THE CARNES INSCRIPTIONS OF BIG BONE CAVE

Among the numerous Nineteenth Century names found on the walls and ceiling of
Van Buren County’s Big Bone Cave are at least three from the Carnes family. a)
Carnes” is on the main Arch Cave Route with an April 17, 1858. group of signers. and in
the area just before the Muster Ground without a date. “S.E. Carnes 1856” is also in the
Arch Cave Branch toward the Muster Ground beyond the April 17, 1858. inscriptions.
and in the Muster Ground with an 1854 date. “N.A. Carnes” twice and “Nancy A ‘i
are in China Town very close to its beginning from the primary Arch Cave Branch.’

A.C., S.E., and Nancy A. were children of William Davis Carnes and Elizabeth
Billingsley Carnes. The father (1805-1879), a North Carolina native who had grown up
near McMinnville. in the mid-1840s earned a master’s degree at East Tennessee (now
UT) University in Knoxville. Then he headed the preparatory schoo! there for a couple of
years. By early 1850 W.D. had moved his family to Spencer. where until 1858 he served
as president of the newly established and co-educational Burritt College. His oldest
daughter. Mary M. Carnes. was both a teacher and a student at the school. She and her
sister Nancy Amanda (c1831-c1857) graduated from Burritt in 1853. and three years later
their brother Samuel E. (c1837-/11881) did the same. Their brother, Alexander C. Carnes
(c1829-f11880) was an“ A CD Teacher.”

In July 1852 A. C. Carnes married Nancy F. Wood (b. c1836), a daughter of
David F. and Mary Wood. a Spencer area farm family. Sometime before, she had visited
Big Bone Cave, leaving “N F Wood” in the Arch Branch as her testimony for having
been there. By 1859 A.C. and Nancy F. had four children and lived in Knoxville. where
he was a mathematics teacher at East Tennessee University. After the opening of the
Civil War A.C. moved his family back to middle Tennessee, and made saltpeter. Where
he made saltpeter is not recorded, but he certainly had seen the artifacts in Big Bone Cave
and was familiar with the Bone Cave Mountain. Information about only two of his
deliveries has survived. The first was 214 pounds at 35¢ on December 12, 1861, to
Lieutenant Moses H. Wright, the Confederate ordnance officer in Nashville, and the other
was 89 pounds at 75¢ on April 30, 1863, to the Nitre Bureau office at McMinnville. Late
in the war he was briefly in the Confederate cavalry until he was captured at Readyville,
Cannon County. Tennessee, on September 6. 1864, and sent as a prisoner of war to Camp
Chase. Ohio. On April 26, 1865, Special Commissioner Samuel Galloway interviewed
Carnes in prison and wrote this report: |

The prisoner under oath states that in Nov 1862 he was ordered by a conscript
officer to report for military duty at Spencer in Van Buren Co—that he did so and
upon application for a detail to be employed at the nitre works it was granted—that
he remained there until June 1863 when he went home without permission and there
remained until Aug 1864 when he was taken by Gen [Joseph] Wheeler forces whilst
upon a raid through the country and was sent to Gen [George G.] Dibrell at Sparta
and assigned by him to the 8 Tenn Cav where he remained until captured... . |
recommend his release upon taking the oath of allegiance to Govt of U States.

Consequently. the following May 12, Alexander C. took the oath and was liberated. At
the time he was described as being five feet ten inches tall, with a florid complexion, dark

hair, and gray eyes. About 1862 A.C. and Nancy had another girl and sometime
alterwards Nancy died. Then on January 27, 1869, A.C. married her sister. Margar

am Aiki LiCl ne ee as Ys
wo

Wood (c1838-/71880). a Burritt College graduate of 1854 who in 1860 visited Big Bone
Cave, signing herself on the wall, “M.L. Wood.” In 1870 they lived in Lincoln County
where A.C. taught school. A decade later they were at Smithville in DeKalb County,
vhere he was still a teacher. There, for a while he also edited a newspaper. The Journal.”
After his father and most of his siblings moved to Knoxville, Samuel E. Carnes
began to practice law. He soon the war started. and on July 6, 1861, he enlisted as a
private in Company F, 4" Battalion (Branner’s) Tennessee Cavalry, CSA. Two months
later he helped guard a prisoner named Jerry W. Kelso from Big Spring Gap to Camp
Cummings near Knoxvule. and days later, September 12. he was discharged, for reasons
not shown. He apparently went to Pikeville in Bledsoe County where his sister Mary M.
was living, and stayed out of the army for a year. At Pikeville on September 10, 1862, he
again enlisted as a private, this time in Company C, 22™ Battalion Dahle Tennessee
Infantry, CSA. A few weeks later, on October 1, he was promoted to 1° lieutenant and
ad) utant. uy remained on duty with this unit, as part of General Braxton Bragg’s Army of

is opment On June 12 S.E. Carnes announced himself as a candidate to the
Tennessee House of Representatives for the Van Buren, Bledsoe, and Rhea Counties
district. But the Confederates soon lost middle Tennessee and his run for this office was
likely abandoned. On June 15 he was ordered by Bragg to report for duty in the conscript
service, and he served in that capacity from June 22, 1863, until January 1865. Within
this period he received pay at Marietta, Georgia. Montgomery, Alabama, and Columbus,
Georgia. From March 26 until December 13, 1864, he was the enrolling officer in Russell
County. Alabama, before being ordered back to Montgomery. Soon, he returned to duty
with his old consolidated 22° Battalion—38"" Regiment, then in North Carolina. He
seems to have been paroled at Newton, North Carolina, about April 19 or 21, and some
three weeks later at Nashville, Tennessee, on May 12, 1865, the same day as his brother
A.C.. he took the U.S. oath of allegiance. S.E. was then described as being five feet nine
inches tall. with a fair complexion, light hair, and blue eyes. By 1868 he was married to a
woman named Ellen J., and two years later they had a daughter and lived in Coffee
County where he had resumed law practice. In 1873 Ellen bore him a son, and by 1880
he and his family had moved to the environs of his youth, Spencer, where he made his
livelihood as a miller.”

