USA > Tennessee > Shelby County > Memphis > The Old Guard in Gray. Researches in the Annals of the Confederate Historical Association. Sketches of Memphis veterans who upheld her standards in the war, and of other Confederate worthies.. > Part 12
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MCGHEE, W. T., private in the " Como Avengers," of the Eighteenth Mississippi Cavalry. The company was organized in April or May. 1861, at Memphis ; he was at Fort Pillow, Columbus, Ky .. Bowling Green, at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and after that was in General Forrest's escort and with him in all his campaigns until the end of the war; was first in General J. S. Bowen's Brigade ; paroled May 11, 1865.
McGOWAN, E. L., private in Company A, Seventh Ten- nessee Cavalry, Rucker's Brigade, Jackson's Division ; en- listed August, 1862; served through the war, and paroled May 17, 1865 ; was afterward sheriff of Shelby county and a prominent Front Row merchant in Memphis. Admitted to the C. H. A. October, 1894.
McDAVITT, J. C., enlisted while practicing law with the late Chancellor Kortrecht, May 10, 1861, as a private in Bankhead's Battery. He was soon made second lieutenant, and in November, 1861, was promoted to senior first lieuten- ant of the battery, which he commanded at Shiloh, where he was wounded. In the fall of 1862 he was transferred to General Maury's command at Mobile, Ala., as instructor and inspector of artillery, and for several months in 1863 com- manded the ironclad floating battery and Battery McIntosh (of eleven heavy guns) off Mobile. In June, 1864, he was transferred to the general staff of Lieutenant-General Polk, where he was inspector and adjutant of artillery of Polk's corps, participating in the battles of the Georgia campaign from Kennesaw Mountain to Atlanta, including those around
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J. C. McDAVITT.
the latter place. Early in September, 1864, he was again transferred to Mobile as inspector of artillery under Colonel Burnett, and was stationed at the heavy batteries in the bay until the surrender of Mobile in April, 1865. He was paroled at Meridian, Miss., May 4, 1865, with the rank of first lieu- tenant of artillery. Joined the C. H. A. May 29, 1884.
After the war he was of the law firm of MeDavitt & Bond, and of Estes, Jackson & McDavitt. For the last fifteen years he has confined himself to examinations of titles to real estate.
The only surviving officers of the battery engaged at the battle of Shiloh, as far as known, are J. C. MeDavitt and Wm. Mecklenburg Polk, son of General Leonidas Polk, who was at that time junior lieutenant of the battery. The latter is now one of the noted physicians in New York city. Mr. MeDavitt was born in Kentucky, and is descended on both sides of the house from Southern ante-Revolutionary ances- tors. His grandfather, Jas. MeDavitt, was born in Charles- ton, S. C., in 1767
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McHENRY, E. B., born in Jefferson City, Mo., in 1840, and lived there until 1361; entered active service May 10, 1861; was with General Sterling Price in all his campaigns in Missouri and Arkansas in 1861-62; was under fire first at Carthage, Mo., in July, 1861, where Sigel was met and driven back to Springfield, Mo .; was in the battle of Wilson Creek August 10, 1861, and in siege of Lexington in September of same year; wintered at Springfield, which place was evacu- ated February 13, 1862 ; was in the battle at Elk Horn Tav- ern on Pea Ridge, Ark., March 6 and 7, 1862. He crossed to the east side of the Mississippi river with Price and remained there until December, 1862, when he returned to Arkansas and assisted in recruiting Wood's Battalion of Cavalry, of which he was made adjutant (afterward a full regiment). Served in the brigades of both Marmaduke and Shelby, and with the latter went to Missouri in 1863, leaving Arkadel- phia, Ark., and striking the Missonri river at Boonville, and from there to Waverly, Mo., and thence south to Washing- ton, Ark.
In 1864, unattached, the regiment went again to Missouri under General Sterling Price to make a diversion in favor of Hood's army; " diverted" enough of the Federal army to send the Confederates back in a hurry from Westport, Mo., after having traversed the State from Doniphan to that place, passing in the close vicinity of St. Louis and Jefferson City. The army camped one night in sight-in gunshot-of Adjutant McHenry's father's house, which he had left June 15, 1861. His regiment was active in the fights at Poison Spring, Jenkin's Ferry, Monticello, Mark's Mill and all the battles fought by General Price in his raid to Missouri in 1864. He surrendered at Shreveport, La., June 8, 1865, and returned to his old home in August of that year, where he was permitted to remain two days, being served at the end of that time with an elaborate paper setting forth that, "where- as certain traitors to the government of the United States by the name of George F. Rootes, Ashley W. Ewing and E. B. MeHenry, have recently returned to this city fresh from the ranks of treason and rebellion," etc., etc., " therefore, we
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MAJ. E. B. MCHENRY.
