Monday, November 4, 2013

11/04/13 Tennessee Civil War Notes


4, 1862 - "SELLING COTTON TO THE ENEMY."

Various reasons are given by those who sell cotton to the Yankees, which we propose to notice; one is that we can get gold for it, and with that buy clothing, salt, and other necessary articles. In answer to this, it may be said that the cotton cannot be sold unless it is carried within the enemy's lines, and then they will not permit clothing, salt, or any necessaries to be brought within the Confederate lines, and, consequently the sale of the cotton can do the Confederates no good. If the Yankees would permit us to exchange cotton for arms, ammunition, clothing, salt and the necessary articles, even then it would be doubtful whether we would not be doing them more good by buying such articles from them than we would be benefited. We had better learn to rely upon ourselves even it if does cost some hardship, than to furnish the Yankees with cotton. We can make our own clothing, rough though it be. We can make our own guns with the exception of what we can buy from foreign countries. But it is useless to argue this, because the Yankees will not permit those who sell them their cotton, to bring supplies to our army. In fact, we believe those who sell cotton to the enemy have shown very little disposition to furnish our army with supplies. Their object is their own individual gain, and not the good of the country. We cannot expect to have a war of this magnitude without suffering great hardships. We ought not to think of having all the conveniences and even luxuries of peace in time of war. Coarse clothing and coarse food are far preferable to trading with the Yankees Another excuse sometimes given is, that a man does not wish to lose his cotton, it would be too hard on him Neither does a man wish to lose his life, and yet there are men losing their lives, and you who sell the enemy cotton are enabling them to take the lives of the very men who are fighting to protect your families and your property. To those who say we can get gold for it, we reply, so did Judas Iscariot get thirty pieces of silver for selling his Savioiur [sic]. Another man says, I did not sell to the Yankees, I sold to Southern men. Did you not sell to men who were buying for the Yankees or to sell to them? If so, it is the same as if you had sold to the Yankees yourself; you had as well as sell directly as indirectly. The principle is the same. The Yankees had at the first of this month, according to their own reports, only 25,000 bales of cotton on hand. They were expecting to get 5,000 bales per week from the South. Now, if no cotton had been sold them from Tennessee, North Alabama, and the Mississippi river, they would ere this have been entirely out of cotton, and all their mills would have been stopped. Even now they are getting as they estimate 5000 bales per week from the South. Were all their cotton mills closed it would produce a financial crisis at the North which would do much to stop this war. Even as it is, cotton is at sixty cents a pound, and gold over thirty per cent. Premium. The men who furnish the enemy with cotton during the past Spring and Summer are responsible in a great degree, for the continuance of this war. Our Congress has passed a law making the selling of cotton to the enemy a felony. This shows the estimation placed upon it by out Congress. If a man were to furnish the enemy with guns and ammunition, or become a recruiting officer for them, he would not be so much an enemy of the South as if he were to supply them with cotton, because if they are furnished with cotton they can get men, and can obtain ample supplies of all the munitions of war. Had all our people refused to let them have any cotton, we would now have seen a different state of things, but the cotton which they have obtained from the Confederate States has kept their looms in motion, and enabled them to prosecute this war. What has been done cannot be avoided, but we mean in the future to guard against these things, it is useless for some men to be shedding their blood, sacrificing their property, and enduring hardships while others are furnishing the enemy with the means of carrying on the war. We hope the Press of the Confederate States will call attention to this subject, for it is one of the highest importance.

Chattanooga Daily Rebel, November 4, 1862

 

 

4, 1863 - "MORE REBEL OUTRAGES IN WEST TENNESSEE. Gibson and Carroll Counties the Scene of their Operations. Diabolical Outrage upon a Soldier of 1812. Stores Broken Open, Citizens Robbed and Sickly Men Conscripted."

