Guarding Springfield

Early in the war, townswomen met at the Henry H. Kirk house just north of here to sew uniforms and blankets for Confederate soldiers after Kirk bought sewing machines and patterns in St. Louis, Missouri. When the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry hoisted the Stars and Stripes in Springfield on March 25, 1862, Federal occupation began and shaped everyday life there for the rest of the war. Pvt. William Thomas of the 9th Pennsylvania wrote in his diary that he “camped on a Hill looking over the town, name of hill-pulltight.” The Federals constructed a fortified camp there to observe the city and protect the Edgefield and Kentucky Railroad. A line of earthworks was built from the fort’s north side to Sulphur Fork Creek, and another line extended a mile from the south end of the camp. Union soldiers also manned railroad blockhouses at Baker’s Station, the Ridgetop Trestle, the Dry Creek Trestle at Greenbrier, Sulphur Fork Trestle, and the Red River Blockhouse No. 1 near Adams. Federal troops guarded the town spring and confiscated firearms from local citizens, including the tools of local gunsmith Philip Anglin. The occupying forces took what they needed. At the abandoned Confederate base Camp Cheatham near Cedar Hill, soldiers recalled that they tore down houses used by Confederates for a commissary and hospital and used the boards to floor their tents. By August 1864, Col. Thomas J. Downey and the 15th U.S. Colored Infantry were stationed there and guarded the town and its valuable railroad line until the end of the war.

Springfield, Tennessee · United States