Wednesday, July 2, 2014

7.2.14 Tennessee Civil War Notes

        2, Governor Isham G. Harris reports to Confederate authorities relative to the strength of the provisional army of Tennessee
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Nashville, July 2, 1861.
SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of joint resolution adopted on 29th ultimo by the Gen. Assembly of the State of Tennessee,[1] according to the provisions of which I hereby tender to the Confederate States the provisional army of Tennessee, and propose to have them mustered into the service of that Government.
The provisional army of Tennessee is composed of twenty-two regiments of infantry, two regiments of cavalry, ten companies of artillery, engineer corps, ordnance bureau, &c., commanded by Maj. Gen. Gid. J. Pillow, Maj.-Gen. Anderson, Brig.-Gen.'s Zollicoffer, Cheatham, Foster, Caswell, and Sneed. The infantry fully armed and equipped ready for the field; part of the cavalry armed with revolvers and sabers, the balance with double-barrel shotguns, and all well mounted. No field batteries completed yet; a sufficient number in progress for such of our artillery companies as will not be in command of our stationary batteries on the river. Tennessee makes this tender with the hope that is will be accepted by Your Excellency, and, with perfect confidence that if it is, the Confederate States will at all times defend her soil from invasion.
Very respectfully,
ISHAM G. HARRIS.
OR, Ser. IV, Vol. 1, p. 417.


        2, Sanctimonious economic news from Memphis
FROM MEMPHIS.
By late arrivals from Memphis, we learn that many of the trading speculators from the Northern cities, who came down to that city to gather wool, will, in all probability, return shorn. Thus far they have found a very dull market for their god and wares, and some cargoes have returned without being unloaded. We hear of one dealer who brought down from Cincinnati a stock costing him fifteen hundred dollars, and who is now desirous of disposing of the same for one thousand dollars, when he will be willing to “play quits.”
These gentry find no disposition on the part of the people to trade with them, and even is such disposition existed, there is no currency in the city or country to buy with, the Federal authorities having placed the ban upon our Confederate notes.
This is just as it should be, and we sincerely hope that our people everywhere, will deny themselves rather than trade with the grasping Yankees, who are using every effort to subjugate and devastate out country. Let them learn as they advance that their victory over us is a barren one; that the people of the South are governed and controlled by a higher impulse than that contained within the circumference of a dollar, and it will not be long before they are brought to a realizing sense of utter futility of waging upon us further this war of conquest and subjugation.
Memphis Appeal.
Macon Daily Telegraph, July 2, 1862


        2, General Braxton Bragg joins the Protestant Episcopal Church
Gen. Braxton Bragg has joined the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was confirmed a few days since at his quarters in Shelbyville, The Rt. Rev. Bishop Elliott, of the diocese of Georgia, officiating.
The above item, which appeared in the Mercury of the 15th, is not exactly correct. Gen. Bragg was not ‘confirmed at his quarters.’ On Tuesday evening, June 2, after evening prayer, in the church of the Holy Redeemer, Shelbyville, Tenn., Gen. Bragg received the Apostolic rite of confirmation at the hand of Bishop Elliott.
The service was not private, as has been stated in some newspapers. Gen. Polk and staff and a respectable congregation were present on the occasion.
Yours truly, C. T. Quintard, Chaplain 1st Tennessee Regiment.
Shelbyville, Tenn., June 18, 1863.
Chattanooga Daily Rebel, July 2, 1863.[2]
        2, Bragg issues General Orders No. 18, relative to refugee policy
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 18. HDQRS. DEPARTMENT No. 2, Tullahoma, Tenn., June 2, 1863.
The enemy has seen fit to expel from his lines and send to our midst not only those supposed to be guilty of crimes, but non-combatants found at their homes in the peaceful pursuits of life. In the perpetration of these outrages on humanity, and these violations of civilized warfare, he has prostituted the flag of truce to the base purpose of protecting the guards who drive forth these exiles. Hereafter that flag will not protect those guards, but they will be seized and sent forward to be treated as spies or prisoners of war, as the circumstances in each case may require.
By command of Gen. Bragg:
H. W. WALTER, Assistant Adjutant-Gen.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 23, pt. II, pp. 858-859.


