Veteran of Mexican–American War and Confederate Army.
Contributor: Barbara Campbell
The night of Aug. 6, 1862 must have seemed business as usual for General William R. Caswell.
A veteran of the Mexican-American War, Caswell spent the early stages of the Civil War persecuting Union sympathizers in East Tennessee, having been named brigadier general of Tennessee's provisional forces by then governor Isham G. Harris. Despite praise received from the governor and his superiors, Caswell opted for a private life and retired to his home several miles outside Knoxville in October of 1861. On the grounds of his plantation home, Caswell may have thought himself safe from the carnage of the battlefield, yet by the end of that August night, the general lay dead with his throat slit ear to ear, the victim of an assailant still unknown to this day.
That Caswell met his gruesome fate in relatively war-deprived Knoxville is ironic, especially given the nature of his past military service. Born on Oct. 22, 1809 in Rutherford County, Caswell, in many ways, epitomized the stereotypical Southern aristocrat. A descendant of North Carolina's first governor Richard Caswell, William's resume was impressive even by the standards of his day. Aside from his military service, Caswell served as attorney general for Tennessee's Twelfth District, held a position on the board of directors for the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, and worked as a cashier for the Dandridge Bank, all while managing his farmland estate outside Knoxville.
An active member of the state's militia throughout the 1830's and 1840's, Caswell joined the surplus of 30,000 Tennessee volunteers swept up in the excitement of the Mexican-American War. That excitement proved to be short lived; a fact Caswell soon discovered working as the aide-de-camp to Major General Gideon Pillow, a man best known for the national scandal surrounding his falsification of battle reports and public clash with Winfield Scott, then commander of the American forces in Mexico.
Before Pillow gained international infamy, his force remained in the occupied Mexican city of Camargo for much of 1846, where Caswell spent his time filing reports rather than engaging the enemy. Through a series of correspondences with his wife, Elizabeth Gillespie, Caswell made his frustration and boredom evidently clear to his family in Russelville.
"Instead of being in the invigorating atmosphere of the mountains, of being in the battle if there is one, I must remain in this hot climate with the sick, the dying, the debilitated soldiers who are left behind but constitute a large army," Caswell wrote in a September letter to his wife. Missing the birth of his firstborn son while away at the front, Caswell made no effort to hide his frustration with the war to his family: "I am no hero, and have no hopes of becoming one in this war."
Tired of the war's monotony, Caswell resigned as Pillow's aide-de-camp in October 1846 and was elected captain of a regiment of the Tennessee mounted Volunteers. He would go on to see action in the battles of Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo, but his role in these conflicts was limited --- he would later admit to his wife that the enemy was "routed" before his company even made contact at Vera Cruz.
At the end of his 12 months of service in the Mexican-American War, Caswell returned to his family and home in East Tennessee, serving as both a lawyer and banker until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.
Still, his legacy remains tied up in his assassination, originally reported by The Knoxville Register, remains an unsolved mystery to this day.
According to the original article, Caswell's servants reportedly witnessed him struggling with an unknown assailant on a road near his home, but were unable to catch a clear glimpse of the attacker before they fled the scene. A post-script note to the article further suggests the he was attacked by a party of men firing from the woods, who subsequently mangled him after he fell from his horse.
While the true cause of Caswell's death can only be guessed at, his close ties to the Confederacy would have made him few friends in what was largely a pro-Union city. In the months leading to Tennessee's secession, East Tennessee twice voted against leaving the Union, once in an 1861 February vote and again in the final June referendum of that same year.
With a slave population of less than 10 percent (compared to 34 percent in West Tennessee), it should come as no surprise that East Tennessee was home to the single largest civilian uprising of "War Between the States". In the month following Caswell's retirement, thousands of East Tennessee unionists erupted in violence across the state on the night of November 8, burning five bridges and skirmishing with confederate troops in preparation for an invasion that would never come. Confederate reprisals were swift and harsh, with five suspected bridge burners hanged in the aftermath with reports of several other shootings and hangings occurring in East Tennessee. Given Caswell's role in repressing unionists in the early stages of the war, his list of enemies would have certainly been a long one.
