Company B, 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery (1861-1864) was a Confederate Army artillery battery during the American Civil War. While the unit was assigned to a Tennessee Artillery Regiment, it was originally organized as the McCown Guards or the McCown Guards Artillery, a volunteer company organized in Lafayette County, Arkansas. Also known as: Company A, 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery and/or Dismukes' Battery.
Organization
An infantry company known as the "McCown Guards", was recruited in Columbia and Lafayette counties, Arkansas and organized at Lamartine, Arkansas, on December 6, 1861, under the command of Captain Datus Whitaker (Whit) Harris. Captain Harris succeeded as captain by First Lieut. Paul Thomas Dismukes, date uncertain. Dismukes had originally served as a Sergeant in the Invincible Guards, a militia company raised at Magnolia, in Columbia County, Arkansas, which became a company in the 5th Regiment, Arkansas State Troops.
The company was originally recruited for the 15th (Johnson/Gee) Arkansas Infantry, but was sidetracked into the artillery service before it joined the 15th Arkansas. The unit was sent east of the Mississippi River, and converted to an artillery battery where it would eventually be assigned to the 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery as (2nd) Company A.
One of the original company offices, First Lieutenant William M. Hughey, would go on to serve in Shoup's Mountain Battery and the 8th Arkansas Field Battery.
Service
Dismuke's battery probably first became associated with heavy artillery at Columbus, Kentucky in the winter of 1862. While initially serving as the first major Confederate bastion on the Mississippi River, Columbus became untendable when Fort Henry and then Fort Donelson fell to Union forces in early February 1862. Columbus was cut off from rest of the Confederate Army, and faced capture by Union troops advancing overland from the Tennessee River to the Mississippi. To avoid losing the garrison and its equipment, General Beauregard ordered that the position be abandoned as quietly as possible. The process began on February 24, when the first members of the Columbus garrison arrived at Island No. 10. Two days later, its new commander, Brig. Gen. John P. McCown, arrived, and immediately set to work to strengthen the position McCown, was able to transform the island and nearby mainland into a formidable obstacle for any fleet attempting to pass. By the middle of March, five batteries containing 24 guns had been built on the shore above the island; 19 guns were in five batteries on the island itself; and the floating battery New Orleans, with nine guns, was moored at the west end of the island. McCown was eventually replaced in command at the island by Brig. Gen. William W. Mackall.
Island No. 10
Dismuke's battery was part of the heavy artillery which had just arrived at Madrid Bend on March 1, 1862. It appears that Captain Harris and Lieutenant Hughey had already left the battery before it moved to New Madrid. The battery officers during this period appear to have been: Captain Paul T. Dismukes First Lieutenant Robert H. Howell First Lieutenant George T. Moorman Second Lieutenant Philip P. Frazier Second Lieutenant Wash T. Dickson
Union gunboats and mortars arrived on March 15, and the siege of Island No. 10 began. Union ground forces led by General John Pope, in New Madrid, and Union naval forces led by Admiral Andrew Hull Foote, upstream of the bend, were kept apart by Island No. 10. From the first, they did not agree how to go about conducting the operation. Pope wanted immediate action; Foote hoped to subdue the island by the slow process of bombardment. As early as March 17, Pope was asking that two or three gunboats run past the Confederate batteries, to enable him to cross the river and trap the entire garrison. Foote demurred, arguing that his boats were not invincible. For the next two weeks, fighting consisted of bombardment of the island at rather long range, mostly conducted by the mortars, and occasionally replied to by the Confederate batteries.
On April 4, the Union gunboat Carondelet made her way downstream, and was not discovered until she was abreast of the Confederate Battery No. 2. The batteries opened, but their fire was inaccurate, and Carondelet completed the run unscathed. Two nights later, made a similar run. On April 7, Pope made his move, and transports carried his troops across, landing on the Tennessee side of the river, thus threatening the Confederate positions from the rear. Realizing that his position was hopeless, Mackall put the men on the mainland in motion in the direction of Tiptonville.