Clifton, TN news and local guide

In December 1862 Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest crossed the river at Clifton with 1,800 cavalry and four guns to begin his West Tennessee raid, and he recrossed there on January 1, 1863, having torn up three railroads and taken more prisoners than he had men. In late December 1863 the 2nd Tennessee Mounted Infantry (Union) garrisoned Stockade Hill behind Clifton Presbyterian Church, which Confederates had used as a hospital; Union troops used it as a stable and blacksmith shop, and in 1915 the government paid the congregation $780 in damages, which built its tall steeple. On July 15, 1864, the gunboat USS Undine struck a snag and sank off Clifton; its guns were removed to defend the town, and it was raised days later. Clifton's best-known resident was the novelist T. S. Stribling, whose novel The Store won the Pulitzer Prize in 1933; his house is a museum. Sources Wikipedia: Clifton, Tennessee The Historical Marker Database: Clifton (Tennessee Civil War Trails) The Historical Marker Database: Forrest's Raid (Tennessee Historical Commission)