Duval-Groves House

Duval-Groves House. Camp Trousdale. James Duval constructed this house between 1850 and 1853, and James and Mariah Groves owned and occupied it during the Civil War. Mariah Groves lived here until her death in 1897. Groves family members shown in the photograph reminisced about soldiers who knocked on their doors (one died on that front step) and about nearby Camp Trousdale, a major Confederate training camp., Established in 1861, Camp Trousdale was relocated twice before settling permanently just under a mile east of here. The camp contained tents and temporary huts constructed on Summers Beach. Most soldiers arrived by train, and by July 1861, the camp held more than 6,000 men., After the fall of Fort Donelson in February 1862, thousands of Union soldiers streamed past here southward along the Louisville and Nashville Turnpike and the railroad. Because of their numbers and the lack of army provisions, they foraged here and throughout the countryside for food and supplies. The Duval-Groves is a private residence., “The fine brick house that was near the junction of the turnpike and the branch along which the soldiers went to camp hardly seems a day older. The small grove of cedars in the yard has grown to magnificent proportions. The old drill field does not seem as large as then. Besides, there are well-grown forests where then were tillable fields. The old mill, by which there was a brewery at which we got still beer that looked like buttermilk and was both delicious and as harmless, is still there and well preserved.” , Capt. Hester, who revisited the Duval-Groves House and the site of Camp Trousdale in 1909, (captions) , This idealized view of a “Confederate camp” was published in London in 1871. - Courtesy Library of Congress , Duval-Groves House - Courtesy Robertson County Archives