Southern Intelligence --- Extracts from Southern Papers

(From the Richmond Enquirer of Feb. 19.)

THE NEWS FROM FORT DONELSON.

The fortitude of our people is again to be tried, and the metal of which their courage is made once more to be tested, by the last news from Fort Donelson.  We have met with heavy disaster there.  The wretches who are invading our country were enabled, by the facilities of river transportation, to bring up reinforcements to their previously whipped troops, and have overwhelmed us with numbers.  We are without the necessary facts and explanations to justify comment upon the tragedy of last Sunday.  We have had experience enough already to show the folly of premature criticisms.  We must have patience.  Such reports as have reached us are chiefly from the North, and are given in the telegraphic column.

But this thing we must do: by the mangled body of every man who fell at the hand so the scoundrel murderers who have invaded the country of those who never did them any harm – by the homes which we have established by our industry – by the beautiful land which we have inherited from our fathers – by the families that we love – by all that is noble, patriotic and brave, and in the fear and fervently invoking the favor of God – we must all resolve, in our inmost souls, and vow with an irrevocable vow, that we will resist the enemy to the last extremity, and that we will die if we cannot live free men!

And this vow we must set about making good.  Let cowards tremble if they will – let vile niggards count their treasures in agony.  But what brave or generous citizen would wish to survive the ruin of his country?  Who would desire to live when odious and vulgar despots have foot upon our necks?  No, fellow citizens – let us as did our fathers, pledge our sacred honor to each other and to the world that our lives and our fortunes shall be devoted to the vindication of our liberties, and that if these are lost, nothing shall survive the wreck, for nothing would be worth saving.

Courage, then, people of the Confederate States!  You have now one of those “opportunities” which, if improved, make nations famous and make brave men renowned!  History awaits our action, to make up the record of glory or infamy.  Any man can be brave when there is no danger.  Any soldier can be enthusiastic when cheered by a round of successes.  It is adversity that tries men’s souls, and distinguishes between the true man and the false – the genuine and the counterfeit!  Let us stimulate each other’s courage and emulate each other’s zeal!  If one man falls, let two step forward to take his place.  This fight must be redeemed.  We will have the victory!

What if we have reverses?  ‘Tis the fate of war.  A war without disasters is a winter without storms.  But we will bear them like patriots and brave men, and both in our fortitude and daring we will show ourselves worthy to be free.  If we do not we do not deserve to be free.

Of the extent of the disaster which we have suffered at Donelson we are very uncertain.  We must believe that the Federal account is greatly exaggerated.

The wires were not working yesterday to Nashville, after the morning.  The War Department received no news save a dispatch from Gen. A. S. Johnston in the morning.  He was at Nashville.  Gen. Floyd was there also with a portion of the Fort Donelson command.  The dispatch said “he had saved a thousand.”  The number of captured by the enemy cannot surely be fifteen thousand!  But in the absence of information it is vain to speculate.  A little patience will bring the facts.

Gen. A. S. Johnston has fallen back from Bowling Green to Nashville, where he hopes to be able to make a defence.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 1, 1862, p. 2

Bridges between Bowling Green and Nashville Destroyed – The Rebel Evacuation of Bowling Green in Hot Haste – Destruction and Pollution of Springs

(Correspondence of the Louisville Democrat.)

BOWLING GREEN, Feb. 18, 1862.

A man reported here this evening who left Nashville last Friday morning.  He has been engaged in the railroad business in the South, but being loyal in all his sentiments desired to come to the North when the rebellion commenced; but could never succeed in doing so before.  He says he twice succeeded in making his way as far north as Bowling Green, after its occupation by the arch traitor Buckner, but was refused by him permission to continue his journey.

