A possible Civil War site maybe located right here in Smyrna? Since I moved here in ’99 I have heard from the locals of Confederate grave sites, a hospital, and camp site being just a few hundred feet from my farm. I never thought much of the stories, but, I enjoyed them none the less. Recently a series of event have led me to think that there is some truth to the stories. That first event was the conformation of what I thought was an unrelated story, that of a large cave located on the backside of the hill my farm is on. I’ve found that cave (actually what I found are the GPS coordinates to the cave from the States registry). Near the cave are a series of small half moon shaped rock walls, which leads me to the next event, I viewed a painting of a Civil War camp in which the tents had the same small rock walls around them. I told this to one of those locals and he told me that there is an artesian well near the camp and that the Confederate soldiers would harass commerce long the road from Smyrna and Nolensville. So I went back to the site and found the well and noticed that the site overlooked Rock Springs Road, which was the main road to Nolensville at that time.
So how where do I go with this? I haven’t much in the way of free time to research this myself, but would hate to see the site bulldozed over without being investigated first. Did I mention, the site is slated to be developed very soon? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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7 comments:
Do you know who owns the site? It would be pretty uncomfortable for anyone to do much investigating without permission. Otherwise, I would suggest contacting someone with the history department at MTSU. Maybe Dr. McWaters?
I have a metal detector you can borrow, if you want to search your property. That's the first thing I would do... who knows what you could find!
Thanks Rebecca, good advice on finding out who owns the property, I know who owned it up to about a year ago. The town planning department should be able to tell me who owns it how. David thanks for the offer of the metal detector. I just recieved an e-mail from the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association. I'll what to see what they have to say before I go back.
Another way to go might be to contact the State Archaeologist.
http://www.tennessee.gov/environment/arch/
Thanks for the link, I contact them if I don't hear back from the TCWPA before the end of the week.
How awesome! My father is a HUGE Civil War buff and is always wanting to visit different sites around TN when he comes down to visit from Ohio.
I don't have any advice but Good Luck and what a great find!!
Just a quick update, I spoke to the previous owner, the rock walls are not from the civil war era The cave, however, he believes was used by the Confederate Army as a field hospital.
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