Military History.— Tennessee is designated the °Volunteer') State — a name acquired in the war with Mexico. Her military history be gins at King's Mountain during the Revolution. Creasy in his (Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World,) says the battle of Saratoga is the decisive one in our Revolutionary struggle; if that is so, King's Mountain is second in im portance to that engagement alone.
This .battle was fought on 25 Sept. 1780. The force was under the command of Cols. John Sevier, Isaac Shelby and William Camp bell, and composed entirely of East Tennessee mountaineers, who rendezvoused at Sycamore Falls on the Watauga River, several days be fore their departure to intercept the British forces under the command of Col. Patrick Fer guson, who was advancing from the Carolinas to join the army of Lord Cornwallis in Vir ginia. The victory of the Tennesseans was com plete. Ferguson was killed and his whole army either killed or captured. His sword and sash are among the relics in the Tennessee Historical Society at Nashville, also the gun with which he was killed. This battle prevented the junc tion of the two British forces and hastened the surrender of Cornwallis to General Wash ington at Yorktown, which ended the war and gave us our independence.
Tennessee became a State in 1796. Since that date it has taken an active and leading part in all the wars in which the country has been engaged. In the War of 1812 she fur nished 28,000 troops and had double the num ber of any other State in the battle of New Orleans, fought by General Jackson — one of her sons— on the 8 Jan. 1815, in which the British commander, General Packenham, was killed. In the several Indian wars east of the Mississippi— in the States of Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee— she fur nished nearly all of the soldiers engaged, as well as the commanding officers— Jackson, Houston, Coffee and Carroll. The happy end ing of these wars gave peace and security to life and property to the people of these States against the torch, tomahawk and scalping lcnife of the cruel, treacherous and relentless savage.
The principal battles in these Indian wars were Tallahatchee, Tuscaloosa, Emuckf au, Erotochapco, on the Tallapoosa River, and the decisive battle of the Horseshoe, which ended the Creek War—their noted chief and leader, Red Eagle, being captured.
The next link in her military history is the part she took in the Mexican War of the 40's. Under proclamation of President Polk,
Gov. Aaron V. Brown called for the enlist ment of 2,800 troops. The number of 30,000 immediately responded, which gave gave to her the title of the ((Volunteer)) State. Two regiments of infantry were accepted, the First Tennessee, under Col. William B. Camp bell, and the Second. under Col. William T. Haskell, together with several cavalry com panies. She furnished one major-general, Gideon J. Pillow. The principal battles in which her troops took part were Cerro Gordo, Cherubusco, Molino del Rey and Chepultepec, entering the city of Mexico under the com mand of Gen. Winfield Scott. During our Civil War Tennessee was one of the principal battle grounds, Virginia being the other. Her geographical limits and location between the two contending sections— extending rhomboidal in shape — nearly 500 miles, from the Great Smoky range on the east to the Mississippi River on the west— necessarily made her soil the theatre of action of the two hostile armies and for numerous raids and engagements of cavalry and mounted infantry of both sections. The result was therc wcre 454 engagements or affairs-at-arms within her borders, more than in any other State, during her fighting period, from 12 Dec. 1861, when the first clash of arms occurred at Morristown in East Tennessee, till the last engagement on 12 June 1865 at Plum Butte.
These affairs-at-arms include such conflicts as the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson — the former on the Tennessee, the latter on the Cumberland — Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Fort Pil low, Island Ten, the naval battle at Memphis, the two battles of Missionary Ridge, the closing scenes of Chickamauga and the battles of Franklin and Nashville in December 1864.
Her regiments of infantry reached the num ber of 84. The total number of troops furnished to both armies were 145,000, 30,000 of which were in the Union army. She had 27 regiments, 15 battalions and 134 miscellaneous companies of cavalry, making a total of 126 cavalry com mands and 28 companies of light or field ar tillery; thus showing that Tennessee furnished more soldiers during our Civil War than any other Southern State, North Carolina furnish ing a few thousand more to the armies of the South than she did.