He says the rebels have destroyed all the wooden structures in the way of bridges and tressle [sic] work on the railway road between Franklin and Bowling Green, and was informed that it had been committed on the remainder of the road.  He says the rebels evacuated Bowling Green in the most unceremonious and hasty manner, on the approach of Gen. Mitchel’s [sic] division.  The rebel General Hardee was in the town when Gen. Mitchel commenced shelling it, and left in such “hot haste” as to leave his battle charger behind him, which was taken off by the Texan Rangers, who were last to leave.  In his haste to leave town, Hardee absolutely ran across the pubic square.  My informant told me he had received the statement in relation to Hardee from a rebel officer.  He says the rebels had collected large quantities of grain, chiefly wheat, at various points on the railroad, which not having the means of removing in their precipitate flight, they burned.  He also informs me that Gen. Hindman, in his retreat from Cave City to Bowling Green, had the horses and cattle of Union men driven into the large ponds, which occur at frequent intervals along the road, and shot, with a threat of hanging the owners if they removed the carcasses.  I presume his object was to prevent the use of the water in the ponds by the troops of the United States; but by this atrocious and infamous act he inflicted very great injury and inconvenience on the citizens of the country.  From the fact that there is not a running steam on the road between Green and Barren rivers, the sole dependence of all passengers and citizens for stock water, at least, is on the pond or surface water.  Truly a refined method of making war, worthy of this enlightened age!  What would the London Times, Morning Post, Herald, and other English journals, and the Moniteur, whose sensitive nerves have been so terribly shocked by our use of the “stone blockade,” say of this method of conducting hostilities?

I am informed by most respectable gentlemen, resident in the southern part of the State, who have come to this place since the abandonment by the rebels of the country south of Green river, that no adequate conception can be formed of the destruction and desolation committed on that region.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 1, 1862, p. 2

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

Movements of Troops in Kentucky

We gather the following information from various sources, all of which we believe reliable and none of which we understand to be contraband:

On learning that the rebels were evacuating Bowling Green, General Buell ordered a forced march by Gen. Mitchel [sic], to save, if possible, the railroad and turnpike bridges on the Big Barren river.  They had, however, been destroyed when Mitchel reached the banks of the river Friday morning, having been burned the night before.  The brigades of Breckinridge and Hindman, were until Thursday evening at Woodland Station.  The rebels left nothing in Bowling Green, except a few old wagons.  Part of the town is reported to have been burned.  Gen. Mitchel has crossed the river and is in Bowling Green.

It is believed that there are now no rebel forces in Kentucky east of the direct road from Bowling Green (via Franklin) to Nashville. – Crittenden is trying to organize another army at Carthage, on the south bank of the Cumberland.  This is the only rebel force on the line from Bowling Green to Nashville.  Breckinridge and Hindman’s brigades have fallen back on Russelville, where Buckner and Floyd’s brigades have been, according to latest reports, stationed for some time.  Hardee and Johnston were also believed to be at that point on Friday.  It is presumed that with the exception of the above brigades, the whole rebel army has been moved to Fort Donelson and Clarksville.  What movement may have been made by the rebel forces since Thursday, can only be conjectured; but the probabilities are that they have concentrated their whole force on the Cumberland.  If, however, they should not have done so, the divisions of Nelson and Mitchel will be amply able to cope with all they may have between Bowling Green and Nashville.

It is believed that the divisions of Generals McCook and Thomas, the former marching by the way or Nolin Creek and Elizabethtown; and the latter by way of Lebanon; embarked at the mouth of Salt river on steamers for the Cumberland, Saturday night and yesterday.  Gen. McCook broke up his camp and Munfordville in the night from Thursday to Friday, in a terrible storm of snow and rain, and marched twenty-one miles to Nolin creek, where he encamped Friday night, and it is believed that on Saturday his division pressed on the mouth of Salt river.  The troops that have been and Bardstown, in a camp of instruction, (including the 1^st and 2d Kentucky, well known here) were at Louisville yesterday embarking for the Cumberland, as is supposed.  Three fresh Indiana regiments and a full battery of artillery leave New Albany to-day. – The aggregate of these reinforcements is at least thirty-five, and is perhaps, forty thousand men.  Gen. Buell, we understand, goes with McCook’s division to take command in person on the Cumberland, where our force will by to-morrow morning number little less than eighty thousand men.  We may confidently look for them to rapidly overcome all obstacles on the way to Nashville.  The proceeding in person of Gen. Buell to take command of the magnificent army on the Cumberland, does not indicate any lack of confidence in Gen. Grant, who is known to be as brave as Caesar and a thorough soldier.  It means, however, that the time for organizing victory is over, and the time for the most energetic action has arrived.  Gen. Buell, we are informed, has for weeks regarded the evacuation of Bowling Green as a certainty, and his plans are, therefore, not in any degree deranged by that event.  Now, while he presses the enemy on the Cumberland with his tremendous force, their flank and rear are menaced by the heavy divisions under Mitchel and Nelson.

