COUNTY TENNESSEE
Matt B. Dinwiddie, a southern gentleman of the old school and a veteran of the Civil war, is undoubtedly the leading citizen of McKenzie, where he is now living retired. A scion of old and honored American families, his birth occurred on the 24th of February, 1839, in Henry county, a son of Jediah and Mary (Anderson) Dinwiddie. His father was a direct descendant of Governor and General Dinwiddie, of Revolutionary fame, who was a prime factor in establishing the independence and constitutional government of the United States. On the maternal side Mr. Dinwiddie is of Scotch-Irish descent. Members of the Anderson family resided first in North Carolina and later emigrated to Tennessee. The parents of Mary (Anderson) Dinwiddie were Major Nelson Anderson and Peggy (Smoot) Anderson, who lived at Murfreesboro, where they were born and reared. Jediah Dinwiddie was born in Richmond, Madison county, Kentucky, and came to Tennessee in 1822. He was a farmer by occupation and owned six hundred acres of land and thirty-two slaves. Upon the outbreak of the Civil war he was worth about eighty thousand dollars, which was considerable wealth for that day. Mrs. Dinwiddie was born in 1810. Mr. and Mrs. Dinwiddie were prominent residents of the community in which they resided. Their home was a two-story log structure with five rooms, which was the prevailing style of the day. Negroes passed the food from kitchen to dining room, which was off from the house. The cooking, spinning, weaving, etc., were done by the slaves, Mr. and Mrs. Dinwiddie superintending. Although the white men of that day did not engage in such work as plowing, hauling, etc., they were not idle but turned their attention to professions and to statesmanship. Many were lawyers, doctors, members of county courts, congressmen, senators and governors.
When asked whether a line was drawn between slaveholders and non-slaveholders Matt B. Dinwiddie answered that there was none. He said that the people in the community in which he was reared mingled with all honest white men, whether they were slaveholders or not and that often non-slaveholders occupied seats in county court, were trustees, tax assessors, sheriffs and held other county offices. There was no discrimination except with a certain breed of white people, drunkards and thugs, with whom the slaves themselves would not associate. There was no feeling of antagonism between the two factions and there were many teachers and preachers who had no slaves but had equal standing in the community. In political contests when one candidate owned slaves and the other did not, there was no partiality shown, honesty and integrity being the leading characteristics demanded. The poor, honest, industrious young men, who were ambitious to make something of themselves were encouraged by the slaveholders and they attended the same schools and churches as the sons and daughters of prosperous slave owners. They frequently married daughters of prominent men for as before stated, gentility and principle led all associations, male and female. Matt B. Dinwiddie attended school from the age of six years until he was nineteen. The schools were in session from two to five months each year and he had to walk a distance of half a mile. The private subscription schools were taught by competent instructors, the women teachers being principally from the north. The curriculum of those schools was as follows: The pupils had a blue-back speller and after learning the alphabet, learned to spell hog, dog, etc., and when they got as far as ba-ker, baker, and sha-dy, shady, they completed the course offered by the first school. In the next school they studied from Webster's dictionary, Hercum's Grammar and other books. Upon the completion of his course in the subscription schools Mr. Dinwiddie entered an academy and then studied history and read medicine under Dr. Alexander, one of the prominent men of that time. He would have obtained his M. D. degree in July, 1861, but volunteered for service in the Confederate army, on the 20th of May, 1861, and after receiving his honorable discharge, did not resume his school work.
