Fayetteville Stone Bridge

Fayetteville Stone Bridge. Safe Passage over the River. In 1862, Lincoln County and Fayetteville residents celebrated the completion of a local engineering marvel, a huge stone bridge over the Elk River, that they hoped would ensure the continual prosperity of this agricultural community. The 450-foot six-arch limestone bridge cost almost $40,000 to build., When the Civil War began, Lincoln County's residents overwhelmingly supported secession, and almost 5,000 men enlisted as Confederate soldiers. Union forces briefly occupied the town in April 1862. A year later, Union Gen. David S. Stanley ordered Col. Eli Long's troops here, and a garrison remained until the war's end, using the courthouse to shelter both soldiers and horses., In November 1863, Union Gen. William T. Sherman's Army of the Tennessee moved through Fayetteville, where the Stone Bridge provided safe passage across the Elk River, en route from Memphis to Chattanooga. Sherman ordered the bridge destroyed, but the order was not followed. In the fall of 1864, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest led raids in north Alabama and Middle Tennessee to disrupt rail transportation and Federal communications. Forrest reported, "On the 28th I reached Fayetteville. During the day I ordered Capt. Boone, of my escort, to proceed with twenty men as rapidly as possible to the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad and cut the same, with telegraph wires, at some point north of Tullahoma.”, The Stone Bridge survived the war but a flood destroyed it in 1969. Its stones were used in the construction of this park’s pedestrian bridge., (sidebar) , Despite the county's ardent support of the Confederacy, a few Unionist families resisted. John A. Hamilton, a Union supporter from Illinois with relatives in Lincoln County, wrote to military governor Andrew Johnson for help: “Sir: I wish hereby to lay before you the condition of my Union friends in Middle Tennessee. ... They live in Lincoln Co. ... There were many union men, mostly young men, who were in great trouble, the rebel officers having conscripted them and told them they would send a guard or company of armed men after them. Some talked of hiding, others of resisting.", (Captions) , Bottom left: Gen. David S. Stanley (left) and Col. Eli Long (right) Courtesy Library of Congress , Top middle: Gen. William T. Sherman Courtesy Library of Congress , Top right: Stone bridge, ca. 1890s Courtesy The Heritage Book Committee