Monday, July 18, 2011

July 18 - Tennessee Civil War Notes

18, "Working Men's Union Meeting at Exchange Building To-Night."
A meeting will be held by the working men of Memphis, to-night, at Exchange Building, as advertised in our columns. It is believed to be high time that the laborer and the mechanic come forth and speak for that Union whose chief prosperity is due to the labor of his brawny arm, the sweat of his manly brow, the loss of which, even for a time, was to him the loss of liberty and dignity. The meeting should be a full one. It should be a clean protest against the unholy rebellion which sustained itself by dragging the laborer like a hound from his home, to work per force and without remuneration, a protest against the rebellion which subjected them to be dragged to encampments from the side of their dependent wives and families, which looked upon all labor as disgraceful, and the white laborer as less since than a negro, a protest against the rebellion which shot those who resisted the indignities it heaped upon them, whose leaders applied to for redress, remarked, "it is only [sic] an Irishman!" Come out, working men, mechanic and laborer; enter your protest against tyranny, manifest your love and gratitude for the flag that has ever protected you. Let those talk "nigger" who will [sic], your [sic] interest and dignity are with the old United States, within whose protection alone the mechanic and the laborer have ever stood the proud and just equals in social and political rights to every other class of the community.
Come to the meeting and speak, Old Pinch, from the factory and the smithy. Come and come with those dear and near to you, ever protected beneath the old Constitution as much as they were disregarded by rebellion. Come out, one and all.
Memphis Union Appeal, July 18, 1862

 

18-26, "Affairs in Memphis."
Gen. Sherman in Command – All Orders Carried Out.
Memphis, Tuesday, July 22
Major-Gen. Sherman has assumed command of this City. He will enforce all orders issued by his predecessors. Four hundred persons took the oath of allegiance. One hundred and thirty received passes to go South. Many expected that upon Gen. Sherman's arrival, the order, requiring them to take the oath or leave, would be modified, and have delayed taking action until today, consequently the Provost Marshal's office was thronged with applicants soliciting the passes to go South, and those desiring to take the required oath.
A RECRUITING MEETING.
The Memphis Bulletin of July 19, reports a meeting which was held in that city on the preceding evening (18th) to secure recruits for a National regiment. Col. Nabers, an old resident of Memphis, spoke. He referred to the fact that Gov. Johnson, soon after his coercion speech in the Senate, had been hung and burnt in effigy in front of the Adams-street engine house by the secession mob, which then ruled the city, and expressed the hope that that great man would be here soon, and that all Union-loving men might be permitted to hear his voice raised again for "the Union, the Constitution and enforcement of the laws," and from the very stand where the great indignity had been offered him. Col. Nabers said that the Government of the United States would protect the persons and property of loyal citizens, and that no other had any claim to protection, since no one had a right to claim the protection of a Government which he wished to destroy. He knew not how it was with others, but for himself, he was glad to say, that since the arrival of the Federal army, he had been as amply protected in his property and his rights under the Constitution as he could have desired, and presumed the same could be affirmed by all other loyal citizens.
GEN. SHERMAN'S ARRIVAL
From the Bulletin, July 19.
Gen. W. T. Sherman's Division, which, ever since the evacuation of Corinth, has been occupying the line of road between that point and Memphis, marched into the town yesterday, and are now encamped in the outskirts.
We understand that Gen. Sherman assumes command of this post to-day.
There are now sufficient troops in and about the city to quiet any apprehensions which the more timid minded might feel of any attack on the city by the Confederate troops.
New York Times, July 26, 1862.

 

18, Capture of Union pickets near Germantown
JULY 18, 1863.--Capture of Union pickets near Germantown, Tenn.
Reports of Col. Phineas Pease, Forty-ninth Illinois Infantry.
GERMANTOWN, July --, 1863.
A squad of rebels captured 3 [Federal]cavalrymen within half a mile of my picket line on the west this evening. Have sent out cavalry and infantry in different directions to capture them, if possible.
P. PEASE.
Col. Forty-ninth Illinois, Commanding.
LATER.--Rebels tore up track 2 miles from Germantown. Will be repaired in time for morning train.
GERMANTOWN, July 18, 1863.
The squad of cavalry have overtaken and are now in pursuit of the rebels south of Nonconnah Creek. A detail of 3 cavalry have returned with 1 rebel and our 3 captured cavalry, together with 7 track repairers, who were captured at the same time. This prisoner reports that he belongs to [John] McGuirk's command, consisting of one regiment, encamped north of the Tallahatchee. One of his companies at Cockrum's Cross-Roads; two at Walnut Hill; one at Cox's, on Holly Springs road, 15 miles north of the Tallahatchee, and two at or near Holly Springs. Blythe's and George's regiments at or near Coldwater Station. Chalmers still at Panola. Have no more cavalry to send out.
P. PEASE, Col. Forty-ninth Illinois, Commanding.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 24, pt. II, p. 684.

 

 

18, "KILLED"
On Monday night last (18th), complaint was made to Lieut. Douglass that John Kirk, an employee in Dr. Chambers' Vernerial [sic] Hospital, had struck a negro woman named Kate Martin over the head with a spade, cutting her severely. The officer sent a soldier from the 13th United States Infantry, along with special policeman Augustus Teenan, 5th Iowa cavalry, to arrest Kirk. Hearing that the guard were after him, he took a horse from the stable near the hospital, and afterwards borrowing a pistol, attempted to make his escape. The guard overtook him, however, and ordered him under arrest, when he drew a pistol and commenced firing at the guard. The soldier advanced upon him, wrenched the pistol from his hand, pulled him off the horse, and placed him under arrest. Kirk then stooped down and picked up a rock with which to strike the guard, when the latter levelled [sic] his musket and fired, the ball taking effect in Kirk's heart, and from the effects of which he died instantly. This occurred on the Charlotte pike, near the trestle-work, between 10 and 11 o'clock at night.
The guard, we understand, was not to blame in the matter, acting in the first place in the most forbearing manner, and not disposed to fire upon him until forbearance ceased to be a virtue.
Nashville Daily Press, July 20 1864.

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