Diary of Corporal John Worrell Northrop, Saturday, August 20, 1864

For nine days I have been prevented from making usual notes. Little passed I care to recall; I force myself to write today. I know no one who takes a general note of things; it is with hesitancy as well as difficulty, that I do. I cannot say that mine is more than meager penciling. They are samples of the best and some of the worst things that I note. Two of the sick mentioned the 11th, died the 13th; the others on the 15th. One had turned gray since I first saw him. He had money but could not save himself. His was the common complaint. He died within four feet of me suddenly falling; was from Pennsylvania. Another old prisoner died today of squalor within a few feet of us. The mortality, notwithstanding the removal of so many of the worst cases, has increased. The average is over 100 per day this month. On the 15th, 140; the 17th, 128 died. I am told by a man who is on duty at the hospital. The sick again admited to the gate for prescription; but three taken to the hospital out of several hundred applicants. It is the most disagreeable task one ever had to do, to cary a sick man before the doctor and then it amounts to nothing.

H. D. Merritt of our company was taken out in an awful condition on the 14th. He is from Sodus, Wayne county, N. Y. Fourteen of Company F have died; eleven more are in bad condition. (This does not include myself.) Madison hurt his foot a few days ago; his blood is so weak that it does not heal. Gangrene set in; it has eaten to the bone. The limbs of others are so affected as to be unable to walk. Most of them were strong heavy men, but we have to carry them to sick call. Gangrene is one of the frightful phases of these diseases. W. M. Townsend of the 111th N. Y. received a slight scratch on his thigh which has spread to a large and painful sore. It is by great precaution it is kept from being maggoty. The 12th I accidentally found Hanson, a young German of our company whom I had not seen for a long time, he belonged to another detachment. He was helpless but could talk; had fallen in the swamp, was completely daubed. His gums are rotted with scurvy; the backs of his hands and feet raw from sunburn; maggots actually crawling in his flesh. I got Sergeant Burton and went to the gate begging aid. At last got the answer, "You Yanks do something for your own selves." We returned to Hanson, lifted and gave him water, cleansed his wounds, found his detachment sergeant, borrowed a ragged blanket to cover him; could do no more. He died August 16th.

Tunnel was discovered not long since this way: It had been completed to the point where they wished to come out. The head man was pulling down the dirt when suddenly it broke away covering him, and down came a gray jacket with a Rebel in it, gun and all. The relief guards were just being mounted and one of them stepped upon the exact spot where they were to escape.

A Rebel paper I saw today spoke of Major Currill, Commissioner of Exchange, visiting our fleet in Mobile Bay, having reference to sending packages. Fighting at Richmond and other places, and close work at Atlanta. They abound in speculations on the Presidential campaign, and in extracts from the New York World, Herald, News and Albeny Argus and from their view argue the South's success. The World has an article on "The Failure of Grant," denouncing his whole course; and claims that "Grant is played out," though he has punched Lee back into his Richmond ditches and is still operating. Southern Rebels do not claim Grant is a failure. They keep up a bold front which they consider a political as well as a military necessity; but their own admissions, in general tones, are evidences of their strait. To me it seems they have ceased to hope for that degree of success from their armies that can save the little prestige they have abroad, much less secure their recognition, so turning to political bickerings, presenting their armies in the feigned attitude of triumph and strength but base their hope on the election. They believe that a party that could expiate their crimes in the past, would do even more in the future, if raised to power to look down on a forest of Rebel bayonets instead of threatening, sophistical politicians to whom they had succumbed. But they are a mere shell full of dead and rotting strength that has passed its zenith. The Southern heart is burning to ashes; they would negotiate for a respite to replenish the flame, not for Union. Oh, let the North be true in this crisis! Rebels would despair of success before January.

They do not give wood enough to ten men for one. Men go to extremes to obtain it, stealing dead men from their friends to carry out with the hope of getting it. Four men are permitted to go and can bring in quite a jag. Then some will trade half of their scanty rations for a stick to cook the other half. A few will trade a day's rations for a ten cent bit of tobacco. A few so far lose their reason as to throw clothing away, becoming disgusted with lice; add themselves to disgusting sights by going naked. All capable of being degraded so as to lose self respect, become so. God only knows the wickedness and woe of such a state!

I wandered to a locality new to me, a few days ago. I came to a quartet of Tennesseeans who told their war experiences; of persecutions their people suffered for being Unionists; how they fled from home to escape Rebels who were savage against all who refused to support secession. Their madness knew neither law nor friendship; their frenzy neither justice nor mercy. They, with a hundred others, armed themselves and one day cut their way through an armed mob claimed to have been sent by Governor Isham Harris, who designed to massacre or capture them. They marched many miles to join Buell's army, and had several fights with gorillas. They were captured in Rosecrans' operations near Chattanooga, in 1863; wintered at Danville, Va.; came here in March, seven stopping together. Three have died. Prison hardships affect them severely. The character of these sturdy mountain people, their honest, intelligent patriotism in connection with this crisis, also their general history, inspire these lines:

THE MEN OF TENNESSEE.

 

God save from woes of Anderson

  The men who bravely stayed

By Lincoln's flag, for country one,

  Where slavery's power had swayed;

Eschewed the leaders of the South,

  Of low and high degree,

And deemed the flag ensign of truth,

  Brave men of Tennessee.

 

They lived upon their native soil;

  They loved it well and true;

They lived by faithful, honest toil;

  They loved the peace they knew.

But they were those who weighed events

 As they should pondered be;

They saw conflicting sentiments

  Distracting Tennessee.

 

And when the Union of the States

 Was threatened by its foes,

With the Union they allied their fates

  Secession to oppose.

When driven from their homes away,

  By the powers of slavery,

They joined the Union's armed array,

Grand men of Tennessee.

 

They spurned the rule that would disrupt

  The Nation's life they loved;

They spurned the rule, wrong and corrupt,

 As patriots true behooved,

And leaving homes they loved behind,

Engulfed in war's red sea,

They showed great strength of heart and mind,

  These men of Tenneessee,

 

They nobly tendered strength and life,

   If human blood must shed,

Against secession's valorous strife

  By Southrons madly led,

And side by side with Northern men

  They fought most valiantly-

Here brook the ills of prison pen

  Brave men of Tennessee.

 

Behold them suffer here and die

  Within dark Sumter's walls!

The earth their bed, the roof the sky,

  Where woes their hearts appal!

And yet all offers they resent

  That promise them to free;

By loyalty invite torment-

  True men of Tennessee.

 

O, hail the men who know the right

 And for it stand and fall;

Who will not swerve at Treason's might

  Though death may claim them all;

And here in prison pine and rot,

  Though today they could be free!

No truer men have ever fought,

  Than men of Tennessee.

 

The valor of some Spartan band

  From ancient time men laud;

But the acts of these, of Jackson's land,

 Who will their deeds applaud?

I see them dying day by day

   'Mid scenes of misery;

No voice to praise, where death has sway,

  These men of Tennessee.

HOSPITALS, THEIR HISTORY.

Noting the indisposition or inability of doctors to clear the stockade of sick—victims conspicuous for their wretchedness—I have applied my mind to learn facts regarding so-called hospitals. It is no mystery that men sicken in the stockade. Coarse, unpalatable food, a mixture of meal containing cob and bran doctors call it meal and husk—often musty and bitter, stirred in filthy water in large batches, often souring before baking or while baking with green wood, no salt, no yeast, no soda, often partially raw, often over-roasted with a crust hard and tasteless. If changed to rice, that is colored with the dirty water and often uncooked. Exposed to all weather and until some wells were dug, all drank and washed in the same small stream, always roiled and more and more, night and day, being poisoned by drainage from without and within. Thirst becomes feverish, unbearable; to drink is to pollute our bodies with the offal, intermixed, made more stenchful and rotten by heat and rain. Nothing could be more unsanitary, more conducive to disease. What are the hospital facilities to cope with rapidly developing conditions absolutely adverse to health in strongest men? I find these facts, attested by appearances and results. No Confederate doctor or officer pretends to dispute.

This is the history of so-called hospitals here to date and they must continually grow worse. When the prison was built most of its early prisoners were from prisons farther north, Danville and about Richmond, where they were under roofs. Coming here in February and March they readily chilled through. Some refuse of the timber from which the stockade was built was appropriated by prisoners for fuel and shelter, and before hot weather and an increase of prisoners, both air and water might have been an improvement on their former abode. But old prisoners broke down and the first hospital was erected inside of poles and brush. This was the best hospital the place has ever had. The poles or logs were left several inches apart, and as sickly men were put in them the place became as odious and no more commodious than a backwoods hog-pen. A portion had a lose floor, no beds, no bunks, no blankets, no straw. The storm and wind beat through the space between the logs and rendered patients that retained sensitiveness or desire to live, uncomfortable. A few prisoners had threadbare blankets, or remnants, with the U. S. brand, but no other was provided whether prisoners had a U. S. rag or not.

