Warren County Militia created 200 years ago

While the requirements for membership in the militia are somewhat obscured by the Tennessee Constitution of 1796, it was assumed all able-bodied, 21-year-olds or older freemen, white and black, were to be in the militia unless excepted by health, religious views, or by payment of a fee under certain circumstances.

Election of officers and noncoms were to be held at this first meeting and those selected as officers would then be commissioned by the state legislature. The 29th Regiment consisted of two battalions containing three companies each, making six companies scattered throughout the county. For each company the county was allowed two justices of the peace. These 12 individuals made up the County Court that ran the county’s affairs.

As you can see from the above, in a sense we had a ‘military’ government. From the county’s formation in 1808 until the early 1820s this was a practical governmental application.

Conditions throughout the southern United States were very unsettled. England, Spain and France had all attempted to control North America. Great Britain had lost the Revolutionary War but still had ambitions in the unsettled areas to the south and west of the former 13 colonies. Spain controlled Florida and the Creek Indians controlled South Alabama.

France had recently sold us the Louisiana Purchase which was largely unsettled except for scattered Indian tribes. These problems mandated an active, available army of militia to control and expand a growing population.

The militia was organized and officers elected at the March 1808 meeting. The commandant selected was Lt. Col. Leroy Hammons. Thomas Smyley was elected as 1st Major, and Joab Scallion as 2nd Major.

The six company commanders were Capts. John Denton, William Douglas, Benjamin Koyl, William McDaniel, Jesse Webb and James Tate. Lieutenants selected were William Blanton, John Cunningham, John Franklin, John Shultz, John Vining, Moses Gailey and William Webb. Ensigns selected included Abraham Barns, Granberry Lowery, Archibald Rice, Jacob Shultz, David Simpson and Jacob Webb.

All of these officers were commissioned on Dec. 8, 1808 except Hammons, Smyley and Scallion, who were commissioned earlier on May 21, 1808. Hammons had earlier been a captain in the 34th Regiment of White County in 1807.

From the commission dates we can surmise that Hammons, Scallion and Smyley had great influence in the selection of company grade officers, possibly calling several musters for training and organization of the regiment during its first year of operation. Hammons was 27 when he became commander of the militia. He served until 1815. He was replaced by Lt. Col. William C. Smartt, who was 30 years old. Leadership qualities surfaced quickly on the frontier.

By 1812, the war with Great Britain was full-fledged and militia from the various states made up the armies needed to wage the various campaigns. Invasion by English troops in the southern states was imminent and Andrew Jackson stepped forward to command and defend the region. The Gulf Coast was poorly defended and sparsely settled except for New Orleans, which became the prime objective. Control of New Orleans would shut off the Mississippi River, which was the major transportation route for the upper South.

Andrew Jackson’s frontier, somewhat undisciplined, citizen soldiers met the highly trained, disciplined, professional soldiers of Great Britain on Jan. 8, 1815, when some 5,300 British soldiers met a small American army. At the end of the battle, 2,000 British soldiers were dead or wounded, while the Americans lost 71 soldiers. Although a peace treaty had already been signed, the battle result assured peace. Elements of the of the 29th Regiment participated in this battle, in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in Alabama in 1814, and later in the Florida campaign in 1817, resulting in Spain ceding the Florida Territory to the United states.

Records indicate Hammons was with Jackson during the Battle of New Orleans. William C. Smartt was headed for the battle but was delayed to perform court martial duties in Alabama and missed the battle.

At least one company of Warren County militia joined Gen. Sam Houston’s Texas army in the fight for Texas independence. Two Warren Countians, Silas Colville and Holland Coffee became prominent in the formation of the Texas Republic after the defeat of Santa Ana’s Mexican army at San Jacinto in 1836.

In 1846 another Warren County company participated in the Mexican War (1846-48). They had the distinction of incurring the first American soldier casualty when Pvt. Francis Shurer died of a tarantula spider bite. Shurer’s family lived in the Colville house on Sparta Road which still stands.

The Tennessee Legislature abolished mandatory military training in 1856, although some communities continued to maintain small units on their own initiative. It’s ironic that compulsory military training was abolished just five years before the United States became embroiled in the most horrible and disastrous type of war, called ‘civil war.’

A greater percentage of Warren countians lost their lives in our Civil War of 1861-65 than in any other conflict in our 200-year history. This article is dedicated to the thousands of Warren countians who served in the armed forces in the last 200 years.

James A. Dillon is the county historian for Warren County.