No. 14 Captain Lafayette Coile; the war years

According to Government Services Administration records, Lafayette Coile was assigned to Company D, 3rd Tn Cavalry Regiment, US Volunteers. The unit departed Nashville and moved south into Corinth, Mississippi in Jan 1864 and began to press towards Meridian, Mississippi. They reached as far as West Point, Ms before they were forced back. They fought against General Nathan Bedford Forrest's forces at Okolona, Mississippi on 22 Feb 1864. In disorder Union forces fell back as far as Ivey's Farm where the 3rd Tenn. Cav. took part in a brilliant charge which halted the Confederate pursuit. The expedition withdraw back to Memphis and then later to Nashville, arriving on 17 March 1864. For the next six months detachments of the unit conducted patrols in northern Alabama and guarded the Chattanooga - Nashville railroad. During August they were involved in skirmishes with Confederate cavalry that invaded Tennessee. Lafayette Coile would have been an enlisted man during these campaign, possibly the First Sergeant of his company.

In June he was commissioned as a Captain. Immediately after this promoted he was assigned the duty of mustering in new troops in Nashville. It is possible that he was given the responsibility to recruit troops for his own unit. By July he was back with the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry in the field.

In late July the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry was part of a larger movement of troops into northern Alabama. On 29 July 1864 the unit participated at the battle of Big Name Creek, near Pond Springs. Running engagements between Confederate and Union cavalry continued throughout August and September 1864. The 3rd Tennessee Cavalry was in a larger force of Union soldiers under the command of Union Colonel William Campbell. In late September, under attack by Confederate forces, he positioned a large number of the cavalry and infantry in a fortress near Athens, Alabama. On 24 September the same general, surrendered 150 of the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry Regiment to Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forrest. This took place after he first refused to surrender. After his refusal General Forrest persuaded him to surrender after showing him the number of troops he had available for taking the fortress. The following day 400 men from the 3rd Tennessee cavalry were captured at nearby Sulphur Trestle. Captain Coile and the men of I Company (his command) were among those taken prisoner. The officers were treated reasonably well. It is likely that they were taken to the Prisoner of War camp at Cahawba, near Selma, Alabama. On 15 November 1864 the officers were paroled at Memphis but not exchanged. This means that they were returned to the Union forces but under an agreement that they would not fight against the Confederate forces until a captured Confederate officer of equal rank was freed in their place. Lafayette Coile was sent to the rear to Camp Chase, Ohio, arriving on 24 November 1864. Camp Chase is near Columbus, Ohio. Here he waited out the time until when he would be notified that a Confederate officer had been exchanged in his stead. Only then would he have been allowed to return to his unit. In December 1864 he was notified to return to service in Nashville. It is unclear whether he was there and serving in the Battle of Nashville during December. In February 1865 Captain Coile became ill and was hospitalized in Nashville. The 3rd Tennessee Cavalry was basically non-existent as all the unit's men were prisoners. Captain Coile recovered after an extended illness, possibly pneumonia. Those who remained of the unit were reorganized and spent the remainder of the war re-supplying.

The enlisted men of the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry were held prisoner longer. It wasn't until April 1865, as the war in the western theater of Tennessee was winding down, that these men were exchanged. They were moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi where the US Government had contracted with the company owning the steamship Sultana to transport these soldiers north to their homes. Most of the soldiers were from Ohio but there were 174 soldiers from the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry that also boarded. History tells us that the steamships' captain was in a hurry and did not pay adequate attention to a leaky boiler. Instead of having it replaced at significant expense, he had it patched. Add to this that these soldiers, many recently released from prisoner of war camps such as Andersonville and Cahawba, were eager to get home. They bribed and muscled their way onto the ship. The ship was designed to carry 376 passengers. It left port overflowing with as many as 1800 passengers packed into every berth and completely packing the deck. Many of these soldiers were weakened by their experience of imprisonment. It was 2 a.m. on 27 April 1865 when the Sultana was about 8 miles north of Memphis and the boilers gave way. The explosion immediately turned the steamship into a burning inferno. The 3rd Tennessee lost all its enlisted men that morning. Many died instantly, others jumped into the water and drown. Some were plucked from the water and over 300 died of burns later.

Captain Coile was among the officers who signed a statement protesting against the surrender which had resulted in their prisoner of war status. They claimed it was unjustified. They were critical of the commander who surrendered them without a fight. In their statement they pointed out that the fortress was a strong one, they had sufficient munitions, provisions and they felt certain that relief would have come soon. You can see this statement, along with Col. Campbell's statement by visiting website http://www.lwfaam.net/cw/union_reports/athens_al.htm When the war ended Lafayette was mustered out of service 3 August 1865. Lafayette returned to Rocky Valley in Jefferson County to resume life as a simple country farmer where he lived the remainder of his life, probably about twenty-four years more. He was around 50 years of age when he died.

No. 13 Lafayette Coile: Raised to the rank of Captain

Lafayette Coile, like many young men from the mountains of Tennessee and parts of the mountains of North Carolina were sympathetic with the northern causes. They held no slaves, they were simple farmers and in the case of Lafayette, some were descendants of Quakers who rejected slavery and actively opposed it. At the time of his role in the war Lafayette already had children. He was a young man of 22 years when the war began. He mustered into the Union Army at Nashville on 14 December 1863 at 24 years of age. By this time the northeastern part of Tennessee was already under Union control. Prior to this time enlisting could have put his family at risk. The following information is compiled from his service records provided by the Government Service Administration along with a History of the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry, Union Army.

