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,
First Corps, Army of Tennessee 23, 1863, from December 2–27, 1863, then August 31 – September 2, 1864, and lastly from September 28, 1864 – February 23, 1865. This last posting was the only period which he was not in "temporary" command of the corps. Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee commanded the First Corps four times, during the periods October 23 – December 2, 1863, again from December 27 – August 31, 1864, a third time from September 2–28, 1864, and lastly from February 23 – April 26, 1865. On that date the corps, along with the rest of the Army of Tennessee, were surrendered