I would have found this book riveting anyway, but doubly so when I began reading it and realized that the same military commission that tried the Irish Shanty men tried a relative of mine. Circumstances were a little different. His name was Matthew James Jackson Cagle and he was serving as a scout/spy for the Union forces stationed in Clarksville. He had an ongoing dispute with the quartermaster over expense reimbursement. One day he lost his temper, burst into Col. Bruce's office, and began shouting about his grevances. You can imagine how that went over. Bruce said he drew or attempted to draw a gun. No one backed that claim but, I believe, Bruce's clerk. They tried to add charges of stealing a gun and supplies, but had no evidence for those claims. The comission found his guilty on the 1st charge, not the other two.
The verdict was disallowed at Nashville on grounds that as MJJ Cagle was in the employ of the Army at the time in question, he should have been brought before a court marshal not the military comission. He was let go at the beginning of October '63 and never re-tried.
Oddly, at almost the same time he was let go, Andrew Johnson, as military governor, authorized him to raise a company of mounted Union Guards. This was never carried out, as the Army commander disapproved. 15 years after the war ended, Matthew Cagle, who was living in Kansas got the last laugh in his grudge fight with the quartermaster. He was awarded the amount of money he said was owed him for his expenses by a special act of Congress. Matthew Cagle was a Justice of the Peace in Dickson County before the war and served 1 term as a State Representative under "Parson" Brownlow, but left Tennessee before 1870. At least 2 of his siblings served on the Union side as well, but the baby of the family, teen aged half-brother Adam D Burns is said in family lore to have been killed by Confederate sympathizers when he refused to tell them where to find his older brothers.
I have a copy of the National Archives file on MJJ Cagle's trial and a copy of Andrew Johnson's comission to raise a Company of troops. Since you have been so involved with the records of the Civil War activities in this area, can you recommend other sources that might shed light on any of this?
Thank you,
Vickie Trainor