The 19th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, or Nineteenth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment, was an infantry regiment in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The 19th Tennessee fought in every major battle and campaign of the Army of Tennessee except the Battle of Perryville. First Lieutenant Robert D. Powell of Company K, killed at the Battle of Barbourville, Kentucky, is believed to be the first soldier killed during the Civil War in that state.
The 19th Tennessee was formed from companies of men from the counties of East Tennessee and was mustered into the Confederate army at Knoxville, Tennessee, in the spring of 1861. Beginning the war with a force of over 1,000 men, only 78 soldiers were present when the 19th surrendered.Fowler, p. 183. Fifty-eight of the remaining 78 soldiers were from the initial muster at the beginning of the war. The remaining 20 soldiers had joined the regiment later.
The regiment was encamped at Greensboro, North Carolina, when the Army of Tennessee surrendered on April 26, 1865. The 19th Tennessee's regimental flag was not surrendered to the Union army, and is currently in a private collection.
The Antebellum Period in East Tennessee
The state of Tennessee consists of three major divisions—East, Middle, and West Tennessee. The geography of Middle Tennessee consists of rolling hills, and West Tennessee is generally flat, but East Tennessee has some of the most rugged terrain in the Appalachian Mountains. The rugged terrain of East Tennessee hampered the development of agricultural land in the region, and delayed the development of roads and railways, while obstructions in the Tennessee River below Chattanooga hampered the development of water transportation, making it difficult for East Tennesseans to bring any products to markets. Thus, the agrarianism of the region was limited to food production rather than the production of "cash crops".Fowler, p. 2.
This began to change with the completions of the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad in 1855, linking Knoxville to Georgia, and the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad in 1858, linking Knoxville to Bristol. With the completion of these railways, farmers in East Tennessee could finally transport produce, primarily hogs and corn, to Virginia and the Deep South, and a new cash crop emerged in the regions economy: wheat. By the mid-1850s, wheat production in the region had risen by 300 percent.
With the increase and development of agriculture in East Tennessee, there was a corresponding increase in the slave population of the region during the decade of the 1850s—some 21 percent, as opposed to an increase of only 14 percent in the white population. While only about one-fourth of Southerners, as a whole, could afford to own any slaves at all, and the majority being owned by the wealthiest 6 percent, only about 10 percent of East Tennesseans were slaveholders.Fowler, p. 4.
Though Tennessee had a strong Union loyalist coalition, with East Tennessee having a particularly strong Unionist presence, in the months following South Carolina's secession, the coalition soon began to splinter. Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion in the South left many of loyalists feeling betrayed. With most loyalists feeling betrayed by Lincoln, secessionist leaders quickly moved to exploit the shift in public opinion.
On April 25, 1861, only thirteen days after General P.G.T. Beauregard's Confederate gunners opened fire on Fort Sumter, Tennessee's legislature met to consider the question of secession. On May 6, the legislature declared the state independent from the United States.Fowler, p. 11. The legislature also granted Governor Isham G. Harris the authority to create a state army of 55,000 men.
Though a military alliance was signed with the Confederate States of America the very next day, Tennessee's Declaration of Independence was submitted for a referendum to be held on June 8. Almost 70 percent of the voters approved of secession, but 69 percent of East Tennesseans voted against it. Nonetheless, Tennessee officially seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy.
While Union loyalists viewed the coming war as a struggle for Republican government, secessionists saw Lincoln as a tyrant and many citizens abandoned the old Union for the new Confederacy to remain true to the principles of the Founding Fathers.
Formation of the 19th Tennessee Infantry By the end of May, more than twenty volunteer companies met just outside Knoxville at Camp Cummings, named after David H. Cummings, a prominent farmer and attorney of the region. The 19th Tennessee Infantry was officially formed there as East Tennessee's second Confederate regiment on June 11, 1861, and Cummings was elected as its first colonel.Fowler, p. 18-19. That month, William Phipps wrote home to his sister, Charlotte, "we are the pick regiment of Tennessee."Fowler, p. 39.
According to Worsham's first person account, at the time of the regiment's formation, there were 1,012 men in the 19th's rank and file, and 48 commissioned officers, for a total of 1,060 soldiers.Worsham, p. 9.
