Seventy-five of our
battalions set out from Camp Schuyler to go to Knoxville, about forty miles
east, with some prisoners. They returned the 17th.
* J. C. McAdoo and
brother Will (Company E) had the measles, and went home from this camp. Brother
Ben went with them.
McNairy moved his
battalion from Camp Schuyler, about thirty miles north, to Huntsville, the
county seat of Scott County. This was the day of the noted “Big August"
freshet. It rained so much that our wagon train did not get to Huntsville until
next day. We took shelter in the court-house.
Companies A and D
were detached on the 25th und sent back to Camp Schuyler.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, p. 37
J. L. Thomas
and I set out from Mr. Lathan's to hunt our command. After a ride of about
twenty-four miles, we found our Company at Monroe, in Overton County, six or
eight miles north-east of Livingston, on their way to Knoxville. The other two
companies, B and C, were beyond Livingston.
Brother Ben, who had
taken brother Will home from Camp Schuyler, rejoined the company. It was about
this time that Captain Payne left the battalion, and Duncan was made Captain of
Company D.
In the saddle early, we again took up the line of march eastward. Passing through Wartburg, we soon arrived at Camp Schuyler, where we found the other two companies, A and D. They had been sent to this camp from Huntsville, the 25th of August. These two companies, having been previously notified to be ready to move, now fell in, and the whole battalion continued moving eastward.
We camped for the
night in Anderson County, within twenty-two miles of Knoxville.
We moved on to Camp Zollicoffer. about two miles north-west of Livingston. Here we found the Twenty-fifth Tennessee Infantry, Colonel S. S. Stanton's Regiment. And about this time, or soon after, the Twenty-eighth, Colonel J. P. Murray's Regiment, was organized at this camp. The other three companies of our battalion joined us here. After resting one day at Camp Zollicoffer, the whole battalion took up the line of march again. (Beg pardon, dear reader — right here I find another leaf of my Diary gone.) However, from Livingston the First Battalion marched east to Jamestown, thence south-east to Montgomery, then the county seat of Morgan County, and thence four miles east, through Wartburg, now the county seat of Morgan, to Camp Schuyler, arriving at the last place mentioned on the 14th of August, where we remained one week.
We found that a majority of the men through this portion of East Tennessee had either crossed over into Kentucky to join the Federal army or hid out in the woods. It was reported, before reaching Montgomery, that we would meet a considerable force of Home Guards at that place, but they left before we got there. We saw one woman and one child as we passed through the county seat of Morgan County, but not a single man was to be seen. A “Union” man who remained at home and attended to his own business we did not molest, but we arrested those who were hiding out from home or thought to be preparing to go north, if we could find them.
