Wayne County's residents supported the Union almost unanimously until fighting began, but after the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861, most people in the county's northern portion shifted to the Confederacy while most in the southern portion remained loyal to the Union. Both sides raised companies during the war: the first Confederate companies became part of Col. Jacob B. Biffle’s 9th Tennessee Cavalry, and local Unionists first joined Co. A, 10th Tennessee Cavalry before later forming the 2nd Tennessee Mounted Infantry under Col. John Murphy. Each side tried to protect its supporters from the other, and a number of skirmishes took place near Clifton, a well-known Tennessee River crossing. Confederate conscription officers often recruited in the area, and on the night of March 23, 1863, a Federal gunboat commander patrolling the river discovered a conscription gathering at Carrollville and ordered his men to shell the town. Although no major military action occurred there during the war, Wayne County saw two large-scale troop movements: in April 1862, Union Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio marched across the country on its way to reinforce Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s army at Shiloh, and in November 1864, Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood led the Army of Tennessee northward through the country before his campaign ended at Franklin and Nashville.