Tennessee's Union Cavalrymen

Book excerpt: Despite officially joining the Confederacy in 1861, Tennessee provided the Union with nearly 32,000 troops during the Civil War. Representing a Southern opposition to secession and loyalty to the Union, many of these Tennesseans served as cavalry or as mounted infantry. Among those serving on horseback were Samuel P. Carter, who temporarily left his post in the U.S. Navy to command a cavalry brigade; Pres. Andrew Johnson's son, Robert Johnson, who served as colonel of the 1st Tennessee Cavalry; and James Brownlow, son of Tennessee's Reconstruction governor, who led his command in a naked charge across the Chattahoochee River. Labeled traitors and renegades by Confederate Tennesseans, these men risked reprisals on their homes and families as they dutifully served the Union cause. This volume draws upon photographs from the collections of the Tennessee State Museum, the Library of Congress, the United States Army Military History Institute, and other public and private collections to tell the story of these loyal cavaliers.