pledge to each other our lives and sacred honor to remove said parties from this community, peaceably if we can, forci- bly if we must, and that within the next twenty-four hours. Witness our hands, etc., Aug. 26, 1865." (Signed by twenty- nine.) Accompanying these " whereases " was the following notice : " To E. B. MeHenry-You are hereby furnished with a copy of an instrument we have signed by which you will see that you are required to leave this community within the next twenty-four hours or else take the consequences of re- maining." This notice was signed by the same twenty-nine who had promulgated the " whereases " and resolution. It is needless to say he did not require twenty-four hours to shake the dust of his native place from his feet and leave them in peace and quiet.
Mr. MeHenry came to Memphis in September, 1865, where he has since resided. He married Miss Mary Taylor of Clin-
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ton, La., in 1871. They have had born to them only one child, Edgar T. MeHenry, now a grown man. He was Clerk and Master of the Chancery Court of Memphis under Chan- cellor Estes, and has been a member of the Memphis bar for many years ; was one of the early members of the Con- federate Relief and Historical Association, and after dropping out for a time rejoined the present organization January 8, 1895.
MCKINNEY, JOHN FLETCHER, enlisted as a private in Company B, Forrest's old regiment, May, 1861; served through the war and paroled at Gainesville, Ala., May, 1865.
McKNIGHT, W. T., private in Company H, Armistead's Alabama Cavalry; enlisted in October, 1863; was paroled in May, 1865. Transferred to this Association from Camp Sumpter U. C. V, No. 332, Livingstone, Ala., November 24, 1894.
McLEAN, WM. L., left Memphis, Tenn., bound for Pen- sacola, Fla., to join the Fifteenth Mississippi Regiment, April 1, 1861 ; found that regiment full and returned. The Twelfth Arkansas Regiment was then camped near his father's house and hundreds were down with the measles. Ladies organ- ized an aid society to nurse them. His mother was elected president. Colonel E. W. Gantt, through gratitude, offered to fill the first vacancy with young McLean if he would join, and he did so near New Madrid, Mo .; was assigned to duty as operator in the signal corps under Captain C. C. Cum- mings, General Beauregard's staff. In a few weeks he was made lance sergeant and ordered to Corinth, Miss. When the army fell back to Tupelo was recommended to General Maury and appointed First Lieutenant Twelfth Battalion Arkansas Sharpshooters, four companies of fifty picked men in each, W. L. Cabell's Brigade, Maury's Division, Price's Corps, Army Mississippi and East Louisiana. Soon after this Cap- tain Cunningham was promoted to major, and McLean was by him recommended to General Earl Van Dorn and by him recommended to the Confederate War Department ; was ap- pointed captain of signal corps and assigned to General Mau-
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ry's staff. The former captain of Company B, Twelfth Bat- talion, Jas. A. Ashford, was ordered to Arkansas to recruit. Captain McLean was again assigned to the company. After participating in all the battles from Corinth to Big Black, Miss., Company B was cut down to seven men and one offi- ver, and surrendered May 17, 1863, to General Grant's army, that being the day he invested Vicksburg. Captain MeLean was sent to Johnson's Island and arrived there June 5, 1863; occupied room No. 18, block 3, and with his bunk mate, John H. Morgan, slept on the same two-foot bunk, grinding their wallet of straw-filled once-into powder. On the 24th day of February, 1865, left the island on the ice over Sandusky Bay to Sandusky ; thence to Pittsburg, Baltimore, down the Chesapeake Bay, Fortress Monroe, Hampton Roads, Norfolk and up the James river to Richmond; paroled there March 1, 1865. Went through Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, to Opelika, Ala .; walked from there to Columbus, Miss., across the entire State of Alabama, and walked most of the way from there to Memphis, arriving May 15, 1865. Went to farming and gardening at once ; followed it fourteen years. In 1879 became a commercial traveler, and is engaged in that pursuit now. Joined this Association January 12, 1888, and is an enthusiastic member of Company A, Confed- erate Veterans.
McNEAL, A. T., was a private in Company B, Fourth Tennessee ; enlisted May 15, 1861, and paroled in April, 1865, with General Joe Johnston's army at Greensboro, N. C. He served first at Randolph and Fort Pillow, then at Columbus, Ky., under General Polk, and subsequently in the various campaigns of the Army of Tennessee. After the war he returned to his grand old home at Bolivar, Tennessee, and became one of the leading lawyers of the State, as he is yet. He has been a prominent and potential factor in State poli- ties, and was often suggested and urged for Governor or other high office, but has always declined political preferment, and adhered to the pursuit of his profession and the serene enjoy- ment of a happy home life. Joined the Confederate Historical Association September 9, 1884.
