Unionist Guerillas of the Upper Cumberland



A lesser known and less acknowledged part of the War Between the States is that of the Union Guerilla. Much is known, and has been written about Jennison's Jayhawkers (later designated the 7th Kansas Cavalry, U.S.) and of Senator Jim Lane's Kansas Red Legs, who terrorized the Kansas-Missouri border, and which in turn incurred the wrath of Quantrill-Anderson-and Todd.

But, though well known during the war, little is acknowledged today about the role of the Union guerillas of the Upper Cumberland. In their time, these men were credited with being just as cruel, blood- thirsty, and vicious as modern historians have attributed Champ Ferguson, "Sue Mundy", and others as being for the Confederate side.

These men were all sworn enemies of Champ Ferguson and his Independent Cavalry Command, and both sides waged a bitter and bloody partisan war against each other through out the Upper Cumberland region during the War Between the States.




~ Contents ~

"Tinker Dave" Beatty

Wolf River Gang

Elam Huddleston

Captain Rufus Dowdy

Alf Killen (Appalachian Unionist)





If you have any information, photos, etc, to add to this site, please send a dispatch to
Champ




You are listening to the Irish ballad
"Rosin the Bow"
adapted in 1860 for Lincoln's campaign by
the abolitionist Hutchinson Family Singers as
"Lincoln and Liberty"
MIDI file created and © 1999 by Barry Taylor
Taylors Traditional Tunebook
Used with permission. All rights reserved.

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