This was the original provision and remained the only hospital until the middle of May, or a few days later, when prisoners began to come from the spring campaigns and were so packed about this hospital pen that the air was infected and it was removed to its present locality to make room. We arrived here from the Wilderness fields in Virginia just two days after this change; but even then the place where it had been, was covered with men fresh from our armies little heeding that the very earth which they had been forced to accept as their abode, was soaked with the filth of the lately removed wards of death, for, then as now, there was no means of disposal of excreta of men who were slowly wasting and unable to seek the swamp or stream, except in illy provided open excavations within the 'hospital" or death-pen. The hospitals now simply consist of old canvas appropriated from other use, ragged or patched, open at the sides, without floors, beds, bunks, stoves or straw. Men lay on the earth in ghastly rows. The ground where they lay is saturated with offal of wasting bodies. The sickening exhalation is constant. Patients have no clothing except that worn during their imprisonment and in active service, never but a single suit, in many cases not much of that, no blankets, except where prisoners happened to retain them on coming to prison. Patients are sickly visages of squalor, decaying bodies, while yet their minds retain dreary existences. There are fleshless skeletons with skin drawn over them; on some bones have broken or worn through the skin. Limbs of others whose flesh has not vanished, are swollen with dropsy and scurvy, discolored, yellow and brown. In many cases ulcers appear—sores from wounds that never heal, and gangrene is having an unchecked if not undisputed reign. Myriads of lice and flies swarm over helpless men; maggots infest gangrenous sores that may have originated from a scratch, a sunburn or from ulcerous eruption caused by corrupted blood.

These matters, seemingly, have reached an uncontrollable stage. There is scarcity of medicine, scarcity of physicians. Nurses are dumbfounded; if they have any sense of the situation they are in despair; can do little to comfort and it seems that those detailed have no adaptation for the work. Except now and then one, would they be retained and for just that reason, in a hospital well ordered for work. From first to last there is nothing provided, nothing arranged, nothing expected but death, and the quicker the better. If doctors had ordinary skill, and nurses had any idea of sanitation, some police regulations would be visible. If this were so and the Richmond government had meant to do anything but murder, better facilities would be provided. I have met a doctor or two apparently of skill, good sense, and humane intent; but they seemed to have despaired of doing justice to their profession or to patients, lacking means and having to contend against conditions which no skill and no medical supplies can meet until conditions change. They have no hope of that. There are some bunglers in charge with a slight knowledge of surgery ready to improve their quack skill by revolting practice. Amputation has been performed where no hope was possible or expected, and in cases where there was a lingering hope, yet the bodily condition of patients did not justify amputation. In no case as I can hear, has gangrene been cured by amputation. Slight wounds are not healable owing to weak blood. Some of these fellows are perfectly brutal, and enlisted in this capacity rather than be conscripted and carry a musket. These conditions are known at Richmond. The prison has been inspected by military and civil officials of high rank. Reports of surgeons, Drs. Reeves, Pelot and Thomburg in preceding months expressly stated not only general conditions but that there were men that were living masses of putrifaction; hospitals without bunks, beds or straw; as above stated, speaking of corn bread raw and sour and the effects of such diet on sick and well that they could not practice successfully, that sickness could not be prevented nor patients cured until made comfortable; appealing for "beds if any in Dixie." All was unanswered. Confidentially these facts are told me by a doctor.

SOURCE: John Worrell Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, pp. 107-13

Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Monday, January 20, 1862

Some of our boys went down the river that morning before day to assist in bringing the wounded, on horses, back to a point out of range of the Federal guns. A few of the severely wounded had to be left on the north side of the river.

Surgeon D. B. Cliff was allowed by General Thomas to accompany the remains of General Zollicoffer and Lieutenant Bailie Peyton to Louisville, Kentucky, and from there, if General Buell would consent, to Nashville, Tennessee.¹

Having been sent with a dispatch to General Zollicoffer's headquarters, a few days previous to his death, he invited me, though but a "high private," into his tent, offered me a drink of wine, and treated me with as much respect and politeness as if I had been his equal in rank.

His men did not only have confidence in him as a commander, but he had been so good and so kind to them that they had learned to love him almost with filial affection. Hence the fall of our gallant leader was a desperate blow to the followers. And, unfortunately, General Crittenden had been with the command only sixteen days and General Carroll only four previous to this unfortunate event.

To add to the demoralization of our little army, such rumors as the following were now afloat in camps: "Crittenden is drunk a good portion of the time. He has a brother in the Federal army." "He is in sympathy with the North." "He will surrender us all to the Federals if he has a good opportunity," etc. It was thought by some that the Fifteenth Mississippi were so desperately mad that they would have shot him if they had had a good opportunity. It was said that he ordered the brigades to halt and fortify at Monticello, Kentucky, and that the colonels refused to obey orders. I give the above as rumors, allowing each reader to have his own opinion about them. But, whether true or untrue, they had a demoralizing effect upon the command.

On January 27th the Hon. Landon C. Haynes wrote from Knoxville to President Davis thus:

The Army of the Cumberland is utterly routed and demoralized. The result is regarded with the profoundest solicitude. Confidence is gone in the ranks and among the people. It must be restored. I am confident it cannot be done under Generals Crittenden and Carroll. . . I do not propose to inquire whether the loss of public confidence in Generals Crittenden and Carroll is ill or well founded. It is sufficient that all is lost.

I must think, as everybody else does, that there has been a great mistake made. . Cannot you, Mr. President, right the wrong by the immediate presence of a new and able man?²

On the same date (27th) Governor Isham G. Harris dispatched thus to Hon. J. D. C. Atkins:

Crittenden can never rally troops in East Tennessee. Some other general must be sent there.³

We fell back to Monticello, nine miles from the river, unmolested by the Federals. The infantry and foot cavalry had quite a disagreeable march on account of so much mud. The command halted for the night about one mile south of Monticello-that is to say, a part of the command, for a good many besides our battalion kept moving homeward.

There was nothing to have hindered us from bringing off all the camp equipage belonging to our battalion, as we were camping on the south side of the river, but in place of doing that we lost all, leaving our tents in flames. I suppose it was thought that the Federals would cross the river and follow us, but they did not.

Col. McNairy being absent, the captains of our battalion held a consultation at Monticello, and after taking all things into consideration-no rations, camp equipage, etc. they decided to disband, allow the men to go home for a few days, get a better supply of clothing and return to our command again.

We had only gone about one mile from Monticello when Captain Parrish (Company C) halted, saying, "I am not willing to take so much responsibility upon myself. I am going back to the command." So that caused a confusion, and the battalion began to scatter. Captain Parrish, fourteen of his company and one of our company (J. R. Dougherty) remained. The rest of the battalion went home, being instructed to meet the command again at Gainesboro, on the Cumberland River, in Jackson County, Tennessee. We now traveled in small squads, on different roads. Lieutenant George Alexander, brother Ben (B. A. Hancock) and I, going in the direction of Jamestown, Tennessee, put up for the night within four miles of Wolf River.

_______________

¹ Rebellion Records, Vol. VII., p. 565.

² Rebellion Records, Vol. VII., p. 849.

³ Rebellion Records, Vol. VII., p. 849.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 125-8

Isham G. Harris to John D. C. Atkins, January 27, 1862

NASHVILLE, January 27, 1862.

J. D. C. ATKINS, Member Congress:

Crittenden can never rally troops [in] East Tennessee. Some other general must be sent there. Federals advanced from Murray on Fort Henry. Before reaching Henry they retreated back to Paducah. All safe in that country.

ISHAM G. HARRIS.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 7 (Serial No. 7), p. 849

Governor Isham G. Harris to Jefferson Davis, September 13, 1861

NASHVILLE, September 13, 1861.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS:

On 4th instant I sent John Marshall, Andrew Ewing, and Dr. Bowling as commissioners from Tennessee to Kentucky. They returned last night, and think it of the highest importance that our troops be withdrawn. They say withdrawal secures to us majority in the State. If not withdrawn, overwhelming majority against us and a bloody contest. They think our withdrawal secures withdrawal of Federal troops and saves the State. They are able and reliable men. I submit their report for your consideration.

ISHAM G. HARRIS.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 181

Jefferson Davis to Governor Isham G. Harris, September 13, 1861

RICHMOND, September 13, 1861.

