DeKalb County History

REGULAR AND GUERRILLA WARFARE.

THE most important battle in the county took place in the spring of 1863. It seems to have been expected by Morgan's command at Liberty, for the scouts-the eyes of an army-were out all night in the direction of both Auburn and Alexandria.

Burns's Confederate Battery was posted on one of the hillsides east or northeast of the village, where it could be trained on the bridge and turnpike at the northern extremity of the town. At various distances on the turnpike between Liberty and Snow's Hill were stationed forces of Confederates. Allison's Squadron was engaged in this affair, as well as Morgan's command.

After daylight the Federals appeared in force some distance west of the village. They were met by the Second Kentucky and Quirk's Scouts. Charged upon vigorously, the Confederates retreated. It was a miracle that they were able to pass through the covered bridge. It was here that Burns's artillery did good work. As the Confederates choked the bridge, the battery opened up on the Federals swarming out the north end of the village, checking them sufficiently to allow the Confederates to pass through the bridge.

By this time the Federals had from the northwest trained their cannon on their foes, and soon Burns's Battery started for Snow's Hill.

There was a stubborn fight all along the road, and

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at last Snow's Hill was reached, where the Confederates made a stand, though not for long. It was soon ascertained that a column of Federals had gone up Dry Creek and out the Manhill road to strike them in the rear and cut them off completely from escape. This road passes by the farm of the widow George Turner, through the Farler hollow, gradually climbs the southern side of Snow's Hill, and intersects with the stage road near the Atwell schoolhouse, east of where the Confederates made their stand.

Discovering the intention of the enemy, Colonel Huffman, with the Third Kentucky Confederates, was sent to check them, but did not reach the gap in time. However, he delayed the advance guard until the troops of Colonel Breckinridge (now retreating) had passed the point where the Union cavalry might have cut them off from Smithville seven miles east.

Lieutenant Ridley, already quoted, says further in his letter: "I recollect well that Snow's Hill fight. General Morgan was at McMinnville that day. The enemy commenced pushing us back about daybreak from the intersection of the Auburn and Alexandria Pike, gradually driving us to Snow's Hill. Our regiment was on the hill, and our troops formed all the way from the hill to the rear of about where Colonel Stokes's residence was. Our artillery was planted on the pike approaching the hill (I believe it was Burns's Battery), and we had an artillery duel for several hours. After a while we were ordered to form a line of battle in the rear of Snow's Hill, on the Dry Creek road. Quirk's Scouts, it seems, were fighting Captain Blackburn, of

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Stokes's Cavalry, on that road and falling back on us. The Dry Creek road at that point flanked the hill. As we lay there, two or three other regiments formed behind us, and our orders were, if too heavily pressed, to fire and fall back on these regiments.

"Suddenly we saw the Yankees coming around the hill on the Dry Creek road. Some of the men said it was Joe Blackburn in lead of the cavalry. We fell back on Duke's Regiment, while they fell back on another regiment, so that we were all jumbled up together. Then our stampede began. It was said that some of Stokes's cavalry recognized Captain Petticord in our retreating troops. They had gotten out of ammunition, but we were stampeded like cattle on the prairie, and they dashed along behind us, calling: 'Halt there, Petticord! Halt!' About this time I, with my little pony that couldn't run, and Captain Sisson were about to be captured, when the pony ran into a mudhole. It fell over two or three other horses that had likewise floundered. My mouth was soon full of mud. Captain Sisson had two loads in his navy and fired them at our pursuers, who were also out of ammunition. These were the last shots of the famous stampede, and they stopped the pursuers. Our command moved on to Smithville and from there to McMinnville. All scattered and broken up, we met Duke and Morgan, who rallied us and took us back. The difficulty with us was that Morgan had not been married long and was with that good wife at McMinnville, and our organization was bad.

"We 'seesawed' after this, fought the battle of

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Greasy Creek, Ky., and went back to Liberty. It was at Liberty that I got my commission as additional aid to General Stewart."

Several men were killed in this fight and were buried near the old Atwell schoolhouse, on Snow's Hill. Dr. J. A. Fuson, of Dry Creek, turned his dwelling into a hospital and treated the wounded free of charge.

