1861
22, "No less than two hundred and eighty-five persons are employed, of whom two hundred and thirty are females." A visit to the Confederate saber factory in Memphis
Manufactory of Ammunition.—By the kindness of Mr. Trezevant, we were yesterday admitted within the Confederate Government saber manufactory, on the south-east corner of Monroe and Third streets, over which establishment we were obligingly shown by the efficient superintendent and inspector, Lieut. Sengstack. On mounting to the immense room up stairs, we found four large tables ranged from end to end of the room, and at these tables two hundred and fifty women and girls, principally young girls, were busily engaged in the labor of preparing cartridges. The paper is rapidly passed round a stick, giving the required shape and size, then three buck shot and a bullet are placed at the bottom of it and held in their place by threads neatly and quickly tied round them. These are passed to others, who, placing a small funnel into the top of the paper tube deposit within, from a small measure, the required quantity of gunpowder. Others folded up the end of the paper and the cartridge was completed. Ten cartridges are next tied together in a package, and a given number of them are packed in a box, marked and certified as inspected, when they are ready for army use. So efficient is this department that already as many as seventy-five thousand cartridges have been turned out in one day. We need scarcely observe that every precaution is used to prevent explosion. Smoking is prohibited, matches are excluded, iron is as far as possible banished, and the men who have to pass along the room wear slippers. Beside cartridges, fixed ammunition, (consisting of powder and ball, so arranged as all to be placed in the cannon together) fuses for bombshells, rockets, signal lights, friction tubes for cannon, and other combustibles and implements are manufactured. These branches are carried on in a building entirely separate from that in which the cartridges are at work. At the distance of half a block from either of these departments, is the casting house, where round and minnie rifle bullets are cast in large quantities; over two thousand pounds of lead are moulded most days. In giving employment, the widows, wives, and families of soldiers, have the first preference. The women are paid four dollars and a half a week, the girls three dollars; when by extraordinary industry a certain number per day are made, a dollar a day is given. No less than two hundred and eighty-five persons are employed, of whom two hundred and thirty are females. The wages paid amount to over seven hundred and twenty-five dollars per week. What is most remarkable about the laboratory is the celerity and quietude with which it has been got into successful operation. Less than three weeks ago the place was filled with hay and other material, no magazine was built, no implements, seats or conveniences were there; now, owing to the energy of Col. W. R. Hunt and Lieut. Sengstack, hundreds of work-people are toiling and ordnance stores are ready to be put on trains or boats at the shortest notice; cannon-balls of various sizes, shells, canister, grape and other shot are packed ready for immediate transportation.
Memphis Daily Appeal, June 22, 1861.
22, Meeting of the Southern Mothers announced
Southern Mothers.—The weekly meeting of the society called by the president in view of the pressing necessities of the many sick soldiers in charge, will take place on Monday morning (instead of afternoon,) at nine o'clock. The Chelsea society are invited to attend. Between forty and fifty of the Arkansas regiment now in camp near the city, are in the charge of the society at their rooms, or at the residences of members. Members wishing to redeem their pledge to nurse the soldiers of the patriot army, will find now a fine opportunity of doing service to the country, by going to the Southern Mothers rooms, corner of Second and Union streets, and nursing the suffering sons of the South, or removing them to their homes, and attend to them there as true Southern Mothers.
By order of the president.
Mary E. Pope, Secretary.
The next meeting will take place in the parlors of the secretary, Mrs. Pope.
Memphis Daily Appeal, June 22, 1861.
1862
22, Depredations committed by a Federal reconnaissance[1] passing through McMinnville
The "reconnoissance in force" which we had thought were moving on to Chattanooga – went only 38 miles across in the direction of Pikeville, and then returned. I presume they were in reality hunting Starns [sic] – it is said they heard he was up here in the mountains somewhere, fortifying – and they came to dislodge him. They pressed everybody's horses, mules, wagons, etc. to carry them on, some of which were returned to the owners – others were not. They tore up everything at Mr. Betty's – broke all the furniture – ruined the garden and even tore to pieces Mrs. B's clothing. They searched our neighbors Spurlock's [sic] house 2 [sic] times – took all their meat, and Mrs. S's jewelry. They broke into the "groceries" and literally rifled them (a very good thing by the way). On Tuesday evening the long train passed again – going back to Murfreesboro, and Shelbyville. Some of them came for corn on Monday night, and while Darlin' was giving them the corn they stole a bridle, and Cooper's curry-comb and horse brush. On Wednesday morning Willie French came down to tell us they took "Bob Hatton" about midnight the night previous. Darlin' was advised by his friends to go on after the horse and he left for Woodbury about 11 o'clock. On Thursday I had a note from him, but Mr. B. to Wartrace or Shelbyville. On Friday Mary Armstrong was here and gave me a full account of the raising of the "old flag" in our town on Tuesday before the troops left. She – her mother, and sisters and aunt, and the Misses Clift and their mother were all the ladies present. The officers made speeches and the ladies sent them bouquets and compliments in the usual orthodox manner. This week with its excitements has broken in considerably on the children's lessons. I did not intend that it shall be so again – if I can possibly avoid it. Everything goes on as usual now, the negros [sic] work on in their common way – and I think this inroad of the Yankees has done good in one respect at least – it has shown the negros [sic] very plainly that the war has been made on purpose of freeing them. They have found too from those who have tried Yankee masters and life in the army, that such a life is not exactly the state of perfect beautitude [sic] which it has been represented to be. Darlin' arrived at home about 10 o'clock last night – very tired. He had been to Woodbury – Murfreesboro and Wartrace. Dr. Armstrong accompanied him – he got "Bob Hatton" and brought him up to Mr. Bargon's. He says he was very courteously treated by the Federal officers. I was so glad to have him at home again-not that I felt afraid during his absence – but anxious I certainly was. This is a lovely day but warm. Everything is very dry, for we have had no rains for 3 weeks past, and my flowers and the garden begin to show the effects of it. This morning I went up on the hill with the children after black-berries-the first of the season. The road was dusty – and as Jessie walked through it she asked "ma did God make us all out of this kind of dust?" On Friday I happened to ask Puss what day of the week it was? "Why mamma" said Jessie, as if in great surprise, "ain't you a big enough girl to know what day it is?" She evidently thought that knowledge is a question of age only. I have not been to church for several Sabbaths-thinking it best for us to remain at home in these unsettled times. Next week I must try to have some sewing done, as well as the children's lessons attended to punctually and thoroughly.
