Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: December 24, 1864

We are ordered to Fort Brown, two miles from the city, where we go into a more permanent camp. During our first days at Savannah, the Seventh's boys are seen strolling everywhere, viewing the fortifications and the great guns; they are also seen pacing the streets of the beautiful city, looking with admiration upon her gorgeous buildings, and standing in awe in the shade of the peerless monument reared by a generous people to that noble Pole, Count Pulaski, who fought, bled and died in America's first revolution for independence. Can it be that traitors have walked around its base and sworn that the great Union for which this grand and liberal spirit sacrificed his life should be consigned to the wrecks of dead empires? As we stand and gaze upon this marble cenotaph, we are constrained to say, Oh! wicked men, why stood ye here above the dust of Poland's martyr, seeking to defame his name and tear down what he helped to rear! May God pity America's erring ones! In our wanderings we are made to stop, by an acre enclosed with a high but strong palisade, the work of Colonel G. F. Wiles, Seventy-eighth Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, commanding Second Brigade, Third Division, Seventeenth Army Corps, and his gallant command. This is God's acre and liberty's, and emphatically can this be said, for here three hundred or more of our fallen comrades sleep death's silent sleep. Here in trenches, unknelled, uncoffined, but not alone, "life's fitful fever over," they sleep well.

They fell not in the deadly breach, nor yet on the grassy plain. For them no choir of musketry rattled, no anthem of cannon rolled, but unclad and unfed, their lamps of life flickered out in that worse than Egyptian bondage—a Confederate prison. For long weary months they suffered and waited for the time to come when they would inhale freedom's pure air; for long weary nights they watched the signal lights as they flashed upwards from the monitors to guide Sherman through the wilderness of pines, down to the sea; long did they wait to see the sunlight from the waters flash on his serried lines, but he came not. They suffered on, and died-died martyrs upon the altar of human freedom; died that not one single star, however wayward, should be erased from the Union's great banner of freedom. Has the world, in all its history of blood, from the creation to the christian era, from the reformation to the revolution, ever produced examples of such heroic endurance as this second revolution has given to the world? Echoes coming from the soft south winds that sweep along the Atlantic shore, answer no. These men were murdered! Yes, murdered because they wore the blue, and fought for the flag and freedom. The poet alludes most touchingly to an incident that caused the murder of one of these lonely sleepers who plead for his wife's letters.

"First pay the postage, whining wretch."

Despair had made the prisoner brave-

"I'm a captive, not a slave;

You took my money and my clothes,

Take my life too, but for the love of God

Let me know how Mary and the children are,

And I will bless you ere I go."

This plea proved fruitless, and across the dead-line the soldier passed, and soon a bullet passed through his brain, and his crushed spirit was free with God. What a sad picture.

We remember when we stood there and gazed upon that hallowed acre of God's and liberty's. We thought of those wicked men who whelmed this land into those dark nights of war; who told us then that the Union soldier died in vain; that the names of those uncoffined sleepers there would be forgotten and unsung, and as my comrades and myself stood there revolving these thoughts in our minds, we vowed over those graves, before heaven, to be the enemies of traitors. "Died in vain! sacrificed their lives for naught! their names to be forgotten and unsung!" Who uttered those words in application to the noble sleepers there? Who spoke thus to the weeping mother and stricken sister? Traitors in the North! Traitors on the legislative floors uttered these words! We speak the sentiment of the Seventh when we say that we would not take millions for what we hate these men, contemptible in nature, pusillanimous in soul, with hearts as black as the "steeds of night." Like Brownlow, were we not afraid of springing a theological question, we would say that better men have been going down with the wailing hosts for the last eighteen hundred years.

A few days after going into camp at Fort Brown, Major Johnson is ordered with Companies A, H and K, to proceed down the river to Bonniventure, about five miles from Savannah. Arriving, we take up our quarters in the old Bonniventure mansion, a fashionable resort for the chivalry in the days that have flown. During our stay here we live chiefly on oysters, which are obtained in great abundance by the boys. Major Johnson and his detachment will not soon forget how they gamboled and loitered beneath the shades of those live oaks down by the great Atlantic's shore.

