Pulaski, Tennessee the vicinity of Pulaski was the site of a number of skirmishes during the Franklin–Nashville Campaign. Union troops occupied the state from 1862. In 1863, Confederate courier Sam Davis was hanged in Pulaski by the Union Army on suspicion of espionage. In late 1865, during the early days of the Reconstruction Era, the city was the site of founding the first Ku Klux Klan (KKK) by six Tennessee veterans of the Confederate Army. John C. Lester, John B. Kennedy, James R. Crowe, Frank O. McCord, Richard R. Reed, and J. Calvin Jones established the KKK in Pulaski on December 25,
1st Battalion Tennessee Light Artillery, Battery "A" Lick Bridge July 30. Smith's Shoals, Cumberland River, August 1. Ordered to Murfreesboro, Tenn., August; then to McMinnville September 5, and march to Chattanooga September 12–22. Garrison artillery at Chattanooga until March 1864. Reopening Tennessee River October 26–29, 1863. Battles of Chattanooga November 23–25. Garrison artillery at Decatur, Ala., March 1864 to January 1865. Skirmishes at Athens, Ala., October 1–2, 1864. Siege of Decatur October 26–29. Ordered to Pulaski, Tenn., January 16, 1865. Duty at Pulaski and in middle Tennessee on line of railroad until July. 1st Battalion Tennessee Light Artillery, Battery "A" Battery A, 1st Battalion Tennessee Light Artillery