On this day in 1862, Union and Confederate soldiers met in Lawrenceburg in one of the first recorded fights of the Civil War in Lawrence County…and it ended with Union troops hauling off thousands of pounds of captured bacon.

On April 4, 1862, Union Brig. General Milo S. Hascall was ordered to capture a force of Confederate cavalry at Lawrenceburg, a force which his commanding officer told him numbered around 500. Hascall proceeded cautiously in the rain, leaving cavalrymen at every house they passed to prevent word from spreading of their arrival.

Approaching Lawrenceburg from the west, Hascall learned that the number of Confederate cavalrymen in Lawrenceburg actually numbered between 50 and 100. Hascall sent the infantry back to their camp and ordered a charge on the town by Lt. Col. Murray with the cavalry.

The Confederates split up on the Military Road, some going north and some going south. Hascall’s men pursued them for eight miles, but could not keep up with their fresh horses. Two of the Confederates were wounded, as evidenced by the blood upon their horses, which fell into Union hands.

Hascall reported that they captured “6 cavalry horses and saddles, about 4,000 pounds of fine bacon, a dozen or two shot-guns and squirrel rifles, and 2 drums.” He goes on to say that Union sentiment is high everywhere he went, except Lawrenceburg. His men then camped near Lawrenceburg and “procured wagons in the neighborhood with which to transport the captured bacon.”

Colonel John T. Wilder of Indiana (a future mayor of Chattanooga) was present at the skirmish. In a letter to his wife, he said his men were sent from Columbia to Lawrenceburg to disperse a gang of rebels. According to his letter, they captured “5,000 lbs of bacon, a couple dozen guns two drums a flag, 6 horses & saddles and wounding two secesh cavalry also getting their mail—the balance ran.”