All named in reunion photo of Co. B, 45th Tennessee, CSA with there black cook, Monroe Gooch. Of Note:
Bottom left hand corner picture is of Monroe Gooch. Gooch was a Confederate cook for officers in the Confederate Army of Middle Tennessee 45th Infantry, which eventually merged into the Confederate Army of Tennessee, under the command of General Braxton Braggs. Gooch accompanied the Confederate Army of Tennessee until Gooch obtained “permission to visit his home at the time of Hood’s raid into Tennessee.”
In the fall of 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood “began a raid toward Chattanooga, TN, in an effort to draw Union Gen. Sherman back over ground the two sides had fought for since May. But instead of tempting Sherman to battle, Hood turned his army west and marched into Alabama, abandoning Georgia to Union forces. What happens next with Gooch is intriguing.
Instead of staying on his “furlough,” Gooch returns as a Confederate cook for officers of the Army of Tennessee. With Gen. Hood’s movement to the west, this meant that Gooch had ample opportunity to join Gen. Sherman’s “March to the Sea.” However, Gooch accompanied the Confederate States Army until the end of the war.
Rob Swinson