Sunday, June 16, 2013

6/16/13 Tennessee Civil War Notes

16, Ten pins, mineral water, the Raleigh hotel and fresh air

Raleigh Mineral Springs!

The Springs have been placed in fine condition, and are now offered to the public as a balm for many of the ills to which flesh is heir.

A partial analysis of the waters shows the presence, in happy proportions, of Iron, Magnesia, Sulphur, Alumina, Sodium, etc., etc., all admirable adapted for the relief of persons afflicted with derangements of the bowels and stomach, as well as affections of the skin.

These Springs are different from any heretofore known in this vicinity, being discovered last summer on the north-west, and in the town of Raleigh, Shelby county, Tennessee.

A beautiful Pavilion adorns the ground, and a splendid Tenpin Alley affords healthful amusement to the visitors.

P. M. Stanley, late of Memphis, has charge of the springs, and having refitted and put the Raleigh Hotel in good repair, is now ready to accommodate all who may seek health or desire a pleasant sojourn in a country village.

This is a fine place for the families of soldiers in service. Charges reasonable.

P. M. Stanley.

Memphis Daily Appeal, June 16, 1861.

 

 

 

 

16, Ex-Governor of Tennessee Neill S. Brown's[1]comments against the war, Confederacy, cotton burning and conscription

A Voice from Tennessee. The late governor of Tennessee, the Hon. Neil[l] S. Brown, who earnestly assisted secession when it was first threatened, has been fired by a sense of duty to himself to denounce it as a dead failure, and to hold up the measures which have been resorted to to maintain it as inhuman and disgraceful. A single extract from his speech at Columbia, Tennessee, on the 2d instant will suffice:

["]I want this war stopped! Whose heart has not dropped blood that has a son in the Southern army? I know something of that unspeakable sorrow. Think of this, you who stay at home and bluster about whipping Yankees and establishing a Southern Confederacy. Let us stop this wanton, hopeless war. I would say this now, even though I had been in the habit of eating fire five times a day. It is ruining us. The rebels are burning up the cotton. Why, in the name of reason, why? Don't it impoverish the people and the government? Don't it kill their credit and their banks? Don't it ruin our hoped abroad? Then his conscription law. I will not swallow it until I swallow aloes, gall, and wormwood. It is a base fraud upon those brave boys who had enlisted for a year, and who were packing their dear mementoes of home in their knapsacks when this infamously tyrannical law came to arrest them on the eve of their departure and drive them back, in violation of all faith, into the hardships and suffering of a soldier's life.["]

Lowell Daily Citizen and News (Lowell, MA) June 16, 1862

 

 

 

 

16, Skirmish in Powell Valley, 15 miles from Jacksboro, Tennessee

SOMERSET, June 19, 1863.

Gen. STURGIS:

Col. Reily, of the One hundred and fourth Ohio, telegraphed from Mount Vernon that some of the men who were with Col. Gilbert say that he and Col. Sanders passed through Big Creek Gap at 2 p. m. on Tuesday [16th], and went into Powell's Valley. They had a slight skirmish 15 miles this side of Jacksborough. I am sending orders.

S. P. Carter, Brig.-Gen.

OR, Ser. I, Vol. 23, pt. II, p. 439.

       

 

 

 

16, Execution of a Federal soldier for desertion near Murfreesboro

The...day which afforded me the opportunity of witnessing one of the most solemn scenes known to mortals was the hottest one that had yet occurred in the season.

Early in the day our Division was marched out to a large field and placed in the form of a hollow square with one of the lines of the square left vacant.

Hundreds of spectators were on the ground to witness the execution, and but for the nature of the scenes that were about to take place I could have relished much better the imposing appearance of the Brigades as they respectively moved on en masse into their respective positions. After waiting a considerable time the ambulance supposed to be conveying the prisoner hove in sight accompanied by the Provost Guard: but judge of our surprise when as they approached nearer we saw the prisoner, entirely unsupported, walking with a firm and steady step between two of the guards, and seeming entirely unaffected by thought of the trying ordeal through he must directly pass, and the bare thought of which had already made me almost sick. Oh awful thought-to see a man who was soon to pass the broad gulf that separates Time from Eternity, and who will soon enter the dread uncertainties of the awful Hereafter, and there to live by the past and not the future: and yet he appears so little concerned. Before leaving Headquarters and when the officer of the guard proposed to place him in an ambulance; [sic] he remarks "O no, I think a walk will make me feel better."

The guard entered the square and commenced to make the circuit of the whole of the inner columns. The prisoner closely attended by guards and supported by Lieutenant. Pipkin (Co. A) and Chaplain Smith proceeded immediately by his coffin, and accompanied by the solemn tones of the band playing the "Dead March" and with his head slightly bowed but with a firm step followed around the whole square without the least faltering in his step. I took one glance at him and turned heartsick from the scene, anxiously contemplating the awful scene that must follow, and which I would be almost compelled to witness.

