18, "I am willing by both word and deed to encourage our people to seize it with promptness and rush to the conflict." A Note from the Editor of the Tennessee Baptist
To the Patrons of the Tennessee Baptist.
So sudden and unexpected was the fall of Nashville that I had no time to issue a paper, or even a slip, to apprise my subscribers of my fate or purpose.
I left Edgefield, the place of my residence, early on the Monday morning previous to the destruction of the bridges, and it being impossible to obtain conveyance by either railroad leading south, made the journey to Huntsville with my family in my family carriage, from when I reached this place, the residence of my father-in-law.
Owing to the sudden evacuation of Nashville, it was impossible to remove any art of the office, books, types or presses, and consequently the paper will remain suspended for the present, and doubtless until the city is retaken.
My business destroyed, my home in the possession of the enemy, and myself a refugee, I feel it my duty to offer my services to my country in this hour of her imminent peril. I have been urged by several prominent citizens of my own State to raise a regiment, battalion or legion of true and tried men willing to bear a PIKE [sic] to thrust the vandal foe from our hearth stones. Believing it to be a most formidable weapon in the hands of men determined to be free. I am willing by both word and deed to encourage our people to seize it with promptness and rush to the conflict.
'Tis Caeser's right, in a crisis like this, to call to the field every man able to bear arms, nor has Christ absolved his ministers from this tribute to Caeser.
So soon as it is ascertained that President Davis will accept a regiment, battalion, or even a company of Lancers, for service in the West, I shall offer my services to assist in raising it. To lead or to follow it upon the field.
I have said this much to apprise my patrons throughout the South that I did not "passively submit" in the fall of Nashville,[1]and have by no means despaired of the Confederacy. It is in our power to be free if we only prove ourselves worthy of freedom.
J. R. GRAVES, Editor Tenn. Baptist.
Magnolia, Miss., February 12, 1862.
P. S.-Will the southern press confer a favor that will be appreciated by copying this card, as my patrons are in every Southern State?
Memphis Daily Appeal, March 18, 1862. [2]
18, Dog tents; an excerpt from the diary of Colonel John Beatty
My brigade is till at work on the fortifications [at Murfreesboro]. They are, however, nearly completed.
Shelter tents were issued to our division to-day. We are still using the larger tent; but it is evidently the intention to leave these behind when we move. Last fall the shelter tents were used for a time by the Pioneer Brigade. They are so small that a man can not stand up in them. The boys were then very bitter in condemnation of them, and called them dog tents and dog pens. Almost every one of these tents was marked in a way to indicate the unfavorable opinion which they boys entertained of them, and in riding through the company quarters of the Pioneer Brigade, the eye would fall on inscriptions of this sort:
PUPS FOR SALE-RAT TERRIERS-BULL PUPS HERE-DOG-HOLE NO. 1-SONS OF BITCHES WITHIN-DOGS-PURPS.
General Rosecrans and staff, while riding by one day, were greeted with a tremendous bow-wow. The boys were on their hands and knees, stretching their heads out of the ends of the tents, barking furiously at the passing cavalcade. The general laughed heartily, and promised them better accommodations.
* * * *
Beatty, Citizen Soldier, pp. 231-232.
18, "Our City Fathers Brought Up at Last;" General S. A. Hurlbut censures Memphis municipal government for failure to take action on crime and sanitation
A called meeting of our very worthy Board of Mayor and Aldermen was held at their usual place of gathering, under the persuasive request of General Hurlbut, who appeared among them and stirred up their stagnant intellects in a quiet, genteel manner. The first subject he touched upon was one which has become so common that people who have business in the streets at night expect to get robbed any how, and make up their minds for it. The General said that garroting and robbery were growing up as recognized institutions, and he would request the refulgent Fathers to throw the scathing glances of their beaming countenances upon such practices and scorch them like dried chaff. The sly look which he cast around the room convinced him that there was more than one warming-pan phiz[3] [sic], and the suggestion of the scorching process was, we think, peculiarly happy. The next point he alluded to was one upon which the press has rung the changes so often that it began to despair of anything being done until pestilence had made its appearance in the city. So little did Hurlbut think of the removal of dead animals-a task which has hitherto been considered herculean [sic]-that he intimated pretty plainly that if our rulers could not accomplish this duty, he thought he could find those who were capable of performing the work. Some of the Alderman attempted to get up the usual fuss of regulations and ordinances, but that hard headed old worthy, [Alderman] Mulholland, told them that there was a great [illegible] many ordinances which are dead letters, and they should put in force what they had already on the minute-book. The [remarks?] of the General were so far repeated as to have a committee appointed drawn from each ward to device a plan for the proper carrying out of this work, and [most likely?] some [means for providing for the levy of] taxation [?] [to enhance the] sanitation and salutary medical [?] [conditions for] Memphis' people can present their plan on Saturday night [?], at three o'clock.[4]
Memphis Bulletin, March 18, 1864.
General Hurlbut made a speech to the Common Council of Memphis on the 17th, in which he threatened that if they did not clean the city he would stoop the collection of taxes and do the work himself….
Pittsfield Sun, March 24, 1864.
[1] No, but he did bravely run away.
[2] As cited in PQCW.
[3] Probably slang for "physic," or laxative.
[4] Parts of this article are illegible.
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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