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Courageous Journey: The Civil War Journal of Laettia Lafon Ashmore Nutt is a diary kept by Laetta Lafon Ashmore Nutt during most of 1864. At some point it looks like she recapped the previous time frame up to the point she started the diary. It covers about the time of winter at Ringgold Gap 1863 to the Fall of Atlanta in 1864. Her Husband served in the obscure unit attached to Granbury’s brigade of Cleburne’s Division call Nutt’s Louisiana Cavalry Company. I have always wanted to know the “where and when” of the small obscure facts of little units and why they existed, so years ago I began to dig.... So, enclosed is a little history of Capt. Nutt’s company to go along with a copy his wife’s diary enclosed.
I have studied this company for some time now. I recommend if you want to the know the history of this Nutt’s company as it pertains to their Captain, Leroy Moncure Nutt, the copy of Courageous Journey: The Civil War Journal of Laettia Lafon Ashmore Nutt is a necessary component to understanding the history of the unit. This was a journal kept by Capt. Nutt's Wife (Her story is no less intriguing than his, living with the army with her children for most of 1864).
After the capture of Fort Hindman /Arkansas Post by General Sherman in January of 1863, she basically followed her husband in the Army of Tennessee in which Capt. Nutt served until the end of the war. The men and officers were sent to prison in Chicago and then exchanged in City point, VA in April of 1863.
Along with the Texas and Arkansas units captured there, there were four independent cavalry companies as well as an independent artillery battery captured. They are Nutt’s Louisiana Cavalry Company; Denson’s Louisiana Cavalry Company; Richardson’s Texas Cavalry Company; Alfred Johnson’s Spy Company (Texas), and Hart’s Arkansas Battery. Although I don’t have the numbers, about half or most of these men in these units escaped and a little less than half of them were captured. The units not captured reformed or transferred to other units and served in the Trans-Mississippi. The rest went to prison and were exchanged at City Point, VA and put into Deshler’s Brigade, Cleburne’s Division. This makes tracing the units very difficult especially the independent companies.
All of the men of the independent cavalry companies composed of Texans, Louisiana and the Arkansas battery were consolidated into a single company under the senior captain, Leroy Moncure Nutt. First they were attached as an additional company, Company “M”, to the 10th Texas Infantry serving dismounted as a skirmish company. They served in this capacity in the Battle of Chickamauga and Chattanooga & Ringgold Gap. By the time before the fall of Chattanooga moral was very low in this company. Mostly being resentful of serving as infantry and usually mixed units were very unpopular, especially mixed states. Men liked to serve with men they signed up with in their communities. Much of Capt. Nutt’s time was spent trying to get his men transferred back to the Trans-Mississippi. During the time the units suffered a frightful amount of desertion including W. W. Heartsill who finally escaped to the Trans-Mississippi in Nov of 1863. (See W.W. Heartsill, Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army). However a core of men from the mixed company remained including Capt. Leroy M. Nutt
In the late fall of 1863 what was left of the unit was remounted and made scouts attached to Granbury's Brigade reporting basically to Col. Ben Hill, provost martial Army of Tennessee. They basically performed scouting operations behind enemy lines probably in civilian clothing. It was a very dangerous job!
As stated before, the history is very difficult to follow because a good portion of the company (as well as other units captured at Arkansas Post) were not captured but escaped and continued to serve west of the Mississippi. Nutt’s command serving East of the Mississippi basically incorporated remnants of the 4 independent LA, AR & TX cavalry companies and Hart’s AR Battery that were captured at Arkansas Post. At this point of the history is where Mrs. Nutt’s Diary is very helpful in understanding the operations of the unit as well as Capt. Nutt’s CSR and his small collection of papers at the University of North Carolina.
By the spring campaign of 1864 Nutt’s command consisted of a core group that stayed with the Army of Tennessee. They are shown as being armed with Mississippi rifles and mounted in the winter of 1863-1864. Much of the writings of Capt. Nutt CSR were attempts to get officially reassigned back the Trans-Mississippi Department. Despite this, the group under Nutt continued to serve until the end of the war with the AOT. His rerecords show he served with the AOT in GA, TN and NC and finally paroled in Alabama. I suspect his command did not surrender in NC with the rest of the Army of Tennessee and were finally apprehended in Alabama trying to make their way to the Trans-Mississippi.
Mrs. Nutt’s diary is interesting as she writes about her husband’s raids behind enemy lines and hardship she and her children endured and the kindness of officers and men of Cleburne’s command following her husband and the army during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign.
If you want to understand they type of operations they performed please take a look at a paper called "Fagots form the Campfire" by Louis Dupre. http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/dupre/menu.html
This is an excellent read regarding scouting operations with the Army of Tennessee.
