Thomas M. Coombs Diary

Sep 1862 - Jan 1863

March 1st. 1862, I again commenced business for John F. Sheriff, who went to Ireland in the summer, leaving all his business in my hands, which I executed to his entire satisfaction until the 1st of Sept., 1862. Lou & I during this time enjoyed all the happiness of young housekeepers in our cottage in Wmstown. On the 1st of Sept. (Sheriff having returned) I broke up housekeeping, took Lou to her father's, joined the Confederate Army, then occupying Ky., recruited a company of 78 men, was elected captain. Was with Gen'l McNair's Division of Kirby Smith's Army on their advance upon Cincinnati, and on the retreat I was ordered to report for duty to Col. D. H. Smith's 5th Reg. Ky. Cav., Buford's Brig., then in camp of instruction at Lexington, Ky. I have an old memo. in which I find the following entries:

1862
Oct.	4	Buford's Brig. marched from Lex. to Frankfort, assisted in the inauguration of Ric'd. Hawes Gov. of Ky. & returned to Lexington.
	5	Evacuated Lex. & marched to Harrod.
	6	Returned to Jessamine Co.
	7	To Versailles & Lawrenceburg.
	8	On Danvl & Louisvl Pike reconoitering.
	9	To Salvisa, Left the Com'd, and with F. Simon went to Pa's, 10 m. distant, and staid all night.
	10	Trying to overtake the Com'd. met Buell's advance near Harrods'bg and taken to that town. Paroled and stayed at Pete Burton's until the 12th. Waited at Jessamine & Woodford until the 25th, expecting daily to receive orders to report at Louisville.
	25	At Singleton and I went to Grant.
	26	Returned to Elijah Lucas' in Scott.
	30	With Uncle Singleton to Har'd and return.
Nov.	9	To Grant.
	10	Staid all day at Squire's with Lou & then returned to Jessamine.
	17	In Frankfort on my way to Louisville to report to military comd.
	18	Depos. in suit of Tunis, Temple & Bon vs. Lucas, was arrested by Prewitt under civil writ from Grant for treason.
	19	To GeoTown with Prewitt.
	20	" Wmstown, incarcerated in jail.
	30	Bert Wilson (Jailer) & I went to Squire's.
Dec.	10	Lou presented me with a fine boy, & I in jail, named him John M. Coombs.
	22	Released from Civil power by order of Col. Sipes, Provost M. and Comndt. at Covington ordered to report to Genl. Granger at Lex.
	23,	4, & 5 at Squire's with Lou.
	27	To GeoTown with Squire & Martha.
	28	Reported to Gen'l Granger, Lexington. Staid in Lex. & Geo.Town until
1863
Jan.	3	Went with Ed Lucas to Grant.
	4	Squire's with Lou & baby.
	5	GeoTown.
	7	To Lex. sent by Prov. M. to Louisville with J.H. Jones & other prisoners.
		In Louisville M. prison until Jan. 16. In the hospital a week and received great kindness from Mrs. Hoffman, Stewart and the Mrs. Bridgeford.

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Notes:

John F. Sheriff (1817-1895), a native of Ireland, was a prosperous dry goods merchant in Williamstown. Return.

Thomas Monroe Coombs (1839-1881), had married his second cousin, Mary Louisa Lucas (1840-1909), in December 1860. Their first child, an unnamed daughter, had died in infancy. Return.

Williamstown, the seat of Grant County, Kentucky, sits atop a north-south ridge on what was the major route from Lexington and the Bluegrass to Cincinnati. Return.

Lou's father, Squire Lucas (1810-1873), was a leading citizen of Grant County, serving as sheriff in 1860, with Tom as his deputy. Return.

Surviving War Department records show Tom as a Captain assigned Company C, 5th Kentucky Cavalry and Company C, 3rd Cavalry. The latter appears to be a clerical error as the diary entries clearly indicate he served with the 5th. Tom's original company was designated Company K, 5th Cavalry, which was consolidated with Company G about 1 Nov 1862. (See Kentucky Adjutant General's Report, 1: 650, 658.) In an autograph Tom signed while in captivity at Columbus, he gives his unit as "Co G, 5th Kentucky Cavalry, Morgan's Div., CSA." Return.

Biographical sketches of most of the general officers can be found in Mark Mayo Boatner III, Civil War Dictionary, Rev. Ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1991). Unless otherwise noted, Boatner's fine work is the source for identifying the brass. Also useful is the 17-volume Confederate Military History, Extended Edition (Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot Publishing, 1987 [1899], especially the volume on Kentucky.

