RolandDeschain
Blackhawk
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2011
- Messages
- 508
Learned about this through my SCV camp and thought some here might be interested as it touches on several subjects.
During the War Between the States, there was this guy named Jack Hinson that owned a plantation called Bubbling Springs, near Dover, TN and Fort Donelson (now part of Land Between the Lakes) He was not a secessionist, and in fact sold to the yankees and General Grant even visited his plantation. To make a long story short, his sons were out hunting near his farm one morning, they were captured by a yankee patrol, shot, beheaded, had their bodies dragged to Dover for display, and their heads stuck on the gateposts. Their father vowed revenge and proceeded to conduct a one man war. He freed his slaves and gave them land on the condition they take care of his wife, ordered a custom built long range rifle, then used it to kill over 100 yankees. He started with the officer and sergeant that had killed his son, then proceeded from there. One of his favorite spots was a bluff over the TN river where he would pick off officers on troopships as they had to fight the current through the chute. In one case he shot so many the troopship actually anchored and surrendered, (although being just one guy he couldn't take any prisoners).
Am reading the book right now. Here is the lead in from the flap...
A quiet, unassuming, and wealthy plantation owner, Jack Hinson was focused on his family life and seasonal plantings when the Civil War started to permeate the isolated valleys of the Kentucky-Tennessee border area where he lived. He was uniquely neutral--friend to both Confederate and Union generals--and his family exemplified the genteel, educated, gracious, and hardworking qualities highly valued in their society. By the winter of 1862, the Hinsons' happy way of life would change forever.
Jack Hinson's neutrality was shattered the day Union patrols moved in on his land, captured two of his sons, accused them of being bushwhackers, and executed them on the roadside. The soldiers furthered the abuse by decapitating the Hinson boys and placing their heads on the gateposts of the family estate. The Civil War, now literally on Hinson's doorstep, had become painfully personal, and he could remain dispassionate no longer. He commissioned a special rifle, a heavy-barreled .50-caliber weapon designed for long-range accuracy. He said goodbye to his family, and he took to the wilderness seeking revenge.
Hinson, nearly sixty years of age, alone, and without formal military training, soon became a deadly threat to the Union. A Confederate sniper, he made history after single-handedly bringing down an armed Union transport and serving as a scout for Nathan Bedford Forrest. A tenacious and elusive figure, Hinson likely killed more than one hundred Union soldiers, recording the confirmed deaths on the barrel of his rifle with precision.
Despite the numbers of men sent to kill him, Hinson evaded all capture, and like his footsteps through the Kentucky and Tennessee underbrush, his story has been shrouded in silence--until now. The result of fifteen years of research, this remarkable biography presents the never-before-told history of Jack Hinson, his savage war on his country, and the brutal cost of vengeance and war.
https://www.amazon.com/Jack-Hinsons-One-Man-Civil-Sniper/dp/1589806409
Not only did Jack survive the war (although I think he lost 6 sons total), his RIFLE DID TOO. Although I haven't seen it, several of the guys in the camp have. It is owned by a judge in Murfreesboro and he occasionally takes it around to gun shows.
http://www.murfreesboropost.com/whittle-civil-war-sniper-rifle-dealt-death-to-yankees-cms-26639
And here it is...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZJMRF9-evI
Some pictures here. Hard to see in the pics but in the book you can clearly see the circles he punched in for each of his kills. He has 36 circles on the gun, presumably one for each yankee officer.. If you google the rifle you can probably find better pics..
http://www.guns.com/2012/02/09/jack-hinson-the-civil-war-sniper/
Here is his gravesite...
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=36177684
Just one story of many in the guerrilla war fought here in TN. The Cumberland plateau, especially the Sparta area, was even worse. Just google names like Champ Ferguson, Pomp Kersey, etc.. to see how the locals fought back against yankee occupation...
During the War Between the States, there was this guy named Jack Hinson that owned a plantation called Bubbling Springs, near Dover, TN and Fort Donelson (now part of Land Between the Lakes) He was not a secessionist, and in fact sold to the yankees and General Grant even visited his plantation. To make a long story short, his sons were out hunting near his farm one morning, they were captured by a yankee patrol, shot, beheaded, had their bodies dragged to Dover for display, and their heads stuck on the gateposts. Their father vowed revenge and proceeded to conduct a one man war. He freed his slaves and gave them land on the condition they take care of his wife, ordered a custom built long range rifle, then used it to kill over 100 yankees. He started with the officer and sergeant that had killed his son, then proceeded from there. One of his favorite spots was a bluff over the TN river where he would pick off officers on troopships as they had to fight the current through the chute. In one case he shot so many the troopship actually anchored and surrendered, (although being just one guy he couldn't take any prisoners).
Am reading the book right now. Here is the lead in from the flap...
A quiet, unassuming, and wealthy plantation owner, Jack Hinson was focused on his family life and seasonal plantings when the Civil War started to permeate the isolated valleys of the Kentucky-Tennessee border area where he lived. He was uniquely neutral--friend to both Confederate and Union generals--and his family exemplified the genteel, educated, gracious, and hardworking qualities highly valued in their society. By the winter of 1862, the Hinsons' happy way of life would change forever.
Jack Hinson's neutrality was shattered the day Union patrols moved in on his land, captured two of his sons, accused them of being bushwhackers, and executed them on the roadside. The soldiers furthered the abuse by decapitating the Hinson boys and placing their heads on the gateposts of the family estate. The Civil War, now literally on Hinson's doorstep, had become painfully personal, and he could remain dispassionate no longer. He commissioned a special rifle, a heavy-barreled .50-caliber weapon designed for long-range accuracy. He said goodbye to his family, and he took to the wilderness seeking revenge.
Hinson, nearly sixty years of age, alone, and without formal military training, soon became a deadly threat to the Union. A Confederate sniper, he made history after single-handedly bringing down an armed Union transport and serving as a scout for Nathan Bedford Forrest. A tenacious and elusive figure, Hinson likely killed more than one hundred Union soldiers, recording the confirmed deaths on the barrel of his rifle with precision.
Despite the numbers of men sent to kill him, Hinson evaded all capture, and like his footsteps through the Kentucky and Tennessee underbrush, his story has been shrouded in silence--until now. The result of fifteen years of research, this remarkable biography presents the never-before-told history of Jack Hinson, his savage war on his country, and the brutal cost of vengeance and war.
https://www.amazon.com/Jack-Hinsons-One-Man-Civil-Sniper/dp/1589806409
Not only did Jack survive the war (although I think he lost 6 sons total), his RIFLE DID TOO. Although I haven't seen it, several of the guys in the camp have. It is owned by a judge in Murfreesboro and he occasionally takes it around to gun shows.
http://www.murfreesboropost.com/whittle-civil-war-sniper-rifle-dealt-death-to-yankees-cms-26639
And here it is...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZJMRF9-evI
Some pictures here. Hard to see in the pics but in the book you can clearly see the circles he punched in for each of his kills. He has 36 circles on the gun, presumably one for each yankee officer.. If you google the rifle you can probably find better pics..
http://www.guns.com/2012/02/09/jack-hinson-the-civil-war-sniper/
Here is his gravesite...
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=36177684
Just one story of many in the guerrilla war fought here in TN. The Cumberland plateau, especially the Sparta area, was even worse. Just google names like Champ Ferguson, Pomp Kersey, etc.. to see how the locals fought back against yankee occupation...
