37th Tennessee Infantry Regiment

The 37th Regiment, Tennessee Infantry was an infantry regiment from Tennessee that served with the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War. The force was comprised mainly of men from counties in Tennessee such as Grainger, Blount, Sevier, Bradley, Washington, Jefferson, Bedford with others joining from North Georgia and Alabama. The regiment was headquartered in Knoxville. From the start, the Brigadier General, William Henry Carroll had a hard time acquiring weapons for his men, and there departure to meet the 37th Tennessee Infantry Regiment was delayed for several weeks. By December 9, 1861, Carroll had nearly 800 recruits but had only enough weapons for 200. A week later he was repimanded by Judah P. Benjamin for not following his order to procure enough weapons, who also threatened to disband the regiment if this issue was not quickly resolved. Within a month, Carroll had armed his regiment and was on the march to meet up with the 38th Tennessee Infantry Regiment under Felix Zollicoffer. The 37th Regiment arrived at Mill Springs and were greeted joyously as reinforcements. The entire ordeal turned into a failure, and Zollicoffer died in battle. William Henry Carroll was criticized and resigned from his post as a consequence. Chesley Jarnigan, a 28 year old merchant, took command of the 37th and commanded it until his death in the Battle of Chickamauga.