Claunch and Stewart Families

Civil War Service:

Battle Unit Name: 12th Regiment, Georgia Cavalry
Side: Confederacy
Company: E
Soldier's Rank In: Private
Soldier's Rank Out: Sergeant
Alternate name: A. J./Dodd
Film Number: M226 ROLL 17

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm?soldierId=2B54E796-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A

Unit Details

CONFEDERATE GEORGIA TROOPS
12th Regiment, Georgia Cavalry

Overview:
4th (Avery's) Cavalry Regiment was formed with eleven companies in January, 1863, using Avery's 23rd Georgia Cavalry Battalion as its nucleus. It served for a time with the Conscript Department in Tennessee, then was assigned to J.J. Morrison's, C.C. Crews', and Iverson's Brigade. The regiment participated in the Chickamauga, Knoxville, and Atlanta Campaigns, skirmished in Northern Georgia and East Tennessee, and took part in the defense of Savannah. In January, 1865, the unit was reorganized and called the 12th Cavalry. It went on to fight in the Carolinas and surrendered with the Army of Tennessee. The field officers were Colonel Isaac W. Avery, Lieutenant Colonel William L. Cook, and Majors D. Jackson Owen and Augustus R. Stewart.

Predecessor unit:

23rd Cavalry Battalion was organized with five companies and in January, 1863, merged into the 4th (Avery's) Georgia Cavalry Regiment. Lieutenant Colonel Isaac W. Avery was in command.

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=CGA0012RC01

Biographical Sketch

Andrew Jackson Dodd

Enlisted on May 15, 1862 at age 30 in Dalton, Georgia as a private in Company B, Avery's Squadron, Georgia Dragoons. This became part of the 4th Regiment, Georgia Cavalry, and was later changed to the 12 Regiment, Georgia Cavalry. By November of 1863, A. J. Dodd had become a sergeant in Company E.

This regiment was part of the Army of Tennessee, under General Joseph E. Johnston. The Cavalry Corps was commanded by Major General Joseph Wheeler.

On September 19-20, 1863, the Regiment took part in the Battle of Chickamauga (Georgia). The Battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge (Chattanooga, Tennessee) were fought on Nov. 24 and Nov. 25, 1863, but A. J. Jackson's pay sheet for Nov. and Dec. 1863 list him as "absent without leave since Nov. 20, 1863." Chickamauga is fairly close to Murray County, Georgia, where his wife Gaberilla and their children were probably living at the time. He might have taken some time off to check on them, including the twins, John Barton and Jackson Buckner, who were born in August of 1863.

At any rate, he was back to take part in the Atlanta Campaign, as Sherman pushed south. There were many battles - Rocky Face, Resaca, Adairsville, Brushy Mountain. The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, near Marietta, Georgia, was fought June 24-27, 1864. It was probably there that A. J. was taken prisoner on June 26, 1864.

He was sent first to Nashville, Tennessee, and then to a Military Prison in Louisville, Kentucky on July 13, 1864. He was sent on to Camp Morton, Indianapolis, Indiana on July 13, 1864. He spent about eight months there before being sent east to Maryland for exchange or parole on March 10, 1865, just before the war ended.

A. J. moved his family back to McMinn County, Tennessee after the war. He applied for and was granted a Confederate Pension early in 1907, and died Nov. 21, 1907.

Summary by Mary Louise Claunch