During the war, many Lewis County men enlisted in Confederate regiments, including the 3rd, 24th, and 48th Tennessee Infantry and the 9th, 10th, and 19th Tennessee Cavalry. Almost all of the young men marched away to war, leaving the elderly, women, and children behind to farm. The few local slaves largely disappeared when Union forces first arrived in mid-1862. Federal control, however, was tenuous, and foragers from both sides pestered local residents. In December 1863, Union authorities took "money, cotton, or stock" from the county's "known rebels" to pay $800 in damages that Perry Nicks suffered from "guerillas, citizens, &c." Even with Union detachments from Columbia patrolling the county's roads, Confederate sympathizers found numerous ways to aid Southern efforts.
