Horace H. Lurton

The judge's war ended in a prison camp. Lurton joined the Confederate army in 1861, was discharged for a lung infection in 1862, reenlisted, and was captured at Fort Donelson. He escaped and rode with John Hunt Morgan's raiders until Union soldiers took him again in July 1863. At a Lake Erie camp he developed tuberculosis and took a Union loyalty oath to win release. Appointed to the Supreme Court by his friend Taft, he wrote eighty-seven opinions in more than four years, none of them a major decision.

What the plaque says

Horace H. Lurton 1844-1914 Horace H. Lurton was a Confederate soldier, prisoner of war, lawyer, and the first president of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank. A member of the Tennessee Supreme Court, in 1893 he became its Chief Justice. Appointed by President Grover Cleveland to the Sixth Court of Appeal, Lurton subsequently served as presiding judge. In 1909, President William H. Taft appointed him to the United States Supreme Court. Lurton's home, once on this site, was destroyed by the tornado of 1999.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Defiance Civil War Park and Interpretive Center — 1.3 mi
  An intact earthwork fort above the Cumberland and Red Rivers in Clarksville, begun with forced Black labor and later a contraband camp and recruiting center for Black soldiers.
• Dunbar Cave State Park — 3.7 mi
  A Clarksville cave with 800-year-old Mississippian artwork, later a resort and Roy Acuff's dance stage, now a state park with seasonal guided tours.
• Cross Creeks National Wildlife Refuge — 24 mi
  An 8,862-acre refuge on the Cumberland River floodplain near Dover, made in 1962 to replace habitat Lake Barkley flooded, wintering tens of thousands of waterfowl.

More markers nearby

• Pioneer Newspaper — steps away
• Montgomery County Courthouse — steps away
• Austin Peay — steps away
• Clarksville's Slave Market — steps away