In 1860 Tennessee’s Hickman County was a quiet, sleepy backwater, where, according to one resident, ‘patient old farmers were drowsily plodding along, eating ‘possom and pumpkin pie.’ Little disturbed the monotony, as residents ‘lost nothing nor made much, and the most fruitful crops were of children and dogs.’ The only semblance of discord among county residents was exhibited by zealous Baptist and Methodist preachers who fought over the souls of their neighbors.

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At first, the secession crisis confused folks in Hickman County. Very few residents owned slaves, so they did not understand the frenzied rhetoric of hotheaded Southern politicians. There seemed to be no reason to dismantle the country that their forefathers had fought so hard to establish. But when Tennessee seceded from the Union, most county residents actively supported the Confederate States of America. Hundreds of young men formed military companies and marched off to protect their homes from Yankees, much like Colonials had defended their homes during the Revolutionary War.

Federal troops invaded the state and occupied Nashville early in 1862 and controlled the city for the duration of the war. The establishment of that Yankee stronghold only 40 miles northeast of Hickman County encouraged some loyal Tennessee citizens to join Federal regiments and to oppose the Southern war effort.

Patriotism may not have been the prime motivation for some of the Yankee sympathizers, however. At least one Confederate soldier was frank enough to point out that the war offered ‘a glorious opportunity to ride off their neighbor’s horse, or burn down his house, or gather up what few things about the houses they could use and carry them off.’

It did not take long for neighbors to turn against one another with a vengeance. Caleb McGraw had been suspected of spying on his fellow citizens and informing Federal authorities when Confederate soldiers came home on furlough in 1862. One night some neighbors came by and took McGraw to Duck River, opposite the mouth of Short Creek, where he was told to choose between taking the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America or drowning.

When McGraw refused to take the oath, his captors tied a large rock around his neck, rowed out into the river and again asked him to swear his allegiance. Upon his second refusal, his neighbors promptly pitched the suspected spy into a watery grave.

By 1863, Yankee raiding parties often overran middle Tennessee. To counter the invaders, citizens joined two companies of ‘independent Southern scouts’ that patrolled Hickman County. Captain David Miller commanded a company that generally operated north of Duck River, while Captain Albert Henon Cross led a similar band of scouts, or ‘bushwhackers,’ in the southern portion of the county. Albert was the son of Nathaniel Cross, a teacher from Nashville whose wealth allowed the family to employ two Irish servants. When Nashville fell into Union hands, Albert and his older brother, Brownlee, left their affluent home, settled in Hickman County and started to skirmish with roving Federal patrols.

Captain Cross quickly organized some local residents and refugees from other regions into a ragtag company of bushwhackers. The men were described as ‘good, bad, and indifferent.’ Cross’ officers included Dr. James W. McLaughlin of Maryland, first lieutenant; brother Brownlee, second lieutenant; and Duval McNairy of Davidson County, third lieutenant. Federal cavalry patrols often scouted through Hickman County searching for those four elusive ringleaders, who always managed to escape, often after performing some audacious act. The daring deeds made the people almost forget the questionable acts of some of the bushwhackers.

By 1864 Federal troops occupied Centerville, using the town as a Union outpost and base of operations in Hickman County, the scene of considerable conflict that year. The courthouse had been converted to a fortress, impervious to small arms, so Captain Cross and his band burned the building to prevent its further use by the Federals. Captain John W. Taylor, Company F, 2nd (Union) Tennessee Mounted Infantry (’Perry County Jayhawkers’), responded by burning the business portion of the village, along with many private homes. According to one resident, ‘They left the town in ruins, a smoking mass of coals and ashes over which Desolation reigned supreme.’ Federals duplicated that outrage at Vernon, leaving nothing to rebuild.

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