The Seventh remains in camp at Fort Brown and Bonniventure until the latter part of January, 1865. In the mean time Captain Norton, with the mounted portion of the regiment, was ordered across the Savannah river into South Carolina, joining Howard's command at Pocataligo.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 290-93

Major-General George B. Crittenden to Judah P. Benjamin, December 13, 1861

RICHMOND, December 13, 1861.

Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN,
        Secretary of War:

SIR: I arrived at, Knoxville about the 1st day of December, assumed command, and established my headquarters there. At that time Mr. W. G. Brownlow was absent from Knoxville, where he resides. Very soon some friend or friends of his approached me on the subject of his return to Knoxville, and I had several interviews with the son of Mr. Brownlow, who was interceding and acting for his father in the premises. During several days Mr. Brownlow's son was very importunate in calling upon me and making solicitations in behalf of his father of some sort or another. In the beginning, the letter of Mr. Brownlow to General Carroll, dated November 22, and received about the time of my arrival, was handed to me and discussed between myself and the son of Mr. Brownlow. In this letter Mr. Brownlow stated that he was willing and ready at any time to stand a trial upon any points before any civil tribunal, but sought protection from troops and armed men on a return to Knoxville, denying at the same time having had any connection with arming men or with armed bodies of men or with bridge-burners or bridge-burning. General Carroll also handed to me his reply to this letter.

In the several interviews between the son of Mr. Brownlow and one or more of his friends and myself Mr. Brownlow's innocence of any treasonable conduct was vouched as the basis of any disposition to be made towards him, and I stated to Mr. Brownlow's son, who was acting for his father, that if he came to Knoxville he must submit to the civil authorities.

Finally, about the 4th or 5th of December, I think, Mr. Baxter, a friend of Mr. Brownlow, together with his son, called upon me, and Mr. Baxter delivered to me an open letter from yourself, brought by him, dated November 20, and referring to Mr. Brownlow's departure beyond our lines. Thereupon, and on the solicitations made to me in behalf of Mr. Brownlow, I directed my assistant adjutant-general to inform Mr. Brownlow in writing that if he would come to Knoxville within a given time I would give him a passport and send him with an escort beyond our lines. I designed this escort to convey him directly through our lines, so that he could see nothing of our forces and fortifications. At the given time Mr. Brownlow came, and I made arrangements with him as to the time and manner of his departure, which were satisfactory to him. I designed sending him off the next day, but he desired to stay over a day, and on that day, before his departure, was arrested with a warrant by the civil authorities on a charge of treason.

Mr. Brownlow addressed a note to me, stating his arrest, and that he had come home upon my invitation, and claimed to be under my protection. As I had stated explicitly to Mr. Brownlow's son, who acted for his father, and who went after and did conduct his father into town, that if he came he must submit to the civil authorities, and as his innocence of any treasonable conduct was considered in the arrangements for him, I directed one of my aides to reply to his note to the effect that, in view of all the facts, I could not interfere with the civil authorities so as to protect him from an investigation by them of charges made in their tribunals against him, which I clearly understood from himself and his friends he would not seek to avoid.

Of course, if the civil authorities release Mr. Brownlow, I shall proceed at once to give him a passport and send him with an escort beyond our lines.

I remain, very respectfully, yours, &c,

G. B. CRITTENDEN,        

Major-General, C. S. Army.

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. 763-4

Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Monday, November 25, 1861

It was now very cold, and the ground was frozen hard all day, in consequence of which our wagon train did not get as far as Jamestown. In place of moving with his train, or at least going no further than it could go over the frozen roads, McNairy pressed on through Jamestown, down Cumberland Mountain to Camp McGinnison Wolf River—a march of about a thirty-one miles. The result was his men were without tents and rations one very cold night, and until late in the afternoon the next day.* The following explains itself:

HEADQUARTERS,        

KNOXVILLE, November 26, 1861.

Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of Ilar:

Sir-I have the honor to report that I arrived here on Saturday last, by order of General Zollicoffer, and assumed command of this post on Sunday. I found stationed here Colonel Wood's Battalion and several companies of infantry and cavalry.

. . . There are now in custody here about seventy persons, many of whom, it is believed, were either directly or indirectly connected with the burning of the railroad bridges. Colonel Wood (Sixteenth Alabama), who was in command here before my arrival, had in contemplation a court-martial for the trial of those upon whom proof of guilt seemed to be strong. I concurred with him, and ordered the meeting on the 28th. . . .

It is important that steam power should be secured for the purpose of driving the machinery necessary in the alterations of arms. I therefore took possession of the printing establishment of Brownlow. The steam engine and building are suitable for our purposes, and it was the only one that could be procured here.

Brownlow has left, and no certain information of his whereabouts can be obtained. It is, however, certain that he is aiding and abetting our enemies. . . .

With high respect, your obedient servant,

WM. H. CARROLL,        

Brigadier-General Commanding.1

_______________

* As I was just out of a spell of fever, I did not wish to take the frozen ground that night without even a tent for shelter, so I rode over to my friend Lathan's, with whom I staid while sick of the measles in September (about one mile from Camp McGinnis), to see if I could get to lodge with him another night. As I neared his house, and before I saw him, he called out, “Yes, you may get down.” I yet feel grateful to Mr. Lathan for the comforts of that night.

1 Rebellion Records, Vol. VII., pp. 704 and 705.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 84-5

Brigadier-General William H. Carroll to Judah P. Benjamin, November 26, 1861

HEADQUARTERS, Knoxville, November 26, 1861.

Hon. J.P. BENJAMIN,
        Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to report that I arrived here on Saturday last, by order of General Zollicoffer, and assumed command of this post on Sunday. I found stationed here Colonel Wood's battalion and several companies of infantry and cavalry. There seemed to be much uneasiness and apprehension felt in reference to the disaffected portion of the population. I have put the city under military rule and have restored peace and security.

I have detailed and sent to the various districts where I had information there were any gatherings of disaffected citizens and had them dispersed, and in many instances the leaders arrested. As soon as possible, I dispatched companies of mounted men to scour the country, with instructions to arrest and send here all persons who were inciting rebellion or were found with arms, resisting the authorities. In all instances where there was no proof of disloyalty I have discharged the prisoners upon their taking the oath of allegiance.

There are now in custody here about 70 persons, many of whom, it, is believed, were either directly or indirectly connected with the burning of the railroad bridges. Colonel Wood, who was in command here before my arrival, had in contemplation a court-martial for the trial of those upon whom proof of guilt seemed to be strong. I concurred with him, and ordered the meeting on the 28th. The board will be composed of some of the most intelligent officers within this post, and I have no doubt their action will be prudent and discreet.

It is important that steam-power should be secured for the purpose of driving the machinery necessary in the alteration of arms. I therefore took possession of the printing establishment of Brownlow. The steam-engine and building are suitable for our purposes, and it was the only one that could be procured here. Brownlow has left, and no certain information of his whereabouts can be obtained; it is, however, certain that he is aiding and abetting our enemies. I have assured his sons, who profess to have sold the establishment to a Mr. Baxter, that full indemnity for the use of the establishment would be paid by the Government. I have every assurance that the sale to Baxter was a false one, and feel that Baxter is not reliable in his loyalty to our Government.

In obedience to your instructions, Novemeber 22, I have given orders that all contracts for hogs or cattle made with the agents of the Confederate Government shall be complied with, and have dispatched several armed parties to see that it is properly executed.

There are 1,140 sacks of salt here. I have directed 400 sacks should be delivered to D. Morris & Co. and 400 sacks to Wilson & Johnson. This is sufficient to meet their present wants, and the balance will be returned, to meet such other demands as may arise. I will report to you again soon.

