Henry Lineback

**Henry Lineback** (October 1848 - March 8, 1924) served as a corporal in Company C, 13th Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry.

## Personal life

Henry Lineback was born in October 1848 in Greene County, Tennessee to Joseph and Sarah (Bunton) Lineback. Lineback married Charlotte "Lottie" Wilson (1854-1914) in 1872, with whom he had eleven children.

## Civil War service

Lineback enlisted January 25, 1864 in Carter County, Tennessee as a private in Company C for a period of three years and mustered in June 3, 1864 at Gallatin, Tennessee. He was promoted corporal June 16, 1865.

At enlistment he was "18 years old", 5' 6" tall, fair complexion, blue eyes, and light hair, and by occupation a farmer.

According to company records he deserted at Carter Station, Tennessee on October 7, 1865. Lineback returned to the regiment on February 10, 1865 at Knoxville and was restored to duty March 9, 1865 by Colonel Miller, but was required to forfeit all pay and other allowances while absent. On August 20, 1873 the War Department Adjutant General's Office investigated the charge of desertion and removed the charge. It was found that, "He was absent from Oct. 7th, 1864 to Feb. 10, 1865 with proper military authority at his home in North Carolina and under the charge of an officer of his company."

Lineback mustered out with the regiment on September 25, 1865 at Knoxville. He had last been paid to June 20, 1864. He owed $40.63 to the government for clothing and had already been paid a $60 bounty.

Lineback was one of the youngest, if not the youngest, to serve in the regiment. He lied about his age at enlistment. According to the regimental history, "When taken to the mustering officer he stood on a small box that made him look as tall as the other the boys--the mustering officer not perceiving the deception, mustered him in. He drilled, stood guard and did all the other duties, carrying his carbine and sabre and was always among the first on the firing line and the last to leave it. He was in every skirmish and battle in which the Regiment was engaged, and went through the Stoneman raid into Virginia in the winter of 1864."

The regimental history added, "He was also on the long raid through Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia in the spring of 1865, when the command was in pursuit of President Davis. In the fight at Witheville [sic], Va., it fell to his lot to hold horses while the rest of the company fought, being a fourth man, but he exchanged places with a comrade and fought on the firing line.

## Later life

After the war, Lineback worked as a merchant in Crab Orchard, Tennessee "after spending two years in the West." He lived in Mitchell County, North Carolina for twelve years and served as a North Carolina state representative from the county. Lineback returned to Carter County where he was a farmer and postmaster of Butler. He applied for an invalid's pension June 30, 1880.

According to the regimental history, Lineback served as the first treasurer of the Regimental Association when it was organized in 1896; the first reunion was held in Butler that year. He was said to be "a successful business man and has an elegant home and large farm situated on Elk Creek near the beautiful Watauga river, where he entertains his friends and comrades in royal style with the best the land affords."

Lineback died March 8, 1924 in Butler, Tennessee and is buried in Happy Valley Memorial Park in Elizabethton, Tennessee.

## Notes

1. ↑ His death certificate gives his place of birth as Johnson County, but his enlistment papers state Greene County. The family surname was originally Leinback, but changed before 1843.
2. ↑ Lineback lied about his age; he was 15.
3. ↑ Scott & Angel, pp. 289-290.
4. ↑ Scott & Angel, p. 290.
5. ↑ Where he went in the "West" is not stated. See Scott & Angel, p. 290.
6. ↑ Scott & Angel, p. 256.
7. ↑ Scott & Angel, p. 290.