Thomas William Humes, a Knoxville clergyman and staunch unionist, further clouds this issue when the author suggests in his 1888 Civil War history "The Loyal Mountaineers of East Tennessee" that Caswell was "endeavoring to arrest" a fugitive when he was murdered outside his home. If Humes' account can be trusted, it would mean Caswell's murder was the result not of a Union act of vengeance, but a random act of violence from a slave in search of freedom.
As grisly as Caswell's death proved to be, it served as only a taste of the violence destined for the city in the months following his assassination. By September of 1863, Union troops under Ambrose Burnside reclaimed Knoxville from the Confederacy, only to be besieged by rebel forces looking to take it back in the aftermath of Chickamauga. Even thousands dead on either sides in the following battles if Campell's Station, Fort Sanders and Bean's Station, the city itself would remain firmly in Union hands until war's end.
Today, monuments to those battles lie scattered across Knoxville, yet only one for the ignominious end to General Caswell. Tucked away in a quiet corner of Old Grey Cemetery, the final resting place of William Caswell speaks of a crime unsolved by time and a preamble to a city later claimed in the violence of war.
Contributor: Jerry Brown
Contributor: Barbara Campbell
The night of Aug. 6, 1862 must have seemed business as usual for General William R. Caswell.
A veteran of the Mexican-American War, Caswell spent the early stages of the Civil War persecuting Union sympathizers in East Tennessee, having been named brigadier general of Tennessee's provisional forces by then governor Isham G. Harris. Despite praise received from the governor and his superiors, Caswell opted for a private life and retired to his home several miles outside Knoxville in October of 1861. On the grounds of his plantation home, Caswell may have thought himself safe from the carnage of the battlefield, yet by the end of that August night, the general lay dead with his throat slit ear to ear, the victim of an assailant still unknown to this day.
That Caswell met his gruesome fate in relatively war-deprived Knoxville is ironic, especially given the nature of his past military service. Born on Oct. 22, 1809 in Rutherford County, Caswell, in many ways, epitomized the stereotypical Southern aristocrat. A descendant of North Carolina's first governor Richard Caswell, William's resume was impressive even by the standards of his day. Aside from his military service, Caswell served as attorney general for Tennessee's Twelfth District, held a position on the board of directors for the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, and worked as a cashier for the Dandridge Bank, all while managing his farmland estate outside Knoxville.
An active member of the state's militia throughout the 1830's and 1840's, Caswell joined the surplus of 30,000 Tennessee volunteers swept up in the excitement of the Mexican-American War. That excitement proved to be short lived; a fact Caswell soon discovered working as the aide-de-camp to Major General Gideon Pillow, a man best known for the national scandal surrounding his falsification of battle reports and public clash with Winfield Scott, then commander of the American forces in Mexico.
Before Pillow gained international infamy, his force remained in the occupied Mexican city of Camargo for much of 1846, where Caswell spent his time filing reports rather than engaging the enemy. Through a series of correspondences with his wife, Elizabeth Gillespie, Caswell made his frustration and boredom evidently clear to his family in Russelville.
"Instead of being in the invigorating atmosphere of the mountains, of being in the battle if there is one, I must remain in this hot climate with the sick, the dying, the debilitated soldiers who are left behind but constitute a large army," Caswell wrote in a September letter to his wife. Missing the birth of his firstborn son while away at the front, Caswell made no effort to hide his frustration with the war to his family: "I am no hero, and have no hopes of becoming one in this war."
Tired of the war's monotony, Caswell resigned as Pillow's aide-de-camp in October 1846 and was elected captain of a regiment of the Tennessee mounted Volunteers. He would go on to see action in the battles of Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo, but his role in these conflicts was limited --- he would later admit to his wife that the enemy was "routed" before his company even made contact at Vera Cruz.
At the end of his 12 months of service in the Mexican-American War, Caswell returned to his family and home in East Tennessee, serving as both a lawyer and banker until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.
Still, his legacy remains tied up in his assassination, originally reported by The Knoxville Register, remains an unsolved mystery to this day.
According to the original article, Caswell's servants reportedly witnessed him struggling with an unknown assailant on a road near his home, but were unable to catch a clear glimpse of the attacker before they fled the scene. A post-script note to the article further suggests the he was attacked by a party of men firing from the woods, who subsequently mangled him after he fell from his horse.
