Battle of Morning Sun 1862 Fact or Fiction

Ken Williams

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Feb 28, 2015
Hello, I read your article on the Battle of Morning Sun. There are soldiers buried there in fact but they are Southern partisan rangers and not Union soldiers as told by the Church since 1900. Myself and a friend planted the 12 Union headstones several years ago without verifying the church stories concerning the battle. Facts show, you are correct there were no Union casualties as recorded by O.R. records. The story of buried Union soldiers originated at a 1900 Memphis Press Scimitar celebration by a Dr. who was speaking at the celebration. He claimed as a boy he saw the actual battle and spoke of heroic actions. While his story elicited cheers from the crowd attending, it was false. He made the mistake of mentioning specific names of soldiers and persons involved and after careful study, we found the traditional church story to be completely false. The graves in fact hold the remains of the 13 Southern boys who died in the battle.
 
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Never heard of it. Place? Date? And welcome to the wonderful world of who, what, and why?
 
Hello, I read your article on the Battle of Morning Sun. There are soldiers buried there in fact but they are Southern partisan rangers and not Union soldiers as told by the Church since 1900. Myself and a friend planted the 12 Union headstones several years ago without verifying the church stories concerning the battle. Facts show, you are correct there were no Union casualties as recorded by church records. The story of buried Union soldiers originated at a 1900 Memphis Press Scimitar celebration by a Dr. who was speaking at the celebration. He claimed as a boy he saw the actual battle and spoke of heroic actions. While his story elicited cheers from the crowd attending, it was false. He made the mistake of mentioning specific names of soldiers and persons involved and after careful study, we found the traditional church story to be completely false. The graves in fact hold the remains of the 13 Southern boys who died in the battle.
Was that doctor Brian Williams?
 
Was that doctor Brian Williams?
His name was Dr. Charlie Davis and he was asked to speak at the centennial celebration for the paper. The story he told is very similar to Scarlet Ohara's event when she shoots the "intruding Yankee.". He claimed Thomas Clayburn a soldier in a Ohio unit broke into a house to kill a paralized man and the man's niece, Jennie Vaughn, shot and killed him. Records show there was no Thomas Clayburn in any Ohio unit. There was a man by that name who fought in the 1st Maryland Cav. a Union outfit but they were never in TN and only fought against the A.N.V . No record exits of a Jennie Vaughn as well in that area. He would have known that Southern soldiers were in the graves but again, that wouldn't be a story people wanted to hear at that time. We asked for 13 headstones and the govt. sent 12. We knew 13 soldiers were buried there just not who they were until after the fact. The 13 graves were dug for Confederate soldiers after the battle by town folks but they never gave them proper head stones. After 1900, the story grew so big in our area that the church still won't change its records on the battle. Folklore isn't always fact as you know. Thanks
 
FYI, The Confederate soldiers were partisans from Porter's Partisans and Faulkner's Kentucky Rangers. Sure wish we would have planted the correct head stones. The men deserve it.
"Then call us rebels if you will, we glory in the name. For bending under unjust laws and swearing faith to an unjust cause, we count as greater shame." Richmond Daily Dispatch May 1862
 
Welcome from another Memphian!

There was a discussion about Morning Sun on this forum not long ago, and it wasn't clear to me exactly where Morning Sun was. Although modern people say Lakeland, the period maps and road names don't seem like it was very close to Lakeland. Where is the cemetery exactly?
 
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