SELECT FUTURE AND FORMER CONFEDERATES OF

CUMBERLAND CAVERNS
Marion O. Smith and Landon D. Medley

So far as known, no soldiers from either the Union or Confederate armies actually
entered what is today known as Cumberland Caverns (previously Higginbotham and
Henshaw Caves) during the 1861-65 Civil War. But, either before or after the conflict.
future or former soldiers did visit the cave, as evidenced by their graffiti they left on the
walls. The best known such person was Shelah Waters (c1838-1894), prior major of the
58 Tennessee Cavalry, USA, who with others made explorations in the cave during 1869.
The individuals profiled below all served the Confederacy with one briefly working for
the Union army just after the war. Probably half or more toured the cave pre-war and the
remainder between 1869 and the end of the Nineteenth Century. They all entered via the
historic Higginbotham entrance.

“James Armstrong” “J Armstrong” “James Armstrong
Notasulga Ala”
(1 right junction) (Grand Canyon Passage) (Beyond 2" junction)

James S. Armstrong (May 17, 1837-November 16, 1897) was a native of
Walker County in northwestern Georgia and a son of Henry Holcombe
Armstrong (1810-1886) and Elizabeth Sloan (1813-1889) who during the
mid-1840s moved to Macon County, Alabama. James later attended Mercer
University in Greene County, Georgia, and in 1860 graduated from the law
school at Lebanon, Tennessee. It is likely that when he was a student at the
latter institution and his cousin, Waddy T. Armstrong, was a teacher at Irving
College they visited Higginbotham Cave together. He returned to Macon
County by mid-1860 and apparently began law practice. At Montgomery on
January 1, 1864, he became first lieutenant, Company A, 63" (2"¢ Reserves)
Alabama Infantry, CSA. Promoted captain the following August 16, he was
captured at Fort Blakely near Mobile April 9, 1865, exchanged May 1, and
was paroled at Meridian, Mississippi later that month. Soon, until 1869, he
lawyered in Prestonburg, Floyd County, Kentucky, before permanently
locating in Harrisonville, Cass County, Missouri. There he farmed and during
1875-76 served as the local prosecuting attorney. He married twice, April 3,
1868, to Mary Margaret Martin (c1838-1880), daughter of John P. Martin
(1811-1864), a former Kentucky Democratic congressman, and later to Mary
Hume (1842-1922) of Rome, Georgia, widow of Charles H. Coley. His first
spouse was the mother of his three boys and one girl. Findagrave #7644410
(James S. Armstrong), 27970006 (Henry H. Armstrong), 7644443 (Mary M.
Martin Armstrong), 7668626 (John Preston Martin); 1850 Census, Ala.,
Macon, 21% Dist., HH 298; (1860), Southern Div., 19; (1870), Mo., Cass,
Everett Twp., 1; (1880), 80% Enum. Dist., 53A; Compiled Service Records,
RG109, (M311, Roll 480), National Archives, James Armstrong File; Allen

a

X

Glenn, History of Cass County Missouri (Topeka and Cleveland, 1917), 440-
41; Ben Perley Poore, The Political Register and Congressional Directory
(Boston, 1878), 525.

“W. 'T. Armstrong”
(15 junction; Grand Canyon Passage; Beyond 2" junction)

Waddy Thompson Armstrong (August 14, 1839-April 7, 1869), son of Dr.
Ralph Clay Armstrong (1811-1842) and Cornelia Thompson of Montgomery,
Alabama, was a first cousin to James S. Armstrong. Both of his parents died
before 1850 and he and a sister were adopted by Reverend Henry Talbird
(1811-1890) who in the 1850s headed Howard College (now Samford
University) and 1862-63 served as colonel of the 41 Alabama Infantry, CSA.
Waddy attended Howard College as a prepatory student and graduated from
the higher program in 1857. About January 1859 he became professor of
Greek literature at Irving College, Tennessee. By 1860 he was back in
Alabama, where in Montgomery on December 1 he presented a flag sewn by
local ladies to a military company, the “Montgomery Mounted Rifles,”
captained by future Confederate General James H. Clanton. In April 1861 he
and a partner, Jeremiah F. Stewart, advertised they were lawyers in Benton,
Lowndes County. At Pensacola, Florida, on October 9, 1861, he married
Elizabeth Martin Abercrombie (1843-1890) and they had a girl and boy.
From April 1, 1863, until he resigned August 19, 1864, because of “extremely
feeble” health, he was captain of Company G, 6" Alabama Cavalry, CSA,
doing duty under General Clanton in various locales in Alabama and Georgia.
After the war he joined his family in Pensacola, where in June 1868 he
became connected with the local paper, the Observer, as “local scribbler.”
Findagrave #83810483 (Waddy T. Armstrong), 124192936 (Ralph C.
Armstrong), 11699908 (Henry Talbird); 1850 Census, Ala., Montgomery,
Montgomery, 18st Ward, 241; Howard College Catalog; Montgomery Weekly
Advertiser, December 5, 1860; Selma Daily Reporter, April 22, 1861; CSR,
RG109 (M311, Roll 21), NA, Waddy T. Armstrong File; Se/ma Times and
Messenger, June 12, 1868.