Editor Bulletin: As I have reliable information from the upper counties of West Tennessee, I will make a note for your valuable journal. In Gibson and Carroll counties, the rebels are having a jolly time conscripting loyal [Union] men, running them down with negro [sic] dogs, and heaping all kinds of insults on them. And as the rebels of Memphis make it a daily business to denounce the Union soldiers as thieves, cut-throats, and everything else that will covey a rebel's idea of all that is mean and low, I propose to give them a specimen of how their own saintly crew can steal, rob and plunder. They went to old may YANDELL's [sic] in Gibson, and took every horse the old man had but one worthless one; they carried off his young stock, that could be of no use to them. They then proceeded to take all the clothing that belonged to his daughters. Old man YANDELL [sic], is an old soldier of 1812, and is between 75 and 80 years age. Yet these saintly disciples of liberty could rob him, and then tell him he was an old Abolition traitor, and ought to be robbed. This saintly crew then went to Milan and broke in the night into HIRAM HANSBAIR's [sic] store, carried off four or five hundred dollars in money, and all the goods they could carry. They then broke open the store of Mr. SHEPPARED [sic], and destroyed and plundered his house. They then proceeded to old Man WM. HARRIS and carried away 200 bushels of corn, 1000 bundles of fodder, and to pay for the same denounced him as a d____d traitor [sic] to the glorious Southern Confederacy.

They conscripted a young man in the neighborhood who was not able to carry a musket, and because his Creator had made him a sickly man, they gave him a genteel cursing and took every Report of the Adjutant General of clothes he had, down to his shirt and pants. And still to hear these saintly rebels of Memphis talk, their soldiers never do any wrong. And there is not a day but what this crew are housed up in some back-room plotting treason and perjury, and heaping their damnable curses upon the heads of the Union officers of this city. They are called thieves, cut-throats, vagabonds, negro-stealers and every loathsome name that a rebel can think of, and let one speak of their saintly crew in disreputable terms they re ready to denounce it as a d____d lie. I say to these gentry, pull the bean out of your own eye, and you can then see how to get the mote out of your neighbors.

CITIZEN

Memphis Bulletin, November 4, 1863.

 

 

4, 1864 - Communications from Gideon J. Pillow to William T. Sherman relative to permission to cross enemy lines

HDQRS. JACKSON'S [CS] CAVALRY DIVISION, Near Courtland, Ala., November 4, 1864.

Maj. Gen. W. T. SHERMAN, Cmdg. U. S. Forces in the Field:

GEN.: I have the honor herewith to inclose a communication of Gen. Pillow, and to request your favorable consideration of the same. Being actuated by honest and natural motives to remove his large and dependent family south, I feel that you will extend to him the courtesies which he asks. If granted, will you permit his aide-de-camp and son, Lieut. George M. Pillow, and his nephew, Lieut. Lem. Long, to accompany and assist him? I have also to request permission for Dr. W. M. Gentry, a surgeon in our army, to accompany the party to remove his family from Bedford County, Tenn., to our lines. May I ask your early attention and reply to this? I will offer my assurances, if the permission is granted, that these gentlemen will pledge themselves to silence.

I have the honor, general, to be, your obedient servant,

W. H. JACKSON, Brig.-Gen.

[Inclosure.]

TUSCUMBIA, ALA., November 2, 1864.

Maj.-Gen. SHERMAN:

SIR: I have received information that my residence and the home of my family, near Columbia, has been sold, or is to be sold in a short time, by decree of confiscation, and that my family are to be turned out of becomes a necessity, and I send this communication to get your permission for their removal and your safeguard for such carriages and horses or mules and wagons as may be necessary to bring out such personal baggage as they may be allowed to remove. All my large estate having been confiscated by authority of your Government, and my family thus reduced to poverty, they are left without the means of getting out. My family consists of a wife and six daughters (nearly all unwed ladies) and a little son nearly eleven years old. Under such circumstances, I will accept it as a personal courtesy, amenitory [sic] of the harshness of this war, if you would permit me to go in person to my residence to make the necessary arrangements for their removal, and to carry with me, under your safeguard, such means of transportation as I may be able to command here and such carriages as I may be able to procure from my friends there. I also respectfully ask that you will allow such servants of my family as may choose voluntarily to come with them to do so, that having been allowed to the citizens of Atlanta. If the application is not allowed in the form presented, you will confer a favor on me to allow a personal interview with yourself, designating time and place. If allowed myself to enter your lines, I would do so under such injunctions of silence as you may think proper to impose. I addressed a similar communication some weeks ago to Maj.-Gen. Rousseau, through Brig.-Gen. Roddey, but have received no answer. A small guard of Confederates or Federals, but have received no answer. A family, which you will also please allow, to protect them from bushwhackers and robbers.

Very respectfully,

GIDEON J. PILLOW, Brig.-Gen., C. S. Army.[1]

OR, Ser. I, Vol. 39, pt. III, pp. 640-641.

 



[1] It is not known if Sherman, who was very busy at the time, answered. If he did respond no doubt he informed Pillow that such protection was given only to those loyal to the United, not Confederate, States

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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