Before the war, Hinson was a prosperous land and slave-ownerStewart County tax records, Stewart County Archives, Dover, TN, and 1860 Federal Slave Census (accessed at FamilySearch.org) of Scotch-Irish descent, owning a plantation named "Bubbling Springs" with his wife and 10 children. Hinson voted for secession from the Union throughout various records as well as personal testimonies from his neighbors.Stewart County election returns, Stewart County Archives, Dover, TN He had welcomed Union General Ulysses S. Grant to his home when Grant was in the area during the Union attack on Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862. Due to the Confederate sympathy where the Hinson family lived, however, guerrillas known as "bushwhackers" began targeting Union soldiers although others targeted Union farmers and sympathizers with some instances resulting in entire pro-Union communities being attacked.