War Journal of Lucy Virginia French.
22, Correspondence Regarding Desecration of Union Soldier's Graves in Franklin
Franklin, Tenn., June 20, 1862.
Editor of the Nashville Union:
In your paper of the 13th inst.,[2] is an article referring to the violation of the graves of federal soldiers by the ladies of this town, in which you said you had waited to see some refutation of the charge, and that a denial of the statement never had been made. Such a denial you might have seen long ago, had the editor of the Louisville Journal, in which paper the scandalous charge first appeared, been possessed of a single feeling of justice or common honesty. I wrote to him on the first day of the present month, giving him a plain statement of the case, and asking him to publish my letter. He has never done so. Similar false charges have been made against the citizens of various towns in the south, most of which have proved to be false, many of them being branded by the Federal officers themselves. The Journal made similar charges against the people of Winchester and Front Royal, and in that paper of the 17th inst., on the first page, is an article stating that those charges were base lies. Three other letters besides my own were written to the Journal, denying these charges, and yet he has persisted in not publishing any, thus showing that he had some motive besides a love of truth in publishing such scandal.
Now, sir, I think this war has enough of horrors, full enough to make the heart ache and bleed, and quite too much that is calculated to foster hatred and ill-feeling without resorting to any such lying reports of barbarity, and hence I propose to prove to you that the people here are not all heathens; and I will give you the facts in the case alluded to also.
I heard the speech of Col. Campbell, and went the next morning, as did hundreds of others, to see if his statement was true. Not a single grave had been trod on, and this was plainly shown by a crust upon the fresh earth, caused by a slight shower soon after they were made, which crust was entire and unbroken, with a single exception. This was the grave of a soldier, who died at the house of a citizen. This grave had been leveled off and some flowers and twigs planted on it by some little girls who had known him on his sick bed. It may have been done roughly, but it was the honest tribute of their innocent hearts, and deserves the highest praise. This was all that was visible about the graves, and Col. Campbell was notified of the facts by the Mayor of the town and the Sexton of the grave yard, and asked to go and see for himself. He promised to do so, but never went. Col. Campbell made the charge, honestly no doubt, but upon false information, and he ought in common justice to have corrected it.
I said I would prove that we were not all heathens, and I will do it. The following card appeared in Our Old Flag, a paper published by the 69th Ohio, (Col. Campbell's regiment,) and is dated on the same day of the Louisville Journal, in which the charge appeared:
["]Franklin, May 28, 1862
Many, in fact nearly all, of those referred to in this card are ladies, many of them secessionists as I know. They forgot their politics, and the prejudices natural to those who look upon the soldiers as their enemies, and only saw in the sick and suffering fellow creatures who needed their aid, and they freely gave it, yet in the articles referred to all are branded as demons and capable of the most heinous crimes. I tell you, sir, and I ask you to publish it to the world, that the ladies of Franklin have as great a horror of such a crime as you or anybody can have, and they would detest the perpetrator as a criminal, unworthy of society. In no place in the south has the army sick or well received more respectful and kind treatment, and every honest soldier that has been stationed here will tell you so. If needs be, I can prove the truth of what I have told you by dozens of witnesses, and in conclusion, ask you in the name of common justice to publish this letter.
Respectfully,
Nashville Daily Union, June 22, 1862.
ca. 22, Confederate expedition to Soddy Creek[3]
No circumstantial reports filed.
KNOXVILLE, TENN., June 17, 1862.
Brig. Gen. D. LEADBETTER. Cmdg., &c., Chattanooga, Tenn.:
Pickets below the mount of Hiawassee report the enemy on the other side building boats 2 miles up Soddy Creek, and also at Clift's old mill, a mile up Sale Creek. Send a cavalry force up there.
J. F. BELTON, Assistant Adjutant-Gen.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 16, pt. II, p. 689.
KNOXVILLE, TENN., June 21, 1862.
