Comments on: All-Girl Rhea County Spartanshttp://www.historynet.com/all-girl-rhea-county-spartans.htm
HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines.Mon, 19 Mar 2018 21:14:00 +0000hourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4By: Diana Brooks Mcbayhttp://www.historynet.com/all-girl-rhea-county-spartans.htm#comment-2458167
Tue, 03 Jun 2014 05:39:40 +0000#comment-2458167There is an article that was published in the Winter 1999 Tennessee Genealogical Magazine Ansearchin News that is called A Seldom Heard Tale of the Civil War The Side-Saddle Cavalry of East Tennessee… there isn’t a name given of the person/persons who gathered the info for this article leaving me to believe that several members of the genealogical society may have been collecting data. It is a 3 page article in this 68 page magazine w/ sources given for parts of it and V C Allen is one source given. I don’t know if he is the one that gave the girls names and their parents/husband’s names for this article but some or incorrect just as Mr. Robison has said about the articles he has seen.
The first error is a name of the Capt. responsible for swearing in the girls, this articles gives the name as Capt. W T Darwin when is should be W. P. (William Perry) Darwin. This info can be found in Goodspeed’s Rhea County History. Darwin married Adelia Gillespie, one of the girls in the cavalry.
As for the names of the girls and their parents it gives the source as the 1850, 1860 &1870 federal census of Rhea County. This could explain the error in the next girls parents. !st Sgt. Jane Keith, ca 21, daughter of Nicholas and Eliza J Keith. Jane was the daughter of Nicholas Keith but her mother was his first wife Nancy Buttram who was now deceased and he had remarried when Nancy died in 1844. Notice the maiden name of Sgt. Keith’s mother is the same as the cemetery some of the girls in the unit chose to be buried in. Now when the article states that Mary and Margaret Maggie Keith are daughters of Nicholas and Eliza J Keith this is correct. They are half sisters to Sgt. Jane Keith.
I have to agree with Mr. Robinson when he said that there hasn’t been enough research done before data was written… the article I am referring to gives names of spouses of these girls after their stint in the Civil War. The source given for these marriage is the Rhea Co. marriage records but yet it says there was three marriages that happened but no record was found, one was Jane Keith to George Benson. This is incorrect as Jane Keith married Mathias Andrew Tice Moyers in Rhea County, Tennessee on September 18, 1867. The record is for M.A. Moyers to J.C. Keith. Sgt. Jane Keith’s middle name is Catherine. After their marriage Tice and Jane Keith Moyers relocated to Texas where they are both buried in Fairfield Cemetery in Cooke Co. Texas. Since the record is in the Rhea Co. marriage books and the marriage took place on two years after the Civil War ended. Mathias Andrew Moyers was the nephew of W. T. Gass who was Captain of one of the six Confederate units organized in Rhea County, Tennessee. Mathias Moyers was also the brother to George Jacob Jake Moyers who married 3rd Sgt. Sallie Mitchell, the adopted daughter of Nicholas and Eliza J Keith and adopted sister to Jane, Mary and Maggie Keith. They married on March 13, 1867 in Rhea County, Tennessee. George Jacob and Sallie Mitchell Moyers relocated to Georgia where they are buried in the Summerville City Cemetery, Summerville, Georgia. Sarah died in 1891 and Jake remarried in 1893. Mathias Andrew and George Jacob Moyers were brothers of my great grandfather Rufus Sherrill Moyers and were sons of Wyley and Sarah Jane Jones Moyers of Rhea County, Tennessee. Wyley was the step brother of Capt. W.T. Gass. From the list of ladies who served in the all girl unit of the Civil War I can find at least 13 with connections to my family line, not counting the males listed that were somehow connected to the ladies in the all girl unit.
]]>By: Victor McDonaldhttp://www.historynet.com/all-girl-rhea-county-spartans.htm#comment-2246869
Wed, 23 Apr 2014 13:23:19 +0000#comment-2246869I believe my Great Great grandmother was a member of this unit. Her name is Tempa Adaline Rhea Fowler 1841 to 1905 from Cherokee County NC. In all her pictures she wore what appears to be a confederate scarf. I have pictures and information if you would like. We have been trying to figure the significance of the scarf. This article seems to fit the puzzle.

Thank you
Vic McDonald

]]>By: Thomas Robinsonhttp://www.historynet.com/all-girl-rhea-county-spartans.htm#comment-1341911
Fri, 02 Aug 2013 21:26:23 +0000#comment-1341911A recently discovered newspaper article contemporary to the formation of the group now known as the Rhea County Spartans, sheds new light on the subject. Previously, the earliest commonly known reference to the Spartans has been the 1911 article submitted by William G. Allen to Confederate Veteran magazine. On this date, August 2, 2013, I stumbled upon an article which predates Mr. Allen’s writing by 50 years.
Let me inform the reader that the late Bettye Broyles, former Rhea County Historian, opined that the \Spartans\ never called themselves by that name. The moniker was an invention of later times… Perhaps Mr. Allen was the person who gave them the name. Then, assuming that the group was called by another name during the war years, one must look for …. another name! So it is… \Rhea Soldiers’ Aid Society\….
I have written in the past that I regard Mr. Allen’s writings with caution. Too many of his \facts\ have been disproven. So, it is with small reluctance that I now must cast a shadow on his legacy once more. It is my opinion that Mr. Allen probably interviewed one person, or maybe two, then put his story to print. He certainly did not talk to the seven or more members of the group who were still alive when his article was published, even though many of the women he himself named as members lived within 20 miles of Dayton! His story of the formation of the Spartans has been, until this date, the only version on record. However, there is now a more credible source to consider.
The newly discovered article is most certainly more correct than Mr. Allen’s efforts of 50 years hence. Granted, there is certainly the possibility that many of the facts recorded by Mr. Allen are true. One should consider that the group which elected new officers in \the summer of 1862\ as Allen reports, could be the second election of officers for the group. The fact that many of the same people listed by Mr. Allen appear in the 1861 article is testament to the probability that it is the same group. One can draw their own conclusion on which account they wish to put faith in, but my money is on the Athens Post article.
Now you can add the names Parks, Peterson, Evens, Early, Chambers, Nanny, Darwin, Smith, Ball, Roe, Howard, Rawlings, Gist, Kelley, and James to the Spartans roster.
]]>By: Thomas Robinsonhttp://www.historynet.com/all-girl-rhea-county-spartans.htm#comment-787104
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:56:06 +0000#comment-787104Many recorded inaccuracies continue to unfold as I have researched this group. Mr. W. G. Allen, in my opinion, is not a reliable historian. His book, “History of Rhea County”, contains numerous errors. The article he submitted for “Confederate Veteran” magazine in 1911 states that only three of the Spartans survive…

One only need to do a little research to find that there were at least five more survivors at that time; Sarah Rudd (1847-1930), Isabelle Cunningham (1842-1914), Mary Robinson (Caldwell) (1843-1916), Mary Crawford (1843-1920), Louisa McDonald (1834-1912). All of these lived within 20 miles of Mr. Allen.

In another writing, Mr. Allen states that Mary Robinson is the daughter of John Robinson and Hannah Earnest…… wrong. She was the daughter of Samuel Robinson and Mary McPherson.

I find it surprising that contemporary articles continue to present the same “facts” to the reader, when a little research can uncover obvious problems.