The rifle used by Confederate sniper Capt. Jack Hinson will be on display from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday at the Stewart County Public Library as part of an appearance by Hinson biographer Tom McKenney. McKenney, author of Jack Hinson’s One-Man War, will present a lecture on Hinson beginning at 10 a.m., at the library in Dover, followed by a book signing until 3 p.m.
McKenney, of Marion, Ky., spent more than 15 years researching and writing the story of Hinson, who at the start of the war was a friend of Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, as well as several Confederate officers.
According to McKenney’s research, Hinson was also a cousin by marriage to famed outlaw Jesse James.
The former plantation owner became a guerilla fighter after Union troops decapitated his sons and placed their heads on his gateposts.
By the time the war ended, Hinson had taken down an armed Union transport single-handedly, and was the target of an extensive, and ultimately fruitless, Union manhunt.
According to McKenney’s book, Hinson used the specially-commissioned rifle to kill an estimated 100 men.
He gave the specially-made long-range rifle to Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who then gave the rifle to his friend and adjutant general, Maj. Charles W. Anderson of Murfreesboro.
The rifle became a family heirloom, ultimately being handed down to its present owner, Judge Ben Hall McFarlin of Murfreesboro.
A retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, McKenney is a former infantry officer and parachutist who served in Vietnam and Korea.
He appeared at a book signing at Rhea Public Library in Paris in early December.
He has contributed articles to Guideposts, American Legion Magazine, Military and Leatherneck.