This is a nicely proportioned side knife, or Bowie, with a double-edged spear point blade and median ridge. There is no ricasso and the iron guard mimics the diamond cross-section of the blade at the guard before narrowing to form two flat quillon tips, one curving forward and one back. The oval wood grip is topped by a flat iron pommel cap showing a neatly peened blade tang. The grip has dark stains, shows wear and some longitudinal cracks and deep scratches, but has nicely and deeply carved initial “J.T.W.” on one side and “To C N Whitlow” on the other. A vertical line after the “N” makes it look slightly like an M and the carver found himself running out of room toward the guard and was obliged to make the “ow” smaller and tuck them in above the leg of the “L.” The blade is full length and good near the guard with the rest showing deep pitting and some nicks and edge losses along the lower edge.

The names intersect in an 8^th Kentucky Infantry company originally formed at Camp Boone, Tennessee, that was later converted to mounted infantry and also served under Forrest as the 8^th Kentucky Mounted Infantry. Personnel records are scanty, but J.T. Whitlow and C.N. Whitlow are recorded as enlisting in the same company, the same day, October 4, 1861, at Breckenridge, Tennessee, for 12 months service, under Captain R.H. Fristoe. This company was posted to Camp Alcorn at Hopkinsville, KY, where it joined a composite force of Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas troops under the successive commands of Buckner, Alcorn, and Tilghman and were part of a larger plan to form a defensive line in western Kentucky and keep Union forces out of Tennessee. The regiment presumably gained its Kentucky affiliation here and the company designated Company E, and later Company C as part of several consolidations.

Both men, presumably brothers, are relative mysteries so far, but the gift of the knife must date very early in their service. Measles ravaged Camp Alcorn in the Fall of 1861, combining with bad weather and exposure to disable a large number of the recruits and kill some 300, including J.T. Whitlow, who is listed in some records as dying November 18, 1861, but in others as dying on October 26, and on his recently placed headstone on October 31. He was buried in one of 227 graves laid out in twelve rows in the Riverside Cemetery, the subject of archeological excavations in 2014-15 that identified many of the graves on the basis of a notebook filled out at the time recording the burials and locations, and rediscovered in 1899. The National Cemetery Administration, US Veterans’ Gravesites adds the detail that he was born April 12, 1845, but gives no source.

C.N. Whitlow’s service record includes even less detail. The same July 31, 1862, muster roll that recorded J.T. Whitlow’s death the preceding Fall simply says that he had never been paid- apparently a common notation on the rolls. We can thus not fill out the rest of his history, but the regiment went on to fight at Fort Donelson, where they lost some 99 men in killed and wounded out of 312 on the field and were among those captured in the surrender of the fort and later exchanged, though a few escapees may have seen action at Shiloh as well. After exchange in September 1862, the outfit served in the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana in Tilgman’s and Buford’s brigades, fighting at Tallahatchie River, Coffeeville, and Baker’s Creek. They served at Vicksburg and escaped to Jackson, Mississippi, avoiding a second capture. In March 1864 they converted to mounted infantry and transferred to Forrest’s Corps, seeing action in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Georgia, fighting at Paducah, Tishomingo Creek, Harrisburg, and other locations, eventually surrendering in May 1865 at Columbus, Mississippi.

This is a great, dead-real Confederate side knife that has a good look and room for more research to fill out its history. [SR] [ph:m]

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