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Articles are listed in descending order from most-recently published. Dates indicate the last modification to an article.

• Civil War History by Carroll Van West December 7, 2025

Revolutionary War

The following Cannon County Revolutionary War records are available online through TNGenWeb:

1. 1835 Pension Roll
2. 1852 Rejected or Suspended Pensions

Additional resources include:

• Rejected or Suspended Applications for Revolutionary War Pensions. Washington, D.C., 1852. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1969, and 1991. Reprints include “an Added Index to States.” Digital version at Ancestry ($). Tennessee entries abstracted online at Tennesseans in the Revolutionary War (TNGenWeb).

War of 1812

• Embry, Hermione D. “War of 1812 – Tennessee Pensioners on List – January 2, 1883,” Ansearchin’ News, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan. 1960):13-16. FHL Book 976.8 B2a v. 7 (1960); digital version at journal website. [Includes Cannon County pensioners (pp. 15-16).]

Civil War History

• Civl War Research Database 
• Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System

Civil War service men from Cannon County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies that were specifically formed in or came from Cannon County.

Confederate Soldiers listed below can be found at Family Search

• 1st Battalion, Tennessee Cavalry (McNairy’s) – CSA
• 8th Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry (Smith’s) – CSA – Companies E and G.
• 18th Regiment, Tennessee Infantry – CSA – Companies A and H.
• 23rd Regiment, Tennessee Infantry (Martin’s) – CSA – Company H.
• 35th Regiment, Tennessee Infantry (5th Infantry) (1st Mountain Rifle Regiment) – CSA – 2nd Company E.

Additional sources for Civil War soldiers from Cannon County:

• Hancock, Richard R. Hancock’s Diary: or, A History of the Second Tennessee Calvary. Nashville, Tennessee: Brandon Printing Co., 1887. Free digital copy.  Regiment organized in Auburn, Cannon county. Their movement with the Second Tennessee Calvary.
• Tennessee State Library and Archives, Tennessee Confederate Pension Applications : Cannon County, (accessed 30 Jan 2012). Includes soldier’s name, county, pension #, unit or widow.
• United States Pension Bureau, List of Pensioners on the Roll January 1, 1883: Giving the Name of Each Pensioner, the Cause for … (Washington Printing Office; 1883), (accessed 30 Jan 2012). Online at Internet Archive. Cannon County, page 322.

On June 8, 1861 Tennessee by a vote of 105,000 to 47,000 joined the new Confederacy. The vote in Cannon County was 1,149 for and 127 against. Seven infantry companies were soon raised under the commands of Captain’s Richard Rushing, J. H. St. John, Gran Wood, Timothy Allison, M. M. Brien, Jr., James H. Wood, and John C. New. Two cavalry companies also formed under Captain’s A. H. Wiley and J. W. Nichols. In the autumn of 1861, a regiment of Tennessee Volunteer Infantry was organized at Camp Smartt near McMinnville in Warren County, with Colonel Benjamin Hill commanding. Cannon County furnished volunteers for this regiment. In all, the county (with a population at that time of 9,500) furnished in excess of 1,000 soldiers to the Confederacy.

Not all Cannon County soldiers were in the Confederate armies. By the summer of 1862, Tennessee had fallen to the Union army and Lincoln appointed Andrew Johnson military governor. One of his first acts was to order Colonel William B. Stokes of DeKalb County to organize a regiment called the Fifth Tennessee Cavalry ( Also known as the First Middle Tennessee Cavalry). Many Cannon County men, especially from the northern section joined this regiment. While Cannon County as a whole was more “anti secession” than the rest of middle Tennessee (the vote in DeKalb was 833 for and 642 against secession), it’s quite likely that many of the men in the northern section were influenced by Stokes, a resident of Temperance Hall, and a congressman. While the total number of Cannon County men joining this regiment is not clear, some indication can be found in the 1890 census showed that some 137 veterans or their widows in Cannon were drawing Union army pensions. Nearly all of them has served in the Fifth Tennessee Cavalry.

There were no major battles fought in Cannon County. Military activity was confined to skirmishes and to reconnaissance movements between the two sides.

  The Secession Crisis and Before

Message of Governor Isham Harris to the Tennessee Assembly
Tennessee Resolutions

General Resources: Timelines, Overviews, etc.

The Tennessee Civil War Home Page
American Civil War Archives
The American Civil War Homepage

The United States Civil War Center Cemetery Search

Rosters of Combatants & Regimental Histories from Cannon County

Confederate

• Co. C, 22nd TN Cav.
• Co. E, 8th TN Cav.
• Co. G, 8th TN Cav.
• Co. A, 18th TN Inf.
• Co. D, 18th TN Inf.
• Co. H, 18th TN Inf.
• Co. H, 23rd TN Inf.
• Co. G, 35th TN Inf.

Union

• 5th TN CAV (First Middle Tennessee)

Modern Histories; FAQs; Bibliographies

Pomp Kersey, Tennessee Guerilla
Captain Henry Jefferson St. John