John T. Robinson - 10th Alabama Cavalry - Moreland's Regiment

Following up on the previous post about John Taylor Robinson's service in the Civil War....

John applied for a Civil War pension from the State of Alabama which was initially denied due to the fact that his name was not found on the muster rolls of his regiment, 10th Alabama Cavalry.  Upon receipt of affidavits from other war veterans who served in the same regiment - Solomon J. Wiginton, Zebulon Brooks Palmer, and W. J. Donham - the pension board reversed their decision and awarded a pension to John.

Why the lack of official records of John T. Robinson's Civil War service?  I suspect that part of the problem lies with the late enlistment.  By 1864, when John enlisted at Smithville, the war had been dragging on for four years.  At the war's beginning, record-keeping was much better.  Morale was high, and everything was 'by the book,' but as time went on, there was a break down in official processes.

Repeated defeats at Vicksburg, Gettsyburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga in the last half of 1863 had decimated the Confederate Army, and the remaining troops were constantly being re-organized and re-shuffled under different names which can be confusing when trying to research an ancestor who served in the war.

The 10th Alabama Cavalry Regiment was commanded by Colonels Pickett and Powell but John T. Robinson's pension record indicates that he served under a different Colonel - Colonel Moreland, apparently Colonel Micajah D. Moreland, of Tishomingo County, Mississippi.   From what I have read, many Alabama regiments were not numbered but went by their commander's name.  Moreland's Cavalry seems to have been a separate unit from the 10th Alabama Cavalry.    Someone with more knowledge of Alabama regiments of the Civil War may be better equipped to sort out these units, but it seems that Moreland's Cavalry was a regiment that was attached to Col. Phillip Dale Roddey's 4th Alabama Cavalry, as was the 10th Alabama Cavalry.  Moreland's troops participated in battles at Brice's Crossroads and Tupelo, and surrendered at Citronelle, Alabama.

Apparently many of Col. Moreland's companies were organized in Northeast Mississippi, which is consistent with the fact that Private John T. Robinson enlisted with an Alabama regiment in Smithville, Mississippi.  In his pension application, John named his captain as "Captain J. F. Chaffin" who probably was Jackson Florida Chaffin, an Itawambian who left for Arkansas after the war and later moved to Waldrip, McCulloch County, Texas where he died in 1929.

Members of Moreland's Regiment were discharged at Iuka, Mississippi in May, 1865.  John T. Robinson's affidavit states that he was "sick and unable to go to Iuka to get a parole, and this is why I have no parole."

John Taylor Robinson was the oldest son, and fourth child, of John E. Robinson and Rachael Reed Emerson Robinson.    He was born May 8, 1842 in Marion County, Alabama, and his younger brother, my great-great grandfather, was born two years later.    After John's death in 1929, his widow, Mahala, applied for his war pension, and her application states that she and John were married at Shottsville on October 2, 1870.  Shortly thereafter, the couple moved to Itawamba County where they lived from 1870 to 1882 (again, as stated in the application) before moving back across the state line in Marion County, Alabama.  


John and Mahala had eight children:  Louella, Austin Lanier, Carlton McKindry, John Garvin, Chester Ardell, Bunyan Lavert, Bulah Guy, and William Clenton.   Interesting, up until just last year, John and Mahala's grandson, Ross Robison, was still living.