16th Tennessee Volunteer
Infantry Regiment

The Regiments black sheep

‘Captain, USA’ Private (John?) Calvin (L.) Brixey, CSA
C Company

Born in Coffee County, TN

He married his wife Martha E. Brixey on 4 March 1858. (14 September1833 - 10 April 1895 she is buried in the Cascom Cemetery in Warren County. Their 3 year old infant is also buried there, died 9 January 1862.)

Brixey enlisted in the Regiment at Lynchburg on the 29 July 1861.
By May 1862 he had deserted, or is absent without leave, and by 18 July 1863 he is listed as  ‘deserted from Cornith, now bushwacking in Middle Tennessee’.
One of the units recruited from local Unionists in the Coffee and surrounding counties was the 1st Ala­bama - Tennessee Vidette Cavalry. Brixey joined this unit, most likely on the 9 August 1863, as a 2nd Lieutenant. He went on to become a Captain on the 9 December 1863.
He went on to became a notorious Union guerilla in the area with persons in those counties who were Union sympathizers were referred to as ‘Brixyites’ .
(Sometime in September 1863 Joseph Lockheart, originally a member of the 16th TN, H Company, when scouting with a cavalry detachment was captured by Brixey but managed to escape.)

With­in six months of being organized Brixey and his Company had murdered 48 citizens of the area.

One of these was Anderson Goodman of Grundy County, a man 53 years old and a discharged Confederate soldier. His crime was to yell at some of Brixey men who had harassed him. (Another source says that he surprised them as they were trying to steal his horses from his barn.)  They immediately reported him to Brixey who sent a squad to kill him.

These crimes caused the local citizens to petition General Lovell Rousseau in Nashville over these murders.  His tactics of murder and plunder were so rampant that on 4 June 1864 Rousseau had Brixey arrested and held for trial at Nashville.

While in prison he wrote that he was afraid of being turned over to the civilian authorities ‘if that was done I will not live two days’. Although charged with ‘many cases of murder, robbery, etc.’ he was released from prison by the Federal Authorities on 28  June1864.

He was released as no wit­nesses had appeared against him the reason was simple Brixey's men had threatened to kill anyone who stepped forward, and the provost at Tullahoma had refused to grant passes to any potential witness to travel to Nashville.
Returning to his men Brixey quickly resumed his murderous rampage, killing an­other 18 people, both men and women.
In the September of 1864 Brixey went to a school at Hawkerville, Franklin County, TN, for the express purpose of killing a 15 year old schoolboy, Jesse M. Abernathy, Brixey had ac­cused of stealing some brandy. Capturing Abernathy the group were riding toward a wood to kill the boy when a regiment of Confederate cav­alry from General Joseph Wheelers command intercepted them. Abernathy was released and Brixey captured, two others were with him but managed to escape, James Canaster and Martin Phips.
He was tied on a mule and brought to his mother's house in Manchester for the family to see him one last time. Afterwards he was taken to Beech Grove in Coffee, County given a drum-head court marshal and ‘on or about the 3 September 1864’ he was ‘tied upon a horse...and there they hung him by the neck until he was dead ‘.  The Locals were forbidden from cutting him down and he was left him hanging there ‘until about the 4 September 1864’.