8th Confederate Regiment Company A
Commanders: Colonel Prather & Captain Wright
Statement from W H Osteen who tells how they got out of the Confederate Army.
I was in the army with Cook and know that he was an upright good soldier and an honorable man. The regiment to which we belonged was sent out to get cattle to feed the soldiers, and we were cut off from the rest of the army and surrounded by ten thousand Yankees. We started at dark going south, road all night and then found that we were right on ten thousand Yankee soldiers. We then had to turn back and the next evening about sundown got back into the place we started from the night before.
The colonel then told the captains to form the man in a circle and he made us a nice talk and told us that we had no ammunition there was nothing to do but try to get back home safely if we could. He told each of the captains to take their men as near home as they could and turn them loose to do the best they could. This was in January of 1865 this is how we got out of the army.
W H Osteen
Statement taken Dec 1927 at Unionville, TN Notarized by W.O. Stem
I'd wondered where J. G. Cook and W. H Osteen were at when this occurred. With that question I went looking for a pension application for W.H. Osteen. Not every Confederate soldier applied for a pension but I did manage to find his application. He was not in the 8th Regiment with J. G. Cook but was in the 21st(Carter's) Calvary and apparently their two regiments along with others were together when the Colonel cut them loose. Where were they at? Pulaski.
But which one? So I am reading further thru the application and I find a statement by W.G. Hight. This would be William Garrett Hight son of William Green Hight.
W.G. Hight's sworn statement
"On Hood's Advance into Tennessee W.H. Osteen was sworn to the the(sic) Confederate Army at Florence, Ala & he was with at Battle of Lawrenceburg, Berlin, Franklin & skirmished around Murfreesboro for about 1 week. Our command was ordered to Shelbyville, Tenn. and I was captured in Shelbyville and not said W H Osteen any more during the war." W G Hight(notarized statement given 7 March 1926) A letter written to the pension board by W H Osteen is also in the file and the handwritten letter does say they were in Pulaski, Tennessee. My question is answered but I want to finish reading thru this file. Next is a notarized statement by J.G. Cook in which it says that he first met W H Osteen in December 1864 at Shelbyville and tells of how they were disbanded. Also mentions Col Bob Withers whose name was marked thru on J. G. Cook's application and replaced with Col Prather.
W H. Osteen is buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Bedford Co TN along with a good number of his ancestors who had lived and died in the Bedford Co TN area.
Sources:
"Tennessee, Confederate Pension Applications, Soldiers and Widows, 1891-1965," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9GY6-925Q?cc=1874474&wc=M6ZF-P38%3A171467301%2C176229101 : 31 October 2018), Filed by Soldier (W H Osteen--S16031) > no 15905-16060 > images 1578-1593 of 2047; State Library and Archives, Nashville.
"Tennessee, Confederate Pension Applications, Soldiers and Widows, 1891-1965," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GGY6-SQ1R?cc=1874474&wc=M6ZF-P29%3A171467301%2C176249001 : 31 October 2018), Filed by Soldier(J G Cook--S16314 > no 16264-16474 > image 524-539 of 2139; State Library and Archives, Nashville.
Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 21 February 2021), memorial page for William Henry Harrison Osteen (29 Oct 1847–31 Aug 1934), Find a Grave Memorial no. 29558168, citing Cedar Grove Cemetery, Bedford County, Tennessee, USA ; Maintained by Patsy Paterson (contributor 46596020).
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