An article published by the Tennessean on the new book. The story was published in the Williamson AM section of the Tennessean.

Tuesday, 08/14/07
Story of Baxter's Battery lives on in new book A captain in battle,
Ed Baxter became a bigger hero after the Civil War

By BONNIE BURCH
Staff Writer

FAIRVIEW — The name Ed Baxter might not strike a spark of familiarity with most in this modern-day, celebrity-obsessed world. But to the pioneering families of Fairview, there's much respect for the man who was a captain in a Confederate artillery company during the Civil War. About four years ago, a Sons of Confederate Veterans camp was founded in his honor. And now, camp member Dennis Lampley has written a book, Captain Ed Baxter & His Tennessee Artillerymen, CSA, thatdetails the experiences of the men in the unit, their battle stories and local history. Lampley first heard of the unit while doing a school project when he was a student at Fairview Middle School. After further research, he found that he was kin to several of Capt. Baxter's men. And he wasn't alone.

"The muster roll of his unit reads like a Fairview phone book. Most of the families who have lived here for years have someone they are related to that served with him," he said. Born in Columbia, the son of a local judge, Baxter was a young lawyer when war broke out. In the fall of 1862, Baxter, then 24 years old, recruited a company of artillerymen mostly from the area around Dickson, Williamson, Cheatham and Hickman counties.

During their service, the men of what became known as Baxter's Battery fought in the Battle of Chickamauga and the Battle of Missionary Ridge as well as during the siege of Atlanta. They were captured near Macon, Ga., in April 1865 and then paroled

. After the war, Baxter became a prominent lawyer who argued a few cases before the United States Supreme Court. Later, he was appointed by the governor to fill in for members of the Tennessee State Supreme Court in their absences and was a law professor at Vanderbilt University Law School. But he never forgot the soldiers who fought beside him. Several of his men who were having trouble collecting their Confederate pensions, some who were simple farmers, could count on Baxter to take up their cases with the highest authorities, Lampley said.

The author started researching material for his book about 17 years ago by combing through individual soldiers' service records and cross-checking the information through government documents. "I was even lucky enough to get a hold of some letters that the men had sent home during the war," Lampley said. Rick Warwick, a local historian, provided several period photographs for the book while Williamson County archivist Louise Lynch, who also is related to a soldier in Baxter's company, also supported the project with research materials.

This isn't Lampley's first book project. He's written a list of Williamson County Confederate soldiers' burial places. Previously, he published a similar list for soldiers from Dickson. But Lampley was surprised when he ordered a 100-copy printing of his new book and sold that entire number. "And that's really without any advertising at all. It's just been simply word of mouth," he said.