According to General Duke, the Confederates returned to Liberty on April 7, 1863, in obedience to orders from General Wheeler, who had reached Alexandria with Wharton's Division. Two or three days later Wheeler, with a small force, proceeded to Lebanon, where he remained three days. "During that time," to quote Duke, "the enemy advanced once more from Murfreesboro, but retreated before reaching our pickets. Upon our return from Lebanon only a portion of the forces were sent to Alexandria; more than half, under command of General Wheeler, passed through Rome to the immediate vicinity of Carthage. Remaining there during the night, General Wheeler fell back toward Alexandria, reaching that place about 1 or 2 P.M. Wharton's Division was again encamped here, and Morgan's Division, under my command, was sent to Liberty, except Smith's Regiment, which was stationed near Alexandria."

In the latter part of April the First Brigade made headquarters at Alexandria, encamping on the Lebanon Pike and the roads to Carthage and Statesville. The country around Alexandria, Auburn, and Statesville was scouted in every direction, for Federal spies

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were numerous. On June 10 General Morgan himself arrived at Alexandria, and orders were issued to march the next day. The great raider was about to start from DeKalb County on his expedition into Indiana and Ohio. His fighting in Middle Tennessee was over.

It should be added that while raiding in Indiana and Ohio he was captured. Escaping from prison, he was soon in East Tennessee, reaching Greeneville on September 3, 1864, and making his headquarters at the residence of a Mrs. Williams. About daylight on the 4th some Union soldiers, dashing into town, surprised and killed him. Duke seems to think he was betrayed by Mrs. Williams's daughter-in-law; but Scott and Angel, authors of a history of the Thirteenth East Tennessee Regiment of Union Cavalry, say that a twelve- or thirteen-year old boy, James Leady, went to Bull's Gap and informed General Gillem of the presence of the Confederates in Greeneville.

Of course the county was still to suffer from the presence of soldiers. In less than a year from the departure of Morgan's Cavalry a corpse was brought to Liberty from White County which told of a disaster to DeKalb Federals. It was that of George C. (Kit) Turney, a very popular young man of the Clear Fork country, who had been serving under Stokes. He was killed February 22, 1864, in the battle of the Calf Killer by White County Confederates.

That battle was really a massacre. Stokes was stationed at Sparta. It is said he had raised the black flag. No quarter was to be given to such men as Champe Ferguson, George Carter, John M. Hughes, W. S.

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Bledsoe, Gatewood, and other guerrillas. In February, 1864, he sent out a company to hunt down the guerrillas. Hughes heard of it and mustered a force to attack the Federals, who were commanded by Capt. E. W. Bass. The guerrillas, about forty, hid in ambush in Dry Valley, on the headwaters of the Calf Killer, and fired into Bass's unsuspecting company, killing forty or fifty. The remainder fled to Sparta, probably without firing a shot. One White County gentleman who saw the dead Federals after they were brought in says that thirty-eight were shot through the head and three had been killed with stones. Among the names of the slain, besides Kit Turney, were Ben Fuston, Jim Fuston, Henry Hendrixon, Jerry Hendrixon, David Grandstaff, J. B. Moore, David A. Farmer, Joseph Hail, Jonathan Jones, T. J. Pistole, and Alex Stanley, all of DeKalb County. So, unaware, these men had ridden into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell. The roadside blazed, there was a deafening volley, and men in blue began tumbling from their horses. The scene in that wild region must have been strikingly weird. The sharp, cruel cracks of pistols and their infinitely multiplied reverberations from mountain to valley (the cries of the dying blended with the metallic clanging of the hoofs of scampering and riderless horses) could never have passed out of the memory of the survivors. James H. Overall stated to the writer that one Federal, Russel Gan, fell on the field, and, playing dead, afterwards hid in a hollow log and escaped after nightfall.

