April 18 - Tennessee Civil War Notes

 "Why, it has turned out like the other promises of rich rebels to the victims whom they have trapped in their damnable net."
Rebel Liberality to the Poor.
Some "Old Treasures"—The Poor Used as Catspaws by Rich Rebels.
In the Nashville Union and American of April 22d, 1861, the bloody-minded Secession organ which called for confiscation, banishment, imprisonment and hanging for all who remained loyal to the Union, we find this exceedingly magnanimous and stirring offer from o­ne of our citizens. The editor of the Union calls it— 
The Voice of a Venerable Patriot.—R. C. Foster, Sr., sends to the Patriot the following patriotic proposition, which we gladly publish:
["]Nashville, April 22, 1861.
To the Editors of the Patriot: From age and infirmity I am unable to do service o­n the battle-field for the rights of the South; but I am a volunteer with any number of Tennesseans under like disability, to pay annually to the Governor of Tennessee two hundred dollars for the comfort and support of the wives and children of the citizens soldiers of Tennessee, whilst serving in defence of the constitutional rights of the South.
R. C. Foster, Sr.["]
Noble, warm and generous proposition! It does credit to humanity. The promise held out is splendid. We have no doubt that many a poor mechanic, many a needy laborer as he embraced and kissed his wife and children before going into the rebel army pointed his family to this generous card, and consoled them in their bitter bereavement by exhibiting it all-comprehensive philanthropy. What about the fulfillment of the promise? Has it ever happened? Who has heard of it being done? What has become of this fostering care so kindly pledged to the poor? Why, it has turned out like the other promises of rich rebels to the victims whom they have trapped in their damnable net. We published the other day a list of cards from wealthy Nashville rebels, similar to the o­ne which we have given above, in the magnificence of their promises and the nothingness of their fulfillment. Yes, confiding and misguided men have been seduced from their country's flag, and their dependent families, and are now wandering utterly deserted, friendless and penniless, in distant States, abandoned by the very tempters whose poisoned tongues and hollow professions corrupted, misled and ruined them. The Secretary of the Sanitary Commission at St. Louis wrote to Gov. Johnson o­n the 19th of March, that citizens of Tennessee formerly belonging to the rebel army were "wandering through the streets of that city without the means of living or returning to their homes." Gov. Johnson called upon the men of this place who had made so grandiloquent promises for aid, but not o­ne dollar has been given! There is the real spirit of the Secession leaders. They are eager to use the poor as tools to do their work, and then cast them contemptuously away when they have got into power. The rebel organ itself, the Nashville Union and American, could not refrain from rebuking the extortion practiced by the wealthy upon the poor, and denounced it in its issue of September 18, 1861, in these terms:
 ["]We have an army of women in our midst, with an average of three children each, whose husbands are fighting out battles. These mothers earn about thirty cents a day, when they can get the work to do. Their helpless offspring are clad in the thin and worn garments of last spring, shoeless and stockingless. They are to be shod and clothed for the winter, and fed, even if it be upon cheap bread alone. Yesterday reminded us that they must have fires to protect them from "winter's chilly blasts." There is within the limits of the city a sufficiency of coal. If economically used, to last until spring. This coal cost o­nly peace prices to mine and deliver it here, and twenty days ago, as we are informed, it could have been bought at twenty cents per bushel, and a handsome bonus would have been paid to the person who would have found a purchaser, because it would have been a good speculation o­n the part of holders to have sold out at that rate. Yesterday thirty five and forty cents per bushel were demanded, with an intimation that to day the price may be fifty cents.
In the name of humanity, shall this army of women and helpless children, the wives and children of the brave men who are paying their lives that we may have peace and independence—freeze, because the exorbitant prices demanded by holders had placed coal out of the reach of their limited means? A more gloomy prospect for winter certainly never has hung over the poor of this city and especially in cases where the heads of families have gone to drive the invaders from Southern soil. Almost every necessity of life has gone up to worse even than famine prices. It really seems as if sharpers had combined to monopolize the trade, and to fatten upon the necessities of those who are fighting the battles of their country. We hear o­ne universal complaint that the prices of almost every comfort as well as necessity, are exorbitantly high. The people, who [illegible] now by their labor than they did before the war commenced, cannot [illegible] stand or appreciate this [illegible] advance and they naturally conclude that speculators are at the [illegible] We are at a loss to how the poor of Nashville are to be cared for the coming winter, under the circumstance s that surround us.
 The course pursued by tradesmen generally in the South has produced a great deal of discontent, and not without apparent reason.["]
 Here we have a picture of wretchedness and suffering in the families of those who had gone off after these enemies of their race, Harris, Bishop, Polk, Cheatham, and others, which is enough to chill o­ne's blood. And this is precisely the goal of suffering to which this hellish rebellion is hurrying the masses with the swiftness of Niagara's rapid. The rich rebels and those belonging to the "first families," (which usually means those who manage to live without working or paying their debts,) get good offices, or else amass fortunes by speculating off the necessities and miseries of the poor.
Nashville Daily Union, April 18, 1862.

