150 Years | Tennessee Civil War Sesquicentennial

Bethlehem Church
Heart of Controversy:  In 1861, as the secession debate raged across Tennessee, Mary Catherine Sproul taught school here on the church grounds. She was excited to learn that pro-Union leader Horace Maynard would give a speech in Livingston. Then she overheard local secessionists claim they would \"riddle his hide\" if Maynard spoke. Sproul, shocked, wondered aloud to her students whether their parents were not \"heathens and cutthroats? Surely a civilized nation will never tolerate such a course. My God! Are you going to prohibit the freedom of speech in this free, enlightened and blood bought land?\" Residents branded Sproul a

City: Livingston
County: Overton
Region: Middle Tennessee

Courthouse Burning in Livingston
In April 1865, a company of Confederate guerrillas led by Captain John Francis made a raid on Livingston and burned the county courthouse. U.S. authorities had collected information about the pro-Confederate activities of many local residents and this material was stored in the courthouse, awaiting use in trails. By destroying the courthouse and the evidence against them these residents were saved from being placed on

City: Livingston
County: Overton
Region: Middle Tennessee

Fighting on the Tennessee River
Several Tennessee River engagements between Confederate cavalry and the Union navy occurred within 5 miles of this site. On April 26, 1863, near the mouth of the Duck River east of here, Confederate artillery opened fire on Union gunboats. The gunboats eventually drove the Confederates off. Union marines then pursued their antagonists

City: Livingston
County: Overton
Region: Middle Tennessee

John Hunt Morgan's Raid to Ohio
Livingston, as one of the crossroads of the Upper Cumberland region, was an important place in the Civil War career of Confederate cavalry Gen. John Hunt Morgan. Morgan's raiders first came here on July 7, 1862, as they approached the Kentucky line for a succ4essful summer raid. Three weeks later, they returned to Livingston where Morgan decided to split his force. Col. Basil Duke took one group to Sparta while Morgan took the remainder of the command to

City: Livingston
County: Overton
Region: Middle Tennessee

Zollicoffer Training Camp
This is the site of Camp Zollicoffer, a training base established by the Confederate States army in 1861. Men from Overton and several surrounding counties came here to be organized into companies which were formed into the 28th Tennessee Infantry

City: Livingston
County: Overton
Region: Middle Tennessee

War Comes to Manchester
After the Battle of Stones River in January 1863, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg moved his army along turnpikes and the railroad south to Manchester. His men occupied the Coffee County Courthouse, along with other buildings, for the next six months. While camped in and around the town square, wounded soldiers recuperated. Some, however, died from their wounds and disease. Several members of the Kentucky Orphan Brigade are buried in the city cemetery on West High Street. Union Gen. William S. Rosecrans\'s forces pushed the Confederates out of Manchester late in June 1863 and took control of Middle Tennessee. Maj. James

City: Manchester
County: Coffee
Region: Middle Tennessee

A Railroad Town
McMinnville\'s location at the end of the Manchester and McMinnville Railroad shaped the town\'s Civil War experiences. Strategically important industries here included pork and mule breeding, fruit and apple brandy production, a textile mill, and saltpeter works at nearby caves. During the war, the opposing sides occupied McMinnville, which changed hands at least five

City: McMinnville
County: Warren
Region: Middle Tennessee

Cumberland Caverns
Even before Tennessee joined the Confederacy in 1861, officials examined the state\'s caves for the nitrogen-containing compound called saltpeter, an essential ingredient in gunpowder. The soil at Cumberland Caverns was ideal--saltpeter had been mined there in Henshaw Cave during the War of 1812. Nashville\'s Sycamore Powder Mills, the larger of two major gunpowder mills in the South, used saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur to make

City: McMinnville
County: Warren
Region: Middle Tennessee

Occupation of McMinnville
Early in 1861, when the state first voted on secession, Warren County residents, like many Tennesseans, opposed it. When balloting next occurred in June 1861, however, sentiment overwhelmingly favored secession, and county residents voted nearly 100 to 1 to leave the Union. Young men flocked to Confederate enlisting offices, quickly forming the 16th Tennessee Infantry under John Houston Savage. Benjamin J. Hill organized the 5th Tennessee Infantry, later renumbered the 35th; it trained just south of town at nearby Camp Smartt.

City: McMinnville
County: Warren
Region: Middle Tennessee

Myers Training Camp
Near here was located Camp Myers, one of two Confederate training camps established in Overton County in the opening months of 1861. Once Tennessee left the Union, in June 1861, Camp Myers was established for a dual purpose. One purpose was to serve as a training camp for men recruited locally for Confederate service. The second was to serve as a permanent military post which would help secure the border against raids from Kentucky and to suppress the activities of pro-Union residents of Overton and Fentress

City: Monroe
County: Overton
Region: Middle Tennessee

Mount Pleasant City Square
On April 20, 1861, a hundred local men under Capt. Daniel F. Wade were sworn into Confederate service as the Bigby Greys. The unit was surrendered at Fort Donelson in February 1862 and later

City: Mount Pleasant
County: Maury
Region: Middle Tennessee

Battle of Murfreesboro
Few Union soldiers stationed in Murfreesboro were stirring in the early hours of Sunday morning, July 13, 1862, when Confederate Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest\'s cavalry thundered down East Main Street. The substantial Federal garrison here under Gen. Thomas T. Crittenden guarded the vital Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad line, but the troops had been separated into three groups. An infantry regiment, a cavalry detachment, and an artillery battery were camped on Stones River more than a mile northwest of the town

City: Murfreesboro
County: Rutherford
Region: Middle Tennessee

Battle of Stones River (Breckinridge’s Attack)
Confederate Gen. John C. Breckinridge launched a desperate attack here against Union infantry on top of the hill in the bloody finale of the Battle of Stones River. After initial success Jan 2, 1863, the Confederate attack was halted by Union artillery and infantry, then turned back. Breckinridge lost 1,800 men during the ill-fated event, concluding the battle of Stones

City: Murfreesboro
County: Rutherford
Region: Middle Tennessee

Bragg’s Headquarters
Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg was troubled as he watched the tents go up here at his new headquarters on January 1, 1863. Before moving his headquarters to this place, he had telegraphed Richmond the previous evening and declared, \"God has granted us a happy New Year.\" He had expected the Union army to be retreating by now. Instead, the Federals were digging trenches and preparing to renew the

City: Murfreesboro
County: Rutherford
Region: Middle Tennessee

Evergreen Cemetery
The Confederate Circle at historic Evergreen Cemetery was established in 1890. The reburial of Confederate dead from across the county here took place the following year. Among those buried here is Robert James Campbell Gailbreath (1829–1863), a Jackson County native, attorney, and state representative (1855–1857). Gailbreath enlisted in 1861 as a private in Co. K, 8th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry. He wrote his family on July 27, 1861, \"I cannot say now, my Dear Family, when I will see you again, if ever, but should it be the will of God to cut me off from you, rest assured that you

City: Murfreesboro
County: Rutherford
Region: Middle Tennessee