Battle of Snow Hill

About two thousand men fought on each side at Snow's Hill on April 3, 1863, in a county where loyalties were almost evenly split: DeKalb furnished nearly as many Union troops as Confederate. After the armies left, guerrillas, called bushwhackers, preyed on Unionists and Confederate sympathizers alike. Bitter feelings lasted for decades and ran strongest at election time. Dowelltown grew up a mile east of Liberty after the war, named by its postmaster, Frank Dowell, and it became the home of several Union army veterans.

What the plaque says

Battle of Snow Hill On April 3, 1863, two union brigades under Gen. Stanley advanced to this position to battle a Confederate Division commanded by Col. Gano of Morgan's Cavalry 1/2 mile east on Snow Hill. Union wounded were taken to the Willams house 300 yards to the east. Union dead were buried 300 yards northeast in unmarked graves. Confederate dead were buried near the Methodism Church 4 miles east in unmarked graves. Stone breastworks used by the Confederates are still present at the foot of Snow Hill.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Burgess Falls State Park — 19 mi
  A day-use park on the Falling Water River, where a short trail passes three smaller falls on its way to a drop of more than 130 feet into a limestone gorge.
• Rock Island State Park — 21 mi
  A park where the Collins, Rocky and Caney Fork rivers meet at the head of Center Hill Lake, with a gorge of waterfalls below a 1917 dam and the remains of a cotton-mill town.
• Cookeville Depot Museum — 26 mi
  The 1909 Tennessee Central Railroad depot in Cookeville's west side, now a museum with a model of the town in 1955 and a steam engine in the yard.
• Cummins Falls State Park — 27 mi
  A 75-foot waterfall and swimming hole on the Blackburn Fork, saved from a housing development in 2011 and opened as Tennessee's 54th state park.

More markers nearby

• Adam Dale — 2.1 mi
• Morgan's Ohio Raid June 11, 1863 — 6.9 mi
• DeKalb County in the Civil War — 7.1 mi
• DeKalb County Fair — 7.8 mi