COLONEL: John Alcorn
- DATES: September 1813 – December 1813
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MEN MOSTLY FROM: Davidson, Rutherford, Sumner, and Wilson Counties (Winston’s company from Madison County, Alabama).
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CAPTAINS: John Baskerville, Richard Boyd, Thomas Bradley, John Byrne, Robert Jetton, William Locke, Alexander McKeen, Frederick Stump, Daniel Ross, and John Winston.
BRIEF HISTORY:
Colonel John Coffee commanded this regiment until the end of October 1813, when Coffee was promoted to Brigadier General. John Alcorn took over as colonel and the unit was incorporated with Colonel Newton Cannon’s Mounted Riflemen to form the Second Regiment of Volunteer Mounted Riflemen. The Second Regiment, along with Colonel Robert Dyer’s First Regiment of Volunteer Mounted Gunmen, formed the brigade under John Coffee. Muster rolls reveal that the regiment went by various designations besides volunteer mounted riflemen: volunteer cavalry; mounted militia; or mounted gunmen.
Many of the men from this unit were with Andrew Jackson on the expedition to Natchez (December 1812 – April 1813) and, consequently, felt their one-year’s enlistment expired in December 1813. Jackson insisted that the time not spent in the field did not apply to the terms of enlistment. Hence, a dispute broke out between the troops and Jackson late in 1813. Most of the troops did leave by the end of that year, despite Jackson’s strenuous efforts to keep them.
The regiment participated in the battles at Tallushatchee and Talladega (3 November and 9 November 1813) and muster rolls show that practically all of the companies sustained casualties, the most being in Captain John Byrne’s company. The regiment’s line of march took them from Fayetteville (where the regiment was mustered in), through Huntsville, Fort Deposit, Fort Strother, to the battles, and back the reverse way.
COLONEL: Newton Cannon
- DATES: September 1813 – December 1813
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MEN MOSTLY FROM: Bedford, Rutherford, Smith, Dickson, Franklin, Lincoln, Sumner, Williamson, and Wilson Counties.
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CAPTAINS: Robert Allen, George Brandon, Ota Cantrell, John B. Demsey, William Edwards, John Hanby, John Harpole, David Hogan, Francis Jones, William Martin, Andrew Patterson, James Walton, Isaac Williams, and Thomas Yardley.
BRIEF HISTORY:
Along with Colonel John Alcorn’s regiment, this unit was part of General John Coffee’s brigade that conducted the first campaign into the Creek Nation. Marching from Fayetteville, they went through Huntsville; crossed the Tennessee River at Ditto’s Landing (mid-October 1813); stopped at Fort Strother; and fought in the battles at Tallushatchee and Talladega (3 November and 9 November 1813). Muster rolls show that just about every company in this regiment suffered casualties in these battles.