USA > Tennessee > History of the Twentieth Tennessee regiment volunteer infantry, C.S.A > Part 35
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He was a consistent member of the Christian Church, sincere, earnest, and faithful, and he died in the hope of a blessed immor- tality. His memory will ever be cherished by his old comrades as a soldier true and tried, and by his associates in civil life as a citizen honorable and upright. His friends in the intimacy of social life remember him as a gentleman without stain or reproach, a kind, loving, and gracious friend.
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CAPT. W. W. SHUTE.
W. W. Shute was a son of John A. and Nancy Wadkins Shute, and was born near the Hermitage, Dec. 3, 1834. He was educated at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., and grad- uated from this institution in 1855.
In April, 1861, W. W. Shute joined a company that was being raised in Nashville by Capt. W. L. Foster, which afterward became Company A of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment. W. W. Shute was elected third sergeant of this company at its organization, and in February, 1862, was promoted to third lieu- tenant, and as such went through the battle of Shiloh.
At the reorganization of the army, May 8, 1862, at Corinth, he was elected second lieutenant, and in a short time was pro- moted to first lieutenant. He served as such until the Georgia campaign, when he was appointed Aid de Camp with the rank of captain on the staff of Col. T. B. Smith, who was commanding Tyler's old brigade, but this commission did not reach him, and he was ordered back to the command of his old company, which he retained until the final consolidation of the Tennessee troops in March, 1865, near Bentonville, N. C. when Lieut W. W. Shute was put in command of the remnants of three Tennessee regiments, viz., the Second, Tenth, and Twentieth, and these three regiments formed a part of the Fourth Tennessee Con- solidated Regiment under the command of Col. Anderson Searcy, of Gen. J. B. Palmer's brigade, and in this command W. W. Shute surrendered at Greensboro, N. C., April 26, 1865. He then returned to his old home, and went to farming, and in 1880 married Mrs. Beard, and moved to Sumner county. Captain Shute has two children, and now lives in Nashville.
WILLIAM H. HILL.
Written by DEERING J. ROBERTS, M. D
"Major" Hill, as the boys always called him, was born in Williamson Co., Tenn., in 1837. He enlisted in Company A, "Hickory Guards," as it was termed before it became a part of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment. He served faithfully as a soldier, performing satisfactorily every duty assigned to him
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during the four years' struggle, and in accordance with the last "General Orders" issued by that illustrious hero, Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, he then returned to his home and made as good a citizen as he had been a soldier.
In 1865 he married Miss Katherine J. Ewing, of Kemper Co., Miss., to whom were born five children, viz., W. T. Hill, of Denison, Texas; Medora C., Albert E., and Louis B. Hill, of Nashville; and Ed. McMurray Hill of Omaha, Neb., all of whom, with their mother, survive. William H. Hill died in the city of Nashville, May 10, 1881, respected and esteemed by all who knew him.
CAPT. C. S. JOHNSON.
Chas. S. Johnson was born July 27, 1833, in the sixth civil district of Davidson county, Tenn., and was educated at Mt. Juliet, Wilson Co., of the same State. He joined the Southern army as a private in Capt. Joel A. Battle's company in April, 1861.
After the battle of Fishing Creek, in which engagement the color guard of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment suffered severely, C. S. Johnson was appointed by Colonel Battle as one of its members, and he went with the colors through the bloody battle of Shiloh. At the reorganization of the Confederate Army at Corinth, May 8, 1862, he was elected first lieutenant of his old company, and served as such until after the battle of Hoover's Gap, June 23, 1863; when Major Claybrooke was killed and Captain Guthrie was promoted to Major, he became captain of Company B, in which position he served until the close of the war.
On the night before Gen. Joe Johnston's army surrendered at Greensboro, N. C., a report was circulated that General Forrest and his cavalry were going to the trans-Mississippi department, and would continue the war, and those who wanted to go with him were advised to get horses and come on. So Capt. C. S. Johnson had decided that he would not surrender with Gen. Johnston, and left the army that night to join General Forrest in the West; but he could not get a horse, and five days later, when
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he had gotten as far west as Atlanta, he was compelled to surren- der. He accepted his parole May 2, 1865, after making as faith- ful and as conscientious a soldier as his gallant regiment had in its ranks.
After the war he married Miss Bettie Johnson of Williamson county, and raised a large family, mostly girls. Captain Johnson has nearly lost his eyesight, and now lives in Nashville, honored and respected by his many friends.
