Cades Cove, is in the Smokey Mountains National Park, The church is located on the Cades Cove scenic motor trail, a 11 mile loop, that has 3 churches alongside the route.
History of Russell Gregory's Murder:
"Behind the Primitive Baptist Church in Cades Cove is a cemetery where, on a recent afternoon, a National Park Service volunteer told the story of Russell Gregory to a group of tourists.
Among those listening was Dan McDaniel, Gregory's great-great-great-grandson, who happened to be visiting the cemetery that day. McDaniel heard how Gregory, a Union sympathizer and one of Cades Cove's most prominent residents, was shot by a band of marauding Confederates in 1864, three years into the Civil War.
The volunteer described how Gregory's son Charles fought on the Confederate side, and how he played a role in his father's death that day.
"When you go back to 1864, that's a long time," McDaniel said. "I learned a different version of the story, and that's what I'm sticking to."
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. While no major battles were fought in the region that would become Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the mountain people's split allegiance between the North and South played out in guerrilla skirmishes and frequent raids that pitted neighbor against neighbor, even father against son.
One story that encapsulates the Smokies' Civil War experience is that of Russell Gregory, for whom Gregory's Bald is named.
According to one well-known version, Gregory, angered over Confederate raids in Cades Cove, organized an ambush on a small band of rebels and forced them to retreat.
Gregory's son Charles was with the raiding party, and he recognized his father's muzzle-loading rifle, nicknamed Old Long Tom, as having fired the first shot, according to this version.
The story goes that Charles shared this information with his comrades and even revealed the location of his father's house, not realizing that the rebels would return that night to drag the elder Gregory from his home and shoot him on the spot.
Dan McDaniel didn't grow up hearing this story. He's retired, lives in Knoxville, and his connection to Cades Cove is mainly through his mother, Effie May Gregory, who was born just outside of Cades Cove in 1916 and moved to Townsend when she was a little girl.
Before McDaniel's mother died in 1999 at age 82, she became friends with two former Cades Cove residents: Russell Whitehead, who passed away in 1991 at age 103, and Lawrence Gregory, who died in 2009 at age 86.
McDaniel accompanied his mother and the two men as they drove around the Cades Cove Loop Road. On the subject of Russell Gregory, both men related a version of the story - passed down by Mary Ann Gregory, Russell Gregory's granddaughter - that says the whole thing started one morning when Gregory got up and discovered one of his cattle missing.
The story goes that the Confederates were camped in a hollow just a short distance from Gregory's house. Discovering they had butchered his steer, Gregory got his gun and tried to make them pay. The bandits shot Gregory, who, perhaps with help from family members, managed to get back to his cabin before dying later that night.
McDaniel said this is the version his mother considered closest to the truth.
"When Mom died, something got a hold of me," he said. "I got interested in family history and started going through her notes and tape recordings. Some things are lost forever, but I try to go back and learn what I can."
One person who sides with the version of the Russell Gregory story that starts with his stolen cow is 84-year-old Inez Adams, who moved from Cades Cove when she was 8 years old and is a charter member of the Cades Cove Preservation Association.
"One story has it that he was running from his house when they shot him," Adams said. "I've heard so many versions, I wouldn't dare pick one out and print it as the truth - but the one where he confronts the rebels because they killed his calf, that's as good a story as any."
Kent Cave, supervisory ranger with the park's resource education division, said the remoteness of the Smokies made the mountains prime hideouts for deserters from both armies, as well as young men wishing to avoid conscription.
"These men were desperate, living off the land and off what they could steal from mountain farmers," Cave said. "In the more isolated areas, people used the war to settle old grudges.
"It was a dangerous time. The Russell Gregory story bears witness to that." Text Source: (
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The web site also has a video of the Grave & its history.