Tennessee Lead - selling Civil War Items

To place an order just call or email.

Ken Price
63 Spring Street North
Mosheim, Tennessee 37818
(423) 620-4406

tennesseelead@gmail.com...its easiest to reach me by email.

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My paypal ID/address is: tennesseelead@gmail.com


		Foot bridge across Rhea Springs in the morning light. The battle at Shiloh began very close to this spot. Confederate dead were "lumped" in a mass grave just to the left of this bridge. Such a tranquil scene.....it was hard to image this places past.
		The bloody pond at Shiloh. One of my favorite places on planet earth to be on a crisp March morning. A very short walk thru the tree line & you will find yourself at the Peach Orchard. Both are a MUST see...put this destination on your bucket list.
		The Peach Orchard. In 1862 this was the bloodiest piece of real estate in the Western Hemisphere. I am most hesitant to to compiment any branch of the US government.....any adminstration.....but my hats off to the US Park Service at Shiloh. The only thing that could have made this trip any better is if the peach trees would have been in bloom. Shiloh battlefield is located in the exact right location.....in the middle of no where.....there is NOT a strip mall for 20 miles. Here they have to build split rail fences around the peach trees to keep the deer from "mowing" them down.
		While at Shiloh visit the National Cementary. Walk down to the Tennessee river & enjoy the view of Pittsburg Landing. The cannon to the extreme right is still loaded with a ball. A 24 pound boat Howitzer with a brass "tube" that has a green patina to *die for. Just to the rear US General S. Ulysses Grant spent a verry rainy night under a large oak tree "planning*" the Battle (mauling) at Shiloh.....his troops had no cover. Gunboats shelled this entire area from the river.
		At the Peach Orchard cannons fired 500-700 yards across an open field (orchard) into the confederate troops in the tree line. At that range the smoothbores did alot of damage. Shiloh being an early war battle you see alot more of these brass tubes than the rifled cannons. Because of places like the Peach Orchard cannon technology vastly improved from 1862-65. The Napoleon cannon was the most popular smoothbore cannon in the ACW because of its reliability, safety & killing power at close range. It was the last cast bronze gun used by the American military.
		The Hornet's Nest at Shiloh. If you were in these woods on the morning of April 6, 1862 you were probably a troop under command of US General Benjamin M. Prentiss. Your orders from Grant were to hold this line at all cost. You were looking down the business end of 62 CS cannon firing cannister & shell as fast as they could load.....at point blank range. After the battle locals said body parts had to be pulled out of the trees. The confederate troops made 11 charges againt the US line in a slightly sunken road. Death was wholesale. The 12th charge finally broke the back of the US troops.....the cost was unbelievable to both sides.
		Let me tell ya a story most will not have heard...a little local flavor from me. The time is November 1861 in Confederate controlled NE Tenn...Pottertown/Mohawk communities. "Tenn voted for secission on June 8, 1861, with residents of eastern Tenn voted 2 to 1 against secession but losing the vote to the state's large western population." In response a plan was hatched by a Presbertian minster William Blunt Carter to burn 9 railroad bridges from Virginia to Georgia.....the complete length of E Tenn-Bristol to Chattanooga. This plan was personally approved by Abraham Lincoln, General George McClellan & Secretary of War William Seward. This action would completely disrupt troop & war supply traffic from Richmond to the deep South along the E Tenn & Virginia railroad.....Richmond's only direct railroad to Atlanta. Also, immediately after the bridges were burned the Union army would invade E Tenn via the Cumberland Gap & protect the Union loyalist. One of these bridges spanned Lick Creek (Crik) about a 5 minute ride from my home at Mosheim. A party of about 60 loyalist men assembled at Pottertown & were secretly sworn into the Union army. After midnight on Nov 9, '1861 the raiders set out on horseback for the 2 mile ride to the RR bridge. They captured several CS troops guarding the bridge. About 1/2 of the loyalist guarded the CS troops while the other 1/2 burned the bridge down to the waters level...mission accomplished. The CS troops were given the choice of swearing loyality to the Union or be shot on the spot. Not surprisingly they swore loyality to the Union. Less than 24 hours later CS authorities had tracked down 6 of the conspirators. Jacob Hinshaw, Alexander Haun, Jacob & his son Henry Harmon, all 4 were local potters. Captain David Fry a Greene Co farmer & veteran of the Mexican War & Harrison Self. Two of these five men were hanged within a week...an interesting point here both men were hanged from the same tree at the RR depot at Greeneville, Tenn. Their bodies were left hanging for about 2 weeks as a warning to other loyalist here. Another died in jail before he could be hanged. Fry escaped a CS prison, shot 3 times & spent much of the war in the mountains as a Union pilot guiding loyal men to Kentucky to be sworn into the Union army. Self was pardoned by Jefferson Davis. The promised Union invasion never occured & five of the nine bridges were actually burned. "William Stringfield wrote This...was the beginning of great troubles in East Tennessee. This made my home a military camp for the balance of the war". In a nutshell this is just one of the stories I grew up hearing & I hope you enjoyed hearing it too. A side note in 2008 NE Tenn was at the end of a severe drought. During this time the water level in Lick Creek dropped by about 2 feet & the burnt off original bridge posts could be easily seen sticking up out of the water.
		Welcome back to the banks of the Nolichucky river. The Earnest Fort house. Built by Henry Ernest (Heinrich Ernst) in 1782 in what was then "Indian Terriority" North Carolina, now extreme NE Tenn. Earnest served with the Virginia Militia in the French & Indian War & was loyal to the patriot cause during the American revolution. The 1st story of this home is built with thick limestone slabs & mortar. The 2nd & 3rd stories are built of notched logs & mortar complete with a 3 story limestone chimmney. There is not a window in either end of this home. One of the first toll bridges across this river was located here. This home is just down stream from the David Crockett birthplace. The Earnest family were large farmland holders & were also slave holders which is unusual for this part of Tenn. Not far from this site East Tennessee's own CS General "Mudwall" Jackson captured several Ohio troops in a skirmish over the E TN & VA RR. Jackson's troops would have moved thru this area before & after this engagement. This home has always been in private hands.

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