In the autumn of 1864 Gen. Joseph Wheeler, re-

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turning southward from his raid into East Tennessee, passed through Liberty and Alexandria and on toward Nashville. He had started from Georgia with four thousand cavalry and four cannons. While in East Tennessee he sent Gen. " Cerro Gordo" Williams, with two thousand men and two cannons, to capture the Federal garrison at Strawberry Plains. With General Williams was Allison's squadron of DeKalb Countians. Williams found the garrison too strong to attack and attempted to overtake Wheeler, but failed. Wheeler came to Sparta, having General Dibrell's regiment with him. Dibrell was left at Sparta two days, while Wheeler took McMinnville and, reaching Liberty, captured the stockade, which had been deserted on his approach. Reaching Nashville, he kept the Federals uneasy for some days, then marched south. In his report he said he did not have a man or any material captured. It is alleged that Wiley Odum, of Cherry Valley, was the first of Wheeler's men to enter Liberty on that raid.

Two or three days after General Wheeler passed Gen. "Cerro Gordo" Williams, Dibrell's cavalry, and Champe Ferguson's guerrillas came through, Ferguson bringing up the rear. The inhabitants along the turnpike dreaded Ferguson, especially the Liberty people. This town was the home of Stokes, Blackburn, Hathaway, and Garrison. He burned James Lamberson's barn and thresher at Liberty for some cause. On the pike west of the village he met W. G. Evans, C.W.L. Hale, William Vick, and William Ford, who had been to bury a neighbor, Mrs. John Bratten. The

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guerrillas asked where they had been. The reply would have been satisfactory if Mr. Evans had not added: "We also buried an unknown Confederate soldier in Lamberson's field, where he had been shot by two DeKalb County Federals." The guerrillas then asked if there was a Union man in the crowd; if so, he should be killed in retaliation. Mr. Ford, a man of the highest character and most harmless disposition, was the only one; but his neighbors pleaded so earnestly for him that he was spared.

James H. Fite, formerly a trustee of DeKalb County, but now residing in Anthony, Kans., was a sixteen-year-old private in Capt. Jack Garrison's company of Federals. His home was on the pike a mile and a half west of Liberty. Of some of his experiences, he writes:

Our regiment, the First Tennessee Mounted Infantry, was mustered in at Carthage early in 1864. About May the different companies were sent to various portions of the State for garrison duty and scouting after Champe Ferguson and other guerrillas. A good part of my company (G) was from Liberty and vicinity, the officers having been a part of Stokes's regiment. We were first sent to Granville, above Carthage, on the river, to build a stockade, and then to Liberty to build another, our force numbering seventy-five or one hundred men. The latter was well started when about the first of September, late in the afternoon, Wheeler's cavalry took us by surprise, and like a covey of birds we were scattered.

A week or so prior to this Gen. H. P. Van Cleve, at Murfreesboro, sent word to our officers that Wheeler was reported coming through Sequatchie Valley and suggested to them to scout in that direction and see if the news was correct. Instead of doing that they selected about twenty of us and went

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Facing page 236, drawing captioned:
FEDERAL STOCKADE, OR FORT, LIBERTY
DRAWN FROM MEMORY BY WILL T. HALE

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through Lebanon and by Cedar Glade and Cainsville. We returned to Liberty about two hours before Wheeler came upon us from the direction of Smithville. It was a complete surprise, and the result was a route. There was considerable firing; and, while nobody was killed, they captured something like a dozen of our boys.

My horse had given out on the expedition into Wilson County, and I was riding one belonging to a member of Stokes's regiment. In returning to Liberty I stopped at my mother's, just west of that village, to get supper. She prepared a sort of feast, setting the table on the front porch. I recall the big peach cobbler. I had finished supper when T. G. Bratten stopped at the gate and told me that they were fighting in town and suggested that we ride down and take part. As I had no horse, he went alone. He returned in a gallop shortly, calling to me that the Confederates were coming. I watched for the advance guard, soon seeing four about three hundred yards away, and retreated in fairly good order to a plum thicket back of the house. The Johnnies rode into the yard. Having brother to hold their horses, they ate supper. Mother said one of them, finishing first, walked to the back door, and she expected every moment that I would shoot him, though I would never have killed one from the bushes. I am glad to this day I did not, for that Confederate too had a mother somewhere waiting for his return.