Governor HARRIS, Nashville, Tenn.:

Movement to Columbus was reported to me as a defensive measure, rendered necessary by the descent of Federal troops. As a necessity it was sanctioned. If they can be safely withdrawn, it would conform to my declared policy of respect for the neutrality of Kentucky. General A. S. Johnston has been directed to confer with you at Nashville. Security to Tennessee and other parts of the Confederacy is the primary object. To this all else must give way.

 JEFFERSON DAVIS.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 190

Brigadier-General Felix K. Zollicoffer to Samuel Cooper, September 14, 1861

KNOXVILLE, September 14, 1861.

Adjutant-General COOPER:

Governor Harris and General Buckner telegraphed me if possible to arrest the movement of which I apprised you on the 10th.* It is too late to arrest. To withdraw would be unfortunate, unless the Federal forces which menace us will agree to withdraw. I have informed Governor Magoffin through Governor Harris I will withdraw on this condition.

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER,        

Brigadier-General.

_______________

* Not Found; but see Zollicoffer to Johnston, September 16, p. 194

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 190

Brigadier-General Felix K. Zollicoffer to General Albert Sidney Johnston, September 16, 1861

KNOXVILLE, September 16, 1861.

General A. S. JOHNSTON, Memphis, Tenn.:

SIR: On the 10th instant I apprised Adjutant-General Cooper that I expected on the 12th to have three regiments at Cumberland Ford and three other regiments there as soon as they could be withdrawn from other posts, and I added:

The country beyond Cumberland Gap, toward Nelson's Camp, is poor and hostile. To make secure our line of communication with the sources of our supplies, it is essential to strengthen the positions at Cumberland Gap, Cumberland Ford, and the intervening passes of the Three Log Mountains. This may be accomplished, I trust, in a few days after the six infantry regiments get to the Ford, when we will be ready to make a forward movement.

On the 13th I received dispatches from Governor Harris and General Buckner, urging me to arrest my movement at the State line, if possible. These dispatches came too late, reaching me after my return from London. I replied to Governor Harris by telegraph, requesting him to transmit to Governor Magoffin the following note:

• Brigadier-General Felix K. Zollicoffer to Governor Beriah Magoffin, September 14, 1861

Last night General Cooper telegraphed me in reference to my suggestion of the 10th, that, after strengthening the mountain passes, “we will be ready to make a forward movement,” as follows:

The military considerations clearly indicate the forward movement which you propose. The political condition of Kentucky affects the determination of the question. Of that you are better informed than ourselves; and as you are supposed to have conferred with General A. S. Johnston, the matter is left to your discretion.

There are probably by this time four regiments at Cumberland Ford, and a fifth at the Gap, 15 miles this side. A sixth will probably be moved up by the 21st or 22d; and if the state of things in Greene County, where there has been some excitement, is such as I suppose, I am not able yet to indicate within what time proper defenses in the mountain passes can be completed, but every effort will be made to push the work forward vigorously. I hope to go there to-morrow. Would have gone earlier, but have been detained by pressing necessities here. I meant to say to General Cooper that we would be ready to make a forward movement, should it be deemed advisable.

I find myself at a loss, under present condition of things, how to obtain reliable information of the strength and movements of the enemy. I will endeavor to place before you promptly information I may receive and all circumstances enabling you to understand our condition. I inclose the most perfect report we are now able to make of the various corps, scattered as they now are at distant posts.*

Very respectfully,

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER,        

Brigadier-General.

_______________

* Not found.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 194-5

Diary of Richard R. Hancock: Friday, June 28, 1861

As Tennesseans were then offering their services faster than the state was prepared to arm and equip them, it was after hard begging that Governor Isham G. Harris gave his consent to have our company mustered into service; and as he would not receive more than seventy-six men, including the officers, eight of our company had to return home.

About eleven o'clock A. M., the Auburn Company (known afterward as the "Sangs") was sworn into service by J. G. Picket.

The following roll will be found to contain the names of the seventy-six men who were mustered into the service of the State of Tennessee for twelve months, with the present (1886) address opposite the name of each one living, so far as known. I have not been able to learn whether those whose names are followed by an asterisk (*) are dead or living; therefore, in our calculations hereafter, we will call this class the unaccounted for.

COMPANY ROLL.

Allison, T. M., Captain. Killed at home in 1862.
Summar, N. W., First Lieutenant, Auburn, Tennessee.
Alexander, George, Second Lieutenant, Cedar Creek, Texas.
Wilson, M. V., Third Lieutenant.*
ODOM, J. J.,1 First Sergeant. Died in West Tennessee in 1885.
WIDLARD, D. B., Second Sergeant, Auburn, Tennessee.
McLin, J. D., Third Sergeant, Nashville, Tenn.
Odom, John H., Fourth Sergeant, Auburn, Tennessee. Wounded at Harrisburg.
Summar, J. N., First Corporal, Auburn, Tennessee.
Davenport, George, Second Corporal, Auburn, Tennessee. Wounded at Bear Creek Bridge.
WALKER, SAM, Third Corporal, Smithville, Tennessee.
Lanear, Dick, Fourth Corporal.*
Adamson, Presley, Smallman, Tennessee.
Adamson, W. A., Smallman, Tennessee.
Ashford, Cahal. Died at home in June, 1862.
Barrett, Eli, Auburn, Tennessee. Captured in September, 1863, and taken to Camp Morton, Indiana.
BOGLE, J. M., Avoca, Benton County, Arkansas.
Cooper, A. D., Auburn, Tennessee.
Cooper, J. M. Died in 1883.
Cooper, Jim, Gallatin, Tenn.
DAVENPORT, R. Died in West Tennessee, April 7, 1885. Wounded October 26, 1863.
DOUGHERTY, J. R., Auburn, Tennessee.
Dennis, Sam,* Arkansas. Made Second Lieutenant in 1862, and wounded at Harrisburg, July 14, 1864.
Dougherty, C., Columbia, Texas.
Ewing, A. G. Committed suicide since the war.
Ewing, B. D., Lane, Hunt County, Texas.
Ewing, E. L., Lane, Hunt County. Texas. Wounded at Columbia, Tenn.
Francis, A. H., Calf Creek, Searcy County, Arkansas.
Gan, Jim. Killed by the Federals in Wilson County, Tennessee.
Hale, Josiah.* Captured at Booneville, Mississippi, May 30, 1862.
Hancock, B. A.,2 Auburn, Tennessee. Discharged in 1862.
Hancock, C. E. Died in Franklin County, Alabama, June 4, 1864.
Hancock, R. R., Auburn, Tennessee. Wounded October 30, 1864.
Hancock, W.C.2 Killed at Harrisburg, July 14, 1864.
Hannaphin, Tim.*
HARRISON, DR. J. S., McMinnville, Tennessee. Elected Third Lieutenant in 1862, and wounded at Harrisburg, July 14, 1864.
Harrison, W. W. Killed at Memphis, August 21, 1864.
Hawkins, J. E. J. Killed near Auburn, in 1864, by Federals.
Hawkins, W. W. Died since the war. Wounded at Okalona, and again at Fort Pillow, which was, perhaps, the cause of his death.
Hays, J. T. Died at home in 1861.
Hearmon, John. Died at Mill Springs, Kentucky,Jan. 6, 1862.
JETTON, Josh. Died in 1885.
Jones, Jesse, Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Keaton, Coon. Died in prison, on Rock Island.
Keaton, G. C., Smallman, Tennessee.
KENNEDY, J. W. Died in Auburn, July 26, 1873.
Kennedy, L. V. Died in Texas, April 23, 1885.
Kennedy, W. C., Auburn, Tennessee.
Knight, Monroe, Huntsville, Arkanas. Discharged in 1861.
Markham, A., Smallman, Tennessee.
McAdoo, J. C., Auburn, Tennessee.
McKnight, A. B., Porterfield, Tennessee. Lost one leg in 1865.
McKnight, D. C. Drowned since the war.
McKnight, L. W. Mortally wounded at Paducah, Kentucky, March 25, 1864.
McKnight, M. W., Waxahachie, Texas.3
MILLIGAN, W. H., Auburn, Tennessee.
Mullinax, J. B., Smallman, DeKalb County, Tennessee. Discharged in November, 1861.
Nelson, P.,* Arkansas.
O'Conner, Tom, * Corinth, Mississippi.
Odom, B. F. Killed at Paducah, March 25, 1864.
ODOM, B. F. S., Hall's Hill, Tennessee.
Purnell, L. T. Died since the war.
Rich, W. E., Round Top, Wilson County, Tennessee. Wounded two miles west of Harrisburg, Mississippi, July 13, 1864.
Richardson, M. Died at home in 1861 or '62.
Smith, Bob, Liberty, DeKalb County, Tennessee. Discharged in November, 1861.
Stanly, John. Captured near home, and died in prison at Fort Delaware.
Stevens, J. W., Temperance Hall, DeKalb County, Tennessee. Captured and paroled at Okalona, Mississippi, and wounded at Paducah.
STEVENS, W. C., West Tennessee.
Summar, T. D. Died in 1871.
Talley, Dick. Died since the war.
THOMAS, C. F., Farrier, Cleburne, Texas. Wounded at Fort Pillow in 1864.
Thomas, Jim L., Greenvale, Wilson County, Tennessee
Turney, H, L. W.3 Wounded at Fort Pillow and at Memphis, August 21, 1864, and died in West Tennessee, February 16, 1880.
Willard, F. M., Milton, Rutherford County, Tennessee.
Willard, W. B., Waxahachie, Texas.
Womack, D., * Missouri.