W. J. MCMURRAY, M. D.
W. J. McMurray, a soldier and physician, was born in Wil- liamson County, Tennessee, Sept. 22, 1842, of Scotch Irish parentage. His father, John McMurray, was an educated gen- tleman, and taught school in Williamson county in the forties, and would teach only young men. His father, Sam McMurray, married Luvicy Morton, and his father was killed by the Indians in March, 1792, near Donaldson Station, Tenn. He married a Miss Kincade in Kentucky, and moved to this place in 1790.
The subject of this sketch lost his father when only ten years of age. His mother, nee Miss Mary J. Still, was born near Danville, Va., but was raised in Tennessee. In 1852 she was left a widow with seven children.
This young soldier said that when he was a child he often heard his father speak of the war that was soon to take place between the North and the South. So when the first bugle blast swept over the hills of Williamson county, this country boy was among the first to respond to its call, and joined a company that was being raised by Capt. Joel A. Battle at Nolensville in April, 1861. This company was afterward Company B of the Twenti- eth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
This boy soldier took a fancy to the drill and the duties of a soldier's life, and soon won the esteem of his comrades and the confidence of his superior officers. While the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment was camped at Cumberland Ford, Ky., in October, 1861, a vacancy occurred for first corporal, and W. J. McMurray was elected. Some two months later a vacancy oc- curred for second sergeant of Company B, to act in the capacity
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of orderly sergeant, as our orderly sergeant, John F. Guthrie, had been sent to the hospital with typhoid fever, and McMurray was promoted to this position. We can say of him that he could call the name of every man with his initials at any hour of the night without the company roll, and there were over one hun- dred names on the roll.
After his regiment had gone through the battles of Laurel Bridge, Wild Cat, Fishing Creek, and Shiloh, on Mav 8, 1862, all of the companies and the regiment were reorganized.
W. J. McMurray was elected second lieutenant of Company B, and at Dalton, Ga., 1864, was promoted to first lieutenant. In Breckenridge's charge at Murfreesboro, Jan. 2, 1863, he was wounded in the left breast, and was left on the field that night in the rain. At bloody Chickamauga he was thought to have been mortally wounded, and was again left on the field for the night, Sept. 19, 1863. At Resaca, in May, 1864, while the Fed- eral General McPherson was hurling the heavy legion of his corps against Bate's division of Hardee's corps, our Kentucky brigade of Bate's division was bearing the brunt of this assault, and the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment was held in reserve for the Kentuckians. When the noble Kentuckians were about to be overpowered, the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment was ordered to their support, and it was here on this field of carnage that we claim for Lieutenant McMurray a feat of daring and cool courage that we believe was not equalled by any one else in either the Federal or the Confederate armies during the war, and but few instances are recorded in the armies of the world.
As the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment formed in line and moved into action, Lieutenant McMurray was the left guide of the regiment and Henry K. Moss was the next in line on his right. Our line moved splendidly to its work, and shot and shell from the enemy's batteries and infantry were sweeping our ranks, and men were falling thick and fast. Just at this excit- ing moment, Lieutenant McMurray began to sing in a clear shrill voice one of the verses of that beautiful Southern war song :-
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"The Home-Spun Dress."
"And now, young men, a word to you If you .would win the fair, Go to the field where honor calls And win your lady there. Remember that our brightest smiles Are for the true and brave,
And that our tears are all for those Who fill a soldier's grave."
Henry K. Moss, who witnessed this cool daring in the face of death, surrounded by the dead and dying, says: "It was a deed that should go down the ages and be recorded in history." The next day Lieutenant McMurray was wounded in the left leg, near the same spot where he displayed such coolness the day before.
Nor is this all: when the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment broke camp and marched out to meet Sherman's forces at Rocky Face Gap at Dalton, Ga., and lay down in line of battle, as the first shell of the Georgia campaign passed over this gallant regiment, Lieutenant McMurray was heard to say, " Welcome, thrice wel- come, thou unfriendly visitor." Into this engagement, this boy had hobbled on a stick, from the effects of a wound received at Chickamauga seven months before.
