The Old State Bank Building

This building served as a branch of the state bank until that system collapsed, and was a private residence when war arrived.

The columns are said to weigh 100 tons each and were quarried on a nearby plantation whose owner set free the slaves who

crafted them upon the building's dedication. By 1864 it was one of only a handful of buildings that had not been torn down or

burned by Union troops. The columns, colonnade and doorway still bear scars from rifle and cannon fire. Of the buildings that

survived the war, only three, including the Old State Bank still stand today.

Decatur changed hands at least 8 times, because of it's strategic importance stride the junction of two railroads, and it's location on

the Tennessee River. Jefferson Davis passed through twice, once on his way to inauguration as the Confederacy's first and only

president, and again on his way home from prison in 1867. Confederate Generals Albert Sydney Johnston, P.G.T. Beauregard, John

Bell Hood and Nathan Bedford Forrest also fought or gathered their troops here. Future U.S. president James Garfield visited here

as a Colonel, along with Union Generals William T. Sherman, James B. McPherson, Robert S. Granger, James B. Steedman, and

Grenville M. Dodge. Both Confederate and Union regiments drawn from the surrounding countryside were organized at Decatur,

and fought in the major battles of the war.