Since writing the above we learn that ten regiments, now in the Ohio camps, are ordered at once to the lower Ohio.  The points from which these regiments will be drawn are stated elsewhere. – {Cincinnati Commercial.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 22, 1862, p. 2

Hot Work In Kentucky

There is every appearance that the campaign in Kentucky has opened in full earnest, and the result cannot be long in doubt.  The first demonstration is to be made it appears on Ft. Henry, a point important only as a strong out post, but whose reduction is necessary before proceeding to the attack of the enemy strongholds of Bowling Green and Columbus.

Every hour is now big with the fate of the Nation, and every mind is turned towards Kentucky as there might the pending contest be decided.

The following description of Ft. Henry, the point of the attack, will be interesting.

DESCRIPTION OF FORT HENRY.

The only fortification on the Tennessee river, of much importance is Fort Henry, situated near the line of Kentucky and Tennessee, on the east bank of the stream.  It stands in the river bottom, about the high water mark, just below a bend in the river, and at the head of a strait stretch of about two miles.  It therefore commands the river for that distance down stream, and very little higher than the fort, a portion of it is covered with heavy timber.  On the opposite side of the river are three hills commanding the fort completely.  The armament of the fort consists of eight 32-pounders, four 12-pounders, and two 6-pounders.  The 32 and 12-pounders are heavy guns, and the 6-pounders are light pieces.  My informant left Fort Henry on Thursday, the 12^th inst., at which time a large lot of entrenching tools had just been brought tither [sic] to be used in fortifying the hills on the opposite side of the river.

On these new fortifications it was intended to mount three very large guns, 124-pounders, and some rifle cannon.  An Irish regiment at the fort were relied upon to perform much of the work in prospect, but in addition to this force some four hundred slaves were daily expected from North Alabama.  The Garrison of the fort under Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, consist of Col. Adolphus [Heiman’s] Irish regiment and a regiment of Mississippians, besides the artillerists.

– Published in The Dubuque Herald, Dubuque, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 7, 1862, p. 2

The Evacuated Points

An excellent letter from our friend D. Torrey, formerly ‘local’ of the GAZETTE, giving a description of the appearance of thinss in and around Bowling Green, Nashville and Fort Donelson, after their evacuation by the enemy will be found on our second page.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 22, 1862, p. 1

Trip to Bowling Green, Nashville and Fort Donelson

INDIANAPOLIS, March 18^th, 1862.

EDITOR GAZETTE. – On my return from Davenport ten days since I joined a friend in a trip to Dixie in which I saw much to interest me, and though your numerous war correspondents have given you information of events happening in the region visited, I will venture to send a few lines.  We left this place Friday evening, the 8^th inst., for Louisville, and the following morning took cars from that city for Bowling Green.  It was the first day that Passengers were allowed to leave Southward-bound without a pass. Though an examination of baggage was still made.  A few camps in the immediate vicinity of Louisville, and throng of soldiers on the train made one thoroughly conscious of the troublesome times in which we live.  Near [Munfordville] the desolation caused by the late military occupation of the country was spread everywhere, and the soil with the constant treading it had undergone had become a vast bed of mortar like mud.  The soldiers left there, whom we saw, were those who had been too sick to join the forward movement made a few weeks since and now their sunken eyes, sallow skins and drawling gait as they moved told too sorrowfully the tail of their sufferings.  It was the saddest sight I ever witnessed.

Green River Bridge which we crossed was one of the finest structures of the kind in the country, but it too had suffered from the hands of the Philistines, one of its fine stone piers having been destroyed by order of the renegade, General Buckner.  Our forces have constructed a substantial trestle to span the broken section of the bridge and our trains have passed on it for sometime.  Not far from here my attention was called to notice a field in which, in December last, a battle had been fought, between some three hundred of the Indiana Thirty Second (German regiment) and a much larger force of the rebels, Texan Rangers.  The Indianians fought bravely and repulsed their foe.  An instance that occurred in the fight is worth recording as characterizing the bravery and endurance sometimes shown in our miscalled degenerate day.  A lieutenant of the thirty-second was surrounded by the enemy; he fought them vigorously, and laid eight of his assailants in the dust, where they were afterwards found around his own corpse.  At last, with several mortal wounds, he gathered his remaining strength for a final effort and seizing the bridle of a horse with his hand, he made a desperate leap and caught the cheek of the foe between his teeth and held his death grip so firmly as to unsaddle and bring him to the ground.

