The Tennessee in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Capt. Bledsoe's Independent Cavalry

Refer to the following plea of citizens of Fentress County mentioning Capt. Bledsoe and his company. Taken from the Official Records.

From this, I would think it most likely that his company was raised from this county.

George Martin

LIVINGSTON, October 14, 1861.
Governor HARRIS,
Nashville, Tenn.:
SIR: A late order of Generals Johnston and Buckner, of the Confederate Army, removing the forces from this county and Fentress, and leaving us unprotected, makes it necessary for us to address you again upon the subject of our safety. You are doubtless already informed that some of our troops a few weeks ago visited Albany, Ky., thirty miles distant from here, and carried off the guns of the Federals there; that shortly after a considerable Federal force from the Federal camp removed to Albany, which is but six miles from the State line, and held it for some days, sending their cavalry frequently for miles into this State, and killing one man, Mr. Saufley, and carrying away on several occasions the property of our citizens. They also insulted women and children, and went to the houses of our strong Southern men at night in search of them, and threatened to shoot the family if they did not tell where the husband and father was. The pickets are formed of the most reckless men, and generally the renegades from Tennessee, and led by the notorious Jim Ferguson, the murderer of Saufley and other Southern men, whose ambition seems to be to shoot Southern men in cold blood whenever he meets them, and is, as we are informed, daily seeking to shoot his own brother because he is in the army here. In addition, we know that particular animosity exists against this county and this town, because they have been particularly Southern from the start of the separation question; because they have been the rendezvous of soldiers, and the points from which the expedition against Albany went out, and also the asylum of the oppressed Kentuckians. It is known, too, that particular men, our best citizens, in this county and Fentress, are marked out on the black list of the renegades, whose lives and property now lie under the most fiendish threats. We know they are unprincipled; that they are not governed by the laws of war, but a revengeful desire of blood and plunder, stimulated by the unholy competition for ascendency in taking scalps and plunder as trophies. On yesterday, we learn, the cavalry of Captains Sanders and Bledsoe marched toward Burkesville, Ky., for the purpose of taking that place and recovering a considerable amount of goods belonging to Southern men, lately purchased in Louisville and brought there. Burkesville is but thirty-five miles from this town and fifteen from the Obey River, the wealthiest portion of our country, and where a large portion of our grain, and our hogs and beef-cattle, fine horses and mules, wagons, &c., are. We could state many other facts to show our condition and the kind of enemy on our border, but would refer Your Excellency to Adjutant-General McHenry, Senator Hildreth, Representative Donaldson, and Captain Rice, the bearer, for further particulars. Colonel Stanton's regiment moved yesterday, and Colonel Murray's will to-day or to-morrow, for Bowling Green, and all the cavalry here moves with them. Thus we are left at the mercy of our foes, a portion of whom are still about Albany, Ky., daily scouting along our border, and this, too, after these recent visits to Burkesville and Albany, which have so stirred up our enemy as to cause him to seek the very first opportunity for retaliation. Notwithstanding we have sent out nearly 1,000 fighting men, embracing nearly every man capable of bearing arms who could be spared from home under any ordinary state of the warfare, we are thus driven to the necessity of raising more men to save our homes and property. We have held a calm council, and concluded to call on Your Excellency's known patriotism for aid and protection, and more especially for arms and ammunition, as all the arms worth anything, or nearly so, here have been taken into the army, and we are nearly defenseless. We therefore hope you can send us a regiment (infantry), and a company of cavalry well armed, forthwith. We think it probable General Caswell can spare them. If you cannot send a regiment of infantry, perhaps you can a battalion of cavalry, which would just now be very efficient for scouting. In case neither can be done, we hope you will authorize us to form companies of minutemen, under the act of assembly, so that we may be able to keep some sort of force to prevent raids, and to watch the Camp McGinnis Gap, so that the Federals may not have an uninterrupted communication with their friends in East Tennessee, nor be able to march thither before the forces there could be notified of their coming. We can give assurance that the matter will be prudently managed here, under any arrangement you may decide to make, as we feel that our safety is staked. Captain Bledsoe's cavalry company was expected to remain near Camp McGinnis, but it is gone via Burkesville to Bowling Green, and all the forces, infantry and cavalry, are leaving. Your serious consideration of our condition is most sincerely desired, and will be gratefully remembered by us and this part of the country in this our time of need.
A. A. SWOPE.
A. J. GOODBUR.
D. H. CAPPS.
[AND 18 OTHERS.]

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