Company H, 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery

Organization

Captain Frederick W. Hoadley's Pulaski County company, the "Magruder Guards", was originally designated as Company D, 4th Arkansas Infantry Battalion. 4th Arkansas Infantry Battalion was organized at Little Rock, Arkansas, on November 10, 1861, with five companies, from Clark, Prairie, Pulaski and White counties.

Service

The battalion was assigned to the defenses of Columbus, Kentucky, then to Island No. 10. Captain Frederick William Hoadley's Company D was detached at Island No. 10, given charge of a battery of heavy guns. Much of Company D was captured at the fall of Island No. 10 on April 6-7, 1862 but twenty four (24) men managed to escape across Reelfoot Lake and reached Memphis.

The 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery Regiment was organized at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, on May 10, 1862, after the capture of Island No. 10. The regiment was composed of ten companies which had previously served as independent batteries. Dismukes' Arkansas Battery was designated as Company B, and Hoadley's Arkansas Battery as Company H.

Hoadley's Battery was exchanged later in the summer of 1862. The regiment embarked on steamer Golden Age on June 2, 1862, bound for Vicksburg. Upon arrival at Vicksburg, it was consolidated by order of Brig. Gen. M. L. Smith on June 18, 1862 due to depleted numbers, there were only about 330 men at the time. On June 18, 1862, the regiment was temporarily consolidated into four companies. Company A was composed of Dismukes' (old) Co. B and part of Maley's (old) Co. C. Company B was composed of Hoadley's] (old) Co. H, along with (old) Cos. A and G and part of (old) Co. C. Hoadley was promoted to major and Lieutenat William Pratt "Buck" Parks, was selected to serve as Captain of the new Company B. Captain Parks had served as a Private in William e. Woodruff's Pulaski Light Artillery before joining Hoadley's company and being elected Lieutenant. At the time of his selection as Captain, Parks was serveing as a volunteer aboard the Confederate ram, CSS Arkansas.

During the Siege of Vicksburg, the Company B (including the remnants of Hoadley's Battery) manned the water batteries at Vicksburg with the rest of the 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery. On October 31, 1862, the battery's armiment included, two rifled 32 pounders, two 32 pounder and one 42 pounder smothboors. Parks was forced to relinquish command in the winter of 1862-63 due to failing health. Colonel Jackson, of the 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery reported on the passage of the batteries by enemy boats on the night of April 2, 1863, in which 391 shots were fired by the regiment. During the siege, Major Hoadley was killed on June 8, 1863, and Major Upton, who succeeded him, had his arm so badly smashed it had to be amputated. The battery, along with the rest of the 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery regiment was surrendered and paroled as part of Brigadier General John C. Moore's Brigade on July 4, 1863.

The 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery regiment was ordered to parole camp at Demopolis, Alabama; then to Atlanta, Georgia; and from there to Marietta, Georgia. It was declared exchanged December 6, 1863, and ordered to Mobile on December 11, 1863, to the Appalachee Batteries, December 20, 1863. It is unclear how much of Captain Dismuke's battery accompanied the regiment to parole camp. The picture of the battery is pretty murky from 1863 onwards."

General U. S. Grant initially demanded the conditional surrender of the Vicksburg garrison, but faced with the necessity of feeding 30,000 starving Confederates and having the idea that these soldiers might do more harm to the Confederate cause by being released to return home rather than being exchanged as whole units, he relented and allowed for the immediate parole of the unit. According to the Confederate War Department, the Union leaders encouraged the surrendered Confederates to simply return home, rather than being officially paroled and exchanged. The able bodied Confederate soldiers who were released on parole walked out of Vicksburg (they were not allowed to proceed in any military formations) on July 11, 1863. Paroling of these able bodied men was completed in their respective regimental camps inside Vicksburg prior to July 11. Those who were wounded or sick in the various hospitals in Vicksburg were paroled, and were released, as soon as they could leave on their own. July 15/16 is the most common date of these Vicksburg hospital paroles. Some of the most seriously wounded and sick were sent by steamship down the Mississippi River and over to Mobile, Alabama, where they were delivered on parole to Confederate authorities.

Confederate commanders designated Enterprise, Mississippi, and Demopolis, Alabama as the rendezvous points (parole camps) for the Vicksburg parolees to report to after they got clear of the last Federal control point at Big Black Bridge. Most of the Arkansas units appeared to have bypassed the established parole camps, and possibly with the support, or at least by the compliancy, of their Union captors, simply crossed the river and returned home. Because so many of the Vicksburg parolees, especially from Arkansas, simply went home, Major General Pemberton requested Confederate President Davis grant the men a thirty- to sixty-day furlough. The furloughs were not strictly adhered to so long as the soldier eventually showed up at a parole camp to be declared exchanged and returned to duty. Those who went directly home were treated as if they had been home on furlough if they eventually reported into one of these two parole centers. The exchange declaration reports issued by Colonel Robert Ould in Richmond for various units in the Vicksburg and Port Hudson surrenders began in September 1863 based upon men who actually reported into one of the two parole camps. Pemberton eventually coordinated with the Confederate War Department and Confederate General Kirby Smith, commanding the Department of the Trans-Mississippi to have the Arkansas Vicksburg parolee's rendezvous point established at Camden, Arkansas. Apparently Captain Parks was one of the Soldiers who chose to lead what men he could assemble back across the Mississippi River to reorganize in Arkansas.

The last reference of this command in the historical record is dated November 19, 1864, when a siege train company, 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery, under Capt. Paul T. Dismukes, is listed among the forces of the Trans-Mississippi Department.

Surrender

The Army of the Trans-Mississippi was surrendered by General Kirby Smith on May 26, 1865. The date of the military convention between Kirby Smith and Union General Edward Canby for the surrender of the troops and public property in the Trans-Mississippi Department was May 26, 1865, however, it took awhile for parole commissioners to be appointed and for public property to be accounted for. As a result, a final report of field artillery which was part of the accounting process, was not completed until June 1, 1865. Capt. Paul T. Dismukes' 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery, is not listed in the final accounting of Confederate Government property in the Department of the Trans-Mississippi. It may be that the organization had been consolidated with other units or disbanded altogether before the surrender.