Fielding Griffith

Fielding Griffith (1842-1861) was a Brimstone man who died at Camp Dick Robinson in Kentucky during the Civil War. He was Scott County’s first casualty of the war, and is believed to have been poisoned.

Biography

Born in 1842 on Brimstone Creek — which was at the time part of Morgan County, Tenn. but would become Scott County just seven years later — Fielding Griffith was the son of John Griffith and Sarah Holloway. His paternal grandparents were Fielding Griffith Sr. and Patsy Hamby, and he was a great-grandson of Revolutionary War veteran Joseph Griffith, who was a personal bodyguard to Gen. George Washington during the war and is a common ancestor of all Griffiths in Scott County today.

Fielding Griffith was one of at least eight children. His siblings included Joel Griffith, Mary Maden, Hamilton Griffith, Daniel Griffith, Rebecca Pemberton, Ivory Griffith, Belinda Phillips and Mitchel Griffith.

Fielding Griffith had several cousins who died during the war, including Allen Griffith, Henry Griffith and Joseph Griffith Sr. Another cousin, Isaac Griffith, was a Confederate soldier during the war.

Civil War service

Fielding Griffith and his brother, Hamilton Griffith, were among the many Scott Countians who enlisted in the Union army during the Civil War. Fielding Griffith enlisted at Montgomery in Morgan County on Aug. 9, 1861 and was assigned to Co. F of the 1st Tennessee Mounted Infantry, while Hamilton Griffith was assigned to Co. A, 4th Tennessee Cavalry.

The Griffith brothers were sent to Camp Dick Robinson near present-day Danville, Ky. to train in 1861. The training exercises there were part of preparation to invade East Tennessee and liberate the pro-Union territory there from the Confederate army. However, that exercise was later called off by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who feared the strength of Confederate troops amassed at Cumberland Gap on the Tennessee-Kentucky border. The invasion did not occur until Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside marched a 12,000-man-strong army through Scott County to Knoxville in late 1863.

The Griffith family was so poor that Fielding Griffith saved his coffee ration and sent it back home to his parents on Brimstone Creek.

Death

Fielding Griffith died on Oct. 16, 1861. An affidavit listed his cause of death as illness of the “head and stomach.” He died less than 24 hours after being poisoned. However, it was suspected that he was poisoned by a woman selling apple pies outside the gates at Camp Dick Robinson.

In a 2001 interview with Independent Herald editor Paul Roy, Griffith’s niece — Elzada Maughan — recalled a conversation she once had with her father, Hamilton Griffith.

“They bought some pies from a woman and Fielding ate his while my daddy was feeding part of his pie to a little dog that was following them around,” she said.

The dog fell dead immediately, while Fielding Griffith became extremely ill, Maughan said.

A.H. Ross, a captain of Co. 2, 2nd Tennessee Infantry, later wrote in an affidavit that he was present for Griffith’s sudden illness and death, and he “supposed he was poisoned from eating pies.”

In her interview, Maughan said of her father: “And then he said something strange. He said, ‘That woman never poisoned no one else.’ Reckon what he meant by that?”

Aftermath

It’s not clear where Fielding Griffith was buried, though it likely was in the vicinity of Camp Dick Robinson. Hamilton Griffith survived the war and lived a long life in Scott County. He died in 1929 and is buried in Helenwood.

Hamilton Griffith had children very late in life. His children with his fourth wife, Mary Ellen Hembree (1892-1979) included: Earlie Griffith (born 1914), Herman Griffith (born 1917), Elzada Maughan (born 1920) and Fred Griffith (born 1926). As a result, Maughan and her brother, Fred, were able to interview with Roy when he was writing his book, Scott County in the Civil War, in 2001. They were the last surviving children of a Scott County Civil War veteran, and related the story of Fielding Griffith’s death.

Fred Griffith died in 2008 and Elzada Maughan died in 2010. However, one of Hamilton Griffith’s grandchildren remains in Scott County, and is the last surviving grandchild of a Civil War veteran. Gary Griffith, Fred Griffith’s son, is pastor of Buffalo Baptist Church in the Winona community.