The Circuit completed and the prisoner placed about the center of the open side of the square, a short prayer was uttered by the Chaplain and thus the prisoner was secured to his coffin in a sitting position and the twelve were marched up a short distance in front of him and brought to a front.

I involuntarily turned my eyes away from the scene and waited several seconds which seemed like hours, of the most tormenting suspense when the almost death-like silence was broke by one of the poorest and most irregular volleys I ever heard, and a glance toward the prisoner told me he was no more. As I stood a moment as if in breathless suspense and then a long breath apparently from each one broke the spell of suspense and immediately we were deployed and formed into columns of companies and marched in this order over by the spot where the victim lay and then filed off toward the camp.

A great many executions of this kind occurred during our stay in Murfreesboro....

Boy in Blue, pp. 166-167.

 

 

 

16, "Progress."

Anything in relation to the progress of Nashville is interesting to the citizen, and especially to the property holder; hence we devote a few lines occasionally to noting the improvements going on around us. In densely populated cities it is not unusual to see every inch of private property turned to profitable account. Notwithstanding there is much waste ground within the corporate limits of Nashville, people are crowding the business portion of the town in a manner truly surprising. Alleyways, hallways, front gardens and yards, are being or have been built upon; but the last evidence of prosperity may be seen at the Louisville and Nashville depot; where some enterprising fellow has set up a grocery and confectioneryunder the tank! [sic] Ice cream saloons and whisky shops abound all over the city, the whisky especially, the weary traveller being able to accommodate himself in any street in Nashville with comforts for the inner man.

Nashville Dispatch, June 16, 1864.

       

 

 

 

16, A Case of disorderly conduct in the Nashville Recorder's Court

* * * *

Nancy Knight and Florence Jenkins were charged with disorderly conduct. Mrs. Prope said that Florence and another woman went to her house with a pin dress and a bottle of whisky on, and that about twenty men came piling after her at night. Both discharged.

Nashville Dispatch, June 16, 1864.

       

 

 

 

16, The Refugee Situation in the Knoxville Environs

This part of East Tennessee is now left to the mercy of the rebel bush-whackers and guerrillas--who are robbing the women and children of what little Longstreet's bands of thieves did not deprive them. Old gray-haired men are fleeing from their homes to the Union lines to seek protection; and such of the women and children as are able to stand the long, fatiguing journeys on foot--such things as horses or vehicles of conveyance of any kind having long since been appropriated by the rebel authorities--even to old blind horses. We saw and conversed with many refugees who arrived in Knoxville at or about the same time we did, whose description of affairs in these unprotected counties is of the most awful and heart-rending nature.

Nashville Daily Union, June 16, 1864.[2]

 

 

 

 

16, Surrender of guerrillas at the house of Gabriel Maybury, in Hickman County, Tennessee

HDQRS. U. S. FORCES, Franklin, Tenn., May 18, 1865.

Maj. B. H. POLK, Assistant Adjutant-Gen. District of Middle Tennessee:

SIR: Pursuant to instructions from district headquarters I have the honor to report that I left Franklin, Tenn., on the 15th under flag of truce with an escort of fifty men belonging to the Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry and proceeded to the house of Gabriel Maybury, in Hickman County, Tenn., for the purpose of receiving the surrender of Capt.'s Duvall, McNairy, Cross, and Miller, who were chiefs of guerrilla bands in that vicinity. I arrived at Maybury's about 11 a. m. on the 16th instant and shortly after my arrival I received a note from McNairy, requesting me to inform him upon what terms he could surrender himself and command, also requesting me to designate a place at which to have a personal interview. I wrote him that the same terms accorded to Lee by Gen. Grant would be extended to him, and designated the proposition to meet at Mr. Dean's, and at 1 o'clock the interview took place. After he fully and they were at once paroled by Lieut. Bracken, assistant provost marshal Department of the Cumberland. The command consisted of three captains, five lieutenants, and forty-eight men. I would take occasion to state that they had undoubtedly made some preparations for the surrender, from the fact that they had eight horses, fourteen saddles, and twenty-one old muskets, carbines, and pistols to turn over. They claimed to belong to the Confederate army, and had an order from Gen. Forrest to organize a battalion for his command. McNairy and Cross expressed a desire to leave the United States, but said they would do all they could, while they remained, to restore peace to the country.

I am, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. B. NULTON, Maj. Sixty-first Illinois Infantry, Cmdg. at Franklin.

OR, Ser. I, Vol. 49, pt. II, p. 832.



[1] 1847 to 1849.

[2] As cited in: http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts.


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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