With high respect, your obedient servant,

WM. H. CARROLL,        

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

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. 704-5

Major-General Don Carlos Buell to Major-General Henry W. Halleck, March 15, 1862

NASHVILLE, TENN., March 15, 1862.

Major-General HALLECK:

Your dispatch of yesterday received this morning. Undoubtedly we should use the river to get supplies, but I am decidedly of opinion that my force should strike it by marching. It can move in less time, in better condition, and with more security to our operations than by the river. It will have also the advantage of driving out the scattered force of the enemy this side of the river, and operate powerfully on the minds of the people. I had designed to commence moving to-morrow. We will have to repair our road somewhat as we go. It is important to choose the point of crossing so that it shall be safe, and yet not too far from the enemy; if, then, we could by a possibility effect it by surprise or at all at Florence, getting in between Decatur and Corinth, it would have many advantages. As for the point of attack, wherever that may be we will be pretty sure to meet the principal force of the enemy, and if we threaten him low down I am confident the island and New Madrid will be abandoned. I hope I can certainly see you in regard to those points.

Parson Brownlow has just arrived from Knoxville. Kirby Smith is there, with eighteen regiments from Manassas, and has seven more at Cumberland Gap.

 D. C. BUELL.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 10, Part 2 (Serial No. 11), p. 39

George S. Denison to Salmon P. Chase, September 19, 1862

New Orleans, Sept. 19th, 1862.

Dear Sir: Hon. A. J. Hamilton will present this letter to you, and also a letter of introduction from myself. In this private letter I wish to add a few statements not proper for an open letter.

Mr. Hamilton refused to leave his seat in the House of Representatives, when Texas seceded. After his term expired, he returned to Texas, and has constantly fought secession up to the time of his forced departure from the State.

Mr. Hamilton is well known throughout Western Texas, and probably has more influence there than any other man. He is brave and determined, and stands high in the estimation of all honest men. Whatever statements he makes to you you can rely on implicitly.

Mr. H. thoroughly appreciates the character of the present struggle, and imposes no conditions upon his loyalty. This is the man to make Western Texas a Free State and he will do it wisely and surely. He knows the country and the people and is such an orator as they love to listen to.

Col. Hamilton can raise a Brigade of Union troops in Texas more quickly than any other man in the State, and I believe he only wants an authority to raise such a Brigade when an expedition goes there.

Mr. H. is to Western Texas, what Brownlow, Maynard and Johnson are to East Tennessee.

In common with all Union men of Texas, I hope he will receive that encouragement to which his abilities and unfaltering loyalty entitle him, and under his wise management Western Texas will be freed, at the same time, from rebellion and Slavery.

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 314-5

Major Charles Fessenden Morse: Notes From A Journal

NOTES PROM A JOURNAL.

When we first came to this place, General Slocum received a telegram from headquarters which said that if we needed any scouting or important secret service done, we had better use a certain John Douglas, who was very faithful and efficient. The General told me he wanted me to take charge of everything in the scouting department, and that I had better see Douglas as soon as possible. At this point, it is very necessary to depend on scouts and citizens, as our force is very small and we are entirely without cavalry, so I sent for Douglas and he came to see me the next morning.

I was very much struck by his appearance; he was the first man who came up at all to my idea of what a scout should be like. He is a man about fifty years old, I should think, medium size and a little bent over, but with a very tough, hard looking frame; his striking features, though, are his eyes; they are jet black and piercing in their expression, with a restless, eager look, as if he was always expecting to see the rifle of an enemy sticking out from behind a tree or bush; his eyebrows are also black, but his hair has turned gray with age. His walk was very peculiar, and was exactly like that described of Leather-stocking in the “Deerslayer,” a sort of gait which, without seeming to be much exertion, was equal to what we call a dog trot. He made me think of all the old backwoods heroes I had ever read of, from Daniel Boone down.

