White House and Tyree Springs

White House and Tyree Springs. Caught in the Grip of War. Thousands of soldiers with their wagons, livestock, and equipment travelled on the Louisville and Nashville Turnpike (present-day U.S. Hwy. 31 W) during the Civil War. Early in 1862, Union Gen. Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio used this major north-south transportation route when it marched from Kentucky to Nashville. Confederate cavalry under Gen. John Hunt Morgan ambushed the leading division at Tyree Springs and continuously harassed Union forces along their line of march., The Stage Coach Inn, or The White House, for which the town is named, stood north of here. South of here, Tyree Springs occupied the halfway point between the Kentucky state line and Nashville. Briefly home to the Western Military Institute (under Commandant Bushrod R. Johnson, later a Confederate general) late in the 1850s, Tyree Springs was also a famous summer resort., Tyree Springs's plentiful water prompted both sides to station troops there at different times. Noted partisan ranger Ellis Harper first mustered into Confederate service with the 30th Tennessee Infantry at the Tyree Springs Hotel in 1861. On December 23, 1862, the hotel burned to the ground. Although locals and Southern newspapers attributed the fire to Union soldiers, its cause was never determined., “Just after dark, in the midst of our horse-feeding and coffeeboiling, a bright reflection was observed over the trees in the direction of the Springs. The light rapidly increased in intensity and compass until the whole northern sky was illuminated. Soon the huge columns of smoke that began to roll up above the woods, … confirmed too truly our fears that the hotel was on fire.” , Sgt. John A.B. Williams, 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry, (Captions) , Northern Middle Tennessee, ca. 1865 -Library of Congress , Morgan's Raiders, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (1896) , Gen. Don Carlos Buell, Courtesy Library of Congress , Gen. John Hunt Morgan, Courtesy Library of Congress