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MERRIN, T. C., born December 25, 1845; enlisted in the C. S. A. as a private in Company F, First Arkansas Cavalry, September 1, 1861; captured at Lexington, Mo., October 19, 1864, and released from prison June 19, 1865; was a second lieutenant at the close of the war.
MILLER, GEO. W., joined Captain Wm. Miller's Com- pany of Light Artillery at Memphis April, 1861, as a private, and at the reorganization was placed in the First Tennessee Artillery, Colonel Andrew Jackson, Jr., commanding; after the fall of Vicksburg, served as ordnance officer for Batteries Hager, Tracey and Spanish Fort, in Mobile Bay, until the evacuation by troops; was elected first lieutenant at the re- organization ; was wounded at Spanish Fort; was never sick so as to lose a day's duty ; went to Meridian. and was there paroled May, 1865. Joined the Confederate Historical Asso- ciation June 13, 1894.
MILLER, M. J., private, enlisted April, 1861 ; was wounded once in the battle of Redlick Church, Miss. ; was in the com- mands of Pillow, Polk, Mccown and others, and with I. N. Brown of the Confederate States Navy.
MILLER, MARSHALL JEFFRIE, who became a men- ber of the Confederate Historical Association November 11, 1884, was born at Princeton, Ky., August 28, 1822. His father, Reuben B. Miller, of Fauquier county, Va., was next to the youngest of ten brothers who had only one sister. Eight of the brothers served in the Revolutionary war. Reu- ben B. Miller was in the battle of New Orleans and in the Creek war. His wife was a Bradburne ; her brother John D. served in the army of Mexico from 1821 until the breaking out of the war with the United States, when he resigned. Meantime he had been military governor of the Mexican State of California. The Bradburne family was connected by mar- riage with the Blackburns, Shelbys. Johnsons, Flournoys, and other prominent families of Kentucky. In early life M. J. Miller became a pilot and settled in Memphis in 1850. At the beginning of the war he was ordered to command a small steamer called the Grampus. The vessel was 132 feet long.
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24 feet beam, and 4 feet hold, with 3 boilers and 5 foot stroke of engines. Captain Miller armed his men with muskets and mounted three pieces of artillery-one twenty-pounder amid- ships, and two six-pounders placed fore and aft. A larger wheel was constructed, and the vessel could then make the trip from Columbus to Memphis in nine hours. The Grampus was used as a scout, performed some marvellous exploits, and was finally sunk at the bombardment of Island 10. Captain Miller afterward reported to Secretary of War Mallory at Richmond, came back to the West, and was in active service in various capacities on both sides of the Mississippi until the end of the war ; he was near Sehna when that place fell. After the surrender he came to Memphis, and on June 5, 1865, procured license as master and pilot and continued in active service as such until 1895. He still has his license, but has been disabled temporarily by the grip. He has a wife and one son.
MITCHELL, JNO. R., was born in Carroll county, Tenn., where his parents had just removed from South Carolina ; lived there temporarily, and was taken to Mississippi when a child. His father, Jno. C. Mitchell, became a wealthy planter of DeSoto county, Miss., and gave three sons to the Confed- eracy. John R. enlisted, when a mere youth, in State service August 22, 1862; after serving twelve months under General J. Z. George, was discharged; re-enlisted for three years or the war with General Frank Armstrong's escort; was in nu- merous cavalry engagements, in one of which, near Holly Springs, his horse was beheaded by a cannon ball, and he himself was wounded and left for dead on the field. He was in many fights in Georgia; was cut off from his command while on a visit to his father, who had refugeed to South Car- olina. When Hood's army left Atlanta he remained with Wheeler's Cavalry, and was in numerous skirmishes on down toward the sea, seeing much hard service. After the battle of Franklin he rejoined his command at West Point, Miss .; was wounded at Wall Hill and captured at the battle of Sel- ma, Ala., about April 2, 1865, and received a parole about three weeks later with the forces of General Wilson, near the
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State line in Georgia, with whose cavalry he had marched ou foot two hundred miles ; after that be and six other members of his company walked all the way to DeSoto county. Miss., in sixteen days; coming on to Memphis, be was sent back to Senatobia and paroled there. His home was one of desola- tion and mourning. as so often found by returning Southern soldiers ; the family was only half the size as when he left ; his mother and youngest brother had died in 1862, and soon after two brothers were killed in battle in Virginia.
