Fielding Hurst, a slave owner but devout Unionist, raised the 6th Tennessee Cavalry during the Civil War as his family dominated a Unionist stronghold in Confederate West Tennessee known as the Hurst Nation. After Tennessee seceded, his outspoken support for the Union led to his imprisonment in Nashville, but after his release he returned to Union-controlled McNairy County, where Military Governor Andrew Johnson commissioned him colonel of his regiment. In January 1864, Union Gen. Benjamin H. Grierson ordered Hurst to Purdy to counter Confederate activity and directed him to destroy armed enemies, live off the country, seize serviceable animals, protect loyal citizens, and destroy guerrilla bands. Hurst had already burned much of Purdy in 1863, and in February 1864 he raided Jackson and exacted a tribute of $5,139. Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest denounced Hurst's wanton destruction of property, and reports of his outrages spread across the region, yet in March Grierson again ordered him to hang on and harass the enemy and to forge upon secession sympathizers. Federal officials later distanced themselves from Hurst's raiding, and Union Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut reported to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant that the 6th and 7th Tennessee had behaved badly. As pressure increased, Hurst resigned his command in December 1864, and after the war he became a federal circuit court judge. By the time of his death in 1882, he was regarded as one of the most feared and controversial figures in West Tennessee history.