Revolutionary War Soldier meets Civil War

I have traveled to Tennessee a lot for my work. As I could not take my wonderful family with me every time, I  found many things genealogy to occupy my time. My time in Tennessee has unveiled many interesting things.  These include stories of murder, slave ownership, a civil war diary (which was taken over by a co-lateral ancestor when the original author was killed in action), and the discovery of a snake by my son (3 years old at the time) in a country cemetery long ago forgotten.  The most exciting discovery for me was the head stone of my 6^th great grandfather, a Revolutionary War soldier, who died in 1846.  I had to dig in a patch of ivy in the front yard of some private property and actually scrape dirt off of the stone!  Thomas Blanton was born in Virginia and came to the Murfreesboro, Tennessee area.  Family lore has it that he came on an ox cart with his wife, 10 children, and his nephew’s family from Mecklenburg, Virginia in 1817.  When the Civil War battle of Stones River broke out on December 31^st, 1862 to January 3, 1863 it happened to take place on Thomas’ farm.  He was dead and buried before the battle,  but his wife Drucilla (maiden name Anglea) and daughter Susan, lived in the cabin.  When fighting started, literally in their yard, they packed up and moved.  I have been able to track down period war maps indicating their house and Thomas’ grave.

The Blanton house and grave yard have been of highest interest on the whole battlefield, according to a pamphlet prepared by the National Park Service, because of what remains, and are indicated on most of the maps linked below (or Google Stones River Battle Maps).  “Blanton” shows up on most of them. 

http://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=2C11E33A-1DD8-B71C-071A520D49D09F80#

Michler Topographical Map of Stones River Battlefield-1

Here is a portion of the above map.  The property is pretty much central to this portion of the map.  A tighter cropped image appears below that.

Crop of Michler Topographical Map of Battlefield-1

Crop of image to above-1

The National Park Service manages 700+ acres which were set aside in the 1960s as a memorial of the Battle (hence forth referred to as "Stones River National Battlefield" to designate it as the park versus the entirety of the land on which the battle was fought) .  http://www.nps.gov/stri/parkmgmt/upload/stri-hrs.pdf  See pages 58, 65 and 67 if you want to read more information specific to the Blanton farm.  The "Stone River National Battlefield" (contains part of the Blanton farm, excluding the house and graveyard (which as previously mentioned are contained in private lots). 

There is a road that runs parallel to the western side of the "Stones River National Battlefield" named Blanton's Pointe.   

Blanton's Pointe Street Sign

On the east side of the road are 4 houses.  In the back yard of the first is the foundation of what was the Blanton house. 

Thomas Blanton's grave marker at the base of a tree

 In the next door neighbor’s front yard, in a small ivy patch, at the base of a tree, previously covered by a layer of dirt and ivy, lies the partially busted up remains of Thomas Blanton’s head stone.
The stone was not even visible without removal of ivy and a layer of dirt.  It took over an hour, and several visits to locate the buried stone.

First glimpse of head stone after locating

370 Degree Panoramic photo of head stone and surrounds

Remnants of Foundation of Blanton House

 From the remains of the Blanton house, one could throw a stone and hit the National Battlefield (a small portion of the actual battlefield). My goal is to one day be able to look at a map of the battlefield and be able to draw the original farm property line, to see how much it overlaps. (Then, I would love to bring it forward in time and see the property on an overlay of the current map). 

There have been 3 archaeological studies performed on the house ruins and grave yard. Several items were found during those studies: whiteware (plates) dating from 1805, window and colored container glass, various metal bit including nails, hooks, bottle caps, toy car, and a 1964 penny. For me though, the most interesting finding was, that there are 2 other people buried with Thomas, on either side of him (both of these remain unmarked to this day). These would presumably be Thomas’ wife and perhaps a child.  After his wife and daughter abandoned the house during the fighting, it was used as a hospital by both the Union & the Confederates.  One can only imagine the condition of the house, when Drucilla & Susan returned, especially considering the medical procedures performed at that time, consisting mainly of amputations. 

What a task it was to find the stone, but what a rush when I finally did.  I had to get creative on getting a legible photo of the stone, and thank you Heather (my wife) for the graphic design work of merging many photos.  As you can see from the picture, part of it is not legible as it was damaged by a tree branch that fell on it during a storm a few years ago, however a newspaper article from the Murfreesboro News Journal (date unknown) clearly shows this portion of the head stone.  

 

Photo of Thomas Blanton's head stone-2

Thomas Blanton's head stone

Thomas's head stone reads:

Sacred the memory of

Thomas Blanton

Born A.D. 1758

Died 27th of May 1846

Aged 88 years

Re was a soldier in the 

Revolution under Gen.

Greene and fought In the 

battles of Guilford C. H.[Court House], 

Camden, Eutaw Springs 

and several others.

Thomas Blanton's head stone photographed in pieces using a spot light and reconstructed by Heather Hettinger

Perhaps if enough people are interested, we could purchase a new stone to be placed beside the old one.

In future posts I plan on bringing you up to date on past research, as well as research we (Heather, on an occasion, get’s excited about research too) are currently doing. Now, on to playing with my children; Always remember... The leaves before the roots.

1.  Michler, (1873), Michler's Topographical Sketch of the Battlefield of Stones River [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=2C11E33A-1DD8-B71C-071A520D49D09F80# [Accessed 21 August 13].

2.   “Public Member Trees,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 June 2014), “Blanton Family Tree” family tree by Rebecca Blanton, profile for Thomas Blanton (1758-1846, d. Rutherford County, Tennessee) 

All photos not sourced above copyright to Chris Hettinger.  Feel free to use them for your own personal use, but not for profit.