On this day 161 years ago, Confederate General “Fightin'” Joe Wheeler was fightin’ in Lawrence County.

The months leading up to Hood’s ill-fated Nashville campaign in the fall of 1864 saw a noticeable surge in Confederate guerrilla activity in Middle Tennessee, emboldened by raids from Confederate cavalry. Lawrence County, which had been a hotbed of guerrilla activity throughout the Civil War, likewise saw an increase in Confederate presence. That increased presence did not go unnoticed by Union forces.

After a campaign of destroying railroads and doing all he could to disrupt Union forces in Tennessee, on September 6, 1864, General Joe Wheeler’s (pictured here) Confederate cavalry skirmished with Federal cavalrymen under command of General Lovell Rousseau some “thirteen and a half miles from Lawrenceburg” on Lamb’s Ferry Road.

Wheeler, using General Roddey’s force as a shield, beat a hasty retreat into Alabama and across the Tennessee River. Union General R.S. Granger reported to Rousseau that “I have been unwell all the morning…The enemy is about an hour in advance of us. I have very little doubt but he will go to the river to-night and attempt to cross. As Roddey’s command has been up the road he will keep Roddey as a shield to him while he crosses the river. Roddey will probably be fresh enough to get away.”

Wheeler’s was not the only Confederate cavalry presence in the area in the leadup to the Nashville Campaign. In late September, Union scouts reported that Confederate Colonel Jacob Biffle was at Lawrenceburg, with 700 men and two artillery pieces. Biffle was a native of Wayne County, and commanded the 9th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment (sometimes called the 19th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment), which included many men from Lawrence County.

On October 3, 1864, Forrest, himself, and a contingent of his men camped eleven miles east of Lawrenceburg. This flurry preceded the flood of activity that would occur in November 1864, as Hood’s army made its way toward Nashville, in hopes of liberating the city from Union control.

All in all, Lawrenceburg changed hands between the two armies at least seven times in the last four months of 1864.