McKenney pens account of sniper in Civil War
It was a roadside historical marker that sent Tom McKenney on a more than 40-year journey to write his first secular book, an historical account of Civil War pacifist-turned-Confederate sniper when his two sons were murdered and mutilated by federal troops.
“Jack Hinson’s One-Man War – A Civil War Sniper,” is now in publication by Pelican Publishing Co., and is the culmination of four decades of thought and 15 years of research and writing by McKenney, a Marion resident. It’s not his first published work – he has a number of faith-based books in print – but this one has been especially rewarding for the 75-year-old.
“It was unbelievably difficult,” he said from inside his office at Words for Living Ministries in Marion, the non-denominational ministry operated by him and his wife Marty. “Writing history is tough.”
In 1993, after suffering a light stroke, the retired Marine began working on his effort to tell the story of Jack Hinson, a little known Civil War figure who turned the western front on its ear when the father of the two slain sons became hell-bent on vengeance. McKenney, who experienced the rigors of war himself in Vietnam, said the story ate at him for 40 years since a the historical marker at Golden Pond in Land Between the Lakes piqued his interest.
“It was a story that needed to be told,” he said. “There was scarcely more than a couple of paragraphs about this man in print.”
The roadside marker along U.S. 68/Ky. 80 that spurred the book first caught McKenney’s eye in the mid-1960s. He did not give much thought to publishing a book on the Tennessee farmer at the time. Yet over the years of coping with a wartime injury that left him disabled and examining the rewards of family and faith, the pause in his non-stop schedule of political and spiritual activism brought on the by the stroke awakened him to rediscover the story of Jack Hinson.
What followed was a decade-and-a-half journey across the country interviewing countless descendants and residents of the lower-LBL area in Tennessee, thousands of hours of research (hundreds alone at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) and enough miles to circle the globe, all at a cost McKenney says will not likely be made up by the sales from his book.
The story of Jack Hinson and his custom-made, 50-caliber sniper rifle touched McKenney, which is what drove the effort to immortalize the man. Hinson, after his sons were killed and beheaded by Union soldiers deep in the Tennessee woods, turned to revenge. Throughout the course of the war that remained, Hinson turned his back on friendships forged with federal officers, including Ulysses S. Grant, and maintained guerrilla sniper tactics that accounted for dozens of federal casualties – all kept track of by the notches on the barrel of his four-foot long rifle.
What war can push men to do, said McKenney, who considers himself a Confederate sympathizer with forefathers who fought in the gray uniforms of the South, is remarkable, both in its glory and shame. That’s a point he hopes to make with the 400-page volume.
In fact, the working title for the book was Reluctant Warrior, which almost describes McKenney’s venture into writing the historical account.
“I’m glad I did it,” he said. “Not sure I would do it again, but I’ll tell you, I loved it!”
The book has been reviewed favorably by Leatherneck Magazine, The Washington Post and Civil War Illustrated.

Teitloff's book brings Livingston sites to life
Bringing Livingston County's rich history to life was one of the primary objectives for Faye Tramble Teitloff when she started researching and gathering photographs about days gone by.
Her book, Images of America: Livingston County, was recently published by Arcadia Publishing of Mount Pleasant, S.C. It is available online or at the county's historical headquarters and log cabin in Smithland.
Teitloff, who authors a regular column, Pathways to the Past, in the Livingston Ledger newspaper, started thinking about publishing a book with much of the information she has gathered over the years and written about in her newspaper articles. As the idea began to grow, so did her collection of photographs and memories. Many of the pictures came from 89-year-old Salem resident Hazel Robertson.
"It took me about a month to gather everything and about three months to put it together," said Teitloff, talking about her book-writing process.
While the 128-page paperback contains mostly photos, Teitloff said it was a challenge to gather information for all of the captions. The research she has done for her newspaper column helped, and some of it was written from personal knowledge.
Teitloff grew up behind where the Three Rivers Rock Quarry is today. She attended schools in Smithland, Hampton and Burna and worked in social services for 17 years.
Robertson said she was flattered when the book came out recently.
"I have always had an affection for taking pictures," said Robertson, who lives on the same road where the Trail of Tears passed through Livingston County.
"I come by a love of history honestly," added Robertson. "My mother was always like that. I always enjoyed driving around and taking pictures of things of interest."
Her snapshots make up a majority of Teitloff's book, but there were other contributors, too.
In fact, Teitloff took special care of the photos she borrowed for inclusion in her book. Instead of entrusting them to the U.S. Mail or the publisher for any length of time, Teitloff carried them by hand to South Carolina and waited for the pictures be digitally transfered into an electronic format.
"My son and husband drove me down there and I waited all day for the publisher to scan them," she said. "Then we drove home."
She selected the South Carolina publishing company because Supreme Court Justice Bill Cunningham's son, Luke, works there. Plus, her format fit the company's series, Images of America.
The book traces a great deal of Livingston County's past through a pictorial history representing everything from Smithland's strategic location on a busy steamboat route to Thomas Jefferson's nephews who settled near today's Birdsville and became part of a terrible murder and coverup.
Teitloff is staying busy with her pursuit of local history. She is collaborating with the Livingston County Historical Society on a new family history book. A similar volume was published in the early 1990s. The second volume could be out next year, and Teitloff is also helping coordinate plans for a new cemeteries book.
And, if there's time, she may even put together another pictorial history.
"I might do another one if enough pictures turn up," she said.
Robertson, who loves history and has written for Kentucky Explorer, admits she has more photos that were stuck way back in drawers when Teitloff started her first project. Those would be available now, she said.