Item: ONSV1557
Original U.S. Civil War Relic Eagle Breast Plate Recovered in Rhea County Tennessee
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Original Item: One-of-a-kind. Outstanding Authentic U.S. Eagle Breast Plate Recovered Rhea County Tennessee. The plate has a beautiful battlefield pick-up look with a chocolate brown patina on the front. An outstanding historic battlefield recovered breast plate.Rhea County is named for the Tennessee politician and Revolutionary War Revolutionary War veteran, John Rhea. During the American Civil War, Rhea County was one of the few counties in East Tennessee that was heavily sympathetic to the cause of the Confederate States of America. It was the only East Tennessee County that refused to send a delegate to the East Tennessee Convention of 1861. Rhea raised seven companies for the Confederate Army, compared to just one company for the Union.
Rhea had the only female cavalry company on either side during the Civil War. It was made up of young women in their teens and twenties from Rhea County and was formed in 1862. The girls named their unit the Rhea County Spartans. Until 1863, the Spartans simply visited loved ones in the military and delivered the equivalent of modern day care packages. After Union troops entered Rhea in 1863, the Spartans may have engaged in some spying for Confederate Forces. The members of the Spartans were arrested in April 1865 under orders of a Rhea County Unionist and were forced to march to the Tennessee River. From there they were transported to Chattanooga aboard the USS Chattanooga. Once in Chattanooga, Union officers realized the women were not a threat and ordered them released and returned to Rhea County. They first were required to take the oath of allegiance to the United States government. The Spartans were not an officially recognized unit of the Confederate Army.
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