About sunset quite a bunch came by and stopped. Their officer proved to be a relative of ours. He asked for a pillow for a wounded man, mother taking it to the gate. They had already taken a buggy from a neighbor. When asked who was in command, the officer said, " Wheeler," adding that the force was ten thousand strong and would be a week in passing. In the night I went to the house; and, learning that the Confederates were under Wheeler, I was relieved. The impression was that they were Ferguson's guerillas, and I knew I would be murdered if caught by them.

The next day I found a hiding place, a thicket back of the

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field, and had a narrow escape. Some Confederates came down to the creek very close to me, and a number went swimming. Others were as thick as blackbirds in Eli Vick's cornfield, just across the creek. While some were at the house eating, a soldier went up and said that they had killed a Yankee back of the field. It was supposed that some one in the neighborhood told him to say that before mother, believing that she in her emotion would give me away. My little brother, Robert, whispered to her to be quiet, and he would go and see if anybody was killed. When within thirty yards of me a Confederate asked where he was going. His reply was that he was hunting where the hogs had been getting into the field. My brother soon found me and reassured mother. Truly the mothers, daughters, sisters, and sweethearts deserve as much honor as any of the soldiers.

After Wheeler passed through, our men got together again and finished the stockade. I think we could have kept off quite a force now, unless the attacking party had had cannon. We were at the stockade when the battle of Nashville took place between Hood and Thomas. We expected an attack from Forrest, but I'm thankful he never came. Only sixteen, I did not have sense enough at that age to be scared. I have seen older men have ague when they expected an attack.

Stragglers from Wheeler's command depredated on the farms near the turnpike. In this way Thomas Givan, on Clear Fork, lost five fine mares. All the horses on Eli Vick's farm were carried off. Many other citizens suffered losses.

General Williams, as remarked, never overtook Wheeler. On the way he camped at Alexandria, where the troops of Allison's Squadron had an opportunity to meet their families and friends. Reaching a point in Rutherford County, he went eastward on the Woodbury Pike, where he had a considerable fight

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with the Federals. Later on he reached Saltville, Va., where the guerrilla, Capt. George Carter, a leading spirit of the battle of the Calf Killer some months previous, was killed October 2, 1864. Carter's slayer was recognized and his body riddled with balls.

The war had demoralized both Federals and Confederates. Many young men of excellent families throughout the South and Tennessee became enamored of the spirit of adventure, as shown in the daring and reckless exploits of cavalry raiders. This is how, perhaps, Pomp Kersey's small company came into existence.

Kersey had been a private in Capt. L. N. Savage's DeKalb County company of the Sixteenth Confederate Regiment. Returning home, he for some reason did not go back to his command, but remained on Short Mountain, where he collected a band of ten or fifteen fellow adventurers. Some of them had not reached their majority. A leading business man of Nashville writes: "Those men were run from home by Stokes's troops, some of them being no more than sixteen years of age. I knew several of Kersey's men. One of them was between fifteen or sixteen. He afterwards got into the regular Confederate army and died about 1910, a prominent and respected citizen of White County."

The writer was very young when the band made raids into Liberty, and he regarded its members with prejudice from the fact that they took valuables from William Vick and James Fuston. But another business man of Nashville, who was reared in Smithville, writes: If they robbed anybody, it was because they

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thought he was a Union sympathizer, and pillaging the enemy was not regarded as robbery. Regular Federals and Confederates did that."

This same gentleman relates an incident that took place in Smithville during the war. "One day," he says, "there gathered in the northern part of the town a squad of men belonging to Company F, Blackburn's Regiment, to secure Federal recruits- Ras Foster, ' Black Bill' Foster, Jim Eastham, Pal Rigsby, John Colwell, and others. Suddenly Kersey's men dashed into town, stampeding the recruiters. Eastham killed a horse trying to get away, while eight of the Federals were killed, among them Rigsby and Colwell." Another DeKalb Countian says: "The Rebel citizens of Smithville were pleased over this raid, for they had much to bear. I recall how a Federal was pursuing a citizen through mischief, shooting and pretending to want to kill him, when the man's little son at the window suggested a new sort of military tactics, for he cried out: 'Run crooked, pap, run crooked, an' maybe the bullets will miss you!' "

As indicated, the Short Mountain men often entered Liberty at night. On one of their raids they surrounded the home of Squire Ben Blades, a pioneer and good citizen of Union sympathies, about midnight. He tried to escape out a back door, but a shot fired through the door killed him almost instantly. After this the citizens armed themselves, resolved on defense; but the raiders did not appear while they were on watch.