To recapitulate, seven were killed, twenty have died, forty-one are living, and eight unaccounted for— total, seventy-six.

The following is as complete a list of the names of those who joined the Auburn Company from time to time during the war as I can now make out, after diligent inquiry among my comrades:

RECRUITS.

ALEXANDER, G. B., Oak Point, Wilson County, Tennessee.
Armstrong, Tom.*
BAXTER, H. A. Died since the war.
Baxter, J. H. Died since the war.
BLACK, W. A., Milton, Rutherford County, Tennessee.
BLACK, J. F. Died since the war.
BARRETT, A., Auburn, Cannon County, Tennessee.
Barlow, Jack, Lascassas, Rutherford County, Tennessee.
BARKER, S. (“ BABE"), Milton, Tennessee.
BRADBERRY, J. Died since the war.
BARKLEY, T. C.,* Texas.
Barkley, John T., Yorkville, Gibson County, Tennessee.
Bryson, R. Captured near home, and died in prison at Fort Delaware.
Bryson, E. D., Auburn, Tennessee.
CRANOR, Mose, Milton, Rutherford County, Tennessee.
Cavender, J. H., Dixon, Webster County, Kentucky. Lost one leg at “Tory Fight,” October 26, 1863.
Cummings, Tip, Woodbury, Cannon County, Tennessee.
Champion, J. H., Auburn, Tennessee.
Cooper, M. D. L., * Missouri.
DAVENPORT, William, Auburn, Tennessee.
DOUGHERTY, J. M., Statesville, Wilson County, Tennessee.
Duggin, P. L. Died August 29, 1867.
EWING, R. B. Died in Texas in 1876.
Elkins, T. D. (“Coon”), Woodbury, Tennessee. Wounded at Paducah, Kentucky, March 25, 1864.
Ellidge, J. B., Woodbury, Tennessee.
Francis, M. H., Auburn, Tennessee. Wounded at Harrisburg, July 14, 1864.
Francis, J. J., Wounded at Tupelo, Mississippi, May 5, 1863, and at Harrisburg.
Flowers, A. W., Ray, Texas.
Francis, M. C., Milton, Tennessee.
Francis, C. C., Auburn, Tennessee. Captured on Hood's raid.
Francis, J. D., Auburn, Tennessee.
Garrison, C., Milton, Tennessee.
GOARD, J. W. Died in 1884.
Grisham, O. N. Killed at Harrisburg, Mississippi, July 14, 1864.
GRISHAM, Ben, Russellville, Franklin County, Alabama.
Greer, John J.. Auburn, Cannon County, Tennessee. Hars, John W., Auburn, Cannon County, Tennessee.
HERNDON, JOE W.* Wounded at Harrisburg, July 14, 1864.
HERNDON, John L., Mississippi.
Hurt, T. M.*
HANCOCK, R. M. Died since the war.
Jetton, A. J., Auburn, Tennessee.
Jetton, E., Smallman, DeKalb County, Tennessee.
Knox, B. F., Milton, Tennessee.
Knight, Horace, Smallman, Tennessee.
Keaton, H., Smallman, Tennessee.
Keaton, William, Smallman, Tennessee.
LORANCE, MIKE, Porterfield, Rutherford County, Tennessee. Wounded at Harrisburg, July 14, 1864.
McKNIGHT, Jim NUTE, Milton, Tennessee.
McKnight, A. G., Porterfield, Tennessee.
McAdoo, J. N. Died January 16, 1882.
McKnight, John N., Porterfield, Tennessee. Wounded at Paducah, Kentucky.
McWhirter, Dr. W. H., Webber's Falls, Indian Territory.
McWhirter, S. A., Milton, Tennessee.
Milligan, J. A. Died since the war.
MATHES, J. R., Cainsville, Wilson County, Tennessee.
Newman, *
ODOM, JAMES H., Auburn, Tennessee. Wounded at Harrisburg: July 14, 1864.
ODOM, J. W., Auburn, Tennessee.
Opom, W. F., Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Odom, H. C. (Red), Auburn, Tennessee. Wounded at Memphis, August 21, 1864.
Odom, J. M. A., Auburn, Tennessee.
Owen, J. D., Auburn, Tennessee.
Owen, Nelse, Osage, Caryell County, Texas.
Odom, S. C., Auburn, Tennessee. Wounded at Mud Creek, and again at Paducah, Kentucky.
Odom, F. B., Fairfield, Freestone County, Texas.
Parris, Joe, McMinnville, Tennessee.
Parris, J. (Sweet), Missouri.
STEVENS, H. G., Bear Branch, DeKalb County, Tennessee. Wounded near Cherokee. Alabama, October 21, 1863
SNEED, J. H., Auburn, Tennessee. Captured and paroled at Okalona, Mississippi, in December, 1862.
Stone, J. R. Died in August, 1885.
Stone, J., Woodbury, Tenn.
Stone, William. Died since the war.
Stone, J. G. Died since the war.
Summar, J. D., Auburn, Tennessee.
Spurlock, J. M., Smallman, Tennessee.
Spicer, Sol.* Captured September, 1863, and sent to Camp Morton, Indiana.
Summar, M. P., Honey Grove, Fannin County, Texas.
Thomas, J. H. Died since the war.
THOMAS, A. J., Honey Grove, Texas. Wounded at Harrisburg, July 14, 1864.
Thomas, E. D., Auburn, Tennessee. Wounded near Cherokee, Alabama, October 21, 1863.
THOMPSON, J. B., * Texas.
Tittle, Sam, Woodbury, Tennessee. Captured in September, 1863, and sent to Camp Morton, Indiana.
Tittle, Adam, McMinnville, Tennessee.
Tedder. Frank. Died since the war.
WARREN, O. J., * Mississippi.
Webb, W. J., Aberdeen, Mississippi.
Willard, N., Fairfield, Texas. Wounded at Corinth, October 5, 1862.
Walker, Tom.*
Wamack, Anderson. Captured near home, and died in prison at Fort Delaware.
Wamack, W. L.,* Missouri. Wounded at Fort Pillow.
Willard, J. A., Fairfield, Freestone County, Texas.

Of the Recruits, one was killed, seventeen have died, sixty-two living, and twelve unaccounted for—total, ninety-two.

Add the recruits to the original company, and the result will be as follows: Eight killed, thirty-seven died, one hundred and three living, and twenty unaccounted for—total, one hundred and sixty-eight.

As several were wounded more than once, some thirty-two of the company received between thirty-five and forty wounds.

The above list speaks well for the industry and perseverance of Captain M. W. McKnight in keeping his company well recruited, as well as for the popularity of the company

The “Sangs”⁴ generally outnumbered any other company in the regiment, and yet they were never consolidated with any other company.

I learn from an old muster-roll, which has been preserved by Lieutenant J. S. Harrison, that sixteen⁵ of the original company and thirty-five⁵ of the recruits—total, fifty-one-were present at the surrender of Forrest's Cavalry, May 10, 1865. The muster-roll referred to above is dated thus: "Near Sumterville, Alabama, May 1, 1865." And upon said roll I find the names of nineteen others, who are accounted for as follows: Three (J. W. Webb, W. E. Rich,⁶ and T. D. Summer⁶) are reported “Detached by order of Lieutenant-General Forrest;" two (A. G. McKnight and B. D. Ewing⁶) are reported “Absent, waiting on wounded ;” three (A. B. McKnight,⁶ W.W. Hawkins,⁶ and R. R. Hancock^*) are reported “Absent, wounded;” six (Captain M. W. McKnight,⁶ Lieutenant H. L. W. Turney,⁶ Privates E. L. Ewing,⁶ J. H. Cavender, Mat Francis and H. C. Odam) are reported “Retired by order of Medical Board;" three (A. G. Ewing,⁶ J. H. Baxter, and John N. McKnight) are reported “Absent, sick," and two (E. D. Thomas and J. H. Thomas) are reported “Absent on parole."

