrest, and at last came to a soldier's end on the lines in front of Nashville, at the head of his regiment. He fell, a minnie ball piercing his brain, his hand grasped around the trigger guard of a fallen
Digitized by Google
399
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
soldier's Enfield which he had just discharged at the advancing lines of blue. Yes, he fell, fighting to the last, and in accordance with the command of his division general, he had " held the line at all hazards."
What more can we say of him? He gave up his bright young life for a cause he believed was RIGHT. A genial comrade, faith- ful to his friends and his cause, earnest, sincere, and most honor- able in every word and deed, it was a sad sacrifice on the altar of his country.
But few of his family are left in this vicinity, and those all of the third generation. Our biography of this, one of the most gallant soldiers in this most heroic regiment, is but brief, yet it can be said of him, as of Bayard, he was " sans peur et sans reproche."
LIEUT .- COL. JNO. S. GOOCH.
In the beginning of hostilities between the States the subject of this sketch, Lieut .- Col. John Saunders Gooch, was a student at the Military Academy at Nashville, Tenn. His friends at his home near Smyrna, Tenn., organized a company and elected him captain in his absence, without his knowledge, and unsolic- ited. He accepted the honor thus conferred.
The company was sent by the proper authority to Camp Trous- dale, where it was drilled and organized into the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment of Volunteers, Battle's regiment, his com- pany being Company E. The regiment was ordered to Virginia, but was stopped at Bristol, and ordered into Kentucky through Cumberland Gap.
At Fishing Creek or Mills Springs, Ky., Captain Gooch, in leading his company in a desperate charge, received a severe wound, which at the time was thought to be fatal. His men rescued and brought him off the field, as they thought in a dying condition. He rallied, however, and was furloughed.
At the organization of the army at Corinth, Miss., during his absence, he was elected lieutenant-colonel of his regiment in his nineteenth year, showing the regard and esteem in which he was held by his comrades in arms.
Digitized by Google
400
HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH TENNESSEE REGIMENT
He rejoined the army at Vicksburg, Miss., where his regiment had been sent, and reported for duty, but on account of his wound, which was in an unhealed condition, and no prospects. for an early recovery, he resigned his commission, and was honorably discharged from the army.
It was many years after the close of the war before he recov- ered from his wound. Since the war he has remained on his farm near Smyrna, and represents the true type of a Southern gentleman.
MAJOR PATRICK DUFFY.
Major Patrick Duffy was born near the town of Straban, County Donegal, Ireland, and came to America in early life. He was a volunteer in the Florida War of 1836, was a lieutenant in Col. W. B. Campbell's First Tennessee Regiment in the war with Mexico. It was by his order that the first American flag was hoisted over the Mexican fort at the city of Monterey; his com- pany was one of the color companies.
After the Mexican War he lived at Hartsville until 1861, and when our war between the States broke out, this brave and patri- otic Irishman donned his gray, and stepped into the arena, and raised a company at Hartsville, which afterward became Com- pany K of the Twentieth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry.
Captain Duffy was elected major of this regiment at its first organization, and a braver man was never promoted to be major of any regiment.
At the battle of Fishing Creek, Major Duffy had his old roan horse killed by a cannon ball. When he went into the battle of Shiloh, our major was on a long, tall sorrel horse that was very spirited, and when the firing became general, the major could not control him, so he dismounted. Having lost his horse at Fishing Creek, he was trying to hold his sorrel behind a large tree, which was a difficult matter to do, and the old major became vexed at the horse and said to him, "You fool, if you don't stand still, you will get daylights knocked out of you." While the major was trying to hold the horse behind the tree, he himself
Digitized by Google
.
401
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
was being exposed. In this same engagement, Colonel Battle was wounded and captured; Lieutenant-Colonel Carter having been captured at Fishing Creek, this left Major Duffy in com- mand of the regiment from April 7 to May 8, 1862. When the regiment was reorganized, Major Duffy was a candidate for colonel, and was defeated by Captain Thomas Benton Smith. This somewhat wounded the pride of the major, as he was in the line of promotion, and he retired from the service. He lived to a ripe old age, loved and respected by his many friends.
He was never married, but lived and died in the belief that he would be some day. He would never allow his picture to be taken, and the one that accompanies this sketch was taken without his knowledge or consent.
