LYNNWOOD CEMETERY, Lynnville, GILES COUNTY, TENNESSEE
BALENTINE, Ragsdale, no dates. (beside two other C.S.A. Veteran Memorials, possibly buried in battlefield somewhere) section E 5172
KIRK, Captain Lewis,
died Mar 1863 "Co. D, 9th Tenn Cav.", (C.S.A.; beside two other C.S.A. Veteran Memorials) section E 5174
FRANKS, Wiley,
no dates. "Co. B, 3 Tenn." (C.S.A.; stone in area with 2 other undated tombstones of CSA soldiers who are buried in battlefields somewhere else; tombstone broken in half, only bottom half remains upright.) section E 5173

The Giles County Record, June 4, 1903. Lynnville News. (copied by Wayne Austin)

Wednesday evening at two o'clock the Confederate graves in Lynwood Cemetery were decorated with flowers. Captain Kirk of Lawrenceburg, was shot by order of old Storkweather after the war was over, on the pike below Riversburg and his remains were buried by the tree to which he was shot. His remains were brought here and interred in the (Lynnwood) Bivouac's cemetery lot last week as well as three other unknown dead who were killed in the numerous battles on the old pike. These should receive a double portion in the decoration for they were some mother's darling sons who fell battling for home and country. Hon. A. W. Ewing pronounced the oration over these dead heroes.
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Maury Co. Braves (Compiled by Mary Bob Richardson)

Company F, 1st Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, was organized at Captain Andrew J. Polk's. The company was organized on July 5, 1861, on the lawn of Captain's Polk's home Ashwood Hall.
One of the members of this company was Private Lewis Kirk (July 5 1861) pg. 48 The Civil War in Maury Co. Tennessee.

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ABSTRACTS FROM "NASHVILLE UNION" 
a newspaper account published in Nashville during the Civil War. (This news paper was strong in it's Union sentiments and readers are urged to remember this in reading these abstracts)

"20 Feb 1863. A GUERRILLA BRUTE. "Refugees from Maury County report that a most deplorable state of affairs exist in that county. A band of rebel cavalry is scouring the country led by one Capt. Lewis Kirk, of Lawrence County. He has forced numbers of gray-headed Union Men, 50 and 60 years of age, into the rebel army, and now holds in confinement several of the oldest and most estimable citizens of the county, because they refuse to take up arms. One brave man told him that if he would give him a chance, he would take up arms for the Federal Government. This Kirk was formerly a blacksmith, we are informed, and a noted bully in Lawrence County. He was in jail at Columbia for nearly three years for murdering Mr. Westmoreland of Giles County, without provocation, and in cold blood. When the rebellion broke out, he sent word to Governor Harris that if he would get him out of jail he would join the rebel army, and he was let loose." pg.150 The Civil War in Maury County.

CIVIL WAR MISCELLANY....Pg 236 The Civil War in Maury Co.
"A BASE SCOUNDREL---- Nashville Daily Union, 5 Mar 1863. Some days ago we mentioned that a guerrilla chief Capt. Kirk was perpetrating numberless outrages in Maury County. Kirk murdered a man some three years ago under circumstances which made it an aggravated offence. He was a hired political bully and probably murdered his victim for pay. Kirk was tried in Maury County circuit court and received 15 years sentence, appealed to supreme court. He was let out on the application of A.J. Polk and W.V. Thompson to enter the Rebel army. Now holds captain's commission in Forrest's troops."

CIVIL WAR MISCELLANY....Page 236 The Civil War in Maury Co.
"INFAMOUS GUERRILLA KIRK KILLED---Nashville Daily Union, 17 March 1863. Capt. Lewis Kirk, who preyed on Maury Co. Union men, was killed in recent fight at Spring Hill. He was buried there a few days ago. Kirk was one of the most degraded and blood-thirsty wretches, who ever persecuted the loyal citizens of the State."

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"Capt Lewis Kirk, born 1828, died 03-1863, executed by firing squad after a 'drum head' trial by order of old Storkweather (Union), according to The Giles County Record, 6-4-1903."

Commentary here: One source above said Captain Kirk was killed after the war and another the (current event account) said 1863 or two years before. 1863 is probably correct given it was printed in current newspapers and the after the war version of the story in the "Giles Co record" was published in 1903 some 30 years after memories perhaps became clouded. Might I also assume that Riversburg is now an extinct village (name) north on the Nashville Pike in Maury County near or about Spring Hill. There was for a time a now extinct Post Office village in 1878 by the name Duck River near there, but maybe on the Carter's Creek Pike.
Regarding the memorials to these soldiers in Lynnwood, three memorials today can be found as shown in the photo below out from the fence in the second row.


Evidently this was the bivouac (soldiers area) section of the cemetery during the civil war and likely there are unknown soldiers of the Civil War laid to rest here. There are open spaces suggesting that. It may also be noted that W. C. Bearden, 1840 - 1929, another Civil War soldier who survived until 1929, is interred here in this same row just south of these stones. The above inscriptions all face west or toward the fence.

Photos by Wayne Austin 7 May 2009. News Article from the Giles County Historical Society Bulletin July 2009 Vol XXXV. Compiled here by Wayne Austin 17 Jul 2009. Other documentation submitted by Mary Bob McClain Richardson from the mentioned sources. 18 Jul 2009.

LYNNWOOD CEMETERY, Lynnville, GILES COUNTY, TENNESSEE

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