Thanks for your question. I will need to reply in more detail later. If the library at Hanceville is within reasonable driving distance, you can get the Unfiled Papers and Slips there, as well as the Federal Provost Marshall's papers. These are in alpha order by millitary districts, so they should be useful much more quickly than you suppose. If there are letters authorizing McNairy to recruit a battalion, they ought to be in Letters to the Confederate Adjutant and Inspector General, also at Hanceville.

If Dr. Bob Davis is available, ask him about how to search these three collections. He has a particular interest in the Federal Provost Marshall's records, and knows a graet deal about searching for odds and ends like these.

Before doing any of that, I would start with series one of the Official Records. My CD version came up with several Federal reports concering McNairy, whose name was also reported as McNary. There are two or three detailed accounts of his command's surrender at Franklin TN on May 17, 1865. According to two Federal reports filed later, there were disturbances and unrest in Hickman County after McNairy surrendered.