Benjamin F. Cheatham

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Major General (CSA)
Battles/warsMexican–American War
American Civil War

Benjamin Franklin Cheatham (October 20, 1820 – September 4, 1886) was a Tennessee planter, California gold miner, and a

Franklin
, Tennessee.

Early life and education

Cheatham was born in

Nashville
and "father" of Middle Tennessee, who came from Virginia. The Cheathams had been in middle Tennessee for two generations and become established as plantation owners, lawyers, doctors and mayors of the city.

Antebellum years

At the start of the

Gold Rush, but returned to Tennessee
in 1853.

He managed his plantation and served as a brigadier general[1] in the Tennessee militia.

Civil War

Cheatham joined the Confederate States Army as a

brigadier general on May 9, 1861, from Stockton, California, becoming one of at least four generals from California who served the Confederacy in the war.[2]

Cheatham was brigade commander in the Western District of Department Number Two, under

Confederate Congress
"for the desperate courage they exhibited in sustaining for several hours, and under most disadvantageous circumstances an attack by a force of the enemy greatly superior to their own, both in numbers and appointments; and for the skill and gallantry by which they converted what at first threatened so much disaster, into a triumphant victory."

Cheatham was promoted to major general, on March 10, 1862, and was appointed commander of the 2nd Division, First Corps,

Sam Watkins, author of Company Aytch, claims to have personally witnessed Cheatham leading a charge on the Wilkerson Turnpike during the battle, indicating that he performed gallantly during that part of the battle, at least.[5]

Cheatham continued as a division commander under Bragg at the

battles around Chattanooga
, including Missionary Ridge, where Bragg was defeated by Grant. He helped block the Union Army in the final hours of the battle.

In 1864, Cheatham fought well in the

William T. Sherman's Union Army at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, and was wounded at the Battle of Ezra Church
. He took over command of Hood's corps when Hood was elevated to command the army on July 18, and led his corps in the battles around Atlanta.

Cheatham's most famous service came as a corps commander under Hood in the

Carolinas Campaign
as a division commander, the highest position this small army could justify. He surrendered to General Sherman in North Carolina in April 1865.

During the war, Cheatham rode the horse Old Isham, named after

Isham Harris, the Confederate Governor of Tennessee.[6]

Postbellum life

Marriage and family

Shortly after the war, he married in his 40s for the first time, to Anna Bell Robertson of North Carolina (she was no relation to his line of Robertsons). She was the sister of one of his war-time aides. They had five children together: Benjamin Franklin Jr., Patton Robertson, Joseph Johnston, Medora Cheatham Hodgson, and Alice.[7]

Their son Benjamin Franklin Cheatham, Jr. (1867–1944) was a major general in the U.S. Army, serving with distinction in the

Tomb of the Unknowns. He is buried at Arlington.[8]

Their daughter Medora married Telfair Hodgson Jr., the treasurer of Sewanee: The University of the South and a developer of Belle Meade, Tennessee, whose own father, Telfair Hodgson, was Sewanee's third vice chancellor.[9]

Work life

After the war, Cheatham declined an offer of Federal civil service employment from President Grant.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives in Tennesse's 1872 at-large congressional district special election, in which former President Andrew Johnson, after seeing that the Democratic nomination for the district would likely go to Cheatham, ran as an independent, throwing the election to Republican Horace Maynard.

He served for four years as the appointed superintendent of a Tennessee state prison. He was appointed postmaster of Nashville (1885–1886). He died in Nashville and is buried there in Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Legacy and honors

After the war, a camp of the Association of Confederate Soldiers Tennessee Division was named the Frank Cheatham Bivouac in honor of the Confederate general.

Cheatham County, Tennessee is also possibly named after him along with Edward Saunders Cheatham.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Eicher, p. 171. Warner and Evans list his highest militia rank as major general.
  2. ^ Henry Carter, “Californians in the Confederate Service,” Los Angeles Star, Volume XIII, Number 32, 12 December 1863.
  3. ^ Eicher, pp. 170–71.
  4. ^ Bearss, Edwin Cole (1991). Davis, William C. (ed.). The Confederate General, vol. I. Harrisburg, PA.: National Historical Society. p. 178.
  5. ^ Co. Aytch: A Sideshow of the Big Show by Samuel Watkins, chapter six.
  6. ^ Cole, Rhea. "Old Isham, General Benjamin Cheatham's Honored Mount". American Civil War Forum. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  7. ^ Losson, pp. 258–67; 254–56; 280–84.
  8. ^ Losson, pp. 280–81.
  9. Newspapers.com
    .

References

External links

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