Life Sketch of Colonel C. W. Heiskell

Colonel Carrick W. Heiskell was born ten miles west of Knoxville, Tennessee, July 25, 1836. He is the son of Frederick S. Heiskell, a native of Virginia, who made his home at Knoxville in 1814; was one of the founders of the "Knoxville Register" and its editor for more than twenty years. Through his mother, [Mary] Eliza Brown, Colonel Heiskell is of Scotch-Irish descent, and of kin to Colonel Joseph Brown, soldier of the Revolution. He was educated at the University of Tennessee and Maryville College, graduating at the latter school.

He studied law at Rogersville, Tennessee, was admitted to the Bar in 1857. At the beginning of the war he enlisted as a private in Company K, Nineteenth Tennessee Confederate Infantry 3, the first company raised in Hawkins county, and at the organization of the regiment in June, 1861, at Knoxville, he was elected Captain of Company K. He commanded his company through Zollicoffer's campaign in Eastern Kentucky, was in the engagement at Barboursville and Fishing Creek. After the battle of Shiloh, in the reorganization of the regiment he was re-elected Captain of the company. Just after the battle of Murfreesboro, in which Major R. A. Jarnagin was killed, Captain Heiskell was promoted to Major of the regiment.

At the Battle of Chickamauga, where the Old Nineteenth suffered a much heavier loss than any other regiment of Strahl's Brigade, General Strahl said: "Most of the field officers on my right were dismounted by having their horses shot from under them, and Major Heiskell, a very gallant officer, was severely wounded in the foot." The wound was so grave that several months had gone by before he was able to rejoin his regiment, and then on crutches.

Some time after the death of Colonel Moore, and before the death of Colonel Walker, Major Heiskell was made Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment—I think in January, 1864.

After the battle of Jonesboro, Georgia, Atlanta campaign, and death of Colonel Walker, Heiskell was promoted to Colonel of the regiment.

At the battle of Jonesboro, Georgia, although not able for duty he remained with the regiment through the battle, but the wound giving him so much trouble, could not remain longer. He next joined the regiment at Columbia, Tennessee, after the battle of Nashville, and took command of Strahl's Brigade, which he kept until the close of the war.

Colonel Heiskell was an eye-witness to the dispute between Generals Cheatham and Forrest, as to who should cross the Columbia river first, the two generals having met at the river at the same time. He took part in and witnessed the fight of the hungry and bare-footed boys at Anthony Hill and Sugar Creek. He commanded the brigade in the gallant charge under Hardee at the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, in which General Hardee lost his son.

At the close of the war, Colonel Heiskell moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he resumed the practice of his profession. He was on the Bench as Judge of the Circuit Court for eight years, and served as City Attorney for four years.1
After four years' service as City Attorney, he resumed the practice of law, and so continued until his seventieth year, when he retired, and now having passed the seventy-fifth milepost, he states that his is proud of four things in his career. That he was a Confederate soldier, that he is a prohibitionist, that he is a Presbyterian, and that he is a citizen of the United States. He is brother of the venerable Confederate Congressman and father of the young men who have made so great a success of the Arkansas Gazette at Little Rock.

You can read a fuller biographical sketch of Judge Carrick White Heiskell published in Sketches of prominent Tennesseans Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee by William Speer (Nashville, A.B. Tavel, 1888).

See also: Notable men of Tennessee: Personal and genealogical, with portratis, Volume 2 edited by John Allison (1905)

Carrick's daughter, Rowena Heiskell, married Alvin Adams Yeager (1854-1915) in Memphis in 1890. Alvin was a successful pharmacist. Their son Carrick H. Yeager, born in Knoxville, Tenn. on April 31, 1892, was killed in action during the First World War on 1 November 1918, ten days before Armistice Day. He is buried at St. Mihiel American Cemetery, Plot C, Row 28, Grave 15 at Thiaucort, France. He was a second lieutenant in the US Army attached to the 20th Machine Gun Battalion, 7th Infantry Division.

Source: Knox County in the World War, 1917-1918-1919 (1919:74-75)

He attended attended the Baker-Mill school and the University of Tennessee (1912-14), where he earned a B.Sc. in electrical engineering and a B.Sc. in mechanical engineering, writing a thesis entitled: A study of liquids which will not attack Copper, Zinc and Nickel, boiling between 20 degrees and 400 degrees F. 4 Before the First World War broke out, Carrick was associated with the Fulton Factory, but, when America joined the war, he went to the Second Officers Training Camp, where he graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant. Carrick was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church in Knoxville.

Carrick Yeager had three sisters, Effie, Florence and Margaret.
Effie married Carroll Bradford McGaughey (head of McGaughey Electric Company, Atlanta, Georgia) on 14 November 1914. They had three children: Rowena Deane (b. 18 Sep 1915-d.12 Nov. 1917; Carroll Bradford, Jr. b. 31 Mar 1919; Carrick Yeager b. 1 June 1923.