Wednesday, February 6, 2013

2/7/2013 cwn


7, Governor Isham G. Harris announces the fall of Fort Henry to Confederate authorities in Richmond by telegraph

NASHVILLE, February 7, 1862.

Fort Henry fell yesterday. Memphis and Clarksville Railroad bridge over Tennessee destroyed. Lost all the artillery and stores at Henry. General Tilghman, Major Gilmer, and about 80 men taken prisoners; balance of force fell back to Fort Donelson, on Cumberland River.

A large increase of force to defend this [State] from Cumberland Gap to Columbus is an absolute and imperative necessity. If not successfully defended, the injury is irreparable.

ISHAM G. HARRIS.

Hon. J.P. BENJAMIN.

Navy OR, Ser. I, Vol. 22, p. 552.

 

7, "Rain and Mud."

For about one month past we have had rain almost every day. Such a continuous and persistent "spell" of bad weather has not occurred for years so the old folks say. One result of it is a condition of our streets, such as was never known before. The accumulated dirt and filth of some two years has been chemically rendered into slosh [sic], so that Franklin street is as terrible to one, wanting to cross it, as Styx is to a ghost without Charon's fee. While we write, however, a gleam of sunshine has broken upon our mud-stricken city, which, we hope, is an omen of dryer times.

Clarksville Chronicle, February 7, 1862.

 

7, "Dim Lights."

It seems to us that the public lamps have of late been put on short allowance of gas. The streets do not appear to be as well lighted as usual. If there is a stroke of economy, in the worshipful gas company, we could suggest a little advance in the price and a return to the old allowance. In these times of mud and slosh we must have light.

 

 

Clarksville Chronicle, February 7, 1862.


 

7, Report on the funeral of General Zollicoffer

The remains of the late Gen. Zollicoffer reached Nashville on the 1st inst. and were received at the depot by a large concourse of citizens. The body was placed in state in the Representative Hall of the Capitol, where it remained until the next day, when the funeral ceremonies took place, Bishop Otey and others officiating. The concourse of military and citizens that attended the remains to the grave was the largest ever seen in Nashville.

Clarksville Chronicle, February 7, 1862.

      


  7, The muck of Memphis

Mud!; Mud!—Everywhere; mud is predominant. Efforts are made, in a despairing way, to keep the crossings of the main streets in a passable condition, but they much resembled the attempts of the angry old lady who strove to keep the waters from the tide entering the house by strenuous exertions with a broom. The ladies are prisoners as close as the hour is in a Turkish harem, like the caged parrot, they "can't get out;" and the men have the streets to themselves, which is no improvement to the appearance of "all out doors" in Memphis. Hurry on those street railroads. Ladies, why don't you rebel, and—declare that not a lord of creation shall have another smile or ladies' favor until they are making a "long pull, a strong pull and a pull altogether," to have street railroads, so that, spite of the mud, you could have the liberty of the streets, shew your new bonnets, and do your shopping. How many stores, that for the last two weeks, have been bare of business as heaven is of visitors from Chicago, could have been making money if the railway cars came rolling up Main street every half hour pouring down customers at their doors. The aldermen are busy discussing a plan to build a hall for themselves, which they can do very well without; let some attention be bestowed, and without delay, on what the citizens require as a necessary thing for their business, and the ladies an absolute requirement for their comfort. The street railway will cost the city nothing, on the contrary, it will pay largely toward the city taxation. The money is ready, the material is ready, only let the City Council say the word and we shall have street railways in a trice, and then a fig for the mud.

Memphis Daily Appeal, February 7, 1862.

       

 

 

7, A defense of William G. Swan and Knox county from accusations of war profiteering and low Confederate enlistment rates

HON. WM. G. SWAN

Our attention has been drawn to a letter from Knoxville, Tennessee which appeared in the Appeal on the 29th [of] December last [1861], which casts some unwarranted and unjust reflections of the gentleman whose name heads this article, in which we feel it incumbent upon us, even at this late day, to refute. A paragraph from the letter reads thus:

["]It has been remarked that though Knox county has been vastly benefited by the war; though her people have been enabled to sell at exorbitant rates every article of food or clothing; though they have furnished supplies of every description to the large force which has been concentrated at this point, yet very few volunteers have gone into the ranks. There has not been a single organized company made up in this county received into the Confederate service. This is the more remarkable when we remember that as far back as January last Wm. G. Swan and a strong body of supporters were among the "original Secessionists." It occurs to me that this gentleman and his adherents should begin even now to do their duty. A county with thirty-five hundred voters should not be unrepresented in the armies of the South.["]

Now we personally know these reflections upon Mr. Swan and his states' rights friends in Knoxville to be wholly unmerited as well as unjust. We know that during the last summer he was in the army in Virginia as a private; and would probably still be in the service had he not been nominated and elected to Congress from the Knoxville district. Besides, he has been ever active and vigilant in behalf of the Southern cause as well as liberal with his means, having expended several thousand dollars in fitting out volunteers, providing, providing for the sick, etc[1].

It is known, however, that Knox county has been the worst Union hole in all of East Tennessee. In February last there were only two hundred votes polled in that county, for the Southern rights candidate for the Convention, while three thousand three hundred were cast for the Union candidate. But a very considerable change has been wrought in the county by the active energies of Mr. Swan and the few faithful friends who took the field early in the good cause with him.

This much we have thought it our duty to say in behalf of our friends in Knoxville, whose services are well appreciated by the thinking and well informed, and who deserves the highest praise rather than censure, for the noble part they have acted and the good services they have rendered the Southern cause at a time, and in a section, when and where it was deemed treasonable to utter a word or perform an act hostile to the old Federal Union.

Memphis Daily Appeal, February 7, 1862.


[1]  Another interpretation of the liberal expenditure of his means might be that it was spent on convincing his constituents to elect him to the Confederate Congress. Other evidence in this body of information indicates Swan was less than a Confederate humanitarian.

 

 

James B. Jones, Jr.

Public Historian

Tennessee Historical Commission

2941 Lebanon Road

Nashville, TN  37214

(615)-532-1550  x115

(615)-532-1549  FAX

 

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