Monday, May 19, 2014

5.19.14 Tennessee Civil War Notes

19, "We have no spoons, knives, nor forks, but use our fingers, pocket knives & sharp sticks." Letter from G. W. Wharton of Cannon County, to his Uncle Daniel Weedon describing life at a Confederate camp of instruction in Middle Tennessee
May 19, 1861
Sunday Evening
Camp Cheatham Robertson Co.
Uncle Daniel,
I seat myself upon a pile of straw, blankets, knapsacks, etc., to write you the first lines since leaving home. We arrived at this camp on the railroad leading to Clarksville Friday evening -- pitched our tents among two or three thousand volunteers and are now spending a real soldiers [sic] life. We see nothing scarcely but volunteers and hear nothing but the sounds of drums and fifes and the usual noises of camp life.
Our camps are pitched about two or three hundred yards from the main encampment where we are to form another regiment. Our Company [sic] being the first one in the regiment which is Co. A 4th Regiment.
I will now tell you something about our fare. We are divided into messes of 8 men and our provisions are issued out to us. We have bacon, meal or flour, a little rice, potatoes, sugar, coffee & salt and then we can cook to suit ourselves.
You would have laughed to see me cooking supper this evening with my sleeves rolled up to my elbow and then washing our dishes after supper, such as tin pans, tin cups, etc. We have no spoons, knives, nor forks, but use our fingers, pocket knives & sharp sticks.
As to privileges we have scarcely any. We are bound up fast. We have a guard placed around our camp, which we cannot leave unless we go to the spring after water. The boys think it hard, but we cannot help it.
We cannot tell how long we will stay at this camp. It may be weeks, or even months. Time alone will tell, but as soon as our services are needed we will be off.
I could write you a longer letter, but [I have] no convenient place to write. I am writing this on my knee with a dim light and noise all around me and Mr. McCabe is to start to Woodbury early in the morning and will take this letter for me.
Please write to me and send it by McCabe, who will be coming back in a few days. Tell Cousin Joe to be sure to write me and give my love to her & Sally and Aunt Maria and accept a share yourself and also my friends at town (Woodbury). Bro. Sam has written to town and therefore I shall not say anything in this to them. If you can read this show it to mother or Jane or some of them and tell them I'll promise to do better next time. So goodbye [sic] at present.
G. W. Wharton
W. P. A. Civil War Records, Vol. 3, p. 9.
        19, The problem of panhandling girls in Memphis
Juvenile Beggars. – The presence of a number of little girls upon our streets for some time past, who are not only importunate for alms but annoyingly impudent, has been a source of much vexation to numbers of our citizens. We have frequently seen them follow persons for a square at a time, day after day, protesting their poverty and detailing their misfortunes, yet when offered employment in some gentleman's home, it has been invariably refused, upon some pretext or another. To give in such cases is not charity, however much we may be inclined to relieve want. Rose Conner, one of these juvenile lazaroni, was yesterday before the recorder, and fined five dollars and costs, which was readily settled from a purse well filled with the gleanings of importunate impudence.
Memphis Daily Appeal, May 19, 1861.