While the true cause of Caswell's death can only be guessed at, his close ties to the Confederacy would have made him few friends in what was largely a pro-Union city. In the months leading to Tennessee's secession, East Tennessee twice voted against leaving the Union, once in an 1861 February vote and again in the final June referendum of that same year.
With a slave population of less than 10 percent (compared to 34 percent in West Tennessee), it should come as no surprise that East Tennessee was home to the single largest civilian uprising of "War Between the States". In the month following Caswell's retirement, thousands of East Tennessee unionists erupted in violence across the state on the night of November 8, burning five bridges and skirmishing with confederate troops in preparation for an invasion that would never come. Confederate reprisals were swift and harsh, with five suspected bridge burners hanged in the aftermath with reports of several other shootings and hangings occurring in East Tennessee. Given Caswell's role in repressing unionists in the early stages of the war, his list of enemies would have certainly been a long one.
Thomas William Humes, a Knoxville clergyman and staunch unionist, further clouds this issue when the author suggests in his 1888 Civil War history "The Loyal Mountaineers of East Tennessee" that Caswell was "endeavoring to arrest" a fugitive when he was murdered outside his home. If Humes' account can be trusted, it would mean Caswell's murder was the result not of a Union act of vengeance, but a random act of violence from a slave in search of freedom.
As grisly as Caswell's death proved to be, it served as only a taste of the violence destined for the city in the months following his assassination. By September of 1863, Union troops under Ambrose Burnside reclaimed Knoxville from the Confederacy, only to be besieged by rebel forces looking to take it back in the aftermath of Chickamauga. Even thousands dead on either sides in the following battles if Campell's Station, Fort Sanders and Bean's Station, the city itself would remain firmly in Union hands until war's end.
Today, monuments to those battles lie scattered across Knoxville, yet only one for the ignominious end to General Caswell. Tucked away in a quiet corner of Old Grey Cemetery, the final resting place of William Caswell speaks of a crime unsolved by time and a preamble to a city later claimed in the violence of war.
Contributor: Jerry Brown
Veteran of Mexican–American War and Confederate Army.
Contributor: Barbara Campbell
The night of Aug. 6, 1862 must have seemed business as usual for General William R. Caswell.
A veteran of the Mexican-American War, Caswell spent the early stages of the Civil War persecuting Union sympathizers in East Tennessee, having been named brigadier general of Tennessee's provisional forces by then governor Isham G. Harris. Despite praise received from the governor and his superiors, Caswell opted for a private life and retired to his home several miles outside Knoxville in October of 1861. On the grounds of his plantation home, Caswell may have thought himself safe from the carnage of the battlefield, yet by the end of that August night, the general lay dead with his throat slit ear to ear, the victim of an assailant still unknown to this day.
That Caswell met his gruesome fate in relatively war-deprived Knoxville is ironic, especially given the nature of his past military service. Born on Oct. 22, 1809 in Rutherford County, Caswell, in many ways, epitomized the stereotypical Southern aristocrat. A descendant of North Carolina's first governor Richard Caswell, William's resume was impressive even by the standards of his day. Aside from his military service, Caswell served as attorney general for Tennessee's Twelfth District, held a position on the board of directors for the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, and worked as a cashier for the Dandridge Bank, all while managing his farmland estate outside Knoxville.
An active member of the state's militia throughout the 1830's and 1840's, Caswell joined the surplus of 30,000 Tennessee volunteers swept up in the excitement of the Mexican-American War. That excitement proved to be short lived; a fact Caswell soon discovered working as the aide-de-camp to Major General Gideon Pillow, a man best known for the national scandal surrounding his falsification of battle reports and public clash with Winfield Scott, then commander of the American forces in Mexico.
Before Pillow gained international infamy, his force remained in the occupied Mexican city of Camargo for much of 1846, where Caswell spent his time filing reports rather than engaging the enemy. Through a series of correspondences with his wife, Elizabeth Gillespie, Caswell made his frustration and boredom evidently clear to his family in Russelville.