Lieutenant McMurray was regarded as a fine disciplinarian and one of the best drilled officers in his regiment. He was in almost every battle that his regiment was in up to the 5th of August, 1864, when he lost his left arm in front of Atlanta. Dr. D. J. Roberts, now of Nashville, who was then surgeon of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment, amputated his arm on the field. He was sent to the fair grounds hospital at Macon, Ga., and there took gangrene in his stump, which was cauterized three mornings in succession with nitric acid. He recovered, and reported back to his command for duty while Hood's army was at Tupelo, north Mississippi, in January, 1865, and was rec- ommended for post duty. He surrendered with General For- rest's command at Marion, Ala., May 17, 1865, and reached home June 2, having been in the Confederate service four years,
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one month, and fifteen days, and having been wounded four times, and yet hardly out of his teens.
You could scarcely expect anything else of Lieutenant Mc- Murray than a good soldier, when on the morning he left home for the war, his mother told him that she would rather see him brought home dead than to know of his disgracing himself. At the battle of Wild Cat, 1861, as his company started in, he asked J. M. Smith, who was by his side and had seen service in Mexico, to shoot him if he started to run.
When Lieutenant McMurray returned home at the close of the war with a wound in each leg, one in the body, and his left arm off, and he without one dollar, he went to work in the field to make a living and to get money to finish his education. He entered the Nolensville Academy under Prof. Joseph D. Didiot of Paris, France, and graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1867. He then read medicine under Drs. W. M. Clark and Thos. G. Shannon at Nolensville, and two years later graduated in medicine at the University of Nashville, and was chosen by a unanimous vote of a class of seventy-two graduates to deliver the valedictory address.
Dr. McMurray began the practice of medicine in 1869. In 1872 he was elected by the county court physician to the David- son county jail, a position he held for seven years. In 1874 he was appointed a member of the Nashville City Board of Health; in 1876 was a member of the board of aldermen and vice-presi- dent of the Nashville Medical Society. He was for a number of years the Democratic chairman of his ward, and in 1888 was chairman of the Davidson county Democratic Executive Com- mittee. In 1890 he was chairman of the County Campaign Committee, when his party won against thousands of boodle money. He held the position of physician to the Tennessee Industrial School for twelve years, and was appointed by Gov. Robt. L. Taylor on the State Board of Health, 1897, and suc- ceeded himself twice on the board by appointments from Gov. Benton McMillin, and has been president of the board for the past five years.
Dr. McMurray has been a member of the Tennessee Historical Society for twenty years, and chairman of its History Committee
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for the past year. He is now one of the chiefs of the "Scots of Tennessee."
But Dr. McMurray's greatest work has been in behalf of his old comrades. He was a charter member of the Frank Cheatham Bivouac, was the first chairman of the Committee on Credentials, which he held for four years. He was then made president of the Bivouac, became president of the State Association of Old Soldiers, and was re-elected by the association as a member of the board of trustees of the Tennessee Confederate Soldiers' Home; he has been a member of the executive board since the foundation of the home, and was its president four years. Dr. McMurray is now and has been for ten years Surgeon General on the staff of Lieut .- Gen. Stephen D. Lee of the United Confed- erate Veterans. He wrote the sketch of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment in Dr. J. B. Lindsley's " Military Annals of Tennessee."
In 1873 Dr. McMurray married Miss Francis Marion Mc- Campbell, daughter of Hon. Thomas C. McCampbell, a State Sen- ator from the Knoxville District in 1845. She was graduated at Ward's Female Academy in 1872, and is now a member of the Executive Board of the Ladies' Hermitage Association and president of the Nashville Chapter No. I Daughters of the Confederacy.
To this union was born only one child, Adele Morton, who was married to Charles L. Ridley, Jr., in 1897.
We, the undersigned, who were raised and soldiered with Dr. W. J. McMurray, have written this sketch :-
CAPT. FRANK BATTLE.
LIEUT. T. G. WILLIAMS. PRIVATE HENRY K. Moss.
LIEUT. THOMAS G. WILLIAMS.
Lieut. Thomas G. Williams was born in the east end of William- son Co., Tenn., May 11, 1839. His family was among the first settlers of this section of country. He was educated near his old home, and was teaching school when the war broke out in 1861. He joined the first company raised in his section of country, which afterward became Company B of the Twentieth Tennessee Volun-
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teer Infantry Regiment. While at Cumberland Ford, Ky., October, 1861, Thomas G. Williams was promoted from the ranks to corporal, and at the reorganization of the Confederate army at Corinth, May 8, 1862, he was elected third lieutenant, and at Dalton, Ga., 1864, was promoted to second lieutenant. This faithful officer was with his regiment in almost every battle from Wild Cat, 1861, to Nashville, 1864, and was always at his post of duty.