Evander McNair (1820-1902, Brig Gen, CSA) was a former Arkansas planter.

Return.

Edmund Kirby Smith (1824-1893, USMA '45, Gen, CSA), a cavalryman originally from Florida, had invaded Kentucky from Knoxville, Tennessee, in mid-August. He took Lexington on 1 September and moved toward Covington.

Meanwhile Braxton Bragg (1817-1876, USMA '37) had led a second force into Kentucky west of Smith, outflanking the Union commander, Don Carlos Buell. Their success proved transient, but it inspired many Kentuckians, including Tom and his 78 neighbors, to join what they thought would be a victorious team.

Return.

Dabney Howard Smith (1821-1889), a lawyer from Georgetown, raised a regiment in the fall of 1862 and was named Colonel. A sketch by J. Stoddard Johnston appears in Confederate Military History, 11: 531-534, and a full biography is Sydney Kerr Smith, Life, Army Record, and Public Services of D. Howard Smith ( Louisville: Bradley & Gilbert, 1890). Return.

Abraham Buford (1820-1884, USMA '41, Brig Gen, CSA), from Woodford County, took command of a new cavalry brigade in September 1862. Confederate Military History, 11: 228-229. Return.

Richard Hawes (1797-1877), a former Kentucky legislator and Congressman, had joined the CSA in the fall of 1861. He was chosen provisional Governor in May, but was able to remain in the Capital for only a few hours. Unlike Missouri, where the duly-elected Governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson, was driven from office by Federal troops, the government of Kentucky, after failing in an effort to maintain a delicate neutrality, remained loyal to the Union, due in large measure to Southern sympathizers having boycotted elections in 1861. See Lowell H. Harrison, The Civil War in Kentucky (Lexington, University Press of Kentucky, 1975). Return.

One of the earliest white settlements in Kentucky, Harrodsburg lies south of the Kentucky River. Return.

Jessamine County, back on the north bank, was the home of Tom's mother's family, the Oaks, and his cousins, the Singletons. Return.

While scouting on the Danville & Louisville Pike, Tom's unit missed the Battle of Perryville, a confused and indecisive tangle, ten miles south of Harrodsburg. It was the last major battle in Kentucky. Return.

Salvisa is a small town midway between Harrodsburg and Lawrenceburg. Return.

The Kentucky AG lists an F. S. Simon as a private in Co. G, 5th Cavalry, captured at Harrodsburg 9 Oct 1862. Return.

Tom's father, the widowed John D. Coombs (1807-1881), lived at Fox Creek in Anderson County, a few miles southwest of Lawrenceburg. Tom's mother, Almira Oaks Coombs, had died in 1858, leaving five young children to be cared for by their eldest sister, Beatrice. Tom's rather casual attitude toward taking time out from the war was typical of new volunteers on both sides, causing higher commanders great frustration. Return.

Don Carlos Buell (1818-1898, USMA '41, Maj Gen USV), had been commander of the Department of the Ohio, which included Kentucky, since November. His inability to keep Bragg and Kirby Smith out of the state or to defeat them decisively at Perryville (8 Oct) led to his replacement by William S. Rosecrans.

Return.

In the early years of the Civil War, prisoners on both sides (especially officers) were released on parole — literally giving their word not to take up arms again until they could be exchanged. Tom seemed to spend the time making the rounds of friends and relatives. Return.

Peter H. Burton, a carpenter, was listed in the 1860 census near Harrodsburg. Return.

Atwell Singleton (1831-1863), Tom's first cousin, son of his aunt Maria Coombs and Elijah Singleton. He studied for the ministry, but died young from tuberculosis, the leading killer of the time. Return.

Probably Elijah Lucas (1787?- —), who was Tom's wife's great uncle. The octogenarian farmer from Virginia lived near Stamping Ground. Return.

Atwell's father, Elijah Singleton. Their business in Harrodsburg not known. Return.

The 1860 census found Nehemiah C. Tunis, a prosperous, 40-year old merchant from New Jersey, in Williamstown. A review of surviving Grant Circuit Court records shows the litigious Mr Tunis to have been one of the court's best customers, filling the docket with suits wholesale. Although I was not able to locate the case under the title cited by Tom, I believe it grew out of an earlier case brought by the firm of Temple & Barker against Squire Lucas as Sheriff and Tom as his deputy. In April 1859 Tom had seized and sold some property which was not sufficient to satisfy a judgment obtained by the merchants against the Kize family of Crittenden. Apparently they hoped to force Squire and his son-in-law to come up with the difference. (See documents in Grant Circuit Court, Box 137, Kentucky State Archives.)

