The Battle of Hartsville, Tennessee
History Podcasts
The battle of Hartsville has been called by many the "Most successfully executed Calvary raid of the war between the states". While the number of troops engaged in this battle was comparatively small, the Confederate victory was so complete and decisive in military tactic that news of the battle was reported across the country by nearly 70 newspapers. In fact, the Battle of Hartsville attracted the attention of President Abraham Lincoln, who sent a telegram to the commanding senior general stationed in Nashville asking, "Who was responsible for the disaster at Hartsville?". It was due to the success of this battle that Confederate Colonel John Hunt Morgan, known as "The Thunderbolt of the Confederacy", received his commission to Brigadier General. This driving tour includes buildings and homes used as hospitals, sites where Morgan quartered nearly 2000 prisoners after the 75-minute battle, river crossings, rendezvous points and a cemetery. We hope you enjoy your tour through Hartsville, Tennessee.
Location:
United States
Description:
The battle of Hartsville has been called by many the "Most successfully executed Calvary raid of the war between the states". While the number of troops engaged in this battle was comparatively small, the Confederate victory was so complete and decisive in military tactic that news of the battle was reported across the country by nearly 70 newspapers. In fact, the Battle of Hartsville attracted the attention of President Abraham Lincoln, who sent a telegram to the commanding senior general stationed in Nashville asking, "Who was responsible for the disaster at Hartsville?". It was due to the success of this battle that Confederate Colonel John Hunt Morgan, known as "The Thunderbolt of the Confederacy", received his commission to Brigadier General. This driving tour includes buildings and homes used as hospitals, sites where Morgan quartered nearly 2000 prisoners after the 75-minute battle, river crossings, rendezvous points and a cemetery. We hope you enjoy your tour through Hartsville, Tennessee.
Language:
English
Episodes
Stop 17 - Hartsville Cemetery
12/14/2020
Finally, you have reached the Hartsville Cemetery, the final resting place for over 50 Confederate veterans. Among them is Colonel James Dearing Bennett, Commander of the famed 9th Tennessee Cavalry. After the battle, Winslow Hart (the son of James Hart) and other citizens buried both Union and Confederate casualties on a knoll at the rear of the cemetery. Some of the Union dead were later moved and returned to their homeland or reinterred at the National Cemetery in Nashville.
Thank you...
Duration:00:00:48
Stop 16 - Hart's Ferry
12/13/2020
Located some 400 yards from here at the river, Hart’s Ferry was started in 1798 by James Hart (from whom Hartsville was named). From here, Col. Morgan began his exit from Hartsville with all his captured goods, two pieces of artillery, ammunition, supplies, and wagons. Just as Morgan was getting the last of his men across the river, Union Col. John M. Harland arrived from Castalian Springs and opened fire but did not pursue them. One of his cannon shots barely missed Morgan and his staff,...
Duration:00:01:25
Stop 15 - Union Cavalry Camp
12/12/2020
The Union’s 2nd Indiana and Co. E. 11th Kentucky Cavalry camped and were positioned in this area to guard Hart’s Ferry. The entire Union Cavalry force moved up to this location to support the Infantry but participated very little in the battle. They suffered only three casualties, and most escaped capture.
(Drive to the curve in the road.)
Duration:00:00:35
Stop 14 - Averitt-Herod House
12/11/2020
Atop the hill to your left overlooking the battlefield, sits the beautiful home built by Peter Averitt, Sr., around 1834. During the battle, Peter’s son, Richard, and his family lived here. According to tradition, wounded Confederate soldiers were brought here to be cared for after the battle, and it was where Col. John M. Harlan pardoned them. There is a large bloodstain resembling a man’s face in the floor on the east side of the house. The house is on the National Register of Historic...
Duration:00:00:42
Stop 13 - The Battlefield and Retreat
12/10/2020
In the far distance to your right, a clear view in winter, sits the Union camp and battlefield. Across these ravines, some 4,000 men, both Union and Confederate soldiers, were making quick time to leave this area before Colonel Harlan arrived with thousands of Union reinforcements from Castalian Springs some nine miles away.
Duration:00:00:35
Stop 12 - The Cumberland River
12/9/2020
Time was of the essence following the Union’s surrender. Aware of Union reinforcements advancing from Castalian Springs, Morgan and his men loaded as many empty wagons as they could manage with confiscated Union supplies and they discarded their Austrian rifles and muskets in favor of the Springfield rifles that had belonged to the Union troops. Morgan then directed his men and prisoners to cross the ford known then as Walker’s Landing, now known as Taylor’s Landing, while he directed the...
Duration:00:01:08
Stop 11 - Union Camp Site
12/8/2020
This is the site of the Union troop’s camp. The Union garrison of the 39th Brigade, 12th Division, under the command of Col. Joseph R. Scott, arrived here from Tompkinsville, Kentucky via the Goose Creek Valley on November 28, 1862, to relieve Col. John Marshall Harlan. Harlan, who later became an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, of the 10th Kentucky Infantry, commanding the Second Brigade, 1st Division, had been in Hartsville about two weeks.
Col. Scott’s forces consisted of...
Duration:00:01:24
Stop 10 - Stoner's Battery
12/7/2020
Here on the south side of the river on the elevated ground to the left, Confederate Major Robert G. Stoner set up his battery of two mountain howitzers. Knowing that these guns would not reach the Union camp, his job was to keep the Union troops wondering if they would. Afterwards, Stoner’s men forded the river several times, bringing a prisoner back across each trip. The back side of the bluff to the right was the camp of the Union army. The ridge ahead and to the left is Stop #7.
