1. William Crutchfield was an American politician who represented the 3rd congressional district of Tennessee in the United States House of Representatives for one term.
18 Facts About William Crutchfield
1. 2.
William Crutchfield served several terms as an alderman in his adopted hometown of Chattanooga, where he was a prominent figure and businessman.
3.
William Crutchfield moved to McMinn County, Tennessee, in 1840, and remained there for four years before settling in Jacksonville, Alabama, in 1844.
4.
William Crutchfield established a large farm at Jacksonville that specialized in grain production and utilized innovative farming techniques.
5.
William Crutchfield was elected a captain in the local militia.
6.
In 1850, William Crutchfield moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where his father had acquired a considerable amount of land, and had established a successful hotel, the William Crutchfield House.
7.
William Crutchfield was elected alderman in Chattanooga in December 1851, and reelected in 1854.
8.
William Crutchfield attended the first session of the pro-Union East Tennessee Convention in Knoxville in late May 1861, and campaigned against secession in the Chattanooga area.
9.
William Crutchfield remained in Chattanooga for most of the Civil War.
10.
Amid the crackdown during the aftermath of the East Tennessee bridge burnings in November 1861, William Crutchfield was arrested by Confederate authorities, but managed to escape.
11.
William Crutchfield provided the leaders of the Army of the Cumberland with invaluable information regarding Confederate troop positions, and would subsequently serve as an honorary captain and local guide to Union generals throughout the Chickamauga Campaign.
12.
William Crutchfield assisted William B Hazen and John B Turchin at the Battle of Brown's Ferry in October 1863, and Ulysses S Grant and George H Thomas at the Battle of Missionary Ridge in November 1863.
13.
In October 1865, William Crutchfield was elected alderman in Chattanooga's provisional civil government, which was tasked with restoring order to the city.
14.
In 1872, William Crutchfield announced his candidacy for the 3rd district seat in the US House of Representatives.
15.
William Crutchfield's Democratic opponent, David M Key, was an old acquaintance and former Confederate who had witnessed Crutchfield's encounter with Jefferson Davis at the Crutchfield House in 1861.
16.
In 1873, a correspondent for the Washington Star noted that since the tenure of Davy Crockett in the 1830s, each of Tennessee's congressional delegations had included at least one "mountaineer character," and that William Crutchfield filled this role in the Forty-third Congress.
17.
William Crutchfield died in Chattanooga on January 24,1890, and was interred at the family lot in Chattanooga's Citizens Cemetery.
18.
William Crutchfield was a friend of noted author George Washington Harris, and helped Harris become president of the Wills Valley Railroad after the Civil War.