“This Cruel War: The Civil War in Rutherford County”
Exhibit Outline
Introduction
The Civil War transformed the lives of every man, woman, and child in Rutherford
County, one of the most contested regions during the war. Bringing heartbreaking
losses and financial ruin for many local citizens, it also led to freedom from
enslavement. The region’s role as the breadbasket of the Union Army, and the strategic
gateway to the Deep South brought the full wrath of the war upon local residents.
Despite the brutality and hardships, the Civil War left important legacies that continue
to influence the region to this day.
Prelude to War (1860-1861)
Photos:
Graphic—graph*
Image—slaves in corn field
Image—slave with cotton sack
Map—Slavery in TN
Map—Southern states map from Dec. 1863 (Harpers’)*
Photo—Alice Ready
Photo—James M. Haynes
Main Panel label:
On the eve of the secession crisis in 1860, Rutherford County resembled other Middle
Tennessee counties with its thriving agrarian society populated by a mix of enslaved
workers, small farmers, planters, merchants, and free people of color. This blend of
economic and social interests created a dynamic political culture that favored Unionism
until June 1861, when most county voters chose to secede from the Union. Rutherford
County citizens could not have predicted that within a few months they would be living
in occupied territory.
Group label:
In the decades prior to 1860, Rutherford County evolved from a frontier landscape to a
thriving agrarian society populated by a dynamic mix of economic and social classes.
The enslaved population was the fastest growing portion of county residents, increasing
from 26% to 47% of the population from 1820 to 1860. Even though slavery provided
economic and political power to many local families, they remained bitterly divided on
the issue of secession.
Group label:
Unionists and Secessionists
In the 1860 presidential election, the Rutherford County electorate signaled its preference
for staying in the Union by voting for John Bell, the candidate for the Constitutional
Union Party. Likewise in a referendum in February 1861, after Deep South states had
seceded from the Union in response to Abraham Lincoln’s election, the county’s voters
chose again to reject secession. After Lincoln’s call for 75,000 troops in response to the
attack on Fort Sumter, however, local opinions shifted dramatically. In a June 1861
referendum spoiled by widespread voter intimidation, Rutherford County voters chose to
join the Confederacy by a vote of 2,392 to 73.
Quotes:
“At the time of the election the feelings of the community had been worked up to a fever
heat . . . I was known as an outspoken Union man. I lived within about a mile of the
polls. Threats were made that if I did not go to the polls and vote for ratification I would
be killed.”
John J. Neely, farmer and schoolteacher
“I was told that no Union man would be allowed to vote . . . I did not know but I might
have trouble and therefore took my gun with me to the polls. At the door of the house
where the election was being held I met one of my neighbors, a strong secessionist, and
he said to me: ‘Joe how are you going to vote?’ I said ‘I am going to vote as I damned
well please.’ I voted against ratification.”
Joseph R. Thompson, farmer and distiller
"All excited and aroused. All united. Secession flag waves over us. All for war."
Telegraph from Murfreesboro to Nashville, June 1861
Sidebar:
James M. Haynes
James M. Haynes was a Unionist in Rutherford County. On June 8, 1861, when he
arrived to vote in the second secession referendum, he declared he was “opposed to the
cause of rebellion and secession,” and a “very intense feeling was expressed” against him
by several angry men. Feeling that he was in danger, he claims he voted against his
convictions explaining, “I can vote with you but my feelings are not with you.”
Sidebar:
Alice Ready
Alice Ready was the staunch pro-Confederate daughter of Charles Ready Jr. and his wife
Martha Strong Ready. Early in the war, she recorded in her journal that “for the sake of
liberty and independence . . . our cause is just and righteous." After Union troops
occupied Murfreesboro, it shook her faith in the Confederacy. “Can it be possible that
this revolution . . . will result in merely a grand rebellion! God forbid.” Her father’s
arrest for secessionist sympathies and her sister’s marriage to famed Confederate cavalry
leader John Hunt Morgan strengthened her resolve.
War Comes to Rutherford County (1861-1862)
Timeline (on one panel; there may be an additional timeline on the GIS panel)
Photos:
Murfreesboro (1863),
Battle of Stones River (1863)
Murfreesboro Armory Rifle—refurbished “Tennessee Rifle”
William Ledbetter, Sr.
William Ledbetter Jr.