I found that he had papers from Rosecrans, Burnside, Dupont and several others, all testifying to his marked ability and energy, and his entire knowledge of every part of Tennessee and northern Georgia, and Alabama. I talked with him some time and found that he was very intelligent and well informed.

A few days after my first interview with Douglas, I received a telegram from Murfreesboro stating that they had certain information that a band of six or eight hundred guerrillas were in the neighborhood of McMinnville. I sent for Douglas and told him I wanted to know the truth of the story. He didn't stay five minutes after I had told him the rumor; this was about seven o'clock in the evening. The next afternoon, about three o'clock, he made his appearance and said the story was true; since he left me, he had ridden nearly seventy miles to within three or four miles of the guerrilla camp. The next day we were told by some citizens that this cavalry was supported by infantry, and that it was the advance of a portion of Bragg's army. We didn't believe this at all; still I was anxious to find out just what the force was. I sent Douglas out again, telling him to find out every particular before he came back. He was gone two days, and on his return, he said he had spent several hours inside the enemy's camp; his information proved that we had nothing at all to fear from them except depredations. I asked him how he got inside their lines; he said that the picket he passed was a very green-looking countryman; that when he approached, he was ordered to halt; he rode up to the picket and said he was a bearer of dispatches to the commanding officer. “Who is the commanding officer?” said the sentinel. “That is nothing to do with your instructions, and you will get into difficulty if you don't let me pass.” The sentinel passed him, and he went inside and talked with the men and officers and saw the commanders. There was nothing remarkable in this, but a man discovered as a spy by these guerrillas would be hung or have his throat cut five minutes after he was caught.

The pay Douglas gets as chief of scouts of this vicinity is only three dollars per day, very small compensation for the risk. He has told me a number of stories of the sufferings of East Tennesseeans; they are equal to any of Brownlow's; he says there is no exaggeration in the latter's statements.

He told me of one young lady who lived with her mother near Knoxville, whose brothers and father were strong Unionists. They had hidden away among the mountains. He described her as a very refined, well educated young woman. One day, a party of guerrillas came to her house and took her and her mother out in the woods and tied them to a tree; they then asked them to tell where their men relations were hidden; they refused to tell them; these brutes gave them each a terrible whipping, but they still refused to give them any information. These chivalric gentlemen then put nooses round their necks, untied them and threatened them with instant hanging if they didn't tell what they required. The young girl told them they might be able to torture her more than she could bear, but before she would say one word that would compromise her father or brothers, she would bite off her tongue and spit it in their rebel faces.

They raised them off the ground three times, nearly killing them. Afterwards, this same girl became a spy for our cavalry and led them on several successful expeditions. Douglas was on one of them, and said that during a fight that occurred, she insisted on staying under the heaviest of the fire. She used sometimes to go inside the rebel lines and act as nurse in one of the rebel hospitals; after she had got all the information that she could, she would return inside our lines and tell what she had found out.

Yesterday there was very near being a terrible accident on the railroad, about fifty miles from here, in amongst the mountains. Some infernal guerrillas put a species of torpedo underneath a rail, just before the passenger train from Nashville was due. Fortunately a locomotive came along just before it and set the machine off; the explosion was tremendous; the engine and tender were blown to pieces; railroad ties and rails were blown as high as the tops of trees; the engineer was thrown twenty or thirty feet and severely injured. If it had not been for this locomotive, probably hundreds of men would have been killed and wounded, as the cars go crowded with officers and soldiers. The perpetrator of this outrage, of course, could not be discovered, but a man living near by seemed to be implicated, and his house and barn were burnt.

They are very summary in dealing with guerrillas in this country when they catch them. There is one despatch from General Crook to Rosecrans on record to this effect: that he (Crook) fell in with a party of guerrillas, twenty in number; that in the fight, twelve of them were killed and the rest were taken prisoners. He regrets to state that on the march to camp, the eight were so unfortunate as to fall off a log and break their necks.

SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 152-6

John M. Forbes to Congressman Charles B. Sedgwick, June 2, 1862

June 2,1862.

