Monday, April 14, 2014

4.14.14 Tennessee Civil War Notes

        14, A. A. Harrison's (Company D, 4th Regiment, Kentucky Cavalry Volunteers) letter home
Nashville, Tennessee April 14th, 1862
Dear Wife,
I take my pen in hand to write you again. I am well at present and all the boys from Hardin are well. I hope this letter finds you and the rest of the folks well. We are still at this place yet having been here ever since yesterday and I expect we will leave this place tomorrow for some place further south. We have not got arms yet except the old guns that I wrote about in my last letter and no prospect of getting any other kind. So I don't think we will go to where the main army is. But we will be left to guard our bridges or something of the kind. There has been a tremendous fight near Corinth, about 100 miles from here, and the Secesh got badly whipped as usual. They lost 40 thousand men. And our side lost from 15 to 20 thousand. The rebels fought ----- had to retreat and ----- our main army. We are further from the seat of war now than when we were at Bardstown. I was appointed quartermaster sergeant last Saturday. My wages now are 21 dollars a month. I am exempt from all kinds of duty except weighing out the rations to the companies and a good deal of writing although I have a good deal of leisure time. And I have to go to town every day as our camp is about 3 miles from Nashville. Our Colonel was thrown out today and a man by the name of Smith appointed in his place and also one of our doctors was discharged for drunkenness. I think there will be a chance to get a furlough in two or three weeks. Do not go too far ----- back. I would be very glad to see all of you and to stay with you if I could but I will have to be contented until I can come. I send you some more money in this letter. The whole sum of 10 cents. It is what they call southern scrip. This country is full of them of all sizes from 5 cts. to $1.00. And they are both sides are fixing for a big fight at Corinth but we will not be there if they fight very soon. We did hear today that the rebels were leaving Corinth but we don't know whether it is so or not. I am writing this by candle light in the quartermaster's tent. And the bugle has sounded for us to blow out our light. So I must bring my letter to a close. You must not fail to write as often as you can and trust to Providence that we may meet again soon to part no more.
A. A. Harrison
P.S. Tell Lissy if she don't [sic] write to me I sha'nt bring her a beau when I come home. Dear wife I could not write all I want to write in a week. If I could be with you I could find enough to talk about to last a month. But I will have to content myself to writing some of the most important things and leave the balance. I have got a very good office. It is nearly the same as keeping store. I can go where I please, stay as long as I please and sleep as long as I please. I do not have to drill or stand guard or go out on scouting expeditions. In fact I am in very little danger if the whole does not get killed or taken prisoner. We cannot hear of any rebel troops nearer this place than Corinth which is 110 miles from here. Just as currant [sic] here as silver. This is a pretty country here and everything is earlier than in Ky. The trees are all green and now some of the leaves are nearly as large as my hand. The dogwood trees are out in full bloom and other things in proportion. The weather was very hot the day we got here. I thought it was hot enough for July but it has been cooler since until----- getting hot again. There is a lot of corn planted down here and some of it coming up. You must write as often as you can for I would like to hear from you every day if I could. So nothing more at present but remaining your affectionate husband until death.
A. A. Harrison
Absolom A. Harrison Correspondence

        14, Special Agent D. C. Donnohue to Secretary of the Interior, C. B. Smith, relative to problems encountered in obtaining cotton seed
Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee
April 14, 1862
Hon. C. B. Smith
Secretary of the Interior
Washington City, D. C.
Dear Sir,
I arrived at this place on the 6th Inst. Just as the fight commenced – have not been able to get the cotton seed aboard the boats on account of the confusion occasioned by the fight and unless our army moves at an early day I will have to change my location and look for more peaceful regions I have an awful supply in this neighborhood if they can only be gotten –
I forwarded the first shipment according to your directions – I fear they will all be planted to [sic] soon – and be lost as cold spring weather destroys the growth of the cotton – Cotton is seldom planted here before the first of May – I will write you again in a few days – I have written some of the incidents of the fight as I witnessed the most of it –
Your [sic]
D. C. Donnohue
Letters of D. C. Donnohue.


