Colonel Trousdale

Source 

The Mexican War And Its Heroes...

See a biography of William Trousdale (my 1st cousin 7x removed). 

Trouble For The Regulators

This blog posts combines quotes from President Jimmy Carter's novel, The Hornet's Nest, as well as historical data and other blogs (including my In Deeds).  My real-life ancestors, the Trousdales, were there during this era of North Carolina history.

There were characters in The Hornet's Nest who migrated from Philadelphia to Orange County, North Carolina, in 1765. My Trousdales were in Orange County in the 1700's and probably lived in Pennsylvania before moving there, somewhat paralleling the lives of the fictional Pratt brothers.

The western North Carolina farmers in the area of Orange County chafed at the colony's governance, particularly the power wielded by Governor Tryon and Edmund Fanning (Fanning was described as someone who was supposed to be "just the register of deeds, but [made] all the final decisions at the courthouse..".

A deed involving John Trousdale and James Trousdale mentioned the Haw river and Great Alamance:

Whereas John Trousdale, some time ago having purchased a tract of land from Mary E. McCulloch, being the tract in the fork of Haw river and Great Alamance, and containing six hundred and twenty acres... .

Source

"....the Stockards, the Trowsdales, the Freelands, the Albrights....".

A small group of politically active men with grievances formed the Sandy Creek Association.  One of the characters, Henry Pratt, who was a member of the association, "joined up with some other men, both in Orange and other western counties, to form a group known as the Regulators."

William Trousdale and John Trousdale both signed a document vouching for the character of a Regulator who was in trouble, according to this document (and this site).

When the government's militia confronted the Regulators, there was trouble -- big trouble, culminating in the Battle of Alamance.

Source

My ancestor, Alexander Trousdale, moved from Orange County, North Carolina to Montgomery County, Tennessee.

Twilight of Empire by Allan W. Eckert - Part One

Twilight of Empire by Allan W. Eckert featured events on the Illinois frontier that resulted in the Blackhawk War. Careers were bolstered (including A. Lincoln's) on one side. On the other side, Blackhawk's "British-backed" splinter group of the Sac Tribe was decimated. They were unwilling to remain west of the Mississippi River after tribal land east of the Mississippi had been ceded in various treaties.

Much of the war is spent chasing the elusive Blackhawk and keeping others from joining him. Many of the Indians were firmly in the American camp and/or enemies of the Sacs and were not apt to join Blackhawk. Some of the Indians were sympathetic to Blackhawk; the Indian agents worked to keep them out of the war. The whereabouts of Blackhawk or those sympathetic to him were often known by evidence of massacred settlers on the Illinois frontier.

Chronology of the Blackhawk War can be found here.

One of my families, the Trousdales, were in Illinois early so it was not surprising to find a Trousdale or two (Abner & James Trousdale) in the rosters of those who fought in the Blackhawk War.

The Patillos were another one of my early Illinois families. Alexander T. Sullenger (AKA Alexander T. Patillo), who was the half brother of my Felix Grundy Patillo, participated in the Blackhawk War. Another Patillo, Nathan, was listed as "on furlough."

This database provided by the Illinois Secretary of State can be searched for veterans of the Blackhawk War.

The Last Plantation - Part Two

As mentioned in the post "The Last Plantation - Part One," Fanny Trousdale, daughter of Governor Trousdale (after whom Trousdale County, Tennessee, is named) is a (minor) character in the book, The Last Plantation.

p. 146 In Sumner County every road to Gallatin teemed with eager young men bent on joining the Confederacy. Gallatin itself was swarming with would-be soldiers awaiting trains to transport them to Nashville, forty miles away. …The Cragfont ladies presented Captain Humphrey Bate with a company flag made by Sylla. Then Fanny Trousdale, daughter of the former governor of Tennessee, presented Bate with a silk flag made at her home in Gallatin.

From this link, a quote regarding Captain Humphrey Bate:

Col. Bate had a younger brother, Capt. Humphrey Bate to whom he was very much attached. During a lull in the fighting at Shiloh the two brothers met and while they were conversing the Colonel asked for a light for his cigar from the cigar which his brother was smoking, and as he was in the act of lighting the cigar, Capt. Humphrey Bate received a mortal wound from the enemy and died in a few hours. Col. Bate was often seen with cigars in his mouth afterwards, but never lighted one as long as he lived.

