Chattanooga was the first of a series of vessels built by the Union Army at Bridgeport, Ala., to supply the besieged Union garrison at Chattanooga. Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s victories at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge had made that role unnecessary, and the no-frills steamboat had since enjoyed a somewhat checkered career. The steamer had engaged in so many foraging expeditions that citizens along the Tennessee River nicknamed the boat the ‘Chicken Thief.’ Clearly not meant to carry passengers, Chattanooga contained only one small room suitable for the ladies–an enclosed area normally used for dining. The table and chairs were removed, and the 16 exhausted young women were crowded inside. Armed guards at both doors ensured that none of the ‘dangerous’ enemies of the Union would attempt to escape. Many of the women had walked 10 or more miles to the landing, and the tired Spartans arranged themselves in rows on the floor and soon fell fast asleep.

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When the boat paddled up to the wharf in Chattanooga, Walker rousted out his prisoners and marched them under guard up muddy Market Street to the provost marshal’s office on the corner of Seventh Street. Captain Seth B. Moe of Ohio, assistant adjutant general of the Union Army’s Department of the Etowah, took in the spectacle and promptly sent for his commander, Maj. Gen. James B. Steedman. Steedman already viewed Gowin and his ‘hogback cavalry’ with contempt; Walker’s latest escapade must have strengthened that feeling.

If Walker expected to be congratulated on his victory, he was quickly disillusioned. Steedman sharply reprimanded the captain for taking up his time with such foolishness. He then ordered Moe to escort the ladies to the Central House hotel, where they were allowed to refresh themselves and were treated to the best meal the hotel could offer. While the Union general (a Northern Democrat with many Southern friends) went out of his way to demonstrate that not all Yankees were barbarians, he did require the women to take the oath of allegiance to the Union. Now Walker would have no further excuse to harass them.

After the women had been fed, Moe dutifully saw them returned to Chattanooga for the journey back to Rhea County. The ladies’ accommodations were unchanged–no chairs, no beds, and only the scant comfort of the bare wood floor. This time, however, there were no armed guards watching over them. Still, Walker had one last bit of revenge in mind. Even though Steedman had ordered him to escort the women to their homes, Walker simply abandoned them at the landing to make their way back as best they could.

An irritated Steedman wrote to Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas at Nashville recommending that the 6th Tennessee Mounted Infantry ‘be turned over to
the State authorities of Tennessee and replaced with good cavalry.’ Union Colonel Lewis Merrill was even more blunt. ‘The Sixth Tennessee and First Georgia [Union Regiments],’ Merrill told Thomas, ‘are, in General Steedman’s opinion, utterly worthless. My own observation of the first named confirms this opinion. They are simply cowardly thieves–useless, except to keep a community embroiled and encourage guerrillas by running whenever attacked.’

The company disbanded when the Spartans arrived back in Rhea County. The war was nearly over, and the Spartans soon returned to the conventional role of 19th-century women. Weeks later, Walker was discharged from the Union Army and used his experience to gain a few appointive offices during the Reconstruction years. Then he, too, drifted into obscurity. By the time William G. Allen wrote an account for Confederate Veteran magazine in 1911, the girls’ company had been all but forgotten. Only three of the Spartans were then still living: Mary McDonald, Mary Ann McDonald and Rhoda Thomison. The aging male veterans, North and South, often met to relive their youth, but the Rhea County Spartans never held a reunion. That is regrettable, for the ladies had a fascinating story to tell. In a sense, they, too, had’seen the elephant’ and done their patriotic duty as they saw fit.

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