The Confederate Army, A Regiment: An Analysis Of The Forty-Eighth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861-1865

By Major Kincaid Gerald

The performance of an army is often evaluated by its achievements as a whole, or by that of its commanders or perhaps even its divisions. Often lost in the equation is the small unit. After the great plans are complete and the logistics preparations are accomplished, it is the collective performance of the small unit that ultimately decides the battle.
This thesis analyses the campaigns, soldiers, organization, equipment, and performance of just one regiment: the 48th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry. Material concerning the 48th includes numerous primary sources: the Official Records, Confederate Veteran, The Southern Historical Papers, Southern Bivouac, local histories, and the CARL microfiche library of unit histories (Note: the 48th is not included in these unit histories). Other primary references include war diaries of two officers, three enlisted men, and copies of the 48th's Quartermaster records.
This thesis concludes that, while training and equipment of the 48th was sometimes poor, it was effective in numerous engagements, despite its relative small size. The ultimate demise of the unit was due to personnel losses.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Golden Springs Publishing
• Release date: Aug 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781782896326

Major Kincaid Gerald

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THE CONFEDERATE ARMY, A REGIMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF THE FORTY-EIGHTH TENNESSEE VOLUNTEER INFANTRY REGIMENT, 1861-1865

BY

GERALD ALLEN KINCAID JR., MAJOR, USA

B.S., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 1980

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

ABSTRACT 4

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 5

CHAPTER ONE — INTRODUCTION 6

CHAPTER TWO — SOLDIERING IS A NOVELTY 13

ORGANIZATION 13

Donelson 15

Imprisonment 20

CHAPTER THREE — THE GLORY AND HONOR OF GENERAL PATRICK R. CLEBURNE 24

Reorganization and Corinth 24

Richmond, Kentucky 27

Perryville 31

Chickamauga 34

Aftermath 42

CHAPTER FOUR — ON EQUAL FOOTING WITH THE HESSIANS--VOOHRIES 48TH 45

Voohries Reorganization-Port Hudson 45

Jackson and Mobile 51

CHAPTER FIVE — THE HOTTEST CONTEST 56

New Hope Church and Kennesaw Mountain 56

Kennesaw Mountain 61

Lick Skillet Road 64

Lovejoy's Station 67

CHAPTER SIX — BAREFOOT IN THE SNOW 70

Nashville 70

The Rear Guard 82

North Carolina 84

Surrender 88

The Return to Tennessee 90

CHAPTER SEVEN — CONCLUSIONS 91

Comments on the Database 91

Insights 93

Significance of the Study to the War 94

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 96

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 97

Books 97

Unpublished Materials: 99

ABSTRACT

THE CONFEDERATE ARMY, A REGIMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF THE FORTY-EIGHTH TENNESSEE VOLUNTEER INFANTRY REGIMENT, 1861-1865, by Major Gerald A. Kincaid, Jr., USA, 136 pages.

The performance of an army is often evaluated by its achievements as a whole, or by that of its commanders or perhaps even its divisions. Often lost in the equation is the small unit. After the great plans are complete and the logistics preparations are accomplished, it is the collective performance of the small unit that ultimately decides the battle.

This thesis analyses the campaigns, soldiers, organization, equipment, and performance of just one regiment: the 48th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry. Material concerning the 48th includes numerous primary sources: the Official Records, Confederate Veteran, The Southern Historical Papers, Southern Bivouac, local histories, and the CARL microfiche library of unit histories (Note: the 48th is not included in these unit histories). Other primary references include war diaries of two officers, three enlisted men, and copies of the 48th's Quartermaster records.

This thesis concludes that, while training and equipment of the 48th was sometimes poor, it was effective in numerous engagements, despite its relative small size. The ultimate demise of the unit was due to personnel losses.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I wish to acknowledge the direction and sound advice of Dr. William G. Robertson of the Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. I am certain, had I not been so fortunate to have Dr. Robertson as my Committee Chairman, this thesis would not have been the work I wanted it to be.

The advice and attention to detail provided by Lieutenant Colonel James Medley, an interested Tennessean, was invaluable.

The research assistance and facilities provided by the Combined Arms Research Library at Fort Leavenworth was superb. The facilities are wonderful and the librarians are patient and professional

Mr. Tim Anderson of Waynesboro, Tennessee, was instrumental in the quality of the thesis. For years, Mr. Anderson collected references to the 48th Tennessee, and he provided those documents to me at his own expense.

The listing of soldiers developed by The United Daughters of the Confederacy in Maury and Hickman Counties were instrumental to the development of the personnel database used to support this work.

Jill K. Garrett, her works on Maury County, Tennessee history and the Civil War were absolutely instrumental to the history of the 48th. She provided information that would otherwise been difficult, if not impossible, to obtain.

This project consumed nearly all my free and vacation time during my year at Command and General Staff College. My heartfelt thanks go to my wife, Margaret Kincaid, for her patience, encouragement, and technical support.