MAJOR FRED CLAYBROOKE.
Major Fred Claybrooke, a son of Colonel John S. and Mary Perkins Claybrooke, was born Sept. 21, 1837, in Williamson county, Tennessee, and was educated at Hardeman's Academy near Triune under Ebenezer Crocker, and at the Military Acad- emy at Nashville, and in Virginia. His section and county was thoroughly Southern.
Williamson county voted in 1860, 1,800, and in 1861 and 1862 sent 2,200 volunteers into the Southern army.
On May 27, 1861, Fred Claybrooke joined a company that was being made up at College Grove, Bethesda, Peytonsville, and Triune, known as the Webb Guards. William Rucker was elected its captain, Pinkston first lieutenant, Fred Claybrooke second lieutenant, and A. D. A. Rucker third lieutenant.
This company was sent to Camp Trousdale, and was incor- porated into the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment as Company D.
Lieutenant Claybrooke was a subordinate officer until the battle of Fishing Creek. First Lieutenant Pinkston was in command, and when he was captured, Second Lieutenant Claybrooke took charge of Company D, and led them gallantly through the re- mainder of the battle and back to camp, recrossed the Cumberland River that night, and shared their hardships on that ever-memor-
-
Digitized by Google
402
HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH TENNESSEE REGIMENT
able ten-days' retreat from Mill Springs to Gainesboro in the dead of winter, without blankets or rations save parched corn.
The Twentieth Tennessee Regiment after its retreat to Gaines- boro, joined Albert Sidney Johnson's forces at Murfreesboro on their way to Shiloh. In this terrible battle Company D was commanded by its gallant captain, with Lieutenant Claybrooke as second in command. In this engagement the Twentieth Ten- nessee lost heavily, and Company D furnished her share of the loss.
After the battle of Shiloh the Confederate forces fell back to Corinth, and the entire army was reorganized on May 8, 1862. Company D of the Twentieth Tennessee elected Lieutenant Fred Claybrooke as its captain, and in a short time after the reorganiza- tion Lieut .- Col. John S. Gooch resigned, on account of a wound received at Fishing Creek, and Major Frank Lanvender was pro- moted to lieutenant-colonel and Captain Claybrooke to major. While a major, your writer has seen him get off his horse on those long Mississippi marches, and put two broken-down soldiers on it; and he then would take the gun of another soldier, and strike out through the sand half-leg deep.
ยท Major Claybrooke was with his regiment at the first seige of Vicksburg, 1862, also at the battle of Baton Rouge. After the latter battle was fought the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment was sent by way of Mobile and Atlanta to Murfreesboro, Tenn. Here we were still in Breckinridge's division, which was composed of the brigades of Adams, Helm, Palmer, and Preston. When the battle of Murfreesboro opened, Breckinridge's division took posi- tion on the extreme right, east of Stone's River, and about twelve o'clock on the first day's battle Breckinridge was ordered to send to near the Cowan House the two brigades of Adams and Helm, and later his remaining two brigades, Palmer's and Preston's. The Twentieth Tennessee was the right regiment of Preston's brigade, and the Sixtieth North Carolina and First, Third, and Fourth Florida composed the brigade.
On our arrival, about 4 P. M., the brigade was formed and moved forward down by the Cowan Pond. When we got to the cut in the N. & C. R. R., all of the brigade went to the left of the cut, except the Twentieth Tennessee, which moved straight
Digitized by Google
403
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
forward into a cotton field in the direction of Round Forrest; but when the regiment had gone some distance into the field, we could go no farther, and were ordered to lie down. It was so hot we could not stay here. Our color-bearer had been killed, our colonel wounded, and we were ordered back out of the field, every man for himself.
It was here at the Cowan Pond that I saw Major Fred Clay- brooke perform as gallant an act as did Lannes at the battle of Lodi, viz., when his colonel had been wounded and his color- bearer killed, he took Isaac Hyde, one of the remaining color guards, up behind him, and rode up and down the line, waving the colors under a heavy cannonading and sharpshooting from the enemy. After he had rallied his regiment, he double-quicked them down under a bluff, halted them, and ordered a charge which drove a line of Yankees off the bluff across the cotton field, and captured seventy-five of them. This was as gallant a deed as your writer saw during the war. A fuller description of this is given in the Regimental History.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.