Though I do not find upon said roll the names of any of the Auburn Company (J. D. McLin,⁶ C. C. Francis, Eli Barrett,⁶ and perhaps some others) who were in prison when this muster-roll was made out, I suppose they were omitted from the fact that our officers did not expect to get paroles for those in prison. But, omitting those in prison and the two already on parole, there were sixty-eight of the Auburn Company paroled at Gainesville, Sumter County, Alabama, May 10, 1865. (Gainesville is situated in the center of the western border of Alabama, on the west bank of the Tombigbee River, about forty-five miles southeast of Columbus, Mississippi.) Besides the eight killed, only about nine company died during the war. Alfred Hancock, Dr. G. C. Flowers, William A. Groom, John Overall, George Owen, George Turney, and Captain Sam Y. Barkley were with the Auburn Company from time to time during the war, and did more or less service, though they were not really members of the company. S. Y. Barkley, the last named above, was Captain of a company in Colonel E. S. Smith's regiment; and after that regiment disbanded Captain Barkley, though remaining independent, did service with the Auburn Company a good portion of the time from the fall of 1862 to the close of the war.

We remained at Nashville about five or six days. As they wanted our boots made by the penitentiary hands, we went there and had our measures taken. We moved from Nashville to Thorn Hill, near Goodlettsville, some ten or twelve miles north-east of Nashville, where we found the four following cavalry companies encamped:

The following is the muster-roll of Captain Frank N. McNairy's Company (A):

McNairy, F. N., Captain, d.
Harris, W. H., First Lieutenant, 1.
Brown, C. W., Second Lieutenant, 1.
Hicks, E. D., Third Lieutenant, 1.
Morton, G. H., First Sergeant, 1.
Roberts, William, Second Sergeant, 1.
Maxey, William O., Third Sergeant, d.
Britton, William, Fourth Sergeant, 1.
Drane, J. R , First Corporal, d.
Miliron, A. A., Second Corporal, killed at Milton.
Shute, J. M., Third Corporal, 1.
Craighead, W. J., Fourth Corporal, d.
Bender, John, Bugler, 1.
Winfrey, Andrew, Bugler, 1.
Drane, Tom, 1.
Abbay, R. H., d.
Abbay, R. H., d.
Adams, R. H., d.
Aiken, George, d.
Anderson, J. S., d.
Anderson, J. S., d.
Atkinson, T. C., d.
Bennington, Thomas, 1.
Blackman, Hays, 1.
Bolton, Alex., 1.
Brien, W. A., 1.
Buchanan, J. R., d.
Bush, G. W., d.
Campbell, Joe, d.
Clark, Charles, 1.
Crawford, Scott, 1.
Curran, J. M., d.
Curran, Pat, d.
Dashiells, G. W., d.
Dodd, B. P., 1.
Edmondson, Henry, 1.
Edmondson, W. A., d.
Ferguson, Tom, d.
French, A. H., 1.
Graves, W. H., I.
Griffin, Blank.
Grisham, W. J., 1.
Guinn, W. J.
Guthrie, W.*
Haile, G. E.*
Hallowell, B. F., 1.
Hamill, A. C.; d,
Hamill, M.*
Hancock, G. D.*
Hendricks, A. P., 1.
Hope, R. K., d.
Jackson, Andrew.*
Joplin, Thomas, 1.
Kimbro, Thomas, 1.
Marchbank, Chase, 1.
Marshall, E. S., 1.
Martin, C. C.7
Mathews, S. G., 1.
Morris, R. E. K.8
Natcher, W. K., k.
Nolan, M. D. A., d.
Paul, J. A., 1.
Payne, A. B., d.
Porch, W. A., 1.
Puckett, James.
Ridley, G. C., 1.
Ridley, J. L., 1.
Safforans, T. M., d.
Shields, John, 1.
Shilcut, T. H., 1.
Smith, E. M., d.
Smith, J. M.
Smith, Nat., 1.
Smith, P. A., 1.
Smithwick, George, d.
Steele, J. W., 1.
Steele, William.
Sykes, J. W., d.
Tate, Zack, d.
Thomas, George, 1.
Treanor, J. D.
Tucker. *
Vaughn, J. H., 1.
Vaughn, J. T., 1.
Williams, N. B.*

The following is the muster-roll of the company (B) commanded by Captain W. L. Horn:

Horn, W. L., Captain, I.
Gasby, L. L., First Lieutenant, d.
Calvert, W. W., Second Lieutenant, d.
Craft, W. H., Third Lieutenant, d.
Horn, F. W., First Sergeant, 1.
Oswell, Nick, Second Sergeant.
Pickett, J. C., Third Sergeant, d.
Horn, E. H.,* Fourth Sergeant, 1.
Frankland, J., First Corporal, p.
Rhodes, William, Second Corporal, 1.
Singleton, H. E., Third Corporal, d.
Polk, Richard, Fourth Corporal, 1.
Tate, James, Ensign, k.
Johnson, E. C., Bugler, 1.
Atilla, Frank, Drill Master, 1.
Figg, R. M., 1.
Brooks, E., d.
Armstrong, Eli, d.
Bowles, Thomas, 1.
Bowles, W. E., d.
Bowman, James, 1.
Breedlove, Stanford, 1.
Cantrell, W. H., d.
Carpenter, William, d.
Cash, Jeff, d.
Cooke, J. E., d.
Franklin, J., d.
Graves, John, 1.
Green, J.*
Hager, B. D., 1.
Hays, Mike P,, 1.
Henry, J. P.*
Hook, I. N., d.
Hunley, Ben, d.
Jackson, J. P., 1.
Johnson, Lafayette, d.
Johnson, W. D.. 1.
Kelly, Pat.*
Kenner, John, k.
Kittle, Richard, 1.
Little, David. *
Mahan, Mike. *
Mahoney, John.*
Mann, G. W., l.
McKnight, W. G., d.
Mehrenstein, M., 1.
Meyer, John, 1.
Miller, Aug., d.
Morton, S. W.*
Nellan, M.* Ford, T.*
Newbern, Thomas, 1.
Nicholson, M. R., 1.
O'Brien, John, 1.
O'Donnell, John.*
O'Hara, Roderick, d.
Overbee, Coleman,*
Overstreet, J. L., 1.
Patton, F., 1.
Powers, Pat. *
Rhodes, D. C., 1.
Rhodes, M., d.
Runnells, Sam.*
Searls, Charles, 1.
Singleton, A. J., d.
Spillers, L., 1.
Squares, Charles, d.
Stevenson, J. F., 1.
Stull, J., l.
Sullivan, Pat.*
Sutton, J. J., 1.
Tarpley, Robert, k.
Thompson, S., d.
Webb, J. B., k.
Wilson, Wallace, 1.
Wittey, Horatio, d.
Woodruff, John, 1.
Wright, H.*
Wyatt, Thomas, d.
Yates, Thomas, d.
Zachary, Wash, 1.

The following is the roll⁹ of Company C,¹⁰ & First  Battalion Tennessee Cavalry:

Ewing, William, Captain, d.¹¹
Bond, Burk, First Lieutenant, d.
House, Isaac, Second Lieutenant, d.
Wyatt, Joe, Third Lieutenant, d.
Parrish, William, First Sergeant, d.
Allen, John, Jr.
Allen, John, Sr.
Andrews, William.
Bailey, Pat.
Beech, David.
Blythe, James.
Bostick, Jonn, 1.
Boyd, D. J.
Boyd, Thad.
Brown, John.
Cathrenn, H.
Childress, George.
Childress, William.
Clouston, W. G.
Core, J. G.
Cowles, James.
Crite, J. M.
Crow, J. M.
Crump, G. R.
Crump, Marcus.
Davis, James, d.
Denton, James.
Dodson, Andrew.
Dodson, Byrd.
Dodson, Tim.
Duff, William, d.
Elliott, Joe.
Ellis, John.
Fleming, Lem.
Franklin, James.
House, Mann, d.
Hughes, Brice.
Hughes, Henry.
Hughes, James.
Hughes, Lee.
Hunt, Turner.
Jordan, G. M.
Mallory, Clem.
Mallory, John.
Malone, Hiram.
Maney, H. J., d.
Marshall, William.
McCallister, Joe.
McCrea, ——
McDowell, Sam.
McGan, J- L., 1.
McLane, Ben.
Mebane, Alex.
Merrett, David.
Merrett, J. H.
Mosley, Robert
Mosley, Sam.
Mullins, Doge.
North, J. A., 1.
Oden, Thomas.
Orum, James.
Pollard, N. N.
Reid, W. W.
Smithson, G. W.
Smithson, James.
Sounders, Mark;
Spivy, R.
Tichnenar, G. W.
Tull, Dudle.
Tullan, James.
Underwood, T. B., 1.
Williams, N. C.
Williams, Wm.
Weli, Sam.
Wray, J.

