Alan J. Pitts
Re: Roddey's C company
Sun May 20 23:30:26 2001


Living in this area, these men would have been prime candidates for one of Roddey's cavalry units. All of the units he recruited were mounted. You didn't say where these men were captured. Roddey's men escaped the Yankees by crossing the Tennessee River about October 24th; I''ll have to check the exact date. Roddey wrote from Rogersville on Oct. 21st. The day before General S. D. Lee wrote from Tuscumbia:

General Roddey is over the river, and cannot cross to this side. I fear my expedition will be of no avail, as the enemy certainly are aware of the presence of so large a cavalry force in this vicinity by this time. General Wheeler's command was much demoralized by plunder, and officers and men behaved unbecomingly on the trip, thinking more of their plunder than of fighting the enemy.

He later reported that Roddey joined him near Tuscumbia on the morning of Oct. 27th. Roddey and his men then rode off to find the flank and rear of the Federal column (two divisions of the XV Army Corps) then pressing Lee's small cavalry force.

Both days make sense, but the knowing exact places shown on the prisoner-of-war records will help confirm.