The answer to almost every history question is “it’s complicated.“
Nowhere does that rule apply more than to the war that ripped our nation apart and threatened its very existence more than 150 years ago.

Wilson County serves as a microcosm of that conflict, with many remaining true to the Union while the state itself seceded. Two men shine a light on this mortal complexity. Both Wilson County residents before the war, took different paths once the war came, but were later rejoined.

Robert Hatton was born in Ohio but settled in Lebanon. He graduated from Cumberland College, opened a law practice, unsuccessfully ran for Governor, and built a home on Main Street. When war came, he opposed secession but once the state left the Union, he decided to serve the Confederacy and was commissioned in a local militia unit, The Lebanon Blues, which was sent to Virginia.

At the Battle of Seven Pines, newly promoted Brigadier General Hatton was killed at the age of only 35. The train carrying his body back to Tennessee was blocked by a destroyed bridge, so he was quickly buried in Knoxville.

Another Lebanon resident and lawyer, William Campbell, was nearly 20 years older than Hatton. Campbell was elected as governor and to the US House of Representatives. By the time the Civil War began, he had already served as an Army officer in both the Second Seminole and the Mexican-American Wars. Despite being offered command of all Confederate Tennessee forces, Campbell remained loyal to the Union. He was briefly commissioned as a Brigadier General in 1862 but resigned only months later because of ill health and his refusal to fight his friends and neighbors. He returned to Congress after the war but died in 1867.

In 1861, their paths, like so many others, North and South, had diverged, making them sworn enemies. One died on the battlefield, the other shortly after the awful slaughter ended. But, like the nation itself, fate brought Blue and Gray together again in the end. Hatton’s body was finally brought home from Knoxville for final burial in 1866 and just a year later, Campbell’s grave was dug as well. Both men lie a few steps from one another in Lebanon’s Cedar Grove Cemetery, together after the war as they had been before it.

Both Campbell and Hatton were men of passion and conscience who both fought against secession and then, when it came, took opposite sides in our nation’s bloodiest war. Hatton is commemorated with a statue on the square in Lebanon while Campbell is largely forgotten, except by history nerds like me. Today, these ancient topics elicit modern passions, dividing us still.

I prefer to listen closely to the voices of history, spoken in the unique cadence of their times. It can be tough but I try to look past current, overly simplistic arguments, both pro and con, and, while respecting those with whom I disagree, pray that the tragedies of our past will inform a more enlightened future.

We can hope….

written by Earl Kennedy