Bettie Ridley Blackmore
“War in the Border States”—Harper’s Weekly image
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Newspaper headline of Forrest’s Raid*
John Beatty
Union Occupation (Image: War in the Border States Harper's 1863)
Forrest Raid: (Image 3: signpost; Image 5: Murfreesboro News Gore Center,
Pittard)
Morgan-Ready wedding (Image 2: signpost Gore Center, Pittard
Main Panel Label:
Rutherford County’s residents never imagined the war would come to their communities.
In the initial zeal of the war, local leaders supported the Confederate cause in numerous
ways, including offering material support and raising at least six local divisions of
soldiers for the Confederate Army. However, when the Union Army arrived in midMarch 1862, citizens of Rutherford County found themselves under the control of a
hostile occupying force. Slavery immediately began to break down, and white families
were subjected to foraging in their fields, inspections, and arrests. Although a raid by
General Forrest in July of 1862 temporarily pushed Union forces out of the county, the
Confederate loss at the Battle of Stones River later that year brought the county back
under Union control.
Group Label:
The war resulted in starvation and destruction of property for many residents of
Rutherford County. They also began losing their slaves, as the slaves ran away to Union
camps, or were confiscated by Union soldiers. In an effort to have all supplies necessary
to fight the war, the Union and the Confederacy both did their share of raiding homes and
taking possession of residents' food, animals, and property. Food shortages and high
prices also made life difficult. Fear and loss gripped at residents as they struggled to
make ends meet, and tried to survive the destruction around them.
Quotes
"But alas! The change! Everything beautiful and comfortable seems to have passed
away. From Nashville to Murfreesboro the devastation of homes and farms is complete”
Nashville Daily Union, February 15, 1863
“Well when they started off fightin’ at Murfreesboro, it was a continual roar . . . It
sounded like the judgment. Nobody felt good. Both sides foraging’ one as bad as the
other, hungry, gettin’ everything you put away to live on. That’s ‘war’. I found out all
about what it was. Lady it ain’t nothin’ but hell on this earth.”
Hammet Dell, WPA Slave Narrative
“(General Mitchell) made a little speech on the square, and said that insults to the soldiers
would be summarily punished, if the citizens were controlled he should control his
soldiers, if not he would have no desire to do so.”
Alice Ready Diary, March 19, 1962
“You have but little idea of the privations that “secesh” has brought upon this “glorious
Confederacy.” No sugar, no tea, no coffee, no soda, no salt, no kind of cloth but what is
made by hand.”
Jane C. Warren to Electa Ames, August 27, 1863
Sidebar:
William Ledbetter Sr. and the Murfreesboro Armory
In 1861 and early 1862, William Ledbetter Sr. operated a Confederate armory in
Murfreesboro that produced several hundred new rifles and refurbished over three
hundred older flintlock rifles for combat. As one Confederate officer reported, the
Murfreesboro Armory “made a very good gun.” The arrival of Union troops in March
1862 forced the armory to close.
Sidebar:
John Beatty
John Beatty was raised in Ohio, joined the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1861, and
fought at Stones River. He was part of the occupation of Murfreesboro from January to
June 1863, and rose from Lieutenant Colonel to General. He later became a US
congressman and banker. In his memoirs, he recalled the devastation that the residents
faced. He stated, "Riding by a farmhouse this afternoon, I caught a glimpse of Miss
Harris, of Lavergne, at the window and stopped to talk with her for a minute. The young
lady and her mother have experienced a great deal of trouble recently. They were shelled
out of Lavergne three times, two of the shells passing through her mother’s house. She
claims to have been shot at once by a soldier of the One Hundred and Nineteenth Illinois,
the ball splintering the window sill near her head. Her mother’s house has been
converted into a hospital and the clothes of the family taken for bandages. She is
therefore more rebellious now than ever. She is getting her rights, poor girl.”
