The Hurst Nation

Fielding Hurst was a Unionist and a slaveholder, and both facts shaped his reputation. Imprisoned in Nashville when Tennessee seceded, he raised mounted scouts that Andrew Johnson commissioned as a cavalry regiment, and the unit became known for harsh tactics that angered Confederates. A diary found in 2012, kept by Lt. Col. William Breckenridge, suggests Hurst and a few officers earned the regiment's bad name, while Breckenridge ran it day to day. Elected a state senator in 1865, Hurst cast his first vote to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment.

What the plaque says

The Hurst Nation In this section lived numerous members of the Hurst family, who were staunch Unionists in a predominantly Confederate area. Its best known member was Col. Fielding Hurst, commanding the 6th Tenn. Cavalry, an irregular Union group which skirmished and scouted for various Federal commanders in the area.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Big Hill Pond State Park — 14 mi
  A 4,000-acre bottomland park in McNairy County built around a pond that railroad crews dug in 1853, with a 70-foot tower over Dismal Swamp and Civil War earthworks.
• Shiloh National Military Park — 17 mi
  The April 6-7, 1862 battlefield above Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River, with the Hornets' Nest, Bloody Pond, a national cemetery and no entrance fee.
• Shiloh Indian Mounds — 17 mi
  A National Historic Landmark on the Tennessee River bluff: the remains of a palisaded Mississippian-era town with seven mounds and the visible rings of its house sites, inside Shiloh National Military Park.
• Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park — 19 mi
  The largest group of Middle Woodland mounds in the United States, about two thousand years old, with the second tallest mound in the country, a museum and paved trails.

More markers nearby

• The Trail of Tears, Cherokee Removal 1838 — 3.1 mi
• Buford Hayse Pusser — 8.4 mi
• Freed-Hardeman College — 14 mi
• Battle of Davis Bridge — 17 mi