Yep Glenn,
I was born in Knoxville, where my dad hailed from the "McInally Flats" ghetto, and mom being a DeArmond, was a bit more "aristocratic". They brought me to Dayton Ohio in 1956 where Dad had found work, and we stayed, except for the vacations "back home" to see our kin. Early on, I was, perhaps much like youself, spellbound by the chivalry, excitement, and combat of the CW era. That lasted until the second I set my eyes on my own US Army Drill Sergeant, and throughout the following 6 years of my own service, it grew into a quest to try and understand why the CW soldiers did what they did. In the service, I learned that it was mainly the devotion of soldiers to one another, the never ending desire to return home, and their refusal to go home in disgrace or dishonor, that kept them going ever onward. I too have the kin on both sides, coming out of Knox, Cocke, Greene, Claiborne, Jefferson, Blount, and Union counties, and before that PA, NC & SC. I wonder if our soldier ancestors could have ever imagined that their great grandsons would be so interested in the service that they rendered in the 1st TN CAV, or that the same gsons would wind up discussing their CW service with each other so many years hence? They would likely beam with pride, but then say emphatically "don't let a war like this happen again boys..."
ROY