Occupation (1863)
Photos:
Image: 15: Guerilla War Harper's 1863
Foraging/raids (Image: 13 Foraging raid for food, livestock, and contraband
labor Harper's 1863; Image 9:Army beef Harper's 1863)
Murfreesboro Square (1864)
Bettie Ridley Blackmore
Fortress Rosecrans image
Fortress Rosecrans map
Gen. William S. Rosecrans
Women working as nurses in hospitals—Harpers
Fort Rosecrans (Image 11: Rosecrans Gore Center, Pittard; Image: 3 Fort
Rosecrans CDV)
Image: “When this Cruel War is Over” song and image (1862)
Main Panel Label:
After the Battle of Stones River, the residents of Rutherford County endured traumatic
times as they coped with thousands of dead and wounded soldiers and the physical
devastation of the battle. As Confederate forces moved southward, thousands of Union
troops moved in for a long-term occupation of the county, then continued until after the
war ended in 1865. Enslaved Africans on the county’s farms and plantations flocked to
the Union camps for protection and employment as they grasped the opportunity for
freedom. Nevertheless, all local residents suffered from severe food shortages, foraging
raids, and lawlessness in the countryside.
Group Label:
After the battle of Stone's River, Union General William Rosecrans and his troop
constructed Fortress Rosecrans to serve as a supply depot. The fortress was used to store
arms, food, and equipment for the Union troops. Fortress Rosecrans was the staging
ground for the campaign to the Chattanooga March to the Sea.
Group Label:
As the war went on around them, residents witnessed the horrors of death and
destruction. Hospitals were set up to take care of the injured and dying soldiers, but the
injured soldiers, both Union and confederate, were too many to care for. In a letter
written to Margaret Blair in January 1863, W.W. Blair, a doctor from Ohio who worked
as a Union surgeon in the field hospital in Rutherford County, described the war as
"terrible beyond description." War was something that residents had never had to deal
with, yet they quickly became a part of the death and destruction.
Quotes:
“Murfreesboro is one vast hospital, nearly every house having more or less wounded in it,
the farm-houses for miles along the various roads are also used for the same purpose.”
Nashville Daily Union, January 9, 1863
‘There are many fine residences in Murfreesboro and vicinity; but the trees and
shrubbery, which contributed in a great degree to their beauty and comfort, have been cut
or trampled down and destroyed. Many frame houses, and very good ones too, have been
torn down, and the lumber and timber used in the construction of hospitals.”
John Beatty Memoir, April 5, 1863
“Crowds of insolent Yankees came daily to our house for forage, chickens, horses, meat
and everything else they chose to demand.”
Journal of Bettie Ridley Blackmore, Winter 1963
Sidebar:
Bettie Ridley Blackmore
Blackmore was the daughter of a prominent pro-Confederate family living near Jefferson.
After her husband left to fight for the Confederacy, she contracted tuberculosis and never
fully recovered. Her journal recounts how Union soldiers frequently harassed her and her
mother, including twice burning down their home in the middle of the night.
Sidebar:
Jabez Cox
Cox was a Quaker who enlisted as a private in the 133rd Indiana Infantry. Stationed at
Murfreesboro from May to August 1864, he kept a diary that captured his thoughts about
the problems facing Rutherford County during this time He commented that before the
war “the inhabitants of the surrounding mansions were enjoying liberty, peace and
prosperity, but alas how many by their own hand have brought ruin on their homes.”
After the war, he became a lawyer and a judge in Indiana, and his son, Edward Everett
Cox, emerged as a prominent journalist.
What Would You Have Done?
During the occupation of Rutherford County, it was common for the Union army to raid
the homes of local residents and take whatever property they felt would be of their own
personal use. If Union soldiers came to your home and told you they were going to take
your property from you, what would you have done?
Divided Loyalties
Photos:
Spies/Scouts (Image 16: Hanging Spies in Tennessee Harper's 1863)
Morgan-Ready Marriage
Thomas Hord
Loyalty Oath
Main Panel Label:
Throughout the war, constantly shifting circumstances made loyalty a difficult issue to
determine. From the Union Army’s perspective, loyalty was a matter of security for their
troops. They demanded signed loyalty oaths from anyone who wanted to conduct
business or to receive a pass to leave town. From the point of view of Confederate
sympathizers, loyalty to their cause was a sacred burden. Townspeople were often
shocked to hear that friends, family and neighbors had signed an oath of loyalty, and
slaveholders were often dismayed to find that their slaves were not loyal to them. At the
same time, some citizens, including women, began working as spies for the Confederate
cause.
Group Label:
Loyalty was an important issue that affected how citizens lived their daily lives. In many
instances, citizens had to take a loyalty oath before they could conduct business; and in
some cases, the oath wasn't enough to keep Union soldiers from taking property.