It was common practice for the officers of volunteer units to be elected by the men themselves. We have little information about Lafayette's first days in the army. Muster roles indicates that he was serving in the role of First Sergeant for Company D, 3rd Tennessee Cavalry. This is the highest enlisted rank in a company. The only soldiers outranking him in the company would be the commissioned officers (lieutenants and a captain). To be elected into these roles must have meant that Lafayette was a popular and capable leader. On 13 June 1864 the muster role indicates that he was promoted to the rank of Captain. The photocopy of his commissioning papers was hard to read. Below is the document as best as I can read it. Note that it was a Tennessee state volunteer commission authorized by the Union governor of Tennessee, Andrew Johnson. The blanks for dates were just that, blanks where a hand entered date would go. These dates are illegible. Other blanks in the text below were simply illegible.

The Governor of the State of Tennessee, to all who shall see these presents, greetings:

Know ye, that ______ special trust and confidence in the patriotism, calor, fidelity and ability of Lafayette Coile of the County of Jefferson, we do appoint him Captain _____ in the Third Regiment of Cavalry of Tennessee Volunteers in the service of the United States for three years, unless sooner discharged; to rank as such from the ______ day of ______ one thousand eight hundred and sixty = ____.

He is, therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge the duties of Captain by doing and performing all manner of things ________ belonging. And I do strictly charge and require all Officers and Soldiers under his command to be obedient to his orders, and he is to observe and follow such orders and directions, from time to time, as he shall receive from the President of the United States of America, or the General or superior Officers set over him, according to the Rules and Discipline of War.

Given under my hand, in the City of Nashville, this __________ day of June in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty ______, and in the Eighty ________ year of the Independence of the United States.

By the Governor: Andrew Johnson

Edward H. East Secretary of State

In our next blog we will follow Captain Lafayette Coile's military experiences from the point of his commissioning until the end of the war.

No. 12 Lafayette Coile

We've taken a look at the Jacob Oakes family. Now let's explore backwards in time and learn about the family of Jacob Oakes' wife, Matilda Elizabeth Coile. We'll start with her father, Lafayette Coile. Lafayette was one of 11 children born to James S. and Elizabeth Leonard Coile. He was born in Jefferson County, Tennessee about 1839, living most of his life in the Rocky Valley community near Strawberry Plains and the Quaker community of Lost Creek. County records show that he married Malinda McKnight on 5 December 1855. Lafayette was a gristmiller before and after the Civil War. The picture shows the 1860 census record of Lafayette and Malinda's small family. M.E. is Matilda Elizabeth, my great grandmother. Notice that a 13-year old girl is also living with them. I don't know who she is. By the 1880 census his is listed as a carpenter. Court records show that Lafayette was commissioned by the county to build a coffin for the widon anderson on 5 Jan 1876. It is likely that he had gone from miller to carpenter by this time. It is likely that he also farmed to some extent. The only other exception and that which is very interesting were his years of military service during the Civil War. I will share about Lafayette Coile's military service in subsequent blog entries. Lafayette and Malinda died sometime before 23 August 1889 when his will was executed and he was buried in the Vance Cemetery in Rocky Valley, not far from where he lived. We don't know who placed a tombstone on the graves of he and his wife, Malinda McKnight Coile. The Vance Cemetery is located in a wooded area on a hillside. I visited the graves on three occasions. In the late 1970's my uncle Charles Oakes took me to visit these graves. We asked permission from the home owners on the road below in order to climb up the hill and visit the cemetery. They were very kind and allowed us to visit. We were able to read the inscriptions on the tombstones. In order to read Malinda McKnight Coile's tombstone I had to rub some dirt on it. In 1983 I showed Boyd Coile, a great grandson of Lafayette, where the graves were. He had been under the impression that they were buried in the Oakes Cemetery in unmarked graves. In 2005 I returned to visit the cemetery with my uncle. A driveway has now been put in to a new horse barns on the hillside. We went to the barns to ask permission to visit but couldn't find anyone. We went on to visit the cemetery. Soon the owner of the barns came out and was angry at us for trespassing. Unfortunately no amount of explanation would suit this person. Nonetheless I am glad that I know where my great great grandfather is buried. I do plan to visit his grave again in the future. I believe that this right cannot be taken away from me, new landowner or not.

No. 11 The Children that were lost

One of the sad realities of the late 1800's and early 1900's was child mortality. According to my grandfather Jacob and Elizabeth Oakes had fourteen children. He was the youngest and the last one to survive infancy. As mentioned in one of the first blog entries, we do not know the names of the children who died as infants. Today if you visit the Oakes Cemetery in Rocky Valley near Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, you will find many graves marked only by a rock. No headstones have been erected and there is no one left these days to tell us who is buried where. At least ten of these graves seem to be those of the infant children of Jacob and Elizabeth. We don't know what were the causes of these specific deaths, only that it was not uncommon for infants to die. In 1900 the US reported that 30% of all deaths were among children under five years of age. Today's statistics are markedly improved with about 1% of children under 5 years of age dying. Medical journals indicated that the three chief causes of infant and child mortality were pneumonia, tuberculosis and diarrhea. For one living today it is hard to imagine the unbearable pain of losing not just one child but ten children. Among some of the old photographs owned by the Emma Oakes Palmer were these two photos of what I believe could be two of the children of Jacob and Elizabeth Oakes. In a time when having your photograph taken was rare, some families chose to have a photograph made of the deceased infant or child before burial. It gave them something to remember the child by. These would have been my great aunts or uncles had they lived.