History of the Old Hat

This hat was made by one Mr. McCracken who kept a stage stand between Springfield and Fairfield in 1861. I do not know who had it made but John E. Thornton, who was at home on a furlough, obtained it a wore it back to the army of Tennessee about the time Bragg was preparing to make his famous raid into Kentucky. I had been scouting up in Kentucky, and had dressed myself decently in Kentucky jeans, and also had a new hat which I proposed to swap to John for his Texas hat, made in our own county of Jack rabbit and coon fur, and closed the trade by giving him sixty dollars of confederate money, which was then worth about twenty for one, but I have never regretted it as I wore the hat until some time in sixty-six, and could have worn it longer, but my mother said I had worn it long enough and that I had better let her take care of it as a keepsake to hand down to my children so I gave it to her until her death. After her death I got the hat again, but the moths had eaten it pretty badly, and now I have put it in a case so that I can take better care of it. It has never been on exhibition, not to a reunion, but lived a life of seclusion strictly. The first engagement it was in was Perryville, but was on picket duty, advance or rear guard or skirmish line nearly all the time from Perryville to Knoxville, Tenn. From there we went back to Murpreesboro and there we had another unpleasant affair with the Yankees, which caused us to move farther south to a place near Chattanooga called Chicamauga, from thence we went anywhere we could until the surrender. But this old hat stayed until the end, and came home in July 1865, an honored member of Company C. Terry's Texas Rangers, worn by Tom Burney something over 3 years during the war, and nearly as many after.

Provided by , Tom Burney's great great grandson.