Lastly, I would like to extend my appreciation to Major Ty Smith and Lieutenant Donald Myers, United States Coast Guard, for their careful readings and technical assistance.

CHAPTER ONE — INTRODUCTION

Of course the histories are all correct. They tell of great achievements of great men, who wear the laurels of victory; have grand presents given them; . . . when they die, long obituaries are published, telling their many virtues, their distinguished victories, etc., and when they are buried, the whole country goes into mourning and is called on to buy an elegant monument to erect over the remains of so distinguished and brave a general. But in the following pages I propose to tell of the fellows who did the shooting and killing, the fortifying and the ditching, and sweeping of the streets, the drilling, the standing guard, picket and videt [sic] and drew (or were to draw) eleven dollars per month, and rations and also drew the ramrod and tore the cartridge.{1} — Sam Watkins author of Co. Aytch

This thesis examines the record and highlights the story of the 48th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment, from its inception in December 1862, to the final surrender at Greensboro, North Carolina, in April 1865. The 48th, unique in the annals of Confederate military history, was broken on the anvil of defeat at Fort Donelson and reforged into two separate effective regiments. These twin regiments then fought in varied locations as two separate yet connected regiments for twenty-seven months. The distinction of being separate organizations enabled the 48th to list battle credits unlike any other regiment during the war. A clear understanding of the history of this regiment lends itself not just to a better understanding the Army of Tennessee, but also to the war in the Western Theater. (See Figure 1 for the 48th's diverse operations.)

Figure 1. Battle Route, 48th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry

Regiments were the building blocks of Confederate forces in Tennessee. While brigades and divisions were fluid organizations, the regiment usually retained its basic organization until the end of the war. The state of Tennessee raised regiments from the same localities, in compliance with the 1840 militia law.{2} Soldiers knew each other and they usually had friends and relatives serving with them.

Responding to the call of Governor Isham Harris, Tennessee organized the 48th at Nashville during October and November of 1861. On 17 December 1861, the troops elected William M. Voorhies Colonel and the 48th Infantry became one of 110 regiments raised in the state for the war. The 48th was in many ways a typical Tennessee regiment; quickly recruited, untrained, poorly equipped, and hastily ordered into Confederate service.

The majority of the men who formed the 48th were from the prosperous and very secessionist middle Tennessee counties of Hickman, Maury, Lewis, and Lawrence.{3} The State formed these counties in 1817 due to a large migration of settlers of Celtic and English descent from North Carolina.{4}

The raw recruits mustered in at varied locations but most notably in the towns of Columbia, Waynesboro, and Lawrenceburg. A review of diaries, letters, and documents show the soldiers were generally well educated. While a few signed by their mark, military documents that remain indicate most of the rank and file were at least literate and some of them exceptionally so. William Polk, nephew of Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk, served as the regimental adjutant. H.G. Evans dropped out of college to join up. Most of the recruits were farmers, but there were clerks, merchants, blacksmiths, a dentist, a few doctors, and even two ministers. Many of the soldiers had wives and children.{5}

The average age of the regiment was older than one might guess. There were few younger than seventeen and most were in their twenties to early thirties. It was not uncommon for soldiers in their fifties to serve. The oldest known soldier was Private Harrison P. Babbitt, who enlisted at fifty and completed his full-year enlistment. The Army discharged Babbitt, like many of the older soldiers, when his initial enlistment was over. (After the first year many were dismayed that Confederate conscript laws forced them to stay in uniform. Only those soldiers older than thirty-five had the option to re-enlist). Some older soldiers, like Private Fountain Hunt, enlisted at age forty-five and then re-enlisted. Fountain served until the end of the war. The average age of the 48th at the surrender was 25.5.{6}

By the time the 48th was organized, the reality of the war was apparent, and Union troops were encroaching on Tennessee. The 48th's recruits were not the nonchalant lads of early 1861 who rushed off to engage in a short, romantic war. The days of the ninety-day enlistment were over, and the men enlisted in the 48th for a least a year. Those who served in the 48th were true volunteers; the draft would not be an inducement to enlist until April of 1862.{7}

The 48th rarely contained over 500 men, but nearly 1,850 men served in the regiment at one time or another. Less than sixty men who enlisted in 1861 were still fighting with the 48th when the final surrender of the army took place at Greensboro, North Carolina. Despite the regiment's participation in a number of battles, it was disease, desertion, and capture that continually whittled down their numbers. The following chart shows the best information available on how the 1,789 soldiers, known to serve in the 48th, left the unit.

Figure 2. Separation Statistics 48th Tennessee.

Surrendered. Most soldiers surrendered at Greensboro, NC, on 26 Apr 1865, but also surrendered at some other places.

Killed/DOW. Killed outright or died of wounds.

Captured. Indicates soldiers who's