Correspondence of the
Cincinnati Gazette
Nashville, Tenn., March
6.
The sympathizers with treason in this vicinity are consoling
themselves with the idea that the retreat of the rebel generals and their
forces was designed as a strategic movement, for the purpose of getting Gen.
Buell on the south side of the Cumberland, so that whenever they desired so to
do, they could easily gobble up him and his entire army.
Whether the men who profess to believe this are sincere or not,
it is certain that this is only one of the many absurdities with which they
daily undertake to console themselves or to deceive the ignorant.
And the nonsense which they circulate has not merely
reference to the operations of our troops in portions of the country distant
from here, but to what is transpiring in the immediate vicinity of Nashville.
As examples, let me record a few of the rumors which I heard
in a single day. I was crossing the
river in a steamboat yesterday morning, when my attention was attracted to a conversation which was going
on between a Lieutenant of our army and a fat, bluffy gentleman, who, himself a
bitter Secessionist, was performing the role
of a Union man intensely alarmed for the safety of the Federal Army.
“I know your troops are brave,” said he to the Lieutenant, “but
bravery has no chance against desperation, and the men in the Southern army are
becoming very desperate, indeed.”
“Do you mean,” replied the Lieutenant, “that they so despair
of their cause that they will always run, and thus give no opportunity to our
brave boys to engage them? Against such desperation
I admit that bravery is of little avail.”
“Yes,” said the concealed Secesher, “they are in retreat
now, but when they do make a stand, I know what sort of men they are, and I
very much fear the result.”
“I know what sort of men they are, too,” rejoined the
Lieutenant; “they are just the sort that attempted to stand against us at Mill
Springs, and fled like frightened sheep at the first charge of the bayonet.”
“Well, well,” said they hypocrite, “you mustn’t count too
much upon the battle of Mill Springs. I
am sure no one wishes better success to your cause than I; but we all perfectly
understand, down here, that the reason why you gained that fight was that Gen.
Crittenden was drunk, and after the death of Zollicoffer, was unable to command
the army.”
“Then answered the Lieutenant, “the desperate courage of the
rebel soldiers must be of little avail, if it can be turned into arrant
cowardice by the drunkenness of one man.”
This seemed rather to puzzle the pretender; but when the
Lieutenant proceeded to ask him if Gen. Tilghman was drunk at Fort Henry, and
if Pillow, Floyd, et al., were drunk
at Fort Donelson, he was unable longer to hid his cloven foot, and spitefully
declared: “You’ll see how they thing will turn out! Only last night there were seventy two of
your pickets killed, and two pieces of your cannon taken by a small party of
cavalry, not more than twenty in number!”
At this a loud [hoarse] laugh broke from a number of Union
soldiers, who had gathered round, and so hearty was it, that even the Secession
sympathizers in the crowd were constrained to join in, although they would fain
have believed that the old rebel’s story was true.
The Lieutenant said not another word, but after bestowing
one smile of contempt and scorn upon the unveiled traitor, rose up calmly and
went away. I should like very much to
give you his name, but no one on board seemed to know it. One thing I considered certain – that in his
case, the emblems of military authority had been placed upon the solders of the
right man.
And this reminds us of another instance of deserved rebuke
to a secessionist, but one of our officers.
A very haughty looking scion of aristocracy stepped up to a group
standing not far from the City Hotel. A
captain of one of the Ohio regiments was in the company, and was just re[marking
that he considered the rebellion pretty] well played out. “And isn’t it possible,” said the gent, who
had come up a minute previous, “is it possible that you expect to crush the
Southern people by force of arms?”
“Did you ever know of such a movement being put down by the
bayonet?”
“O, yes! we had an instance in our country, when the whisky
insurrection, in Pennsylvania was suppressed, during the administration of
Washington.”
“You don’t pretend to compare this ware with the whiskey
insurrection in Pennsylvania?” said the nabob, with much apparent horror.
“Not in all respects,” replied the Captain, “for I consider
this rebellion, stirred up by the devilish passions of a few disappointed politicians
in the South, as infinitely more abominable than any outbreak which could be excited by bad whiskey, in
Pennsylvania, or elsewhere.”
An old veteran, a resident of Nashville, who was listening,
grasped the Captain by the hand: “God bless you!” said he, “that’s right! Don’t
hesitate to tell them the truth.” The
secesh gent suddenly remembered, as the saying is, an engagement an another
part of the town.
I record these instances of manly bearing with the more
pleasure, because I have seen some disgusting exhibitions of toadyism on the
part of certain officers in our army, toward the advocates of this wicked and
bloody treason. – It exists generally in a latent form, but is pretty certain
to show itself in the supporter of disloyalty happens to live in an elegant
mansion, to have a hundred or so “niggers” around him and to sport a gold
headed cane.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye,
Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 2
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