As the train approached Bowling Green the conductor pointed out the various spots of interest near that place.  The bridges for the railroad and turnpike have been destroyed, and the nature of the cannel and the bottom of the Barren river, with some other unfavorable circumstances, will occasion a good deal of delay in repairing them.  At present the train stops about half a mile north of the river, and fully a mile from the town.  The south side of the river has a precipitous bank, admirably adapted for defence, and three hills in the vicinity of commanding height, enclosing a triangular area, have been fortified.  The highest in the outskirts of the village is known as College Hill – so named, no doubt, in honor of a prospective college building, the half reared walls of which have been used to add strength and extent to the fortifications.  The works are of inferior construction, unable to withstand a close pressed investment.  The parapet is built mainly of stone and logs, either of which scattered by a common shot are quite as bad to the defenders as a bomb shell.

The town is a God-forsaken place, having been more than exhausted by the rebels, and not being in much of a way for improvements since the advent of the Federals.  Whoever enters it from the north pays tribute to a sea of mud in crossing the river bottom and finds himself at the only hotel, in an outrageously dirty hole.  I saw the marks of several of the shells that Gen. Mitchell sent into the place on his first approach, and that made the rebel magnates “skedaddle” so promptly.  A marvel of the town is a Union man, the owner of a livery stable and a number of other connected buildings, to which the chivalry were in the act of applying the torch on the day above mentioned, when a shell with Gen. Mitchell’s compliments hit the building, doing slight damage.  The event was ominous, and the fleeing traitors left the buildings unburned.  The shell is kept by the owner of them, and will no doubt, recall in days to come, the fortunate hit it made.  The Louisville and Nashville R. R. had here a fine passenger and freight station, round houses, &c., which with six locomotives, machinery, &c., were burned.  In the ruins I saw pieces of guns, beef bones with the burnt meat still adhering where they had burned a considerable quantity of quartermaster stores, which they had no time to remove – rum, ruin, everywhere.

The passage from Bowling Green south is made with a half burned locomotive, which the rebels failed to destroy entirely or to steal, it is weak, and necessitates a delay that compelled waiting until the next day before proceeding on our journey. – The track is very bad in places, having just been repaired.  The arrival of our forces was a fortunate occurrence in this relation, the rebels having impressed the citizens along the line to begin a certain day to destroy it utterly.  But they miscalculated.  Gen. Mitchell had a word to say, which retarded the operation.  Ten miles from Nashville a temporary bridge obstructed our journey, it being too frail to allow a locomotive to pass, we waited an hour or two till a train going north to met us, the cars were pushed over, engines changed, and about 4 p. m. we were on the banks of the Cumberland, waiting the ferry boat to land us in the Rock City.

It was Sunday afternoon; the weather delightfully pleasant, particularly so to one who had just left snow-drifts and storms in Iowa.  The streets were thronged with gaily dressed contrabands, grinning with delight at the novelty of their surroundings, and strongly contrasting with the grim acidity of their masters.  At the St. Cloud we gained comfortable quarters, soiled the hotel register with Yankee signatures, but a few pages from the entries of the chivalry from all parts of the confederacy.  The halls and porches of the house were thronged with officers of our army; a few citizens mingled with them without intercourse.

I remained in Nashville two days, which afforded me a chance to see the city, and draw some inferences in relation to the loyalty of the citizens.  But few of them have any feeling worth the name of Unionism.  Many of them will take the oath of allegiance for business purposes, and violate it so soon as a chance occurs.  I saw numbers of them come from the office of the Provost Marshal, walking hurriedly away, and watching the sidewalk, too sneaking to look an honest man in the face, and by their conduct marking their allegiance as spurious.  I met many acquaintances, old comrades in camp, who are connected with Gen. Buell’s army, from whom I learned much in relation to our forces and movements, which is contraband information under present orders.

From Nashville we took steamer for Ft. Donelson, and experienced to our heart’s content the annoyance and uncertainty of traveling in a border country.  The captain of the boat was two days in learning whether his departure would be for Somerset, four hundred miles up the Cumberland, Cairo, the upper Tennessee, or Pittsburgh.  At every stopping place with a telegraph station, a new order would be received changing the route, and the captain was certainly the most harassed man I have seen in some time.

