County of marker: White County
Location of marker: Liberty Square & W. Maple St., Sparta
Marker erected by: Tennessee Discovery Trails
Marker text:
THE WAR AROUND SPARTA
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Divided Loyalties
"Little though have I had that I should ever live to see civil war in this, our goodly land, but so it is! ...
There will be many a divided family in this once happy Union. There will be father against son,
and brother against brother." -- Amanda McDowell, Sparta, 1861
"Brother against brother" sums up the divided loyalties families faced in White County during the Civil War. In 1862, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg's troops marched through the Sparta town square on route to invade Kentucky. Later, an estimated 600 Confederate guerrillas operated in the area, and Sparta served periodically as a Federal base under Union Col. William H. Stokes, 5th Tennessee Cavalry. In February 1864, Stokes wrote that "It will take some time and continued scouting to break up these bands, but you may be assured no time will be lost and no effort spared to rid the country of them."
The notorious Confederate guerrilla, Champ Ferguson, is buried north of Sparta in France Cemetery. On February 22, 1864, 60 partisans including Ferguson, overwhelmed two of Stokes' companies ten miles northwest of here in the "Battle of Dog Hill." After the war, Federal officials arrested Ferguson, then tried and convicted him of war-time atrocities. He was hanged on October 20, 1865.
The Federals utilized a high point in Sparta, the historic City Cemetery, as a post for observing river, rail, and turnpike traffic. Confederate Gen. George Gibbs Dibrell (1822-1888) is buried there. Dibrell formed the 8th Tennessee Cavalry on September 4, 1862, with 921 men, mostly farmers, from White and adjoining counties. The White County Heritage Museum houses the Colt revolver that Dibrell's "friends and citizens of Sparta" presented to him in 1862.
Tom Burgess operated a gristmill at present-day Burgess Falls State Park, located north of Sparta, during the war. The mill served the community there for more than a century.