Sources:
• Heartsill, W. W. Fourteen hundred and 91 days in the Confederate Army
• Martin, Florence Ashmore Cowles Hamlett, ed. Courageous Journey: The Civil War Journal of Laettia Lafon Ashmore Nutt
• Services Records for Capt. Leroy Moncure Nutt
• Leroy Moncure Nutt Papers, 1835-1927 (bulk 1866-1867). http://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/02285/
If anyone has any more resources they can add I would appreciate it. Thanks for reading.
I have studied this company for some time now. I recommend if you want to the know the history of this Nutt’s company as it pertains to their Captain, Leroy Moncure Nutt, the copy of Courageous Journey: The Civil War Journal of Laettia Lafon Ashmore Nutt is a necessary component to understanding the history of the unit. This was a journal kept by Capt. Nutt's Wife (Her story is no less intriguing than his, living with the army with her children for most of 1864).
After the capture of Fort Hindman /Arkansas Post by General Sherman in January of 1863, she basically followed her husband in the Army of Tennessee in which Capt. Nutt served until the end of the war. The men and officers were sent to prison in Chicago and then exchanged in City point, VA in April of 1863.
Along with the Texas and Arkansas units captured there, there were four independent cavalry companies as well as an independent artillery battery captured. They are Nutt’s Louisiana Cavalry Company; Denson’s Louisiana Cavalry Company; Richardson’s Texas Cavalry Company; Alfred Johnson’s Spy Company (Texas), and Hart’s Arkansas Battery. Although I don’t have the numbers, about half or most of these men in these units escaped and a little less than half of them were captured. The units not captured reformed or transferred to other units and served in the Trans-Mississippi. The rest went to prison and were exchanged at City Point, VA and put into Deshler’s Brigade, Cleburne’s Division. This makes tracing the units very difficult especially the independent companies.
All of the men of the independent cavalry companies composed of Texans, Louisiana and the Arkansas battery were consolidated into a single company under the senior captain, Leroy Moncure Nutt. First they were attached as an additional company, Company “M”, to the 10th Texas Infantry serving dismounted as a skirmish company. They served in this capacity in the Battle of Chickamauga and Chattanooga & Ringgold Gap. By the time before the fall of Chattanooga moral was very low in this company. Mostly being resentful of serving as infantry and usually mixed units were very unpopular, especially mixed states. Men liked to serve with men they signed up with in their communities. Much of Capt. Nutt’s time was spent trying to get his men transferred back to the Trans-Mississippi. During the time the units suffered a frightful amount of desertion including W. W. Heartsill who finally escaped to the Trans-Mississippi in Nov of 1863. (See W.W. Heartsill, Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army). However a core of men from the mixed company remained including Capt. Leroy M. Nutt
In the late fall of 1863 what was left of the unit was remounted and made scouts attached to Granbury's Brigade reporting basically to Col. Ben Hill, provost martial Army of Tennessee. They basically performed scouting operations behind enemy lines probably in civilian clothing. It was a very dangerous job!
As stated before, the history is very difficult to follow because a good portion of the company (as well as other units captured at Arkansas Post) were not captured but escaped and continued to serve west of the Mississippi. Nutt’s command serving East of the Mississippi basically incorporated remnants of the 4 independent LA, AR & TX cavalry companies and Hart’s AR Battery that were captured at Arkansas Post. At this point of the history is where Mrs. Nutt’s Diary is very helpful in understanding the operations of the unit as well as Capt. Nutt’s CSR and his small collection of papers at the University of North Carolina.
By the spring campaign of 1864 Nutt’s command consisted of a core group that stayed with the Army of Tennessee. They are shown as being armed with Mississippi rifles and mounted in the winter of 1863-1864. Much of the writings of Capt. Nutt CSR were attempts to get officially reassigned back the Trans-Mississippi Department. Despite this, the group under Nutt continued to serve until the end of the war with the AOT. His rerecords show he served with the AOT in GA, TN and NC and finally paroled in Alabama. I suspect his command did not surrender in NC with the rest of the Army of Tennessee and were finally apprehended in Alabama trying to make their way to the Trans-Mississippi.
Mrs. Nutt’s diary is interesting as she writes about her husband’s raids behind enemy lines and hardship she and her children endured and the kindness of officers and men of Cleburne’s command following her husband and the army during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign.
If you want to understand they type of operations they performed please take a look at a paper called "Fagots form the Campfire" by Louis Dupre. http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/dupre/menu.html
This is an excellent read regarding scouting operations with the Army of Tennessee.
Sources:
• Heartsill, W. W. Fourteen hundred and 91 days in the Confederate Army
• Martin, Florence Ashmore Cowles Hamlett, ed. Courageous Journey: The Civil War Journal of Laettia Lafon Ashmore Nutt
• Services Records for Capt. Leroy Moncure Nutt
• Leroy Moncure Nutt Papers, 1835-1927 (bulk 1866-1867). http://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/02285/
If anyone has any more resources they can add I would appreciate it. Thanks for reading.