Although no Civil War battles were fought at The Hermitage, the war touched Andrew Jackson's farm in many ways. Jackson had been a firm Unionist, putting down Nullification and its potential for civil war during his presidency, but after his death his adopted son Andrew Jackson Jr. and his wife Sarah supported the South. When Tennessee seceded, the president's grandsons joined the Confederate army, as did two of Sarah Jackson's nephews who also were reared here. Three of the young men died, and Andrew Jackson III was taken prisoner twice. Soldiers on the Lebanon Turnpike and others foraging for supplies took livestock and caused various kinds of damage at The Hermitage. Nashville fell to the Union army in February 1862 and remained in Federal hands until the end of the war in 1865. Although Union control did not extend far into the countryside and The Hermitage was in Confederate territory, members of both armies visited here. On August 22, 1862, the Natchez Daily Courier reported that Mrs. Andrew Jackson, Jr., and her sister Mrs. Adams most cordially received Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and Col. Lawton during a gathering at The Hermitage to celebrate the anniversary of the battle of Manassas, and Forrest's arrival increased the enthusiasm of the party on the same day he learned of his promotion from colonel to general. Earlier, Maj. J. A. Brents of the 1st KY, Cav. (U.S.) wrote of stopping at The Hermitage on May 8, 1862, visiting Jackson's tomb, marching around it in double file, and being waited upon by an old Negro who had been one of General Jackson's attendants while Mr. Jackson, the proprietor, was away.