Brig. Gen. D. LEADBETTER, Chattanooga, Tenn.:
Col. Howard at Charleston reports the enemy in large body up Soddy Creek. He had 1 man killed and 1 taken prisoner in attempting to get their boats. Can you not take immediate measures for the destruction of these boats?
J. F. BELTON.
KNOXVILLE, TENN., June 21, 1862.
Brig. Gen. D. LEADBETTER, Chattanooga, Tenn.:
When expedition goes to Soddy Creek destroy Clift's saw-mill and all lumber and boats there.
By command of Maj. Gen. E. Kirby Smith:
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 16, pt. II, p. 695.
ca. 22-25, Federal railroad patrol guards stationed at Crockett, Trenton, and Rutherford Stations, and reports of Federal depredations against civilian population
HDQRS. SECOND BRIGADE, FIRST DIVISION, CENTRAL ARMY OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Trenton, Tenn., June 26, 1862.
Brig.-Gen. QUINBY, Comdg. District of the Mississippi, Columbus, Ky.:
GEN.: I have the honor to report my arrival at this point yesterday [25th] with the First Kansas Regt. [sic], Seventh Wisconsin Battery, and four companies of Sixth Illinois Cavalry. I have divided the Sixty-second Illinois Regt. [sic] into three detachments and stationed them with a small cavalry force at Crockett, Kenton, and Rutherford Stations, with instructions to clear the weeds off the track between the stations, and also guard every bridge and trestle-work from Big Obion to and 3 miles south of Rutherford Station.
Gen. Mitchel has ordered me to remain at this place with the balance of my command for the present. He refused to assign the Fifteenth Wisconsin Regt. [sic], Col. Heg, to my brigade temporarily, as required by instructions from your headquarters at Columbus, dated June 13, 1862.
The Second Illinois Cavalry, Eighth Kansas Regt. [sic], and Second Kansas Battery leave this a.m. [26th] from Humboldt.
I was compelled to halt for nearly three days at South Fork of Obion River [22d-25th] in order to send some teams back to Union City for supplies.
I will send in a consolidated report of my command in a few days.
I feel it my duty, general, to inform you that the people complain bitterly of the outrages committed by a portion of Gen. Mitchell's brigade; they are charged with jayhawking horses, negroes [sic], &c., from Union and disloyal citizens indiscriminately.
At Union City a foraging party under command of Capt. Parrott, formerly a member of Congress from Kansas, arrested Rev. Mr. Koyle, a Union citizen of that locality, and were about to rob him of his mules and buggy, when he told them that he was then in charge of a funeral. They abused him very much, called him a d____d liar and broke open the coffin, and on discovering that it contained a corpse they told Mr. Koyle to go to hell with his d____d secession corpse. Capt. Parrot did all he could to restrain the fiends, but failed. He reported the facts to Gen. Mitchel, who declined to take any notice of the case. I have heard of other outrages equally atrocious perpetrated by these wretches. They ought to be punished or mustered out of the service to which they are a disgrace.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
GEO. W. DEITZLER, Col. First Kansas, Comdg. Brigade.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 17, pt. II, pp. 34-35.
1863
22, Skirmish at Powell Valley [see June 14, 1863 – June 24, 1863, "Sanders' Raid in East Tennessee," above]
No circumstantial reports filed.
22, Skirmish at William's Gap
Dyer's Battle Index for Tennessee.
22, Action in Powell's Valley [see June 14, 1863 – June 24, 1863, "Sanders' Raid in East Tennessee," above]
No circumstantial reports filed.
22, Capture of U. S. Mail by Morgan's forces near Dixon's Springs, between Gallatin and Carthage
No circumstantial reports filed.
LEXINGTON, June 22, 1863--10.55 a. m.
Gen. BURNSIDE:
Information from [Brig. Gen. Henry M.] Judah, from Gallatin, and from Rosecrans all concur that rebels under Morgan, about 3,000 or 4,00 strong, crossed the river near Rome. They captured part of the mail guard from Gallatin to Carthage. At Dixon's Springs private mail captured; public mail escaped.
A party is reported crossing at Celina also. Judah has two scouts of 250 men each, which will receive information that is definite. Shackelford is notified, and Judah will move one of the brigades to Scottsville, the other to Tomkinsville [sic], keeping up communication between them; he will thus be able to turn in any direction. The Eleventh Kentucky has arrived at Carthage. My principal fear is for that place. Rosecrans may send assistance. Will keep you promptly informed of movements there.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 23, pt. II, p. 442.
22, Scouts, Gallatin to Kentucky [see June 22, 1863, "Capture of U. S. Mail" above]
No circumstantial reports filed.
22, Confederate Governor Isham G. Harris' call to arms at the meeting of the Confederate Nominating Convention held in Winchester [see also March 18, 1862, "Tennessee's Confederate Draft Law" above]
EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Chattanooga, Tenn., July 24, 1863.[4]
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, War Department:
SIR: Immediately upon the receipt of your requisition of [June 6] for 6,000 men for local defense and special service I issued the inclosed proclamation, under which a large number of companies were being organized when the Army of Tennessee, fell back from Shelbyville to the line of the Tennessee River, leaving all of Middle and West Tennessee within the enemy's lines, and cutting off the companies which were being formed in these division of the State. At present we have access only to the people of East Tennessee, about half of whom sympathize with our enemy. The recent order of the President calling out all men capable of bearing arms up to forty-five years of age, for the regular service, leaves us only such as are over that age. With our territory so much diminished and the call confined to that class over forty-five years of age (for, since the order of the President, I have excluded all parties under forty-five from this service, except such as are exempt from conscription), I have no hope of raising the 6,000 troops called for as volunteers within the time specified. Nor, indeed, can I raise that number of volunteers within the limits of East Tennessee at all; and under the laws of Tennessee I have no power to draft men over forty-five years of age for Confederate service.