We were at Fort Donelson half a day, which afforded a chance to see the works and visit points of most interest.  I obtained as trophies a couple of Secesh knives, known as “Mississippi tooth-picks.”  They are barbarous in manufacture and looks, characterizing well with the institution they were to defend.  I will not attempt any descriptions of the locality.  The works are strong for their kind, and were surrendered through cowardice.  The late improvements in the materiel of war are such as to make, I believe, all field works untenable against a well prepared assailant.  The ground there is well fitted for defence from assault, and yet so characterized that sharp shooters can approach and silence the artillery unless it be protected by casemates, saying nothing of the virtue of the assailing shells. 

At Smithland we changed steamers for Paducah and Cairo.  Slept all night on the guards of a steamboat that was loaded with sick for the hospitals below.  The sight of the poor sufferers was terrible, and prompted the bitterest anathemas against the promoters of the rebellion.

At Paducah, while awaiting departure for Cairo, a steamer from Missouri river came up alongside and stopped for a few minutes. It had aboard the Eleventh Iowa, bound for some point on the Tennessee.  I went aboard, and met for a moment with Lt. Col. Hall and lady.  Found them in good health, though saddened with the loss of their only child.  The boys of the 11^th were in the best of spirits.  Numbers of them recognized me as from Davenport, and entrusted letters to my care to be mailed at Cairo.  I showed them one of my “Mississippi tooth-picks” which did not intimidate them in the least.  They were well pleased with the sight, and will no doubt if a chance is offered them, win specimens for themselves.

At Cairo I visited the gunboat Louisville, met unexpectedly an old ‘comrade  in arms,” and was shown everything of interest about here.  Saw where the shot hit her in the Fort Donelson engagement, etc.  They are truly a terrible engine of ware, and have in addition to their cannon an abundance of hand weapons to resist any attempt to board them – pikes, pistols, cutlasses, and an arrangement for throwing hot water in a quantity quite irresistible.  The boats expected to leave immediately for Island No 10.  I wanted much to go with them, but engagements here prevented it.  Since then they have made the attack.

I arrived here after just one week’s absence amply repaid for the trip by the knowledge gained for the operations of active war.  Yours,

D. TORREY.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 22, 1862, p. 2

LOUISVILLE, Ky., March 17 [1862]

Friday night’s rains swelled Barren river out of its banks and carried away the pontoon bridge over the river at Bowling Green.  Railroad communication with Nashville is consequently suspended for the present. – the Ohio is rapidly rising.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 18, 1862, p. 1

The Next Point of Attack

The rebels having been defeated at Forts Henry and Donelson, and abandoned their strongholds at Bowling Green and Columbus and fled from Clarksville and Nashville, the next question is, where will they make a stand?  It is reported that they have retreated to Fort Randolph and not as first rumored to Fort Pillow or Island No. 10, in the Mississippi river.  The Mo. Democrat says, “In the minds of our military men, the Columbus fortifications were the only formidable impediments to the easy descent of the Mississippi River.  No other point can be made so strong against the attacks of Com. Foote’s flotilla.  Island No. 10, Fort Pillow and Memphis will be completely at the mercy of our mortar boats and gun boats.”

Fort Randolph is eligibly located at the town of Randolph in Tipton county, Tenn., on a bluff bend of the Mississippi river, some thirty of forty miles above Memphis.  Above it is Fort Wright and below it is Fort Harris.

According to the Memphis Avalanche the troops at Fort Pillow and New Madrid were to concentrate at Memphis, making an army of about 50,000 strong.  Memphis is the city of Tennessee, and by far the most important point in it – that taken, and the rebellion will be effectually quelled in the State.  From all the information at hand we are inclined to the impression that that will be the next point of attack, and we are confident in the opinion that it must succumb, as from its location it would seem hardly possible to fortify it so strongly as was Fort Donelson.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 11, 1862, p. 2

The Dark Days of the Republic

From the Memphis Appeal, 19^th.

The fall of Fort Donelson On Saturday, last, the evacuation of Bowling Green and the unexplained agreement to surrender Nashville on yesterday, have forcibly engendered the question in the public mind that Gen. Sydney Johnston has been out generaled by Buell in the progress of army operations in Kentucky.  We have not the disposition to harshly judge him in this matter, but the fact is too palpable for denial that some of his blunders have at least temporarily transferred the war from Kentucky to Tennessee soil

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, March 7, 1862, p. 2

From Kentucky and Tennessee

LOUISVILLE, March 3.

Railroad communication between here and Nashville, except over a creek ten miles north of Nashville, damaged by the rising water on Saturday, will be resumed to-morrow night.