I have failed to get a full report of the living and dead of Ewing's Company.

The following is the muster-roll of Captain E. D. Payne's Company (D):

Payne, E. D., Captain, d.
Petway, R. G., First Lieutenant, l.
Ryan, J. B., Second Lieutenant, l.
Birdwell, J. W., Third Lieutenant.*
Dawson, W. R., First Sergeant.*
Smith, W. H., Second Sergeant, d.
Bevill, J. M., Third Sergeant.*
Hickman, J. A., Fourth Sergeant.*
Knote, T. L., Fifth Sergeant, d.
Walker, E. R., First Corporal.*
Petty, S. H., Second Corporal.*
Sales, W. J., Third Corporal.*
Buckner, J. H., Fourth Corporal.*
Adams, G. W.*
Alexander, J. D.*
Anderson, Alex.*
Armstrong, H. C., 1.
Blackwell, J. W.*
Blair, S. S., 1.
Bledsoe, C. P., d.
Bradley, H. C.*
Bradley, William, d.
Brien, W. A., I.
Caldwell, J. R.*
Camperry, R. J.*
Carler, William.*
Carlisle, W. G., d.
Cavender, J. C., l.
Cayee, F. J.*
Cozatt, G. W., Bugler, d.
Dobbs, J. R., I.
Drane, Thomas. *
Duncan, J. H., d.12
Forehand, Thomas. *
Fox, Thomas.
Glasco, C. L., d.
Good, G. H.*
Handy, D. S.*
Handy, G. M.*
Harbring, J.*
Haynes, J. C.*
Hays, E. C.*
Head, Robert.*
Heiss, Henry, d.
Hester, J. W., d.
Hickle, G. R. H.*
Hill, J. B.*
Houston, J. D., 1.
Hunter, William, I.
Hutchinson, W. B., 1.
Johnson, C., Farrier, 1.
Jones, J. M.*
Jones, Joseph, d.
Kirkpatrick, J. W.
Knott, R. S., 1.
Maratta, S., Bugler, d.
Marks, W. P., k.
Mayfield, W.*
McCartney, L. W., d.
Nelson, N. R., d.
Pendergras, James. *
Petty, J. M.*
Polk, J. A., 1.
Rhodes, J. B., d.
Richardson, J. R.*
Ring, A. N.*
Robertson, J. A.*
Skeggs, C. H., 1.
Smith, W. B.*
Steele, E. F.*
Underwood, F. J.*
Washburn, J. M., d.
West, E. M.*
White, Edward. *
Whittey, D. J.*
Williams, A. J.*
Woods, N.*

At Thorn Hill, during the first week of July, the five companies previously mentioned were organized into a battallion, known as the,

FIRST BATTALION OF TENNESSEE CAVALRY,

by electing the following field and staff officers :

Frank N. McNairy, Lieutenant-Colonel.
William Malcomb, Major.
E. D. Hicks, Lieutenant and Adjutant.
M. W. McKnight, Sergeant-Major.
Dr. Isaac House, Surgeon.
G. M. Fogg, Acting Quartermaster.
William Britton, Assistant Quartermaster.
Ramsey, Commissary
John Bender, Bugler.

As the Captain of Company A was elected Lieutenant-Colonel, and the Third Lieutenant of the same company was made Adjutant, therefore, by election, W. Hooper Harris became Captain, and Hays Blackman First Lieutenant, and George H. Morton was made Third Lieutenant of Company A in December, 1861.

A few days after the First Battalion had been organized at Thorn Hill, it moved from there to Camp Jackson, near Hendersonville, some five or six miles east of the former camp.

News having reached Auburn, Cannon County, that the First Battalion would start to East Tennessee in a few days, quite a number of the friends and relatives of our company (Allison's) paid us a visit, about the 24th of July, at Camp Jackson. They brought trunks and boxes filled with “good things” to eat. How, for the next three or four days, we did enjoy the company of our friends and relatives, as well as eating the good things they brought for us! Had I an eloquent pen I would here use it in describing those few but bright days. They were, in comparison with the rest of our soldier life, like an oasis in a great desert.

On the morning of the 28th most of our friends set out on their return home, and the three companies enlisted at Nashville (Harris's, Horn's, and Payne's) had previously gone to that place to visit relatives and friends before starting eastward. Allison's and Ewing's Companies were still at Camp Jackson.

_______________

¹ Those whose names are in small capitals [in this listing all capitals] were present at the surrender.

² B. A. and W. C. are brothers of the writer.

³ See Appendix A.

⁴ The above name (or rather as at first, “Sang Diggers”) was given to the Auburn Company rather as a term of derision; though, in the language of an ancient general (Epaminondas), “they did not derive any honor from the name, but they made the name honorable.”

⁵ By reference to the preceding rolls their names will be found printed in small [all] capitals.

⁶ These twelve were members of the original company.

⁷ Killed at Milton, Tennessee.

⁸ Killed at Winchester, Kentucky.

⁹ I am under obligations to J. L. McGann for this roll.

¹⁰ This company was from Williamson County, the other three from Nashville, except a few Kentuckians in Company D.

¹¹ Resigned at Cumberland Ford.

¹² Made Captain at Cumberland Ford.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 18-35

Governor Isham G. Harris to Simon Cameron, April 17, 1861

NASHVILLE, TENN., April 17, 1861.

Hon. SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: Your dispatch of 15th instant, informing me that Tennessee is called upon for two regiments of militia for immediate service, is received. Tennessee will not furnish a single man for purpose of coercion, but 50,000, if necessary, for the defense of our rights and those of our Southern brethren.

ISHAM G. HARRIS,            

Governor of Tennessee.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume 1 (Serial No. 122), p. 81

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 22, 1863

Another dispatch from Bragg, received at a late hour last night, says the victory is complete. This announcement has lifted a heavy load from the spirits of our people; and as successive dispatches come from Gov. Harris and others on the battle-field to-day, there is a great change in the recent elongated faces of many we meet in the streets. So far we learn that the enemy has been beaten back and pursued some eleven miles; that we have from 5000 to 6000 prisoners, some 40 guns, besides small arms and stores in vast quantities. But Gen. Hood, whom I saw at the department but a fortnight ago, is said to be dead! and some half dozen of our brigadier-generals have been killed and wounded. The loss of the enemy, however, has been still greater than ours. At last accounts (this morning) the battle was still raging — the enemy having made a stand (temporarily, I presume) on a ridge, to protect their retreat. They burnt many commissary stores, which they may need soon. Yet, this is from the West.

The effects of this great victory will be electrical. The whole South will be filled again with patriotic fervor, and in the North there will be a corresponding depression. Rosecrans's position is now one of great peril; for his army, being away from the protection of gun-boats, may be utterly destroyed, and then Tennessee and Southern Kentucky may fall into our hands again. To-morrow the papers will be filled with accounts from the field of battle, and we shall have a more distinct knowledge of the magnitude of it. There must have been at least 150,000 men engaged; and no doubt the killed and wounded on both sides amounted to tens of thousands!

Surely the Government of the United States must now see the impossibility of subjugating the Southern people, spread over such a vast extent of territory; and the European governments ought now to interpose to put an end to this cruel waste of blood and treasure.

My little garden has been a great comfort to me, and has afforded vegetables every day for a month past. My potatoes, however, which occupied about half the ground, did not turn out well. There were not more than a dozen quarts — worth $10, though — in consequence of the drought in June and July; but I have abundance of tomatoes, and every week several quarts of the speckled lima bean, which I trailed up the plank fence and on the side of the wood-house — just seven hills in all. I do not think I planted more than a gill of beans; and yet I must have already pulled some ten quarts, and will get nearly as many more, which will make a yield of more than 300-fold! I shall save some of the seed. The cabbages do not head, but we use them freely when we get a little bacon. The okra flourishes finely, and gives a flavor to the soup, when we succeed in getting a shin-bone. The red peppers are flourishing luxuriantly, and the bright red pods are really beautiful. The parsnips look well, but I have not yet pulled any. I shall sow turnip seed, where the potatoes failed, for spring salad. On the whole, the little garden has compensated me for my labor in substantial returns, as well as in distraction from painful, meditations during a season of calamity.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 49-50

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: July 29, 1863

Still raining! The great fear is that the crops will be ruined, and famine, which we have long been verging upon, will be complete. Is Providence frowning upon us for our sins, or upon our cause?