        18, Guerrillas arrested at Wartrace
Arrests at Wartrace
Wartrace, May 19, 1862.
Editor Nashville Union:
Dear Sir: On Sunday morning [18th] last, Major Gunkel, of the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry, with a detachment of his command, arrested the notorious and desperate Thomas Daniels, Captain in the Rebel army, and one of his Lieutenants, named McLaughlin, who had come home for the purpose of raising a guerrilla band of robbers and cut throats, and by their threats of hanging, forcing Union men to join them. They have threatened to hang and shoot every Union man that voted against Secession, and no doubt would have done so, as soon as they were in power. Too much praise cannot be accorded to major Gunkel for his prompt and energetic course in protecting Union men, and arresting such deep-dyed villains and assassins. A few more arrests of such men, and Wartrace and the surrounding country for twenty miles, will again be safe for Union men to live in.
Union.
Nashville Daily Union, May 24, 1862. [1]
        18, Andrew Johnson's terse advice to Horace Maynard about captured Confederates
NASHVILLE, May 18, 1862.
Hon. HORACE MAYNARD, Member of Congress, Washington;
Wood should be put in close confinement in some common jail; Capt. Harris of bloodhound notoriety with him. They should both be tried by a drumhead court-martial and hung at once. Morgan and his marauding gang should not be admitted within the rules of civilized warfare and that portion of his forces taken at Lebanon should not be held as prisoner of war. I hope you will call attention of Secretary Stanton to the fact of their being a mere band of freebooters.
All is moving on here as well as could possible be expected. I hope the Secretary of War will give the disposition of the prisoners from Tennessee to the Governor, secretary of state or such person as he may deem proper to indicate.
ANDREW JOHNSON.
OR, Ser. II, Vol. 3, p. 551.
        19, Mrs. Andrew Johnson delays her exile from East Tennessee
OFFICE DEPUTY PROVOST-MARSHAL, Elizabethton, Tenn., May 19, 1862.
Col. W. M. CHURCHWELL, Provost-Marshal.
DEAR SIR: A few days since I communicated with Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Carter in reference to their departure for the Federal lines. Col. Dan. Stover called on me yesterday and stated that Mrs. Johnson's health was still very poor with no prospect of improvement shortly if ever. I have consulted with several physicians who state that Mrs. Johnson is consumptive and to remove her will probably cause her death. She is very anxious to remain here with her children and is not at all desirous to go the bosom of "Andy." I called on Mrs. Carter a few moments since. Two of her children are a little sick now but will be well in a few days. She is anxious to go to her husband and if allowed to take a nurse she will go much more cheerfully. She says she won't go a step till her children get well enough to travel and till she is allowed to carry a nurse to assist her with the children. She prefers going by Cumberland Gap. I think Mrs. Johnson's health is not likely to improve; so if she has to go now is as good a time as any. These people are very quiet now. A great many gladly circulate false rumors in relation to Federal victories but I can't find out the originators of such stories.
* * * * *
Very respectfully,
W. M. STRINGFIELD, Deputy Provost-Marshal.
OR, Ser. II, Vol. 1, pp. 888-889.


19, A Chattanoogan announces his candidacy for the Confederate Congress.
Editors Rebel-Gents: You will please adorn your columns with my patronymic. I am a candidate to represent Arizona Territory in the next Confederate Congress. By recent act of Congress, I discover that I can be voted for by my grateful fellow-citizens at any point between Chattanooga and the port of Nassau. It is true, I am not a resident of Arizona, but I have frequently declared my intention to become a citizen of that loyal section. It is true, I have no claims upon that ground of having been thrown into a Yankee prison, but I have been in the county jails of the country several times previous to the war. Being a refugee, and with no other "visible means of support," I think there ought to be room enough in the Congressional halls for another "heavy member," and will serve at as low as "any other man."
Hon. Kwort Keg
Nashville Dispatch, May 29, 1863.
        19-24, "For my part I think I would have killed all, and taken none…." Six Day Scout by the 5th Iowa Cavalry
Just got home [Fort Donelson] this noon from a scout of six days. Had very fine weather, lost a horse from Co. A killed by the rebels. Lt. Batey of Co. M had his finger shot and his horse severely wounded. Also two men for Co. M severely wounded. Captured seven prisoners, killed none. For my part I think I would have killed all, and taken none, for I think a man that does not join the army but lies around in the woods watching an opportunity to shoot any man he sees wearing a blue coat is a murderer and ought to be treated as such. I think it will be the case hereafter with whatever guerrillas we catch hold of.
Was kept in pretty good health and out of all danger on the trip. Lord may I ever be truly grateful to Thee for thy goodness to me.
Alley Diary, entry for May 24, 1863
        19-June 2, Clement L. Vallandigham, anti-war Democrat from Ohio, convicted of sedition and sent south of Federal lines
WASHINGTON, [May 19, 1863.]
Gen. ROSECRANS:
The President has directed Burnside to send C. L. Vallandigham to your headquarters to be put by you beyond our military lines and that if he returns he be arrested and put in close custody during the war. The President also directs that when C. L. Vallandigham reaches your headquarters you keep him in close custody and send him beyond our military lines and that if the returns within your command you arrest and keep him in close custody during the war or until further orders.
By order of the President:
E. R. S. CANBY, Brig.-Gen. and Assistant Adjutant-Gen.
10 P. M.
Acknowledge receipt of this and report time when received is request of Gen. Canby.
MURFREESBOROUGH, May 19, 1863.
Brig.-Gen. CANBY:
Your telegram respecting C. L. Vallandigham received. The President's orders will be obeyed. Burnside must send with secrecy or he will be shot by some lawless person.
W. S. ROSECRANS, Maj.-Gen.
MURFREESBOROUGH, May 19, 1863.
Maj.-Gen. BURNSIDE:
The President orders me to receive C. L. Vallandigham from you at my headquarters and put him through our lines. Send him with great secrecy and caution or he will run the risk of a stray shot from some lawless person.
W. S. ROSECRANS, Maj.-Gen.
CINCINNATI, OHIO, May 19, 1863.
Hon. E. M. STANTON:
Vallandigham is still here under guard. Will not be sent till to-morrow. He is sentenced to confinement in Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, during the war.
A. E. BURNSIDE, Maj.-Gen.
WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, May 19, 1863.
Maj.-Gen. BURNSIDE, Cincinnati.
SIR: The President directs that without delay you send C. L. Vallandigham under secure guard to the headquarters of Gen. Rosecrans to be put by him beyond our military lines and that in case of his return within our lines he be arrested and kept in close custody for the term specified in his sentence.
By order of the President:
EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, May 19, 1863.
Maj.-Gen. ROSECRANS, Cmdg. Dept. of the Cumberland, Murfreesborough, Tenn.:
The President has directed Gen. Burnside to send C. L. Vallandigham to your headquarters to be put by you beyond our military lines and that if the returns to be arrested and kept in close custody during the war. The President also directs that when C. L. Vallandigham reaches your headquarters you keep him in close and send him beyond our military lines and that if he returns within your command you arrest and keep him in close custody during the war or until further orders.
By order of the President:
EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
OR, Ser. II, Vol. 5, pp. 657-658.

OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL-GEN., Murfreesborough, May 25, 1863.
Brig.-Gen. GARFIELD, Chief of Staff, Department of the Cumberland.
GEN.: As directed by the major-general commanding I proceeded at 11 p. m. yesterday with a guard of six men to the railroad depot and received the person of C. L. Vallandigham, a prisoners from the Department of the Ohio, conducted him to my office and after furnishing him with refreshments I in company with Col. J. C. McKibbin, aide-de-camp, and with two companies of the Fourth U. S. Cavalry as escort conveyed him to the house of Mr. Butler, five miles south from Murfreesborough on the Shelbyville pike, where the prisoner was kept under close guard until daylight when we proceeded as far as to our cavalry vedettes. Here the escort was halted and the prisoner left in charge of Lieut.-Col. Ducat, inspector-general of the department. Col. McKibbin and myself proceeded under flag of truce to the Confederate cavalry vedettes, when Col. McK. sent a note to the officer commanding outpost informing him of the object of our visit. We remained there nearly two hours when the officer in command (Col. Webb, Alabama cavalry) appeared and stated that Mr. Vallandigham would not be received under a flag of truce or in any official manner, but that if he were set beyond our lines and approached those of the Confederate Army to request admittance he would be received and treated as any other citizen.
Feeling that it was necessary to dispose of him within the rebel lines I insisted upon the permission and it was granted to take him within a short distance of their lines where I delivered him to an orderly sent from the rebel lines to receive him. In the presence of Capt. Goodwin and myself Mr. Vallandigham delivered himself up as a prisoner stating that he was a citizen of the State of Ohio and the United States of America.
I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
WM. M. WILES, Maj. and Provost-Marshal-Gen.
OR, Ser. II, Vol. 5, pp. 705-706.

