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11th Tn Cavalry Battalion
6th (1st) Tn Cavalry Regiment

Lieutenant Colonel William Wallace Gordon's 11th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion was officially organized on January 8, 1862, composed of six companies, including two from Giles County. At that time there were no cavalry commands large enough to be accepted into service as a regiment. Giles Countians served in this battalion:

Company A - Captain James T. Wheeler, organized December 9, 1861, men from Giles County.

Company B - Captain William Wallace Gordon, organized December 10, 1861, men from Giles County. Captain Gordon was promoted to the command of the battalion and replaced by Captain W. H. Abernathy.

This battalion of cavalry was a short-lived organization and very little is known about its activities. This battalion was attached to the brigade commanded by Brigadier General W. H. Carroll of General Zollicoffer's command, with whom it was regularly on duty, and retired with Johnston's army to Corinth, Mississippi. It participated in the battle of Shiloh, and was on outpost duty and scout services during all the arduous campaign from Shiloh to Corinth. On April 28, 1862, the battalion, with 32 officers, 357 men present for duty, 408 present, and 469 present and absent, was reported in Brigadier General William N. R. Beall's Brigade, in the Army of Mississippi, at Corinth, Mississippi.

In May, 1862, at Corinth, Mississippi, the 2nd (Biffle's) and 11th (Gordon's) Tennessee Cavalry Battalions were consolidated to form the 1st Tennessee Cavalry Regiment. However, there was already a 1st Tennessee Cavalry Regiment in the Confederate Army and the official designation of this regiment was changed to the 6th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment. It continued to be known as the 1st Tennessee Cavalry in the field throughout the war, causing much confusion in its records.

The 6th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment was first commanded by Colonel Jacob Biffle. At the organization of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel William Wallace Gordon was assigned to duty as Lieutenant Colonel, but declined the position and resigned his commission. The two companies of men from Giles County were now designated:

Company H - (formerly Co. B, 11th Bn) Captain Robert N. Jones.

Company K - (formerly Co. A, 11th Bn) Captain William O. Bennett.

The regiment was cut off by the Federal forces when General Bragg evacuated Corinth in May, 1862, but cut it's way through and followed the army to Tupelo, Mississippi, and on July 21, 1862, was assigned to the Army of West with orders to report to Major General Sterling Price. A part of the regiment, under Brigadier General F. C. Armstrong, was engaged at Middleton, and at Britton's Lane, near Denmark, on August 31, and September 1, 1862.

In July, 1862, the regiment was reorganized and Giles Countian James T. Wheeler was elected Colonel. The regiment was known as Wheeler's 1st Tennessee Cavalry Regiment throughout the remainder of the war.

The regiment took part in the campaign in North Mississippi during the rest of 1862, including the Battle of Iuka in September and the Battle of Corinth on the 5th and 6th of October. The regiment was very poorly armed, many of the men had nothing by double-barreled shotguns, with the ordinary sporting percussion cap. The rain by day, and the cold damp ground upon which the boys rested at night, rendered these guns almost useless. Colonel Wheeler was wounded at Holly Springs in December, and was disabled from service until the following May.

On January 18, 1863, the regiment was reported with 430 men, as part of the forces assigned to Major General Earl Van Dorn.

On January 20, 1863, Brigadier General W. H. Jackson's Division, of Van Dorn's Department, 2nd Brigade was reported as composed of the 3rd Arkansas, Ballentine's Mississippi (John Goff Ballentine), 2nd Missouri, and 6th Tennessee Regiments. On February 2, the regiment, along with the 3rd Arkansas, 4th Mississippi, and a regiment from Montgomery, Alabama, was listed in Brigadier General F. C. Armstrong's Brigade.

As part of this brigade, it moved to Spring Hill, Tennessee, in February, 1863, and in March was with Brigadier General N. B. Forrest in the action around Thompson's Station and Brentwood. In this affair, the 6th, under Lieutenant Colonel James H. Lewis, raided to within two and a half to three miles of Nashville and made a half circuit of Nashville from the Franklin to the Charlotte Pike. The regiment captured a splendid set of silver instruments - twenty-four pieces - most of which were kept by the regimental band during the remainder of the war.