Group Label:
Women were also active in the Civil War, and they demonstrated their divided loyalties
by either acting as spies for their side, or marrying 'the enemy'. Sophia Lytle Harrison
turned in her stepson to the Union army in an effort to gain favor with the Union, and
later married a Union captain. On the other hand, Mary Kate Patterson acted as a spy for
the Confederate army.
Quotes:
“And the reins of military despotism are gradually being drawn tighter, still tighter
around the people of Murfreesboro. . . no one can go two miles from town . . . without
taking the oath of allegiance to the United States.”
Alice Ready Diary, April 8, 1862
“I think the southern men had better be turning their heads towards home, many of their
wives are getting pretty fast with Yank beaux.”
Letter from Martha Ready to Martha Morgan, April 8, 1865
“The people of Tennessee are ready & anxious to embrace the offer of pardon and take
and keep the oath (of loyalty) prescribed in good faith, but they have not the opportunity.
There is no officer in the state authorized to administer the oath and register it.”
Edwin Ewing to Abraham Lincoln, January 23, 1864
Sidebar:
Emma Lane
Emma Lane was 16 when she began writing in her diary about the war. In the diary, she
discusses the capture of a Confederate Spy.
"I saw an account of the execution of a friend he was a Confederate soldier and was
caught in the Federal lines acting as a spy. What a horrible fate! What a shock it will be
to his old Father. O, when will this cruel, cruel war cease, this war which has caused the
separation of friends, which has brought trouble sorrow & desolations to the hearthstones
of so many." January 25, 1864
Sidebar:
Mary Kate Patterson
From 1862 to 1865, Mary Kate Patterson was an active Confederate spy who lived near
Lavergne. She befriended occupying Union troops to obtain passes to Nashville, where
she secretly secured supplies and messages to smuggle in the false bottom of her buggy.
Her family also sheltered Confederate soldiers in their home. After Union forces
executed family friend Sam Davis in 1864, Patterson traveled to Pulaski to identify the
body; she later married Sam's brother John Davis. Upon her death in 1931, she became
the first woman buried in the Confederate Circle in Nashville's Mt. Olivet Cemetery.
Sidebar:
Thomas Hord
Hord was an anti-secessionist who was one of sixty-five businessmen who took the
loyalty oath to operate businesses in Murfreesboro. Nonetheless, Union soldiers
repeatedly ravaged his “Elmwood” plantation because of its proximity to the Stones
River battlefield. After the war, he submitted claims in damages to the U.S. government
that totaled $59,124.60 (equivalent to about $1.4 million today). His heirs finally
received a small settlement in 1911.
What Would You Have Done?
When the Union Army occupied Murfreesboro, they forced all business owners to sign an
oath of loyalty to the United States if they wanted to continue operating their businesses.
With so many of their friends and family members supporting the Confederate cause, this
created a difficult choice between economic survival and the respect of their community.
What would you have done?
Emancipation
Photos:
Emancipation (Image: Emancipation 1863 Harper's; Image 17: Runaway
Slaves Harper's)
USCT (Image 11 Civil War and Negro Soldiers Harper's)
Contraband Labor (Image 12: Contraband Harper's 1863)
Slaves escaping to follow troop (maybe Murfree Plantation)—Smithsonian image
James Garfield
Main Panel Label:
Emancipation was also an important and inescapable part of the war. Freedom from
slavery came early for African-Americans in Murfreesboro. In farm raids, Union soldiers
often took slaves as contraband. For many slaves, however, they did not need to wait for
the Union to come to them – they went to the Union on their own. Amid all the chaos that
the war brought, slaves saw the opportunity to finally make their way to freedom.
Group Label:
African Americans abandoned their plantations and fled to Union camps hoping for
freedom and acceptance. Leaving brought a new freedom for African-Americans. At the
same time, this new freedom for African-Americans brought tension and distress among
white residents who had to learn a new way of life without the help of their slaves.
Group Label:
In the summer of 1863, the first Federal regiment of African-American soldiers was
formed in Murfreesboro, and was known as the 2nd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment.
After a reorganization of the troops, the unit's name was changed to the 13th Regiment,
United States Colored Troops (USCT). Major General Rosecrans assigned the USCT to
work on the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad, a 78-mile long supply line that
connected Nashville to the supply depot at Johnsonville. The 17th Regiment, USCT was
organized in Middle Tennessee after the Battle of Chicamauga.