Previous to the act of the Legislature of 1861--'62 men over forty-five years of age were not subject to military duty of any character. The act of that session (a copy of which I herewith inclose) authorizes the organization of all men between the ages of forty-five and fifty-five years into a military corps for State service.
I submit the facts and the law to your consideration for such suggestion as you may see proper to make in the premises, having every disposition to carry out the policy of the Government, whatever it may be, to raise all the troops possible for the defense of our territory and the maintenance of our cause. I shall proceed immediately to organize all within our lines between these ages who do not volunteer for local defense, and if you can suggest any legal means by which they can be drafted for Confederate service, I will promptly enforce the order for such number as you may require.
I shall have reported for duty by the 1st of August between, 1,000 and 2,000 men raised under this proclamation. Where will they be armed and who will take command of this special service corps? I respectfully suggest the appointment of an officer with the rank of brigadier-general or colonel to take command and general supervision of this special-service corps of each State, and if this policy shall be adopted I respectfully suggest and recommend W. C. Whitthorne, the present adjutant-general of Tennessee, for the appointment in this State. He will make an efficient officer in organizing and commanding the force.
I shall be pleased to have your suggestions at your earliest convenience, so that I may carry them out to the fullest extent of my ability.
Very respectfully
ISHAM G. HARRIS, Governor, &c., of Tennessee
PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE.
The President of the Confederate States has made a requisition upon Tennessee for 6,000 troops for the term of six months from the 1st of August next under the provisions of an act of Congress entitled "An act to provide for local defense and special service," a copy of which is hereto appended. These troops will be mustered into the service of the Confederate States, but held for the defense of their own homes, and in no event will they be ordered beyond the limits of this State.
This force must be composed of men over forty years of age, or such as from other causes are not liable to conscription, and if not raised by volunteering by or before the 1st day of August next, must be then immediately raised by a draft upon that part of the militia between the ages of forty and fifty-five years.
As volunteers you will have the right to organize your companies, battalions, and regiments by the election of such officers, as you may prefer.
You will be permitted to remain at your homes engaged in your ordinary avocations until such emergency shall arise as to make it necessary to order you to the field.
You will be armed, and while on duty under orders will be paid and subsisted as other Confederate troops.
When the emergency which called you to the field shall have passed, you will be relieved from duty and return to your homes and ordinary pursuits your pay and subsistence being stopped until you are ordered again to the field.
Volunteer companies, battalions, or regiments of infantry or mounted men who furnish their own horses will be accepted.
If drafted from the militia you will be placed in such infantry organizations as the authorities may deem best, and will most probably be continued on duty during the entire term of service.
The muster-rolls of volunteer companies must distinctly set forth that the company is raised for local defense and special service within the State of Tennessee for the term of six months.
You will return your muster-rolls to the adjutant-general of the State immediately upon the organization of a company of not less than sixty-four privates, with such officers as are required by law.
If said companies are organized into battalions or regiments previous to being mustered into service, they will elect their field officers; but if mustered into service as companies, the President will appoint battalion or regimental officers.
The enemy has shown that he fears to meet our gallant and invincible armies in the field unless he outnumbers us two or three to one.
He has therefore resorted to a system of raids upon unarmed neighborhoods for the purpose of devastating and pillaging the country, destroying our resources, and laying waste our homes.
Men of Tennessee! if you would resist these raids, predatory bands, and incendiaries of the enemy, organize at once and stand ready to repel or crush them.
If you would protect your private property, defend your wives and children, your personal liberty, your national independence, and your lives, organize at once and stand ready to strike for them.
Let the beardless boy and the hoary-headed father organize for the defense of their altars, their homes, and all that is dear to freemen.
Let the gallant men who have been disabled by the exposure and hardships of the camp or the casualties of bloody fields give to these new organizations the benefit of their experience and example.
Let every man who can wield a musket or draw a sword, who is so situated that he cannot swell the ranks of our Army for constant duty, organize at once for home defense and special service.
While I may justly claim, without the fear of successful contradiction, that Tennessee has already furnished to the Army of the Confederate States more troops in proportion to population than any State in the Confederacy, and in proportion to numbers engaged upon most of our battle-fields Tennessee soldiers have bled even more freely than those of other States-much as she has already done in this struggle for national independence, I am proud to know that she is able and willing to do more, and that she will persevere to the end of the struggle, however long or bloody it may be.
I therefore appeal to you by every consideration of patriotism personal interest, personal reputation, national independence, and the high character you have hitherto borne as citizens of the "Volunteer State" to rise up as one man, organize, rally to the standard of your Government, and in the majesty of your power make the invader feel that every hilltop bristles with the bayonets of freedom and every mountain pass has become a Thermopylae.
