Hayes Lowe
51st was a red-herring!
Tue Feb 20 10:25:53 2001


Thanks a bunch for this link! It helps to explain all this. It is starting to all sort out, now.

The 51st being under Gen. John T. Morgan, and commanded at some point by a Capt. Kirkpatrick was a red-herring! The 51st is in no way related to "Kirkpatrick's Kentucky Cavalry Battalion".

The diary that you referenced explains it all. Kirkpatrick's Battalion was formed by a quirk of fate. Near Buffington Island, Ohio Capt. John Kirkpatrick, Captain of the 9th Tenn. Cav. Co. C, took a group of 110 men which were used to form two temporary companies. They became separated at Portland, Ohio and walked through West Virginia to Virginia.

Evidently they were unable to rejoin Morgan's Men, and the group was used at Chickamauga under the name "Kirkpatrick's Battalion". They also fought, before Chickamauga, at Knoxville with 80 men present. The writer notes that just after Chickamauga, the battalion had 450 men present.

Apparently, the two temporary companies were used to create a battalion under Kirkpatrick's command. By June 2nd 1864, the battalion was brigaded in the 2nd Brigade and under Gen. Morgan's control. They were dismounted, and Morgan had plans to mount them. Apparently some of them were provided horses, and some were not.

On September 4, 1864, Gen. John Hunt Morgan was killed. A bio of William Minter Weaver states that he joined John H. Hunt's cavalry early in the war, and was with Morgan when he was killed. He was then transferred to the 37th Ala. Inf. Regt.

If Weaver was a member of Goldsby's Company, I'm not sure when he would have had an opportunity to belong to it. Perhaps after Morgan was killed, and before he was assigned to the 37th, he belonged to Goldsby's Co. Anybody know the microfilm roll number for this unit?






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