Mr. Vallandigham, the Ohio traitor, started from here last night across the lines, on the Shelbyville pike. This was a good job, for if he passed here at day-light he would never escape, notwithstanding the good discipline of our army. The traitor is now among his friends, where we hope he may remain. Several members of different Ohio regiments were at the [Murfreesboro] depot this morning anxiously awaiting to see the traitor-but he was gone. He took a few bottles of "Robinson's county," and a trunk of clothing along, "good riddance to bad rubbish."
He was escorted nine miles from town by Major Wiles, Provost Marshal General; Col. McKibben, Lt. Col. Ducal, and two companies of the 4th Regular Cavalry. The escort was halted by our videttes and he was taken three miles beyond our lines by Major Wiles and Capt. Goodwin, where he was left at a house in charge of a rebel cavalry officer. He delivered himself up with the following expression:
"I am a citizen of the State of Ohio, United States of America. I have been sent here against my wish to your lines; I deliver myself up to you as a prisoner; do with me as you wish."
Nashville Daily Press, May 27, 1863.

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT No. 2, Shelbyville, Tenn., May 26, 1863.
Hon. C. L. VALLANDIGHAM, of Ohio, Shelbyville.
SIR: I inclose you the passport desired and congratulate you on your arrival in our land of liberty where you will find the freedom of speech and of conscience secured to all. Your sojourn amongst us as a private citizen, exiled by a foreign Government with which we are at war, will of course impose some restraints upon you which our people will fully appreciate. But I am satisfied you will ever receive the courtesy due your unfortunate position and the respect of all who learn the quiet and retired position you have determined to occupy.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
BRAXTON BRAGG, Gen., C. S. Army.
[Inclosure.]
SHELBYVILLE, TENN., May 26, 1863.
Mr. Vallandigham, the bearer, a citizen of the State of Ohio, is permitted to pass as any citizen of the Confederacy within the limits of this department.
BRAXTON BRAGG, Gen.
OR, Ser. II, Vol. 5, p. 958.

SHELBYVILLE, June 1, 1863. Gen. S. COOPER,
Adjutant and Inspector Gen., Richmond:
Hon. C. L. Vallandigham is here on parole. He was brought under guard by the enemy and abandoned in front of my lines with orders from his Government not to return under penalty of imprisonment for the war. Fearing assassination by a licensed soldiery he made his way to my outposts and surrendered as an alien enemy owing allegiance to the State of Ohio and the United States but exiled by the present Government for maintaining his civil rights as a freeman. He awaits orders but desires to make his way be the most expeditious route to Canada. I suggest a conference with him personally or by a confidential agent.
BRAXTON BRAGG.
(Copy sent to the President.
(S. COOPER.)
RICHMOND, June 2, 1863.
Gen. B. BRAGG, Shelbyville:
Your dispatch to Adjutant-Gen. received. Send Hon. C. L. Vallandigham as an alien enemy under guard of an officer to Wilmington where further orders await him.
JEFF'N DAVIS.
SHELBYVILLE, June 2, 1863.
JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of Confederate States:
Upon Mr. Vallandigham's earnest request he was permitted to go this morning to Lynchburg to confer with a distinguished friend of Virginia. He reports from there on parole to the War Department.
BRAXTON BRAGG.
OR, Ser. II, Vol. 5, p. 117.[2]


