TNWAYNE-L Archives

Archiver > TNWAYNE > 1998-07 > 0900473301


From: Jake & Debbie Wasserburger <>
Subject: [TNWAYNE-L] GenMaster searches.
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 22:28:21 -0500


Below is an article, that may tie in someone's surnames. Most of the
surnames I'm searching in Lauderdale Co., AL is Sharp, Wood, Lindsey,
Murphy, Milford, Lamb, Thompson, White,

Hardin Co., TN is Cossey, Austin, Qualls/Quarles, Lamb, Lard, Freshour,
White, Thompson, Lindsey, Rainey

Wayne Co., TN is White, Thompson, Lindsey, Rainey, Freshour, Sharp,
Qualls, Austin.

Working in the area where Hardin Co., and Wayne Co., TN join to
Lauderdale Co., AL.

In the article below, Hubbard Cossey is my 3great-grandfather, son of
Luke Cossey who was in Hardin Co., TN in the 1830 Census. Also, Monroe
Cossey was the son of Hubbard. I haven't figured out 'which' Tom and
Luke the article talks about, as there were several kids named after
uncles, ect.

Richard Lard was my 4great-grandfather, and his daughter Cynthia Rebecca
Lard, married Augustus Austin, great-grandson of Stephen Austin who
married Dorcas Pinson. This Stephen is the grandfather of the Stephen
mentioned in the article.

My ties in Hardin Co., TN are around the Walnut Grove and Hollands Creek
area, and in the Waterloo, Wright, Gravely Springs, Bitter Branch and
Lindsey Branch in Lauderdale Co., AL. Also with the lower Southwestern
corner of Wayne Co., TN.

My database is over 70,000 names in these and other areas. Please visit
my genealogy website at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/7578
and browse my GenMaster Series. There are over 5,000+ names there from
my database, and many outdated. I never seem to catch up!

Debbie Cossey WasserburgerHuntsville, AL

Other than correcting spelling, this article is copied as written. I
guess it was written in the Tennessee Homecoming '86, as this copy of
the article was given to me by a 4th cousin.
__________________________________________________
Hardin County’s heritage:

The Bert Hays Story
by Tony Hays

During the first tragic months of the Civil War, the nation’s attention
was focused on Hardin County. The Battle of Shiloh thrust an unwanted
prominence on this small, rural county. Within a couple of months,
however, the nation’s eyes turned elsewhere as the massive armies of
blue and gray moved to other killing grounds, leaving Hardin County as a
tidal inlet in the ocean of war which soon flooded the country.
As with most counties in the boarder states, the people of Hardin
County were soon faced with a new, and certainly more horrible, form of
warfare - the onslaught of the bushwhackers. The severity of the problem
soon became evident to them as the armies of both sides scavenged the
land taking any and everything of value. But these were soldiers;
answerable to some legal authority. The danger of lawless renegades
would prove to be even more real and even more bloody.
The first and foremost of the guerrillas in the Hardin County area was
W. Bertram Hays, a twenty-six year old cavalry captain born in Wayne
County. Hays was the son of Wallace Hays, a wealthy Wayne County
planter. Among his family were sisters Amanda, Abigail, Paralee, and
Margaret. Bert’s grandfather, John Hays, came to Tennessee from North
Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. Lawson, Bert’s
brother, was eight years older than the future guerrilla; and Bert
appears to be the youngest male in the family. By 1860, the Hays family
had moved to Hardin County.
Some sources say that Bert was a successful planter in the Mississippi
area at the start of the war. But, a survey of the 1860 census of Hardin
County shows Bert and his wife, Terresee E., and their children Mary M.
and Leander V. living not far from Bert’s father, Wallace. At this same
time, Lawson was serving as a deputy marshal at Savannah. Wallace had a
large farm and appears to have been a prosperous farmer. By the start of
the war, Wallace’s household had swindled to himself, wife Lucinda, and
Abigail, Margaret and Paralee.
When the war began, Lawson and Bert joined a local Confederate Cavalry
Regiment. He was enrolled as a private, but when the company held their
election for officers Bert was selected as Captain. In the ensuing
period, Bert served honorably and was singled out for a commendation for
valor at Brice’s Crossroads. The next episode in Hay’s story is best
told by Wade Pruitt in his book The Bugger Saga. According to Pruitt,
shortly after Hay’s participation in the battle at Brice’s Crossroads...

