Monday, August 19, 2013

8/19/2013 Tennessee Civil War Notes

19, Report on the Pedagogical Crisis in Nashville and Environs
On account of the condition of affairs in the South, the colleges and schools of the section have nearly all been broken up. Very few indeed are continued, and these few cannot last many weeks. We see that in some places most extraordinary and disreputable means are resorted to for keeping literary institutions alive. For instance, a gentleman and his wife at the head of sort of seminary at Nashville announce, in an appeal to the public for support, that they will carefully indoctrinate their purpose in the principles of secession that the boys and girls shall read secession speeches, receive secession counsels, sing secession songs, and unite in secession prayers. We presume that even secessionists will scorn such a pitiful mode of school electioneering as that.
Nearly or quite all of the young women of the non-slaveholding States engaged recently as teachers in schools and private families in the South have been deprived of employment, and one of the worst features of their case is that a good many of them have been sent off without their pay. We have learned this fact from the lips of some of them passing this city. They were even glad to be able to make their escape as they did.
Louisville Journal, August 19, 1861. [1]



19, A cautionary tale concerning Nashville women as spies
Dialogue Founded on Fact.
Characters—Two She Rebels.
Madam Highflyer—Oh, my dear Mrs. Beauregard I am so charmed and exstatified to meet you this beautiful morning. How do you do, and how are the sweet little children?
Mrs. Beauregard—Children, fudge! What time have I to think about the tiresome brats or husband either, when I am busy flirting with Lincoln shoulder straps!
Madam H.—You flirt with Yankees! Why, my dear Mrs. Beauregard, you astonish me. How can you stoop to notice the nasty, low-bred vermin?
Mrs. B.—Oh, you simple! Don't you see I have an object in it? Now, don't you know that when I get one of the greenies on my sofa, and dose him with a little wine, that he begins to fancy that I am the cleverest lady in the world, and then, with the least quizzing, makes me his confidant, and tells me all the military secrets? Why, you may be sure that the next morning when I apply for a pass, which I am sure to get, I have a real budget of news to carry out to Morgan's messenger, who is in waiting for me at our friends' house.
Madam H.—My dear sister, what a cunning angel you are. Nobody but a born Yankee would have contrived such a trap. And to see how nicely the silly flies walk into the spider's parlor! Oh, brave; this is really excellent! What a sweet love of a bonnet you have got on this morning. What is your fancy for having two red roses and one white one over in front?
Mrs. B.—Stupid again, eh? Don't you see the emblems of Dixie?
Madam H.—Lord, Yes. I'll run straight and have mine trimmed in the same way. Are you going to Church to-morrow?
Madam H. [sic]—No; my preacher is in the Penitentiary. Besides, Heaven and the Savior are pretty well played out. I am for Jeff. Davis and Dixie. Yonder comes two of those dirty soldiers. I'll make a mouth at them.
Mrs. B.—And I'll hoist my linen!
[Exuent ambo.]
Nashville Daily Union, August 19, 1862.



19, "The Oath of Allegiance."
Yesterday [19th] the office of the Provost Marshal presented a scene calculated to invigorate the loyalty and inspire the patriotism of even Col. Swayne. Throughout the entire day numbers of the country people from around Memphis kept dropping in for the purpose of voluntarily [sic] taking the oath of allegiance to the Constitution and the Union. The day's business in this line amounted to one hundred and fifty men putting themselves as emphatically on the side of loyalty. We need scarcely say that this is encouraging, it is more. It shows very plainly that these men have no faith whatever in the success of the Mississippi Repudiator's ambitious scheme of disunion, and furthermore that they are determined to resist his robbing bands of Goths and Vandals who have been committing depredations within a few miles of the city. That they may do this successfully we respectfully suggest the propriety of furnishing each one of them with a Sharpe's rifle.
Memphis Bulletin, August 20, 1863.



19, "Military Commission, Department of the Cumberland."
Lieut. Col. Wm. M. Wiles, 22nd, Ind. Vol. Inf.
 " " Jas. J. Davidson, 73d, Ills. Vol. Inf.
Capt. Thomas Lewis, 59th Ohio Vol. Inf.
 " Thomas J. Rhodes, 60th Ills. Vol. Inf.
First Lieut. E. B. Belding, 1st Ohio Light Artl'y.
Second Lieut. H. C. Blackman, 8th Kansas Vol Inf., Judge Advocate.
A. G. Davis, Clerk
----
A somewhat interesting case was tried lately by the Military Commission, viz.,: that of George H. Whitehead, what was charged with the crime of perjury. It appears that John S. Rossin was killed on the 26th of July, 1863. On the 20th of August, 1863, Whitehead was arraigned before a Military Commission convened at Clarksville, Tenn., tried upon a charge of willful murder, and sentenced to be hanged. The finding was referred to Gen. Rosecrans, who disapproved of the sentence, and ordered the prisoner to be released. Cornelius E. Peacher was arrested in November, 1863, and tried for the murder of Rossin, in April, 1864. Whitehead being called as a witness, he testified that he killed Rossin; that Preacher had nothing whatever to do with it, except in being in his company; that he (Whitehead) fired all four shots, and that Peacher did not fire any at the deceased.
Whitehead was subsequently arraigned upon a charge of perjury, before the Military Commission sitting in this city. Jordan Stokes, Esq., was associated with the Judge Advocate in the prosecution, and Judge Jo. C. Guild and Gen. John E. Garner appeared for the defence.
Objection being made to the jurisdiction of the court, and overruled, the trial was proceeded with. Some of the witnesses for the prosecution swore positively that Whitehead fired two shots, and the Peacher fired two-the third and fourth, the latter giving the fatal wound; while Whitehead in his testimony in the Peacher case, swore that he had fired each of the four shots. In this he was supported by Peacher, who swears that he fired neither of the shots; by Sugg Fort [sic], Thomas H. Sugg [sic], and James T. Williams, who swore substantially to the same state of facts. The characters of these persons for truth and honesty, were proved to be as good as anybody's, but witnesses of undoubted good character.
The case was argued with much earnestness on both sides, the evidence analyzed, and the witnesses severely handled.
Nashville Dispatch, August 19, 1864.



[1] As cited in PQCW.

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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