The Madden Branch Massacre

North of here on Madden Branch in Polk County, Tennessee, on November 29, 1864, during the American Civil War, six Georgians trying to enlist in the U.S. Army—Thomas Bell, Harvey Brewster, James T. Hughes, James B. Nelson, Elijah Robinson, Peter Parris, and Wyatt J. Parton—were executed by the notorious Confederate guerilla John P. Gatewood, “the long-haired, red-bearded beast from Georgia.” This massacre was one of several atrocities that occurred as the mountain counties divided into pro and anti-Confederate factions. Many Georgians resented the Confederacy's strong central government measures such as conscription, impressment, and taxation and resisted by enlisting in the 5th Tennessee Mounted Infantry (U.S.) and the 1st Georgia State Troops Volunteers (U.S.) or forming their own guerilla units.

McCaysville, Georgia · United States