Moore County, Tennessee Military History

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The citizens of the territory composing Moore County have contributed their full share of soldiers to fight the battles of their country. A few of the early settlers were survivors of the war of the Revolution, and some of them served in the struggle of 1812, but it is impossible now to obtain an account of their names and services. A few survivors of the Mexican and Florida wars still reside within the county. Public excitement ran very high here at the outbreak of the late civil war. Public meetings were held at Lynchburg, and at other points throughout the county, and were addressed by Hon. Peter Turney and others, and the people were almost unanimously in favor of a Southern Confederacy.

The first company to enter the service was Company E, of the First Tennessee Confederate Infantry. This company was raised at Lynchburg in March 1861, and joined its regiment at Winchester in the next month. The following is a list of the officers and privates who were mustered into the service, together with the recruits.

Company D, First Tennessee, Confederate States Army, was organized at Ridgeville in March 1861, and joined its regiment at Winchester the next month.

Company H, Eighth Tennessee Confederate States Army, was raised by Captain William L. Moore from this and adjoining counties, and consisted of 104 men. When the regiment was organized Captain Moore was elected lieutenant-colonel, and William J. Thrash, was made captain of the company. The company was organized with its regiment at Camp Trousdale, in Sumner County, May 29, 1861.

Company G, Forty-first Tennessee Confederate Infantry, was raised in the vicinity of Marble Hill by C. H. Bean, who was its original captain.

Company A, Forty-first Tennessee Confederate Infantry, Captain James, was partially raised in the vicinity of Charity, and the following is a list of names of those who joined it from the territory now belonging to Moore County.

The following named persons joined Forrest’s Escort, which organized at Shelbyville in the fall of 1862, and joined the army at Murfreesboro after its return from Kentucky.

In 1862 Samuel Dillingham, of Confederate fame, while at Cumberland Gap visited a distillery, and filled a canteen with “Mountain Dew.” He corked it tight, and sent it home, and afterward declared that when the next Democratic President was elected he intended to uncork it. Accordingly, in May 1886, he turned it over to a select committee, consisting of H. B. Morgan, J. Y. Price and W. W. Holt; and on Saturday, June 13, following due notice having been given, the committee, after appropriate remarks had been made by H. B. Morgan, uncorked the canteen in presence of a large audience in the court house. Drs. Dancer and Taylor inspected the contents and pronounced it old bourbon, of the genuine article.

The people of the territory composing this county suffered great loss during the late civil war, and lived in constant fear of death from marauding parties and bushwhackers. Being a rich agricultural district it was constantly preyed upon by foraging parties sent out from the armies stationed at these points. It is hardly probable that any county in the State of Tennessee furnished more, if as many, soldiers in the late civil war as did Moore County, or rather, the territory now composing it, in proportion to its population.

Source

History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of from Twenty-Five to Thirty Counties of East Tennessee. Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887.

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