Old Johnsonville

Old Johnsonville was named for Andrew Johnson, military governor of Tennessee from 1862 to 1865. Although the community had been a steamboat landing before the Civil War, it gained prominence as a major supply depot only after the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad was completed by the Union Army in May 1864. Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest destroyed the supply depot on Nov. 4, 1864, and despite two Union redoubts built near the town to defend it, the guns in the earthworks were inadequate, allowing Forrest to destroy the supply base and the defending gunboat flotilla as well. After the war, Johnsonville thrived for forty years as a river-rail transfer point, but severe flooding stopped its growth. T. V. A. later purchased the land for Kentucky Lake, and in 1945 the town ceased to exist.

Eva, Tennessee · United States