After his two sons were captured by Colonel Lowe's cavalry and were shot
charged as bushwhackers, the old father took down his rifle and swore that
as long as he lived that he intended to kill every man that wore a blue
uniform that came or could be gotten within range of his gun. Jack Hinson
with his long rifle became a gory legend. Living as he did, between the
Tennessee and Cumberland rivers with Forts Donelson and Henry and
Johnsonville on each side of him--all garrisoned with federal troops --he
knew every hill and valley, every trail, every spring, in the river
country. He became an outcast from his home and his neighbors and an
avenging nemesis on the trail of those whom he held responsible for the
murder of his two sons. Many a Yankee on patrol died in the middle of a
sentence. The old man in the brush would move without making a sound and
after an ambush he would disappear as completely as if the earth had
swallowed him. Every effort was made by the Federals to entrap him and
every effort was unsuccessful.
When there was sufficient water in the Tennessee River for gunboats and
transports to ply between Paducah and Johnsonville, Hinson would construct
a duck blind from which he could pick off a pilot or an officer, He knew
the river channels and where the channels would bring the boats close to
the shore, Behind his blind of driftwood and brush he would await his
game. Transport after transport could pass him safely, but if a man in
blue appeared on deck, he was shot. Officers and pilots were the targets
he always sought and to judge from the 36 distinct and uniform marks on the
barrel of his rifle he exacted a terrible vengeance of the execution of his
sons. The Union put rewards on his head and ordered the Federal soldiers
to kill him on sight.
Major Anderson, Forrest's adjutant general, recalled that on two of
Forrest's campaigns into West Tennessee Hinson came to headquarters with
valuable information as to the strength and location of Federal troops
along the river.
In the fall of 1864 Old Man Hinson, as he was called by both sides, got
word that General Forrest was on his way to the Tennessee River from
Jackson, Tennessee on the first leg of the campaign that was to end in the
destruction of Johnsonville. He was waiting for Forrest at Paris Landing
and piloted the guns through the Cypress Creek swamp to the river bank and to Johnsonville.
It was on this trip that the old man told Anderson of his great grievance
and his tireless quest for vengeance. He said: "They murdered my boys, and may yet kill me, but the marks on the barrel of this gun will show that I am a long ways ahead in the game now and not yet done."
After the war and the death of Old Man Hinson, Hinson's rifle was presented
to Major Anderson by Captain Clint Winfrey of Johnsonville along with a
letter of presentation certifying and identifying the rifle as that owned
and used by Jack Hinson in the avenging of his two sons. Around 1886 Major
Charles W. Anderson gave the weapon to his nephew W. T. Love of
Murfressboro and it passed from Love to Frances Love Black to Gene Black
McFarlin to Ben Hall McFarlin, the present owner.
There are 36 distinct notches on the fun and it weighs seventeen pounds
seven ounces and is reputed to have killed three men across the river.
Transcribed from:
History of Humphrey's Co. TN