2, GENERAL WASHBURNE
The loyal men of Memphis commened [sic] in the strongest terms the manner in which General WASHBURNE [sic] has administered the very difficult and responsible duties of his position since he assumed control of the city. He may have erred-as who would not-in particular cases where conflicting testimony and rival interests are constantly demanding adjudication, but although loyal men may feel the hardship of having trade and business prostrated by the closing of the lines, yet we have not yet met a single truly loyal man who does not accord to Gen. WASHBURNE [sic] honesty of purpose, ability in the performance of his official duties, and untainted loyalty.
Memphis Bulletin, July 2, 1864

        2, “The First Duty of our Authorities,” a plea for public sanitation in Memphis
We hope that our public officers will at once recognize the necessity for prompt sanitary precautions to prevent the outbreak of epidemic diseases in our city. The weather during a portion of the day is excessively hot, averaging 90 degrees in the shade, and with an unusually large population, many of whom are crowded into badly ventilated residences, and have few needful opportunities for bathing or cleanliness, there is danger that, with the utmost care by our authorities, there may be an unusual number of diseases during the present summer and fall, and this danger will be alarmingly greater if measures are not promptly taken to remove the abounding sources of malarious and other poisons. Our streets are, perhaps, not as thoroughly clean as they should be, but our greater danger is from the collections of bilge and stagnant water along our wharf. To this subject attention is specially directed, as immediate action may prevent much loss of life.
Memphis Bulletin, July 2, 1864.
        
2, Smuggling in Memphis; tricks of the trade
A dead mule belonging to a Memphis citizen, was being hauled out of the lines the other day, when a bayonet thrust revealed the fact that the carcass contained 60,000 percussion caps, a quantity of ammunition, and other contraband articles, which some Rebel sympathizer had taken this means of smuggling. [3]
Nashville Dispatch, July 2, 1864


         July 2, 1865 “Loafing was necessarily my occupation for the remainder of the day.”
I did not write yesterday because I did not feel very well enough. Early in the morning I felt badly, but cleaned up the house and arranged everything (with the assistance of brandy and laudanum). I had scarcely got everything put to rights…when G. Purvis came in – who remained until after dinner [sic]. I kept up – took brandy and laudanum severaltimes – but just as dinner was over I felt my head reel, and on pretense of calling the children in, I rose and left the table. It was as much as I could do to get up and to bed cleverly. I was deathly sick and faint and racked with pain. More brandy and laudanum[4] and campfire [sic] and so on and in about an hour I felt better. Loafing was necessarily my occupation for the remainder of the day.
War Journal of Lucy Virginia French, July 3, 1865


[1] See May 7, 1861, Tennessee forms a military union with the Confederacy above.
[2] As cited from the Charleston Mercury, June 15, 1863.
[3] One novel manner of smuggling contraband out of Memphis was described by Elizabeth Avery Meriwether. While having surreptitiously returned to the city after she had been exiled by Union authorities, she called on a friend, Mrs. McAllen, and the following conversation ensued:
”At any rate,” she said, “stay here with me until that dray yonder passes by.” I looked in the direction she indicated and saw two men approaching on a dray on which lay the carcass of a dead horse. When the dray stopped in front of the Federal pickets Mrs. McAllen clutched my arm and I felt her tremble. I was mystified. I could not understand why she would be so interested in two dray drivers and a dead horse. We saw the officer of the Picket Post approach the dray and we heard him ask the drivers where they intended taking the dead horse.
“Anywhere we can put him,” returned one of the men. “Nobody seems to want a dead horse dumped near ‘em. Everywhere we’ve started to dump him somebody’s kicked up a row.”
“Guess you’ll have to take him out into the country,” said the officer. And thereupon the two men drove on.
Mrs. McAllen watched the dray disappear down the road, then she turned to me, a look of great relief in her eyes.
“Did you recognize the men on that dray?” she asked, I told her No, that I had never seen them before. “Oh, yes, you have,” said Mrs. McAllen. “You know them both. One of them is Captain McAllen and the other is my brother Ben.” Mrs. McAllen laughed when she saw my look of astonishment and incredulity. “Sounds crazy, I know it,” she continued, “but it is true. Capt. McAllen came into Memphis disguised as an Irishman. That is a red wig you see on his head. He came partly to see me and partly to get a view of the forts and forced about Memphis. I have been in mortal terror every minute since he came here. You know they would hang him as a spy if they caught him.”
“Yes, I know that,” I answered. “Thank God they are now past the lines.”
“But they are not out of dangers,” said Mrs. McAllen. “I won’t breathe easily until they are through the Confederate lines. What did you think of that dead horse?”
“Think of it? What do you mean?”
“I mean don’t you think that a fine idea?” My brother Ben thought of it. That horse is stuffed full of quinine, shoes, sock, gloves and other articles our soldiers need. Ben heard of a dray man with a dead cow who was ordered to drive it beyond the lines out into the country, so he bought a poor old skeleton of a horse and let it die of starvation – cruel to the poor old horse, wasn’t it? But our soldiers do need quinine and clothes so badly; Ben said he would kill a dozen horses to help them.”
It was a successful subterfuge.
See: Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, Recollections of 92 Years: 1824-1916, (Nashville: Tennessee Historical Commission, 1958), pp. 148-149. Perhaps the insistence of the Federal authorities to rid the city of dead animals for the sake of public health lead to this successful kind of ploy.
[4] One begins to deduce that Lucy Virginia French had become addicted to opiates to cope with the stresses of war. 

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