Brigadier General Joseph B. Palmer, P.A.C.S.
Brigadier-General Joseph B. Palmer, at the beginning of the war, was a
prominent lawyer of Murfreesboro, Tenn. He opposed secession, and
insisted that the South should make her fight in the Union. But like the vast
majority of Southern Union men, he believed that his first allegiance was
due to his State. So when Tennessee resolved upon secession, he obeyed
her voice and raised a company for the defense of the South. Of this
company he was elected captain, and when it, with nine other companies,
was formed into the Eighteenth Tennessee regiment of infantry, Captain
Palmer was unanimously elected colonel. This regiment was assigned to
the army commanded by Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston. It formed a part of
the army at Fort Donelson, sharing in the glories and disasters of that fierce
conflict. When the fort was surrendered, February 16, 1862, Colonel
Palmer and his men found themselves prisoners of war. He was kept in
prison at Fort Warren until his exchange in August, 1862, then joined his
regiment, which had also been just exchanged at Vicksburg. Shortly
afterward the regiment was reorganized at Jackson, Miss., and re-elected
Palmer as its colonel. In Breckinridge's brilliant, though unsuccessful charge
at Murfreesboro on the 2d day of January, 1863, Palmer's regiment
suffered heavily, and Palmer was himself badly wounded in three places.
These wounds incapacitated him for service for about four months, but he
returned to his regiment in time for the battle of Chickamauga, where, while
leading his command in one of the headlong charges of that hotly-contested
field, he received another dangerous wound in the shoulder, which bled so
profusely as to threaten death before help could come. It was not until the
army reached Atlanta that he was in condition to resume his duties. Here
he was appointed to the command of his brigade, and commissioned
brigadier-general November 15, 1864. His brigade, formerly commanded
by John C. Brown, comprised the Third, Eighteenth, Thirty-second, and
Forty-fifth Tennessee regiments. In the campaign of Hood into Tennessee,
this brigade was detached from the army at Nashville and send to co-
operate with Bate and Forrest in a movement against Murfreesboro. On the
retreat of the army, Palmer's brigade formed part of the force under Walthall
and Forrest which brought up the rear, and did its duty so bravely as to win
the applause of even the enemy. During the North Carolina campaign of
1865, all the decimated infantry regiments of Tennessee then serving under
Johnston were consolidated into four regiments and placed in a brigade
commanded by General Palmer. Mr. G. N. Baskette, of Nashville, Tenn.
(Confederate Veteran, November 1897), relates a remarkable
exploit of Palmer's brigade at the battle of Bentonville, the last one fought
by the gallant army of Tennessee. On this occasion, "part of Palmer's
brigade charged through the enemy's line and kept on to the rear of the
Federal army, capturing a number of prisoners, and by a detour, after a long
and painful march of about a week, rejoined the brigade." The same writer,
summing up the character of General Palmer, says:
[H]e was ever courteous to his subordinate officers and men in the line, and
while maintaining proper discipline had always a warm sympathy for the
boys in the trenches or on the march. On the battlefield he was cool and
collected, bearing himself always as a leader who felt the weight of his
responsibility, and yet was ever ready to brave any danger which promised
to benefit the cause of which he was devoted.
At the close of the war, General Palmer proved himself as good a citizen as
he had been a soldier. He died on the 4th of November, 1890, mourned by
his many friends and countrymen.
Source: Evans, Clement, ed. Confederate Military History, Vol.
XII, Confederate Publishing Company, Atlanta, GA, 1899
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