WHO WERE THESE MEN? (Cassville Cemetery) by Barbara Timm

Researcher Grandpa Dave Goes to Work
(Barbara says: "Learn at the knee of the master!")

I thought I'd find what I could about the 364 unknown Confederate burials in the Cassville cemetery. It is a difficult proposition because there is so little information to start with, but even if it doesn't help bring back the identities of those men, it might help show exactly what civil war information an ordinary person can, and cannot, find:

I went first to the National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System; Soldier Search function at: http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/Personz_Detail.cfm?PER_NBR=5522094 and entered the known information from the single Cassville tombstone:
First Name: Alex
Last Name: Winn
Side: Confederacy
State: Tennessee
Number or Ordinal: 22
Unit: Infantry

Nothing came up, so I left off the first name. searched again, and got J. Winn, a private in Company A. I left the "Unit:" blank, searched again and got an A.S. Winn who was a private in Company D of the 22nd Tennessee Cavalry (also called Barteau's Tennessee Cavalry. He was also known as Robert Winn. Next, I entered only the Surname: Winn; Side: Confederacy and State: Tennessee and picked out three more possible soldiers from a long list of Winns from Tennessee. Alex. J. Winn started as a sergeant an ended as a private in Company B of the 34th Tennessee Infantry. A different Alex Winn started in the 20th Tennessee Infantry as a private in Company D and ended as an adjutant. Next, I left out the information "State:". A man called Alexander Winn was a Quartermaster Captain or the Confederate States Army. In other words, this Alex Winn was appointed to the rank of Captain in the general staff of the Army by Pres. Jefferson Davis, to fill an opening in the Quartermaster Corps. His home state would not have been included in the "search" cues. A quartermaster usually served a brigade, or was at the division staff level, but could have served a single regiment at times. I tried altering the spelling to "Wynn", but found no other useful information. Finally I brought up the entire roster of the 22nd Tennessee Infantry, and polled over 1350 names twenty at a time. The information on Captain Alexander Winn, CSA was the only file that didn't contradict the tombstone; but it didn't necessarily match, either.

Next I went to the Regiment listing at the same site. The history of the 22nd Tennessee Infantry is at: http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/template.cfm?unitcode=CTN0022R101&unitname=22nd%30… It was apparently organized in the summer of 1861 as Freeman's Regiment, consisting of men from the city of Memphis and Hardeman, Carroll, Gibson, & Dyer counties. Colonel Thomas J. Freeman commanded. It went into active service in August 1861 and was in the battles at Belmont and Shiloh. In June of 1862 the 22nd Tennessee Infantry was merged with the 12th Tennessee Infantry.

So I went to the history of the 12th Tennessee Infantry at: http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/template.cfm?unitcode=CTH0012R101&unitname=12th%20… This regiment was organized in May 1861 primarily from men in Gibson and Dyer counties of Tennessee, and had fought at Belmont and Shiloh with the 22nd regiment. After the merger, the regiment had 737 men, but over half appeared to be detached from the regiment. It lost 32 men at Richmond, about 164 at Murfreesborough, and became too few in numbers. The 47th Tennessee Infantry was merged into the 12th/22nd in October 1862. The reconstituted regiment lost 87 men at Chickamauga and by December 1863 only had 373 men.

Going back to the soldier "Search" function, I found that J.R.P. Winn served in the 12th (Consolidated)Tennessee Infantry as a Private in Co. A, then was in Co. C as James Winn, and finally was listed as H.J. Winn in Companies A and C. I am satisfied that they are different spellings of the same man's name. He served the entire time as a private……..so the only match to the Cassville tombstone were his last name and the regiment.

I turned to the Georgia Civil War Map of Battles at: http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/georgia.html
Some of the most intense fighting of the war happened in your area of Georgia, and I agree with your conclusion that the battle called "Adairsville" on May 17, 1864 was the nearest to the Cassville Cemetery. On May 15, 1864 Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army retreated southward from the battle of Resaca, leaving cavalry to fight a rear guard action against a Union army under Gen. W.T. Sherman in hot pursuit. The account said there was skirmishing all day on the seventeenth. The singular purpose of skirmishing was to force the enemy to reposition by causing peripheral casualties. If both armies were moving, the casualties were usually about evenly spread between them; but if one was stopped, that army usually had higher numbers of dead and wounded. The report continued "………and into the early evening, Maj. Gen. O.O. Howard's IV Corps ran into entrenched infantry of Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee's corps, while advancing, about two miles north of Adairsville. The 44th Illinois and 24th Wisconsin (under the command of Maj. Arthur MacArthur, father of Douglas) attacked Cheatham's Division at Robert Saxon (the Octagon House) and incurred heavy losses." Night fell, and both sides repositioned and reinforced for a major battle the next day. In the morning Confederate General Johnson didn't like the lay of the land, and withdrew southward, ending up positioning his Army near New Hope Church.

