Monday, September 8, 2014

9.8.2014 Tennessee Civil War Notes

        8, Continued Federal bombardment of Confederate works, and construction of boats to ferry artillery across Tennessee River, Chattanooga environs

HDQRS. FIRST BRIG., FOURTH DIV., 14TH ARMY CORPS, Camp opposite Friar's Island, September 8, 1863.

Brig.-Gen. HAZEN, Comdg., Poe's Tavern:

GEN.: I have been firing for some time this morning. Find the works occupied by a small force--say 150 or 200.

The river at this point can be forded easily; the current is very swift, however. The boat building on the creek will be finished by daylight to-morrow and will carry one gun and caisson. I am satisfied that this is the point at which a crossing should be made. They have no artillery in their works to-day. The position can be carried with but little loss, I think.

Yours, respectfully,

J. T. WILDER, Col., Comdg.

P. S.-The pontoons at Chattanooga are taken to pieces this morning.

J. T. W.

HDQRS. FIRST BRIG., FOURTH DIV., 14TH ARMY CORPS, Friar's Island, September 8, 1863.

Brig.-Gen. HAZEN, Poe's Tavern:

GEN.: I have the Seventeenth Indiana (dismounted) on Friar's Island. They crossed in boats without discovery. It is now too late to cross the river. I propose to make a dash and carry the works at daylight with the Seventeenth Indiana, supported by the Seventy-second Indiana, on horseback, across the ford, they covered by the Forty-first Ohio and battery on this side of the river. I very much desire to have all four of my regiments here, and at any rate reconnoiter the country as far as Tyner's Station, and perhaps go into Chattanooga, if not driven back. To do this I will need my whole command, so as to cover my recrossing, in case I am forced to do so. If you will send me eight companies, leaving two companies for vedette duty, I will try it. I believe there is but one regiment to oppose my crossing; there may be more. It may be necessary to await rising of the log. [sic]

Yours, respectfully,

J. T. WILDER, Col., Comdg.

P. S.-Send me all the information you can to-night.

J. T. W.

OR, Ser. I, Vol. 30, pt. III, pp. 464-465.

        8, Confederate anti-guerrilla patrol, skirmish with "Tinker" Dave Beatty's band

Excerpt from the Report of Col. John M. Hughs, Twenty-fifth Tennessee Infantry, Dalton, Ga., April 28, 1864[1], relative to attack on "Tinker" Dave Beatty, September 8, 1863

* * * *

On the 8th September, we attacked Beatty's band of robbers, killing 8 and routing the balance.

* * * *

OR, Ser. I, Vol. 30, pt. II, p. 647.

        8, Two reconnaissances ordered, to Lookout Mountain via Nickajack Trace, and Lookout Mountain to Summertown

No circumstantial reports filed.

Excerpt from the October 1, 1863 report of Major-General Thomas L. Crittenden, U. S. Army, commanding 21st Army Corps, relative to orders for two reconnaissances to Lookout Mountain and Summertown:

* * * *

September 8.-Gave orders to make two reconnaissances to-morrow morning [9th]; the one up Lookout Mountain via Nickajack Trace, and for which Gen. Beatty and his brigade were detailed, the other up same mountain to Summertown, for which Col. Grose, and three regiments were detailed, both to unite if practicable on top of the mountain, and to start at or before day on the morrow.

* * * *

OR, Ser. I, Vol. 30, pt. I, p. 602.

        8, Confederate evacuation of Chattanooga completed

No circumstantial reports filed.

Excerpt from the October 1, 1863 report of Major-General Thomas L. Crittenden, U. S. Army, commanding 21st Army Corps, relative to Confederate evacuation of Chattanooga.

September 9.-At 2.20 a. m. received dispatch from the general commanding the army, approaching the two Reconnaissances ordered, and directing that the whole command be held in readiness to move round the point of Lookout Mountain to seize and occupy Chattanooga in the event of its being evacuated; to move with caution and not to throw my artillery around the point of Lookout Mountain till I am satisfied that the evacuation is not a ruse. Should I occupy Chattanooga, I am to order Gen. Wagner and all his force across to join me.

