Thursday, January 9, 2014

1/9/2014 Tennessee Civil War Notes

        9, "Shall Tennessee Submit?"

In the House of Representatives yesterday, Mr. Wisener [sic],[1] of Bedford [County], presented a series of resolutions declaring against the policy of holing a State Convention, as proposed by Gov. Harris, either for the purpose indicated in his message and announcing it inexpedient to pass any law reorganizing and arming the militia of the State. We must confess that we were not prepared to expect such broad indications towards submission, from any member of the Tennessee Legislature. But for charity sake we take it for granted Mr. Wisener has not lately paid much attention to the political events of the day, and is especially ignorant as to what has been lately transpiring in Congress. For we cannot see how any Southern man, who is at all familiarly with the history of the times, can in his capacity as the Representative of a Southern constituency, in a Southern Legislature solemnly declare it inexpedient for the people of his State to hold a convention and determine whether they will resist or submit to the Abolition rule now about to be inaugurated. This is really the question now addressing itself to the people of the Southern States. Tennessee will be untrue to herself, untrue to her proud position in the sisterhood of States, untrue to her glorious memories and great destiny, through the proper medium, at an early day, for herself to answer the question with the emphatic words: "We will resist." Such will be her answer-such is today the voice of her people. He who expects any other answer from Tennesseans does not know them, and does them egregious wrong even in the suspicion that their necks will be conveniently bent to the yoke of despotism intended by Northern fanatics for Southern men. No event of the future can be put down as more certain than that Tennessee will resist [sic], and it may also be take as a certainly that her militia will in a short time be put in proper trim for all emergencies indicated by the "signs of the times."

Nashville Daily Gazette, January 9, 1861.

 

 

        9, Railroad Excursion to Nashville

A TRIP TO NASHVILLE

[Special Correspondence of the Dispatch.]

Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 9th, 1862

As the traveler glides along by railway from Chattanooga to Nashville the scene present to him for several miles is most picturesque, even at this season of the year. To his right, stretching out as far as his vision can penetrate; he beholds an endless succession of undulating mountains clothed in "azure hue." At his feet runs the noble river which bears the name of Tennessee.. On its left bank the can grows-a grateful evergreen, and on its right, the tall cliffs, smooth as if from the hands of the lapidary, glass themselves beautifully in the shining stream below.

After crossing the Tennessee we came to the Raccoon Mountains, famous for the excellent coal with which they furnish the city of Nashville. On one of the topmost knobs where one would suppose only the scream of the eagle could be heard, sits the shanty of a Raccoon in the shape of man, filled with the noise of many precious little raccoons-some wag, on seeing this lofty habitation or "Raccoon hollow," as he termed it, has paraphrased a very familiar stanza of sacred poetry, which, without intention or being impious, is here inserted:

When I can read my title clear,

To shanties in the skies,

I'll bid farewell to every fear

And wipe my raccoon eyes!

Besides the tunnel through the Cumberland mountains, and the site of the great Allisona Spinning and Weaving Works, where a fortune was spent in preparation for a grand method of disposing of the raw material, but which fell fire destroyed in a night, there is little or nothing to attract the attention of the voyager.

The farmers in this country have an original way of sowing wheat. The grain is scattered in the corn-field while yet the corn is ungathered, and also in the cotton fields while the bolls are white with King Cotton. The earth is lapped around the stalks, and the middle of the rows is thrown out, as Virginians "lay by;" corn. In the spring, before the wheat gets to the boot, they cut down the stalks. While this is a rough mode of farming, it affords full time for the crops to mature, and still accomplishes the seeding of wheat in due season.

It is rumored here that the Federals are crossing Green River in force. Buell is said to be sending over six or eight regiments every day. Still, the impression here is that there will no fight. It is an impossible thing to learn the truth where there are so many such conflicting statements. I shall reach Bowling Green to-morrow, and the readers of the Dispatch may rest assured that I will avail myself of all opportunities to obtain the latest and most reliable information. I shall take care not to mislead, but, if possible, to enlighten the public as to army matters in Kentucky.

