"The Robert Dalton Genealogy Endeavors":Information about Robert Blackwell
Robert Blackwell (d. date unknown)
Notes for Robert Blackwell:James Arnold was placed in the home of his mother's first cousin ROBERT BLACKWELL and his wife and young children.Before we look at this man that my grandmother's grandfather was sent to live with at the age of 14 or 15, a little background information about Bedford County during the Civil War is in order.Tennessee was a border state and there was much ambivalence in Bedford County about its allegiance during the war.The old cliche about brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor held true here.Bedford County was taken by Federal troops fairly early in the war.There were not large numbers of Federal troops in the area, rather the Union forces depended on amilitia composed of local men. This was a recipe for trouble and ROBERT BLACKWELL was in the thick of it.BLACKWELL led a band of Confederate sympathizers who specialized in raiding Union warehouses and depleting their supplies.On26 September 1864, BLACKWELL and ten of his supporters mounted a raid on 21 armed Federal troops, all local men, quartered at the railroad depot.Taken by surprise, the Federal surrenders.The captives were made to mount their horses and all the men began heading south to Fayetteville, except BLACKWELL and one other, who stayed behind to torch the depot.After completing the 23 mile ride to Fayetteville, the "most respectable" of the hostages were released.The remainder were taken to the top of Wells Hill, south of Fayetteville, and shot.The dead men ranged in age from 17 to 27.BLACKWELL was never punished for this, and when the war ended went to Texas, where he was shot in the back by an unknown assailant in 1868.