Private Peter Hooks
Pvt. Peter Hooks
Peter Hooks was born in 1840 in Franklin County VA and at some point, he was sold to an enslaver in Tennessee. He described himself as a “servant” when enlisting with the United States Colored Troops, July 19, 1863, in Elk River, Tennessee at the age of 23. He served three years with the 12th USCT Infantry regiment Company A under the command of Col. Charles Robinson Thompson. With his regiment, Hooks performed guard duty in Tennessee and Alabama for the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad until December 1864. The 12th USCT repulsed Hood's repeated attacks on Johnsonville on November 2nd, 4th and 5th of 1864 and saw action again at Buford's Station of the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad, on November 24th. Then they marched to Clarksville and engaged in a skirmish there on December 2nd.
Hooks was one of seven Franklin-born USCT to fight in the Battle of Nashville on December 15th and 16th. The soldiers then went in pursuit of Hood to the Tennessee River, December 17th–28th and saw action at Decatur, Alabama, as 1864 came to a close. Pvt Hooks then completed his three-year service commitment with a year of railroad guard and garrison duty in the Department of the Cumberland. The regiment lost a total of 284 men during its service: 4 officers and 38 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, and another 242 enlisted men died of disease. Pvt Hooks mustered out on January 16th, 1866.
While in the service, Pvt Hooks met Catherine “Cassie” Claggett, and they legally married on Mar 1st, 1866, and took up residence in Nashville, Tennessee. Their first child Willie was born in 1872, and the young family relocated to Jones Valley, Hickman County, TN, just west of Nashville, to be close to Cassie’s parents. The family grew to include five more children: Hattie, Ellen, Margaret, Walter and Lena, who was born in 1884, a year before Private Hooks died of tuberculosis. Peter Hooks was largely confined to bed during that first year of Lena’s life with a debilitating cough and difficulty breathing; he was cared for by a physician, Dr. Hall, who lived a mile down the road. Peter Hooks died Feb 3rd, 1885, at the age of 45.
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After her husband’s death, Cassie struggled to support herself. Willie, their oldest son, went to work on a farm elsewhere, and the baby, Lena, went to live with her grandparents, while Cassie attempted to get by and support the four remaining children. The opportunity to apply for widow and minor child pension benefits arose in 1887. Unfortunately, the claim was mishandled by an unscrupulous “justice of the peace” who was barely literate himself, J.D. Harrington, and a special examiner from the pension office, Mr. Garrett. A parade of family members, Peter’s doctor, friends and neighbors provided depositions as to Peter’s health, his marriage to Cassie and the birthdates and identities of his children, but signatures of the deponents were needlessly forged by the lawyer Harrington, and this was later discovered by the Pension Bureau.
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The case was then reopened by another special examiner, Mr. Perkins, and everyone was deposed again, for a second and third time, from 1889 through 1890. By this time, Cassie had remarried to Wash Williams just after the premature, stillbirth of his child. The second special examiner from the Pension Bureau reported that he didn’t believe that Peter Hooks’ illness was related to his military service but recognized that the case was inexcusably mishandled, and that Cassie may have been victimized by “Justice” Harrington who overcharged her for his services. Ultimately pension benefits were awarded to the children, $12 per month for each child until age 16, dating back to the death of their veteran father.
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Contributors: Cathie Cummins, Lauren Messerschmidt, Sarah Plummer, Jess Savage, Amanda Sternitzke, Liam Scanlon, Foster Deneke, Dyland Howard and Andrew Krugh