Rogersville Engagements

In June 1861, Hawkins County was divided over secession, with 1,250 residents voting against it and 835 in favor; rural residents tended to support the Union, while townspeople such as those in Rogersville sided with the Confederacy. Confederate forces often occupied Rogersville during the war. On August 21, 1864, Union General Alvan C. Gillem sent Lt. Col. William H. Ingerton of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry to drive them out, and the Federals killed 23 and captured 35. Two days later, after Confederate forces reoccupied Rogersville, Ingerton returned and killed 13 and captured 24. During Federal occupations, the Hale Springs Inn usually served as headquarters. Confederate Congressman Joseph B. Heiskell was among those captured in Ingerton's first attack. A Rogersville lawyer, Heiskell argued cases in the courthouse and campaigned there during his 1857-1859 terms in the Tennessee General Assembly. He opposed secession at first but changed his mind after the attack on Fort Sumter and President Abraham Lincoln's call for volunteers, and he was elected to the Confederate Congress in 1862. Gillem wrote to Lincoln that "Joe Heiskell walked to meet us [to surrender]," and Lincoln teasingly asked whether that meant more than that Heiskell was scared and wanted to save his skin. Heiskell was imprisoned for the rest of the war at Camp Chase, Ohio. After his release, he served as a delegate to the 1870 Tennessee Constitutional Convention, as attorney general, and as state court reporter, and he compiled Heiskell's Reports of Tennessee Supreme Court Cases, which remain in use. He died in 1913. The Greek Revival-style courthouse, one of the earliest surviving in Tennessee, was built in 1836-1837 from architect John Dameron's design, and during the Civil War each side used it at different times as a headquarters.

Rogersville, Tennessee · United States