PRIVATE ENOCH BATEMAN McLAIN
COMPANY I, 4th MISSISSIPPI CAVALRY REGIMENT
1862 -1865

             The McLain family line begins in America in 1776 when the family immigrated from Scotland.   Enoch's father, Allen McLain, was born in Scotland in 1775.  He died in Amite County in 1855.  Allen McLain married Neome Bateman of Tennessee who was born in 1790.  Neome died in Amite County in 1845.  Their son was Enoch Bateman McLain, (1829 - 1915) one of our direct lineal Confederate veteran ancestors. 

            Enoch B. McLain  is related to the Kennedy family through the Toler line.  Enoch Bateman McLain's daughter by his first wife, Nancy Berryhill (1836 - 1855), was Nancy J. McLain (b. 1854) who married into the Toler family in 1877.  This relationship provides the direct lineal connection to Enoch B. McLain.

            Enoch McLain served in a cavalry battalion raised in the counties of southwestern Mississippi near Liberty, Amite County.  His records were traced through Confederate Army enlistment records for Amite County, Mississippi.  The 4th Mississippi Cavalry (battalion) was redesignated as a 'regiment' during the war and was assigned to the western theater of  operations.  It eventually served under General Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry corps.  The 4th Mississippi Cavalry was surrendered with the bulk of Forrest's command at Citronnelle, Alabama in May 1865.  Enoch served the entire war with his unit and was mustered out of service at the end of hostilities when his unit was demobilized at Columbus, Mississippi. 

            Records of Enoch McLain's service are almost non-existent.  This is due to a couple of reasons.  First, he was only a private during the war.  His accession, pay, and mustering out

records are all that exist since he had no major responsibilities accorded to senior NCOs or commissioned officers.  State pension records have been received as of the date of this writing verifying the information on Enoch's service.   Additionally, many Confederate records were destroyed in May 1863 when Jackson was burned by Sherman's corps enroute to Vicksburg and again near the end of the war when the federal soldiers committed unwantoned burning of dwellings and official buildings.  It is probable that his records were among the many that were lost in Jackson or elsewhere.

            What is important, and remarkable, is that Enoch McLain served the entire war on $15.oo a month pay (greatly depreciated by 1865) while supporting a family at home.  In order to enlist, he had to provide his own horse and equipment and was supposed to be paid forty-five cents a day for the use of his horse by the Confederate government.  He did not quit service or desert but remained on duty with his regiment.  He later described his service to his granddaughter (Harriet [Mamie] Toler) who married Dr. William Ross Kennedy.  His descriptions of service included serving under General Forrest, which, in fact, the 4th Mississippi Cavalry did from February 1865 until May 1865.   

            Records of the 4th Mississippi Cavalry are found in the following sources:  The Official Records, Series I, volumes 31, 32, 39, 41, 45, 48+, 49, and 52.  A capsualized unit history (enclosed in the family history binder) is available from the Simpson Confederate Research Center, Hill College, Hillsboro, Texas.  No official unit history is cited in Dornbusch.