My Dear Mr. Sedgwick, — I see I forgot the 21stly, as the old parsons used to say, of my sermon; my amen to your emancipation speech.

If you have such a devilish poor set in Congress that they are afraid to pass your bill, for freeing such slaves as come to our aid, you had better give up trying for any emancipation bill until Parson Brownlow, General Rodgers, and other pro-slavery border state men have cultivated the manliness of Congress up to the Tennessee standard! Why, I hear that the border state Unionists everywhere are in advance of Congress, and go for strangling the rebellion through its vitals, not pinching the ends of its toes! Rather than take anything worse than your bill, I would trust to old Abe's being pushed up to the use of the military powers of emancipation. What infernal nonsense is your present law, making freedom the reward of those who serve the enemy, while their masters only promise them hanging and burning if they serve us.

You carry on the war in such a manner that either slaves or other loyal men in the border and rebel States have one plain road to safety open; namely, to help the rebels. You reward the slaves with freedom for such help: you offer them no reward, except the chance of being shot by us and hanged by their masters, if they come into our lines! . . .

Your lame confiscation bill will be no terror to the rebels, but rather an indication of the mildness with which you will treat them hereafter, and the many exceptions you will make if you pass any confiscation acts.

I only wonder with such a policy that any Union men show their heads! All your efforts seem to be to make rebellion cheap and easy, and loyalty hard and dangerous.

In great haste, I bide yours,

J. M. Forbes

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 315-6

The War News

Additional Details of the Capture of New Orleans.

Interesting Southern News.

Parson Brownlow’s family arrived at Fort Monroe.

Banks pushing toward Staunton.

GREAT PREPARATIONS AT YORKTOWN.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 1, 1862, p. 1

Southern News

FT. MONROE, April 29.

A flag of truce from Norfolk to-day brought down the wife and family of Parson Brownlow, and also the wife of Congressman Maynard.  The party, consisting of four ladies, two gents and six children, are all from Tennessee.  They bring the report that all the Union families of Tennessee have been ordered by proclamation to leave within 36 hours.  1,800 Union men left for Kentucky a week ago Friday.  Of a party of four hundred attempting to leave, one hundred had been killed.

There can be no doubt of the capture of New Orleans.  The Southern newspapers speak of it in the most dismal strain, and demand that the mystery of the surrender of the city shall be explained.

The Norfolk Day Book, in an editorial, says: “It is by far the most serious reverse of the war.  It suggests future privations to all classes of society; but most to be lamented of all, it threatens our army supplies.”  The raising of meat, and corn and wheat, instead of cotton and tobacco, is earnestly recommended by the disconsolate editor.

The Richmond Dispatch of yesterday, says when the enemy’s fleet arrived opposite the city and demanded its surrender, Gen. Lovell refused, and fell back to Camp Moore, after destroying all the cotton and stores.

The iron-clad vessel Mississippi was burnt to prevent falling into the hands of the enemy.  Nothing is said about the Louisiana, but it is supposed that she was scuttled. – It is rumored that she was sunk at first fire.

Camp Moore is 78 miles for New Orleans, on the Jackson Railroad.

The following are the latest dispatches in to-day’s papers:

MOBILE, April 27.

The Yankee Commodore, Farragut, promised the secretary of the Mayor of New Orleans, who visited the fleet by a flag of truce, to make a renewed demand for the surrender of the city, but he has not done so up to this hour, 5 o’clock.

Our ship, the McRae, came up from the forts under a flag of truce, with forty of our wounded.  She communicated with the Federal flag ship, but the result is unknown.  It is rumored that the Federals refused to let her return.

The rumor that Fort Pike has been evacuated and blown up is unreliable.

In a conference held with one of the Federal officers, after the correspondence between Mayor Monroe and Com. Farragut, the officer left, declaring that he would shoot down the flag on the City Hall if it was not hauled down, and he actually brought his ship within range, but has not fired thus far.