 

 

18-22, Anti-insurgent patrols, Fulton and Van Buren's landings, Tipton County, along Hatchie River to Brownsville, and Randolph, execution of guerrilla leader Wilcox SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 102. HDQRS. DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE, Memphis, Tenn., April 18, 1865. For the purpose of capturing Quantill and his band of about sixty men now operating o­n the Hatchie River, and Mat Luxton, with his band of about twenty, now operating in the same region, and other enemies, the following troops, will be sent out, viz: Two hundred and fifty cavalry o­n the steamer John Raine, upon which they will embark at 5 p. m. to-day; 350 cavalry o­n barges in charge of steamers Raine and Cleona at same hour. The steamers will proceed up the river and land the troops o­n the barges at Randolph, and will then proceed immediately to Fulton and land the troops o­n the steamer. The steamer will then return to Fulton. The troops landed at Fulton will dash forward to Ripley and Brownsville, and will send a party to Brownsville Landing same night, where they will meet the steam-boats of the expedition. Two hundred of the troops landed at Randolph will dash forward to Covington, and will scour the country and reach Brownsville Landing same night. o­ne hundred and fifty cavalry will dash forward, via Portersville or Beaverdam, to Brownsville Landing, and pursue, destroy, and kill all guerrillas they may find. The steamers Cleona, Dove, and Pocahontas will proceed to-night at 5 o'clock up the Mississippi and Hatchie rivers, each with fifty cavalry and fifty infantry o­n board, and will form a junction with the rest of the command at Brownsville Landing. From that point the commander of the expedition will move as the object of the expedition may require, and will return to Memphis overland or by boat and barges as may be thought best. The cavalry will take three days' rations, and two days' rations of forage will be placed o­n o­ne of the Hatchie boats, and three days' rations for the men. All commanding officers are enjoined to maintain the strictest discipline and allow no marauding or ill treatment of citizens, but citizens must be required to give information in regard to guerrilla whereabouts so far as they know, or they will be regarded as harboring and encouraging them. By order of Maj. Gen. C. C. Washburn: OR, Ser. I, Vol. 49, pt. II, p 406. Maj. Gen. C. C. Washburn HDQRS. CAVALRY DIV., DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE, Memphis, Tenn., April 22, 1865. Maj. W. H. MORGAN, Assistant Adjutant-Gen.: MAJ.: I have the honor to report that in obedience to Special Orders, No. 102, from your headquarters, I proceeded as follows: By steamer John Raine and barges, Fourth Illinois Volunteer Cavalry (250 men), Maj. Search; Third U. S. Colored Cavalry (250 men), Lieut.-Col. Cook; by steamers Sallie List, Dove, and Pocahontas, Eleventh Illinois Volunteer Cavalry (200 men), Maj. Davis. Disembarking the Third U. S. Colored Cavalry at Randolph, Lieut.-Col. Cook proceeded, via Covington, to Brownsville Landing, capturing o­ne _______ Wilcox, alias J. M. Luxton, who was in command of seven others, whom he was unable to capture. He could not reach Brownsville Landing, the country being flooded. Lieut. Col. Funke, in command of the troops sent up Hatchie River, proceeded up the Hatchie River, but the boats being unwieldy, pilots not acquainted with the river, made but little progress, and in order to reach Brownsville Landing to co-operate with the Fourth Illinois Cavalry he disembarked at Van Buren's Landing, marching from there to Brownsville, arriving there o­n the 21st. The Fourth Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, Maj. Search, disembarked at Fulton, which place was reached o­n the 19th at 12 p. m. At 3 p. m. the command moved to Brownsville, reaching that place at daylight o­n the 20th, capturing at that place nine prisoners (as per inclosed roll of prisoners of war) and Col. B. J. Lea, Capt. E. J. Martin, commissary of subsistence, and Lieut. S. M. Russell. The Fourth and Eleventh Illinois returned to Fulton in the afternoon of the 22d and embarked. The Sylph and Annie E, with Dove, Pocahontas, and Sallie Listarrived at mouth of Hatchie River at about the same time. Arriving at Randolph, Wilcox, alias Luxton, was tried by drum-head court-martial...and at 6.30 was by my order hung by the neck until he was dead, and left hanging as a warning to his brethren in crime. The command arrived at Memphis with total loss of o­ne man accidentally wounded and left. Eight horses died from buffalo gnats, and gained o­n the expedition twelve horses. People of the country were extremely friendly, and those in the vicinity of Brownsville can hereafter, in my opinion, take care of themselves. I am under obligations to the commanding officers of gun-boats 57 and 58 for valuable assistance. I am, major, respectfully, your obedient servant, E. D. OSBAND, Brevet Brig.-Gen. OR, Ser. I, Vol. 49, pt. II, pp. 441-442. Report of James Fitzpatrick, Acting Master, commanding U.S.S. Siren, Off Randolph, Tenn, April; 22, 1865 Sir: I most respectfully make the following report: April 19 an expedition under command of Brigadier general Osband started for Brownsville, Tenn., in three columns; o­ne form this place, o­ne by way of Hatchee River, and o­ne from Fulton, Tenn. They returned this afternoon, having been successful in capturing 1 colonel, 1 manor, 4 captains, 2 lieutenants, and 12 men, and killing General Shelby's adjutant. o­ne of the men captured is the fellow that has been passing for Luxton. General Osband hung him from a cottonwood tree at this place this evening; his body is still hanging from the tree. He confessed to burning the St. Paul and to killing o­ne man o­n board of her. His proper name is Wilcox. His father lives in Memphis, Tenn. The steamers Anna, Everton, and Sylph were not burned by the guerrillas. They came out of Hatchee [sic] River this afternoon. Very respectfully, our obedient servant, JAMES FITZPATRICK, Acting Master, U.S.S. Siren. Navy OR, Ser. I, Vol. 27, p. 149. Note: "Eight horses died from buffalo gnats...."

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