Jack Hinson The Civil War's Deadliest Sniper

Over a year ago, I uploaded a series of three videos about a Civil War sniper named Jack Henson. The story is based on a book entitled Jack Henson's One Man War. Since I find the book and story totally entertaining, fascinating and amazing, I have decided to consolidate the story into one video. When the Civil War broke out, Jack Henson was a well-to-do landowner and slave owner in the Between the Rivers region of Stewart County, Tennessee, close to the small town of Dover. The area was designated Between the Rivers because of its proximity to both the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers approximately 100 miles west of Nashville. Today, there is a recreational area close to the original Henson Plantation site called Land Between the Lakes. The TVA dammed both the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers to form what is today Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. Jack Henson was neutral when the Civil War broke out and preferred to stay that way. He wanted to continue his way of life on his farm which was called Bubbling Springs. He was too old to enlist as a soldier for either side and would have preferred that his sons not enlist and stay at home and help with the farm work. However, one of his sons did enlist to fight with the Confederacy. The Tennessee and Cumberland rivers were vital to both the Union and Confederates as supply lanes for the enormous amounts of stores needed to conduct warfare. The leaders in Washington, D.C. knew this and dispatched Ulysses S. Grant to the Western Theater to secure the rivers and open them up for Union supply lines. The Union forces secured Paducah, Kentucky and set their sights on two Confederate fortifications Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donaldson on the Cumberland River. Fort Donaldson was the larger of the two and was only a couple of miles from Jack Henson's Bubbling Springs Plantation. Fort Henry fell quickly to the Union forces but the battle at Fort Donaldson proved to last much longer and be much deadlier lasting three days before ultimately falling to the Union forces. Fort Donaldson proved to be pivotal in the career of General Grant as well as the downfall of the Confederacy in the Western Theater of the war. Jack Henson continued to stay neutral and has always wanted to continue his life as a farmer and leader of his family. He was able to maintain a somewhat normal life after the battle near his home. The occupying Union forces were somewhat suspicious of Jack but kept a hands-off approach to the landowner near their newly won fortification on the Cumberland River. Life changed abruptly for Jack on a fall day after the battle for Fort Donaldson. Guerrilla warfare had become common in and around Dover. Bushwhackers as they were called by Union forces would make small strikes against Union patrols. As the toll of dead or wounded soldiers continued to rise, bushwhackers became more and more threatening to the northern troops. It got to the point that soldiers were instructed to kill bushwhackers at all costs. There was a take-no-prisoners attitude instilled into the Union psyche. On a fall morning two of Jack's sons, age 17 and 21, went out on a hunting trip. The brothers encountered a Union patrol who took them into custody. They accused them of being bushwhackers and executed them on the spot. To make a point, the captors cut off the boys' heads, took them to Bubbling Springs and put the heads on the gateposts in front of the house. What a horrifying experience this must have been for the Henson family and truly life-changing in the most horrific way. The Henson family would never again know life as they had known it. In spite of the terrible deaths of Jack's sons and the circumstances surrounding the follow-up deeds of the Union soldiers, Jack was able to maintain some semblance of normalcy at Bubbling Springs. However, he was a changed man forever. He made the decision that he would seek revenge in his own way and set a plan in motion that would make him one of the most feared snipers in the history of warfare. Being a man of considerable means, he had the financial ability to make his plan viable. Jack placed an order with a renowned gunmaker to make for him a special long-range .50 caliber muzzle-loading rifle. The best parts and manufacturing processes of the era were used to produce Jack's rifle. The end product turned out to be a weapon perfectly made for the purpose Jack intended. He was already an expert marksman, but after taking receipt of his new rifle, he spent countless hours practicing and becoming deadly accurate with its use. He was now prepared to exact the revenge he felt belonged to him. During the prior months, Jack had embarked on a clandestine and stealthy observation of Union patrols coming out of Fort Donaldson. He was particularly observant of the patrol of men who had killed his sons. He got to know their movements quite well and was ready to put his plan into action. Jack was successful at ambushing and assassinating the officer in charge of the offending patrol, as well as the sergeant who had been particularly brutal in delivering his son's heads on that fateful day. He escaped undetected and went back to the day-to-day operation of his farm. He spent the next few months repeating the stalking and assassination of Union soldiers. His targets were mostly officers, as he concluded that would inflict the most pain and damage to his now enemies. The more times Jack completed his deadly missions, the more the northern troops and commanders became suspicious of he and his family. The