“This whole company disappeared from the regiment...What happened we do
not know. Whether Hays’ company was order on a private scout and went
bad, or whether Hays led the whole company into desertion we may never
know. Hays during the last year of the war was operating around Waterloo
which was a twilight zone in which there were maneuvering of all kinds
of spies and those skilled in espionage, the best known being Capt. S.
P. Emerson, Co. B, 6th Kentucky Cavalry, C.S.A., who was one of those
characters that floated about Gen. John Hunt Morgan during the war.”

In early 1864, Hays established his headquarters in the Cypress Creeks
are of Lauderdale County, Ala. Using this as a staging ground, he
launched uncounted raids into Hardin, Wayne, and Lawrence counties. Bert
maintained at least superficial ties with the Confederate Army assisting
Capt. Emerson, mentioned above, in breaking up a desertion ring in the
Waterloo area. For the most part, however, Hays seems to have been
involved in less honorable activities.
The soldiers of the 2nd Regiment Tennessee Mounted Infantry at Clifton
were especially troublesome to Hays. Practically in his backyard, Hay’s
initial raids were directed against the families of these troopers. The
Emerson brothers, John, Tom, and George were captured and killed about
seven miles south of Savannah on the river by Hays. Samuel Martin, the
commanding officer of Company B of the regiment, was killed close to his
cabin under suspicious circumstances. This could have been Hays’ doing
as well.
Within a short while, Hays became one of the most notorious guerrillas
operating in the Tennessee River area. A list of these renegades was
forwarded to Washington and Hays’ name appears along with several
others. Interestingly enough, three women were included on that list
for passing information to the Confederate guerrillas. Lucy Lancaster
of Saltillo was one of these.
The people of Hardin County soon learned to dread the name of Bertram
Hays. It is not known how Wallace and his family were treated in the
wake of his son’s activities, but certainly there must have been a great
deal of hate and ostracism. Several rapes and murders were ascribed to
Hays and his men. Alabamians Tom, John, and Leroy Huggins are said to
have been three of Bert’s henchmen. The Ross family of Horse Creek had
good cause to hate the Hays gang. During April of 1864, sixty-two year
old Morgan Ross, who had just returned from a trip to Mississippi, was
shot by two of Hays’ men while he struggled with Hays himself.
One of the most violent exchanges, according to tradition, occurred on
Holland’s Creed between Hays and several Union soldiers home on leave.
The “Battle” of Holland’s Creek began when Hays and his men first
stopped at the home of thirty-six year old Richard Lard. Finding no one
at home, they moved on to the homeplace of Stephen Austin. Austin, 54,
was crippled with rheumatism, but Hays proceeded to administer a
pistol-whipping. Nancy Lard, Austin’s daughter who had come over to
help with the cooking, slipped out a back door and alerted the people
along Holland’s Creek of their predicament. A number of Union soldiers,
Tom and Luke Cossey among them, were home visiting and rushed to the aid
of their neighbors. The Cosseys had a special reason to get Hays.
Their kinsman, Monroe Cossey allegedly the son of Hubbard Cossey, had
been forced to guide the guerrilla band to the Pinhook Road one night.
On delivering the gang to the appointed sight, young Cossey was shot in
the back by Hays as he started back home.
The battle was joined. It became a running fight up and down Holland’s
creek that morning. One account states that ten men were killed before
the shooting ended. One famous cutthroat is known to have fought on
hays’ side in this battle. Tobe Thornton was later hanged in Savannah
for the murder of a prominent businessman.
Among the others said to have been killed by Bert Hays were “One-Eyed”
Martin Hardin, Roan Porter Sr., and 55 year old John Falls. Naturally,
the tales of murder grow with the telling. One story has it that Hays
abused and killed a woman as her baby lay sleeping. When the child
finally awoke, Hays killed it too saying, “I never liked babies,
anyway.”
The war ended and so, it seems, did Bert Hays’ reign of terror in
Hardin County. Stories of his death are many and the true story will
probably never be known. Some say the Dave Thomas, one of Hays’ own
men, shot him during an argument. Another, and possibly more truthful
story according to Wade Pruitt, is that Hays was killed while crossing
the Tennessee River by a band of people he had antagonized during the
war. His family stayed in Hardin County for some years after the war
and appears to have remained relatively unmolested. Lawson, Bert’s
brother, died in the late 1860’s. Wallace, his father, didn’t pass away
until about 1880.
War causes men to do things they would never have done otherwise. Some
say that there is evil in all men, but it requires evil times for it to
emerge. None would argue that the Civil War produced some of the worst
times in history. And none would argue that to the citizens of Hardin,
dealing with Captain W. Bertram Hays was a very real and frightening
possibility as the War Between the States drew slowly to a close.
_________________

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