It is reported that French and English men-of-war are below, and will enter their protest against shelling the city; and it is believed the Yankee vessels are short of both provisions and ammunition.

The city is remarkably orderly, but the excitement is intense and the feeling of humiliation deep.

RICHMOND, April 28.

The following dispatch was received to-day by Adj. Gen. Cooper from Gen. Lovell:

CAMP MORE, April 27.

Forts Jackson and St. Phillip are still in good condition and in our hands.  The steamers Louisiana and McRae are safe. – The enemy’s fleet is at the city, but they have not forces enough to occupy it.  The inhabitants are staunchly loyal.

MOBILE, April 28.

The forts on Lake Pontchartrain were all evacuated on the 24th inst.  We have sustained considerable loss in supplies and dismounting, but not in destroying the guns.  At Fort Pike all the buildings were burnt, including the telegraph office.  The operator has gone to the limits of the city to open an office if possible.

All the gunboats on the lake have been burnt by our own people.  The Mobile boats, Whiteman, Brown and several others are running troops, stores and ordnance to Manchock, after which we fear they will be burned.

The Yankee fleet was returning again to Ship Island.

In a local paragraph, the Norfolk Day Book, under the head of markets, mentioned the very small supply of edibles exposed for sale, and says it becomes a question of great moment, as to where and how the people are to be fed.

The Death of Samuel B. Todd, brother of Mrs. Lincoln, is announced.  He died on the battlefield from the effects of the wounds he received at Shiloh, in the action of the 7th.

It is reported by the flag of truce that the Merrimac has steam up.  It was expected in Norfolk last night that she would come out to-day.  She has not made her appearance, however.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 1, 1862, p. 1

Parson Brownlow's Forthcoming Book

The manuscript of this new work is now nearly complete, and it will be put to press forthwith.  The title gives the comprehensive view of the scope of the work: “The Perils, Adventures and Sufferings of the Rev. W. G. Brownlow among the Secessionists of Tennessee.”  The extraordinary vigor and fearlessness so characteristic of Parson Brownlow’s pen, are well known; and are eminently calculated to render his new word, founded as it is on such material of personal adventure and experience, a thrilling and fascinating book.  Geo. W. Childs, of Philadelphia is the publisher, and Appleton & Co., of Cincinnati, are publishers for the entire West. – George W. Thompson, of this city, is agent for Scott county.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 1, 1862, p. 1

A Tennesseean Released From Fort Warren

Parson Brownlow returned from Fort Warren Saturday afternoon, with Lieutenant Colonel White of the Tennessee cavalry, whose release was ordered upon the representations of Mr. Brownlow and other Union men of Tennessee, that White had joined the rebels only to save his life and had never fought for them.  The battalion which garrisons the Fort was reviewed by Gov. Andrew and Staff, and a salute was fired in his honor. – {Boston Jour.

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

A New Book

Parson Brownlow has arrived in the land of freedom.  He is about publishing a book giving his experience in Secessia.  It will undoubtly [sic] be very interesting, and those who would know how outrageously this stern old patriot has been treated by the rebels, and at the same time give a man that has lost his all in the cause of the Union a little “material aid,” can do so by sending to Geo. W. Childs, Philadelphia, for the book.

– Published in The Waterloo Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, Wednesday, April 16, 1862, p. 2

