On this day 161 years ago, Lawrence County was full of soldiers, and their presence left a lasting memorial in the name of a local road.

General John B. Hood’s Confederate Army of Tennessee pushed north from Florence on November 21, 1864. The army marched in three columns, with Forrest’s cavalry screening the movements of the infantry behind it. On November 22, the three columns of the army were packed into Lawrence and Wayne Counties as they wound their way north toward Nashville.

Hood Road in western Lawrence County’s Deerfield community is named in honor of General Hood, whose army used the route during the Nashville Campaign. Several years ago, local historian Anna Burns preserved an interesting bit of local lore about Hood’s brief presence in the area that won’t be found in the War Department’s Official Records.

As the story goes, local boy Jim Bryant sat on a split rail fence and watched as elements of Hood’s army forded Granddaddy Creek in the same place that South Hood Road crosses it today. Shortly after fording the creek, the army struggled to move its artillery and equipment up a steep hill, while little Jim watched on.

According to the story, the troops made camp at the crest of the hill and stayed there for two days. Incidentally, two of the soldiers are said to have died while encamped there and were buried in unmarked graves nearby.

The fascinated boy watched the army while it was encamped on the hill, and took possession of one of the soldier’s hats, having never owned a real hat of his own. The hat, it was said, was riddled with close-call bullet holes.

When the army struck camp and moved on, the soldier whose hat young Bryant had taken saw the boy and repossessed the hat. The boy was so upset at having lost his prize that he followed the army step-for-step for a distance, crying and protesting at the top of his lungs.

It is said that General Hood, himself, intervened on the boy’s behalf to stop his crying. He ordered the soldier to give his hat back to the boy, who then scampered back home.