Jack Hinson's One-Man War

A quiet, unassuming, and wealthy plantation owner, Jack Hinson was focused on his family life and seasonal plantings when the Civil War started to permeate the isolated valleys of the Kentucky-Tennessee border area where he lived. He was uniquely neutral—friend to both Confederate and Union generals—and his family exemplified the …

A quiet, unassuming, and wealthy plantation owner, Jack Hinson was focused on his family life and seasonal plantings when the Civil War started to permeate the isolated valleys of the Kentucky-Tennessee border area where he lived. He was uniquely neutral—friend to both Confederate and Union generals—and his family exemplified the genteel, educated, gracious, and hardworking qualities highly valued in their society. By the winter of 1862, his happy way of life would change forever.

Jack Hinson's neutrality was shattered the day Union patrols moved on his land, captured his two sons, accused them of being bushwhackers, and executed them on the roadside. The soldiers furthered the abuse by decapitating the Hinson boys and placing their heads on the gateposts of the family estate.

Jack Hinson commissioned  a special rifle, a heavy barreled .50-caliber weapon designed for long range accuracy. At nearly sixty years of age, with no formal military training, he bid his remaining family goodbye, and took to the wilderness seeking revenge. he soon became an expert Confederate sniper and early Union threat. He killed over 100 men (all officers but 1), successfully evaded capture and his story has been shrouded in silence—until now.