“7 Biack”’
(a long way in the historic route)

Of the eight Higginbotham Cave/Cumberland Caverns wall or ceiling
signers presented here, Thomas Black (June 13, 1837-February 27, 1904) is
the best known, with his biography published in several places. He was one
of nine children of Alexander Black (1804-1859), a McMinnville merchant,
and Mary A. Smith (1810-1873). One of his closest friends while growing up
was Horatio Marbury, son of his father’s business partner. As a youth he
sometimes clerked in the family store and about 1857 began studying
medicine under local doctors. The next year he attended lectures at the
medical section of the University of Nashville. On May 28, 1861, he joined

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Company C, 16'* Tennessee Infantry, CSA, along with the Marbury brothers.
His medical background was utilized. His compiled service record shows that
in Virginia the next July he was “left at Staunton to nurse sick” and
September 19-December 13 the same year he was steward at twenty-five
cents extra per day at the hospital at Bath Alum. March-April 1863 and
January-February 1864 he was on “Daily” or “extra” duty as a steward for his
regiment. Other sources claim he was assigned to a large hospital at Corinth,
Mississippi, in May 1862 and at Tullahoma, Tennessee, in early 1863, and
sometimes acted as an assistant surgeon. After the war for a while he was
back in Warren County. Then he returned to Nashville to resume his medical
studies graduating in 1868. Remaining in the capital until 1874, he practiced
medicine, taught chemistry, and conducted a pharmacy. In McMinnville
February 13, 1867, he married Emma Jane Young (1845-1913), daughter of
John S. Young, an 1840s Tennessee secretary of state, and between 1868 and
1888 they had eight girls and three boys, of whom three did not survive to
adulthood. Upon his final return to McMinnville, he continued doctoring,
taught in the local female college, maintained a small museum of Indian
artifacts, and served as mayor. He bought the brick house built around 1825
on what is now West Main Street and lived there with his family. His brother,
Samuel Black (1829-1887), also signed the wall of Higginbotham Cave.
History of Tennessee (Nashville: Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1887),
885-86; William S. Speer, Sketches of Prominent Tennesseans (Nashviile,
1888), 183-84; Bobby Newby, Jf Walls Could Talk The History and Mystery
of the Black House (McMinnville, 1996), 12, 22-23, 35-36, 38-40, 53-55;
Findagrave #27483780 (Thomas Black); Ancestry.com (Thomas E. Black);
Natalick, Black, Pioneer Preacher, 160; CSR, RG109, NA, Thomas Black

File.

“C M FORREST”
(Ten Acre Room)

Charles Matiock Forrest (January 21, 1817-January 21, 1892), a native of
Warren County, was the son of Richard Albert Forrest (1783-1869) and Sarah
Matlock (1783-1827). A farmer and Primitive Baptist preacher, he also,
1850-56 was sheriff. On September 24, 1835, he married Ann Kell (1817-
1907) and they had at least five offspring. From about September 7, 1861,
until May 8, 1862, he was captain of Company B, 35" (Benjamin J. Hill’s)
Tennessee Infantry, CSA, and did duty at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and
probably took part in the west Tennessee battle of Shiloh. He was discharged
when his regiment was reorganized. Post-war he lived near Higginbotham
Cave, and about August 26. 1873, five members of a tourist group became
separated from their friends and were “lost in the mazes .. . four or five
hours.” With Forrest’s aid the wanderers were “found during the night.”
Sometime after that incident he and Ann moved to Bell County, Texas.
Findagrave #54464987 (Charles M. Forrest); Ancestry.com (Charles M.
Forrest); 1850 Census, Tenn., Warren, 4" Dist., 59; (1860), McMinnville

2s

P.O., 173; (1870), 5® Dist., 61; Tennesseans in the Civil War (2 vols.,
Nashville, 1964-65), 1: 248-50; The Heritage of Warren County TN
(Waynesville, N.C., 2005), 5; CSR, RG109 (M268, Roll 262), NA, Charles
M. Forrest File; Memphis Daily Appeal, September 13, 1873.

“June 1? 1858 Horatio Marbury
1858”
(a long way into the historic route)

Horatio Marbury (February 11, 1838-October 8, 1862) was one of several
sons of Phillip H. Marbury (1810-1897) and his first wife, Rebecca Mercer
(1811-1848). Horatio’s father and Alexander Black were merchant partners in
McMinnville for two decades and their families were very close. Horatio and
his brothers Alexander B. (1834-1890), Benjamin (1839-1875), and William
Marbury (1842-1865) all joined Company C. 16 Tennessee Infantry, CSA.
Horatio was killed at the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, and William died as a
prisoner of war at Comp Morton, Indiana. Betty M. Majors, The Family of
Phillip Hoodenpy! Marbury of Warren County TN,” WCGA Bulletin, Vol. 5,
No. 4 (Winter 1996), 20-21; Newby, If Walls Could Talk, 20, 35-36, 38, 55.

