Friday, June 21, 2013

6/21/2013 Tennessee Civil War Notes (first day of summer)

21, Excerpt from the report of the movements of the 7th Louisiana Regiment through Chattanooga to Knoxville; "…anything but a hospitable reception."

….The route beyond Chattanooga our troops had been fired upon by some of the disaffected in Eastern Tennessee. Powder and ball were distributed among the soldiers…to be prepared for any emergency. At Chattanooga we me with anything but a hospitable reception. True, it was the Sabbath, yet the hotel, and almost every place else in the town refused to sell or furnish us with anything in the eatable and drinking line. Even water was refused. We found the place highly tinctured with abolitionists. The keeper of the railroad hotel, by name Crutchfield, is, as we are informed, very hostile to the Confederate troops, and it was with difficulty that our men were prevented from cleaning out the town. From Chattanooga to this place [Knoxville] we found all the dangerous points on the railroad protected and guarded by an armed force….No Union flags are now displayed in Knoxville….

The [Louisiana] Tigers preceded us and left their marks in almost every place.  Even in this town they amused themselves by greasing and feathering and riding on a rail an unconscionable nonseparatist who refused to sell…anything to them and I find in my stroll through the town their course was highly approved of….

New Orleans Picayune, June 21, 1861

 

 

 

 

21, Excerpt from a letter to Andrew Johnson from Absalom H. Markland relative to Union loyalty in Memphis

Post-office, Memphis Tenne.

June 21st 1862

Memphis is beginning to assume a healthy, loyal appearance -- business is reviving and the people look more cheerful. Everything is encouraging to the lovers of law and order....A little nerve and bone liniment freely administered to some rampant individuals & West Tennessee is fully redeemed....

[Provost Marshal] Colonel [James R.] Slack who is in command of the city know how, and when, to turn the screws so as to make loyalty set will on the unruly....

Papers of Andrew Johnson, Vol. 5, pp. 494-495.

 

 

 

 

21, "I do say I never imagined people could live so." A class conscious Confederate aristocrat visits mountain folk near Beersheba Springs

* * * *

Yesterday we rode out to see some of the "mountain people." I do say I never imagined people could live so. One house was clean – but everything seemed to be dropped just where they were done using it, and left there until they wanted to use it again. Somehow I never conceived of anything so wholly untidy and uncomfortable….Mrs. Armfield said these people were the "aristocracy" of the mountain and she took me to see them as a curiosity. The strangest thing to me was that they showed not the slightest embarrassment, but appeared to think themselves all right, and just a good as anybody living. At Walker's we found a young soldier home on furlough and it was astonishing to see how the service had improved him, and how much better he appeared than his surroundings.

War Journal of Lucy Virginia French, June 22, 1863.

 

 

21, Bushwhackers vs. Brigadier General E. L. Paine in Middle Tennessee

Brig.-Gen. E. L. Paine is settling the bushwhackers who have been unsettling Middle Tennessee so long, had having killed about 75 last week. He had nine shot on the public square in Lynchburg, Lincoln county, and several in Fayetteville. Among the number that had been killed was one Massey, who is said is a Brigadier-General C. S. A. He superintended all the guerrilla operations in Middle Tennessee. General Paine told the citizens if they wanted to fight the Government to go and join the rebel army under Joe Johnston. He further told them if they staid inside the Federal lines they might think secesh, feel secesh, die hating the government, and go to h__l hating it, but they should neither talk treason nor act it. If they did, he told them he would make them houseless, homeless and lifeless, as he had determined to kill every bushwhacker that he caught. The 5th, 10th and 12th Tennessee cavalry were with Gen. Paine, and did the handsome for the bushwhacking rebs. The 5th still remember the "calf killer" massacre[1], and are avenging it terribly.

Chattanooga Daily Gazette, June 21, 1864. [2]



[1] On the 22nd of February 1864, Captain John M. Hughs, Twenty-fifth Tennessee Infantry (C. S. A.) "met a party of 'picked men' from the Fifth Tennessee (Yankee) Cavalry, under Capt. Exum [on Calf Killer Creek]." The 5th cavalry, according to Hughs' report, had earlier "refused to treat us as prisoners of war, and had murdered several of our men whom they had caught straGALEGROUP - TSLA 19TH CN  ling from their command." The fight at the Calfkiller creek was a desperate one, the Confederates being greatly outnumbered 110 to 60. According to Hughs, the "fighting on our part was severe in the extreme; men never fought with more desperation or gallantry. Forty-seven of the enemy were killed, 13 wounded, and 4 captured; our loss was 2 wounded." Hughs was a recruiter for the Confederate army and found himself cut off from the 25th.OR, Ser. I, Vol. 32, pt. I, pp. 55-57. This was apparently the "calf killer" massacre. Hughs' forces were not regular army troops, but local men under his command. The 5th evidently killed without delay anyone they chose to identify as a bushwhacker, seeking revenge for the "calf killer" massacre.

[2] TSL&A, 19th CN.


James B. Jones, Jr.

Public Historian

Tennessee Historical Commission

2941 Lebanon Road

Nashville, TN  37214

(615)-532-1550  x115

(615)-532-1549  FAX

 

No comments: