The Henegar House is a historic house in

Charleston, Tennessee Charleston is a city in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 664 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The land now occupied by Charleston and Bradley County was home t ...

. Constructed in 1849, it is the oldest remaining brick structure in Bradley County. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

(NRHP) in 1976.

History

The Henegar House was constructed on the former site of the military headquarters of Gen. Winfield Scott at

Fort Cass Fort Cass was a fort located on the Hiwassee River in present-day Charleston, Tennessee, that served as the military operational headquarters for the entire Cherokee removal, an forced migration of the Cherokee known as the Trail of Tears from the ...

by Henry Benton Henegar, who served as wagonmaster and secretary under Chief John Ross during the

Cherokee Removal Cherokee removal, part of the Trail of Tears, refers to the forced relocation between 1836 and 1839 of an estimated 16,000 members of the Cherokee Nation and 1,000–2,000 of their slaves; from their lands in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carol ...

known as the

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was an ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the "Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. As part of the Indian removal, members of the Cherokee, ...

. Henegar and his wife, Margaret Lea Henegar, returned to Charleston after the removal and constructed the home in 1849. The home was designed by architect William Baumann, and constructed in the Federal-style architecture. During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, the home was used as headquarters for both Union and Confederate Generals including

William T. Sherman William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, Oliver O. Howard, Marcus J. Wright, and Samuel Bolivar Buckner. While Tennessee seceded and became part of the Confederacy, most of

East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...

, including Bradley County, voted against secession and sympathized with the Union. Sherman spent the night at the house on Nov. 30, 1863, and it was there that he received orders to take command of a column of troops moving to relieve Knoxville. According to historic records, the back porch was the site of a tense conversation between Mrs. Henegar and Sherman, in which the general advised Mrs. Henegar, who was a supporter of the Confederacy, to leave the South for safety, claiming that "not even a bird would remain" in the south after he was finished. Mrs. Henegar rejected his advice and declared that she and her husband, who was a Unionist, would never leave. The Henegar House was listed on the NRHP on July 6, 1976. The house was added as a site to the Tennessee sites in the Civil War Trails Association's national tour in 2010. In November 2011 it was announced that painter

Don Troiani Don Troiani (born 1949) is an American painter whose work focuses on his native country's military heritage, mostly from the American Revolution, War of 1812 and American Civil War. His highly realistic and historically accurate oil and watercolo ...

had been commissioned by local businessman Allan Jones to paint the Henegar House. The painting, titled "Sherman Leaving the Henegar House - December 1, 1863", was completed in 2012, and is housed in the nearby Hiwassee River Heritage Center. The house was listed for sale in 2013.

References

{{reflist National Register of Historic Places in Bradley County, Tennessee Houses completed in 1849 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Houses in Bradley County, Tennessee Military history of Tennessee Trail of Tears Charleston, Tennessee

History

See also

References