Frances (Fanny) Trousdale married John Bell Payton, son of Balie Peyton, Sr. They are buried in the Gallatin Cemetery, as are Fanny's parents.

Camp Trousdale, where the Confederate soldiers featured in the novel initially gathered and trained, was named after Gov. William Trousdale.

p. 147 By the middle of June (1861) there were over six thousand men at Camp Trousdale, a hastily erected training facility near Richland, sixteen miles north of Gallatin.

p. 153 ……Napoleon Winchester, son of George and Malvinia, who was training at Camp Trousdale, now called Camp Zollicoffer, rode to Cragfont to pick up the uniform Sylla had made for him.

p. 210 The first Union soldiers tramped into Gallatin on March second, their band blaring out the strains of “Dixie.” They had a billowing backdrop of black, oily smoke to the north, where the Confederate recruits had burned the barracks and buildings of Camp Zollicoffer, at Richland, before retreating. In Gallatin, church bells tolled as for a funeral. Citizens draped white bed sheets from their windows as the Federal soldiers hauled down and burned the Confederate flag.

Lettie, Susie and Fanny, along with old Mrs. Winchester, were visiting the Trousdales in Gallatin. They stood on the front stoop of Trousdale Place and watched the crisp, neat Union troops parade past.

Another character, Cotton Ferris, mentioned Fanny Trousdale in a letter:

..In Col. Forrest’s Cavalry…at Fort Henry guarding the Tennessee River in case of gunboats. Some of the men’s wives and sweethearts is supposed to come to Fort Donelson which is only fifteen miles across the peninsula on the Cumberland River on Jan. 9 of next year and will leave Nashville on the General Jackson on the 7^th. Fannie Trousdale has a beau in Gen. Head’s 30^th He told me she is coming to see him. Please send the package by her. Yours affectionately, Cotton Ferris

The Last Plantation - Part One

The first post on this blog related to this novel, The Last Plantation, by Don Wright, was dated Monday, May 26, 2008, was Adelicia's First Plantation.

In the novel, Lettie "went on to tell him that much of the furniture had been brought over the mountains in the late 1700’s by her late grandfather, General James Winchester. ‘Tennessee was just a raw frontier.’ Then she added, ‘Perhaps you would care to visit Cragfont some evening and listen to the stories Grandmother can tell about her childhood days at Bledsoe’s, and about Greenfield Fort and the Indian battles that were fought there. I’m just purely certain you would find her stories fascinating." (Grandmother was 82 year old Susan Black Winchester - Note: she may be related to my Black/Acklin family).

More about the Winchester family of Tennessee can be found here and here. A site dedicated to the early settlers can be found here.

p. 186 On January 19, 1862, Clayton’s wish (that a Yankee bullet would find Bailey Peyton because of his jealousy over Lettie – because she was Bailey Peyton’s fiancée) became a reality. General Zollicoffer’s 20^th Tennessee Infantry Regiment was decimated by General George H. Thomas’ Union forces. Dead on the field: General Zollicoffer; dead on the field, Lieutenant Bailey Peyton, Jr.; dead on the field…the list of Sumner County men went on and on.

It was the realization that left Clayton wishing it had been he, not Bailey Peyton, who had fallen in battle at a place called Fishing Creek, Kentucky.

On Feb 1, 1862, the very day on which Lettie had planned to wed, the General Assembly in Nashville interrupted its deliberations to follow Governor Harris and other state officials, including the members of the House and Senate, to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad depot to receive the bodies of Zollicoffer and Peyton. The procession then escorted the two heroes to the Capitol building, where they were to lie in state so the citizens of Nashville might pay their respects.

p. 187 On February second, Bailey Peyton’s casket was put aboard a train and removed to Sumner County for burial.

Bailey Peyton's father, also Bailey Peyton, was, in real life, the father-in-law of Fanny Trousdale; Fanny was also a character in the novel. Of futher interest to me, Fanny and I have common Trousdale ancestors.