bushwhackers were becoming a constant threat to the opposing forces in the area, and the less tolerant they became of anyone they considered a guerrilla force member. The unrelenting pressure on the commanding officers in the area to deal with the guerrilla problem caused them to want to arrest any suspected bushwhacker, whether there was evidence or not of crime. The commanding officer at Fort Donelson sent a patrol to Bubbing Springs to arrest Jack. Had it not been for a civilian doctor from Dover intervening on Jack's behalf, he most assuredly would have been dealt the same fate as his sons. Although he survived that episode, he knew that he could no longer remain in the area and survive. He made plans to flee from Dover under the cover of darkness in order to help secure the well-being of he and his family. The plan worked, and he took his family to live with a family across the Tennessee River, approximately 40 miles to the west. He successfully located his family in a safe area, but he knew that he could not stay with them. His presence would have jeopardized his family, as well as the family that had agreed to take them in. It was a sad time indeed for the Hensons. Jack embarked on a trip back across the Tennessee River to find a place for him to ride out the troubled time ahead. He knew of a ridge overlooking the river that had a small cave that he figured could offer enough refuge for the short term. He rode his trusty mare up the ridge and set up homesteading in the small cave. Little did Jack know how significant that ridge and cave would be in his future as a sniper in the war between the states. He had brought his new rifle with him, and his future would be forever intertwined with the rifle and his burning desire to exact revenge for his son's deaths. Soon after, the commander at Fort Donaldson learned of the Henson family's departure from Bubbling Springs. He instructed troops to burn the home place. Jack had freed his slaves several months prior to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and all had elected to remain at Bubbling Springs. When Jack left, he gave the slaves full run of the plantation to live and farm as they always had done, only now as free people. When the Union soldiers embarked on their orders to burn down the house, the slaves begged them not to continue, but to no avail. The house was burned to the ground, and Bubbling Springs, for all intents and purposes, was never to be a functioning plantation again. Word traveled to Jack about the burning. He traveled back to Bubbling Springs, undercover, to see for himself. If he didn't already know it, the scene he saw reinforced to him the life he had known could never exist again. All the sorrow he had experienced had now hardened him to the point that he had only one overriding emotion in his life – revenge. As fate would have it, the Tennessee River below Jack's cave home narrowed down between an island and the shore and caused the current to be extremely strong. Boats traveling upstream had to struggle mightily to successfully navigate the narrow stretch of river. This turned out to be a perfect choke point for a vengeful man with a long-range rifle to perpetrate his reign of terror on his enemy. As Jack would soon learn, his expert marksmanship, in conjunction with his perfectly matched rifle, could do damage beyond his wildest expectations. He would wait on a loaded Union supply boat to enter the narrow water chute below his ridge, pick out an officer on the deck, and administer his justice with a perfectly placed shot. He would repeat the process over and over again. His life had turned into one of killing, and he seemed out of touch with all other aspects of a normal life. Jack was able to visit his wife and children on occasion, but would always return to his cave. He was still a wanted man and did not want his presence to any more hardship and pain to his family. He was able to maintain a supply of food through sympathetic friends in the area. His life became somewhat routine. Were it not for the sniping, it would almost seem boring. Word reached Jack quickly that the war ended at a surrender ceremony at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. Jack's personal nightmare probably never totally ended, but at least the killing phase was over. It is estimated that he killed over 100 enemy soldiers with his rifle, making him one of the most lethal snipers in military history. He reunited with his wife and family and lived out his life in and around the Danville, Tennessee area. In his latter years, he operated a gristmill as well as a mercantile store. His later years were known to be quiet and generally uneventful. Even though the war was over, he kept a low profile. There were still Union soldiers in the area that would have liked nothing better than to kill the sniper that wreaked such havoc on their band of brothers. Jack's rifle is still in the possession of a descendant of his. Judge Ben Hall McFarlane of Murfreesboro, Tennessee currently owns it and periodically allows it to be put on display for historical purposes. It still has marks on it that Jack used to keep track of his kills. The story of Jack Henson is both fascinating and tragic. It's fascinating in that he was able to accomplish such incredible feats, working by himself while being hunted by an entire occupying army. It's tragic in that he accomplished these feats because of the brutal treatment of his sons. Most people can identify with his strong desire for revenge. If you enjoyed this video, give a thumbs up, make a comment, and most of all, subscribe to the channel. As always, thanks for watching.