Mr. Mitchell married Miss Adelia Robertson, a niece of two company comrades, in 1867, and lived on his father's old home- stead until 1873, and has since been engaged as clerk, a large part of the time, in the county trustee's office. He is now a member of Company A, Confederate Veterans, and has done much to keep up the organization to a high standard of zeal and efficiency, and was with it at the sixth annual reunion of U. C. V. in Richmond in June and July, 1896.
MITCHELL, ROBERT WOOD, son of General Guilford Dudley Mitchell, was born in Madison county, Tenn., and removed to Mississippi when very young; was educated at Centenary College, Jackson; read medicine in Vicksburg, graduated at the University of Louisiana, returned to Vicks- burg, and was elected physician of the hospital there in 1857. He removed to Memphis in 1858; was elected secretary of the board of health; organized the Memphis City Hospital. and was made physician in charge. In 1861 he became Assist- ant Surgeon in the Fifteenth Tennessee Regiment, Infantry, and in the autumn of the same year was made Surgeon of the Thirteenth Tennessee Regiment; afterward became brigade, and then division, surgeon, and served continuously with the Army of Tennessee until the end of the war. He returned to Memphis, and married Miss Rebecca Park in 1872; was very prominent in the epidemics that visited Memphis years ago, and is still an active practicing physician. He was one of the original incorporators of this Association, and his member- ship dates from July 15, 1869.
. MOCKBEE. R. T., was born August 17, 1841, in Stewart county, Teun. ; enlisted in April, 1861, in Company B, Four-
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teenth Tennessee Regiment; served in General Lee's cam- paign in Northwest Virginia in 1861; then with Stonewall Jackson in his Romney campaign of June, 1862; then with the Army of Northern Virginia, and was surrendered and paroled at Appomattox April 10, 1865 ; was wounded three times in battle-at Sharpsburg, Spottsylvania Court House, and the second battle of Cold Harbor. He was captured once in March, 1863, near Clarksville, Tenn., but escaped during the same month. He had been sent inside the Federal lines on recruiting service by order of the War Department; was captured by a Federal scout and sent to Nashville, where he made his escape from prison with Major J. H. Johnson and others, and at the end of the war was a sergeant. Became a member of Forbes Bivouac at Clarksville, Tenn., and upon removal to Memphis was transferred upon proper certificate to this bivouac March 15, 1895. Mr. Mockbee has interesting old papers showing that his ancestors came from Wales to Loudon county, Virginia, and took part in the Revolutionary war on the patriot side.
MONROE. D. W., enlisted July 8, 1862, as a private in Company C, Davis' Regiment, Trans-Mississippi Department ; entered the army as commissary clerk ; was with Turnbull's Twenty-fifth Arkansas Regiment after the retreat from Cor- inth, Miss., until the command reached Lexington, Ky., at which place he became connected with Major J. W. Calloway, division commissary, and went to the Trans-Mississippi De- partment, where he served as commissary clerk until the close of the war; paroled July 1865. Admitted to this Association October 9, 1894.
MOORE, M. J. M., private in Company F, Twenty-sixth Mississippi, enlisted September 1, 1861; this regiment was formed at Iuka, Miss., went from there to Union City, thence to Bowling Green, and back to Russellville and Fort Donel- son ; served around Jackson, Miss., and went to Virginia in April, 1864; paroled May, 1865.
MORGAN, ROBERT JARRELL, was born in Putnam county, Ga., and came of Revolutionary ancestry in Virginia ;
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graduated from University of Georgia at Athens and admit- ted to the bar in 1850; practiced law successfully ; married, and removed to Memphis in 1859. He was a Whig and opposed secession, but when the war broke out he raised and organ- ized at Chattanooga the Thirty - sixth Tennessee Regiment, and was colonel of it two years, when he was assigned to duty as adjutant-general on the staff of Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk; had special charge of court-martial proceedings in the corps, and afterward commanded a department. Early in the war he was stationed at Cumberland Gap, and saw service in Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia, participating in the bat- tles of Murfreesboro and Chickamauga; was with General Polk when he was killed on the Georgia campaign, and atter that was assigned by the War Department at Richmond to the duty of adjusting claims against the State of Georgia, and continued in that service until the surrender, when he was paroled at Atlanta. Returning to Memphis with his family, he resumed the practice of law, and in 1867 was elected city attorney and served three years. Governor Senter, without solicitation, appointed him chancellor, and he was afterward twice elected by the people, serving in all about ten years, to the great satisfaction of the bar and people. In 1878 he vol- untarily retired and resumed a very lucrative practice. In 1880 he was elector on the Hancock ticket, and at different times took some part in politics; was regarded as an availa- ble man for Governor, and once received a very compliment- ary vote for nomination. Strong intellectually and physically and a fine speaker, he has always wielded a large influence in public and private. He was made a Mason at LaGrange, Ga., and also took the Chapter degrees. He became a member of this Association September 9, 1869.
