"Skulking bushwhackers"

Divided loyalties in Anderson County, as elsewhere in East Tennessee, often erupted in violence. It was commonplace for guerillas on both sides to raid farms and capture opposing sympathizers. In the county seat of Clinton, Confederates established a conscription center to draft men into military service. Many Unionists, trying to avoid conscription, stole across the border into Kentucky to join the Federal army. They used "Eli's Cabin," built by county resident Eli Lovejoy Ward, as a safe house to rest and eat before heading over the mountains.

A small engagement occurred in the county on July 25, 1862, when a Federal foraging party fired on Confederate cavalry pickets at Clinton Ferry. Confederate forces moved quickly to establish control of the area. An East Tennessee correspondent for the Atlanta Intelligencer reported, "The number of [Confederate] troops gathering here renders this a place of some interest ... situated on the Clinch river, twenty miles north of Knoxville. ... Cooking utensils, baggage and tents, have been given up, and large supplies of ammunition are being collected. There are no armed enemies near us, except the skulking bushwhackers, and they are getting extremely cautious in their movements." Even after the war ended, resentments lingered.

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Norris