        14, "We call the attention of the Council to the importance of making all teachers take the oath, female as well as male." Meeting of the Nashville City Council
Resolutions before the City Council, Public Schools, etc.
The resolutions subjoined were laid before our City Council by Capt. Driver, at their meeting on Monday (14th) evening last:
Resolved, That the Mayor of the city of Nashville be, and he is hereby requested and instructed to have the flag of the flag of the United States placed upon all public property belonging to this corporation.
Resolved, That the Board of Education are hereby required during the present week to take the oath of office taken by ourselves and other officers of this city or resign.
Resolved further, That the Superintendent, together with every male teacher in the city of Nashville, shall be, and they are hereby requested to take the oath of allegiance prescribed to us, within five days from the passage of this resolution, or resign their respective positions.
Resolved, That we cordially thank the officers and soldiers of the United States for the unexampled kindness and courtesy hitherto extended to our fellow citizens, and that, as men striving together with them for the re-establishment of the government of our fathers, we pledge them our most sincere and hearty co-operation.
Resolved further, that for hospital purposes and for barracks, the Federal authorities be permitted to have access to hydrants without charge.
We publish these resolutions for the purpose of giving them our hearty approbation. They are eminently just and proper, and are so expressed as to give no cause of offence to any one who is not a bitter enemy to his country. The resolutions which are of the greatest importance are the two in reference to our Public Schools. Indeed we cannot conceive of any question within the wide range of legislation which so deeply concerns the welfare and proper moral culture of our children, and therefore of the very stability and happiness of society itself, than that which embraces in its scope the education of the young. In Sparta, in Athens, in Rome and the Jewish theocracy, as well as in the enlightened nations of Europe, patriotism and loyalty have been ordered by legislation to be instilled into the minds of the young by those who had charge of their education. A school-room is the last place to be polluted by the step of a traitor to his or her country. We would as soon send a son or a daughter of ours to a gambling house or a brothel to have their minds and morals formed as to a school controlled by a rebel and a traitor. Away with such teachers of the young! We regret that the resolution does not include female as well as male teachers. The omission should by all means be supplied. Of the two we regard female rebel teachers as the most dangerous. A short time before the arrival of the Union troops at this place a female teacher in the Hume School in this city, was in the habit of making her pupils sing a song whose stupidity, wretched rhyme and rhythm, and treason were all alike abominable. Here are two verses of it:
"Oh have you heard the joyful news?
Virginia has Old Abe refused,
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!
Virginia joined the Cotton States,
The news of which each heart elates
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!
We'll die for Old Virginia,
Hurrah! hurrah!
Virginia joins the Cotton States,
The news of which each heart elates
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!
We'll die for old Virginia!
* * * *
Ah! the stars and bars we'll fling on high,
And for our homes we'll fight or die,
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!
Our cause is right, our quarrel just-
In the God of battles we will trust,
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!
We'll die for old Virginia,
Hurrah! hurrah!
We'll die for old Virginia.
Our cause is right—our quarrel just—
In the God of battles we will trust,
Hurrah! hurrah!
We'll die for old Virginia.
And so on through four long tedious, dreary, stupid verses of idiotic reiteration. The teacher who would introduce such trash into a school of young children, deserves an immediate discharge on the ground of in competency. We call the attention of the Council to the importance of making all teachers take the oath, female as well as male. And some of them should be dismissed without being required to take the oath. The subject is one of momentous importance. Let the work be done thoroughly and promptly.
The resolutions in reference to the Union officers and soldiers are well merited compliments to their chivalry, generosity and magnanimity. Every word in them is deserved.
Nashville Daily Union, April 17, 1862.



        14, "We have the medical supplies at the Purveyor's office, but can not have them distributed to the different commands without bottles." Confederate women provide bottles to the Eighth Tennessee Regiment of Tennessee Volunteers
FROM THE EIGHTH TENNESSEE.
Hd-Qrs Med Dept., 8th Regt. [sic] Tenn. Vol. [sic]
Camp near Tullahoma, Tenn., April 14, 1863
Mr. N. O. Wallace:
Sir – Please permit me to return my sincere thanks, and the thanks of the Dep't, to the following named persons for the valuable contributions of vials and bottles to me for the Medical Department of Wright's Brigade, Cheatham's Division:
Mrs. Thos. Phelps, 8 vials and bottles; Miss Sue Robertson, 12; Mrs. J. S. Bedford, 8; Mrs. Alex Edens, 12; Mark Whitaker, 5; Mrs. James Holman, 3; Mrs. Felix Waggoner, 20; Mrs. Wm. Tulley, 10; Mrs. T. P. Green, 30; Mrs. E. J. Motlow, 25; Mrs. B. H. Berry, 10; Mrs. M. A. Dance, 30; John A. Motlow, 15; Mrs. Thos Shaw, 6; Mrs. S. Hinkle, 7; Mrs. John Bird, 12; Mrs. Mary Price, 3; Miss E. Blythe, 6; Mrs. S. J. Green, 14; Mrs. J. W. M. Dance, 21; Mrs. Wm. Stone, 1; Mrs. Susan Dusenberry, 6 – making the respectable aggregate of 357.
Much good might be accomplished in this way. We have not the glassworks in the Confederacy and can not get the bottles and vials except from our homes, and unless we obtain them or soldiers in the field will suffer for the needed medical supplies. We have the medical supplies at the Purveyor's office, but can not have them distributed to the different commands without bottles.
Nearly all families have bottles and vials throwing around and being broken up – save them by all means, for I fear we shall have to call on the people of Lincoln county again before the war is over, and I am sure I have ever found them ready and willing to do all in their power to aid the soldiers who are battling for the rights of the South. Lincoln county has almost fed the Army of Tennessee for four or five months, and if she has half a chance will be ready to winter the army again next winter.
Go to, my Lincoln – bad name, but a good county, true and loyal to the South.
Very respectfully,
S. E. H. DANCE, Surgeon 8th Reg[iment]'t Tenn. Vols.
Fayetteville Observer, April 23, 1863.


