JUNE 1864:
OXFORD, MISS. AND OXFORD, ALA.
June 1, 1864 found Tipton’s cavalry soldiers serving in Gen. N. B. Forrest’s Corps, Brigadier General James R. Chalmers’ Division. Companies’ B and I of the 7th Tennessee Regiment, Colonel Edmund Rucker’s Brigade (1,500 men) was at Oxford, Miss.; those serving under Colonel John Uriah Green in the 12th Tennessee Regiment, Colonel James Neely’s Brigade had left Tupelo on the 23rd of May marching toward Okolona and Aberdeen in Mississippi and on into Alabama going through Pickensville, King’s Store, Tuscaloosa, Montevallo, Columbia, Alpine and reaching Oxford, Alabama on June 4. While in Alabama, Chalmers’ troops came under the command of Brigadier General Gideon J. Pillow (who had orchestrated the military build up at Randolph in 1861).
On June 5, and again on the 18th at Oxford, Colonel John Green received military equipments including: 157 gun slings; 50 gum boots; 182 canteens and straps; 13 cavalry saddles and bridles; 75 hats; 460 Enfield Rifle Musket cartridges, 58 caliber; 1,000 Sharps Carbine 52 caliber cartridges; 500 navy 36 cartridges.
Colonel Green himself was issued an Enfield rifle, belt, belt buckle and ammunition.
Tipton’s Captain Robert Field, former commander of Co. G, 12th Tennessee was serving as a scout reporting directly to Gen. Chalmers.
Private Andrew C. McLeary of Gibson County served in the 12th Tennessee Cavalry and shared the same incidents during the campaign, as did the men from Tipton. McLeary wrote his war recollections years after the conflict. One of his comrades recommended McLeary’s writings to the public “as a matter of history and amusement.”