Give him a new and stronger proof of the fact that we stand as a unit, deeply solemnly, and irrevocably resolved on preserving independence at any and at every cost; that the march of the invader and the rule of despotism will be resisted at every step now and forever as long as there is a man or a boy in Tennessee who can pull a trigger, wield, a blade, or raise a finger in defiant resistance.
With this spirit prevailing our whole people, under the providence of a just God, we will at no distant day be blessed with independence, peace, and prosperity.
In testimony thereof I have hereunto signed my name and caused the greater seal of the State to be affixed, at Winchester on this the 22d day of June, A. D. 1863.[5]
[SEAL]
By the Governor:
J. E. R. RAY, Secretary of State.
AN ACT to amend an act to raise, organize, and equip a provisional force, and for other purposes.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Gen. Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That the white male population of the State between the ages of eighteen and forty-five shall constitute the reserved military corps thereof. Said corps shall be organized and called into service, and shall be subject to duty upon the call of the Governor; and this organization of the reserved corps shall continue for and during the existence of the war now being waged with the United States. That all the able-bodied white male population of this State between the ages of forty-five and fifty-five years shall be organized under the provisions of this act into a military corps for the defense of the State; but said corps, or any portion of it, shall not be called into actual service until after all of the reserved corps provided by this act shall have been called into actual service; nor shall this corps be called into actual service for a longer period, at any one time, than six months, nor be transferred, or detailed or drafted into the service of the Confederate States. And after this corps shall be organized they may determine the times and places of their company, battalion, and regimental drills.
* * * *
Passed March 18, 1862
E. A. KEEBLE, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
EDWARD S. CHEATHAM, Speaker of the Senate.
OR, Ser. IV, Vol. 2, pp. 666-670.[6]
22, "Martha I want you to come to see mee [sic] the first chance you have for I want to see you and the children and talk with you come up to the meeting." The letter of Corporal W. C. Tripp, Company B, 44th Tennessee Infantry, in camp near Fairfield, to Martha A. Tripp
June the 22 1863
Fairfield Bedford County
Dear Wife I take my pin [sic] in hand to drop you a few lines to let you now that I am well as common I hope when these few lines come to hand they will find you all well and harty [sic] I heard from you last night heard you was well I was very glad to here [sic] that you were well I sed [sic] I was well I have got the headache this morning for the first time since you was up hear Mrs Crutchfield come up last night I like to killed myself a eating [sic] I have gone Sum [sic] ses [sic] they have agon [sic] to Iron Hill in east [sic] Tennessee there is no talk of us a leaving here as I no [sic] of turn over Martha I want you to come to see mee [sic] the first chance you have for I want to see you and the children and talk with you come up to the meeting A preacher from nashville [sic] is a going to preach his name is Wilson A Caldis I heard a good sermon yesterday I wish I could come home to stay and live in peace and dy [sic] in peace tell the children howdy for me and tell them I want to see them tell your pap and mother I send my love and respects to them and tell them to rite to me the seasons changed today I must come to a close for this time by saying good by [sic] for this time
I would rite mere but I have not got the chance this time I will doo [sic] better if I get time to rite more.
Envelope is addressed
By the politeness of Chaney Smith
22, Braxton Bragg's situation report on the eve of the opening of the Tullahoma Campaign
SHELBYVILLE, June 22, 1863.
[Gen. J. E. JOHNSTON: ]
MY DEAR GEN.: Since parting with you I have at no time been well enough until now to say I was fit for duty, though I have not given up. The annoyances of those boils, instead of indicating returning health, was only the precursor of a general breakdown. Indeed, the long-continued excitement of mind and body to which, you are aware, I have been subjected, on private as well as public subjects, well night prostrated me, and when relieved by the arrival of friend Mackall and the departure of my invalid wife, the prostration very naturally resulted in disease; but I am again well. [emphasis added] My telegrams have kept you pretty well advised of what was going on here. Information in the last three days confirms my previous impressions about the movements of troops. I cannot learn that any have left Murfreesborough or that Rosecrans is at all reduced. He has called in all forces he had at outposts, except at Franklin, Triune, and Readyville; has some from Kentucky, and all the prisoners taken at Thompson's Station and Brentwood are returned. The largest portion of Burnside's forces from Kentucky have undoubtedly gone to Grant. All the fragments from the Northeast, and especially from Missouri, have also gone that way. This we have from an Englishman just from Cairo. The West Tennessee has been entirely abandoned, except a very small force at Memphis. From all these forces some 30,000 men have been collected. Hearing [of] the evacuation of Kentucky, I ordered Morgan's division at once to move into that State, and asked Buckner to let Pegram co-operate. Morgan, as usual, was not ready; wanted a week, but was refused and ordered off. He did not get off; however, as he never has obeyed any order to move in less time. Before he crossed the Cumberland I hear of Pegram's rapid retreat before an inferior force-a mere raid-and in a short time the enemy appear at Loudon bridge-about 2,000 mounted infantry. Buckner had just informed me he was concentrating against a force at Big Creek Gap (Jacksborough). I attacked Knoxville. Was repulsed by one regiment and citizens there. Meantime I sent a brigade of infantry to Loudon to act as might be necessary and ordered Morgan to move in behind this force on the raid and capture it. Thus the matter stands. Telegraph and railroad are both working to Knoxville for twenty-four hours, but I hear nothing from Buckner or Pegram. The recent order transferring to my department all the territory south of Little Tennessee will require me to detach a brigade if Gen. Buckner carries out his idea of withdrawing the troops. I said to him on receiving the suggestion that I could relieve them as soon as I could withdraw those from Mobile, transferred out of my department. I trust he sees the point. It seems he has been to Richmond and arranged matters his own way. I feel most acutely for you, general, in the position in which you find yourself. Great ends to be secured, high expectations formed, and most inadequate means furnished. How we can now see the folly of last spring's operations in diverting you from your aims. The men who were the real authors of that suicidal course will never be known for the harm they have done. They sit quietly and enjoy the exemption from responsibility, only awaiting another opportunity to criticise you or anybody else, and wisely say "I told you so." God grant you what I almost fear to hope for--success. But whatever the result, general, I bear witness you are not responsible for the dangers brought upon us.
