 An article by Jeanne Ridgway Bigger in the spring 1972 issue of the "Tennessee Historical Quarterly" states that the city was named after a "Judge Lynch", who presided over a vigilante committee that met in the city sometime after the War of 1812.During the Civil War, residents of Lynchburg generally supported the Confederacy.Company E of the Confederate Army's 1st Tennessee Cavalry consisted primarily of Lynchburg residents.