Another battle between Lee and Meade is looked for on the Upper Rappahannock.

Gov. Harris, in response to the President's call for 6000 men, says Western and Middle Tennessee are in the hands of the enemy, and that about half the people in East Tennessee sympathize with the North!

Some two or three hundred of Morgan's men have reached Lynchburg, and they believe Morgan himself will get off, with many more of his men.

The New York Herald's correspondent, writing from Washington on the 24th inst., says the United States ministers in England and France have informed the government of the intention of those powers to intervene immediately in our behalf; and that they will send iron-clad fleets to this country without delay. Whereupon the Herald says Mr. Seward is in favor of making peace with us, and reconstructing the Union — pardoning us — but keeping the slaves captured, etc. It is a cock-and-bull story, perhaps, without foundation.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 390

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: January 2, 1863

A dispatch from Gov. Harris gives some additional particulars of the battle near Murfreesborough, Tenn. He says the enemy was driven back six miles, losing four generals killed and three captured, and that we destroyed $2,000,000 commissary and other stores. But still we have no account of what was done yesterday on the “extreme left.”

Gen. Stuart has been near Alexandria, and his prisoners are coming in by every train. He captured and destroyed many stores, and, up to the last intelligence, without loss on his side. He is believed, now, to be in Maryland, having crossed the Potomac near Leesburg.

The mayor of our city, Jos. Mayo, meeting two friends last night, whom he recognized but who did not recognize him, playfully seized one of them, a judge, and, garroter fashion, demanded his money or his life. The judge's friend fell upon the mayor with a stick and beat him dreadfully before the joke was discovered.

The President was at Mobile on the 30th December, having visited both Murfreesborough and Vicksburg, but not witnessing either of the battles.

We are in great exaltation again! Dispatches from Gen. Bragg, received last night, relieve us with the information that the stronghold of the enemy, which he failed to carry on the day of battle, was abandoned the next day; that Forrest and Morgan I were operating successfully far in the rear of the invader, and that Gen. Wheeler had made a circuit of the hostile army after the battle, burning several hundred of their wagons, capturing an ordnance train, and making more prisoners. Bragg says the enemy's telegraphic and railroad communications with his rear have been demolished, and that he will follow up the defeated foe. I think we will get Nashville now.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 229-30

Captain William Thompson Lusk to Elizabeth Adams Lusk, March 2, 1862

Headquarters 2d Brigade S. C.

Beaufort, S. C. March 2d, 1862.

My dear Mother:

In the short letter I wrote you last week, I mentioned that I would not encourage your visiting Beaufort, and will now state my reasons more at length. In the first place, we have here some four thousand men on the island, of whom the best are long separated from the refining influence of home, and, in consequence, the two or three ladies who are visiting here are subject to a deal of coarse remark, to which I would not be willing that any woman should be subjected, where it lay in my power to prevent. Again, it would be quite impossible to provide you with such accommodations as would enable you to spend a few days without more suffering than you could well bear. It is all well for Quartermasters, who are not liable to be removed from this Post at a moment's notice, to provide themselves with bedding and comforts from the North, suitable for lady friends, but this cannot be the case with those of us who are liable to an order to move at any moment, and to whom only a certain number of lbs. of baggage is allowed. We are not, moreover, so absolutely secure from the probability of an attack, that it is with perfect safety a lady may venture here. Should an attack take place, there would be a double duty to perform, the one to place my mother in security, and at the same time to assist in providing for the safety of the Brigade. I fear it would be hard to combine the two. However, I will say this, a hotel is soon to be opened here. If it has the effect to draw many lady visitors to Beaufort, I would not then say nay to your coming, but I imagine it will become more the resort of topers than of fine ladies. Well, dear mother, let us trust that there will soon be some way opened to us by which we may meet happily.

I tell you what I think would be a capital idea though — that is for Hunt or Walter, or both, to make me a flying visit one of these days. I think that would really be capital.

I was round to dine with Alfred Rockwell to-day. He is certainly a real good fellow, and if I have not given him the credit for rapidity of action, he certainly is doing what he attempts exceedingly well. His whole soul is absorbed in his battery, and he makes a better officer every day. I wrote Horace a few days ago, and trust he may receive my letter. We are getting, in indirect ways, glorious news from the North concerning the capture of Fort Donelson, and are now impatiently awaiting the arrival of a steamer with particulars. We can hardly credit a report now current, regarding a convention to be called by the Governor of Tennessee to repeal the Secession Ordinance in that State. Our latest dates are Feb. 16th, and here it is the 2d of March.

There was quite a funny affair happened last night among the pickets. Fresh meat has long been scarce in the Command, and we are forced to await the arrival of a steamer from the North before we can indulge in such a luxury. This morning, among the “Reports” sent in to these Headquarters from the “Advanced Posts,” was one containing the following remarkable account: That about 1 o'clock last night, the pickets guarding a causeway were startled by the steady tramp of advancing footsteps. On looking in the direction whence the sound came, they saw — Oh wonderful! a cow marching steadily toward them, a secessionist grasping her by the tail, and five men following in single file, protected from harm by the flanks of this redoubtable cow. Our pickets, instead of running, fired upon the foe. The cow fell groaning to the earth, and the secessionists fled and were seen no more. I hardly need add, that those pickets had fresh meat for breakfast, and though the laws against killing cattle are very stringent, in such a case nothing could be said. Capt. Elliott has not yet arrived, so I am not yet in receipt of the wine Uncle Phelps has been kind enough to send me. Still I thank him very much for his kind remembrance.

It is getting late, so many kisses, mother, and good-night.

I am very affec'y.,

W. T. Lusk

SOURCE: William Chittenden Lusk, Editor, War Letters of William Thompson Lusk, p. 124-6

Captain Francis H. Wigfall: December 8, 1864

Dec. 8th. I have heard this morning of poor Beckham's death. What a cruel, hard thing is war! The individual suffering, however, is the public gain. Over the road, on which moved Cheatham's Corps, was hung, just at the Tennessee State line, an inscription in these words: “Tennessee, A grave, or a free home.” A good many graves have been already filled — but better we should all meet that fate than fail to gain the prize we struggle for. As he passed over the line, Gen. Hood received a formal welcome into the state from Governor Harris, who has been with us since we took up the line of march for Tennessee. If we can gain Nashville, what a glorious termination it will be for the campaign. Even if we fail in this, for I fear the fortifications are too strong, and hold the enemy in his lines round the city, it will be one of the grandest achievements an army has ever performed. Think of it! Starting from Lovejoy's thirty miles beyond Atlanta on the 18th Sept., here we are on the 8th Dec. in front of Nashville with the enemy cooped up in his works and the fruits of two years hard marching and fighting lost to him. . . .

SOURCE: Louise Wigfall Wright, A Southern Girl in ’61, p. 213-4

Who are the Loyal, and Who are the Disloyal

From the Nashville Union, 29th

It is a source of honorable pride to contemplate the elements which constitute the loyal portion of our people, and contrast them with the faction of treason.  Loyalty can truly boast of possessing the material and substance which constitute a State, – the “high minded men,” who are the glory of all nations.  Treason on the contrary, has gathered in its retinue the frivolous, the ignorant, the conceited, the apes of foreign aristocracy, the dissolute and the profligate.  In ninety nine cases out of a hundred, men of experience, cultivation, correct morals and elevated principles, are hearty supporters of the Union.  In nine hundred and ninety nine cases out of a thousand the debauched, the reckless, the giddy voltaires of fashion, the bankrupts in political and pecunial fortune, the would be aristocrat and the snobs who follow at their heels are, the violent and malignant enemies of the union.  A man who makes his living by honest labor is in the great majority of cases loyal, while one who looks on labor as degrading, is equally apt to be disloyal.  Who originated and planned this rebellion?  Floyd, Cobb and Jeff Davis, men of wealth and the repudiators of public and private debts, Judah Benjamin, who was compelled to leave college in boyhood for base thefts from his school mates, and other political schemers whose large fortunes enabled them to dance attendance on the Courts of London and Paris.  The vigorous and manly and classic literature of the nation is loyal to the core.  The men who are honored abroad in the learned circles of Europe as poets, historians, jurists, and inventors, are without exception, as far as we recollect at present, firm and zealous loyalists.  The literature of the rebellion is confined to the few ranting stump speakers, of large gabble and little brains, and a few editors who write atrocious falsehoods in English that would disgrace a kitchen wench’s first attempt at a love letter.  On the side of loyalty, we have Bancroft, Everett, Prentice, Bryant, Longfellow, Mitchell, Dr. Breckenridge, Motley the historian, and a grand editorial corps of great power and brilliancy.  On the side of treason we find Armageddon and the Confederate Almanac and Primer, the last two works being plagiarisms from Yankee works!  The parallel or rather the contrast is one which will fill the patriotic heart with an honorable pride.  The rebels with more truth than they are aware of, often call this a rival of the war between the Puritans and the Cavaliers of England.  The two wars are indeed alike.  The same issues appear in both, the great issues of free Government and monarchy.  The leaders of the two parties are similar in their origin and character.  The voluptuous and profligate King Charles is no bad prototype of King Jeff while Oliver Cromwell, bluff, rugged and straight forward, is not unlike blunt and honest Abraham Lincoln, who possesses more true manliness and chivalry in his soul than all the officers in the rebel army from Beauregard to Isham G. Harris.  When we look at the rebel army we find it only the reflection of that of King Charles, both armies being made up of aristocratic leaders, followed by an idle vicious, demoralized mob.  The Union army, like that of Cromwell’s is made up of industrious, sober, substantial, God-fearing citizens.  The loyal forces will as surely destroy the rebel armies as the sturdy Puritans destroyed the mob of King Charles.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, June 7, 1862, p. 1

