Robert,

The book I alluded to in the post about the East TN railroad you made today is "The Last Confederate General" by Larry Gordon. He got a picture of John Vaughn from the Thomas County GA Historical Society where he lived after the war. They hold his uniform as well.

Gordon does not mention the fight at Rogersville on October 8, 1864 but does tell of Vaughn's activities after Saltville in September. Vaughn attacked Federals at Bull's Gap and routed them and on October 12th attacked them again at Greenville, TN (where John Hunt Morgan was killed earlier). On October 15th, Vaughn burned the railroad bridge over Mossy Creek (at Jefferson City, TN) and tore up two miles of track cutting the Federals in that area off from Knoxville.. Author Gordon writes:

"This effectively cut the Federals off from Knoxville and forced them to evacuate their fortifications at Bull's Gap. In the other direction, it opened the railway to the Confederates all the way through upper East Tennessee and into Virginia."

As I stated in my other post today, Knoxville was never retaken from the Federals so the rail line was never full open from Chattanooga to Virginia. In fact the Federals controlled it fully from Chattanooga to Knoxville and had since November 1863 - and they never let that part go in particular the portion between Chattanooga and Cleveland, TN where there was a rail line that went south to Dalton, GA.

Gordon's book states that in November 1863 Vaughn's Brigade consisted of his own brigade (60th, 61st and 62nd Tennessee) and Reynold's Brigade (3rd, 39th and 59th Tennessee). Two weeks later the 43rd Tennessee was added. These troops were mounted in December 1863.

Vaughn would receive some TN cavalry units as well - 1st Tennessee Cavalry (Carter's), 12th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion (Day's), 16th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion (Neal's) and the 16th Georgia Cavalry Battalion (Winn's). These men served as part of William Martin's Cavalry Corps during Longstreet's operations in upper East Tennessee from December 1863 into the new year. Longstreet reorganized the cavalry later and Vaughn became a division commander (Martin going back to Georgia with his men for the Atlanta Campaign) the division consisting of his original brigade, Giltner's Brigade and Rucker's Legion (Alabama troopers).

After this Vaughn fell back to brigade command and Gordon has his brigade fighting in the Piedmont of Virginia in 1864 with these units: 1st TN Cavalry, 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry, 39th Tennessee Mounted Infantry, 43rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry, 59th Tennessee Mounted Infantry, 12th TN Cavalry Battalion, 16th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion, and the remnants of his old 60th, 61st and 62nd Tennessee Infantry (mounted).

Gordon states that many of his operations in East TN were with smaller groups owing to lack of horses, forage and manpower being paramount problems.

I think this book would be helpful to you.

Greg Biggs