gagements around Marietta. It was in the bloody battl< 

 Franklin and later in that of Nashville. 



When the Army of Tennessee retreated South, the First I ' 

 ment marched through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South 

 Carolina, and into North Carolina to Bentonville, and after tin- 

 surrender at Greensboro, started for home May 3, reaching home 

 May 21. Out of the 1,167 who went out in the Firsl Regiment, 

 only 125 returned at the close of the war. The Rock Cit) Guards 

 went out with 334 men and there were only 27 at the surrender. 



On President McKinley's first call for troops, the First Regi- 

 ment was organized in Nashville in May, 1898. It left Nash- 

 ville June 10 and reached San Francisco June 17. ( >ctober 30 

 seven companies sailed on the Zelandia for the Philippines, and 

 November 6 the remainder sailed on the City of Pueblo. William 

 C. Smith was Colonel; Gracey Childress, Lieutenant-Colonel; 

 Albert Bayless, Senior Major; B. Frank Cheatham and John Mc- 

 Guire, Majors; and James Knox Polk, Adjutant. The Regiment 

 first did guard duty at Bilib Prison, Manila. February 5 Colonel 

 Smith fell dead while on the firing line. After service around 

 Manila and Cavite, the Regiment was ordered to Iloilo, where it 

 helped to capture the city, its work being rapid, determined and 

 gallant. It took part in many skirmishes and in repelling night at- 

 tacks, and later engaged in lively fighting around Iloilo and Jara, 

 and on the Island of Panay, and also Cebu. 



Though frequently exposed to danger from a treacherous foe, 

 the Regiment was exceedingly fortunate, losing all told only 26 

 men, 9 of these in the Philippines. When the Regiment was 

 aboard a transport under sailing orders for home, it volun- 

 tarily disembarked and assisted in repulsing the enemy — an act 

 which won it praise from the President of the United States, and 

 added to its enviable reputation. 



After the death of Colonel Smith, Lieutenant-Colonel Childress 

 became Colonel, and Major Bayless Lieutenant-Colonel, with 

 B. F. Cheatham, John E. McGuire, and William J. Whitthorne, 

 Majors. When Major Cheatham raised a battalion out of the 

 First to join the 37th Volunteers, Captain A. C. Gillem was 

 elected Major. 



On its return to the United States the Regiment was mus- 

 tered out at San Francisco, but returned to Nashville in a body, 

 where it received an ovation. 



This in the briefest outline is the history of the First Tennes- 

 see — a history which reaches through the Seminole war in the 

 Florida everglades; the plains of Mexico; many bloody fields and 

 weary marches of the Civil War, and the jungles and wilds of 

 the far Philippines. It has fought Indians, Mexicans and Filip- 

 pinos, served in the war with Spain, and poured out its blood in 



63 • 