Cairo News

CAIRO, March 31. – Scattered columns of the rebel infantry and cavalry have been collected together and are hovering about Columbus, Hickman, and Cape Girardeau.  Preparations are being made to meet these guerilla bands and beat them back at once.

About 250 bushels of upland cotton seed is on the way to Washington and northern points for distribution.  The Government agents are having unexpected success in the collection of seed.

The latest information from below Columbus puts the enemies present strength at Corinth at 65,000 men, and their force is being increased as rapidly as impressment and their means of transportation will admit.

Since the murder of Joel, yesterday, the Commanding General of this post has received orders for the arrest of all liquor dealers and destruction of their stock, and the breaking up of all gambling saloons.

No news from below to-day that can be sent.

There is nothing new from below.

The troops at Pittsburg are being paid off.

Secession Cavalry are scouring the country along the Tennessee river, pressing the inhabitants into the rebel service.

A military Colonel who raised a regiment under Harris’s proclamation, and refused  to take the field, says he can easily 1,000 for the Union [sic].

Many secession cavalry have also been seen back of Columbus.

The river is now falling fast.  Weather cloudy and warm.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 4

Brownlow makes Another Speech

At a meeting of the Pioneer Association of Cincinnati, held on Saturday last, Parson Brownlow made another characteristic speech.  We find it reported in the Gazette:

GENTLEMEN:  I feel called upon to respond to the document read by the honorable secretary, and also the address of the gentlemen from the General Assembly who has just taken his seat.  I authorize the gentleman and the honorable Secretary to say, that I shall be proud and happy to visit the capital as the guest of the General Assembly; but I cannot say when I shall be able to accept their kind invitation. – The truth is, I have completely taken in my friend, the host of the Gibson House, who on my arrival here in this city, came to meet me on the steamboat, and invited me to make his house my home during my stay here.  I fear he will get more than he bargained for.  I am very comfortable there, and shall certainly enjoy his hospitality some while longer yet.  But still, I want to visit the capital of your State, to undo the machinations and refute the sayings of a certain bogus nephew of mine, whom, if God does not know anything more about him than I do, will be inevitably and irretrievably lost in a coming day.

My mind has been variously exercised while I have been sitting here.  This is not a society of young men and boys, but a society of old men; men who are true to the backbone – loyal, faithful, patriotic men, who old as they are would lay down with eager joy a life almost worn out under the beneficent protection of the best Government ever established on God’s beautiful earth.  They are honest men – none of your mean, pitiful, swindling, God-forsaken, rascally demagogues, who have used the strength God endowed them with to endeavor to overturn his most sacred institution – our Government.  I am no candidate for popular favor – I want no office, although I did take a tilt against Isham Harris. [Laughter.]  I am not adapted for an office, and as I said before, I don’t want one; but I am a Federal, and I believe in a strong Government – one that has the power and the ability and the energy to put down treason – to crush out traitors; and in short, gentlemen, to take care of itself.  I think that your present Government is the right kind of Government, but still not entirely so, inasmuch as it is hardly in earnest enough in the stupendous work it is now occupied in; but I hope and believe that with God’s help and our backing, that this Government will soon put down the most diabolical treason that has ever been seen in any part of the world.

I have fought many battles; religious battles, political battles and every other kind of battles, and I have encountered the devil, Tom Walker and the Southern Confederacy, [Laughter and applause,] and it has gone hard with one to be called after, and pointed at so long, as a traitor, by all the miserable, sneaking, cowardly rascals who have torn and rent this glorious Union apart.  My father was a volunteer in my country’s army and my uncle lived and died in the service of his country, and thank God their graves are still in possession of the Federals.  My mother’s relatives also shed their blood at their country’s call at Norfolk, and yet I am called a traitor, and by such despicable men as compose the Southern Confederacy.

Mr. Eggelston alluded to the crushing out of my paper.  Yes, gentlemen, the office from which came the last sheets in defense of the Union, ever published in Knoxville, was cleaned out and converted into a workshop for repairing and altering all the arms stolen by that accomplished thief and runaway, Floyd.  All my ambition now, is to go back once more to Knoxville to establish another office.  Once more to spread abroad the glorious truths of the Union; and once more to take from a drawer in my own house, the flag which so long waved defiantly in the breeze, while these hellhounds were longing, and yet not daring to tear down and trample it in the dust.

I would never have taken down that flag but for the females in my own house, who besought and entreated me to do so, lest the house should be torn down about their ears.

One day a crowd surrounded my house and threatened to tear down my flag; but I warned them they would have to do it in the face of six loaded muskets, which would be used by men who would never flinch from their duty.  They took sober second thought, and marched away, but presently about fifteen came back again, drunker than ever, led by a young officer who was desired to tear the d----d thing of a flag down.  In the meanwhile, I had left my house and gone to the office, leaving my wife in charge.  She came forward and expressed her intention of shooting the first man who attempted to haul down the flag.  The officer was slightly scared, and said:

“Madam, you won’t shoot, will you?”

“You had better try the experiment,” said she.

“Go on, go on!” shouted the crowd, “She daren’t shoot!”

She instantly drew from her pocket one of the Colt’s revolvers and cocking leveled it at the officer’s head.  “Never mind her, she’s only a woman,” cried the mob.  “By God! look at her eye,” said the officer as, as he made a low bow, scraped the ground and toddled off, followed by the whole crowd.  The gentleman addressed me expressing his regret that my paper is stopped and my office is closed, and I reply to him that all my ambition is to go back to Knoxville and resurrect my old paper.  To go back with new presses and new type, and with a soul renewed and revived by a baptism in the glorious liberty of northern States.  And I also want to go back there, and repay a debt of gratitude I owe to about one hundred and fifty of the most unmitigated scoundrels that can be found on the face of the earth.  To liberate a people oppressed and defrauded by the most Satanic conspiracy ever consummated.  Defrauded and duped by Southern confederacy bonds.  Bonds having on one side a full length portrait of Jeff. Davis and a picture of a henroost on the other, bearing on them the words: “I promise to pay, six months after declaration of peace between the Southern Confederacy and the United States of North America, $50.”

They have fixed a time which never can and never will come.  The only treaty of peace which we can have will be accomplished with powder and ball and river gunboats.  There is nothing which fills a rebel with so much horror as gunboats.  They would rather meet Old Nick, horns and all, than to meet our gunboats.  But this is not strange, perhaps, when we recollect their near relationship to that sable individual.

Some time since, I stood alone amidst 2,000 rebel soldiers, and I said, in my address to them: “It is you of the South that are to blame.  The North have not precipitated this war on us; it is you who have done it.  You complained of an infringement of Southern rights when there was no infringement.  You complained of Northern encroachments when there were none, and you have rushed into a war of the most wicked kind, without the shadow of reason.”

But, gentlemen of Ohio, I do not and cannot exonerate the North, and I say in brief to you, that if, fifty years ago, we had taken 100 Southern Fire-eaters and 100 Northern Abolitionists and hanged them up and buried them in a common ditch and sent their souls to hell, we should have had none of this war. [Immense applause.]  I am speaking too long [Cries of “No! no!”  “Go on!”  “Don’t allow that talk.”]  But in looking around on this assembly I notice that Time has written his mark unmistakably on the countenances of a large proportion of this audience.  Many are growing gray; I am getting old myself, and I know not how soon the span of our existence may be shortened and the spirit take its flight to realms of eternal joy and happiness or everlasting misery.  It behooves us all then, to see to it that we are prepared for this change wherever and whenever it may come, and may God in his infinite mercy bless and keep us all.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1