“J M RUST 1869”
(Ten Acre Room)

John Middleton Rust (April 15, 1834-May 17, 1918), a son of John Corbet
Rust (1798-1859) and Elizabeth Northcross (1804-1890) was a Warren
County farmer, In July 1862 he became second lieutenant of O. F. Bruster’s
Company of D. C. Douglass’s Tennessee Partisan Ranger Battalion, CSA,
which in February 1863 became Company L, 11 (Holman’s) Tennessee
Cavalry regiment. On the succeeding July 15 he was promoted one grade.
Finally, in February 1865 the 11" was consolidated with the 10 Cavalry and
he was captain of Company A. After serving all over Tennessee, Georgia, and
Alabama, he was paroled May 11, 1865, in the latter state at Gainesville. He
resided with his mother before and after the war, and during the early 1880s
married Darthula Bryant (d. 1897) and they had two sons and two daughters.
Some fifteen months after Darthula’s passing he married Amanda England
(1844-1916), widow of Matthew Douglas. Ladye Jane Hunter, “Descendants
of Benedict Rust, Sr.,”” WCGA Bulletin, 11 (Spring and Summer, 2003), 20,
22, 29-30; TICW, 1: 40, 76-79; CSR, RG109, NA, J. M. Rust, John M: Rust
Files; 1900 Census, Tenn., Warren, 4 Dist., 13 Enum. Dist., 1B; (1910), 4"
Dist., 177" Enum. Dist., 8A.

“BF Smith 1860” “BF Smith”
(before 1° junction) (near pit in Grand Canyon Passage)

Probably Benjamin Franklin Smith (c1836/37-December 31, 1862), a son of
Marcellus Smith (1808-1900) and Mary Stinnett (1808-1860), Marion

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County, Tennessee, residents at mid-century. During the early 1850s B. F.’s
parents moved to Jasper County, Missouri, but he remained in Tennessee,
reported by the census taker on August 9, 1860, as living in the household of
“Madison” (actually Addison Edward) and Millie Pursley of Warren County.
The following Christmas Day he married Patience R. Deakins (1840-1907)
and they had a daughter. Both Smith and Pursley joined Company H, 16"
Tennessee Infantry, CSA in late November 1862 and B. F. was killed in his
first battle at Stones River near Murfreesboro. Ancestry.com (Patience R.
Deakins, Addison E. Pursley, Benjamin F. Smith); 1850 Census, Tenn.,
Marion, 1St Dist., 79; (1860), Mo., Jasper, Jasper Twp., Medock P.O., 16;
(1860), Tenn., Warren, McMinnville P.O., 130; CSR, RG109, NA, Edward
Pursley and B. F. Smith Files.

“B. W. Sparks” "Dotan = Dr BW;
(15 junction) (Devils Quarry)

Benjamin William Sparks (August 12, 1836-August 29, 1903), according to
one source, was born in Monroe County, Georgia, but if so his parents,
William McCurdy Sparks (1814-1896) and Penelope Terrell Milner (1816-
1903) soon moved to Talbot County, where his father became a planter,
possessing $7,000 real and $32,209 personal property in 1860. B. W.
graduated from the medical university of New York City, and perhaps was
there when his family was counted in Georgia. In 1861 he apparently was
second lieutenant of Company D, 13 Georgia Infantry, CSA, July 8-October
31 as part of General John B. Floyd’s command in western Virginia. He may
have been next a Confederate surgeon but that has not been confirmed.
However, August 1, 1865-January 25, 1866, he was a contract surgeon for the
United States army at a field hospital in Geneva, Georgia, for which he in
1890 got a Federal pension. While thus employed, he was described as five
feet ten inches tall with a fair complexion, dark hair, and hazel eyes.
Sometime 1866 or later he settled in Warren County, Tennessee, where on
June 20, 1869, he married Ruth Evans Brown (1847-1926), daughter of
Billoat and Jessica Brown, and between 1870 and 1884 they had four boys
and two girls. He consistently was a physician, but in early 1870
superintended bat guano mining at Hubbards Cave. The following July he
lived with his wife and first-born at his mother-in-law’s place near Irving
College. Later he moved his family to McMinnville, where in 1900 they
resided on Smithville Street. In May 1885 he reportedly weighed 272 pounds.
Four years later he became the county health officer and the “jail physician.”
In 1890 he was also a director of the McMinnville Building Loan and Saving
Association. Findagrave #193732271 (Benjamin W. Sparks); Ancestry.com
(Benjamin W. Sparks); 1850 Census, Ga., Talbot, 17" Dist., 463; (1860),
6888" G M Dist., Centre P.O., 33; (1870), Tenn., Warren, 6'" Dist., 78;
(1880), 7 Dist., 133" Enum. Dist., 3; (1900), 1t Dist.. McMinnville, 137%
Enum. Dist., 11A; CSR, RG109 (M268, Roll 281), NA, B.W. Sparks Fue;
The Sparks Quarterly, 34 (June 1986), whole number 134c; Nashville

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Christian Advocate, October 8, 1903; Cleveland (Ohio) Daily Herald,
January 15, 1870; McMinnville Southern Standard, May 9, 1885, October 12,
1889, June 7, 1890.