Ken Jones
Chisholm's Cavalry Co.
Mon Jul 2 16:40:56 2001


George Wright pointed me in a direction that I hadn't bothered to go, but it makes sense. Try the Official Records. He suggested to me that there was an independent cavalry company operating as part of the Florida district. I looked, and sure enough, there is a Chisholm's company operating in Florida. Is it the same Chisholm? I have not seen a reference except that in the OR where there is a pointer to an "alternate designation" which says "Chisholm (R. J.), see Florida Confederate Troops."

Here's a document from the OR referring to 'Captain Chisholm's company of State Guards'. Again, is it the same Robert J. Chisholm?:

O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XXVIII/2
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
Montgomery, Ala., August 4, 1863.
General H. COBB,
Commanding, &c., Headquarters, Quincy, Fla.:
SIR: For some time past a band of deserters and outlying conscripts have been infesting the lower part of Henry County, upon the border of Florida, having for the place of their concealment the swamps of the Chipola River and its tributaries. Their number and their threats of personal injury to the loyal citizens have inspired fear in the minds of many, and in consequence of the representations made to me in the matter, I ordered Captain Armstrong, with such force as he might think necessary, from his and Captain Chisholm's company of State Guards to assist Lieutenant Newman, of Brigadier-General Clanton's command, in making arrests.

Some 6 or 7 men, liable to Confederate service, were captured and sent back under escort for safe-keeping, when the escort was attacked by a superior force in ambush, and the prisoners rescued and 1 of the escort seriously wounded. The impunity of these men, and the extension of the age of conscription, will tend to increase their numbers, which will become more formidable, in consequence of the additional number withdrawn from the protection which they could personally give to their own homes and property. The State militia, comprising citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, is, of course, fully absorbed in the ranks of those liable to conscription, excepting the few who have furnished substitutes, or have otherwise been discharged from Confederate service, and these are now called for in the public defense. Your command being convenient to operate in that section, and the services of all these men being claimed by the Confederacy in the abstraction of all military force from my orders by the Confederate Government, I respectfully urge upon you to take such measures for the arrest of these disloyal men as will secure them to the Confederate service, and relieve the apprehensions of the loyal citizens of that section, and especially the unprotected families of absent soldiers.
There are other circumstances in this connection to which I ask your attention. It is reported to me, with what truth I cannot vouch, that these men have been supplied with ammunition by furloughed soldiers of the commands of Captains Curry and Tanner, stationed near Campbellton. I have also been informed by a letter from a gentleman of high standing, a citizen of this State, that men, belonging to this band and deserters from other commands have recently enlisted in the companies above named. This gentlemen saw Colonel Montgomery at Marianna, and represented the matter to him, and was informed that such men would be rendered up on claim, with descriptive roll. This it would be impossible for me to furnish, nor do I know that it is desired by the officers whose commands they have deserted.

The recent proclamation of the President affords every inducement to misguided men to return to their proper commands, and I fear that if such men are held outside of their true commands, and retained in the same neighborhood, the fear of future punishment, and the feelin