Yours, very truly,
BRAXTON BRAGG, Gen.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 52, pt. II, pp. 499-500.
22, Orders to make a permanent movement and attack Rover
MURFREESBOROUGH, TENN., June 22, 1863--Midnight.
Maj.-Gen. GRANGER:
The general commanding directs you to move early to-morrow morning with your whole force to Salem, and send Gen. Mitchell with his cavalry by the Eagleville road to attack Rover. He desires you to understand that this a permanent movement, and not a mere expedition.
You will break up at Triune, and remove all stores. Send your sick to Nashville. Send your convalescents and extra baggage to this place.
Report immediately on arriving on arriving at Salem, by courier, for further orders.
Acknowledge receipt of message.
C. GODDARD, Assistant Adjutant-Gen.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 23, pt. II, p. 442.
ca. 22, U. S. S. gunboat Robb with 150 refugees, fired upon by Rebel artillery on Tennessee River [see ca. 20-23, "Scout from Jackson to Paris to Fort Heian, KY" above]
22-24, Action, Powell's Valley
Dyers' Battle Index for Tennessee.
22 – September 22, 1863, Ersatz designation as small pox hospital renders Nashville bordello incognito
Almost every morning dead men were found lying around in the suburbs of the city. At one time General Grainger ordered that all the courtesans be transported, and so they were gathered up and taken to Cincinnati, but they were not allowed to and, and so they were returned. Orders were also very strict against selling whisky to soldiers and every few days guards passed around breaking up vessels and pouring out the whisky. An old and somewhat dilapidated house stood near the camps according to William A. McTeer of the Third (Tennessee Cavalry, on Jefferson street.). An arrangement was made between some parties and some of the men in the regiment, so a hospital flag was raised over this house, and the word given out that it was a small-pox hospital. The officers and guards kept a respectful distance from it and never ventured to make a search of that house, while those in the secret were constantly supplied with whisky from it. Which of the two were the more deadly is hard to tell except that the small-pox produced involuntary death while the latter was more of a voluntary nature.
Knoxville Daily Chronicle, June 13, 1879.
1864
22, S. P. Carter, Brig. Gen. and Provost Marshal General of East Tennessee demands an end to depredations committed by Federal soldiers against farmers in East Tennessee
OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL-GEN. OF EAST TENNESSEE, Knoxville, June 22, 1864.
Lieut. Col. G. M. BASCOM, Assistant Adjutant-Gen., Department of the Ohio:
COL.: It is with regret I feel called upon to bring to the notice of the major-general commanding the department the reported irregularities of members of the cavalry force and mounted scouts in the vicinity of and drove Strawberry Plains. It is well known that the farmers in the major part of East Tennessee have been robbed of their stock to such an extent that they have not one-half enough left with which to cultivate their lands. Many, relying upon the encouragement given by the Government, and its promised protection if they would plant as largely as possible, have put in much more ground than they would have otherwise done. They are certainly entitled to claim from the Government an observance of this pledges; but, limited as is the farming stock they have managed to retain, they have no security for even that; for it seems that soldiers are in the habit of taking horses and mules wherever they can find them, and of disposing them for their own benefit. As men who are guilty of such acts have but one object, that of gain, they, of course, rob a Union citizen with as little hesitancy as they would a rebel sympathizer. It is represented here that the force which has just returned from upper East Tennessee brought with it a number of mules and horses altogether too young for service. The name of one person, a Mr. Vance of Kingsport, who is represented as being a man of unswerving loyalty, had, as I have been informed, his horse taken from by our men. The conduct of our Government require that the conduct of our troops should be such as to compel even its enemies to remark on the difference between them and lawless rebel soldiers. If only from the impoverished condition of East Tennessee, I would respectfully urge that orders be issued against any further forcible seizure of stock in the hands of peaceable, law-abiding citizens, who are using it for the common good, and that parties who rob or take by force from citizens for private ends be brought to punishment. Unless some measures are adopted to secure the farmers in the possession of their stock much of the corn already planted will be lost from want of necessary means of cultivating it.