Occasional.

Daily Dispatch, January 15, 1862. [2]

 

 

        9, Pollution prevention in Breckenridge's Division, excerpt from Special Order No. 60,

Head Quarters Breckenridge's Div.

Tullahoma, January 9th 1863

Special Order No. 60

I. Brigade Commanders will take immediate steps to prevent the pollution of the stream of water near which the Division is camped. No slaughter houses or butcher pens will be allowed to be erected near it. All offal of any kind whatever must be burned or buried, and must not be thrown into the stream.

It will be the duty of the inspector Genl of Division and Brigade to report promptly to these Head Quarters the violation of any part of the above order.

*  *  *  *  *

By command of Maj Genl Breckinridge.

William B. Bate collection

 

 

        9, On Brownlow'sKnoxville Whig for January 9, 1864

East Tennessee

We have received Parson Brownlow's Knoxville Whig for January 9. It is published in Knoxville and republished in Cincinnati. The proprietor expected to issue weekly. He declines to take Tennessee money for subscriptions, according to his original intentions, as he left Knoxville when it was besieged, not because he was afraid, but because he did not like being confined in a "cold, lousy, filthy prison of the South," live on their diet, or hang on one of their trees. He is heavy in his denunciation of rebel ladies in Nashville, and calls for banishment. He says that the rebels at the beginning of the rebellion, stated they were about to develop the resources of the South, and he now sees them walking out with patches on their knees, and a development of visible shirt tail.

While on his way from Cincinnati he met from three to five thousand men, women and children, some on foot, some in wagons and carts, and others on packed mules and horses, were pressing through the deep gorges of the mountains, making their escape through every possible gap from murderous assaults, revolting insults, and thieving Arabs under Longstreet's command. No adequate idea of the mass of Union refugees fleeing from their more than savage pursuers to places of safety in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, can be formed unless the sight could have been seen. Thousands of panic stricken Unionists, simultaneously deserted their homes, in the midst of indiscriminate robberies, insult and outrage, and more than savage barbarities. All this distracted multitude, from the whole of thirty-two counties, on the high-ways and by-ways, hiding now in sloughs, and now in the river hills, and in the woods, in the rear of plantations; some famishing for provisions, others suffering from cold, all dreading the approach of the infuriated, but thieving, murderous cavalry of a rebel army.—[Memphis Bulletin.

[Little Rock] Unconditional Union, February 19, 1864.[3]

 

 

        9, Exaggerated Reports of the Defeat and Retreat of Hood

TENNESSEE

We have Montgomery papers of December 28th, but they contain nothing from the seat of war in Middle Tennessee. The Appeal says reports from our friends are anxiously looked for, and a well-grounded hope is entertained that the intelligence already published, taken from Northern sources, announcing the defeat and retreat of Gen. Hood, are exaggerated, as is usual with the Yankee press. The latest Southern reports from the army are to the 14th.

The Daily Express, (Petersburg, VA) January 9, 1865. [4]



[1] William H. Wisener (1812-?) served in the Tennessee House of Representatives in the 27th, 29th, 30th and 33rd General Assemblies, 1847-49, 1851-55, 1859-61, where he represented Bedford County. He was a staunch Unionist and he served in the Senate in the 34th, or Reconstruction, and 35th General Assemblies. He was a presidential elector on the Union Party ticket in 1864, supporting the election of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. He was defeated for the U. S. Senate in the 34th (Reconstruction) General Assembly; he was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor on the Republican ticket in 1870 and later unsuccessful as Republican candidate of Congress in 1874. The date of his death and place of burial is not known. See: Biographical Directory of the Tennessee General Assembly, Vol. I, 1796-1861(Nashville, Tennessee Historical Commission, 1975), pp. 813-814.

[2] As cited in PQCW.

[3] As cited in: http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts.

[4] TSL&A, 19th CN.


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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