The Building of a Hospital at Chattanooga, Tennessee
In July 1863
By July of 1863 the Battle for Middle Tennessee was in the beginning stages of a major conflict after a long winter lull between the Army of the Tennessee [Confederate] under the command of General Braxton Bragg and the Army of the Cumberland [Federal] under the command of General Roseancrans. The Confederate army was in need of a centralized location for care of its wounded and sick soldiers. Chattanooga, Tennessee close to river frontage and a main supply depot for the Confederate Army of Tennessee was considered the best place at the time to build a military hospital complex. Captain R. D. Zcillek of the Assistant the Adjutant General Office was instructed to find skilled craftsman to help build the hospital complex as soon as was possible. After an extensive search Captain Zcillek came up with the following men to be mustered into a Pioneer [construction] Company to build the hospital complex. Captain Zcillek would be in charge of placing where the building would be built and getting them built as soon as possible. Captain Zcillek would have at his disposal a command staff consisting of 2nd Lt. John Stanton from Company C of the 154th Senior Infantry Regiment, Sergeant John King from Company F of the 19th Tennessee Infantry, and 3rd Corporal W. O. McCormick from Company H of the 4th Tennessee Cavalry. The rest of the newly formed company would consist of thirty-one private soldiers from Tennessee and Alabama.
On July 12, 1863 a list of men was submitted to Colonel W. H Waller of the Assitant Adjutant Office and was approved. The men were assembled and the hospital complex was built. Upon completion the men were sent back to their respective units. The following letter was sent and approved by Colonel W. H Waller.
Quartermaster Department
Chattanooga, Tennessee July 12, 1863
Colonel H. W. Waller
A.A.G.
Sir:
I respectfully request the following detail to get and saw logs for the Hospitals being erected under my charge.
| *3rd Corporal W. O. McCormick | Co. H | 4th Tennessee Cavalry |
| Private John Hankins | Co. A | 19th Tennessee Infantry |
| *Sergeant John King | Co. F | 35th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private James Jackson | Co. A | 19th Tennessee Infantry |
| *Private John Kesterson | Co. A | 19th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private T. P. King | Co. A | 12th Tennessee Infantry |
| *Private W. F. Miller | Co. B | 12th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private John Gray | Co. F | 47th Tennessee Infantry |
| *Private S. G. Cooper | Co. K | 47th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private J. S. Sanders | Co. D | 9th Tennessee Infantry |
| *Private J. T. Williams | Co. D | 9th Tennessee Infantry |
| *Sergeant G. W. Stallings | Co. A | 9th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private W. D. Mottley | Co. B | McDonalds Cavalry Battalion |
| Private S. Mottley | Co. D | 9th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private A. B. Gunganeau | Co. D | 47th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private Thomas Johnston | Co. A | 57th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private P. F. Jones | Co. D | 12th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private Daniel Harrigan | Co. D | 12th Tennessee Infantry |
| Page 2 | ||
| Private John Stokes | Co. A | 5th Confederate Infantry |
| Private William James | Co. F | 28th Alabama Infantry |
| Private Robert Muckle | Co. F | 4th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private Bosmell Maywa | Co. A | 6th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private John Bellingham | Co. A | 6th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private Jeremiah Malony | Co. I | 15th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private James Ryan | Co. I | 15th Tennessee Infantry |
| *2nd Lt. John Stanton | Co. C | 154th Senior Tennessee |
| *Private Dominick Haney | Co. H | 154th Senior Tennessee |
| Private J. C. Sharp | Co. D | 57th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private T. W. McCoy | Co. H | 45th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private Z. H. Cunlin | Co. F | 4th Tennessee Infantry |
| Private James Roc | Co. A | 34th Alabama Infantry |
| Private Levi Henderson | Co. A | 34th Alabama Infantry |
| Private W. C. Richardson | Morton's Tennessee Battery | |
| Private John Doolan | Co. I | 5th Tennessee Infantry |
| *Private J. T. Vaugh | Co. F | 1st Tennessee Infantry |
As in any army the clerks were need to push orders on paper to next level of command so a second order was issued concerning the list of men came from the Headquarters office of the Army of Tennessee dated July 13, 1863.
