Rebel Vandalism at Bowling Green

From the Louisville Journal, 29^th.

We have seen a gentleman who left Bowling Green since its occupation by the Federal troops, from whom we have received numerous details of the shameful work of the destruction which has been consummated in that  once beautiful town.  When it was found that place was untenable, and it was resolved to evacuate it, the Confederates commenced their incendiarism on Wednesday, the 12^th, about dark, upon the residence of Warner L. Underwood, Esq., which was entirely destroyed.  At 9 o’clock the pork house of T. Quigley & Co. was fired, and all but the smoke house was burned.  There were about $15,000 worth of hides and tallow stowed there belonging to Campbell and Smith, who had been killing cattle for the rebel army, and these constituted their entire profits.  The incindiaries, in their wanton destruction, seem to have spared neither friend or foe, and the property of rebels and Union men was indiscriminately destroyed.  They next went about 2 o’clock at night, to the old Washington Hotel, at the corner of Main and Nashville streets, and applied their combustibles in the billiard room. – This building was completely destroyed, and the flames were extended to six contiguous stores all of which were burned, though the occupants in some instances saved a portion of their contents.  The first store burned was that occupied by More & Kline druggists, belonging to J. T. Donaldson, all good Union men.  Geatty and Gwin’s, shoe dealers, was the next building, owned by Dr. Moore, of Harrodsburg, then the family grocery store of J. D. Hines, a vile rebel, which belonged to Warner L. Underwood. – Then the conflagration extended to the tenement owned by Mrs. C. T. Dunnivan, occupied by Shower and Mitchell, merchant tailors, who saved most of their stock.  The next building was owned by Mr. H. T. Smith, and tenanted by McClure and Fusetti, jewelers, about one third of their stock escaped destruction.  Over this was a lawyer’s office, occupied by J. J. Wilkins, who acted as receiver for the arms seized from citizens by the Provisional Government, and also the office of Dr. W. D. Helm, a good Union man.  Next to the jewelry store was Hugh Barclay’s drug store.  He is a Union man, and succeeded in saving about half the contents of the house, which belonged to Mr. Pendleton, of Hopkinsville.  The House formerly occupied by S. A. Barclay, a strong Union man, but recently used by the Confederates for storing flour, was next consumed but the contents were all previously removed, the property belonged to John H. Graham, of the city.  The livery stable owned by J. T. Donaldson and occupied by W. W. McNeal, was also burned to the ground.  The next morning the saw mill of D. B. Campbell was burned, he has gone off with the rebel army.  The flour mill of Judge Payne, a Union man, shared the same fate as did the pork house of F. F. Lucas, a rebel sympathizer.

The beautiful iron railroad bridge was destroyed on Thursday last, about 11 o’clock.  The mines were exploded in the towers of the piers, but as the iron work did not fall, cannon were brought to bear, and thirteen rounds were fired before the demolition was completed.  On Friday about four o’clock, the planks were torn off the sides of the turnpike bridge, and tallow strewed it to facilitate the combustion.  This was burned about three hours before the division of Gen. Mitchel came up, which fired shells in and around the town wherever the rebels were congregated.  Then commenced the stampede.  The infantry seized the horses of the cavalry and made off in wild haste.  There were some rebel troops in camp at Double Springs, about one and a half miles north of the town, on the river, who were shelled before they had completed preparations for leaving.  They threw away everything and rushed through the town in panic confusion.  Reaching a hill a little south of the town, the Texas Rangers, Morgan’s cavalry, and some of the less frightened flying mass halted, and after some deliberation turned back.  They went to the Fair grounds and there burned the beautiful amphitheater in which a large amount of corn and wagons was stored.  About 16 of the latter were saved.  The large tobacco factory of Hampton, Pritchell & Co., was next destroyed.  They then proceeded to the railroad depot, which contained a vast quantity of shoes, blankets, medicines, one hundred hogsheads of sugar, and all the articles most needed by them, all of which were destroyed except some flour and pickled beef, which was rescued by citizens for their own use.  The destruction of the property belonging to the rebels was very great.  Some estimate its value at a million dollars, but it is impossible to even approximate the amount of the destruction with any certainty.

The machine shop, known as the Round House, was also burned, it contained two damaged engines and two extra tenders.  There was a train of cars loaded with meat, the engine to which had steam on, ready to start, this was fired, but whether by the Federal shells or the rebel torch our informant is unable to say. – All the cars and contents were burned, and the half consumed meats fell on the track between the rails.  The unsated fiends then proceeded to the McCloud House, the principal hotel of the town, broke open the doors with axes, and scattered firebrands within, consuming officers’ trunks, baggage and everything it contained. – The Highland House, a drinking place adjoining was also burned, with Major McGoodwin’s new store, which was filled with Confederate supplies.  A negro house at Samuel Barclay’s nursery, near town was fired about the same time.  Two men applied incendiary brands to the steam saw mill of a glorious Union man, celebrated for his sash and blinds manufactory, and resisted the efforts of the owner to stop the progress of the flames.  The Federal troops on the other side of the river commenced a discharge at the two men, who ran off and Mr. Donaldson was mistaken as a rebel also until he contrived to improvise some flag of truce, when his friends discovered their mistake and was enabled to extinguish the flames with but a trifling injury to the premises.

