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"Father wasn't a big man, but he was very strong. My father was in the Civil War, in the cavalry. He had his horse killed out from under him one in battle, but he was never wounded. He had a brother named Tom in that war who was wounded, but he lived. My father was a miller at Owl Hollow. That's where they made the meal and flour. He had charge of that. The mill was water powered. In 1956, I went back there and visited that place and that old mill was mite near all that was left there. That old water wheel had come loose and was leaning up against the wall. But it looked pretty natural like when it was running. When we left Owl Hollow, it was right smart of a village. They had a school, store, still house, where they made liquor. They had a woolen factory, but that was all gone in 1956."-- Tom Gattis 1974
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William Sutton and Tranquilla Gattis. Photo made in Clarksville, Arkansas in June 1910. "When all the family was living, they went to my mother and father in Clarksville, Arkansas, had the McNaughton reunion in 1910. Uncle Will and Aunt Quilla Gattis and Grover were there. Aunt Mattie DeWitt from Washington, D.C. and Cousin Alice McDonald, her son, Uncle John McNaughton, and his daughter, Pearl. They took picture. Pearl had just come from college in Virginia. She and Grover stayed on awhile and Pearl died of a fever while there. I have a picture of the group." -- Lela Dunn, 1972
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PICKET SHOTS
FROM ALERT COMRADES ALONG THE WHOLE LINE
The Rebel Gold
W.S. Gattis, Co.K, 4th Tennessee Cavalry (Confederate), Waldrip, Texas, says that if the National Tribune will permit one from the other side to tell what he knows about the Confederate gold he will do so. He was a member of Co.K, 4th Tennessee Cavalry Dibrell's Brigade, Chalmer's Division, Forrest's Corps. Their brigade was detailed to escort President Davis from Greensboro, N.C. to the Rio Grande. They stayed with Davis as long as he could travel publicly. When they got to Washington, Georgia, Davis divided the money that he had carried with him from the Confederate Treasury at Richmond and gave each man $26, $21 in silver, and $5 in gold. Mr. Gattis says that three wagons disappeared one night, and that none of the boys knew where they went or what they took with them. The money that they got was carried in a little cherry chest, nicely varnished and with brass hinges and locks. Other soldiers got some of the money, but not as much as they did. He was paroled on May 9, 1865, at Washington, Georgia. He would like to inquire of some of the Ohio soldiers who were captured at the bridge on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad in January, 1865, regarding that incident. He remembers Lt. Wagner, Sgt. Bailey and John Bailey. He has forgotten their regiment but remembers that they were jolly fellows. He also remembers Baldy Hollows, whom he took to a well one cold morning for him to take a bath. He would like to hear from any of the boys, and says that he is a constant reader of The National Tribune, and that he enjoys the stories of the boys who fought against him immensely. He says we are all now living under the same Old Glory, and that the facts as they happened offend no one.
-- THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE, June 9, 1910
"My father used to get a big laugh out of telling of the time that his Company roped the cabbages out of the farmer's patch. The Company of cavalry had come across this cabbage patch and had asked for some of the vegetables from the farmer, but he refused. Then one of the soldiers asked is they could have all they could reach from the fence. It being a rail fence and the rows of vegetables not being very close to it, the farmer saw nothing he could loose and gave his consent. The men unlimbered their lariat ropes and lassoed cabbages by the potful." --Grover Turner Gattis
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| At the age of seventeen, in the fall of 1864, William Sutton Gattis volunteered in the Confederate Army and served during the Civil War in Company K, 4th Tennessee Cavalry, Debrill's Brigade until the end of the war. He did not receive a discharge from this military service. He said that he and his comrades in arms were merely told to go home after the surrender. These facts are from the "Widow's Application for Confederate Pension" filed on July 28, 1931, by Quilla Gattis, and of record in the Confederate Application File in the Texas State Library, Archives Division, Austin, Texas.
"I was a private soldier in Company K 4th Tenn Reg of Caldy(sic) inlisted(sic) in the last year of the war. Was in too (sic) Regular Ingagements Franklin Tennessee in November 1864, next at Nashville, Tennessee, December 1864." - handwritten note by William Sutton Gattis
"You're just a Good Samaritan to all the kin, the idea of you fixing such wonderful meals for others and they don't do such for you. Reminds me of my childhood home as you know Father and Mother always had "grin boarders", as my aunt always said." -- Mattie Gattis Campbell
"I've just been living with my thoughts of happenings in 1875 when Mother and Dad moved from Arkansas to Tennessee. I was ten months old when the "wagon train" left Arkansas. I've forgot how many wagons there were, but Aunt Mary Ann Cochran had two hired men to drive her ox teams with two wagons. Uncle Marion Roberson died of typhoid fever and Aunt Julia (Pa's sister) was left a widow with five children, Walter, John, Tom, Joe, and Nelia, a baby my age. Tidy and Joe were the same age. So I don't know just how many wagons there were in the "train" but Dad only had one wagon and team with all our possessions. We landed at Grandmother Gattis' home in Larkin's Cove, or known as Beech Grove, at the foot of the Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee. There we lived in Grandma's rent house until Johnie was born. I was three years old. Then we moved to Franklin County, near Winchester, Tennessee, where we lived until 1888. In December, Dad had sold the home farm and they packed everything they could in trunks and boxes and we left for Texas via a train. So Dad only taken the things that could be packed in trunks, etc. such as his carpenters tools and our canned fruit, mostly dried fruit, some apple butter and peach butter. So he sold our stock and furniture, etc. and we had to buy everything to go to housekeeping with, when we lived at Round Rock, Texas. Then in 1900 we all moved to McCulloch County and taken our cattle and horse and household furniture with us. I'd like to read Auntie's diary, maybe after reading it I could recall some things. But I've just lived in the past ever since I read your letter."-- letter to Amy Stobaugh Cooper from Mattie Gattis Campbell, Circa 1960.
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