Changing Allegiances

Col. Alfred Royal Wynne (1800-1893) was as trader and merchant in Castalian Springs. In 1828, he built this stagecoach inn along the Knoxville road. Although Wynne was a slaveholder and a Democrat, he also was a staunch Unionist and strongly opposed secession. When Tennessee left the Union, however, Wynne ended his former allegiance and supported the Confederacy.

In contrast to many older Southerners who struggled to remain loyal to the Union, their children favored secession. Soon after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, two of Alfred and Almira Wynne's sons, Andrew and Joseph Wynne, enlisted in the 2nd Tennessee Infantry under the command of their neighbor, Col. William B. Bate. Their younger sons Valerius and William Hall Wynne also enlisted; William died of disease the next year.

Early in 1862, Confederated cavalry raids designed to interdict Federal supply and communication lines were launched in northern Middle Tennessee. Col. John Hunt Morgan's command operated in the area and on occasion stopped at Wynnewood to eat. Once, Morgan signed the guest register for one of Wynne's daughters.

By April, the Union army had set up a military post in the southwestern corner of the Wynne farm and surrounded the fortified camp with log and stone earthworks. Although the Federal troops generally behaved themselves, the harm they did to the trees, fences, and fields was extensive. After the war, Wynne filed a claim for damages in the amount of $6,540 but the U.S. government disallowed it since Wynne had not remained loyal to the Union.

(Side Bar) "With the assistance of one or two near neighbors, in a very short time a good substantial breakfast was prepared which the weary soldiers ate with a good relish. In the meantime a courier was dispatched to Gallatin to find out the strength of the Lincolnites there."
- -Susan Wynne, daughter of Alfred R. Wynne, March 16, 1862.

(Inscription under the photos in the upper left)
Alfred Royal Wynne-Courtesy Allen Haynes. John Hunt Morgan-Courtesy of Allen Haynes.

(Inscription under the photo in the lower right)
Wynnewood ca. 1898-Courtesy Allen Haynes.

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