I consider it a fair assessment that the 9th Battalion did not perform perfectly in their first couple of scraps. This unit fought until the end of the war in various theaters. They saw terribly bloody action during the Atlanta Campaign. If you would like an objective viewpoint of how they performed ( you may determine HOW objective as he was a Maury County boy) read Sam Watkins' description of them at the Battle of New Hope Church. Picture, if you can, the battle of Bentonville: The cowards and slackers all gone, as is the gleam of any sort of hope from any of the Confederates eyes, One man, Captain Adlai Biffle his wounded hand wrapped in his Battalions ragged but proud colors ordering his men forward.
Then there is the charge made by the 9thBatt and the 8th Texas which was probably brave to the point of suicidal. I could go on and on, but the point is that we never hear of THESE fights; only how the 9th Batt practically lost Forts Henry and Donelson all by their lonesome selves.

Mr. Briggs, I have nothing against you, and on many topics you seem to be a fair and informed man. I am a direct descendant of Major James H. Akin, however, and feel called to at least somewhat defend the honor of these men by pointing out a few things. 1. Nobody has ,of yet, figured out what the major mix-up was during Forrest's escape. It seems that Company C under Capt.Vernon Bibbs somehow made it out with Forrest while the rest of the Battalion and some other cavalry units did not. If you know why please enlighten me, for you will appear to be the only man alive who knows. 2. I am a disabled combat paratrooper and if you have been in service yourself then you know as well as I do that there are no bad units, only bad officers. I am trying not to make any aspersions to the character of Lt.Col. Gantt, but he was the leader,THE LEADER of this unit. His men obeyed HIS orders. One might assume that there may have been more than a little friction between Gantt and Forrest, but, again we are only speculating. No unit wins every fight. Many units lose their first and rebound to become damn fine outfits. I don't know of too many that have had their first loss slapped in their face as much as my Great-Uncle's did and still does to this day, however. It galls me.

Emotions run high when the character of ones ancestors is called to question.
If mine were too high then I humbly apologize,

Warren David Akin