Searching for Edward Loveday

Years ago when I first began my quest for family history, Jerry Loveday, now retired Gatlinburg postmaster, told me about a small, forgotten cemetery off Jones Cove Road where an Edward Loveday was buried. The place is called Mt. Pleasant, and the sunken graves there are overgrown with weeds and vines. I got permission from the landowner first, and it's a snaky place I wouldn't have gone without my father with me! At least a couple of the markers there are for Civil War veterans, and many graves are marked with simple field stones. This Edward might be the husband of the Minerva (Houk) Loveday, buried in the Fairgarden Cemetery.

Personally, I believe he is and that this Edward is one of the nine children of Jobe and Sarah "Sally" (Thomas) Loveday and the grandson of the Sevier County Loveday progenitor, Edward. My theory seems to be supported specifically by the 1850 census, though the general year of his birth seems to vary from census to census.

What's in a name? Joe Wheeler Kitts

My mother's paternal grandfather was Joe Wheeler Kitts (lovingly called "Grandpa" in her story copied in my Melungeon Roots post). When I see a name that seems to reflect someone else's last name as well, I immediately wonder what the connection or affinity is. Surprisingly, this great-grandfather of mine, born in 1867 to Joseph and Elizabeth (Boles) Kitts, was named for Confederate General "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, although most other family lines seem to have held Union sympathies.

Wheeler commanded all of the Army of Tennessee's cavalry and was recognized for his fighting in the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, La Vergne, Chicamauga, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Bentonville, Ringold, and Atlanta, where he helped stand against Sherman. General Robert E. Lee considered him one of the two outstanding Confederate cavalry leaders.

Joseph Wheeler Kitts married Nellie Loucinda Collins, the daughter of Aaron and Elizabeth (Vandergriff) Collins. He is shown here with his son, George Washington Kitts, my grandfather. Joe had eight children and was widowed and married more than once.

Walnut Grove Lovedays

Among the Lovedays buried at the Walnut Grove cemetery are Civil War veterans Perry and Tennessee, who both served in the Union Army in Company D, 2nd Tennessee Cavalry. Their father Henry, son of Edward, served in the War of 1812.

Perry, born May 14, 1834, enlisted at age 29 in Sevierville for three years. His enlistment papers show him as 6 ft. tall with a fair complexion, blue eyes, and brown hair. Perry married Angelina McMahan, daughter of Redmon and Rebecca McMahan, in about 1853, and they had at least 7 children. He died on May 16 1867.

Henry C. Oakley & The Battle of 'Burg Hill

My great grandfather Henry Coleman Oakley recalled the Civil War Battle of Gatlinburg from his role as a "home guard," when he was just a teenager.

Saltpeter, used to make gunpowder, is said to have been mined at Alum Cave. Both sides would need it and yet would want to keep it from their foes. It was near the cave that Confederate commander William H. Thomas and his "legion" of about 200, comprised primarily of Cherokee soldiers, met Union Lt. Col. Lemborn and his group of 50 men. The skirmish lasted only about an hour, as the two sides battled their way in and out of Gatlinburg.

Henry Oakley told how he watched from a big rock overhang on Turkey Nest Mountain as the Blue Coats of the Union army rode around Burg Hill and the Confederate Gray Coats came around Graveyard Hill. They shot at each other across what would become the main part of town.

One Union soldier was captured. Although no one died, several wounded soldiers escaped, and all the Union supplies were taken, as the fighting dissipated between Gatlinburg and Kodak.

Henry Coleman Oakley, father of my grandmother Josie Oakley, died in 1920. Shown in the top photo is the reenactment group of the 63D Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, CSA, led by their captain, Henry's great-great grandson Jeff Noland, also pictured at right. Period photos of the modern 63d TN impressionists were taken by Wendell Decker of Vintage Studios, using the authentic war photography process.

Bradford Loveday & The 1863 Siege of Knxville, TN

Perry Webb wasn't my only ancestor who participated in the battle of Fort Sanders at Knoxville. My great-great grandfather Noah Loveday's brother Bradford was there, too.

With Major General Burnside and the Union army inside the fort, which was located near today's Ft. Sanders Hospital, Confederate Lt. General Longstreet thought he and his men could attack at dawn and take them by surprise. He surveyed the fort through field glasses and saw men walking up to the fort walls, but what he did not see was that they were walking across planks that spanned a ditch that was twelve feet wide and from four to ten feet deep.

In the dim morning light with freezing rain, the Confederate soldiers charged, only to be tripped by taut, low-strung wire before falling helplessly into the ditch, unable to scale its sides or the fort walls. As such, they were easy targets for the Union. The battle lasted only 20 minutes, but the Confederates suffered 813 casualties, while the Union had only 13. At least 200 Rebels were taken prisoner from the ditch. Eventually, the Confederate dead were buried in the cemetery behind what is called the Mabry-Hazen House.

