An Incident at Nashville

One of the soldiers of the 69th regiment Ohio, now in Nashville, writes to a fellow citizen that the Secesh are still rife and rabid among the rich and purse-proud in that city and in the State of Tennessee.  The laboring classes and the poor are devoted to the Union, and greet our troops wherever they go.  The correspondent gives an amusing incident which occurred between him and two ladies (?) of the rebel corps in Nashville:  “I happened to stop to look in a window, where there were some engravings, two finely dressed ladies standing by at the same place; one of them slightly turned her head and looked at me disdainfully, and curling up her lips, remarked to her companion, ‘Another Lincoln hireling.’  I stood on my dignity, and replied ‘that my daddy was wealthier than hers.’  ‘Who is he, pray, sir?’ said she scornfully.  ‘Uncle Sam’s my daddy,’ said I, ‘and Jonathan’s my brother.’  She caved.”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 2, 1862, p. 2