MORRISON, GEORGE E., private Company B, One Hun- dred and Fifty - fourth Tennessee; enlisted April, 1861 ; was in McDonald's Battalion of Forrest's old regiment ; paroled May 11, 1865.
MOSBY, C. W., enlisted in Company I, First Confederate Regiment of Cavalry, Captain M. J. Wieks, who was pro- moted ; the next captain, Sheppard Jackson, was killed in
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covering General Beauregard's retreat from Corinth. Was with General Joseph Wheeler in advance of General Bragg into Kentucky ; was at the battle of Munfordville and Per- ryville; was with General Wheeler, who covered General Bragg's retreat from Kentucky ; was at the battles of Mur- freesboro, Chickamauga, and the various battles from Dalton to Atlanta ; went with General Hood into Middle Tennessee ; was at Franklin and Nashville ; surrendered with General Forrest at Gainesville, Ala., to General Canby, who proved himself to be a generous foe, a thorough soldier and gentleman, by his magnanimous treatment of the worn-out troops of the command. He did not require the Confederates to lay down their arms in the presence of his troops, but allowed them to go to a designated place under command of their own officers, where they dismounted, grounded arms, laid their accoutre- ments by them, mounted and went back to camp. General Canby sent his wagon train and gathered up the arms after- ward. He allowed the men to keep their horses, the officers their side arms and horses. Mr. Mosby relates these facts with great pleasure. He joined this Association in 1884.
MULLINS, THOS. B., private Company H, Thirteenth Tennessee Regiment, Vaughan's Brigade, enlisted June 4, 1861; " was in the fracas from beginning to end ; " was in the battles of Belmont, Shiloh, Richmond, Ky , Perryville, Mur- freesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, New Hope, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Ga., and Franklin, Tenn .; was paroled May 23, 1865. Joined the Confederate Histori- cal Association October 9, 1894.
MUNCH, GEORGE P., First Lieutenant Company D, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Tennessee ; enlisted April 26, 1861; served through the war; was wounded in front of Atlanta ; paroled April 26, 1865. Admitted to the Confederate Histor- ical Association January 8, 1895.
MUNSON, S. A., Captain Company H, Thirteenth Ten- nessee ; enlisted June 4, 1861 ; served until the consolidation with the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Tennessee, and was a prisoner from the battle of Missionary Ridge until the close
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of the war at Johnson's Island; released June 13, 1865. Ad- mitted to this Association October 9, 1894.
MURPHY, J. J. Early in 1861 General Leonidas Polk invited his old friend J. J. Murphy to accept a position as chief commissary upon his staff, and the position was accepted in the fall of 1861 at Columbus, Ky. Major Murphy's large experience as a merchant. his suavity of manner and great executive ability peculiarly fitted him for this important trust. He was ever a great favorite with General Polk, who only complained of him on account of his propensity to rush into every fight, when it was not required or even allowed. Major Murphy served with great efficiency and credit throughout the war. He was present when General Polk was killed and helped to remove his body from the range of the enemy's artillery. One of his cherished treasures was a lock of the gen- eral's hair cut off just before he was laid away forever from human sight. The Major served to the end and was among the last to lay down arms with General Joseph E. Johnston at Greensboro, N. C. After the war he resumed business and was successful in large affairs. He was a man of wide read- ing and knowledge of men, was pre-eminently charitable and benevolent, kind-hearted, and a most lovable man. He died February 11, 1891, in the 75th year of his age, respected and regretted by the entire city. The immediate cause of his death was a long ride on horseback to the Confederate reun- ion at Montgomery Park the previous fall, an occasion upon which he was cheered by the entire audience when he ap- peared in front of the grand stand. This was a happy day for him, but his last appearance in public. The exposure was too much for him, and hastened the end of a long, honorable and useful life. Major Murphy became a member of the C. H. A. July 15, 1869.
MURRELL, D. A., private Company G, Fifty-first Tennes- see; enlisted December, 1861 ; was wounded twice in the bat- tle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864, and paroled, with the rank of orderly sergeant, May, 1865. Joined the Confederate Ilistor- ical Association June 30, 1892.
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