Joseph Richard Lee

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Company C, 1st Regiment, Tennessee Mounted Infantry, USA

13 Mar 1864-1 Aug 1865

Joseph was son of Benjamin Lee and Sarah Roberts (d/o Joseph Roberts and Rachel Carter). He married Margaret Helen Caroline Lee, daughter of James Lawson Lee and Mary Clouse, and his 1st cousin. They had nine children between 1853 and 1875. After Margaret died, he married Hanah Mitchell - no issue. They divorced. Then, he married Matilda Vaughn - no issue.

JOSEPH R LEE first served in the Confederate Army being captured and forced in at gunpoint. He later escaped and joined the Union forces. Details are in the below deposition submitted in application for pension.

DEPOSITION OF Joseph R. Lee On this 15 day of July, 1896, at Boma, County of Putnam, State of Tennessee, before me, L.J. Taylor, a Special Examiner of the Pension Office, personally appeared Jos. R. Lee, who being first duly sworn to answer truly all interrogatories propounded to him during this Special Examination of aforesaid pension claim, deposes and says: I am 62 yrs old: Farmer: Boma, Tennessee. I was a Private, Company C, 1 Tennessee Mounted Infantry. I enlisted in this service in March 1864, and was discharged in Aug, 1865. That is all the service I had in the U.S. Army. I served a while in the Confederate Army. I was conscripted and taken into the Confederate army. I went into Hamilton's Battalion of Confederate Calvary. I think it was called the 37 Kentucky Regiment of Cavalry, CSA. I understood that Dick Morgan was Colonel of the Regiment, but he was not with it while I was there and it was then commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Hamilton. I was first in a company commanded by Captain Norris but I do not know the letter of it. There was another Company commanded by Jos. Shaw. Jink Helms, Jordon Perkins, and Luke Gillens were in Hamilton Battalion while I was there.

Q: How did you come to go into the Confederate Army?

A: Sometime before they took me off they had been mustering us around here and had notified a lot of us to report to McMinnville for the purpose, we supposed, of going into the Confederate Army. That notice was given by the officers where we were mustering and drilling. They would have us all to meet at Cookeville and muster and drill and they called us home guards I think. And it was there that we were ordered to report to McMinnville. After they ordered us to report to McMinnville I began laying out in the woods, and lay out until they caught me. I had come in home to kill a hog for my wife the day they came and captured me. Myself and my brother and William Shanks who lives some place out West, had it arranged to run off and go to Kentucky when they caught myself and my brother. They kept me under guard after they caught me until we got to camp which was 2 or 3 days. The night we got to camp there were several men said they would answer for me not running away, and they did not keep me in the Guard House that night. The next day we were all sworn into the service, and given a few days furlough to come home, and instructed to report back to the same place at the expiration of our furlough. I came home and stayed until my furlough was up and then went back. I went back of my own accord, and was not taken back. I may have been home and back a time or two after that before I finally left them, I cannot tell now.

Q. Why did you finally leave Hamilton's Battalion?

A. They were starting on a raid up about Hilham, and I was sick and not able to go and Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton ordered me to go to a man's house in the neighborhood and I staid around there a while and then I sent word to my wife and she sent after me and I came home and staid a while, and after I had been at home a while Luke Gillam came after me and started to take me back to the army, but I was still not well and Gillam allowed me to go back home and stay and I went back and never joined the Rebel army any more.

Q. Why did not you run off and go to Kentucky when you came home on furlough while in the Confederate Army?

A. Well the country was so full here of Rebels that I was afraid to try to go off.

Q. At time you went into the Rebel army would you have rather gone to the U.S. Army?

A. Yes I would, but after they got me I was afraid to try to run off. We just could not do any better around here than to go into the Rebel Army. Once before I went into the Rebel army. I had enlisted to go into it, because I did not think I could do any better, but that company never went out. That was before the conscript was passed and a man came around making up a Company and I enlisted but the Company never organized and went out.

Q. What ailed you when you were sick in the Rebel Army?

A. Well I had a pain in my left side and a cough like a bad cold. I had no doctor to treat me but I just supposed it was a bad cold. Yes I threw up some, but my bowels were not running off. I had no rheumatism while in the Rebel army. That is all the service I had in the Rebel army. I did not vote on the question of secession.

Q. Give me names of some men who lived near you and knew you well right after discharge?

A. W.N. & R.L. Gentry and Cravin Shanks were my nearest neighbors right after discharge. I do not desire to be present or represented by an attorney during the further examination of my claim. I was never in a battle while in the Confederate Army, and did not get a uniform. They gave me an old . . . . to use while standing on guard around camp. I never was in a battle while in the Rebel army. No, I never went before the conscript examining board to be examined before going into the Rebel army. They sent me and my brother and Jink Helms to McMinnville one time to load a wagon and I would have run away that time but I was afraid to try it.

I have understood questions and my answers are correctly recorded. J.R. Lee

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 15 day of July, 1896, and I certify that the contents were fully made known to deponent before signing. L.J. Taylor, Special Examiner