The Civil War tore
apart our country as well as deeply dividing many of our communities when sympathies fell
on opposite sides. Grassy Cove shared in loss and tragedy. John Ford, Sr. had
died before the war began but he had 21 Grandsons who fought in this war. Having
come from Virginia, their sympathies were naturally with the Confederacy, although one
grandson, Mark Renfroe, espoused the Union cause, became a Captain and was killed in
battle. He is buried in the National Cemetery in Knoxville, TN.
Here are some of the Grandsons of John Ford, Sr. from Grassy Cove who fought for the
James W. Matthews
(born 2 Nov 1827, Grassy Cove, Bledsoe County, TN) He was the son of Jane Ford and Richard
Matthews. James was nicknamed 'Soup' and mentioned in the Tales of the Civil War Era
booklet compiled by Stella Mowbray Harvey in 1964 for the Tennessee Civil War Centennial
Committee. He died 11 Nov 1911 and is buried in Grassy Cove Methodist Cemetery, TN,
listed as a Civil War Veteran.
All 5 sons of Dr. John Ford:
Elijah J. Ford, Thomas W. Ford, John F. Ford, Elbert H. Ford and Chris Ford.
The first four of these sons answered the first call to arms by the Confederacy and went
to Washington, Rhea County, TN, to enlist. They served in the Fifth Company under
Captain Burton Leuty. Elijah (Lige) was a casualty of battle.
The fifth son, Chris Ford , enlisted later.
was a Private in Co. F., 2 Ashby's Tennessee Cavalry, Confederate. The four muster
rolls first show him enlisting 24 may 1862 at Powell's Valley by Col. H.M. Ashby for a
period of two years.
In July 1864 he is in Capt. S.C. Stone's Co. of the 2 Regt. Tennessee Cavalry and roll is
date Tennie Hill Georgia. He enlisted at Pikeville, Tenn.
*This company was also known as Co. F, 2d (Ashby's) Regt. Tenn. Cavalry.
Last muster shows him in Co. F, 1st Reg't Tennessee Cavalry ... Col. Gillespie for two
years or the war.
Elizabeth objected to him joining the Confederacy as her father and two brothers had
joined the Union cause. He tried to persuade her that he could not fight against his
brothers but it was to no avail and he eventually left to join the
Confederacy. During this time Elizabeth sued for divorce and custody of their
two children but Chris returned on leave, counter-sued and he won the custody
battle. He then returned to war leaving his children with his elderly parents, Dr.
John and Mary Nancy Ford.
During this time, on a bleak fall day,
the people living
near enough to the road to recognize passersby saw Elizabeth Swan, her father and brother
galloping northward bearing the 2 little girls of Chris & Elizabeth Ford. The
children were without wraps on that cold day of the murder and their little faces were
spattered with blood
The neighbors, realizing something unusual had happened, rushed to the Ford home were they
found Dr. Ford sitting in his arm chair, with a great knife sticking into his skull.
He was breathing but unconscious. His wife Nancy was found on the floor of
the Ford home and placed upon a bed.
MARY JANE OR 'Aunt Mary" as she is referred to in
adulthood, the baby daughter of Dr. John & Nancy Loden Ford, who was still at
home with her parents at the time of the Civil War, witnessed the murder of her father at
the hands of two members of the Swann family, also of Cumberland County, Tenn. She
never married and lived in the home with her brothers, CHRISTOPHER ARCHIBALD FORD,
and bachelor brother, JOHN FLETCHER FORD. They share a common gravestone, a tall column
with their names on each side of the square-shaped stone. The front part of stone
has FORD on it. The stone is located near the white post fence in the old part of
the cemetery. This Mary Ford was in the living room with her parents when Mr. Swan
and his son came into the room and murdered her father while he sat in his chair with his
son Chris' two young daughters. She was found lying on the floor, staring into space
and unable to speak from fright and from this condition she never did fully recover
although she later regained her voice and was able ot tell the story of how the terrible
tragedy was enacted.
