Monday, June 23, 2014

6.23.14 Tennessee Civil War Notes

        23, Brigadier-General James S. Negley to Military Governor Andrew Johnson regarding conditions in Columbia environs

Columbia, Tenn. June 23, 1862

To Gov. Johnson:

I submit to you the absolute necessity of arresting & severely punishing a few of the active secessionists in this vicinity. Depredations are committed daily through their influence & the Union men kept in a state of terror[.] simply arresting & administering the oath is not sufficient It only serves to cloak their movements. I have arrested Young S. Packard this morning as one of these men[.] what shall do with him? [sic] He is one of the old C. S. A. speculators. Your wishes relative to the man we arrested in East Tennessee was complied with. The extent of contraband trade carried on by both Union men & rebels with Chattanooga rendered it necessary to make a few examples.

Papers of Andrew Johnson, Vol. 5, p. 499.

        23, Domestic Security Incident near Germantown

A Heroic Woman.

One of the most heroic acts of the war has just been reported to us, as having occurred near Germantown, Tenn. Two Federal soldiers entered the dwelling of an old citizen, and after being well treated, they demanded the old gentleman's money, and one of the ruffians sought to force a compliance with their demand by leveling his gun at the head of the house. The old lady interposed herself between the gun of the miscreant and her husband, and while the coward hesitated to shoot, a daughter of the aged couple came from an adjoining room, and seeing the situation of efforts, seized a double-barreled shot gun, with which she shot the ruffian through the head, killing him instantly. His companion fled, while the inmates of the house remained uninjured. The heroism of that gallant young lady will be remembered when the history of the war is written.

Memphis Appeal [Grenada, Ms], June 23, 1862.[1]

 

 

 

 

        23, "The defense of this line consists more especially in a system of continual attacks upon every head of column that shows itself." Federal reaction to Confederate demonstrations upon the Charleston and Memphis railroad

LAGRANGE, June 23, 1863--11.30 p. m.

(Received June 24.)

Maj.-Gen. HURLBUT, Memphis:

A heavy force is threatening Grand Junction to-night, 3 miles off; said to be 1,000, from Holly Springs. My whole command is under arms.

Mizner is not here yet.

R. J. OGLESBY.

 

MEMPHIS, TENN., June 23, 1863.

Maj.-Gen. OGLESBY, LaGrange, Tenn.:

GEN.: If the enemy make a movement in strong force on the line of Memphis and Charleston Railroad, Corinth and Pocahontas will be the points to be held, and on which troops can be massed. Works commanding the bridges and approaches at Pocahontas should be thrown up, and the country between that point and Corinth should be strongly held.

Moscow is the next point of serious consequence, so far as the road is concerned, and should be the rallying point at this end of your line. The country from Moscow to Memphis to be heavily patrolled by cavalry, and the place, if invested, to be relieved from here, or garrison retired to this point.

My opinion is still unsettled as to the intention of this demonstration. All depends upon the activity of Rosecrans, from which I fear we have little to hope.

The defense of this line consists more especially in a system of continual attacks upon every head of column that shows itself.

I wish a train of pack-mules organized for our cavalry. The saddles are here. Thus they can take provisions, axes, and implements, and make their trips rapidly.

If there is any serious threat of attack, your unarmed negroes [sic] should be sent here. I have telegraphed as to hospitals.

S. A. HURLBUT.

OR, Ser. I, Vol. 24, pt. III, p. 433.

        23, A candle-lit Federal cavalry camp near Murfreesboro on the eve of the Tullahoma campaign

This evening we received orders to prepare to move camp. The men to take three day's rations in their haversacks and all baggage not absolutely needed to be sent to Murfreesboro. Every man to have also one hundred rounds of ammunition. At night the boys lit up the camp with pieces of candles and even climbed the trees and put them there. Everybody seemed to desire to have his light the highest. It was a very beautiful sight. The lights in the trees seemed at a distance to be very bright stars. There was not a breath of air stirring and all burned steadily. I do not suppose the old forest ever witnessed just such a scene before and probably will not for a long time again. The bright moon, the blue sky, studded with so many twinkling stars, the dark outline of the forest trees, especially of the cedars. The white shelter tents showing so white in the light of so many candles and in contrast to the dark color of all around and then the forms of so many men moving about gave so much animation to the scene.