        19, Skirmish Dandridge
No circumstantial reports filed.
        19, "Relief for East Tennessee."
This noble work is still progressing. There has been received in this city about 400 tons of supplies, consisting principally of flour, corn, and bacon. Another cargo of 150 tons is expected this week. They are being forwarded at the rate of one car load per day. It is to be regretted that the agencies of the army for the past two months have prevented their more speedy shipment, but even at this rate, all has been forwarded except about 70 tons. Accounts from all parts of East Tennessee represent the people in great destitution, and agents sent from particular localities for provisions bring with them most undoubted evidence that unless relief can be procured within ten days, the people of those localities will be compelled to leave the country to save themselves from starvation. Every effort will be made to supply these districts first.
If supplies can be sent forward at present rates for two months, it will sustain the people until something can be raised from the soil, and thereby save them from the only alternative that would be left to the greater portion [sic], of forsaking their native land and all that is included in the word home, and undergoing a perilous journey to the North, in which many lose their lives. If they can remain at home upon their farms, they will soon be able to support themselves; if they are compelled to leave, they must sacrifice all their property and thro themselves, for a time, entirely upon the charities of the world. In the meantime, they are grappling manfully with the foe. Women and girls are to be seen with their hands to the plow, driving old poor horses, and in some instances poor oxen, the only dependence for teams. The people of the North may rest assured that they will ever receive the due return of gratitude at the hands of such a people, for the magnanimous assistance they are now rendering in the hour of need. We publish these facts for the information of all concerned, by order of the Nashville Refugee Aid Society.
David T. Patterson, Pres.
John M. Gaut, Sec.
Nashville Dispatch, May 19, 1864.
        19, "Opening [sic] of the Northwestern Railroad."
By invitation, a large number of influential gentlemen assembled at the depot of the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad at 6 o'clock on Thursday morning for the purpose of celebrating the opening of that important route to the west and northwest by a trip to the Tennessee river, a distance of seventy-eight miles.
Forty minutes having been consumed in storing away a car load of creature comforts for the inner man during the day, and making other necessary preparations, the word was given, and the train whirled away over the trestle work toward the beautiful Tennessee. Company C, tenth [sic] Tennessee infantry, Captain Philips, accompanied the party as a guard, and the brass band of the same regiment honored the occasion by discoursing airs patriotic, pathetic, and enlivening, at every station or stopping place throughout the trip.
Having got well under way, we took a survey of those composing the party, and recognized his recognized his Excellency Gov. Johnson, Comptroller Jos. S. Fowler, Col. Browning, His Honor the Mayor of Nashville, Recorder Shane, Hon. M. M. Brien, Attorney, Gen. Stubblefield, Gen. R. S. Granger and his Adjutant General Capt. Nevin, Col. Scully, 10th Tennessee Infantry, Cole Thompson, John Clark, and Fladd [sic], Capt. Maurice P. Clarke, W. S. Cheatham, Esq., E. B. Garrett, Esq., and many others.
As may be imagined, there was not much to attract attention on either side of the road, it being cut, for the most part, through a wild uncultivated country; yet the scenery was pretty and the air pure-a pleasure and a blessing always grateful to the denizen of a city. Newsom's place[3] is very near, and his substantial rock dwelling corresponds with the goodness of his heart, as well as his taste in industry. The road is an excellent one, and is well laid, the wheels gliding smoothly over it. There are numerous bridges of various dimensions, the trestle work of some being from fifty to eight seven feet high; the Harpeth river is crossed five times in a very few miles, some of the bridges being very long, and all of them well guarded by troops, some white, other black, infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and strong stockades and fortifications; one of the stockades, built by the tenth [sic] Tennessee Infantry, under the direction of Col. Scully, is the strongest, neatest, and best, we have ever seen.
For twenty five or thirty miles, much of the country is under cultivation, the soil being tolerably productive; but beyond that, until you reach Waverly, sixty seven miles distant from Nashville, there are only a few "clearings," and these chiefly in the neighborhood of the Irish settlement.[4] On reaching Waverley, a salute was fired by the first Kansas battery, under direction of Captain Terry, and everywhere on the road, when troops were stationed, the men were drawn up in review, with arms presented as the train passed.
At one o'clock we reached the Tennessee river, and all walked to the bluff for the purpose of feasting their eyes upon the beauties of nature with which that river abounds. On the opposite side is a dense forest, extending as far as they eye can reach; the water is smooth as glass, and all nature is hushed. At this point the river is 903 feet wide at low water mark, and there is at least four feet [of] water at all seasons of the year.
Nashville Dispatch, May 21, 1864.






[1] As cited in: http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts.
[2] See also: The Boston Herald, May 26, 1863.
[3] Newsom's Mill was constructed in 1862 of hand dressed limestone blocks which were cut from the Newsom quarry near the house. The house was destroyed in the 1960s by the Tennessee Department of Transportation when Interstate 40 was built. The mill's remains are part of a scenic river plan. See: National Register of Historic Places file for Newsom's Mill at the Tennessee Historical Commission, 2941 Lebanon Road, Nashville 37243.
[4] Today the town of McEwen, in Humphreys county. See: James B. Jones, Jr., "Ethnically Identifiable Colonies and Settlements in Tennessee, 1780-1940," Study Unit No. 8, February 22, 1988, pp. 8-9.State Historic Preservation Office, Tennessee Historical Commission, 2941 Lebanon Road, Nashville 37243. 

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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