At 5.45 a. m. further dispatches from department headquarters, apprising me of the evacuation of Chattanooga and ordering that the whole command be pushed forward at once with five days' rations, and to make a vigorous pursuit. This latter dispatch was too late to stop the Reconnaissances ordered, but I lost no time in putting the balance of the command in motion and arrived at Chattanooga with Gen. Wood's division at 12.30 p. m., having taken peaceable possession of same.

* * * *

At 2.15 p. m., received further instructions from department headquarters ordering me to leave a light brigade to hold Chattanooga, and with the balance of my command to pursue the enemy with the utmost vigor....

OR, Ser. I, Vol. 30, pt. I, pp. 602-603.

 

 

        8, Lady Godiva's Nashville carriage-ride

"Disgusting Sight"

On Thursday [8th] afternoon last, at about six o'clock, the good citizens of Cherry 'street, from Cedar to Broad, as well, doubtless, many others, were treated to a sight so loathsome, abominable and insufferably disgusting, that it would be allowed no mention in our columns, were it not to call forth the effective arm of our corporation law and authorities to prevent the repetition of a similar occurrence. A fleshy, (truth will not permit us to say fair) fille de joie [sic], whose sense of modesty seemed wholly to have been merged in the large development of her physical charms, entirely nude from her waist heavenward, in an open hack, drove rapidly up Cherry street. She was attired in a deep red dress, a jaunty hat trimmed with red, and reminded us of (we intended to quote Shakespeare about Patience sitting on a monument, but "in order to suit the times: we will say) she reminded us of a conflict of arms in the ocean of blood. As she passed the Maxwell Barracks[2], the hundreds of soldiers both in and near it, set up a lusty and continuous shout of admiration and she was carried past the Post Office building on an enthusiasm so wild and hearty that it can, as the novelists say, "better be imagined than described." We have somewhere seen the expression "there is a pleasure in being mad, which hone but madmen feel." There may be a pleasure to these frail daughters of humanity in thus airing in the grateful evening air, but it is a pleasure we would fain believed shared in by none other than themselves. Against such indecency we enter the grave and indignant protest of ourselves, and in the name of our good citizens, and for the sake of our pure women, we earnestly hope our city authorities will promptly and rigidly see that this disgraceful and degrading spectacle shall never again stain the fair name of our good city, we think that the women who thus exposes to, and pollutes the public view with her disgusting nudeness, should be fined and punished to the full extent of the law.- We think the hack driver who engages in such a business, would have his licensee taken from him, his horses and carriage confiscated, himself fined to the fullest extent, and, as a just finale to the whole affair, be sent to work for ninety days.

Nashville Daily Press, September 10, 1864.[3]

        8, Suggested Resolutions Made in Chattanooga for Consideration at the Nashville Union Convention

Meeting of Delegates to the Nashville Convention.

A portion of the East Tennessee delegation to the Union Convention to be held at Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday the 5th day of September, 1864, met at the Baptist Church in Chattanooga on the 3d day of September 1864. Mr. Thos. B. McElwee was called to the chair, and R. Henderson appointed Secretary. The Hon. D. C. Trewhitt explained the object of the meeting, when a committee to draft and present a set of resolutions expressive of the views of the delegates present, was appointed.

The committee retired, and after a brief absence returned, and through James R. Hood, made the following report:

Resolved, 1 That, nearly every rebel in Middle and West Tennessee, as well as in East Tennessee, having sworn they would hereafter bear true allegiance to the Government of the United States, and oppose those in arms against its authority, and by virtue of this oath claim all the privileges of the most honored loyal men; we believe that if they are loyal they should show it by fighting as well as swearing, and to the end that all classes and each division of the State should contribute a due proportion of soldiers to the nation's armies, we urgently recommend the Military Governor of this State to order an enrollment of the militia of the State, including the male negroes, and by enlistment or draft fill up the State's quota under the recent call of the President for five hundred thousand troops,.

2. That the executive, legislative and judicial officers of this State having committed treason to the people of the State and of the Nation, by making war on both alike, and left us without the blessings of peace, and the privileges of civil law, we hold that the loyal people of the State-the friends of the Union and the enemies of the rebellion-should avail themselves of their inherent rights set forth in the Bill of rights of Tennessee, and should assemble in Convention and revise the Constitution and the laws of the State, so as to make them applicable to the condition of things produced by the enemies of the Union, and therefore invite Andrew Johnson, military governor of Tennessee, to call a convention of the people in their sovereign capacity, the election for delegates to which to held on the-----day of October, and the delegates to meet in the capital on the-----day of October, 1864.

3. We hold that the restoration to the people of the rights and privileges of which they have been ruthless robbed by traitors is a trust of too sacred and honorable a character to be entrusted to any but those who are friendly to the Government, and, therefore, without reference to any test oaths, we hold that none should be allowed to participate in the election of members of the convention, who are known to be favorable to the success of the rebel armies.

4. As citizens of a State claimed by Jeff. Davis as a part and parcel of his confederacy, we have seen with humiliation and alarm the evidences of an intention on the part of the so-called Democratic party, in its recent action at Chicago, to recognize the independence of the Southern Confederacy, and thus brand as tories the twenty-five thousand Tennesseeans now wearing the uniform of the United States service, as well as every man who voted against secession in June, 1861, when Democrats and Republicans alike promised to stand by us and protect us if we would stand by the old flag against the rebels.

5. That, in the election of delegates to the Convention of the people we hold that the Tennessee soldier, being deeply interested in, and having sacrificed more for the United States Government than any other class of our citizens, should be allowed to cast their votes in their camps, if they shall not be able to attend the polls in their several counties.

6. We hereby endorse the  nominations of Lincoln and Johnson for President and Vice President of the United States, as being the only National ticket before the people, and as the only candidates emphatically pledged to an overthrow of the military power of the rebels, and the re-establishment of the authority of the Government over every State in the North and South alike; and we are in favor of the nomination by the convention at Nashville of a full electoral ticket pledged to cast the vote of Tennessee for Abraham Lincoln for President and Andrew Johnson for Vice President.

7. In 1861, when the secessionists were inciting the people to insurrection because of alleged danger to the institution of slavery, we warned them that disunion would be the death of slavery, and now that our predictions have been verrified [sic], we blame the rebels themselves and not the Government on the slavery question; and will support no man for the convention not pledged to the unconditional and immediate emancipation of the slaves in this State.

8. That all wrongs or injuries done to persons of property or citizens or other persons in this State, by unlawful and unauthorized persons, the several statutes of limitation in this State should be declared not to have or in any way operate as to bar the remedy of any such injured parties to sue and recover for the same; and that such injured persons should have the right to sue and recover for all such injuries now, or at a time after the permanent re-organization of the State, as though such injuries were just committed.

All the Resolutions were adopted save the 3d. Some discussion arose on the 3d Resolution, which was participated in by Hon. D. C. Trewhitt in opposition, and James R. Hood in favor. At the close Elbert A. James offered the following in lieu of the 3d Resolution:

Resolved, that the Governor of Tennessee in the issuance of the Proclamation throw such restrictions around the ballot-box, as will exclude all persons from voting in said elections, who may have voluntarily borne arms in the Rebel army, and who may have voluntarily aided or assisted directly or indirectly the cause of the Rebellion, desiring the supremacy of the same, and the subversion of the same, and the subversion of the Federal Union.

The committee then voted on the resolutions and adopted the Resolution of Mr. James in lieu of the 3d Resolution offered in the committee. The Resolutions were then adopted and the meeting adjourned.

THOS. B. McELWEE, Pres.,

R. Henderson, Sec.

Chattanooga Daily Gazette, September 8, 1864. [4]

 



[1] This report was made eight months after the fact.

[2] This was the Maxwell House Hotel.

[3] The system of licensed prostitution had been in effect for a little over a year in Nashville.

[4] GALEGROUP - TSLA 19TH CN The date of this citation indicates this story was published three days after the Union Convention convened in Nashville, or the date of the paper is incorrect. Nevertheless, the rancor with which Unionist Tennesseans viewed erstwhile Confederates is evident in these resolutions.


James B. Jones, Jr.

Public Historian

Tennessee Historical Commission

2941 Lebanon Road

Nashville, TN  37214

(615)-770-1090 ext. 123456

(615)-532-1549  FAX

 

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