As a veteran myself and a trained historian/researcher, I know that veterans do not acknowledge non-veterans as members of their brotherhood. The great volumes of books titled Confederate Military History were done at the end of the nineteenth century by prominent Confederate veterans to preserve the true record of the war and not a slanted Yankee version of it from the Official Records put out by Washington. The Tennessee volume of the Confederate Military History was authored by James Davis Porter of Paris, Tennessee.
Before the War, Porter graduated from the University of Nashville, was admitted to the bar, and served in the Tennessee State Legislature. With the secession of Tennessee he took part in the organization of State troops. When the Tennessee State troops were brought under the umbrella of the Confederate States Army, Porter became a staff officer for General Benjamin Franklin Cheatham and rising to the rank of major. After the war Porter would serve two terms as Governor of Tennessee, president of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad, under US President Grover Cleveland as assistant secretary of state and minster of Chile, president of the Peabody Normal College, and lastly and somewhat importantly as president of the Tennessee Historical Society.
Porter included a biographical sketch of Captain John "Jack" Hinson in the Tennessee volume of the Confederate Military History. Only Confederate veterans of prominent war-time or post-war careers were lucky enough to warrant a sketch in these volumes. And to think that Porter would have included Hinson’s sketch if he was not in some way a legitimate Confederate fighter too is just ludicrous. On the telephone Thursday McKenney’s wife told me that Confederate veteran James Davis Porter of Tennessee lied in his sketch of Hinson. And by the way, the sketch of Hinson in the Confederate Military History matches up well with the 1863 Confederate newspaper article about Hinson and his command that when I first sent it to McKenney a few years ago he said that the article of which he had not seen cannot be right because it does not fit his story. I would still like to know why McKenney confuses Captain Jack of the Modoc Indians in 1873 after killing US General E.R.S. Canby with Captain John "Jack" Hinson. In 1873 the US Government was not still doing military commissions investigating former Confederates for their war-time activities.

One more time now let us review the sketch of John Hinson from the Tennessee volume of the Confederate Military History by James Davis Porter with the knowledge that Hinson's home was not the actual headquarters for Gen. Grant but would have been one of many homes around Fort Donelson and Dover commandeered for hospitals (of which the 1863 article documents), other officers headquarters, etc., that Gen. Grant may have visited. And then we will review the 1863 Confederate newspaper article and see how the two compare for accuracy. Lastly, there is some great documentation on Hinson that I have that McKenney has not used in his book.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY:
Volume X, TENNESSEE
By James D. Porter
1899

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John Hinson, familiarly known during the war of the Confederacy as Captain Jack Hinson, was conspicuous among the scouts and partisan rangers who supported the Confederate cause. He was a native of North Carolina, born in 1805. Before the war he was an intense Union man, and did all in his power to prevent the armed conflict of the sections, but when the Federal army had invaded his home region he was led to take up arms against the invaders. During the investment of Fort Donelson, in February 1862, General Grant made his headquarters in Hinson’s house, but when the Southern troops had left that section the Federal soldiers committed such outrages and destroyed property to such an extent, without justification, that Hinson organized an independent company, and swore vengeance against the Northern army. Thus began a career, which continued throughout the war and made his name famous in Kentucky and Tennessee. He was an expert in the use of the Kentucky rifle, and at the close of the war there were more than two score notches on the stock of his gun, each recording a victim of his unerring aim. On one occasion, single-handed, he fired into a transport going up the river loaded with troops, and so deadly was his fire that the captain of the boat ran up the white flag. But while Captain Hinson could attack effectively he could not presume to take the surrender of a transport, and after waiting some time for an armed force to appear and take the prize, the boat proceeded without further molestation. This daring soldier survived the dangers of war, and died in 1874, leaving a large family, but two of whom are now living: Charles S. Hinson, an influential citizen of Jackson, Tenn., and Thomas W. Hinson, of Ocala, Fla.

MEMPHIS DAILY APPEAL
Atlanta, GA
September 10, 1863

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A Tennessee Veteran—Captain John Hinson.

This daring man and his command, consisting of about one hundred and forty men, are citizens of Stewart and Humphreys counties, Tenn. Hinson’s residence, before the battle of Fort Donelson, was in two miles of that place. He was a well known citizen, who had, by industry, acquired a comfortable little fortune, of which the Yankees robbed him during the great battle at that place. They turned his sick wife and children out of doors, and appropriated the house and all its comforts to hospital uses, and took everything he had without paying one cent even in greenbacks. The old hero, who was then fifty-eight years of age, made his way into our lines in the Fort, and took part in the engagement. He was an old deer-hunter, and, although wearing spectacles, greatly distinguished himself as a sharpshooter. The officers of Hanson’s regiment gave him the credit of picking off eight or ten of the enemy’s sharpshooters that were annoying them and Capt. Porter’s battery.

Since the fall of Fort Donelson, many a Yankee has been made to “bite the dust” by this brave old man and his comrades. Though they have been in the enemy’s rear for nearly twenty months, unsupported and unpaid, they have fought many battles for the cause of liberty. Strange to say in that section of the country, Confederate money is almost as good as gold, while farther South, where the people are protected by our organized armies, it is not appreciated. Hinson and his brave band have declared eternal hostility as long as a Yankee vandal is found on the soil of Stewart and Humphreys counties, Tennessee. Oh, for a thousand Hinson’s in every county of the South.

We are indebted to a friend, who knows Capt. Hinson and what he affirms of him, for the foregoing facts.—Huntsville Confederate.