Spirit of 76 Celebration honors Clinton County's veterans; they include two who earned the Medal of Honor

Many early Clinton County pioneers were Revolutionary War soldiers who received land grants in recognition for their service. They are too many to mention.

Several Cumberland countians (there was no Clinton at the time) served in McNair's Regiment in the War of 1812. Captain William Cross of Stockton Valley commanded a company of local men.

Sam Bell Maxey and many others served in the Mexican War. Maxey graduated from the United States Military Academy, one of only two Clinton Countians to do so, the other being Michael DeForest, whose roots through the Staton family go back to Seventy Six. Maxey later moved to Texas where he was a Brigadier General (C.S.A.) and later served two terms in the U.S. Senate.

Thomas E. Bramlette

Most of Clinton County was of Union sentiment during the Civil War, with the most prominent Union men being Clinton native Colonel (and later Governor) Thomas E. Bramlette, who had moved from Albany to Columbia in the early 1850s but was sitting as circuit judge for the area when the war began. On July 29, 1861, Bramlette gave a stirring speech in Albany on behalf of the Union, and many men enlisted as a result.

John Allen Brents was an officer in the First Kentucky Cavalry and would write a book, Patriots and Guerrillas, which was very pro-Union in sentiment and made him a marked man by the Confederate guerrilla Champ Ferguson, who would periodically wreak havoc in the county. Col. William A. Hoskins was living in Clinton at the beginning of the war, and he commanded the 12th Kentucky Infantry. George W, Burchett was a member of the honor guard for the funeral of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

 
Captain E.M. Shelley of Clinton County commanded a troop which included many Clinton Countians in the Spanish-American War.

The most famous hero of World War I, Sgt. Alvin C. York, was born just a few miles south of Clinton County. York did his banking business at Citizens Bank of Albany. 

Corporal James Herbert Cannon was killed in France on October 1918, and on July 12, 1920, the Cannon Post #135 of the American Legion was formed in Albany. Its 16 charter members were Oscar Dyer, William H. Nunn, Oscar B. Conner, Porter H. Dyer, Herbert Hopkins, Newman L. Morgan, Herbert Pittman, Reed Cox, Belden Carr, Ottie Cummings, John B. Grider, Alva Tompkins, Beldon Pierce, M.A. (Crow) Brummett, James W, Parrigin, and Walter F. Perdue.

Lt. Garlin Murl Conner

Garlin Murl Conner, raised on Indian Creek a few miles below Seventy Six Falls, may now be the most decorated American soldier of World War II, after being awarded the Medal of Honor over 70 years after the end of the war and 20 years after his death. Hundreds of local men and women served in that war. Clay Rector, whose father was an Albany barber, was on the U.S.S. Arizona when it was attacked at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and he remains entombed there.

 
Hundreds of other young men and women have served in the wars and conflicts which have occurred since the end of World War II, and many are in the service today, protecting our freedom. Let us always remember that the Spirit of Seventy Six Celebration owes its existence to those men and women who have served and are serving. We appreciate the local VFW chapter who have worked with us regarding this event. Hats off this day and every day to all of our servicemen and women, past and present.

Clinton County was home to another Medal of Honor winner.

Oliver Hughes was born in Fentress County, Tennessee, on January 21, 1844. At that time, Fentress abutted southeastern Clinton County. In 1860, Hughes was living in Clinton County. He enlisted in the Union Army at Albany in 1861. He was a Corporal in Company C, 12th Kentucky Infantry.

The 12th Kentucky was commanded by Colonel William A. Hoskins, a native of Garrard County who was living in Clinton County at the start of the war. Hoskins was a principal in the Nashville and Rowena Coal Co., which was mining coal on Short Mountain in Clinton County and sending it down the Cumberland River to Nashville. That enterprise failed, but after the war Hoskins, with new investors, formed the Poplar Mountain Coal Company, and they built a railroad from the top of Short Mountain down to the mouth of Indian Creek, where they shipped the coal down the river. Hoskins established the mining town of Cumberland City, five miles northeast of Seventy Six.

Many of the soldiers in the 12th Kentucky were from Clinton County. They included Capt. Martin Van Buren Duvall, who would die at the hand of Confederate terrorist Champ Ferguson after major hostilities had ceased, and his brother Lewis "Bug" Duvall, who survived the encounter with Ferguson. The 12th was involved in the first Civil War battle in Tennessee, the incident at Travisville in Fentress County on September 29, 1861.

Hughes was awarded the medal for capturing the colors of the 11th South Carolina (CSA) at Town Creek, N.C., on Feb. 20, 1865. The medal was awarded to him on Aug, 1, 1865.

Hughes owned a 200-acre farm at Seventy Six downstream from 76 Falls on Browns Creek. He sold it on Oct. 26, 1867, to C.V. Wright and moved to Callao, Missouri, where he operated a saloon for many years. In 1903, he was charged with selling alcohol to minors but was tried and acquitted because, to quote one juror, the jury was afraid if they convicted him they "would have no place to drink." He made a race for town marshal but was defeated. He died Jan. 5, 1911, and is buried in the Old Callao Cemetery in Macon County. He was survived by his wife and four children. The farm that he owned was later owned by Marcus McFall, and most of it is believed to have been taken for the Lake Cumberland project.