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| | General Strahl's Grave
and Cannon - Dyersburg, Tennessee
Brigadier General Otho French
Strahl, P.A.C.S., born on June 3, 1831 in McConnelsville, Ohio, was practicing law in
Dyersburg
when the Civil War began. He fought at
Shiloh
and
Murfreesboro
and was one of six Confederate generals killed on
November 30, 1864
, in the Battle of Franklin. Strahl's body was first buried near the battlefield
then later moved to
Maury
County
until coming to it's final resting place at the turn of the century.
Tourists today can see Strahl's cannon and visit his gravesite
in the Dyersburg Old City Cemetery.
Made in 1820 and originally a main deck gun on the USS
Independence during the Mexican War. Used by Confederates in land battles in
Civil War. Now rests in Old
City Cemetery
beside the grave of General Otho French Strahl, local Civil War hero.
General Otho French Strahl, one of the choicest spirits
that embraced the cause of the South, and finally offered all upon her altar,
was a native of
Ohio, who had settled in Tennessee
and was practicing law at Dyersburg
when the great war of States began. Although of Northern birth, both of his
grandmothers were Southern women, and perhaps had much to do with moulding their
sentiments which made him such an ardent sympathizer with the South. When
Tennessee
was making ready to cast in her lot with the Southern Confederacy, the young
lawyer entered the Fourth Tennessee regiment as a captain (May, 1861). Early in
1862 he became lieutenant colonel of the regiment. As such he shared in the
 hardships of the regiment. As such he shared in the hardships and glories of the
campaigns of Shiloh, Bentonville, and Murfreesboro, in which he so conducted
himself as to be promoted to colonel early in 1863, and then to the rank of
brigadier-general, July 28, 1863. In the hundred days' campaign from Dalton
to Atlanta
in 1864, he and his men added to their already magnificent record. Mr. S. A.
Cunningham, who was a boy soldier in his brigade at
Franklin,
November 30, 1864
, has given in his magazine a graphic account of the conduct and death of his
commander that fateful day. Mr. Cunningham being that day right guide to the
brigade, was near Strahl in the fatal advance, and was pained at the extreme
sadness in his face. He was surprised, too, that his general went into battle on
foot. The account of Mr. Cunningham continues: "I was near General Strahl,
who stood in the ditch and handed up guns to those posted to fire them. I had
passed to him my short
Enfield
(noted in the regiment) about the sixth time. The man who had been firing,
cocked it and was taking deliberate aim when he was shot, and tumbled down dead
into the ditch upon those killed before him. When the men so exposed were shot
down, their places were supplied by volunteers until these were exhausted, and
it was necessary for General Strahl to call for others. He turned to me, and
though I was several feet back from the ditch, I rose up immediately, and
walking over the wounded and dead took position, with one foot upon the pile of
bodies of my dead fellows and the other upon the embankment, and fired guns
which the general himself handed up to me, until he, too, was shot down."
The general was not instantly killed, but soon after received a second shot and
then a third which finished the fearful work. "General Strahl was a model
character, and it was said of him that in all the war he was never known to use
language unsuited to the presence of ladies." While the army was camped at
Dalton on
the 20th of April, 1864
, services were held in the Methodist church by Bishop Charles Todd Quintard, of
the Episcopal church. On this occasion Bishop Quintard baptized General Strahl
and presented him to Bishop Stephen Elliott for confirmation, with three other
generals of the Confederate army--Lieutenant General Hardee and
Brigadier-Generals Shoup and Govan.
- from Evans, Clement, ed. Confederate Military History,
Vol. VIII, Confederate Publishing Co.,
Atlanta,
GA, 1899.
Commissioned Brigadier to rank from July 28, 1863, this
Ohio born "State's Righter" commanded one of the "Hardest Hitting
Brigades" in the Army of Tennessee. Serving in first Cheatham's
Tennessee Division then with AP Stewart at Chattanooga, Strahl was once again
with the hard driving Cheatham during the ill-fated Middle Tennessee Campaign of
late 1864. The Brigade consisted of the 24th, 5th, 19th, 4th, 31st, 33rd,
38th and 41st Tennessee Regiments by the time it formed up on Winstead Hill on
November 30, 1864. Although reduced in numbers by the time the Brigade
slammed into the final line of Federal Works they managed to hold onto the outer
portion of the Works despite vicious enfilading fire from the area of the Gin
House. Strahl was severely wounded in the neck while passing a loaded
Enfield to S.A. Cunningham. While being carried to the rear Strahl was
struck by two more bullets, the second bringing death. First buried at St.
Johns with Cleburne, Strahl was later reinterred at his beloved Dyersburg,
Tennessee.
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