Alley Diary

 

 

 

 

        23, Report on incidence of murder by bushwhackers, East Tennessee

"Brutal Murder by Rebels"

But a short time since, Mr. Henderson was murdered in cold blood in Monroe county, by rebel bushwhackers near Madisonville. He was a good citizen and a Union man. More recently James McAffey, of Athens, a loyal man, was murdered and robbed on Walden's Ridge, leaving a wife and children to mourn his loss. Rebel thieves and assassins are prowling over the country, clothed frequently in the Federal uniform, and are shooting down innocent citizens and robbing Union houses.

We trust in God that Gov. Johnson will furnish a brigade of mounted East Tennessee troops for this division of the State, and that they will seize...the lawless bands of robbers, and hang them wherever they are found. This is the only policy....

Brownlow's Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator, June 23, 1864.

        23, Guerrilla attack on train near La Fayette, Tennessee

No circumstantial reports filed.

Excerpt from the Report of Col. Edward H. Wolfe, Fifty-second Indiana Infantry, commanding Third Brigade, regarding the expedition to Tupelo, MS from LaGrange, Tenn., July 5-21, 1864 including attack on train near La Fayette, Tenn., June 23.

HDQRS. THIRD Brig., THIRD DIV., 16TH ARMY CORPS, Memphis, Tenn., July 29, 1864.

LIEUT.: In compliance with ordered from headquarters Third Division, Sixteenth Army Corps, July 28, 1864, I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by my command during the late expedition to Tupelo, Miss.:

In obedience to Special Orders, No. 63, paragraph VI, headquarters Right Wing, Sixteenth Army Corps, Memphis, Tenn., June 23, 1864, my command, after having been paid off, proceeded by train to Moscow, on the 23d. When near La Fayette a party of guerrillas fired into the train, killing and wounding several. Some of the men who jumped or fell off the cars were captured and afterward murdered. Their bodies were recovered by a party of the Second Iowa Cavalry and recognized by Lieut. McDonald, One hundred and seventy-eighty New York Volunteers. At Moscow the brigade remained until the 27th, when it took up the line of march for LaGrange, which was reached the same day.

* * * *

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E.H. WOLFE, Colonel, Commanding Third Brigade

OR, Ser. I, Vol. 39, pt. I, p. 295.

 

 

 

 

        23, Orders for restoring civil law and order in East Tennessee

NASHVILLE, TENN., June 23, 1865.

Maj. Gen. GEORGE STONEMAN, Cmdg. Department of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.:

GEN.: Upon assuming command of your department the major-general commanding directs that you take charge of the reorganization of civil law within your department, aiding such reorganization by the means at your disposal. The military authority will at all times be held and used as a support and refuge to the civil, avoiding so far as possible the assumption of the functions of civil tribunals. No arrests or imprisonment for debts, claimed to be owed by one citizen to another, will be made. All depredations on the part of the military will be suppressed at once, and no impressment of forage, provisions, stock, or other property will be permitted within your command. Such further special instructions will be given from time to time from these headquarters as circumstances may render necessary.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. D. WHIPPLE, Brig.-Gen. and Chief of Staff.

(Same to Maj. Gen. J. B. Steedman, commanding Department of Georgia, Augusta, Ga.; Bvt. Maj. Gen. A. A. Humphreys, commanding Department of Florida, Tallahassee, Fla.; Maj. Gen. C. R. Woods, commanding Department of Alabama, Mobile, Ala.; Maj. Gen. H. W. Slocum, commanding Department of Mississippi, Vicksburg, Miss.)

OR, Ser. I, Vol. 49, pt. II, pp. 1028-1029.

 



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


James B. Jones, Jr.

Public Historian

Tennessee Historical Commission

2941 Lebanon Road

Nashville, TN  37214

(615)-770-1090 ext. 123456

(615)-532-1549  FAX

 

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