He was wounded in Breckinridge's charge at Murfreesboro, and again at bloody Chickamauga. Soon after the close of the war, in 1865, he married Miss Elizabeth M. Jordon, and has made a faithful husband, an industrious, prosperous, and highly respected citizen. To this union were born twelve children, eleven of whom are now living.
Lieutenant Williams was one of the best educated men in his company. He has educated his eleven children, and has a competency left to ease him and his faithful wife down the shady side of life.
TIMOTHY JOHNSON.
Timothy Johnson was born near Castalian Springs, Summer Co., Tenn., Oct. 30, 1840. His father afterward moved to Nash- ville, and was one of the principal men engaged in building the stone piers of the old suspension bridge, as well as the stone work of the Nashville Military Academy. He afterward moved with his family to near Concord Church, in the sixth district of David- son Co., where "Tim," as we called him, grew to young manhood.
It was here in April, 1861, when the dark clouds of war hung like a heavy vail over our Southland, that Tim Johnson decided at once to whom he owed allegiance, and joined Capt. Joel A. Battle's company, which became Company B of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment. He was wounded three times.
He was a member of our regimental infirmary corps, at Chick- amauga, and did his work so well at the battle of Resaca, Ga.,. when Tyler's brigade of Bate's division was hotly engaged, and had two men killed on this field who had charge of our brigade infirmary corps, that he was appointed by General Bate to take
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charge of Tyler's brigade infirmary corps, which he held to the close of the war, and surrendered at Greensboro, N. C., April 26, 1861. I was wounded on four separate fields, and Tim Johnson helped to carry me off of three of them.
After the war, he arrived home May 23, 1865, like the rest of us with nothing save honor, and then another struggle took place for a living, and nobly did he meet it. In 1876 he was appointed deputy sheriff by Frank Woodall, and served a full term, and was then elected sheriff of Davidson Co., but did not stand for a second term.
Mr. Johnson represented his county in the State Legislature for 1877 and 1878. He is now serving his second term as Jury Commissioner of Davidson Co. We are glad to say of this faith- ful soldier and good citizen, that he now lives near his old home in the sixth civil district of Davidson Co., on his farm, enjoying the fruits of a well-rounded life, surrounded by a happy family.
DAVID G. KING
David Gooch King was born in September, 1840, near Nolens- ville, Williamson county, Tenn. He was the son of George P. and Lucinda Tate Gooch King. His mother died when he was three days old, and the infant was taken and raised to manhood by Mrs. Elizabeth Ridley, an aunt. His father went with a pros- pecting party to Mexico when the child was quite young, and was there murdered by the Mexicans.
This young patriot, in whose bosom burned that glow of Southern enthusiasm, joined the company that was raised by Capt. Joel A. Battle, at Nolensville, in April, 1861, and followed the fortunes of the Twentieth Tennessee around to Chickamauga, where on Sept. 19, 1863, in that desperate charge of Gen. A. P. Stewart's division, he received his death wound. He was carried from this bloody field to Atlanta, took gangrene in his wound, and died Oct. 9, 1863. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery, at that place, where a small marble shaft that was erected by Mrs. Fannie Milledge tells of a Tennessee boy who gave his life for our Southern cause.
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David Gooch King came of good parentage, than which, on the Gooch side, there was none better in the State.
ADJUTANT JAS. W. THOMAS.
James W. Thomas was born in Nashville in 1838, and died in 1889. He served for some time as private and sergeant in Company C, and at the reorganization of the regiment was made adjutant, and served as such until disabled by wounds received at Hoover's Gap.
He was a man of great popularity, and all the members of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment remembered him with pride and affection. His personal courage was of the highest order ; "Jim" Thomas was always in front in time of danger.
At Murfreesboro he left a sickbed to be with his command during the battle, and stayed with them during that trying week, while scarcely able to sit on his horse.