"Instead of being in the invigorating atmosphere of the mountains, of being in the battle if there is one, I must remain in this hot climate with the sick, the dying, the debilitated soldiers who are left behind but constitute a large army," Caswell wrote in a September letter to his wife. Missing the birth of his firstborn son while away at the front, Caswell made no effort to hide his frustration with the war to his family: "I am no hero, and have no hopes of becoming one in this war."
Tired of the war's monotony, Caswell resigned as Pillow's aide-de-camp in October 1846 and was elected captain of a regiment of the Tennessee mounted Volunteers. He would go on to see action in the battles of Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo, but his role in these conflicts was limited --- he would later admit to his wife that the enemy was "routed" before his company even made contact at Vera Cruz.
At the end of his 12 months of service in the Mexican-American War, Caswell returned to his family and home in East Tennessee, serving as both a lawyer and banker until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.
Still, his legacy remains tied up in his assassination, originally reported by The Knoxville Register, remains an unsolved mystery to this day.
According to the original article, Caswell's servants reportedly witnessed him struggling with an unknown assailant on a road near his home, but were unable to catch a clear glimpse of the attacker before they fled the scene. A post-script note to the article further suggests the he was attacked by a party of men firing from the woods, who subsequently mangled him after he fell from his horse.
While the true cause of Caswell's death can only be guessed at, his close ties to the Confederacy would have made him few friends in what was largely a pro-Union city. In the months leading to Tennessee's secession, East Tennessee twice voted against leaving the Union, once in an 1861 February vote and again in the final June referendum of that same year.
With a slave population of less than 10 percent (compared to 34 percent in West Tennessee), it should come as no surprise that East Tennessee was home to the single largest civilian uprising of "War Between the States". In the month following Caswell's retirement, thousands of East Tennessee unionists erupted in violence across the state on the night of November 8, burning five bridges and skirmishing with confederate troops in preparation for an invasion that would never come. Confederate reprisals were swift and harsh, with five suspected bridge burners hanged in the aftermath with reports of several other shootings and hangings occurring in East Tennessee. Given Caswell's role in repressing unionists in the early stages of the war, his list of enemies would have certainly been a long one.
Thomas William Humes, a Knoxville clergyman and staunch unionist, further clouds this issue when the author suggests in his 1888 Civil War history "The Loyal Mountaineers of East Tennessee" that Caswell was "endeavoring to arrest" a fugitive when he was murdered outside his home. If Humes' account can be trusted, it would mean Caswell's murder was the result not of a Union act of vengeance, but a random act of violence from a slave in search of freedom.
As grisly as Caswell's death proved to be, it served as only a taste of the violence destined for the city in the months following his assassination. By September of 1863, Union troops under Ambrose Burnside reclaimed Knoxville from the Confederacy, only to be besieged by rebel forces looking to take it back in the aftermath of Chickamauga. Even thousands dead on either sides in the following battles if Campell's Station, Fort Sanders and Bean's Station, the city itself would remain firmly in Union hands until war's end.
Today, monuments to those battles lie scattered across Knoxville, yet only one for the ignominious end to General Caswell. Tucked away in a quiet corner of Old Grey Cemetery, the final resting place of William Caswell speaks of a crime unsolved by time and a preamble to a city later claimed in the violence of war.
Contributor: Jerry Brown
Contributor: Barbara Campbell
The night of Aug. 6, 1862 must have seemed business as usual for General William R. Caswell.
A veteran of the Mexican-American War, Caswell spent the early stages of the Civil War persecuting Union sympathizers in East Tennessee, having been named brigadier general of Tennessee's provisional forces by then governor Isham G. Harris. Despite praise received from the governor and his superiors, Caswell opted for a private life and retired to his home several miles outside Knoxville in October of 1861. On the grounds of his plantation home, Caswell may have thought himself safe from the carnage of the battlefield, yet by the end of that August night, the general lay dead with his throat slit ear to ear, the victim of an assailant still unknown to this day.
That Caswell met his gruesome fate in relatively war-deprived Knoxville is ironic, especially given the nature of his past military service. Born on Oct. 22, 1809 in Rutherford County, Caswell, in many ways, epitomized the stereotypical Southern aristocrat. A descendant of North Carolina's first governor Richard Caswell, William's resume was impressive even by the standards of his day. Aside from his military service, Caswell served as attorney general for Tennessee's Twelfth District, held a position on the board of directors for the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, and worked as a cashier for the Dandridge Bank, all while managing his farmland estate outside Knoxville.
