Ravine Used For Protection Against Yankee Shelling

Ravine Used For Protection Against Yankee Shelling. . The first major attack on Guntersville during the Civil War occurred on the morning of Monday, July 28, 1862. The Federals had marched by night and had reached a hill on the north side of the Tennessee River and from this vantage point aimed their cannons at the small town of Guntersville., The Federals, led by Major J.W. Paramore of the Third Ohio Cavalry, included a regiment of Union Infantry, and a section of artillery with two 6 pounder Parrott guns., At 6 a.m., when the Federals began shelling the town, many of its citizens fled to the deep ravine, which extended from the main street to present Blount Avenue. More than one hundred women and children huddled here against the slopes of the ravine for twelve hours until the shelling ended at 6 p.m., While considerable damage was inflicted by the shelling, only two people were killed. One was Mrs. Evergreen Findley Rayburn, the wife of Samuel King Rayburn, who was the Confederate general in charge of militia for North Alabama and a later mayor of Guntersville., The shelling incident was reported in John Allan Wyeth's book, With Sabre and Scalpel and the Chattanooga Daily Rebel newspaper.