In April 1861, Randolph became an early center of Confederate defense on the Mississippi River when Tennessee built training camps there for the Provisional Army of Tennessee established by Gov. Isham G. Harris and authorized Fort Randolph and Fort Wright on opposite sides of the Hatchie River as part of the state's military alliance with the Confederate States of America. For several months, enlistees from across Tennessee came to learn soldiering, and with labor forced from enslaved people in the region, they built extensive earthworks and other structures, including a brick powder magazine that still exists at Fort Wright. Young men who had joined infantry, cavalry, or artillery companies in their home counties assembled there and were organized into regiments, among them Nathan Bedford Forrest, who began his military career at Randolph. Col. John P. McCown and Maj. Alexander P. Stewart trained the men at both forts into effective soldiers, producing enough skilled gunners to man not only the batteries there but also Confederate river defenses near New Madrid, Missouri, later in 1861. By 1862, most of the men and guns had been reassigned to other defensive positions, and that summer the Confederates abandoned the posts. On September 25, 1862, a small group of Confederate guerrillas fired into the unarmed river packet Eugene while it was docked at Randolph landing; no serious damage resulted, but in retaliation Union Gen. William T. Sherman ordered the town burned except for an old church and one dwelling.