Thousands of Tennessee families were caught in the crossfire of the Civil War, and the family of Dempsey Parker of the Hillsdale community in Macon County was sharply divided between North and South. Dempsey Parker, a respected elder, had served in the War of 1812 and was an ardent Unionist. His son Isaac Newton Parker served in Confederate Lt. Col. James D. Bennett’s 7th Tennessee Cavalry, while son Daniel Webster Parker joined Co. H, 5th Kentucky Cavalry (US). Another son, Alfred B. Parker, who did not enlist, was killed in March 1863 by unknown guerrillas. A fourth son, Elvis Brooks Parker, enlisted in the 7th Tennessee Cavalry in October 1861, went home after 90 days believing his enlistment had expired, and then joined the Federal 5th Kentucky Cavalry. In August 1862, Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan’s troops captured Elvis Parker near Gallatin, and a court martial found him guilty of desertion and of fighting in the Federal ranks against his own countrymen. Dempsey Parker declared that he would not renounce his devotion to the Union even if it cost his son his life, and he challenged Morgan to shoot him if the general disliked those sentiments. On August 23, Elvis Brooks Parker was executed by firing squad at Morgan’s camp at Mills Woods near Hartsville. Daniel Webster Parker continued serving in the 5th Kentucky Cavalry (US) for the rest of the war and died in Trousdale Co. in 1909.