Respectfully forwarded to Assistant Adjutant General with request that the detail be permitted with saw to logs and to furnish to mills here logs as lumber is absolutely necessary for erection of Hospitals.
M. B. McMicklen
Army of the Tennessee
A third and final order came on July 14, 1863 arrived from the headquarters of General Bragg Commander of the Army of Tennessee to Lt. General Polk's Headquarters concerning the matter at hand.
This order was addressed to W. O. McCormick of the 4th Tennessee Cavalry.
Respectfully refers to Lt. General Polk, who is requested to obtained other than private reservations in this application in his command and cause them to report at 7 O'clock A.M. and turn over the list to Captain Hobble assistant Quartermaster at Chattanooga to cut logs for that command.
By command
General Bragg
W. W. Waller
There were thirty-one men assigned to cut logs and build the hospital complex one man 3rd Corporal O. McCormick who was hand picked came from the 4th Tennessee Cavalry under the command of Lt. Colonel Paul Anderson of Wharton's Cavalry Brigade that summer of 1863. He had enlisted on September 1, 1862 in Bridgeport, Alabama a small dusty town where railroads crossed from Tennessee into Alabama.
W. O. McCormick voluntarily came forward and sought out Captain Glover the company commander of Company "H" of the 4th Tennessee Cavalry. At that point in time he enlisted as 3rd Corporal for a period three years. When a muster was taken in January 28, 1863 he was reported on the muster rolls as being on detached service in Chattanooga, Tennessee no reason was given as why he was detached. When the company was mustered again on May 28, 1863 he was still on detached service in Chattanooga but he had been paid for the first time. He was paid according to his rank and received a payment for the use and risk of his privately owned horse. Sometime later on a military document was placed in his Compiled Service records, which places him on detached duty in Chattanooga, Tennessee helping build the new hospital complex. Corporal McCormack must have been a skilled craftsman for in the letter he was asked for by name. After the project was completed he returned to his cavalry company and was later captured on November 25, 1863 at the Battler for Missionary Ridge outside of Chattanooga by soldiers from of the Army of the Cumberland. He was forwarded to Nashville, Tennessee and transferred to the military prison at Louisville, Kentucky for exchange. He was never to be exchanged and his fate was to be transferred to one of the worst military prisons in the western theater of the war. He was sent on December 8, 1863 from the military prison at Louisville, Kentucky to Rock Island Barracks, Illinois. Conditions being so bad in the camp he asked on March 18, 1864, to be able to take the Oath of Allegiance and become a loyal citizen of the United States. His request was denied and he remained in the camp until May 25, 1865 where he was released after taking the Oath of Allegiance in front of 1st Lt. A. Briggs the Post Adjutant. . When he took the Oath being an educated man he signed his name on the Oath of Allegiance document. On the document company clerk had Corporal McCormick state the following information, that his primary residence was Chattanooga, Tennessee. He had a complexion which was light, his hair was light in color, his eyes were blue and he was 5'10" tall and was twenty-five years of age.
Former 3rd Corporal W. O. McCormick returned back home and took up a normal lifestyle. His date of death is not known or what happen to him after the war. We do know that during the spring months of 1863 he was employed as a soldier/skilled craftsman helping in the construction of a permanent hospital complex for his fellow soldiers of the Army of Tennessee who were sick or had been wounded. In the twenty-one months of his enlistment, he was only paid one time and that was by Captain J. B. Sharp, the Regimental Paymaster on May 1, 1863. Although he was only paid once and never received his bounty of $50.00 Corporal McCormick was never absent without leave. He would serve out his remaining time of enlistment in the Federal Military Prison at Rock Island Barracks, Illinois as a Prisoner of War never to be exchanged back to his company. The 4th Tennessee Company "H" of the Confederate Army of Tennessee surrendered on May 5, 1865. 3rd Corporal W. O. McCormick served as a proud Trooper in the 4th Tennessee Cavalry Provisional Army of the Confederate States of America for twenty-one months.
Transcribed from National Archives Microfilm roll # 37 File card # 976 Compiled Service Record of 3rd Corporal W. O, McCormick of the 8th Tennessee Cavalry.
Tju March 9, 2001
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