| Jesse Caudill enlisted as a private in Company
A of the 5th Kentucky Mounted Rifles on November 1, 1861, in Whitesburg,
Kentucky. Other records indicate that he enlisted in this company
on November 3, 1861, for 12 months service, at a camp near Pound
Gap, Virginia. The records do not indicate his age or place of residence
at the time of his enlistment. He was present with his company until
late 1862, when he appears as a private on the rolls of Company
A, 13th Kentucky Cavalry. On January 1, 1863, he was transferred
to Company B of the 13th Cavalry. Sometime between April and August
1863, he was reported as absent wounded. On June 24, 1863, he was
appointed fifth sergeant of his company. He then disappears from
the official records.
The 13th Kentucky Cavalry (also called the 10th
and 11th Regiments of Mounted Infantry) was organized at Abingdon,
Virginia, during the spring of 1863. Its commander was Colonel Benjamin
E. Caudill; its second in command was Lieutenant Colonel David J.
Caudill. The men of the 13th, mostly sturdy mountaineers, were from
Virginia as well as Kentucky. Thirty-three Caudills, including Jesse,
served in the regiment. The unit, for good reason, was known as
“Caudill’s Army.” The 13th was assigned to the Department
of East Tennessee and later the Department of Western Virginia and
East Tennessee and rode for a time with General John Hunt Morgan.
From 1863 to 1865, the 13th fought in many small engagements in
the mountains of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. Eighteen officers,
including Colonel Caudill, and 99 men of the regiment were captured
in a Union raid on Gladeville (now Wise), Virginia, July 7, 1863. |
|
Sergeant Caudill was not among the enlisted
men captured and sent to a Yankee prisoner of war camp.
The remnant of the regiment continued to serve
in the Department of Western Virginia and Eastern Tennessee for
the rest of the war. Colonel Caudill was exchanged in August 1864
and rejoined his regiment, which he surrendered to Union forces
at Louisa, Kentucky, on April 27, 1865.
The memory of Sergeant Jesse Caudill of
Company B, 13th Kentucky Cavalry, is perpetuated in this camp by
his descendant, Compatriot Wesley M. Caudill.
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