Friday, July 6, 2012

July 6 - Tennessee Civil War Notes

6, "The Union, Constitution and Laws"
For the Knoxville Whig
The Union, Constitution and Laws.
A Ballad for the Times
Tune - Dixie

The Union, Constitution and Laws,
Will be maintained for just is the cause
Fight away, fight away, fight away for the Union.
Oh! Winfield Scott is just the man,
To quell the traitors of this land;
Chorus - Fight away, fight away, fight away, for the Union
I'm glad I'm an American:
HUZZAH! HUZZAH!
By the Stars and stripes I take my stand
To live and die for the Union
Fight away, fight away, fight away for the Union.

The Southern rights shall be maintained
By fighting under Scott's command
Right away, fight away, fight away for the Union
Poor Jeffy Davis will have to die,
His destination is drawing nigh:
Fight away, fight away, fight away for the Union
Chorus - I'm glad I am, &c.

The friends of the Union stand opposed
To Northern and to Southern foes;
Fight away, fight away, fight away, for the Union
They can not fight in a better cause
Than to maintain their country's laws;
Fight away. fight away, fight away, for the Union
Chorus - I'm glad I am, &c.

This land of liberty was brought
By the battles which our forefathers fought:
Fight away, fight away, fight away, for the Union
Then pledge your lives, and spill your blood,
And Let your trust be in your God
Fight away, fight away, fight away, for the Union
Chorus - I'm glad I am, &c.

Secession brothers cease to stand,
So hostile to our fathers' land"
Come away, come away, come away, from Secession
Your cause it long has been condemned
By Jackson, Clay, and other men;
Come away, come away, come away from secession
Chorus - Declare you are an American
Huzzah! Huzzah!
By the Stars and Stripes then take your stand
And live and die for the Union
Come away, come away, come away from Secession
Come away, come away, come away from Secession

The ladies too will lend a hand,
To restore with us our happy Land:
Work away, talk away, sing away for the Union
Their better nature can prevail
When all the deeds of men have failed
Work away, talk away, sing away, for the Union
Chorus - Then having them to bless our cause
Huzzah! Huzzah!
We'll hoist our flag, enforce our laws,
And live and die for the Union 
Work away, talk away, sing away, for the Union;
Work away, talk away, sing away, for the Union;
Knoxville, June 1861
Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, July 6, 1861.

 

26, The sack of Beersheba
Scenes enacted here today beggar description. Early in the morning the sack of the place began. But a few of the "bushwhackers" were in--the mountain people came in crowds and with vehicles of all sorts and carried off everything they could from both hotel and cottages. Mr. Armfield seeing that the place was going, opened Dr. Harding's and Mr. Bass' cottages, just opposite, and told his negros [sic] to come and remove whatever they wanted. The negros [sic] "pitched in with a will"--and furniture and housekeeping articles changed places rapidly. Mrs. Scott's wagon was here--she had it filled, and Mr. Hadden took it down home for her, going in company with our gentlemen. Darlin' and Mr. Armfield started about 11 o'clock intending to remain over night at Mr. Scotts. In the morning Miss Jane and I went to Sunday school with the children, but no o­ne arriving [sic] but Miss Martha Smartt and Maj. we came home without any school....I left there...but the scenes we witnessed were indescribable. Gaunt, Ill-looking men and slatternly, rough barefooted women stalking and racing to and fro, eager as famished wolves for prey, hauling out furniture--tearing up matting and carpets--running to and fro after entrances into inclosures, the women fully as full of avaricious thirst as the ruffainly [sic] men. Others seated o­n their piles of plunder, smoked and glared defiance o­n any o­ne who came near them. o­ne crone, a Mrs. Anglin, a veritable Mrs. Meriless [sic] in appearance, sat o­n her pile, and crooned a hymn [sic] by snatches and starts! o­ne girl-bare-headed and barefooted took off some dress from B[isho]p Otey's. She could not wait until she reached home to try them o­n, but put down her bundle in a fence corner, tried o­ne o­n and had a great overgrown boy hooking them up for her! Satisfying herself as to the fists--she resumed her bundle and marched o­n! (Speaking of fits reminds me that o­ne of those Yankees who were up here o­n Tuesday [21st], fell down in a fit at the dining room door--just as he was going to breakfast. He was a frightful object--and they deluged him with water and poured brandy over his face, and beat and rubbed and shook him. They saw Jane and Mollie and o­ne of them said "it was a d____d shame for them secesh women to be laughing at Dare." Mrs. M. asked what was the matter? They said he had a fit in consequence of his night ride, no supper, the storm, the losing of the way--the scare, etc. etc. "Why!" she exclaimed, "soldiers scared--scared into fits!" [sic] "Oh!" if you'd been there you'd been scared too--my horse jumped down a precipice 15 feet high,--etc. etc.) At Mrs. Freeliln's house they held an orgie [sic] the whole night, singing, shouting, and it is believed dancing. I heard the noise among the cottages myself, when I closed my shutters at 11 o'clock. It was a brilliant moonlight--fair and cloudless, with a light breeze blowing. Nature so sere and lovely seemed to smile upon the scene of confusion. They dragged off mattresses--fine furniture etc., into the woods, and left it, coming back for another load, and in this way many who had no conveyances managed to get away a great deal. It called up before me (on a small scale,) visions of the reign of terror and the mob of Paris shouting "to Versailles!" The difference was that blood flowed there so freely--and it would have flowed here--if resistance had been made. And not withstanding [sic] it was so serious an affair, many incidents occurred which provoked me to laughter. Miss Sue White said that o­ne woman had a lot of books from Bishop Otey's residence--many were Latin and French books, and there were some volumes of very profound theological character, and pamphlets of Church proceedings. The woman who did not know a letter to save her life, said "she had some children who were just beginin' [sic] to read and she wanted the books for them--she wanted to encourage 'em!" To crown all imagine o­ne scene of old "Meg Merilees" [sic] sitting o­n her plunder with a bucket in her hand scooping out greasy boiled cabbage and swallowing it wholesale and clawing it up in her long bony fingers and helping another who being more fastidious rather expostulated as the manner of being helped-- when old Meg cried out "take woman as ye can git it--ye mustn't be so nice these times." Two women went into a regular fist fight and kept it up for an hour--clawing and clutching at each other because o­ne had more than the other! A band would rush up and take possession of a cottage--place a guard, drive off everyone else, stating that this was theirs, and many were the scenes of contest that ensued. The men would have red curtain tassels o­n their hats--the women beggared description as to costume. I saw o­ne tall, lathy, [sic] figure with a tallow face and hank hair [sic] --bare-footed, bareheaded,--a skirt of faded calico rent in several places, a body of a different material with a belt of red horse girth, vainly endeavoring to "make the connection" between the two incongraous [sic] garments! She went off like a locomotive hither and thither leaning forward until she was half bent in her eagerness to get everywhere before somebody else! All day it was beautiful, sunshine and calm, over the white cottages nestling among the heavy green foliage--but oh! the scenes enacted around that doomed Hotel and among these birds nest dwelling place[s] of luxury and taste in rural retreats! It is that "the masses" had it all their own way o­n this memorable day,--the aristocrats went down for the nonce, and Democracy--Jacobinism--and Radicalism in their rudest forms reigned triumphant. It has been a memorable day this 26th, July 1863.--when "the master" went down to town "to take the oath" and become in Lincolnite parlance a "subjugated rebel," and Bersheba [sic] was sacked in his absence by a wild o­nset from the very people he has been building up for years! The "bushwhackers" were in in the evening, and "one Campbell"...went to Hobb's and stole off our magnificent Morgan horse...I have given thus but a faint and feeble as well a disconnected outline of the strange doings of Sunday. I never expected to be in a "sacked city" but I now have a "realizing sense" of what it would be--having witnessed the sacking o­n a small scale. And having seen something of the demoralizing effect upon the servants, and indeed upon ourselves, I can imaging what its effect would be upon an army; if allowed to ravel in the license which has marked the proceedings of this day. I know of nothing which would utterly annihilated the soldier in a man so soon.


War Journal of Lucy Virginia French, entry for July 26, 1863.

 

 


No comments: