Confederate sniper rifle showcased in Dover
Author was in Paris in December
Tuesday, February 2, 2010The rifle used by Confederate sniper Capt. Jack Hinson will be on display from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday at the Stewart County Public Library as part of an appearance by Hinson biographer Tom McKenney.
McKenney, author of Jack Hinson’s One-Man War, will present a lecture on Hinson beginning at 10 a.m., at the library in Dover, followed by a book signing until 3 p.m.
McKenney, of Marion, Ky., spent more than 15 years researching and writing the story of Hinson, who at the start of the war was a friend of Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, as well as several Confederate officers.
According to McKenney’s research, Hinson was also a cousin by marriage to famed outlaw Jesse James.
The former plantation owner became a guerilla fighter after Union troops decapitated his sons and placed their heads on his gateposts.
By the time the war ended, Hinson had taken down an armed Union transport single-handedly, and was the target of an extensive, and ultimately fruitless, Union manhunt.
According to McKenney’s book, Hinson used the specially-commissioned rifle to kill an estimated 100 men.
He gave the specially-made long-range rifle to Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who then gave the rifle to his friend and adjutant general, Maj. Charles W. Anderson of Murfreesboro.
The rifle became a family heirloom, ultimately being handed down to its present owner, Judge Ben Hall McFarlin of Murfreesboro.
A retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, McKenney is a former infantry officer and parachutist who served in Vietnam and Korea.
He appeared at a book signing at Rhea Public Library in Paris in early December.
He has contributed articles to Guideposts, American Legion Magazine, Military and Leatherneck.
Copyright © 2010 The Paris Post-Intelligencer
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