Tony L. Turnbow is author of the nonfiction Hardened to Hickory: The Missing Chapter in Andrew Jackson's Life and the young adult historical fiction series Fighting Devil's Backbone.  He has studied the history of the Old Natchez Trace for more than 35 years. He practices law in Franklin, Tennessee. With a Bachelor of Arts and a concentration in southern U.S. history from Vanderbilt University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Tennessee College of Law, he has continued to use his training to explore unpublished primary sources about the Natchez Trace. He authored “The Natchez Trace in the War of 1812” in The Journal of Mississippi History, and he has published articles in the Tennessee Historical Quarterly and the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation journal “We Proceeded On.” He also wrote a full-length play “Inquest on the Natchez Trace” about the mysterious death of explorer Meriwether Lewis. In the course of writing a book about Lewis’s death, Mr. Turnbow discovered unpublished accounts of Andrew Jackson’s 1813 Natchez Expedition.

Mr. Turnbow represented the Natchez Trace Parkway Association on the Tennessee War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission, and he was the recipient of the Tennessee Society U.S. Daughters of 1812 “Spirit of 1812” award.