To have any idea what the battle description was actually saying, more information was needed. I remembered the "Chattanooga Campaign Confederate Order of Battle" was listed on one of the most extensive civil war history websites, and found it at: http://www.civilwarhome.com/chattanoogaorderofbattle(confed).htm When it was organized in early 1863, the Army of Tennessee (Confederate) was primarily made up of four Corps (Longstreet's, Hardee's, Breckenridge's, and Wheeler's). The cavalry that fought the rear guard action was probably Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler's Cavalry Corps consisting of fifty-one regiments. Surely some of them were elsewhere, and it is doubtful that the entire corps was employed in skirmishing. However, when one looks over the list of regiments and commanders, some very famous names appear. The less recognizable regiments that are left were primarily from Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia. The surviving men who originally made the 22nd Tennessee Infantry did not appear to be present at Adairville. The 12/47 Tennessee Infantry was in Hardee's Corps for the Chattanooga-Chickamauga campaign, but it was in Hindman's Division rather than Cheatham's.

I was getting lost. To understand what the report actually said, I needed to go back to the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System for some detail information. The first information I sought on the CWSS was about the whole string of skirmishes, major and minor battles from May 15 to June 1, 1864. The history was recorded primarily by Union army accounts. I surmised that being in unfamiliar country and moving rapidly; they were not as accurate as one might expect, but eventually caught up on reporting their own casualties. Here is what I gathered:

Battle Event Date County Casualties
Union Casualties
Confed
Adairsville May 17 Bartow 200 UNK
Near Kingston May 18-19 Bartow UNK UNK
Near Cassville May 19 Bartow UNK UNK
Advance on Dallas May 22-25 Bartow-Paulding UNK UNK
New Hope Church May 25-26 Paulding 1,600 UNK
Dallas May 28 Paulding 2,400 3,000
Pumpkin Vine Creek May 25-June 5 Paulding UNK UNK
Allatoona Hills May 25-June 5 ~ UNK UNK
Pickett's Mills/New Hope May 27 Paulding 1,600 500
Total ~ ~ 6,000 3,500


The second thing I sought was whether the description "Robert Saxon (the Octagon house) might have referred to an octagonal house owned by, or referenced to, a local Robert Saxon; or whether Robert Saxon was a Confederate officer who was instantly recognizable to the CSA general staff. I found "R.C. Saxon", a First Lieutenant and Adjutant with a general CSA appointment like Alexander Winn's; who certainly fit the supposition.

The third item was the histories of the Union's 44th Regiment, Illinois Infantry and 24th Regiment, Wisconsin Infantry. Both units are credited with participating in every action listed above. Both had long battle histories, but had unusually heavy casualties for even their service. They definitely had losses high enough to mirror the high number of burials at Cassville cemetery.

Finally, I went to the Tennessee Genweb site and searched for "22nd Tennessee Infantry". It returned: http://www.tngenweb.org/civilwar/csainf/csain22.htm At that site is an excellent history of the regiment giving all of the officers, and their specific assignments. There is a corresponding one for the 12th Tennessee Infantry, but the high degree of information fades rapidly after 1863. It was still listed as an active unit at the surrender, but was so reduced that it was combined with several other regiments for the post-war paperwork. I was satisfied that there was not a Capt. Alex Winn in the 22nd.

The military knowledge that I use is actually pretty basic stuff that anyone can learn and utilize. I am having fun learning about the 1864 defense of Atlanta; which was a definite turning point in American history. I must confess that I didn't even know it would interest me until I got involved. This information makes it seem even more likely that many of the Cassville graves of Unknown Confederate soldiers are from fighting near Cassville, but from all of the warfare that passed by on May 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19, 1864. While the fighting was between regular forces and did not involve local militia, there is a strong probability that many of those regular soldiers were local men.

Dave Frederick


RESPONSE FROM CAPTAIN WINN'S GREAT-GREAT-GRANDAUGHTER

Date: 2/10/2004
From: LindaPeashka@aol.com
To: GrandpaPack@msn.com
Subject: "A Cemetery in Georgia"

Hello Dave,

I believe you have found my gg grandpa Winn. What little I have found out about him indicates that he was killed in an ambush at Opossum Trot, Georgia on July 19, 1864. That might be why he was the only one identified, he was buried at a different time then the others by people who knew him. He was in the 20th Tennessee Infantry along with several men with his wife's maiden name Jordan, I assume they were in-laws.

Alexander Randolph Winn was born on June 21, 1830. He married Narcissi Jordan on December 11, 1864. When he died, he left her with six children, the last of whom was born about 19 days after he died.

About half of my information is based on other peoples research, and I haven't been able to back it up yet with official records. Therefor, I apologize for any mistakes.

Thank you for putting this information on line, Linda Peashka

Ps Is there an Opossum Trot any where near this location?


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Date: 2/10/2004
From: GrandpaPack@msn.com
To: LindaPeashka@aol.com

It was a nice surprise to hear from you!

I am forwarding your e-mail to Barbara Timm, who created the web page and lives near Cassville.

I checked a little, and didn't find a specific battle at Opossum Trot, but am sure your information is correct about it. Here is a web page that will tell you where it is, about twenty miles due west of Cassville. http://www.berry.edu/oakhill/possumtrot.asp

There was a lot of maneuvering and skirmishing leading up to the final large battles for Atlanta, which opened on July 20, 1864. Only the larger or more strategic ones are listed in most histories, but there should be a lot of information to be found with a little digging.

Dave Frederick


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From Barbara Timm:

I almost didn't publish "A Cemetery In Georgia" because there was only one name among the Confederate soldiers. Now I am so glad I did. Who would have thought that someone would make contact with that one name! This is a lesson to me that no information is too small to present.

By the way, we Georgians call it 'Possum Trot! ~ Barbara

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