Henderson at War

Henderson at War. Under Occupation. At the time of the Civil War, Henderson was a stop on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad line. First called Dayton and later renamed Henderson Station, the village consisted of houses and stores in a line facing the tracks. After the fall of Fort Donelson in February 1862, Gov. Isham G. Harris ordered Confederate militia “from the counties of Henry, Weakley, Gibson, Carroll, Benton, Decatur, Hardin, McNairy, Hardeman and Madison” to “rendezvous at Henderson Station.” The little town was never the same after that., Confederate Col. Benjamin J. Lea, 52nd Tennessee Infantry, established his headquarters at Henderson Station and dispatched scouting parties during February and March 1862. Gen. Braxton Bragg also ordered new companies to muster at Henderson Station., After the April 1862 Battle of Shiloh, Union troops controlled the town. In November, however, Confederate Assistant Quartermaster A.B. Crook, with 400 troopers of the 18th Tennessee Cavalry, surprised the Union garrison, put the depot to the torch, and burned 74 bales of cotton. The raiders also set fire to a railroad bridge, but “certain ladies” from the town "turn[ed] out with buckets and by their exertions saved it.” Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant then ordered that "the names of these ladies [be] enrolled and direct[ed] that they be protected in their property and the quiet of their homes, and also that rations be issued to them from time to time free of charge.", Henderson remained under Union occupation for the remainder of the war., (captions) , (left) Lloyd's Official Map of Tennessee, 1863 Courtesy Library of Congress , (top center) Henderson Confederate Veterans reunion May 27, 1901; photo taken directly in front of where you are standing. - Courtesy Bobby Barnes , (bottom center) Confederate cavalry raiders, Century Magazine (ca. 1880) , (top right) Polk Bray owned and operated the first business in Henderson here on Front Street. -Courtesy Bobby Barnes