On this weekend 150 years ago, Lawrence County was directly in the center of the Confederate re-invasion of Tennessee known as the Nashville Campaign. 

Launching from Florence, the Army of Tennessee, commanded by General John Bell Hood, split into three main branches. The westernmost branch (Cheatham’s Corps) moved towards Waynesboro, the central branch (Stephen D. Lee’s Corps) moved towards the Turnpike in western Lawrence County, where General Nathan Bedford Forrest was personally engaged in battles at Henryville and Summertown on the 22nd (more about those tomorrow), and the easternmost branch (Stewart’s Corps) traveled north on the Military Road, going east after coming into Lawrenceburg, and sweeping north through Campbellsville. 

Vastly-outnumbered Union scouting parties skirmished with Confederate troops throughout their push northward. One of the commanders of those Union forces was Colonel Datus E. Coon (pictured here). On the night of November 21, 1864, Coon’s troopers camped in Lawrenceburg.

While battling each other, the two armies also had to battle a late-November snowstorm. Coon reported to his superiors that the night of November 21, when his men camped in Lawrenceburg, the weather “was cold, and much snow fell during the afternoon and night following.”

Most of the combat in Lawrence County during the Nashville Campaign occurred on November 22-23, 1864. Stay tuned for more about those actions tomorrow, on their 150th anniversary.