Pension papers filed in the late 1880s after Bradford Loveday's death show that neighbors (Henry Ward, Matthew Ball, Emanuel Hurst, William Yarberry, Byram Hurst, Daniel Hurst, and Lewis Breeden), some of whom were Bradford's fellow soldiers, attested to the illness and injury Bradford sustained from his time in Knoxville and suffered with until his death on September 20, 1883.

Perry Webb: Always serving others

My grandmother Josie (Oakley) Loveday's grandfather was Perry Webb, a man who served his country, church, and community.

Perry was born on May 22, 1840, in Sevier County, and on March 24, 1858, he married D.L. and Julia Ann (Bryant) Williams' daughter Mary Jane.

As a Civil War soldier for the Union, Perry enlisted from Cocke County on September 26, 1863, as a private in Company K of the 9th Tennessee Cavalry and was promoted to Regiment Sargent of Company A. He participated in the battles of Greeneville, Wautauga, Bulls Gap, Morristown (2), Russellville, Blue Springs, Salt Works, and Wytheville, as well as the siege of Knoxville. For three months in 1864, he was on special duty guarding the Drake Creek railroad bridge. He was honorably discharged at Knoxville on September 11, 1865. His brothers Abraham and Milas were soldiers as well.

Perry served as deacon and trustee of Bethany Baptist Church (Jones Cove Road), and unfortunately, the church records were lost when his house burned. His faith was very important to him, and he would sometimes sing "the old camp songs" in his sleep.

He and Mary had twelve children, among them my great grandmother Sarah Catherine. They had a peach orchard on their land, and their large log home consisted of two cabin rooms with a fireplace between them and a frame kitchen to one side. In their front yard, they had an open well and beneath the apple trees a few bee hives, which Perry loved to sit and watch in the years after Mary's death on February 16, 1904. Perry died September 15, 1915.

*Some information obtained from a March 21, 1900 article in the Vindicator, shown in the Sevier Bicentennial book, 976.87 of the McClung Collection.

D. L. Williams: Killed by Rebels

Even though Tennessee seceded during the not-so-Civil War, many of Sevier County's men chose to fight instead for the Union. Lots of those families descended from frontiersmen who had fought alongside John Sevier and others in Revolutionary War battles like that at King's Mountain to establish the union and independence of the states.

The mountainous farms of East Tennessee were not heavily populated with slaveholders, and most ET men who fought for the Confederacy were conscripted or had hopes of rising in the social strata because of the trade and commerce that had grown with the deeper South within the 1850s development of railroad systems in the area. Many fought for the South because they deeply believed in the rights of states to make their individual decisions about slavery and other issues. (Two very insightful books about East Tennessee's conflicted role in the War Between the States are O.P. Temple's 1899 East Tennessee and the Civil War and W. Todd Groce's 1999 Mountain Rebels.)

Alternating occupation of Confederate and Union forces in the region wreaked havoc between neighbors and families, and Sevier County was greatly impoverished. Deserters and outlaws roamed the mountains, killing innocent citizens and pillaging farms for food and personal gain. Rebel soldiers came to my great-great-great grandfather Dillard (D.L.) Williams' home off Jones Cove Road above Bethany Baptist Church, and when he went out to face them, they put him on a horse and kept watch over him while they stole from the smokehouse and the corn crib before burning them. After that, they took D.L. up the road and shot him. His wife Julia Ann (Bryant) Williams survived and lived until January 19, 1898. D.L. and Julia Ann Williams were the parents of Mary Jane Williams, who married Perry Webb.

Sevier Hurst Grave

Years ago when I was trying to piece together the family lines, Daddy's cousin Myrtle Patrick told me about the lonely graves of my great-great-great grandfather Sevier Hurst and his daughter. (Another of Sevier's daughters, Telitha married Noah Loveday, and I descend from their line.)

Apparently, Sevier died in Sevier County during the not-so-Civil War, when lawless bushwhackers and renegades roamed the mountains, terrorizing families. When Sevier and his daughter died, his wife and children were too afraid to hold a funeral in the cemetery, which was less than half a mile away. Instead, they buried them in shallow graves beside the house, with the intent to move them after the war. Of course, the war lasted much longer than anyone anticipated, and the move never happened.

Decades passed, the house disappeared, woodlands claimed the farm, and the only indications left of the graves were two stones surrounded by a fence. When Myrtle told me the story, she gave me directions: Go to the Gate Cemetery off Jones Cove Road, and from the back of it, walk 350 yards, then turn right. Walk half a mile, then turn right again. and go 350 more yards, finding the graves about 20 feet off to the right. My brother Kenny Loveday and I attempted to find them but never did.

This summer, my determined cousin George Brooks scoured a 3 mile area and finally found the graves! His report brought tears to my eyes. Although the chicken wire fence is all but gone, it seems that someone has placed a marker to honor Sevier and his daughter. The site may be found at N 35 degrees 51.818, W 83 degrees 20.032. Many thanks to Johnnie Hurst, who also helped with that effort!