ARRIVAL IN WASHINGTON OF A REFUGEE FROM NASHVILLE – MILITARY IMPORTANCE OF NASHVILLE TO THE REBEL TROOPS – EXTENSIVE MANUFACTURE OF ARMY GOODS, SUPPLIES AND AMMUNITION – DEFENCES OF NASHVILLE, ETC.

1861.10.20

       20, News from Nashville

IMPORTANT FROM TENNESSEE.

ARRIVAL IN WASHINGTON OF A REFUGEE FROM NASHVILLE – MILITARY
IMPORTANCE OF NASHVILLE TO THE REBEL TROOPS – EXTENSIVE MANUFACTURE OF
ARMY GOODS, SUPPLIES AND AMMUNITION – DEFENCES OF NASHVILLE, ETC.

[From the Washington Republican, Oct. 18.]

Yesterday Mr. Q. C. DeGrove, late revenue collector at Nashville,
Tenn., together with two or three other gentlemen from the same city,
called upon us to reveal the present state of affairs at Nashville.
Mr. DeGrove was born and reared in Nashville, and was elected to the
office of Revenue Collector, of Davidson County, at the last county
election, over several competitors, simply because of his personal
popularity. Being a Union man, e declined to take part with the
secessionists, and therefore became the object of persecution. After
various sittings, the "Committee of Safety" issued an edict for his
banishment, but the Secretary of the Committee, being a gentleman,
could not so far forget his instincts as to serve the paper of
banishment. But the Union collector, weary of an existence at the
mercy of outlaws, arranged his family of four little girls, and,
taking his wife upon his arm, who was also born in Nashville, shook
the dust of the city off his feet and departed.

The military importance of Nashville is greater than any other
Southern point. The whole network of Southern railroad centre there,
and within a short time they have so arranged their railroad matters
as that the entire rolling stock of all the roads can be used upon any
of them; so that by the casualties of war they lose one road, they can
use another, while all their engines and cars can be, at short notice,
put into requisition for the transportation of troops or the munitions
of war. Troops can now go from the army at Manassas Junction to
Nashville, or to any other important Southern point, without stopping
or changing cars.

The war has given a great impetus to manufacures in Nashville, almost
everything necessary for army purposes being manufactured there in
large quantities.

All the Northern sewing machine men had agents in Nashville, but the
war effectually cut of their sales – so the agents hired a large
number of men and women and employed all their machines in
manufacturing clothing and tents of the army. They are all doing a
large business. The principal tailors of the city are also engaged in
making clothes for the army so that the main supply of clothes and
tents is now obtained at Nashville.

Large quantities of leather and canvass shoes are manufactured.
Previous to and in anticipation of the war immense quantities of
leather was [sic] brought to Nashville from Kentucky, Texas and
Missouri. One leather dealer alone bought $10,000 worth of leather,
which is now being worked up. Canvass shoes having been discovered on
the feet of some Union prisoners, the new idea soon spread over the
southern country, and they are now made in large quantities,
especially in Nashville.

Immense quantities of saddles, harness and cartridge boxes are also
manufactured. Two or three large ships are filled with men engaged
with this work; many of the persons thus employed never before sewed a
stitch, but the want of employment and their own necessities compelled
them to undertake the business.

A powder mill on Sycamore creek, some fifteen miles from Nashville, is
successfully employed in manufacturing powder.

Percussion caps are made in the city at the rate of 250,000 a day. Two
Germans have been killed by the explosion of the fulminating powder.
Rifles and muskets are manufactured on a large scale, and there is
also an immense establishment for making bowie knives and swords.
About one hundred men are constantly, night and day, engaged in the
manufacture of cannon shot and shell.

There is also a drum and fife factory doing a good business.
There are now in the warehouses of Nashville, meat and four enough to
feed the Tennessee troops for one year. Immense quantities of
provisions were bought before the rebellion commenced, and have been
kept there. There is one store, three hundred feet long, about seventy
feet wide, and five stories high, filled from the bottom to the top
with bacon, and all the wholesale grocers are well supplied with
provisions of all kinds.

Three weeks ago, there were no forts and no soldiers at Nashville. At
Dover, on the Cumberland river, there is a battery, and at Fort Henry,
on the Tennessee river, there is another, together with a force of two
thousand men, and these forts are so arranged, that if one should be
taken, the men can fly to the o there without impediment.

Zollicoffer's invasion of Kentucky was deemed an act of military
necessity. There were large quantities of pork unsalted in Nashville
and in other parts of Tennessee which would be entirely lost unless
salt could be procured. Zollicoffer, therefore, invaded Kentucky, and
went to the saline works in Clay county, took all the salt he wanted,
put it into wagons, and sent it to Nashville, and thus saved their
bacon.

 New York Herald, October 20, 1861.