The election at Nashville yesterday for municipal officers passed off quietly.  The retiring Mayor issued a proclamation assuring the people of protection by the Federal troops if they quietly pursued their accustomed avocations.

Twenty-five rebel prisoners have been brought to Nashville, and twenty-five negroes, seized by the rebels in the vicinity of Bowling Green have been recovered at Nashville and sent back.

Mail communication is established to Bowling Green, and for military purposes to Nashville.  Col. J. J. Miller, government mail agent for Kentucky, is making energetic exertions to extend mail facilities to every part of Kentucky.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 4, 1862, p. 1

The Credulity of the Secessionists

From the Richmond Dispatch of the 1st.

A SCENE IN THE HOUSE.

On Thursday night, a stranger, wending his way through Capitol Square, encountered a good-natured news seeker, and informed him that he was going to the President’s house with an official dispatch of the great battle of Bowling Green, where seven hundred Federals  were killed, one thousand made prisoners, and the rest driven into the river.  This news, he said was strictly true, and it was his proud office to communicate it in person to the President.  The listener rushed into the capitol, wrote it all down, marked it “official,” and sent it immediately to the officers of the House of Delegates.  It was silently read, then passed from one to another until finally a member arose and asked that proceedings might be suspended for the purpose of acquainting the House with some highly favorable news.  The dispatch was then read, and its “official” character explained.  Instantly the hall resounded with a shot of joy and the members gave full license to their expressions of congratulation.  They were, however, somewhat mortified the next morning when they found that the much abused newspapers failed to confirm the story of the victory at Bowling Green.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, February 27, 1862, p. 2

The Advance on Bowling Green

(From the Indianapolis Journal, Feb. 13th.)

From Mr. E. B. Allen, of Terre Haute, who left Munfordville Tuesday evening, we learn that the long expected forward movement of the Green River line of our forces has commenced.  On Monday morning at 11 o’clock the troops began crossing, and a continuous stream poured over it till eleven at night.  Over seventeen thousand men had crossed, up to that hour, including one regiment of cavalry and five batteries of artillery.  On Tuesday, three more batteries were taken over, and yesterday the brigade in which is our celebrated German regiment were to cross.  The total force across, or ordered to cross, nobody but Gen. Buell knows, but it is going to be enormous. – Troops are still pouring into Louisville. – Mr. Allen saw the last of nine steamboat-loads of men which had been taken into the city within twenty-four hours, and the boats were putting back for more.  There can be no doubt that at least the gigantic anaconda, which has been sleeping along Green river, has begun to writhe in the first movements of the crushing hug he is about to give the rebel forces on the Nashville road.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, February 19, 1862, p. 2

Louisville, Feb. 15, [1862].

To Major Gen. McClellan: – Mitchel’s [sic] division, by forced march, reached the river at Bowling Green to-day, making a bridge to cross the river, the enemy having burned the bridge.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, February 18, 1862, p. 2

Expected Evacuation of Manassas – The Rebels ask for Arbitration

NEW YORK, Feb. 16.

The Times special Washington dispatch says it is believed by military men that Manassas will be evacuated by the rebels as Bowling Green has been.

As soon as Tennessee is released from rebel despotism, the carrying of United States mails will be renewed on the established routes.

It is sincerely believed that the proposition recently brought by the rebel flag of truce was to refer the present dispute to foreign arbitration.

The Herald’s dispatch says the work of thoroughly re-organizing the War Department, is rapidly progressing.  To-day a number of clerks were notified to leave, and prohibited from revisiting the Department again.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, February 18, 1862, p. 1

The War News

Rebel Account of the Fight at Fort Donelson.

REPORTED SURRENDER OF THE FORT.

Our Forces March upon Bowling Green and find it Evacuated.

Capture of a Rebel camp in Md.

Foreign News per Steamship Asia

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, February 17, 1862, p. 1

From Kentucky

LOUISVILLE, Feb. 15.

We are in receipt of good news from Bowling Green, but the telegraphing thereof is expressly interdicted for the present by the commanding General.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, February 17, 1862, p. 1

Bowling Green Evacuated

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15.

The following has been received at headquarters:

“LOUISVILLE, Feb. 15.

To MAJ.-GEN. McCLELLAN:

Mitchell’s division, by a forced march, reached the river at Bowling Green to-day.  The rebels were evacuating the place when he arrived.

(Signed.)

D. C. BUELL,

Maj.-Gen.”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, February 17, 1862, p. 1