{{short description|19th-century potter from Tennessee, USA}} {{Infobox person | name = Christopher Haun | image = Christopher Haun.png | alt = | caption = C.A. Haun departing from his family before his execution | birth_date = {{birth date|1821|09|14}} | birth_place = Greene County, Tennessee, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1861|12|11|1821|09|14}} | death_place = Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S. | death_cause = Execution by hanging | occupation = Potter | spouse = | children = | module = {{Infobox military person | embed = yes | allegiance = United States of America | branch = Union Army | unit = 2nd Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Infantry | battles = East Tennessee bridge burnings }}}} '''Christopher Alexander "Alex" Haun''' (September 14, 1821 – December 11, 1861) was a potter from Greene County, Tennessee, regarded as one of the most notable and skilled of the antebellum period.<ref name="TE">{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1611 | title=Christopher Alexander Haun (1821-1861) | encyclopedia=Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture | date=January 4, 2010 | accessdate=December 18, 2012 | author=Hickman, Sarah Elizabeth}}</ref><ref name="sgb">{{cite web | url=http://www.civilwarshades.org/walking-a-fine-line/christopher-haun/ | title=Christopher Haun | work=Shades of Grey and Blue | accessdate=December 18, 2012 | author=Rogers, Stephen T.}}</ref><ref name="BibleHTA">{{cite book|author=Donahue Bible|editor=Carroll Van West|title=A history of Tennessee arts: creating traditions, expanding horizons|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzjrAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=18 December 2012|date=30 September 2004|publisher=University of Tennessee Press|isbn=978-1-57233-239-3|page=218|chapter=Christopher Alexander Haun}}</ref><ref name="AoT">{{cite book|author1=Stephen T. Rogers|author2=Samuel D. Smith|editor1=Benjamin Hubbard Caldwell |editor2=Robert H. Hicks |editor3=Mark Scala|title=Art of Tennessee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uM3pAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=18 December 2012|date=23 October 2003|publisher=Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, Tenn.) distributed by The University of Tennessee Press for the Frist Center for the Visual Arts|pages=110–111|chapter=Pottery|isbn=9780972577915}}</ref> During the American Civil War, he was executed by the Confederate States of America for participation in the East Tennessee bridge-burning conspiracy.
==Biography== Haun was one of many examples in 19th century Tennessee of what were later referred to as family potters, rural potters who ran businesses, often part-time as a supplement to farming and with the aid of their families, supplying practical vessels for local use.<ref name="RogersHTA">{{cite book|author=Stephen T. Rogers |editor=Carroll Van West|title=A history of Tennessee arts: creating traditions, expanding horizons|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzjrAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=18 December 2012|date=30 September 2004|publisher=University of Tennessee Press|isbn=978-1-57233-239-3|pages=215–227|chapter=Jugs, Jars, Bowls, and Churns: Tennessee's Ceramic Crafts and Potters}}</ref> Stephen T. Rogers of the Tennessee Historical Commission writes that Haun "produced some of the most beautiful and finely crafted lead-glazed earthenware in Tennessee".<ref name="sgb"/> Haun and a number of potters lived in a part of Greene County referred to as Pottertown, using local clay found near Lick Creek. Pottertown was a staunchly Unionist enclave within a Confederate state.<ref name="TE"/><ref name="BibleHTA"/>
Union supporter Reverend William Blount Carter launched a plan, with the approval of President Abraham Lincoln, to destroy Tennessee bridges and disrupt the Confederate railroad system. Haun and other local potters were recruited to destroy the bridge over Lick Creek. On November 8, 1861, after being sworn into Company F of the 2nd Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, they proceeded to the bridge and destroyed it. There they captured Confederate sentries and released them after they swore an oath to the union. However, the Confederate soldiers informed the authorities, and Haun and four others were captured. Haun and three others were hanged for treason at the Knoxville, Tennessee jail on December 11.<ref name="TE"/><ref name="BibleHTA"/><ref>{{Cite web |last=says |first=Bill Crews |title=ExecutedToday.com » 1861: Christopher Haun, potter and incendiarist |date=11 December 2012 |url=http://www.executedtoday.com/2012/12/11/1861-christopher-haun-potter-and-incendiarist/ |access-date=2023-08-11 |language=en}}</ref>
Before he died, he wrote to his wife regarding the disposition of his pottery business and concluded: <blockquote><poem>I have the promise that my body will be sent home to you. O live for heaven, Oh my bosom friend and children, Live for heaven I pray. My time is almost out, dear friend, farewell to this world — farewell to earth and earthly troubles.<ref name="sgb"/><ref name="RogersHTA"/></poem></blockquote> ==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{Find a Grave|41629441|Christopher Alexander Haun}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haun, Christopher Alexander}} Category:1821 births Category:1861 deaths Category:American potters Category:People from Greene County, Tennessee Category:People executed for treason against the Confederate States of America Category:People executed by the Confederate States of America by hanging Category:Artists from Tennessee Category:Executed people from Tennessee Category:19th-century executions of American people Category:19th-century American artists Category:Southern Unionists in the American Civil War Category:Saboteurs Category:Civilians who were court-martialed Category:Civilians killed in the American Civil War Category:19th-century American artisans