At Hoover's Gap, while passing through the thicket on that steep hill-side, the regiment seemed about to stop, and to stop then meant disaster to that wing of the army. Adjutant Thomas, who was in his position just behind the colors, rushed through the ranks to the front, assisting the ever gallant Col. T. B. Smith in his efforts on the right, urging and encouraging the boys to such an extent that they followed in a charge that swept the Federals back. He was shot down during the charge, and for a moment seemed dead. He fell upon his face, but with a desperate effort twisted over, and waving his sword above him exclaimed, "Go on, boys, don't stop for me. Go on and drive them back." An effort was made to carry him from the field upon the repulse of the regiment, but he was in such mortal agony that he made the men leave him, thinking death would come in a few moments. He was removed that night by the Federals, and treated by them with the utmost kindness. He was allowed to be taken to the home of his uncle, W. B. Cooper, near Nashville, for treatment. His wounds seemed to be healing rapidly, but upon one of his visits his family physician and life-long friend, Dr. T. L. Maddin, who had been permitted by the Federal authorities to take charge of his case, discovered that an aneurism was forming upon the
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main artery near the heart, which would certainly destroy his life if unchecked. He told him his condition and that his only chance was an operation, the result of which was extremely doubtful. The operation was performed, a very rare and difficult one, by Dr. Maddin, assisted by some Federal surgeons, and after months of suffering he recovered sufficiently to be removed to Fort Delaware prison. He was discharged near the close of the war, but was never able to do active duty again.
He never recovered fully from the effects of the wound, and died from chronic disease brought about by the hardships of army life. He was elected State Treasurer during General Bate's administration as Governor, and died while serving in that capacity, leaving a wife and six children.
J. L. COOPER.
James L. Cooper was born in Nashville, July 19, 1844, and with one exception, was the youngest member of Company C. He is the only survivor of five first cousins who were connected with the Twentieth Tennessee. The others were Litton Bostick, who fought gallantly as a volunteer in Company C at Shiloh, and was afterward made aid by General Granbury, and was killed at Atlanta on the 22nd of July; Abe Bostick of Company C was transferred to the Seventh Tennessee, and was killed at the battle of Seven Pines near Richmond; James H. Thomas, a sketch of whom appears in this book ; and William H. Robinson, who was transferred to Forrest's cavalry, then made captain, and was badly wounded and captured at Baker's X Roads. Two of the cousins were killed in battle, the other three badly wounded, captured, and served long terms in prison.
James L. Cooper was wounded and captured at Fishing Creek, was confined at Camp Chase until August, 1862, then exchanged and rejoined the regiment at Jackson, Miss. He was badly wounded at Missionary Ridge, recovering just in time to be hit again at Resaca, and received a fourth wound at Franklin. At Resaca he was shot through the face and neck while the regiment was climbing to the top of a little hill behind some flimsy rail piles. The position was just over the hill and terribly exposed.
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Captain Ewin, Lieutenant Shute, and Captain Clay Lucas wanted to send him to the rear where he could be attended to, but he told them, "No, I will die in a few minutes, stretch me out and let me alone, I can't move." About that time a shell from a newly located Yankee battery exploded among the rails, sending some of them fifty feet in the air, but before they hit the ground Cooper was up and moving to the rear, and if a bullet passed him going over the crest of that hill, it must have started first.
Shortly before the battle of Chickamauga he was made first sergeant of Company C, and served in that capacity until July, 1864, when he was made Aid de Camp by Brig .- Gen. Tyler for "gallant and meritorious conduct." Gen. Tyler being disabled by wounds received at Missionary Ridge, he served as Aid to Gen. T. B. Smith, who commanded the brigade during General Tyler's absence, and was paroled at Greensboro, Ga., after the end of the war.
He is now living near Nashville, in the eighteenth district, engaged in farming and dairying.
PHILIP N. MATLOCK.
Written by DEERING J. ROBERTS, M. D.
Philip N. Matlock was reared in the fifth civil district of David- son county, about nine miles from Nashville, near the Murfrees- boro Pike. He was the only male child in a family of five, and was educated at Franklin College, then under the care of Talbert Fanning.
He joined the Harding Artillery, commanded by Captain Monteserrat, in August, 1861. In January 1862, the battery was divided into two companies, one commanded by Captain Baxter and the other by Captain Baker, he going with Baker's company. After the battle of Shiloh, in which his battery was engaged, Bragg going into Kentucky, his battery remained with General Price in Mississippi, and was engaged in the battles of Corinth and Iuka. On the retreat from Corinth, October, 1862, the guns were captured with a part of the men at Hatchie River. He and others who escaped were consolidated with an Alabama battery.
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