An active member of the state's militia throughout the 1830's and 1840's, Caswell joined the surplus of 30,000 Tennessee volunteers swept up in the excitement of the Mexican-American War. That excitement proved to be short lived; a fact Caswell soon discovered working as the aide-de-camp to Major General Gideon Pillow, a man best known for the national scandal surrounding his falsification of battle reports and public clash with Winfield Scott, then commander of the American forces in Mexico.
Before Pillow gained international infamy, his force remained in the occupied Mexican city of Camargo for much of 1846, where Caswell spent his time filing reports rather than engaging the enemy. Through a series of correspondences with his wife, Elizabeth Gillespie, Caswell made his frustration and boredom evidently clear to his family in Russelville.
"Instead of being in the invigorating atmosphere of the mountains, of being in the battle if there is one, I must remain in this hot climate with the sick, the dying, the debilitated soldiers who are left behind but constitute a large army," Caswell wrote in a September letter to his wife. Missing the birth of his firstborn son while away at the front, Caswell made no effort to hide his frustration with the war to his family: "I am no hero, and have no hopes of becoming one in this war."
Tired of the war's monotony, Caswell resigned as Pillow's aide-de-camp in October 1846 and was elected captain of a regiment of the Tennessee mounted Volunteers. He would go on to see action in the battles of Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo, but his role in these conflicts was limited --- he would later admit to his wife that the enemy was "routed" before his company even made contact at Vera Cruz.
At the end of his 12 months of service in the Mexican-American War, Caswell returned to his family and home in East Tennessee, serving as both a lawyer and banker until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.
Still, his legacy remains tied up in his assassination, originally reported by The Knoxville Register, remains an unsolved mystery to this day.
According to the original article, Caswell's servants reportedly witnessed him struggling with an unknown assailant on a road near his home, but were unable to catch a clear glimpse of the attacker before they fled the scene. A post-script note to the article further suggests the he was attacked by a party of men firing from the woods, who subsequently mangled him after he fell from his horse.
While the true cause of Caswell's death can only be guessed at, his close ties to the Confederacy would have made him few friends in what was largely a pro-Union city. In the months leading to Tennessee's secession, East Tennessee twice voted against leaving the Union, once in an 1861 February vote and again in the final June referendum of that same year.
With a slave population of less than 10 percent (compared to 34 percent in West Tennessee), it should come as no surprise that East Tennessee was home to the single largest civilian uprising of "War Between the States". In the month following Caswell's retirement, thousands of East Tennessee unionists erupted in violence across the state on the night of November 8, burning five bridges and skirmishing with confederate troops in preparation for an invasion that would never come. Confederate reprisals were swift and harsh, with five suspected bridge burners hanged in the aftermath with reports of several other shootings and hangings occurring in East Tennessee. Given Caswell's role in repressing unionists in the early stages of the war, his list of enemies would have certainly been a long one.
Thomas William Humes, a Knoxville clergyman and staunch unionist, further clouds this issue when the author suggests in his 1888 Civil War history "The Loyal Mountaineers of East Tennessee" that Caswell was "endeavoring to arrest" a fugitive when he was murdered outside his home. If Humes' account can be trusted, it would mean Caswell's murder was the result not of a Union act of vengeance, but a random act of violence from a slave in search of freedom.
As grisly as Caswell's death proved to be, it served as only a taste of the violence destined for the city in the months following his assassination. By September of 1863, Union troops under Ambrose Burnside reclaimed Knoxville from the Confederacy, only to be besieged by rebel forces looking to take it back in the aftermath of Chickamauga. Even thousands dead on either sides in the following battles if Campell's Station, Fort Sanders and Bean's Station, the city itself would remain firmly in Union hands until war's end.
Today, monuments to those battles lie scattered across Knoxville, yet only one for the ignominious end to General Caswell. Tucked away in a quiet corner of Old Grey Cemetery, the final resting place of William Caswell speaks of a crime unsolved by time and a preamble to a city later claimed in the violence of war.
Contributor: Jerry Brown
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