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The field and staff officers of the nth Kentucky Cavalry during its career were as follows: Colonels–David Waller Chenault, Joseph T. Tucker. Lieutenant-Colonels–Joseph T. Tucker, James B. McCreary. Major James B. McCreary. (It is believed that no major was appointed from among the captains of the regiment after Major McCreary was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. Captain–August H. Magee was the senior captain of the regiment.) Adjutant–Captain William Lewis Hickman. Surgeon–Dr. G. M. Webb. Assistant Surgeons–Dr. Aylett Raines, Dr. B. Washington Taylor. Quartermaster–Captain Buford Allen Tracy. Commissary of Subsistance–Captain R. Williams. Chaplain–Rev. William L. Riddle. Sergeants-Major–John Henry Jackson, James Royall Price.

David Waller Chenault was born in Madison County, Ky., February 5, 1826, the son of Anderson Chenault and Emily Cameron, his wife. Through his father he was descended from Estenne Chenault, a native of Languedoc, France, who, in company with many other Huguenots, was obliged to leave France after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and in 1700 settled in Virginia. Colonel Chenault's grandfather, William Chenault, a soldier of the Revolutionary War, was among the first settlers of Kentucky and lived and died on a farm near Richmond that he bought in 1878, from George Boone, a brother of Daniel Boone. Through his brother, Colonel Chenault was descended from Robert Cameron, of Inverness, Scotland, who fought under his chieftain, Cameron of Lochiel, at the battle of Culloden, in 1745, after which he made his way to Connecticut, whence his descendants, much later, made their way to Kentucky, stopping for a generation or so in Pennsylvania, en route.

Colonel Chenault was a prosperous farmer in Madison County, and active locally in politics as a Whig, though he was never a