On the evening of July 23, 1864, there was a dance

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on Canal Creek at the home of Mr. Dennis. A number of Federals were attending-Captain Hathaway, Lieut. Thomas G. Bratten, Henry Blackburn, and a man named Parrish. Dr. Shields, of Smithville, was also there. Later in the night Louis Lyles and James Clarke made their appearance. Clarke, a mere youth, had on a Federal uniform, but was not a soldier.

None seemed to apprehend danger. The fiddlers played and "called the figures," and the house rocked to the rough dances of the time.

Kersey's men got word of the ball and the Federals' presence and, about fifteen in all, came from Short Mountain to exterminate the men in blue. It appears that when Lyles and Clarke arrived with shouting and shooting from down the creek the band, who were near, withdrew, thereby putting off the attack.

Tired out at last, Hathaway had gone to sleep in a room adjoining that of the merry-makers. Bratten was sitting with a young lady on the stairway. It was far in the night, but the buzz of conversation went on. Two or three soldiers were preparing to mount their horses when suddenly the hills resounded to the reports of guns and the wild shouts of Kersey's men. Bratten and Lyles reached their horses, but the former had forgotten his gun. As he rushed back for it he discovered the enemy in the yard, shooting. As they passed the door he fired, somewhat checking them. The girls were trying to awaken Hathaway; and, calling out that the bushwhackers were on them, Bratten got on his horse and dashed away.

The scene was now one of confusion. Hathaway

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had mounted his horse, Blackhawk, a fine animal that could pace a mile in 2:30, but not before the assailants had started in pursuit of his comrades. Nevertheless, he resolved to overtake and pass the pursuers. Clarke had been overtaken. Seeing that he could not escape, he dismounted and from a sheltering tree trunk emptied his pistols at the enemy. He was soon killed. While this was going on Hathaway swept by. "I've just come through hell!" he said.

The Federals were pursued no farther after the killing of Clarke. Hastening to Liberty, they later in the day, with twelve men, set out to overtake Kersey and his band. Stealthily approaching a thicket half a mile south of Half Acre, they found Kersey's horses haltered and a part of his men asleep. A volley was poured into the slumberers. One of them, untouched, ran down the mountain and escaped. Pomp Kersey was also unhurt and mounted his horse, but could not untie the halter. Bratten put his gun against him, but it only snapped; whereupon Kersey dismounted, but in trying to get away he was killed by Bratten and Hathaway. Another man, perhaps twenty years of age, tried to escape, but was slain by Hathaway and Dan Gan. Five had been killed at the first volley.

Among the slain were Pom p Kersey, Jack Neely, two Arnold brothers from Murfreesboro, a man named Seats, Benton, Kelly, and one other. It seems that two who slept some distance from the others escaped- Ike Gleason, later of White County, and a man of the name of Hawkins, who was some years later a citizen of Oklahoma.

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The seven bodies were hauled to Liberty on an ox wagon, reaching the village about sunset on July 24. Thrown into a vacant storeroom, they were the next day buried on the Daniel Smith farm, about one hundred yards from the town bridge. Their remains were exhumed after the war by friends and relatives and carried to their respective neighborhoods and buried. The Arnold brothers, who were regular soldiers, but cut off from their command, were reinterred in the Confederate Cemetery at Murfreesboro.

By and by fighting ceased throughout the county, though the Federal blue was still in evidence. That period in the writer's memory is blurred and hazy. But one scene stands out clearly-that of his father, C.W.L. Hale, who was an excellent reader, standing in the midst of a group of villagers, Union and Southern in their sympathies, with a Nashville newspaper in his hand. It must have been April 16 or 17, 1865. The late afternoon was cool and damp, but no gloomier than the upturned faces. The Southern sympathizers were filled with dread; the others with sorrow. They were listening to the earliest news they could get of the assassination of Lincoln.

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