Possible Quotes:
“The Negroes are all in high spirits, think they are soon to be free. You would be
surprised at the great change in this country for the last three years. Then if a negro was
found away from home without a pass he was taken up and whipped or beat most cruelly
with a paddle or a leather strap and stripped naked . . . anyone was punished who was
seen conversing with a negro—but now a white man can not go in and out of
Murfreesboro without a pass nor can they bring out any goods of any kind without
buying a permit.”
Jane C. Warren to Electa Ames, February 7, 1864
“Ma’s negroes are growing more and more unruly. They are not only indolent &
perfectly trifling every way, but, are very insolent & disobedient.”
Journal of Bettie Ridley Blackmore, late 1863
Sidebar:
James Garfield
James Garfield worked as the chief of staff for General Rosecrans. In a letter to his wife,
dated April 12, 1863, Garfield expressed his concern for African Americans and their
well-being. He stated, “The Negro question is becoming one of great difficulty. We
cannot easily dispose of all the able-bodied male Negroes here, for we take all we can
find for teamsters and for workmen on our fortifications. I am urging, and I believe with
success, that when the works are finished these Negroes shall be drilled and organized for
their defense. But the trouble arises with the swarms of Negro women and children that
flock to our lines for protection and support.”
Sidebar:
Hammett Dell
Hammett Dell was a slave before the war. In a WPA slave narrative, Hammett Dell
recalled that while he lived with his master after the war, his father ran away during the
war. Hammett Dell believed that his father may have joined the Union army.
After the War
(Image 7: After the war music; Image 8: After the war
reconciliation)
Photos:
Image of Union/Confederate vets at Stones River*
Image of KKK*
Image—First Vote
Image—Freedman’s Bureau
Image—Reconciliation image
Casualties—Union/Confederate RC deaths?
Graph—Avg. household income 1860-1870*
Images of veterans who became civic leaders after war
Main Panel Label:
At the end of the war, Rutherford County was a very different place from what it had
been just a few years before. The physical devastation and deforestation of the landscape
was profound. Slavery had ended, bringing freedom for nearly half the county’s
residents, but legal and economic restrictions left many African-Americans with an
unclear future. The Freedman's Bureau worked to help former slaves to find work and
resolve complaint of abuse from white residents. However, few former slaves were able
to get the rights that were legally theirs. Former slave Ann Matthews recalled, "I dunno
of but one slave that got land or nothin' when freedom was declared."
Although the Civil War reduced the county’s economic growth for years afterwards, the
county eventually rebounded with a dynamic mix of agriculture, commerce and industry.
The war left deep scars on the landscape of Rutherford County, and in the hearts of its
residents, that continue to heal with each passing generation.
GIS
This maps show that the Civil War touched virtually every town, hamlet and household
in Rutherford County. Battles and skirmishes occurred in every town; foraging raids
impacted farms and plantations throughout the county; and fortifications, roundhouses
and signal stations could be found in several locations. Although the physical remains of
this era have all but disappeared, it is important to remember that every corner of the
county was directly impacted by the Civil War.
Sponsors and Contributors
Fast Signs
Rutherford County Mayor’s Office
MTSU Public Service Committee
MTSU Public History Program
MTSU College of Liberal Arts
Barry Lamb
Shirley Jones
Rutherford County Archives
Rutherford County Historical Society
Albert Gore Research Center
Oaklands Association
Sam Davis Home
Stones River National Battlefield
MTSU Center for Popular Music
MTSU Center for Historic Preservation
MTSU Special Collections at Walker Library
Bill Jakes
Bill Ledbetter
John Lodl
Bethany Hall
Amy Davis
Tennessee State Library and Archives
Library of Congress
Smithsonian Institute
Dr. Robert Hunt
Dr. Derek Frisby
Dr Van West
Denise Carlton
Dr. Brenden Martin
Kimberly Tucker
Jaryn Abdallah
Claire Ackerman
Jared Bratton
Ashley Brown
Leslie Crouch
Rachel Drayton
Kelsey Fields
Natalie Goodwin
Rachel Morris
Charles Nichols
Kristen O’Hare
Sade Turnipseed