She did not tell which one murdered him according to family stories but it was widely
rumored to be Chris' brother-in-law. At least he's the one who fled to Kentucky
and stayed awhile before returning to the area. This was in the period of the Civil War referred to
as Dog Days because the courts were disrupted and there was no recourse or protection from
Note: Dr. John is mentioned in some books, including Bledsoe County, Tenn. -
A History, written by Elizabeth Parham Robnett, as being in the Civil War himself but in
all family documentation, it is mentioned only that he, being too old and feeble for
service during the Civil War, contributed heavily towards the Confederate cause until the
afternoon of his murder on Oct. 7, 1863.
John Fletcher Ford went into service, he was a Private in Co. F. of the 1st Cavalry, in
Capt. Burton Leuty's Co. He was 33 yrs. old in April 1862 when he enlisted at
Sulphur Springs, Tenn. for the period of the war. The number of miles to his
rendevous was 65 on the 1st muster roll I have of his service. The company was
increased to a Regiment in Nov. 14, 1862 by the addition of other companies and became the
1st Carter's Regiment of the Tenn. Cavalry.
John F. told an old veteran friend of his who was visiting one day at the Ford homestead,
(told to Steve Cawood from Rhea Cnty. Tenn.) ... "if war is hell, then what would you
call the aftermath" "Bittersweet I guess,"Steve replied.
"It was bitter to return home and look upon the worn faces of our women and the
frail, undernourished bodies of the little children, and also to find that guerillas had
carried off about everything that was portable from the comfortable homes which once were,
and to have to travel heartbreak road in re-establishing ourselves, John F. said.
"Yet on the other hand it was sweet to be home again with our loved ones and to
possess the strength and ability to stage a comeback. But my loved ones were not all here
on my return," he continued. "My father had been murdered and my brother, Lige
(Elijah Jehu) died a prisoner of war."
"You know Jane and I were to have been married when the war ended. You know
too, her parents were well off and she had been accustomed to everything money could buy.
When I returned from the war, my mother was lying helpless, paralyzed from the
waist down. Sister Mary had been her sole dependence since father's murder, and she
was frail. I was their sole dependence now. "
"Guerillas had taken even the quilts and blankets and all my civilian clothes. There
was very little left that could be hauled away. I looked around and realized I
could not marry Jane and bring her into these surroundings with my mother and sister so
helpless and in need of all that I could do to support them under the circumstances,
" said John.
description of JOHN F. FORD
Ford was the second son of Dr. John Ford and was a gay young man. He was reared to work in
his father's general store in the Grassy Cove community, which with time had grown greatly
in population from when John Ford Sr., the Rev. soldier, had led a wagon train here in
1802. From here John F. had gained much business ability. He always
appeared well dressed at all occasions and he played fiddle in the string band at the Crab
Orchard Inn for balls and other social functions held in the Cove during this time.
He rode a large dapple gray horse. At 3 different times his horse was shot out from
under him in battles and he was in many fierce ones, including the Battle Above the Clouds
at Lookoup Mtn., Missionary Ridge, Shiloh, and the Battle of Chicamuaga where it is said
... "the creek ran red four days due to the blood men and horses shed in battle
(RUSSFERD) S FORD, 5th son of Reuben and Susanna Ford, was born ca.1833 in Grassy Cove,
Tenn, Bledsoe County. He is deceased about 18 Sept. 1863 after suffering a fatal foot
injury during the Civil War.
2nd Regiment Ark. Mounted Rifles, Pvt. in Co. D. Joined 15 July 1861 near Bentonville for
a period of 12 months. He traveled 3 miles to place of rendevous according to his muster
rolls. Valuation in dollar of his horse was $125 and horse equipment, $10. By 1863 he is
in F-Gordon's Regimental Cavalry, 1st Regt. Ark. Cavalry for duration of war. (This Regt.
was designated at various times as Carroll's Regt Ark. Cavalry, Thomason's Regt Ark.