Confederate veterans of Wilson County and other southern soldiers were honored alongside Gen. Robert Hopkins Hatton, who was born in Ohio and moved to Lebanon, Tennessee, to attend Cumberland University. He passed the bar in 1850, was elected to the State Legislature in 1855, and to the United States Congress in 1859. At the outbreak of the War Between the States, Hatton called for volunteers, and 1000 men from Wilson, Smith, Sumner, and DeKalb Counties responded and elected him colonel of the 7th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, CSA. He was promoted to brigadier general on May 23, 1862, and was killed eight days later, on May 31, 1862, at age 36 in the Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks) while defending Richmond, Virginia. He was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Lebanon, Tennessee. After his death, his men were placed in Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, and of Hatton’s original 1000 men, only 47 were present to be surrendered by Gen. Lee at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.