I am, colonel, respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. P. CARTER, Brig. Gen. and Prov. Marsh Gen. of East Tennessee.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 39, pt. II, pp. 137-138.
22, Opposition to Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation Surfaces in the Chattanooga Daily Gazette
The Amnesty Proclamation,
There is beginning to be a general chorus of complaint among radicals against President Lincoln's plan of State "reconstruction." The chief source of dissatisfaction seems to be that, so far as it operates, it must debar radical plunderers from the satisfaction of stuffing their greedy appetites with the confiscated property of innocent people in Tennessee and elsewhere. The pressure upon "Old Abe [sic] will probably force him, in a short time, to withdraw the proclamation. Let all take warning and govern themselves accordingly.-Nashville Press.
The italics are not in the paragraph as it originally appeared in the Nashville Press.
The so-called radicals are no more opposed to the amnesty policy now than on the day that it was first published. They did not then, not do yet, appreciate the necessity or justice of requiring of them an oath which implies an acknowledgment of having committed a crime against the government-of placing them on a footing with those who had embarked heart and soul into the rebellion. They predicted that the only effect of the Proclamation of Amnesty so far as the latter class was concerned, would be to clothe them with powers for evil which they had never enjoyed before. Their worst fears have been more than realized. More than half of the guerrillas captured have been found to be possessed with the oath of Amnesty. This fact, together with the scarcely less suggestive one that the Nashville Press earnestly opposes it withdrawal, should cause the President to reconsider his former action on the subject.
The Press falsely states that those whom it is pleased to term radicals, are controlled in their opposition to the Amnesty because that instrument debars them the "satisfaction of stuffing their greedy appetites with the confiscated property of innocent people in Tennessee and elsewhere." With this gratuitous charge against the radicals we were hardly prepared to see such a candid confession of it ideas of the saintly attributes of treason printed in the columns of the Nashville Press. As those who he been guilty of open and notorious treason against the Government are the only persons whose property can be confiscated-and no one knows this better than the editor of the press-why it follows, as a matter of course, that he considers Tennessee rebels "innocent people." The evidence is unmistakable that the clique of politicians about Nashville who have been sufficiently loyal to obtain the confidence of many friends of the Government, and at the same time sufficiently disloyal to be sacred in the bands of rebels when they were in the height of power, have well matured plan which they hope to secure all the State offices for themselves, and the perpetration of that condition of things which so recently gave to the few the power of precipitating upon the country this terrible civil war. Hence the Press, in anticipation that the President will rectify this Amnesty error (-one of his few mistakes-) appeals to its "innocent" friends to take "warning and govern themselves accordingly." What does it mean by such advice but that they shall make haste to take the Amnesty Oath, and thus, in measure, tie the hands of Government: that it may the more readily become a victim to the wicked machinations of as reckless a set of moral and political profligates as ever cheated a gallows.
Chattanooga Daily Gazette, June 22, 1864. [7]
22-25, Federal expedition[8]
HDQRS. CAVALRY DIVISION, SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Memphis, Tenn., June 21, 1864.
Col. D. E. COON, Cmdg. Third Brigade:
COL.: You will organize a force of 500 men from your command, with three days' rations and fifty rounds of ammunition on the persons of the men, to be ready to move at 12 o'clock to-morrow. The officers in command will report here at 10 a. m. for instructions.
By order of Brig. Gen. B. H. Grierson:
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 39, pt. II, p. 137.
1865
22, Report on pacification efforts [anti-guerrilla] in Lewisburg and Cornersville environs
HDQRS. SIXTH DIVISION, CAVALRY CORPS, MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Pulaski, Tenn., June 22, 1865.
Brig. Gen. W. D. WHIPPLE:
I have the honor to state, for the information of the major-general commanding, that on last week I sent to the neighborhood of Lewisburg and Cornersville a small party of cavalry with instructions to hunt down and kill Hill Looker, formerly a scout for Brig.-Gen. Starkweather; Line Hopwood, Isly, and McCallum, all notorious outlaws and robbers. The party caught and disposed of Looker and McCallum. The others evaded them, but only to fall into the hands of another similar party, by whom they, too, were dispatched. On night before last learning of a proposed gathering on Sugar Creek, seventeen miles below here, I sent to the locality designated a squad of the Fifth Indiana Cavalry. They captured and executed three notorious robbers and outlaws, Ferguson, Komer, and Tumer by name. Komer escaped from the guard house at this place some weeks since, being at the time under sentence of death. Both he and Tumer I believe were paroled by Gen. Granger at Decatur in May, and have been stealing horses whenever occasion offered ever since. This morning one Noris, formerly a scout for Gen. Dodge, was captured near this place with a confederate of the same kidney (name unknown) and executed by a party of my escort and by my orders. There are a few more of these guilty [parties] within my district of operations whom I hope to overtake in time, and propose to serve in the same way, unless instructed to the contrary. The Ferguson above named is not Champ Ferguson, but an equally desperate and lawless character. Before his execution he confessed to participation in the murder of an officer of the Eighth Michigan Cavalry some weeks since.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
R. W. JOHNSON, Brevet Maj.-Gen.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 49, pt. II, pp. 1025-1026.
22, The Question of Limiting the Franchise in Tennessee
Disfranchisement in Tennessee.
