Col. Henry M. Ashby

Confederate Veteran
Volume 14, Number 3, Page 122
March 1906

By James P. Coffin, Batesville, Ark.

The early spring of 1861 found Henry M. Ashby, for this is the correct name, a guest at the home of his uncle, Col. Daniel F. Cocke, in Knox County, East Tennessee, being at the time but little past his majority. There he joined others in raising the first company of cavalry made up in that county for the Confederate service, and at its organization was elected its captain. This company became part of the 3d Battalion, Tennessee Cavalry, and formed, with the company to which the writer belonged, a squadron, which Capt. Ashby commanded. He rendered conspicuously gallant service during the first year of the war, and in May, 1862, when the 3d and 5th Battalions were consolidated to form the 2d Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry, Capt. Ashby was elected its colonel.

This regiment rendered service in East Tennessee and Kentucky (save that it participated in the battle of Murfreesboro under Gen. Bragg in December, 1862) under Gens. E. Kirby Smith and Buckner until the autumn of 1863, when it withdrew from East Tennessee to join the Army of Tennessee in the campaign and battle of Chickamauga. In the battle of Murfreesboro Col. Ashby, with his regiment, being a part of the forces under Gen. Wheeler, passed around the left flank of Gen. Rosecrans's army, dispersed the escort, and destroyed a large section of his wagon train. During 1862 and 1863 Col. Ashby led his regiment, under Col. John S. Scott and Gen. John Pegram, at different times commanding the brigade, on three raids into Kentucky. In one small but severe engagement in Kentucky he received his only wound, losing the bone of his right heel (his horse being severely wounded by the same shot), from which he ever after had trouble. After the battle of Chickamauga, Col. Ashby's regiment remained in Wheeler's Corps, Army of Tennessee. The day after the battle of Resaca, in May, 1864, Humes's Brigade was increased to eight regiments and organized into a division of two brigades, one of which, designated as the Tennessee Brigade, Col. Ashby was assigned to command, and it was thereafter known as Ashby's Brigade. With this brigade Col. Ashby rendered conspicuous service under Gen. Wheeler, hovering on Sherman's flanks and rear down through Georgia and up through the Carolinas, one of its most conspicuous fights being at Aiken, S. C., by which a flanking column sent out by Gen. Sherman was defeated and the capture of Augusta, Ga., was prevented.

In March, 1865, in an engagement near Fayetteville, N. C., Gen. Humes was wounded, and Col. Ashby, being the senior colonel, assumed command of the division, and was in command of it during the battle of Bentonville and when the army surrendered under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston.

From the first to the last of his service Col. Ashby was on the front, always in the face of the enemy, and his ability, vigilance, and efficiency are attested by the fact that at no time during the four years of service was any body of troops, large or small, under his command surprised by the enemy. Personally he was one of the most genial of gentlemen, and no officer of any rank was more devotedly loved or implicitly trusted by his troops. Few officers were better known in the Army of Tennessee, and his superb horsemanship, particularly when mounted on his favorite Bayard, was the admiration of all who knew him. Whether in camp, on the march, or in battle, Henry M. Ashby was a born soldier.

The article is mistaken in giving him the rank of general, as he held the rank of colonel at the surrender, and the parole of the writer, dated May 3, 1865, is signed by him as "Col. Comdg. Div." It was stated after the war closed that a commission as brigadier general had been ordered for him, but that the exigencies of the evacuation of Richmond had prevented its issuance. But the fact remains that at the age of twenty one he was in command of a company, at twenty two of a regiment, at twenty four of a brigade, and surrendered, at twenty five, in command of a division. The. writer was a lieutenant in Col. Ashby's regiment, and during the last year of the war, under detail, served on his staff.

[The foregoing from Comrade Coffin was published in the Baltimore Sun on last New Year's day. The author served as a private in Lieut. Col. Branner's 4th Tennessee Battalion from the summer of 1861 for a year, was then elected second lieutenant, and later promoted to first lieutenant, his battalion having been a part of the 2d Tennessee Regiment of Cavalry. In May, 1864, he was detailed for service under Col. Ashby as acting assistant adjutant general.]