author
George B. Guild
1834–1917
A Nashville lawyer, mayor, and veteran, he wrote with the authority of someone who had lived the history he described. His best-known book preserves the story of the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry from the perspective of a participant.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Gallatin, Tennessee, in 1834, George Blackmore Guild built a public career as a lawyer and Democratic politician in Nashville. He served in the Tennessee legislature and later as mayor of Nashville from 1891 to 1895.
Guild is especially remembered by readers today for A Brief Narrative of the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, Wheeler's Corps, Army of Tennessee, published in 1913. The book draws on his own experience as a Confederate officer and offers a personal regimental history of the Civil War.
That mix of public service and firsthand memory gives his writing a distinct character: part remembrance, part military record, and part local history. He died in 1917, leaving behind a work that remains useful to readers interested in Tennessee, the Civil War, and the voices of people who witnessed it.