22, Capture of U.S. Mail by Morgan's forces near Dixon's Springs, between Gallatin and Carthage
No circumstantial reports filed.
LEXINGTON, June 22, 1863--10.55 a. m.
Gen. BURNSIDE:
Information from [Brig. Gen. Henry M.] Judah, from Gallatin, and from Rosecrans all concur that rebels under Morgan, about 3,000 or 4,00 strong, crossed the river near Rome. They captured part of the mail guard from Gallatin to Carthage. At Dixon's Springs private mail captured; public mail escaped.
A party is reported crossing at Celina also. Judah has two scouts of 250 men each, which will receive information that is definite. Shackelford is notified, and Judah will move one of the brigades to Scottsville, the other to Tomkinsville, keeping up communication between them; he will thus be able to turn in any direction. The Eleventh Kentucky has arrived at Carthage. My principal fear is for that place. Rosecrans may send assistance. Will keep you promptly informed of movements there.
GEO. L. HARTSUFF, Maj.-Gen.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 23, pt. II, p. 442
22, Confederate Governor Isham G. Harris' call to arms at the meeting of the Tennessee Confederate Nominating Convention held in Winchester
EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Chattanooga, Tenn., July 24, 1863.*
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, War Department:
SIR: Immediately upon the receipt of your requisition of [June 6] for 6,000 men for local defense and special service I issued the inclosed proclamation, under which a large number of companies were being organized when the Army of Tennessee, fell back from Shelbyville to the line of the Tennessee River, leaving all of Middle and West Tennessee within the enemy's lines, and cutting off the companies which were being formed in these division of the State. At present we have access only to the people of East Tennessee, about half of whom sympathize with our enemy. The recent order of the President calling out all men capable of bearing arms up to forty-five years of age, for the regular service, leaves us only such as are over that age. With our territory so much diminished and the call confined to that class over forty-five years of age (for, since the order of the President, I have excluded all parties under forty-five from this service, except such as are exempt from conscription), I have no hope of raising the 6,000 troops called for as volunteers within the time specified. Nor, indeed, can I raise that number of volunteers within the limits of East Tennessee at all; and under the laws of Tennessee I have no power to draft men over forty-five years of age for Confederate service.
Previous to the act of the Legislature of 1861--'62 men over forty-five years of age were not subject to military duty of any character. The act of that session (a copy of which I herewith inclose) authorizes the organization of all men between the ages of forty-five and fifty-five years into a military corps for State service.
I submit the facts and the law to your consideration for such suggestion as you may see proper to make in the premises, having every disposition to carry out the policy of the Government, whatever it may be, to raise all the troops possible for the defense of our territory and the maintenance of our cause. I shall proceed immediately to organize all within our lines between these ages who do not volunteer for local defense, and if you can suggest any legal means by which they can be drafted for Confederate service, I will promptly enforce the order for such number as you may require.
I shall have reported for duty by the 1st of August between, 1,000 and 2,000 men raised under this proclamation. Where will they be armed and who will take command of this special service corps? I respectfully suggest the appointment of an officer with the rank of brigadier-general or colonel to take command and general supervision of this special-service corps of each State, and if this policy shall be adopted I respectfully suggest and recommend W. C. Whitthorne, the present adjutant-general of Tennessee, for the appointment in this State. He will make an efficient officer in organizing and commanding the force.
I shall be pleased to have your suggestions at your earliest convenience, so that I may carry them out to the fullest extent of my ability.
Very respectfully
ISHAM G. HARRIS, Governor, &c., of Tennessee
[Inclosure No. 1.]
PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE.
The President of the Confederate States has made a requisition upon Tennessee for 6,000 troops for the term of six months from the 1st of August next under the provisions of an act of Congress entitled "An act to provide for local defense and special service," a copy of which is hereto appended.** These troops will be mustered into the service of the Confederate States, but held for the defense of their own homes, and in no event will they be ordered beyond the limits of this State.
This force must be composed of men over forty years of age, or such as from other causes are not liable to conscription, and if not raised by volunteering by or before the 1st day of August next, must be then immediately raised by a draft upon that part of the militia between the ages of forty and fifty-five years.
As volunteers you will have the right to organize your companies, battalions, and regiments by the election of such officers, as you may prefer.
You will be permitted to remain at your homes engaged in your ordinary avocations until such emergency shall arise as to make it necessary to order you to the field.
You will be armed, and while on duty under orders will be paid and subsisted as other Confederate troops.
When the emergency which called you to the field shall have passed, you will be relieved from duty and return to your homes and ordinary pursuits your pay and subsistence being stopped until you are ordered again to the field.
