BROWNSVILLE TN (February 27, 2016):

Tennessee State Tourism Commissioner Kevin Triplett and Dr. Carroll Van West, state historian and director of the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, will dedicate two Civil War Trails markers Monday, March 14, 11 a.m., at Brownsville’s Tamm Park. The public is invited. The park is located on the historic court square in Brownsville, Tenn.

The ceremony will commemorate the raids on Brownsville during the Civil War and the African Americans from Haywood County who enlisted in the United States Colored Troops.

The ceremony is held on the 152nd anniversary of a raid by Union Col. Fielding Hurst who led his men into town and “burned three establishments” reportedly belonging to three of the best Union supporters in Brownsville. The incident is recorded in a diary entry of a young Sarah Madison Taylor dated March 14, 1864. Taylor’s great-granddaughter, Becky Thornton, will speak during the event.

Black men were forbidden to serve as U. S. soldiers before President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Afterwards more than 200,000 African Americans enlisted in the U. S. Colored Troops, including more than 200 men known to have lived in Haywood County. Dr. Dorothy Granberry, retired professor and Haywood County native, has researched and documented these soldiers. She will also speak at the dedication.

The placement of the markers is the collaborative effort of Dunbar Carver Museum, Geneva Miller Historical Society, Haywood County Historical Society, Brownsville-Haywood County Parks and Recreation and the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center.

The Tennessee Civil War Trails program is part of a five-state trails system that includes Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland.

For more information, contact Sonia Outlaw-Clark at 731-779-9000.