(Back...
Duration:00:00:37
Stop 09 - Cobb's Battery
12/6/2020
Here across the ravine, high atop this hill behind the water plant, and to the right, Colonel Robert Cobb’s Battery set up for the Confederates’ Artillery assault on the Union camp upon the hill to your left. As Col. Morgan stood there during the battle, one caisson was destroyed by a direct hit from the Union cannons, killing David Watt who was sitting upon it. Colonel Morgan’s young aide, William Craven Peyton, was mortally wounded. He was taken to the home of a Mrs. Lee, where he died of...
Duration:00:00:45
Stop 08 - Morgan Pushes On
12/5/2020
At this point Morgan’s Infantry and Cavalry spread out and deployed on a low ridge overlooking the Infantry camp. The Cavalry dismounted (Morgan’s Cavalry often fought as infantry) and moved to the left to flank the Union troops. The Infantry pushed onward toward some 2,100 Union troops who had formed on a line of defense on the hill behind the Trousdale Highway Dept. Garage. The Union Artillery stationed on this hill was forced to move back to the bluff on the river. The fiercest part of...
Duration:00:00:46
Stop 07 - The Rebels are Coming
12/4/2020
As Morgan approached this hill from the valley between the two hills to the northwest, he sent a small force disguised as Union soldiers to capture the pickets stationed north and west of the Union’s Infantry camp. The reserve pickets observed this and fired the first alarm to the Union camp, as Morgan approached with his main task force and artillery from the northwest. Morgan dispatched Col. Cluke’s and Col. Chenault’s Cavalry units toward the camp while he accompanied Colonel Hunt and...
Duration:00:00:53
Stop 06 - Town of Hartsville
12/3/2020
The remainder of Col. Bennett’s Cavalry made their way into town. The 9th succeeded in capturing 450 Federals, including Co. A, 104th Illinois, who were posted here to guard the town. The Union soldiers had occupied many buildings in town including the Locke Hotel on the corner of Main St. and Broadway at the site of the old bank of Hartsville building. Two buildings used as hospitals still stand today. At the corner of church and West Main stands the Hager building (now Total Image), built...
Duration:00:01:00
Stop 05 - Final Approach
12/2/2020
After leaving Hager’s Blacksmith Shop, Morgan detached part of Col. Bennett’s 9th Tennessee Cavalry to set up a roadblock on the Hartsville - Castalian Springs road and other points to cut off any escape Union troops might try to find. Bennett took the rest of his regiment to Hartsville one mile away. Morgan and the rest of his troops crossed here through the lowest point and made their initial approach toward their objective, still undetected by the Union enemy.
(Head straight into town)
Duration:00:00:42
Stop 04 - The Widow Halliburton
12/1/2020
The home and burial site of Letty Halliburton was on this hillside straight ahead. Letty Halliburton was instrumental in helping many of the wounded after the battle. A yellow flag flew above her home, identifying it as a refuge for the wounded. After the battle, Union troops loaded wagons with wounded soldiers and brought them to Halliburton’s home. She used her entire supply of bed linens as bandages for the wounded. Dr. John Orlando Scott, of the 2nd Kentucky, and the only Confederate...
Duration:00:02:38
Stop 03 - Hager's Shop
11/30/2020
The blacksmith shop of Andrew Jackson “A. J.” Hager once stood in the empty field on the right. This was the planned rendezvous point for Morgan and his men. Traveling 30 minutes from Puryears Ferry, Morgan arrived about 5:30 a.m. with Colonel Thomas Hunt, Commander of the Infantry. Col. Duke arrived at the rendezvous point only minutes before Morgan and Hunt due to the additional time it had taken him and his men to find a suitable ford to cross the Cumberland. At this spot, Colonels...
Duration:00:00:56
Stop 02 - Home of Colonel James Dearing Bennett
11/29/2020
Down the winding path to your left, Col. John Bennett’s homesite sits just out of view toward the back of the property. Colonel Bennett was the Commander of the 9th Tennessee Cavalry made up of local men from Hartsville, Coatstown (now called Westmorland), and Richland (now called Portland). It is believed that Bennett and Col. Morgan stopped at Bennett’s homeplace for breakfast on their way to the pre-determined rendezvous point with the rest of Morgan’s troops. Known to be a fine commander...
Duration:00:01:21
Stop 01 - Puryears Ferry
11/28/2020
Colonel John Hunt Morgan and his troops arrived from Lebanon at Puryears Ferry in the dark of night at 10 pm on Saturday, December 6, 1862. With a plan to ford the Cumberland River in five hours, Morgan assembled his Artillery, Infantry, and a small part of the Cavalry on the south side of the river. He began the difficult task of moving horses, heavy cannon, and men across the icy Cumberland in two old leaking flat boats that had been arranged by his network of spies and supplied by a local...
Duration:00:02:05
Introduction to the Battle of Hartsville
11/27/2020
Coming to you from the Trousdale-Hartsville Chamber of Commerce is a tale told by local son, Jack McCall. Drive along as Jack takes you back to a battle so epic that Abraham Lincoln got involved...
From the Trousdale County Courthouse, travel 0.8 mile south on Hwy. 141 and turn right on Puryears Bend Road. Go one mile and turn left (still on Puryears Bend Rd.); follow this road 1.5 miles and take the right fork (still on Puryears Bend Rd.). Go 2 miles and turn right; go 0.3 miles and turn...
Duration:00:10:16