Sunday, November 3, 2013

11/03/13 Tennessee Civil War Notes

3, "To the People of Nashville"

Sewanee Coal Mines,

November 2, 1861

Some trouble has occurred in filling our orders for coal, mainly on account of transportation, it being impossible to get our cars returned. While we are dependent upon the ordinary freight trains. (It is due, however, to Mr. Cole, to say he has done all in his power.) But next week we are to have a regular coal train, to be continued. Under this new arrangement we can reassure the people of Nashville henceforth more than 100 tons of coal shall be delivered to Nashville everyday, without a change in price, and that everything shall be done that can be done to deliver it.

A. S. Colyar

Nashville Daily Gazette, November 3, 1861.

 

 

        3, General Orders No. 4 issued, relative to relief of poor in West Tennessee

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 4. HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE, Jackson, Tenn., November 3, 1862.

It has been reported to the general commanding that many families within the limits of the military guards of this department are in a suffering condition--lacking food and clothing--and without any possible means of earning or procuring support. People not actively engaged in rebellion should not be allowed to suffer from hunger in reach of a country abounding with supplies. The Government, never the cause of this state of affairs, should not be subjected to the burden of furnishing the necessary relief, but the weight should fall on those who by act, encouragement, or sympathy have caused the want now experienced. It is therefore ordered:

I. The necessary expenses for the relief needed must be borne by sympathizers with the rebellion.

II. District commanders throughout this department will cause the extent of these wants to be ascertained and the necessary supplies to be procured and distributed.

III. To this end district commanders will cause all persons known to be disloyal within reach of their respective commands to be assessed in proportion to their relative ability to pay, and cause such assessments to be collected and discreetly applied. Assessments may be paid in money or supplies.

IV. A suitable chaplain or other commissioned officer will be appointed at each post where it may be necessary to distribute supplies under this order, who shall have charge of the distribution of supplies and who shall be held responsible for the faithful performance of his duties and that no supplies are unworthily bestowed.

V. Commissaries of subsistence will be allowed to sell provisions, at the rates charged officers, to such persons as are designated to distribute them, on certificates that they are for such purpose and are necessary to save suffering.

VI. Officers collecting assessments will keep an accurate account of all moneys and provisions so collected, and from whom, and send their accounts through their immediate commanding officers to the chief commissary of the department to be audited.

The chief commissary of the department will designate in a circular how the abstract of such sales is to be kept and returned.

By command of Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant

OR, Ser. I, Vol. 17, pt. II, pp. 319-320.

 

 

        3, First Regiment of U. S. C. T. and Eighth Iowa Cavalry placed guard duty on the N&NWRR

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND, Chattanooga, November 3, 1863.

Brig. Gen. A. C. GILLEM, Nashville:

The First Regt. [sic] Colored Troops, from Elk River, will be ordered to report to you for duty on the Northwestern Railroad. A regiment of cavalry 1,100 strong, now marching from Louisville, will also be sent to you for guard duty. The general commanding wishes you to assist the colonel of this regiment [Eighth Iowa Cavalry] in disciplining his regiment and perfecting it in drill, as it is but recently organized. All the troops on the Northwestern Railroad are under your command while engaged on that work, and the general expects you to control them and enforce discipline. All the troops on the Northwestern Railroad are under your command while engaged on that work, and the general expects you to control them and enforce discipline.

By order of Maj.-Gen. Thomas:

C. GODDARD, Assistant Adjutant-Gen.

OR, Ser. I, Vol. 31, pt. III, p. 28.

 

 

3, Mary A. Judkins' letter to her brother Cave Johnson Couts: "we are now truly subjugated by the negros [sic], we are not allowed to crop them, they will walk over you, if we resent it, they report and we are put in Jail." Social change in Middle Tennessee as a result of three years of Civil War

Clarksville, Nov. 3 1864

Mary A. Judkins

TO: Cave Johnson Couts

My own Dear Brother,

I wish you could take a peek at once happy an loved country, see the disorder and sorrow and gloom that fills every home and when it will end God only knows, we though a hand full of the South could soon whip the entire North, we have whipped them in every instance, but the more we kill the thicker they come. I look forward to their presidential election for a change for better, but that is in the future. I believe the South prefers Old Abe. I hope McCellen [sic] will be the man, four years more of Old Abe, and the country would be [a] ruined world without end, if the South had have been as true to herself at the North, we might have had our independence long before this, there are now thousands in this county that ought to be in the army, here speculating, making fortunes. When I consented for my child to join, I excused mine, none could have been left more lonely and helpless than myself, I had a dozen boys, I would not say to one, stay at home, I know if I were a man and my head white as cotton, I would not stay here, and submit to all the insults they daily do, we are now truly subjugated by the negros [sic], we are not allowed to crop[1] them, they will walk over you, if we resent it, they report and we are put in Jail. Some of our prominent citizens have been treated thus, there are thousands of negros [sic] here. The streets are filled with boys from 8 to 15 years. They will knock a white child down and stomp on it, and we can't say a word, now where is a man that has one drop of patriotism in his veins, that would submit to such, and they will, on trial, tell you they believed a negro sick in preference to a white man. It's a thousand wonders, they don't do a great deal worse, knowing the privileges they have. Mrs. Robb has suffered much. They encamped near here.

Springfield has a negro regiment also when George was reaping his wheat, a squad of negros [sic] sent out there, ordered the boys to stop work and go with them, cursed George, he left them, went to a house and every one of his followed him.

My negro man left me 18 months ago, he is loafering [sic] about town, I want McCelen [sic] elected, just that I may have control of him awhile. Such insolence I have to take from him I cant [sic] well stand, at the time I did not know how I could possibly get along without his services, but I have considerably this far. Medora and myself have been alone night and day, ever since her Brother joined the Army, not even a neighbor. All the houses around me is [sic] filled with contrabands, we have never been disturbed in the least, there are five thousand refugees to be quartered here this winter, all spare rooms and vacant houses will be taken. Three federal officers called a few days ago to see if I had a spare room, first time any of the dogs have been in my house, the citizens are to be taxed to support them, if they call on me then, I do not know what we will do. How I hate them!

Mary A. Judkins

P.S. Since I have just heard Hood's army was in Tennessee, am afraid it's too good to be true. I know for some time he was in Sherman's rear. Sherman is in a bad fix. I hope, by the time you get this, Hood will be in Kentucky. We have seen the account of Early's defeat, the papers for the last month have been filled with it. The scale has turned, they now acknowledge themselves whipped. You must take the New York Metropolitan Record, it is the only truthful papers out now.

Winds of Change, pp. 84-85.[2]

 

 



[1] That is, to hit them with a riding crop as they commonly did before the war.

[2] David C. Allen, ed., Winds of Change: Robertson County, Tennessee in the Civil War, (Nashville: Land Yacht Press, 2000), pp. 84-85. [Hereinafter: Winds of Change.]


James B. Jones, Jr.

Public Historian

Tennessee Historical Commission

2941 Lebanon Road

Nashville, TN  37214

(615)-532-1550  x115

(615)-532-1549  FAX

 

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