I have been an avid Civil War buff since grade school and have studied the stories, tactics and movements of such leaders as: Generals Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, William Sherman and most notably Nathan Bedford Forrest. Gen. Forrest caught my attention since his forces operated near my hometown in 1862 and 1864. Of late, my geocaching has taken me to another charismatic leader, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan. In 2007 while attending a NCO school at Ft. Knox, KY a beginning geocacher went with me and we found two caches on the north side of the Ohio River in Indiana. The caches were in reference to where Gen. Morgan crossed the Ohio River on a long raid of Kentucky, Indiana and captured in Ohio. At the time there were 24 caches on this 1,000 mile raid. We found Morgan's Raid Part 01 of 24 and Morgan Raid Part 02 of 24. I didn't realize until we were reading the markers that we were at a location of such historical significance.
Working more on the Tennessee County Challenge I have run across more geocaches in reference to the "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy". The most interesting was Battle of Hartville Remembered where Confederate force outnumbered but with the element of surprise defeated a Union unit. A neat monument (pictured above) is located in the cemetery along with Confederate dead from the battle. Also found December 7, 1862 a geocache that took me onto the battlefield.
Later in the Nashville area, I stopped to visit a friend of mine in Gallatin, TN whom retired from the National Guard. I had time to kill and had to be at the airport in Nashville at midnight to pick up my daughter who visited the Grand Canyon. We went geocaching in his home town and we found A Circle with Corners. I marveled at the sight in the cemetery, a Confederate garden and when I saw the units the men were assigned too, I commented to my friend, "These were Morgan's men".
I hope that I work more on the Tennessee County Challenge I run across interesting locations as ones I just described.
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