On the east side of West Chickamauga Creek near Lee and Gordon's Mills on the LaFayette Road stood the imposing Snow Hill plantation established by James H. Hunt, who operated the area's Snow Hill post office from his house. By 1860 Hunt had died, and the plantation was managed by his widow, Clarissa Gordon Hunt, a niece of James Gordon. The 1860 census showed her to be well to do, with real estate valued at $4,000.00 and a personal estate of $10,000.00, including nine enslaved people who lived on the property in two slave houses. Living with Clarissa in the main plantation house were her oldest son, Thomas Hunt, described as a farm laborer, and three younger children, two girls and a boy. When the Confederate Army of Tennessee withdrew from Chattanooga on September 6, 1863, most of the men marched through this area on the LaFayette Road, and General Braxton Bragg also made his headquarters in the area. Since most of his dispatches are headed Snow Hill, it can be assumed that he occupied Clarissa Hunt's house before continuing south to LaFayette. On September 18, 1863, Confederate forces under General Leonidas Polk advanced up the road toward the Federal position at Lee and Gordon's Mills, and throughout the afternoon an artillery duel developed. Most Confederate soldiers lay flat on the ground during this action, and because of the undulating terrain on the eastern side of West Chickamauga Creek, Federal artillery shells did little damage, with many passing over the heads of the prone infantrymen and bursting in the rear. One ball, however, struck the rear of Clarissa Hunt's house, piercing the wall, going through an inner wall and another door before fragmenting. To maintain communication, General Leonidas Polk established a courier line, and one Confederate courier was killed by a piece of shell on the Henderson plantation while eating a piece of cornbread. Members of the Henderson family, who did not know his name, buried him beside the road and later marked the grave. At least two other Confederate soldiers were buried on the Hunt farm after one was taken from Mrs. Hunt's cellar with letters in his pockets indicating he was from South Carolina, and he and another soldier were buried together on the hill north of the house near the main road.

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington