Friday, November 16, 2012

November 17 - 18 - Tennessee Civil War Notes

17, East Tennessee Confederate Oath of Allegiance

 

BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS

 

Chattanooga, Tenn., November 17, 1861

 

SIR: In obedience to orders two regiments moved to this point. Affairs are not so bad as reported. Suppose that Col. S. A. M. Wood has reported to the War Department a full account of his expedition against Clift and the breaking up of his camp. Five prisoners taken with arms. To-night I send a reconnoitering force to North Chickamauga Creek where the citizens are mostly disloyal and a good many in open rebellion. As soon as sufficient information can be obtained a larger force will be sent to capture Clift and his troops. So soon as they return I will move to join Gen. Zollicoffer at Jacksborough.

 

* * * *

 

I inclose you a copy of oath and bond I have taken from Union prisoners taken before my arrival.

Very respectfully,

 

W. H. CARROLL, Brig.-Gen.

 

[Inclosure.]

 

We,___and___, acknowledge ourselves indebted to the Confederate States of America jointly and severally in the sum of $10,000, but to be void if--shall faithfully and honestly support the Constitution and laws of the Confederate States of America and if he shall faithfully and honestly render true allegiance to said Confederate States in all things; and if he shall not directly or indirectly by writing, talking or otherwise seditiously or rebelliously attempt to excite prejudice in the mind of any person or persons against the existence, perpetuity or prosperity of said Confederate States; and if he shall not in any manner directly or indirectly aid, assist, encourage or advise the United States or any officer, agent or adherent thereof in the present war against the Confederate States.

 

Witness our hands and seals this--November, 1861.

 

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully and honestly support the Constitution and laws of the Confederate States of America and I will faithfully and honestly render true allegiance to said Confederate States in all things and in every particular; and I further swear that I will not directly or indirectly by talking, writing or otherwise seditiously or rebelliously attempt to excite prejudice in the mind of any person or persons against the existence, perpetuity or prosperity of said Confederate States; nor will I in any manner directly or indirectly aid, assist, encourage or advise the United States or any officer, agent or adherent thereof in the present war against the Confederate States.

 

Witness our hands and seals this___November, 1861.

 

OR, Ser. II, Vol. 1, pp. 843-844.

 

 

18, A Confederate Fast Day sermon in Knoxville

 

Fast Day.-The day was set apart by the President's proclamation was observed more general than any similar occasion within our recollection. With on accord the people rested from business and labor, and large numbers participated in religious worship which was performed in nearly every church of the city. There were very few violations of the rules of propriety, the temptations to err being measurably removed by the closing of bar rooms, where many are wont to pass the idle hours of ordinary holidays. We have word that the ministers were unusually earnest in their appeals, and congregations seemed to sympathize deeply in the invocations for him addressing of Heaven on our cause. It is our purpose to publish brief sketches of some of the sermons on the occasion, commencing with that of the Rev. Mr. Butler, rector of St. John's [Episcopal] Church-an eloquent discourse upon the theme: A people's Christianity their sure and Only Basis of Permanence and Strength.

 

His text was selected from Genesis 18:32-"And He said, I will not destroy it, for ten's sake."[1] The mighty truth that the world belongs to God, and the folly and wretchedness of opposing God's purposes, were considered as introductory to the question-How far is the world's life in accordance with the fact that it is God's world? The discord and the bitterness and the oppression of nations-the world's sensuality and shame, its ignorance, superstition, and all its catalogue of vices-tell us with terrible emphasis that the prayer of Christ is not yet the prayer of the world: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." Yet this discouraging truth is relieved by the knowledge that all these must pass away, but "not one jot or tittle of God's word shall fall." Between the dark and damning realities of sin that we behold around us to-day, and that glorious consummation which God has revealed to us, we recognize the reason of every step of the progress in the principle embodies in the text—"I will not destroy it for ten's sake." God has thrown into the current of the world's life a regenerative power-the power of Christianity-and the process of its desecration and decay is checked-the work of dissolution is stayed. Whether this truth is rightly received or wretched and perverted, it is nonetheless the truth of God that the Christianity of the world is the word's safety After some beautiful and appropriate illustrations, the rector proceeded to the day's services. We know, he said, that all fear has its roots deep down in godlessness – we know that the strife that is pouring it's its tide of wretchedness and blood over our land is the godless, inhuman, brutal crusade that has ever stained the page of civilizations. We know that by the blessing of God upon the restless spirit of our people, every blow that our foes have dealt us has recoiled with ten-fold fierceness and destruction upon their own heads. And we know that if we maintain this spirit, and ever look to God for the result, that result will not be uncertain.-Our enemies have "taken the sword" and they will "perish by the sword." They have "sown the wind" and they will "reap the whirlwind." They have lighted a blaze that will scorch and wither much that is fair [words illegible] and good within our own borders; but which the winds of heaven will blow back upon themselves, and its fiery tongues, kindling into seven fold fury-the hand of man shall not quench it. For it is eternally true that "every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labors."

 

But (proceeded the speaker) there is one thing that we do not know. When the flames of war shall have expired; when those whom that battle and the pestilence have spared shall have reunited to their homes and firesides, now ten-fold more precious for having been defended even to death; when time shall have begun to heal wounds deeper and more full of anguish that those which steel and shell have made; when the shot-ploughed battle-fields shall have hidden their redness in garments of peaceful verdure; when the hand that pointed the cannon guides the plow; and the head that planned campaigns shall employ its comprehensive sagacity in directing, with pure and lofty patriotism, the channels of a nation's weal, shall we then be a righteous people or a godless people?

 

If, as a people, we shall realize that we are God's people-if we take or successes and lay them, with devout thankfulness, upon the altar of Christianity-if our men go from camp back to their various accustomed places of life and labor with the honest resolve by the help of God to be men of God-if the earnestness and liberality that have been volunteered in the defence of our social rights shall be earnestly employed in succoring our rights in the Church of Christ-if the hands and the hearts of the women as our land shall engage in Christ's work as heartily as they are now engaged in patriotic work-if our Christianity shall keep pace with and hallow the material prosperity that is obliged to fall in our lot-then a bright and unparalleled day of Divine blessing is before us. We will be the chosen instrument of God for working out higher and nobler problems of Christianized society than have ever yet been committed to man. God has accumulated within our borders the material for a people mightier in Christianity and mightier in political and material strength, (the last, let it never be forgotten, only mighty elements of ruins without the former) than the world has ever seen; and it remains for us to say what part we shall take in this consummation.

 

In conclusion, the speaker urged that the time has come for every citizen to be a Christian, and every patriot to be a Christian patriot. But if, said he, instead of this, we shall, upon the restoration of peace, only plunge into the world with new zest, and follow with unrestrained activity the leading of ambition, and wealth, and fashion, and show, and pleasure, and lust; if we forget that we belong to God-if we forget that we belong to God- if we forget that nations exist solely for the purpose of working out the problem of Christ's Church on earth-which simply means to bring the world into its true position as God's world-then, in the midst of our unheard of prosperity, we shall one day split again upon the rock of godlessness. God grant that this may not be so; but that for the humble faith and the Christian spirit and the Abrahamic pleadings that will this day ascend to the Throne of Heaven, He will not destroy us for the ten's sake, but make us a Christian nation, and so a strong and permanent, and blessed nation, by making every one of us Christian people. The humblest spirit in Christ's Church is a mightier bulwark of defence to our country than a godless statesman with the intellect of an archangel. He serves his country best who serves his God best.

 

We have selected sketches of other eloquent sermons delivered on Fast Day, which we are compelled to postpone, owing the heavy demand upon our columns.

 

The Daily Dispatch, November 18, 1861.

 



[1] God told Abraham that He will punish Sodom, "because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave." Abraham protests that it is not just "to slay the righteous with the wicked," and asks if the whole city can be spared if even ten righteous men are found there. God replied: "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it."

 

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