Ed. Sentinel:-Permits an old resident of the city and long reader of the SENTINEL, to express his unqualified approbation of your views concerning the difficulties of reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion, and, particularly, the good advice to "make haste slowly." It is evident from the tenor of all the papers still conducted by the editors whose voice was in favor of secession and in support of the rebellion, as well as the conduct of their leaders ever since their subjugation-I like that word subjugation-to the superior prowess and bravery of the Union troops and justice of the Union cause, that the snake of rebellion has been only "scotched, not killed." That these traitors will endeavor to evade and escape the just punishment of their misdeeds, maintain their former ascendancy and control, and render as fruitless as possible all the just and humane results anticipated from the success of the Union arms and the extinction of slavery, is manifest from their opposition to the new Constitution, and the laws passed thereunder, which deny the right of suffrage to those who have been guilty of treason.
As a specimen of the objections which "our erring brethren," as these traitors are called in the Ryan Address, make to the "disfranshising bill," so called, in the State of Tennessee, it will be well to quote from the Legal Opinion of H. Clay Conde and J.W. Westcott, two lawyers of Memphis, Tennessee, who, at "request of clients and others," gave their opinion of said "disenfranchisement bill." They commenced by saying: "The old Constitutional Convention, and it and the nine amendments proposed, are not the law of the land, and the principles of the old constitution, equally with those of the new, 'are to be respected, expect when changed, as is the case with the question of slavery."
Mark, here, now, that these Memphis lawyers concede that in respect of the question of slavery, the new Constitution supersedes the old. Why? Only because by the new constitution it is expressly provided that, according to the ordinance of '87, there shall be "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said State, except in the punishment of crime, where of the party shall be duly convicted."- Then, in respect of the question of slavery, the new Constitution is, without cavil or doubt, allowed to supersede the old. Why? Because slavery is, beyond all doubt, a domestic institution, and State regulation; and the people of the State of Tennessee, having by their duly ratified new Constitution abolished it, it no longer exists in that State, even according to the "Legal Opinion" of the two Memphis lawyers.
Is the right of suffrage less of a State regulation than slavery? Most assuredly not. Every State is absolute and supreme in respect to the qualification of electors. All that the government of the electors. All that the government of the United States can do in their behalf is to "guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form of government." That the right of suffrage is, by the Constitution of the United States, wholly and exclusively vested within the power of the legislatures of the several States, is manifest from Section II, of Article I of the Constitution of the United States, which provides that "the House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States; and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for the most numerous branch of the State legislature."
If, then, the State legislatures have the exclusive right of prescribing the qualifications of electors, what objection can there be to section 9 of the Amendment of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee, that "the qualification of voters and the illumination of the elective franchise may be determined by the General Assembly which shall first assemble under the amended Constitution?" None whatever. But it seems that the "General Assembly which first assembled under the amended Constitution," determined and limited the right of suffrage thereunder to those who had taken the oath prescribed by the President's proclamation; and it is this oath that all their objections are leveled, and the old Constitution of the United States are invoked as a protection.
If the objections of these rebel Memphis lawyers to the new test of qualifications of electors, was limited to those only who were not within the excepted classes, it might reasonably be borne with as having been covered by the implied pardon granted in the President's Amnesty Proclamation. But those "clients and others" sought to be protected and allowed the full elective franchise, are those expressly excepted from pardon, and it is hence a blow, or rather contemptuous repudiation and rejection of the whole of conclusively proves that it was inconsiderate and too generous for the people he had to deal with. The wisest and safest course, therefore, for the government now to pursue is, to postpone all proceedings for reconstruction, and forthwith institute proceedings in the Federal courts for the indictment and trial, and if found guilty, hanging every traitor, within the exceptions, in the land-commencing with these rebel Memphis lawyers, whose new born love for the provisions of the Federal Constitution has rendered this necessary. By these means the question of the right of suffrage in the rebellious States will be definitely, and to the true Union man, satisfactorily settled as regards the whites, at least.
PETER YATES.
Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, (Milwaukee, WI) June 22, 1865. [9]
[1] This may have been part of the June 18, 1862, "Reconnaissance from Battle Creek to Jasper," or an entirely separate event. There is no reference to this kind of event, either a reconnaissance or a foraging expedition in the OR.
[2] Not found.
[3] It is difficult to establish the exact date for this expedition as records indicate only that Union forces were building boats at Clift's saw mill up Soddy Creek in June 1862. This correspondence represents the only documentation in regard to this military event in Tennessee in the Civil War.
[4] The date is correct. Harris refers to the document of June 22, 1863, as well as March 18, 1862. These documents are included here inasmuch as the most important of them, that of June 22, 1863, falls into the chronology best at this juncture.
[5] See also: Chattanooga Daily Rebel, July 23, 1863.
[6] See also: OR, Ser. III, Vol. I, p. 579 and the Chattanooga Daily Rebel, June 28, 1862.
[7] TSL&A, 19th CN.
[8] There is nothing to indicate where this expedition was directed.
[9] TSL&A, 19th CN.
James B. Jones, Jr.
Public Historian
Tennessee Historical Commission
2941 Lebanon Road
Nashville, TN 37214
(615)-770-1090
(615)-532-1549 FAX
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