HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, Knoxville, Tenn., September 30, 1862.
Col. [L. M.] ALLEN, Cmdg. Sixty-fourth Regt. North Carolina Volunteers:
COL.: You will immediately proceed with a detachment with a detachment of 75 cavalry and 250 infantry to Sevier Country, Tennessee, to break up and capture a body of armed men said to be in that county near Bluff Mountain Such persons as you may take will be forwarded to these headquarters. Should resistance be offered, you will of course use any force requisite to accomplish your object. You will see that no injury is done to the persons or property of peaceable citizens. Forage or subsistence will be taken only in cases of necessity; reasonable compensation will be made. Citizens known to be of Union sentiment but engaging in no act of hostility will be molested. Those who are aiding or abetting the armed band referred to these headquarters. So soon as this object is accomplished you will return with the infantry, leaving the detachment of cavalry under the command of a suitable officer to carry out the instructions from the provost-marshal inclosed herewith. Three days rations will be carried and the general commanding expects you to use the utmost promptness and energy in carrying out the instructions conveyed therein.
Your obedient servant,
CHAS. S. STRINGFELLOW, Assistant Adjutant-Gen.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 16, pt. II, p. 893.
30, "Cust [sic] if ever he sleeps in my bed again." A Conversation Between a Confederate Officer and a East Tennessee Unionist Woman at Powell's River
Tennessee Female Tories.
The editor of the Henderson (N.C.) Times has recently made a visit through East Tennessee to Cumberland Gap. Upon his return, he fixed up the following story for the edification of his readers.
At Powell's river, I stopped and engaged more milk, at an old Lincolnite jade, keen as a brier, and mother of three (and I don't know how many more,) rather nice looking gals. She complained to me of having been rudely treated by a North Carolina officer, the morning previous. Arriving at camp, I informed the officer of the old lady's story, and he told me that knowing their political status, he had placed a guard around the house, to keep any of the family from going to the Gap, while our army was crossing the river, and in the meantime, the following conversation took place:
Officer.—(Entering the house,) Good morning ma'am. No answer. "Where is you
husband, ma'am?"
Old Woman.—None of your business, you rebel you.
Officer.—I know. He is in the Yankee army.
Old Woman.—Well he is. What are you going to do about it? He is in the 1st Tennessee Federal regiment at Cumberland Gap, and will take off your rebel head, if you go up there.
Officer.—Yes. But we have him and your General Morgan's whole command completely surrounded—hemmed in—with an army on both sides of the Gap, and in a few days they will be starved out, and have to surrender on our own terms.
Old Woman.—We know all that, and are easy. But Lincoln will send an army through Kentucky, which will wipe out your General Smith, just like a dog would lick out a plate, and then you and your army of barefooted, roasting ear stealers, will have to leave here in the dark again, and badly scared at that. Besides this—
Officer.—That's your opinion, but you are deluded. Where were you born?
Old Woman.—Born! Why I was born and raised in Tennessee. I am an Old Hickory Tennessean—dead out against Nullification, and its bastard offspring, Secession. But where are you from?
Officer.—I am from North Carolina, but a native of South Carolina.
Old Woman.—A South Carolinian—scion of nullification—double rebel, double devil.
Old Jackson made your little turnip patch of a State walk the chalk once, and Old Abe Lincoln will give you rebels hell before Spring.
Officer.—(Quitting the old lady, and turning to the eldest daughter, whom he recognized as a mother) Madam, where is your husband?
Young Woman.—That is none of your business.
Officer.—But it is my business. Where is he?
Young Woman.—Where I hope I'll never see him again. Where I hope you will soon be.
Officer.—Where is that?
Young Woman.—Why, a prisoner in the hands of the army at the Gap.
Officer.—What is that for?
Young Woman.—For being what you are, an infernal rebel.
Officer.—Oh, if that's all, I will send him back to you as soon as we take the Gap.
Young Woman.—No you need'nt. Cust if ever he sleeps in my bed again. I intend to get some Union man to father this child. Here, Bet, (calling a nurse,) take this little rebel and give him Union milk. Let us try and get the "secesh" out of him.
Officer.—(Turning to a Miss.) Did you find a beau among the Yankee officers?
Miss.—Yes, I did; a nice, sweet, gallant fellow. one who stepped like a prince. When you become his prisoner, give him my love, and tell him for my sake to put a trace chain around your infernal neck.
Officer.—When do you expect to see him again?
Miss.—Just after your General takes the next "big scare," which will be in ten days from this time.
Daylight having broken, and the army having crossed the river, the conversation I have given terminated.
Weekly Columbus [Ga] Enquirer, September 30, 1862.
[1] As cited in: http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts.
30, Skirmish at Cotton Port Ford, Tennessee River
No circumstantial reports filed.
LOUDON, October 5, 1863.
Gen. BURNSIDE:
I respectfully state that the firing at Cotton Port took place on the morning of September 30, and not in the evening; that it was first reported to me by Col. Wolford in writing from the front, within two hours after it occurred, and that I immediately forwarded to you by telegraph the following dispatch:
SEPTEMBER 30.
Gen. BURNSIDE:
Col. Wolford informs that the firing which he reported this morning, and which was supposed to be his advance engaged with the enemy, was below any of his command, and is supposed to have been at Cotton Port, 15 miles below Athens, on the Tennessee River. He will move forward toward Athens.
J. WHITE, Brig.-Gen.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 30, pt. IV, p. 115.
Excerpt from the Report of Col. Eli Long, Fourth Ohio Cavalry, commanding Second Brigade, relative to the skirmish at Cotton Port, September 30, 1863.
HDQRS. SECOND BRIGADE, SECOND DIVISION CAVALRY, Camp near Maysville, Ala., October 20, 1863.
LIEUT.: In compliance with instructions received, I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by my brigade in the pursuit of the rebel cavalry under Gen. Wheeler, from the time this force crossed the Tennessee River near Washington, Tenn., until they recrossed it near Rogersville, Ala. At the time the enemy crossed the river on the morning of September 30, the larger portion of my brigade was separated into detachments which were stationed along the river at the various fords. The enemy crossed a portion of them above where one battalion of the First Ohio Cavalry, under Maj. Scott, was stationed, and a portion of them at this place, first having fired on Maj. Scott's battalion with canister and thrown him into some disorder. He, however, succeed in escaping from a large force of the enemy, by whom he was almost entirely surrounded, and who had sent in a flag of truce demanding his surrender, with the loss of some 15 men captured
* * * *
OR, Ser. I, Vol. Vol. 30, pt. II, p. 690.
1864, occupied Memphis.
The U.S. Army began its second experiment in social control and medical management as it was announced that a system of legalized prostitution would go into force, similar in scope and method as the system initiated earlier in Nashville in 1863.
According to the "Private Circular" which was "intended for the information of women only," all prostitutes were required by the Army to "be registered and take out weekly certificates [of good health]." A $2.50 fee for medical examinations was charged, while a certificate cost $10.00. The money collected was to go to treating any prostitute who may have contracted venereal diseases. By the end of the war the system, like the one in Nashville, was deemed a success but it was not continued by civilian authorities
No comments:
Post a Comment