Mr. Dinwiddie was one of the first to enter the Confederate army and he enlisted in Company I, Fifth Tennessee Infantry. He was first sent to Union City for drill and in the fall of 1861 was active in his first engagement, participating in the battle of Belmont under the command of General Pillow. Two days later he witnessed the bursting of the Lady Polk; engaged in skirmish at Island No. 10; then participated in considerable skirmishing at New Madrid, Missouri; and was active in the battle of Shiloh and at Corinth. At Shiloh, near the close of the battle, on the 7th of April, 1862, Mr. Dinwiddie's leg was broken and it was then that his real war experience and hard luck began. At Shiloh he was orderly sergeant in his company and after remaining a reasonable time in a hospital at Holly Springs, Mississippi, he received a commission to raise a company, which he did. He followed Forrest's Cavalry, Company B, Russell's Regiment, General P. H. Bell's Brigade, and his company was exposed to all the hardships possible. They had but little clothing and were for the greater part of the time on half rations. Mr. Dinwiddie was engaged in all fights and skirmishes from the 1st of May, 1863; Paducah, Kentucky, Fort Pillow, Brownsville, Sommerville, Brittons Lane, Big Hatchie, Artesia and he went on into Middle Tennessee, swimming the river at Rennelsburg, Tennessee. He was active in several skirmishes in Middle Tennessee. He forded and swam Muscle Shoals; was active in many fights in Alabama; participated in the hard fought engagement at Corinth, Mississippi; witnessed the killing of General Forrest's brother at Okolona. He was on the march continually, never stopping for weather or conditions [p.540] until the 1st of May, 1864. During the war Mr. Dinwiddie suffered the loss of every member of his family. When he received the news of the death of his father and two brothers, he resigned his position in the cavalry and returned to Georgia to be with a living brother, who was in that state. They fought together at Peachtree Creek, July 20, and made a desperate effort at Atlanta, Georgia, July 22, 1864. During that battle his brother was killed, as were all of his color guards, and Mr. Dinwiddie, who was by his side, fell on the same field with a ball from a Yankee musket passing through his left lung just above the heart. Another brother, A. A., and Mr. Dinwiddie were sent to a hospital in Macon, Georgia, and A. A. Dinwiddie's demise occurred two weeks later. He is buried in the Vineville cemetery. Matt B. Dinwiddie was in the hospital four months and finally being sufficiently recovered, made his way home through many difficulties and hardships. On returning to his native state he found it under the jurisdiction of provisional governor, Brownlow. The country was laid waste by the Federal soldiers, as was also his father's home. There was no stock, no feed, nothing to work and nothing to work with. But a few of the old body servants of his father remained on the old plantation until they died, when Mr. Dinwiddie gave them proper burial. He says that to this day his children send flowers to their graves. For three years Mr. Dinwiddie suffered from his wounds that did not heal, having a running sore in his left breast. On account of these wounds he has never been able to do any hard labor.
Mr. Dinwiddie furnishes the following list of members of his company of infantry; Captain Hullum, Lieutenant T. B. Haynes, Lieutenant J. H. Haynes, Jim Boles, Bill Boles, John Croslan, S. C. Bredlove, Tom Ward, Henry Allen, Sam Allen, Watson Allen, Tom Copelan, John Copelan, Polk Alexander (living), Rice Bostic, Alf Busby, Bennet Busby, Ransom Busby, Luke Newton, Tom Carter, John Smith, Bill Smith, Dave Foster, (living), and Tom Clark. He said: We entered Shiloh April 6, 1862, with seventy-five men, minus the captain. We came out, April 7, with thirteen, twelve wounded, three killed, the remainder straggling. Now as to my cavalry company, eighty-two enlisted. The larger portion of them was killed or wounded. Quite a number deserted, so many, in fact, that Forrest had to have two shot. We laid them by the roadside, labeled in large letters, The fate of a deserter. General Forrest was rightly named the Wizard of the Saddle. He knew no fear. His policy was to get there first. * * * One of his common phrases was, When I came into contact with a military trained general that fit by note, I whipped hell out of him before he could pitch a tune. * * * Now in regard to the old south, as a mass we had high regard for General Grant for his strict compliance to his terms of surrender with General Robert E. Lee. At the close of the war Mr. Dinwiddie took up farming and for some time he has been financially independent. He owns a farm within two miles of McKenzie, which he runs on shares and for which he refused fifty-four thousand dollars in cash in 1919. The farm has a wonderful pecan and fruit orchard and there are over a thousand pounds of meat in the smoke house. Mr. Dinwiddie has none of the products of the farm for sale but all are welcome to help themselves for their own use. He is generous in the extreme and his kind and pleasing manner has won for him the confidence and esteem of all. Mr. Dinwiddie has been a lifelong democrat. For many years he has attended conventions of the party in Nashville and he has been in close personal relations with all the governors of Tennessee, from Harris down to the present governor, with the exception of Hooper and Roberts. He has likewise known all senators and congressmen personally. Although wielding a great influence in the party, Mr. Dinwiddie has never sought nor desired public preferment. His religious faith is that of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, which faith his family has always professed. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons and wears the stone that the builders rejected. He is perhaps the oldest Mason in this section of the state and he was secretary of Lodge No. 96, for some years. He furnished the money to pay the Grand Lodge fees in 1865 and 1866 and he says: I have always felt honored by being a member of the organization.
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