Mansker Creek-Louisville and Nashville Railroad - Goodlettsville TN - Civil War Discovery Trail Sites on Waymarking.com

Mansker Creek-Louisville and Nashville Railroad-- The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, among Tennessee’s most strategically important lines, closely followed Mansker Creek here, and a railroad bridge stood two miles downstream. To protect the railroad and the bridge, several companies of Union soldiers camped along Mansker Creek beginning in 1862.
On August 20, 1862, Confederate Col. John Hunt Morgan and his brigade pursued a detachment of 300 Union cavalrymen along the railroad in this vicinity. The Federals had arrested nearly all the male citizens—boys and old men—of Gallatin and were marching them along the tracks to Nashville. Morgan chased the cavalrymen down, killed most of them (allegedly shooting some after they surrendered), and attacked a nearby guard stockade. Morgan succeeded in freeing most of the civilian prisoners.

The next month, Union Col. William B. Stoke and the 5th Tennessee Cavalry returned the favor, raiding a Confederate position near Goodlettsville and surprising Confederate Col. James D. Bennett’s 9th Tennessee Cavalry (Morgan’s command). Numbering only 150 against Bennett’s 400, Stokes and his men galloped, shooting into the Confederate camp. Bennett’s men returned fire as they scattered in all directions, and the Federals chased them for at least three miles. Bennett lost 40 killed or wounded and 39 prisoners, while the Federals suffered no casualties. Stokes reported, “The way was strewn with clothing, arms, &c., showing it was a complete rout.”
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Union Gen. William Bowen Campbell (1807-1867) was born on Mansker Creek in 1807, either in a house on the bank about a hundred yards to your left, or in the larger brick house to your right. When the war came, both United States and the Confederate governments offered a general’s commission to Campbell, who was a Mexican War hero and former governor of Tennessee. President Abraham Lincoln commissioned him a brigadier general of volunteers in 1862, but Campbell resigned later that year because of ill health. After the war, Campbell served briefly in the U.S. Congress.

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(lower left) Louisville and Nashville Railroad
(upper center)Stockade for U.S. guard on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, Harper’s Weekly, Feb 7, 1863
(upper right) Gov. William B. Campbell Courtesy Historic Mansker’s Station Museum

Type of site: Transportation Route or Facility Address: 745 Caldwell Drive on the grounds of Moss-Wright Park. Goodlettsville , TN USA 37072, Admission Charged: No Charge Website: [Web Link] Phone Number: Not listed Driving Directions: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   10/06/2021 Don.Morfe visited it