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Deltaboy wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2019 10:55 am I would love to build and shoot a replica of this Rifle, I bet it as good as a Witworth!

Although he made most of his kills around 300 yards and closer, the book says that he made several of them at well over 1000 yards ... with a muzzle loader. That’s incredible.

Actually, I stand corrected.... Hinson DID eventually come over to the confederate cause. The book says:

It is interesting to note that by early February 1863, although he had taken no overt action against the occupation force, Jack was no longer neutral. In his testimony, he referred to the Union forces as “the enemy” and the Confederates as “our forces.” There had been a change in his heart. Jack Hinson had at last taken a side, and it was the obvious one. The killing of his sons had made him a convinced Confederate.

The flip side of that is that if his sons had been killed by rebel gangs, he would have probably remained a Unionist.

bblhd672 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 04, 2019 11:11 am

The Annoyed Man wrote: ↑Sun Feb 03, 2019 6:47 pmWell, Jack Hinson had had enough; and when they unjustly killed his sons, he got mad as hell, and declared war on the federal troops.

I suspect that had it been Confederate troops who executed his sons, Jack Hinson would have waged his one man war against the Confederate army instead.

My point exactly. And it could have easily worked out that way. The author makes sure to distribute guilt for atrocities evenly, describing some of the roving “confederate” guerrilla bands as nothing more than gangs of criminals who took advantage of the chaos to victimize people, including confederate sympathizers. Had one of those gangs murdered his sons, Hinson would have declared war on the gangs.

One of my takeaways from reading so far is that Jack Hinson was a very careful, thoughtful, and deliberate man. His outrage wasn’t against the Union. It was against the Union troops who behaved like savages against the populace. Had the federal troops behaved benignly toward the population between the rivers, Hinson would have never gone to war against them. Note that he didn’t act immediately after his sons’ deaths. He carefully plotted. He took the time to have a sniping rifle custom made for him....including the actual manufacture of the barrel. That would have taken at least many weeks to accomplish, but more likely months. The book said that he set about carefully stockpiling things like percussion caps, gun powder, and Minié balls - making sure to order them in small quantities from multiple providers...actions taken to hide his purpose. All of that takes time, but Hinson was a methodical man who had nothing but time to accomplish his goal.

His careful and methodical nature is revealed in the fact that he avoided both capture during and prosecution after the war for his actions. He was nobody’s fool. As someone pointed out above, he was a sort of Bob Lee Swagger for his generation. I’m in awe of the man.

big 54r wrote: ↑Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:15 pm I may try this book out, even though it is about a "rebel"...
the history and circumstances about this man's crisis and will of action seem interesting.

actually what's interesting to me is he never gets caught.

I realize that this thread has been the victim of necromancy, but it DID get me to download and start reading the book. The thing is, Jack Hinson wasn’t a rebel, per se. He was firmly in the Unionist camp, and thought that the secessions were wrong. But, he was also a peaceful man, and didn’t want to see a war between the states over differences in opinion. Although it is true that he ended up working with some famous rebels like Nathan Bedford Forrest after he went on the warpath, Hinson himself was not a rebel. He lived in peace with the Union - even becoming a friend of U.S. Grant - until the federal troops murdered his sons in cold blood, and without due process .... at which point he declared war against the federal troops, not against the Union.

His actions reminded me of Lone Wattie’s monologue from The Outlaw Josey Wales:

I wore this frock coat to Washington before The War. We wore them because we belonged to the five civilized tribes. We dressed ourselves up like Abraham Lincoln.

You know, we got to see the Secretary of the Interior. And he said, "Boy, you boys sure look civilized."

He congratulated us and he gave us medals for looking so civilized.

We told him about how our land had been stolen and how our people were dying. When we finished he shook our hands and said, "endeavor to persevere!"

That monologue has always resonated with me from the first time I heard it. But it resonates more and more these days. It’s speaks to a group of men who had a lot of smoke blown up their wazoos, and finally they’d had enough of it. Or, in the tag line quote from another famous movie - “Network”, in which the main character finally has had all he can take, and he sticks his head out the window and starts yelling:

I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!

Well, Jack Hinson had had enough; and when they unjustly killed his sons, he got mad as hell, and declared war on the federal troops.

This is the first time I’ve seen this thread. I just downloaded it as I was looking for something to read. I’m somewhat of a history buff too, so I’m looking forward to it.