Organization The original command structure of the 19th was as follows:
Colonel - David H. Cummings Lt. Colonel - Francis Marion Walker Major - Abram Fulkerson Adjutant - V. Q. Johnson Sgt.-Major - Henry M. Doak Surgeon - Joseph E. Dulaney Asst. Surgeon - Samuel Carson Quarter Master - Addison D. Taylor Chaplain - Rev. David Sullins
Musicians - Rufus Lamb, James Tyner, and W. J. Worsham
Company A (The Hamilton Grays) - Hamilton County, Tennessee, 97 Men Captain - John D. Powell 1st Lieutenant - V. Q. Johnson 2nd Lieutenant - Daniel Kennedy 3rd Lieutenant - Frank Foust
Company B - Washington County, Tennessee, 100 Men Captain - Zadoc T. "Zeb" Willett 1st Lieutenant - Joseph Conley 2nd Lieutenant - Nathan Gregg 3rd Lieutenant - James Deaderick
Company C (The Blountville Guards) - Sullivan County, Tennessee, 104 Men Captain - James P. Snapp 1st Lieutenant - Charles St. John 2nd Lieutenant - George H. Hull 3rd Lieutenant - John M. Jones
Company D (The Gillespie Guards) - Rhea County, Tennessee, 103 Men Captain - Warner E. Colville 1st Lieutenant - Pete Miller 2nd Lieutenant - James A. Wallace 3rd Lieutenant - S. J. A. Frazier
Company E (The Knoxville Guards/Grays) - Knoxville, Tennessee, 106 Men Captain - John W. Paxton 1st Lieutenant - John M. Miller 2nd Lieutenant - J. K. Graham 3rd Lieutenant - William M. Lackey
Company F - Polk County, Tennessee, 93 Men Captain - John H. Hannah 1st Lieutenant - P. C. Gaston 2nd Lieutenant - J. M. Sims 3rd Lieutenant - J. C. Holms
Company G - Sullivan County, Tennessee, 110 Men Captain - Abraham L. Gammon 1st Lieutenant - Jas. A. Rhea 2nd Lieutenant - Robert L. Blair 3rd Lieutenant - James Carlton
Company H (The Milton Guards) - McMinn County, Tennessee, 94 Men Captain - William H. Lowry Jr. 1st Lieutenant - U. S. York 2nd Lieutenant - D. A. Wilds 3rd Lieutenant - Thomas Maston
Company I (The Marsh Blues) - Hamilton County, Tennessee, 110 Men Captain - Thomas H. Walker 1st Lieutenant - B. F. Moore 2nd Lieutenant - Warren Hooper 3rd Lieutenant - John Lovejoy
Company K (The Hawkins Boys) - Hawkins County, Tennessee, 100 Men Captain - Carrick W. Heiskell 1st Lieutenant - Robert D. Powell 2nd Lieutenant - Sam P. Powell 3rd Lieutenant - Sam Spears
Cumberland Gap In July 1861, the 19th Tennessee received its first assignment to guard the pass at Cumberland Gap from any attempted incursions by the Union army from Kentucky, which remained a Union state and had declared neutrality despite the efforts of secessionists, into East Tennessee or Southwest Virginia.Fowler, p. 45. The gap is located at the junction of the three states and would have been a key invasion route into that region of the Confederacy, just as it was a key migration route through the rugged, mountainous terrain for settlers moving west. In his autobiography, Rev. David Sullins, the 19th's chaplain, claims to have been the first Confederate soldier to enter Cumberland Gap.
The regiment began building breastworks and fortifying the mountain pass, but was soon stricken with an epidemic of measles and mumps that nearly incapacitated the entire command. The regiment also recorded its first casualties at Cumberland Gap when a sergeant shot himself through the hand and when a box of percussion caps exploded, severely injuring Col. Francis M. Walker's hand.
In September, Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk committed one of the Confederacy's worst strategic blunders by seizing Columbus, Kentucky, and ending the state's neutrality, thereby opening the door for Union forces to move through the Bluegrass State. General Albert Sidney Johnston was forced to move a considerable portion of the forces under his command to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to close the hole in his defensive line, and the 19th Tennessee, along with two other regiments, was relocated by General Felix Zollicoffer to Cumberland Ford, now Pineville, Kentucky, where they established Camp Buckner. Other regiments were brought up from the rear to reinforce Cumberland Gap.
Battle of Barbourville Union loyalist sentiment was as strong in Eastern Kentucky as it was in East Tennessee, and Zollicoffer feared that local Home Guard units might take action against his forces. On September 18, Zollicoffer sent a mixed force of 800 troops, including Companies B and K of the 19th, to destroy Camp Andrew Johnson, a Union training facility at Barbourville, KY.
In a dawn attack, the Confederates surprised about 300 Bushwhackers. The Unionists fled after a brief exchange of gunfire, and the Confederates took the camp and captured a meager store of supplies. Though several were wounded, only one man was killed. Lt. Robert D. Powell of Company K acquired the dubious distinction of being the first Confederate killed in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.
The regiment remained in Kentucky for a time, even managing a couple of successful raids to acquire supplies, but the assorted diseases that spread through the camps like wildfire were taking their tolls. By the end of the month, only about 600 men from the regiment were fit for duty.
By late October 1861, General Zollicoffer was receiving reports that a Union invasion somewhere between Cumberland Gap and Bowling Green was impending. His brigade returned to Tennessee, leaving a large garrison at Cumberland Gap, and the rest, including the 19th marched to Jamestown. Indeed, also believing that invasion was imminent, Unionist guerillas had stepped up actions in East Tennessee, including the burnings of several key railroad bridges, but the revolt was soon suppressed by Confederate reinforcements in the region.
Mill Springs With the local rebellion under control, Zollicoffer's forces, including the 19th Tennessee, returned to Kentucky in late November to establish winter camp near the tiny hamlet of Mill Springs on the south bank of the Cumberland River. The Union's Army of the Ohio responded by sending a brigade under the command of General Albin F. Schoepf to nearby Somerset to prevent Zollicoffer from crossing the river and advancing into Central Kentucky. Zollicoffer committed a potentially grave tactical error by crossing the Cumberland and established a fortified position on the north bank at Beech Grove—he had a numerically superior force on his front, and a flood-prone river to his rear. Camp Beech Grove appeared quite formidable with the river guarding its flanks, and breastworks and chevaux de frise protecting its front, but the appearance was deceiving. The entrenchments could not dispel a determined attack, and disease was continuing to deplete the brigade's manpower.