“.. After several semi-decisive battles in this area, the Union Army set up shop and began patrolling the area to help convince the locals that they might want to stand with the Union rather than fall with the Confederates. Many residents felt the devastation of Union forces on their crops, supplies, servants and homesteads. With supplies running short, Union soldiers and their leaders took what they needed in the name of their cause. This not only included supplies, but labor as well. Many black freedmen, as well as those slaves who had not been granted their freedom, were enslaved by Union forces in this area for cheap labor.
Enter Jack Hinson. Two of his sons joined the Confederate Army, yet he tried to stay cordial to both sides. Understanding his decision is difficult for us looking through the lens of history, but he was a tobacco farmer who had freed his slaves, all of whom stayed on to work with him on his farm, and he obviously felt that he had a need to stay neutral. Perhaps he truly had not picked the Confederate cause to support.
This all changed one day when two of his other sons headed to the woods to hunt near the Hinson family farm, Bubbling Springs. The Hinson property lay near Dover, Tennessee. The sons were arrested by a Union patrol, accused of being bushwhackers and executed on the spot…
No justice is given “on the spot” when military forces move in. Abe Lincoln had suspended the writ of habeas corpus (please do yourself a favor and look this up if you do not understand what this is)
Their bodies were taken into Dover. Their remains were dragged around the courthouse square, and then, as a further insult, their heads were cut off and placed in a burlap sack. The patrol then rode to Jack’s farm and placed the heads of his executed sons on the gateposts of his fence. The soldiers searched Jack’s home and surrounding barns from top to bottom looking for contraband, which in this case would be guns. Luckily, they were well hidden.
Jack Hinson picked a side. He swore to himself that he would invoke the law of vengeance for the death and mutilation of his two boys. …”
This guy understood “blowback” .. and he made sure the Union troops understood it by the end of this War Against Southern Independence
Question#1: Why do people call this war a “civil war” when the southern seven states that seceded did NOT want to conquer the WHOLE country? .. duh!
Question#2: Why did Lincoln never admit the states seceded? Because he used the insurrection law from the 1790s (thanks George Washington for helping Congress do this) to call up 75,000 volunteers to put down the “insurrection”.
From Guns-n-Ammo