Conflict on the Home Front

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.

The county's resources and the Manchester and McMinnville Railroad made McMinnville a strategic location that attracted raids by Confederate Gens. Joseph Wheeler, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and Braxton Bragg. Gen. John Hunt Morgan spent his honeymoon here and planned his Kentucky and Ohio raids from the home of kinsman Dr. John Barkley Armstrong.

McMinnville changed hands at least five times. After April 1863, it frequently served as a Federal base; fourteen forts and blockhouses eventually were constructed to guard against Confederate attack. Union Col. Henry C. Gilbert's 19th Michigan Infantry was among the first Federal units to occupy the town.

Federal occupation meant some safe from Confederate guerilla bands, but some county residents felt the hand of war when houses, warehouses, factories, and bridges were burned. Local Confederates especially disliked Gen. William "Bull" Nelson, who ransacked the Cumberland Female College here. Partisan bands harassed the Union garrisons with occasional raids. Local poet Lucy Virginia French chronicled the war in diaries detailing the conflicts between Confederate and Unionist families. The last Federal troops departed in September 1865.

(captions)
Col. John H. Savage, ca. 1860 Courtesy Magness Library
East Main St., McMinnville, ca. 1861 - Courtesy Heritage Alliance, Inc.
Cumberland Female College, ca. 1855- Courtesy Heritage Alliance, Inc.
Warren Co. Courthouse, ca 1868 Courtesy Heritage Alliance, Inc.

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Show me all markers in:  McMinnville, TN  |  Warren County  |  37110  |  Tennessee  |  United States of America

16th Tenn. Reg't. C.S.A. Memorial
POW and MIA Memorial, a War Memorial
Symbol of Strength
Elisha Pepper II
Uncle Dave Macon
Morgan's Headquarters
Charles Faulkner Bryan
Anthia Brady Hughes
Carl T. Rowan
Lucy Virginia Smith French

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