CHATTANOOGA 1860-1861 http://genealogytrails.com/tenn/hamilton/chattanooga1860-1861.htm

MAPS OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN REGION:  http://www.loc.gov/resource/g3964cm.gcw0112500/#seq-1.  Many of the homesteads shown on the maps bear the names of members of the Lookout Artillery.

CHATTANOOGA BUSINESSES 1860-1861  http://genealogytrails.com/tenn/hamilton/alphabeticallistofprofessions,traders,etc.htm

MAP OF BRADLEY COUNTY:  http://www.loc.gov/resource/g3963h.cws00163/ with homesteads named.

WATKINS BROTHERS   http://genealogytrails.com/tenn/hamilton/chattanoogasownindexpage.htm

c. 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
Captain Barry recalls:  The organizing of the Lookout Battery was first suggested to me by Richard L. Watkins, on March 1, [1862], and, on April 4, we organized the battery by election of the officers by the men composing the company.  These were Robert L. Barry, captain; Richard L. Watkins, first lieutenant; James Lauderdale, junior first lieutenant; James M. Armstrong, senior second lieutenant; and John Springfield, junior second lieutenant; A.N. Moon, orderly sergeant.  [United Cconfederate Veteran Vol. XXX]

The Lookout Light Artillery was organized in the Spring of 1862 at Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Its membership was comprised of men from the areas around the foot of Lookout Mountain, and the Mountain itself.  This included:  Chattanooga and Hamilton County, TN; Jackson County, Alabama;  Cleveland and Bradley County, TN; and Chickamauga and Walker County, GA.  The organizers were Richard L. Watkins, Robert L. Barry, and James H. Lauderdale.

Lt. Richard L. Watkinsis credited as the founder of the Battery.  He was the youngest of the Watkins brothers who owned and operated Watkins & Brothers, Dealers in Cutlery, Stoves, Plows, Iron, Nails, & Etc.,  Hardware  in Chattanooga.  Although his older brothers appear uninvolved with the Battery, service records show they furnished substitutes in the Battery.  “Dick” Watkins was about 27 years old and unmarried at the formation of the Battery.  He was elected 1st Lieutenant.

Capt. Robert L. Barry was from Ringgold, GA, and linving in Chattanooga employed at Moore & Marsh, Dealers in Drygoods, Groceries, Etc., located at the corner of 4th & Market Strets in Chattanooga; his brother-in-law, William Adolphus Moore, was a co-owner of the company. “Bob” Barry was about 28 years old, married, with a two-year-old son.  He was elected Captain of the Battery.

Lt. James H. Lauderdale co-owned the J. Lauderdale & Co., a drygoods establishment at Cleveland, TN.  His father, James Lauderdale, served in the State legislature, and was an early settler of Bradley County.  Lauderdale was elected 2nd Lieutenant.  He was about 27 years old and unmarried.

Lt. John McMillan Armstrong was elected 3rd Lieutenant of the Battery.  A Knoxville native, he was a clerk at Watkins & Brothers Hardware in Chattanooga.  His sister, Margaret Evelyn “Evie” Armstrong was the wife of Patrick Henry (P. H. or Henry) Watkins, the eldest Watkins brother.  John M. Armstrong is referred to as “Mc” or “Mac” by his family.  He was also a bachelor, and at the age of 34 was a few years older than the others.  Armstrong’s letters to his family provide significant insight on the Battery.

Lt. John S. Springfield, of Chickamauga, was elected 4th Lieutenant; the 1860 census gives his occupation as “barkeeper.”  He was about 33 years old, married, with two very young daughters who remained at Chickamauga with his wife.  Springfield’s relationship to the other officers is unknown, although he had two (2) brothers-in-law in the Battery.

Friday, March 7, 1862  Richard L. Watkins was granted authority from Hon. J P Benjamin, Secretary of War, to raise an Artillery Company [NARA]

Friday, April 4, 1862  Battery organized; officers elected by men composing the company.   [R.L. Barry UCV & NARA]

John C. Anderson, 27 years old, unmarried stonecutter, from Knoxville

John H. Barnes, 21 years old, unmarried

Capt. Robert L. Barry,

George Bird, possibly from Jackson County, Alabama

James B. Brown, Cleveland, TN

Henry Campbell, age 18, of Chattanooga, unmarried

Gabe Cooper, store clerk with Milo Scott at T.J. Lattner’s Drygoods in Chattanooga

Anthony C. “Tony” Douthitt, 22 years old, unmarried, son of a Baptist preacher and Tennessee native.  He appears to have been a railroad worker at Stevenson, Alabama, in 1861 when he enlisted for 12 months in the 7th Alabama.

