Person:Russell Gregory (1)

About Russell Gregory

Russell Gregory is a central figure in an intriguing story of a family torn apart during the Civil War. Gregory, a Union sympathizer, one of Cades Cove's most prominent residents, was shot by a band of marauding Confederates in 1864, three years into the Civil War. As one version of the story goes, Gregory's son Charles was serving on the side of the Confederates and played a role in the death of his father. The Confederates apparently had raided several homes in Cades Cove and had angered Gregory and several Cades Cove residents. In retailation, Gregory helped form a party to ambush the Confederate raiders, and during one skirmish, his son Charles recognized his father's muzzle-loading rifle, that he called "Old Tom". Charles Gregory revealed this, and the location of his father's home, to his fellow Confederate soldiers and several of them shortly came back and shot and killed Russell Gregory at his home. Another version claims that the Confederate soldiers had taken one of Gregory's cattle and Gregory confronted the soldiers and was killed in the altercation.

One recent version, entitled "Splintered Relations", written by Morgan Simmons, was featured in an article in the "Knoxville News".