Elder Statesman's Home

This was the home of William Trousdale (1790-1872), governor of Tennessee (1849-1851) and U.S. minister to Brazil (1853-1857). During the Union army's occupation of Gallatin from 1862 to 1870, its commanders regarded former governor Trousdale as the county's elder statesman despite his strong support for the Confederacy. Both the army and local citizens turned to him for assistance in dealing with each other. He and his family were permitted to remain here. Occasionally, he was ordered to accommodate Union needs, to provide a room for a court martial or to house a group of women accused of pro-Confederate activities.

Eighteen miles north of Gallatin, near Portland, a Confederate training camp established in 1861 was named Camp Trousdale in his honor. Both his sons, Charles W. and Julius A. Trousdale, were seriously wounded while serving in the Confederate army. Charles Trousdale joined the 9th Tennessee Cavalry and Julius Trousdale served in the 2nd Tennessee Infantry.

William Trousdale served under Gen. Andrew Jackson in the Creek War, again in the War of 1812 at Pensacola and New Orleans, and in the Seminole War of 1836. He completed his military career as a brigadier general in the U.S. Army in the 1847-1848 war with Mexico.

The bronze statue of a Confederate soldier stands atop the granite monument you see. It was unveiled on September 20, 1903.

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William Trousdale acquired Trousdale Place about 1830. Congressman John H. Bowen had almost completed its construction when he died in 1822. The site was originally part of the 640-acre North Carolina Land Grant No. 1 to James Trousdale, William Trousdale's father, who sold it in 1802 for laying out the town of Gallatin. The Trousdale family owned the house until 1900 when it was deeded to Clark Chapter 13, United Daughters of the Confederacy, in memory of the Confederate soldiers of Sumner County and to her soldiers "in any other war or wars." Trousdale Place exhibits characteristics of Federal style architecture, notably its handsome doorway and staggered Flemish-bond brickwork.

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William Trousdale Courtesy Trousdale Place
Julius A. Trousdale Courtesy Trousdale Place
Sumner County Courthouse and Gallatin Mill, 1862 Courtsey Library of Congress

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Show me all markers in:  Gallatin, TN  |  Sumner County  |  37066  |  Tennessee  |  United States of America

Trousdale Place
First Presbyterian Church
Gallatin, Tennessee
Gallatin Public Square
Randy's Record Shop
Tennessee's First African-American Civil War Volunteers
Peter Vertrees
Monument to the Fallen
Sumner County Tennessee Mexican-American War Monument
Rosemont

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