Thomas A. Duncan, 32 year old farmer from Jackson County, Alabama.  He is married and has several children

Joseph W. Gipson

Willaim A. Gray enlists – also Company bugler, 18 years old from Hamilton County, Tennessee.

J. M. Hawkins (possibly J.M. Hankins)

Solomon Hardin

William Hardin

James W. Howard

Bryant Hulsey, an Alabamian, approximately 28 years old

John T. Husley, a 44-year-old uncle of Bryant Hulsey, and a Mexican War Veteran who served with the 4th Regt “Tennessee Volunteers” from Hamilton County in 1847-1848,

Jefferson McGriff, 26 years old, farmer from Cleveland, Tennessee

Monroe Penney, 23 years old from Hamilton County, Tennessee

Joseph Roark, 19 years old, a native of Hamilton County, Tennessee

John S. Springfield,

Cyrus A. Waterhouse, 25 years old, native of Tennessee

Lt. Richard L. Watkins, 26 years old, bachelor, working in a hardware store he owns with his brothers

Harrison “Harry” Whitecotton

Samuel A. (also Samuel T.) Witt 

Over the next two weeks, additional recruits include Benjamin Parker; Charles F. House, and Sam A. Harvey.

On April 16, 1862, the Confederate Congress introduces Conscription Act:  all healthy white men between the ages of 18 and 35 are liable for a three-year term of service, and also extends terms of enlistment for all one-year soldiers to three years.   By the end of April, John McMillan Armstrong; Thomas J. Ford, Jerry Hollaway, Alexander N. Moore, Thomas Miller, David Smith, G. B. Harvey, James M. House (younger brother of Charles House), and Jerry Hollaway are members of the Lookout Artillery.  Miller, Smith, and Hollaway must have had second thoughts, because they desert the first week of May.

Other members of the old Jackson Guard (Co. G, 7th Alabama Regiment) soon join Tony Douthitt; they are John Burch Cook (20), Amos Naman Bice, (17) and Michael Maunz (46, a German immigrant), who would soon become Cook’s father-in-law.  They have just completed a 12-month enlistment. (On April 1, 1861, the Jackson Guard, organized at Stevenson, AL,  was mustered into the service of the Confederate States in the Provisional Army April 1, 1861 at Fort Morgan, Alabama by 1 Lieut. F. H. Shoup, Chief of Artillery, C. S. Army, and designated Co. G, 7th Alabama Regiment.  April 1 to June 30, 1861 the company was stationed at Barranacas.  Pensacola, Florida.) It is possible that the men received artillery training under Frances Shoup while at Fort Morgan and Barranacas.

Throughout the month of May and into early June, men from Chattanooga and the surrounding counties add their names to the Battery’s muster roll.  They include Samuel B. Cantrell, John W. Tibbs, William J. H. Elkins, Franklin Fryor/Fryar and. Marion Roberts enlist at Chattanooga; James T. Pope & William H. H. Sims (also identified as Crews/Cruse), James M. Buff,  the Lecroys, Sam D. and William M.; the Wofford brothers, Mark and Merrick; James Lauderdale; Archibald D. Thomas; E. R. Underwood, William H. H. Garner, William M. Pasley/Passley, Reuben Wesley (Wes) Roberts,   Hugh Wallen, Edward A. Warnick, William M. Wilson; Oscar C. Goins, D. D. Thomas, Manassa Griffin, Charles M. Malcomb (a native of Scotland), Samuel B. Cantrell (deserting 2 weeks later); Lorenzo D. Penland; Isaac Steele; Isaac Sweet; John W. Cook (father of John Burch Cook); J. A. Ruble and T. W. Earp.  They all received a $50 enlistment bonus.

Members of the 26th Tennessee Regiment transfer in:  Elias Fugate, James C. Hann, J.A. Moreland; James M. Roberts; L.B. Baber; J.H. Brannon; Brock Younger; Joshua Duncan; S. Farmer; W.M. Hargreaves; W.L. Harris; and Shaderick Jackson.  James A. Carson transfers from Cook’s Cavalry, and his brother William follows, taking the oath to serve.