Volunteer companies, battalions, or regiments of infantry or mounted men who furnish their own horses will be accepted.
If drafted from the militia you will be placed in such infantry organizations as the authorities may deem best, and will most probably be continued on duty during the entire term of service.
The muster-rolls of volunteer companies must distinctly set forth that the company is raised for local defense and special service within the State of Tennessee for the term of six months.
You will return your muster-rolls to the adjutant-general of the State immediately upon the organization of a company of not less than sixty-four privates, with such officers as are required by law.
If said companies are organized into battalions or regiments previous to being mustered into service, they will elect their field officers; but if mustered into service as companies, the President will appoint battalion or regimental officers.
The enemy has shown that he fears to meet our gallant and invincible armies in the field unless he outnumbers us two or three to one.
He has therefore resorted to a system of raids upon unarmed neighborhoods for the purpose of devastating and pillaging the country, destroying our resources, and laying waste our homes.
Men of Tennessee! if you would resist these raids, predatory bands, and incendiaries of the enemy, organize at once and stand ready to repel or crush them.
If you would protect your private property, defend your wives and children, your personal liberty, your national independence, and your lives, organize at once and stand ready to strike for them.
Let the beardless boy and the hoary-headed father organize for the defense of their altars, their homes, and all that is dear to freemen.
Let the gallant men who have been disabled by the exposure and hardships of the camp or the casualties of bloody fields give to these new organizations the benefit of their experience and example.
Let every man who ocean wield a musket or draw a sword, who is so situated that he cannot swell the ranks of our Army for constant duty, organize at once for home defense and special service.
While I may justly claim, without the fear of successful contradiction, that Tennessee has already furnished to the Army of the Confederate States more troops in proportion to population than any State in the Confederacy, and in proportion to numbers engaged upon most of our battle-fields Tennessee soldiers have bled even more freely than those of other States-much as she has already done in this struggle for national independence, I am proud to know that she is able and willing to do more, and that she will persevere to the end of the struggle, however long or bloody it may be.
I therefore appeal to you by every consideration of patriotism personal interest, personal reputation, national independence, and the high character you have hitherto borne as citizens of the "Volunteer State" to rise up as one man, organize, rally to the standard of your Government, and in the majesty of your power make the invader feel that every hilltop bristles with the bayonets of freedom and every mountain pass has become a Thermopylae.
Give him a new and stronger proof of the fact that we stand as a unit, deeply solemnly, and irrevocably resolved on preserving independence at any and at every cost; that the march of the invader and the rule of despotism will be resisted at every step now and forever as long as there is a man or a boy in Tennessee who can pull a trigger, wield, a blade, or raise a finger in defiant resistance.
With this spirit prevailing our whole people, under the providence of a just God, we will at no distant day be blessed with independence, peace, and prosperity.
In testimony thereof I have hereunto signed my name and caused the greater seal of the State to be affixed, at Winchester on this the 22d day of June, A. D. 1863.
[SEAL]
ISHAM G. HARRIS,
By the Governor:
J. E. R. RAY, Secretary of State.
[Inclosure No. 2.]
AN ACT to amend an act to raise, organize, and equip a provisional force, and for other purposes.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Gen. Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That the white male population of the State between the ages of eighteen and forty-five shall constitute the reserved military corps thereof. Said corps shall be organized and called into service, and shall be subject to duty upon the call of the Governor; and this organization of the reserved corps shall continue for and during the existence of the war now being waged with the United States. That all the able-bodied white male population of this State between the ages of forty-five and fifty-five years shall be organized under the provisions of this act into a military corps for the defense of the State; but said corps, or any portion of it, shall not be called into actual service until after all of the reserved corps provided by this act shall have been called into actual service; nor shall this corps be called into actual service for a longer period, at any one time, than six months, nor be transferred, or detailed or drafted into the service of the Confederate States. And after this corps shall be organized they may determine the times and places of their company, battalion, and regimental drills.
* * * *
Passed March 18, 1862
E. A. KEEBLE, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
EDWARD S. CHEATHAM, Speaker of the Senate.
OR, Ser. IV, Vol. 2, pp. 666-670.***
*Ed. note – the date is correct. Harris refers to the document of June 22, 1863, as well as March 18, 1862. These documents are included here inasmuch as the most important of them, that of June 22, 1863, falls into the chronology best at this juncture.
**See OR, Ser. II, Vol, I, p. 579. .
***See Chattanooga Daily Rebel, June 28, 1862.
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