We cannot enumerate the many losses around Bowling Green, or the depredation committed by marauders in gangs of six to twelve, who pressed every horse and wagon to be found into the rebel service.  At least one hundred horses were stolen from the side of the bridges before they were burned.  The Rev. Samuel W. Garrison lost twelve.  He had a shot gun, rifle and pistol, which he discharged so rapidly at the robbers that they fell back on the main body and reported that they had been attacked by the main body of the Yankee infantry!

When Gen. Mitchel occupied the north bank of Barren river and commenced shelling the rebels the scene of their flight as described to us, was one of the most terrible routs that can be imagined.  The Nashville pike was completely blockaded with cavalry and infantry, all in admirable disorder, and a long line of carriages, carts and all kinds of vehicles.  Officers were hurrying away their wives on foot, and carrying their children in their arms, while the whole non-belligerent portion of the flying crowd were screaming and shouting at the top of their voices in a frenzy of apprehension.

From the best informed sources, we gather that the Confederates have never had 30,000 troops at any one time in and around Bowling Green.  Their regiments are very skeleton like, not averaging five hundred men and Roger Hanson’s which was the fullest in the service, never had more on its muster roll than eight hundred and sixteen.  They have lost nearly five thousand of their troops by sickness who died for want of medicine, proper treatment and bad hospitals, though fifteen houses had been fitted up for their exclusive accommodation all of which were left in the most filthy condition.  For a long time their average sick list has been three thousand.  The Baptist church and the basement of the Presbyterian church were used as hospitals, all the seats and desks were broken up and the building terribly defaced.  A million dollars will not compensate the county of Warren for losses and injuries.  From twenty-five to sixty beef cattle were slaughtered every day in Bowling Green for the use of the rebels and neither Buckner nor Hardee, when in command, where particular about compensation.  If any outrages were committed, and they were generally done at night.  Buckner always promised resolution if the injured individual could identify the trespassers, which being impossible, was a convenient way to pay debts.

With the rebel hordes, every gambler left Bowling Green.  Jack Valentine, one of the principal ones of the fraternity enjoys a captaincy in the Confederate army.  Shinplasters experienced a rapid decline after the evacuation, they were freely offered at fifty cents for one dollar, but no takers.  A number of private dwellings were set on fire during Thursday and Friday, which were put out, but there evidently existed a determination on the part of the rebels to lay the whole town in ashes.  The fine mansion of Judge Underwood on this side of the river was still standing, but to what interior injury it has been subjected, our informant could not say. – Cripps Wickliffe, late Clerk of the Senate, is not dead, as reported, he had been very sick, but after his recovery, he removed to Nashville.

The most serious injury has been inflicted on the citizens of Warren by the Provisional Government, and its infamous exactions.  Some of its officers have made good speculations out of their temporary fiscal agencies.  John Burnham, Treasurer to the Provisional Government, escaped with about twenty five thousand dollars, mostly obtained from the fines levied upon men in lieu of the delivery of a gun.  When weapons were found they were receipted for at from five to thirty dollars in scrip made ‘payable to the proper officer’ and it will bother the holders to find him.  Lewis W. Potter, the Provisional Sheriff of Warren county has also gone off without settling for a lot of taxes which he had collected by coercion.  His Excellency, George W. Johnson, Provisional Governor of the State of Kentucky, has been heard to declare with emphasis, that the Provisional government is played out! – He retires with the grace and dignity to the vicinity of Nashville.  The banking institutions at Bowling Green have not been molested, except that a thousand dollars of the State revenue, deposited in the Branch of the Bank of Kentucky was taken as the legitimate property of the Provisional Government, probably to pay salaries for the puppets in office.  The books, funds and papers of the Glasgow Branch were taken to Bowling Green, but they are in a situation to be restored without injury.

We stated a short time since that an aged gentleman named Samuel Murrell had been misused by the rebel company under command of Capt. Burns, a son-in-law of Judge Joyes, of this city.  This is a mistake, it was George, Mr. Murrell’s son.  Burns boarded with Mr. Murrell, about twelve miles north of Bowling Green, and in a conversation at the table he spoke very insultingly of all Union men, and said if he had his way he would hang or burn every one of them.  Some time after this Burns’ men seized George without any provocation, rode him on a rail, ducked him in a pond, hoisted him up two or three times over a beam in the barn and inflicted every conceivable insult upon him.  He appealed to Captain Burns for assistance, but the rebel cited his dinner table remark and said he was in earnest when he thus spoke.

We have a few glimpses of the whereabouts of some old acquaintances.  Gen. A. Sidney Johnston was one of the last to leave Bowling Green, but left in such a hurry that he forgot his over coat.  He took the pike to Nashville.  Colonel Thomas A. Hunt left for New Orleans, for the benefit of his health, and Alexander Casseday succeed to the command.  Alexander Casseday and John C. Breckinridge are temporarily at the capital of the State of Tennessee.  Young Tom Clay is on Buckner’s staff, and having left with the General for Fort Donelson, is probably a prisoner.  Generals Hindman and Hardee both went to Nashville.  Henry J. Lyons has left for the purpose of visiting California, not finding Secessia an El Dorado.  Ned Crutchfield is at Clarksville.  Buckner is said to have taken 15,000 men with him from Bowling Green to Fort Donelson.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 1, 1862, p. 1