At Rock Castle, a plantation established by Gen. Daniel Smith in the 1790s between the Cumberland River and the Nashville and Gallatin Turnpike, the Civil War brought no battle but profound change. Large and prosperous when Tennessee voted for secession in 1861, the plantation held 98 slaves and 1,800 acres. Smith's grandson Harry Smith and his wife Sallie lived there when Union forces occupied the area early in 1862. In May, Sallie wrote to her mother that the Federals were "drawing the reins pretty tight" and had arrested several local residents. During the war, many of the plantation's slaves left for freedom behind Union lines. In October 1863, Sallie Smith died not long after giving birth to her second daughter, Tabitha. Harry Smith remained at the house despite the continuing loss of laborers. In 1864 he wrote to his cousin Andrew Jackson Donelson that 500 soldiers and freedmen were cutting timber on his uncle's property and that he expected them at Rock Castle the following week. After the war ended, Harry Smith began rebuilding the plantation with the help of former slaves, now free tenants, working the land. He died in 1888 and was buried beside Sallie in the family cemetery.