        14, Bacon solicited in Knoxville
BACON WANTED.
Subsistence Department,
Knoxville, April 14, 1863
I wish to purchase a large amount of good Bacon. If desired, a portion of salt will be exchanged at the cost price to the government.
Parker Campbell, Captain & A. C. C. S.
Knoxville Daily Register, April 18, 1863.






14, Steadfast Union Women in Confederate Shelbyville
Loyal Women of Tennessee
The Shelbyville (Tennessee) Rebel Banner mourns over the prevalence of Unionism in that section, giving the following facts as evidence:
"Recently, when the Van Dorn prisoners[1] reached this place, and were put into the Court House Square, scenes followed which surprised even those who were aware of the Lincolnite character of the neighborhood. Ladies assembled in wagons and other  vehicles from the surrounding country, accompanies by creaking baskets, emitting savory odors of all kinds. Tables were spread in the public square, and the baskets and buckets disgorged their gustatory wealth. Roast turkey, chicken, pig, biscuit, butter, pickles, preserves, cordials, pies, the whole catalogue of delicacies unknown to our army, were spread out in the noonday sun, and greedily devoured by the blue-coated rabble that Van Dorn had taken; all under the management of the Union-loving ladies, who lavished upon them-besides all possible evidences of heartfelt sympathy and admiration-smiles, tears, God-blessings, kerchiefs waving and all that It is not to be denied that most of the Rebel spectators looked on perfectly aghast. The lamp of
Alladdin [sic] never produced anything more startling than did this advent of the Van Dorn prisoners in Shelbyville, State of Tennessee.
Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, April 14, 1863.




        14, Juvenile delinquency in occupied Nashville
"Recorder's Court."
* * * *
Twelve boys, arrested by the military on Thursday [14th], were then called up, charged with disorderly conduct and vagrancy. The following are their names: William Taylor, of Baltimore, John Ryan, of Washington, D.C., arrived here three days ago with the eleventh army corps. Jas. McClusky, of New York, came here a few days ago, with the 14th Michigan; Jno. Burns and Joseph Merker, of Louisville, who say they have been driving teams; Charles Henry Anderson, of Philadelphia, who came here with the 15th Pennsylvania cavalry; Hugh Muray, of Michigan; Louis Evans, of Philadelphia; Thomas Moran, Charley Talman, and Edward Wade, of Nashville; and Tom Watts, of nowhere in particular. These boys vary in age from eight or nine perhaps to sixteen, and are about as hard a looking dozen as can well be picked up anywhere. Mr. Cliff, a Government watchman at the Chattanooga depot, deposed that [the] defendants were all the time idling about the depot, day and night. They had taken wagon bodies and fixed up a house to sleep in; they had been in the neighborhood for several weeks-perhaps months. On Thursday they were very troublesome, and witness ordered them away; defendants laughed at him, and he went for the guard, when they began pelting him with mud. Witness has seen them eating on the streets; does not know where they belong. Two or three other witnesses were examined, one of whom said the boys generally slept in wagons [in the] back of the camp; he had caught several of them stealing, and identified four of those present as among the guilty parties. All of them were ordered to the work-house for future disposition. What will be done with them we cannot say, but we would suggest that all who do not belong to Nashville be sent home, consigned to the Mayor or Chief of Police of the town whence the came, who will no doubt see that they are properly disposed of. With regard to our own boys, it is difficult to suggest any plan of reformation under existing circumstances; but we present this as another evidence of the necessity of a house of correction for juveniles. Some of the bad boys of Nashville have very respectable parents, whose hearts are nearly broken in consequence of the disgrace brought upon them by the conduct of their children, who are grown beyond the control of their parents, and roam the city a large, night and day. Something must be done to reform these boys, and that very speedily, or we shall be overrun with burglars, and thieves, and incendiaries, or our own raising. A lodgment in the work-house for a day or two is no punishment to most of them. The fare better there than when sleeping in wagons or in depot sheds. Try them in the dungeon for forty-eight hours with nothing to eat by bread and water; it may serve at least a temporary check upon their wicked life.
* * * *
Nashville Dispatch, April 16, 1864



[1] Perhaps taken at the skirmish between Steedman's command and Van Dorn's command near Franklin, March 5, 1863.

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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