Story of the Civil War experience of my 2nd great grandfather John L. Haworth and his 3 brothers. All served the Union in the 3rd Tennessee Infantry, Co. "K".

1. The Haworth Brothers’
War

2. The Haworth Brothers
William 1837-1864
David 1842-1925
Isaac 1846-1914
John 1848-1907

3. The Haworth family had been in America a
long time. The original immigrant, George
Haworth arrived in Philadelphia about1699.
He was a member of the Society of Friends or
Quakers. Over the years the Haworths
migrated along with the rest of the nation.
Quakers tended to migrate in small groups
establishing new Quaker meetings as the
moved. In 1790, the family was living in
North Carolina. Richard Haworth, John’s
great grandfather loaded his large family on
flatboats and followed the Holston River to
their new home in what would become
Jefferson County, Tennessee.
Haworth History

6. Haworth’s Bend

8. Holston River
Indian Cave Ferry House

9. Haworth Cemetery near the site of the
homestead.
The remnants of Haworth Road which ran in
front of the homestead.

10. Lost
Creek
Church
The Haworth brothers’ great grandparents were
founding members of the Lost Creek Friends Church
which is still in operation today. The original building
was burned during the Civil War but was rebuilt using
some of the original timbers. The extensive adjacent
graveyard was also destroyed.
In 1824, according to Quaker records, the
brothers’ father William was “disowned” by
the church for fighting. I haven’t found any
mention in the record about him being
reinstated to the meeting.

11. David Haworth kept a
diary of his
experiences during
the Civil War.
He mentions Mr.
Brownlow in several
entries.
October 17, 1862
“Then we got on a street
car and he took us to his
father’s house. (Old Parson
Brownlow) where we stayed
all night. The old parson
seemed as glad to see us as if
we had been his own boys. He
knew my father back in the
early days around New
Market, in east Tennessee.”
“For more than two years the Federal Goverment was
ejected from East Tennessee. Union citizens were
disarmed -- arrested without warrant, and for alleged
military offences imprisoned at the pleasure of petty
military tyrants in violation of all law, -- forced to
take oaths against their consciences and in derogation
of their allegiance to the United States, -- taxed with
illegal costs to support corrupt officials -- their
property seized for public and for individual uses.
Their fields were laid waste; in some instances,
houses were burned over the heads of families as a
punishment for their loyalty, and in other instances,
not a few men patriotically sealed their devotion to
their country with their life-blood, either butchered
by a lawless soldierly or officially murdered by a
military court.” ~William G. Brownlow
Union Loyalists in
Confederate Tennessee
William G. Brownlow, John Baxter, et al. to
Abraham Lincoln, Tuesday, February 09, 1864
(Situation in East Tennessee)
The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress

12. Although Tennessee was the last
state to join the Confederacy and, for
a time even declared itself an
independent republic to avoid joining
the South, the political power of the
western counties eventually prevailed
and Tennessee took up the cause of
the Confederacy. This left the Union
sympathizers in East Tennessee in a
precarious position. They had no
geographical connection with the
northern states and all their best
routes of communication, the rivers
and railroads, ran to the south. The
Quakers were especially suspect
because of their refusal to join in the
general war hysteria and their historic
opposition to slavery.

13. Confederate Conscription law
The passage of the Confederate Conscription Law in April of 1862 brought the issue to a head.
To escape conscription, young men aged 18-35 would have flee their homes in East Tennessee.
Instead of turning themselves in as the poster above suggests, they would travel secretly over
the Blue Ridge Mountains to Kentucky where the nearest Union recruiting stations were
located.

14. Cumberland Gap during
Union Occupation
David and his brothers were just one part of
an amazing exodus. Estimates vary but it is
generally conceded that between 20,000 and
30,000 men slipped out of East Tennessee and
made their way through the Cumberland Gap
into Kentucky to escape conscription in the
Confederate army or certain prison.
Not all were as lucky as the Haworth boys.
One group of 400 young men and boys from
the New Market area were captured just 40
miles from home by a regiment of East
Tennessee Confederate Cavalry. They were
sent to prison.

15. The three oldest Haworth boys enlisted.
Although the compiled service records say
that they enlisted on 10 Feb 1862, a journal
kept by David Haworth puts the date as 14
April 1862. As the boys had to travel at
night, on foot. over mountains terrain, it
seems more likely that the trip occurred in
the spring rather than mid-winter.
The youngest
brother, John was
initially left
behind, possibly
because of his age.
However he later
joined an East
Tennessee cavalry
unit and
eventually
transferred into
the Third
Tennessee
Infantry to be with
his brothers.

16. “Volunteers” This mass exodus of potential recruits
angered the Tennessee Confederate
Government no end. After first
threatening prison, the officials next
offered amnesty. On April 23, 1862 Col.
William Churchwell, Provost Marshal,
issued a proclamation urging those who
had left to return within thirty days.
After that date, the colonel declared,
“their wives and children would be sent
to them in Kentucky, or beyond
Confederate lines, at their own
expense.”3 Whether this was ever
applied to the remaining Haworth
family is unknown but Confederate
Tennessee could not abide a family with
four sons in the Union Army and they
were eventually forced out of their
home, moving to Illinois to join other
family members.

17. Battle of Resaca
May 13-15, 1864

18. Resaca Battlefield
May 13, 1864
We marched through Snake
Creek gap. Formed our brigade in line
of battle. Moved up through the timber
and took a position in the rear of the
14th Army Corps.
Pretty heavy fighting going on in
the front all night. Some went to the
rear the next morning to make some
coffee. General (Henry Moses) Judah
was in command of our brigade that
day. He was drunk.
May 14, 1864
At ten o’clock we were ordered to get
into line. Then to fix bayonets and charge.
We passed through the troops in front of us
and marched on the main rebel fort in front
of us. We had to cross a little valley and
Camp Creek was close to the fort. There had
been some small timber on the banks of the
creek.
Captain William C. Haworth was at
the head of his company leading them in the
charge. Just at the edge of the creek he was
shot in the head with a minie ball and fell
with part of his body in the Creek. Lieut.
Gamble saw his body after he was shot.
The rebels had cut out all of that
and railed in the creek so we could
hardly get by. Some of us got over but
soon had to come back. I believe that I
would have walked across that little
field on our dead and wounded.
That night Lieut. Gamble and my
brother I.E. Haworth slipped in and got
my brother’s body and carried it out and
took the end of a cracker box, cut his
name, rank and number of his regiment
and dug a grave. Rolled him in his blanket
and buried him.
David recorded in his diary the
battle that killed one brother and
wounded the remaining three.

19. The last Full
Measure of
devotion
Chattanooga National
Cemetery
Chattanooga, Tennessee

20. Post War Life
•The father of the brothers,William, died in 1870.
•Sometime around 1871 - 1873, the three brothers
took their widowed mother and moved their
families to Caldwell County, Missouri.
•Around 1880, David and John moved again to
Lawrence County, Missouri.
•All three men had life-long difficulties because of
their wounds, but married, raised large families
and died peacefully in old age.

21. John Haworth Family
Mirabile, Missouri
circa 1886
circa 1886