A more interesting case was one Tom didn't mention. In the fall of 1862, when Tom was organizing his cavalry company, someone broke into Mr. Tunis' stable and made off with a dun horse, valued at $125. I don't know whether there was bad blood between them, and Tom or one of his troopers had liberated the mount, or whether Tom was just a temptingly convenient target, but N. C. Tunis sued Tom, who was not around to defend himself, got judgment, and forced the sale of Tom and Lou's house in Williamstown to satisfy the claim. Squire was the only one to bid and purchased the house for just enough to cover the judgment. Return.

Mr George E. Prewitt (1827- ?) a lawyer, served as City Judge in Georgetown and as Commissioner of the Scott County Circuit Court. See Perrin, History of Bourbon, Scott ..., 631.

The writ was from the Court in Grant County, not from Gen. U. S. Grant. Return.

Bertrand Wilson (1824?- —); in 1870 he was an agent for fruit trees. Return.

Tom and Lou's eldest son, John Morgan Coombs (1862-1909) was named for General John Hunt Morgan, who by this time commanded a brigade of Confederate Cavalry. (See below.) Return.

Union military authorities were often in conflict with civil, especially in Border States like Kentucky. Tom's case made it into the Official Records (Series 2, 5: 43-44.):

Headquarters, Department of the Ohio,
Cincinnati, Ohio, December 8, 1862.

Brig. Gen. G. Granger,
Commanding Army of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky.

General: I return herewith the letter of Lieutenant-Colonel Sipes, military commander of Covington and Newport, dated the 1st instant, presenting the case of Capt. T. M. Coombs, Fifth Regiment Kentucky Cavalry, in the Confederate Army, a paroled prisoner, bound to report himself as such within a specified time at Louisville to be sent to Vicksburg for exchange, and who was arrested before reporting on the charge of treason and confined in the Williamstown jail. Colonel Sipes deems this to be a case demanding the interposition of military authority for the release of the prisoner from jail and the restoration of his rights as a prisoner of war.
The Federal Government has so far recognized the belligerent rights of the so-called Confederate States as to enter into an agreement with the military authority of those States acknowledging the right of prisoners captured from them as prisoners of war and as entitled to exchange. So far then as the acts of an individual engaged in a military capacity in the enemy's service are concerned he is not individually responsible for them so long as they are not in violation of the laws of war, and no person not in the military service of the Federal Government has been held guilty of treason for taking service in the Confederate Army. Captain Coombs is not therefore liable to that charge unless he has committed some act other than that of entering the rebel ranks and performing the duties of a soldier, and you will make a demand upon the civil authorities for his delivery up to your custody as a prisoner of war. It appears that General Burbridge or some other officer gave permission to Captain Coombs to visit his family in Kentucky, granting him certain time within which he was to report at Louisville. This was wrong and no such indulgence should hereafter be granted.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. G. Wright,
Major General, Commanding.

Return.

Lt Col William B. Sipes of the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry. (His letter did not make it into the published records.) Return.

Gordon Granger (1822-1876, USMA '45, Maj Gen USV), a Regular Army veteran of Mexico and the frontier, commanded Central Kentucky before winning laurels at Chickamauga.

Horatio Gouverneur Wright (1820-1899, USMA '41), a Regular Army engineer from Connecticut, commanded the Department of the Ohio for eight months before returning to the Eastern theater.

Return.

Martha Ellen Dunn (1836-1914), Squire's second wife, whom he had married not long after the death of Lou's mother, Mary Childers (1813-1854). Return.

Ed Lucas was probably a cousin of Lou's, but the connection not traced. Return.

J.H. Jones had joined Co C, 1st Kentucky Cavalry 10 Sep 1862. Kentucky AG Report, 1: 496. Return.

The Union military prison at Louisville served as a collection point for rebel POWs and for civilians arrested by military authorities en route to POW camps or banishment north of the Ohio. Return.

Mesdames Hoffman, Stewart and Bridgeford not identified. However, J. D. Campbell's Louisville Business Directory for 1864, 110, featured an ad for James Bridgeford as a partner in "Bridgeford & Co., Stove and Grate Foundry." Return.