Description:

Not every brave son of the South fought against Northern aggression during the Civil War. Some took a different stand and defended the Stars and Stripes rather than take up the Stars and Bars. It meant placing their lives and those of their families in peril and withstanding verbal and physical persecution from their friends and neighbors. Fielding Hurst raised a regiment of fellow Southern Unionists called the Sixth Tennessee Cavalry. It was described by one Confederate soldier as “an ignorant posse of men led by vicious and unprincipled leaders” who were “the scourge and terror of the lower Eastern Counties of West Tennessee, and were as thoroughly detested and hated as any band of marauders who ever disgraced the name of soldiers.” Hurst’s Wurst describes their activities—both official and unofficial—and discusses the positive and negative aspects of their service during the Civil War.