Ravaged by
War
When war broke out between the North and the South in 1861 the Gallahers sided with their home state of Tennessee. Although the majority of rural East Tennesseans were against secession, the state as a whole voted to join its sister states in the Confederacy. David Houston enlisted in April 1862 as a private in Company B, 63rd Tennessee Infantry. He was transferred by promotion to 2nd lieutenant in Company K, Love’s Regiment of Thomas’ Legion, N.C. where he served with many other Roane and Anderson Countians, as well as with his brother-in-law and neighbor, A.J. Burum (A.J. had married David’s sister Nancy) for the duration of the war.
In the early years of the war many parts of East and Middle Tennessee, including Roane County, were plagued with Unionist bushwhackers. Barns, homes, and churches were burned; homes were looted;
there were lynchings, beatings, and shootings. Company K was initially raised to protect Roane and Anderson Counties from these marauding bands whose intentions were often less than patriotic.General Burnside marched his federal troops from Kentucky through Roane County en route to Knoxville in August of 1863. From that time on Roane County was under Union control. Now the tables were turned. Confederate bushwhackers wreaked havoc in the countryside. They burned, looted, lynched, beat, and shot those who supported the Union.
Throughout the war both armies were faced with the dilemma of feeding and supplying thousands of soldiers. They constantly foraged food off the land, taking food, horses, whatever they needed, or wanted, from private citizens. Sometimes they paid for these items in Greenback dollars or Confederate currency; other times they left the civilian residents destitute with promissory notes; and often they simply took what they wanted with no payment whatsoever. In November of 1863 the Gallahers discovered firsthand what that meant.
About 100 men from the 79th N.Y. Highlanders left their encampment at Lenoir’s Station (present day Lenoir City) on a foraging expedition. One soldier reported that they “...reached the extensive plantation or farm of a Mr. Gallagher (sic)...who was reported to be a red-hot secessionist; we found him to be a red-headed one, at any rate...On reaching his place we found quite a village of barns and sheds, the buildings well-stocked with corn, oats, and hay....his neighbors had been plundered by the rebels because of their well-known Union sympathies, while he had thus far escaped.” The report goes on to say that Mr. Gallaher (presumably George, Sr.) “...watched our proceedings with a good deal of interest, occasionally giving vent to his injured feelings by remarks more forcible than patriotic or polite.” Although the federal soldiers offered to purchase hoe-cake, biscuit, and poultry at the house, they were met by “such churlish refusals” that they decided to help themselves anyway. “The people were not molested,” said the soldier.
At about this time, according to a Gallaher family story, Mattie and her Negro house servant were doing laundry at the creek. Both women had infant children. The Negro woman was washing clothes and Mattie was nursing the Negro child at her breast when a Union soldier rode by. He expressed his shock and revulsion that a white woman was breast-feeding a Negro child. According to Mrs. Ernest Gallaher, Mattie replied, “You’re willing to die for them. Why wouldn’t I be willing to feed them?” Apparently, there often was a close bond between some slave owners and their servants, or slaves.
The Gallaher-Welcker Cemetery, AEC #1, is located a short distance from the slave cemetery AEC #2. In this cemetery are buried George Gallaher, Sr., many of his descendants, as well as some Welckers, Burums, and others. There are some unmarked graves just outside the stone walls of this cemetery. These graves are reportedly those of favorite slaves of the Gallaher family, or house servants who were close to the family. Perhaps the Negro woman who was washing clothes with Mattie Gallaher lies resting there, close to the family, but just outside the walls.