Nancy Amanda Carnes married George W. Rogers (c1829-c1866) of Bledsoe
County on March 3, 1856. That same year Rogers graduated from Burritt College, and on
July 23 left his name in the Arch Branch of Big Bone Cave. Nancy was probably with
him because nearby “N A Rogers” is also scratched. The next year she died giving birth
to their daughter. Ida. Three years later, George W., now a merchant, and Ida lived in
Pikeville with his sister-in-law, Mary M. Carnes, who by then was married to an attorney,
William Jetterson Hill. With Samuel E. Carnes on July 6, 1861, G. W. Rogers joined
Company F, 4" Battalion (Branner’s) Tennessee Cavalry, CSA. On May 24. 1862, that
unit was consolidated with the 5" Tennessee Cavalry to form the a (Ashby’ S )
Tennessee Cavalry regiment. CSA. and following June 27 Rogers was appointed 2
sant. On August 2. 1863. in eastern Kentucky, Rogers was captured at Stanford and
arded to Camp Chase. Ohio, and soon after transferred to Camp Douglas, Hlinois.

ree
rw

tO
i

Where he apparently was held prisoner the remainde1
Rogers became presi ident t of the new Sequachee College south of f Pik
late in the year or early 1567 he died

One of Alexander C. Carnes’ brothers-in-law ft his name multiple times in Big
Bone Cave beyond the Sky Walk vat area. They were ae written as 1, Lon, U Lor
ee OO sometimes with 1860 or May. 1860 d dates. Uriah Leonidas Wood (1840-1862)

was briefly private and 1“ sergeant in Company H. 16" Tennessee Infantry, CSA, from
May 15. rs until the following August 6. when he was discharged in Virginia for
lit

disabi . His health did not improve. and he died presumably at home March 19, 1862.°
SOURCES

1. Big Bone Cave name inscriptions.

2. Landon D. Medley, 7he History of Van Buren County, Tennessee (Salem, W. Va., 1987), 13-
14. 88; Margret Rhinehart, Our People (n.p., 1983), 231: 1850 Census,.Tenn., Van Buren, 773: (1860).
Bledsoe, Pikeville P.O., 49; Knox. 12" Dist., Knoxville P.O., 26; (1880), DeKalb, 9" Dist., 204: Heritage
of White County 1500-1999 (Waynesville, N.C., 1999), 235 :
3. Margret Rhinehart. trans., Van Buren County Marriage Records 1840-1935 (Spencer, 1983), 7,
ee i g Bone Cave name inscriptions; 1850 Census, Tenn., Van Buren, TT Dist) 770; (1860), Knox, 12”
Dist.. Knoxville P.O., 26;(97870). incom. an 9 ay Fayetteville P.O., 30; (1880), DeKalb, OP Dist®: 204:
oe A Knoxville Directory (1859-60), 45; eat ederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms.
RG109 (M346. Roll 143), National Archives, A.C. Carnes File; Compiled Service Records, RG109 (M268,
Roll ie National Archives, Alexander C. Carnes File: Medley. History of Van Buren, 88; Thomas G.
A Bicentennial History of DeKalb Cousin Tennessee (Smithville, Tenn.. 1995), 336.
4.W ee Knoxville Directory (1859-60), 45: CSR, RG109 (M258, Rolls 20, 2
nes Files: Chattanooga Daily Re ae July an 1863: 1870 Census, Tenn., Lincoln
jester P.O., 3: (1880), Van Buren, 3 ‘ Dist.,
> Rbipchan | Yan Buren Marriages, 10; Mediey History of Van Buren, 88, Big Bone Cave name
inscriptions: 1850 Census, Tenn., Bledsoe, Eastern Dist., 366; Van Buren, 7 Dist., 386; (1860), Bledsoe,
Pikeville P.O., 49: CSR, RG109 (M268, Rolls 8, 21), George W. Rogers Files; Jerry Blevins, Sequatchie
Valley Soldiers in the Civil War (Huntsville, Ala.,1990), 21-22, 219; Elizabeth P. Robnet, Bledsoe County,
Tennessee A History (Signal Mountain, Tenn., 1993), 146-47, 233: Norma Jeane D. Hobbs, /ndexes to
Bledsoe County, Tennessee, Chancery Court Loose Papers 1840-1940 (n.p.. 1999), 4.

6. Big Bone Cave name inscriptions; 1850 Census, Tenn., Van buren, 7? Dist 770; (1860),
Spencer P.O.. 46; CSR, RG109 (M268, Roll 185), NA. U.L. Wood File; Rhinehart, Our People, 194.

07), NA, Samuel
_ Coffees 6° Dist,