Early in May, 1863, General Van Dorn was killed at Spring Hill, Tenn., and General Forrest, having returned from what was known as Streight's raid, assumed command of all the cavalry in the vicinity of Spring Hill. This regiment escorted General Van Dorn's remains to the place of burial in the cemetery at Columbia, Tenn.

The regiment brought up the rear as Bragg's Army of Tennessee retreated to Chattanooga in July, 1863, and took station at Post Oak Springs, Roane County, in August. It rejoined the main army for the Battle of Chickamauga, September 19-20, serving under General Wheeler on the left for the first day, and under General Forrest, on the right, on the second day.

Wheeler's 6th Tennessee Cavalry assisted in the pursuit of Rosecrans' army to Chattanooga, and then marched back into East Tennessee. They assisted in the capture of an army train of more than one thousand wagons with its convoy of 1500 men. The wagons were loaded with supplies for the Federal army, then almost in a state of siege at Chattanooga.

The regiment moved to McMinnville, Murfreesboro, and Wartrace, then crossed the Duck River and, under the command of Major General Joe Wheeler, participated in the Battle of Farmington in October. They retreated southward and crossed the Tennessee River near the mouth of the Elk River, at Muscle Shoals, having passed through Giles County. The regiment then moved eastward, across northern Alabama, back to the vicinity of Chattanooga and retreated with the Army of Tennessee to winter headquarters at Dalton, Georgia.

In the early summer of 1864, Wheeler's 6th Tennessee Cavalry participated in Confederate General Joe Johnston's retreat to Atlanta, fighting at Resaca, New Hope Church, Pine Mountain, Kennesaw Mountain, and at Atlanta. During this struggle the regiment was again and again dismounted and took the place of infantry in the trenches.

General Wheeler then marched to Covington, Georgia, 40 miles south of Atlanta. From this place, on the 10th of August, the regiment moved with General Wheeler's command to the rear of Sherman's army to Dalton, Georgia, Cleveland, Athens, and around Knoxville, then crossed the mountains to Sparta, in Middle Tennessee.

At one point the regiment was more than two hundred miles behind enemy lines. They moved on to Franklin, tearing up the track of the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad, destroying trestles and bridges; also the Nashville and Decatur railroad, cutting Sherman's and Thomas' lines of communication. They passed west of Columbia by way of Lynnville and Lawrenceburg, fording the Tennessee River at Colbert Shoals, below Florence, Alabama.

Colonel James Wheeler asked General Joe Wheeler for permission to join General Forrest on his raid into Middle Tennessee in September, 1864. General Wheeler at first declined the request, but later allowed Wheeler's 6th Tennessee Cavalry to join Forrest's command.

The Giles County boys, at least what remained of them, were returning home. At Athens, Alabama, Colonel Wheeler played a significant part in Forrest's deception that led to the surrender of the Federal garrison. As part of his bluff, General Forrest addressed Colonel Wheeler as General Wheeler and together they convinced the Union commander that their command was much larger than it actually was.

The command moved with Forrest, aided in capturing a force of 400 men guarding the bridge at Elk River, on the Nashville and Decatur road, and all the stockades on the road as far as Pulaski, where the Federals had collected several thousand men to oppose Forrest; thence to the neighborhood of Shelbyville and Wartrace. The command crossed the Tennessee River near Florence, Alabama.

The regiment went with Forrest to Corinth, Mississippi, then parted from Forrest with reluctance and moved to LaGrange, Georgia, where they rejoined Wheeler's command about the 25th of November, 1864. The command moved with General Wheeler to Griffin, Georgia, where it first encountered General Sherman on his "march to the sea." They followed Sherman, making frequent attacks on his massive army, but to no avail.

They crossed into South Carolina, then moved into North Carolina, where they participated in the battles at Averysboro and Bentonville. The Battle of Bentonville was the last of the war in which the Army of Tennessee was engaged. It was fought on the 19th and 20th of March, 1865. On the 26th of April, 1865, the battle-flag of the Confederacy was furled, as far as the Army of Tennessee was concerned. Wheeler's 6th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment was paroled at Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 3, 1865.