Gallatin, Tennessee
Gallatin is a city in and the county seat of Sumner County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 30,278 at the 2010 census and 44,431 at the 2020 census. Named for United States Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin, the city was established on the Cumberland River and made the county seat of Sumner County in 1802. It is located about 30.6 miles northeast of the state capital of Nashville, Tennessee. Several national companies have facilities or headquarters in Gallatin, including Facebook, Gap, Inc., Beretta and Servpro Industries, Inc. Gallatin was formerly the headquarters of Dot Records. The city is also the site of Volunteer State Community College, a two-year college with more than 70 degree programs. In 2017, Gallatin was ranked as "The Nicest Place In America" by Reader's Digest. History Gallatin was established in 1802 as the permanent county seat of Sumner County, in what is called the Middle Tennessee region of the state. The town was named after Albert Gallatin, Secretary of Treasury to Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Andrew Jackson became one of the first to purchase a lot when the town was surveyed and platted in 1803. The town was built around a traditional plan of an open square. Jackson founded the first general store in Gallatin. In 1803, the first county courthouse and jail were built on the central town square. In 1815, the town was incorporated. In the mid-20th century, it operated under a charter established by a 1953 Private Act of the State Legislature. American Civil War During the secession crisis just before the Civil War, the citizens of Gallatin hoped to remain neutral; they were opposed to secession from the Union. Once the fighting began, however, they gave almost unanimous support to the Confederacy and volunteered to serve in defense of their state. The Union Army captured Gallatin in February 1862, following Ulysses S. Grant's capture of Fort Donelson. Gallatin was strategic both because of the railroad, which ran east–west through the state, and its location on the Cumberland River, both of which the Union Army sought to control. In July 1862, General John Hunt Morgan recaptured Gallatin and held it until October, when the Confederate forces fell back to Chattanooga. In November 1862, Union General Eleazer A. Paine retook the town, and Union troops occupied it throughout the remainder of the war and into 1867. Paine was notoriously cruel and was replaced in command before the end of the war because of his behavior. Alice Williamson, a local 16-year-old girl, kept a diary during 1864 and described Paine's execution of alleged spies without trial, some in the public square. Others were taken to the river and shot there. The long occupation, in which the troops lived off the land, disrupted civil society in the region. Even before the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, many enslaved African Americans freed themselves by leaving farms and plantations with their families to join the Union troops in Gallatin and other parts of the