Parson Brownlow In Cincinnati

His Straight Out Union Speech

__________

Parson Brownlow, of East Tennessee, accompanied by his son, arrived in this city yesterday, and took quarters at the Gibson House.  At 9 o’clock the Union Committee met him in the ladies’ parlor, and he was welcomed by Pollock Wilson, Esq., who alluded with emotion to the services of Brownlow in the cause of the Union, and his heroic endurance of persecution.  The Parson was much moved by the cordiality of his reception, and commenced speaking with a stammering voice, and eyes filled with tears.  He had been for Clay in 1836, for Harrison in 1840, for Webster in 1856, for Bell and Everett in 1860.  Speaking of Bell always reminded him of “pity the sorrows of a poor old man.”  He (the Parson) had never had any sympathy with secessionists.  He had been offered large bribes to sustain the rebellion; but though he was a poor man he was not for sale.  He gave an account of his correspondence with Judah P. Benjamin, all of which he had preserved and would publish in his forthcoming book.  He could not express the joy he felt in finding the old Union flag at Nashville.  When the army went to East Tennessee he wanted to go along.  It was in Fremont’s Department and he was glad of it.  Fremont was his sort of a man, and he wanted to go with him to East Tennessee.  There had been a great deal of hanging on one side, and he wished to superintend it on the other.  He could say, and without profanity, that the Federal army in East Tennessee would be hailed with a joy only equaled by the hosannahs of the angels when Christ was born.

He never had any sympathy with Disunionists, Secessionists or Abolitionists.  He was born in Virginia, and his parents before him.  He is a slaveholder, but he had no hesitancy in saying that when the question comes, as it will, “the Union and no slavery,” against “slavery and no Union,” he was for the Union and let slavery go to the dogs, or where else it may be sent.  He was for the Union above that or any other institution.

The wicked rebellion, he felt confident, was on its last legs.  It is almost played out.  When the rebel Crittenden’s army passed him, the men were literally barefooted and almost naked.

The blockade has played sad havoc with them.  They were preparing to make a desperate fight at Corinth.  If whipped there, their cause was gone.  He hoped they would be pursued through the cotton States to the peninsula, and then driven into the sea, as were the devils driven from the hogs into the sea of Galilee.

The nigger never was in this rebellion.  He was never intended to be.  Other causes had produced it, but the guilty were reaping their reward.

After the reception the Parson took an airing with some gentlemen, driving through Clifton and other attractive suburbs of the city.

He visited with the Merchant’s Exchange, where he was introduced to the merchants by President Butler, and spoke for perhaps half an hour.  He showed plainly the marks of the hard times through which he has passed.  He is very thin, and his face is haggard, bloodless and deeply marked with suffering and anxiety.  He is, however, one of that race of tall, hardy, swarthy, black haired East Tennesseans, who gave Tennessee her old time glory as the Volunteer State, and were foremost in the battles of Andrew Jackson, and with proper care he will soon recover his health.

He gave a touching narrative of his sufferings in prison, of his illness, and the care with which the guards placed over him were doubled, when he was so sick he could not turn in bed without assistance.  The jail was crowded with Union men.  Many sickened and perished miserably in it, and others were taken out and hung.  Gen. Carroll, of the Confederate army, who was at one time a great friend of his, being a Union man until a late period, visited him in Jail, and said to him: “Brownlow, you ought not to be here.”  “So I think,” the parson responded, “but here I am.”  The General said the Confederate Court was sitting within a hundred yards of the jail, and if he would take the oath of allegiance, he should be immediately liberated.  “Sir,” said the parson, looking at him steadily in the eye, “before I will take the oath of allegiance to your bogus Government, I will rot in jail or die here of old age.  I don’t acknowledge you have a Court.  I don’t acknowledge you have a Government.  It has never been acknowledged by any power on earth and never will be.  Before I would take the oath I would see the whole Southern Confederacy in the infernal regions, and you on top of it!”

The General indignantly left the jail, remarking “that is d----d plain talk.”  “Yes, sir-ee,” said the Parson, “I am a plain man, and them’s my sentiments.”  Frequently men were taken out of the jail and hung, and the secesh rabble would howl at him and tell him as he looked out from the jail windows that he was to be hung next.  He told them from those windows that he was ready to go to the gallows, and all he asked was one hour’s talk to the people before he was swung off, that he might give them his opinion of the mob called the Southern Confederacy.  The Parson said he expected to be hanged.  He had made up his mind to it.   At one time he was tried by court martial, and in the decision of his case he was within one vote of being sentenced to hang.  There was nothing between him and the gallows but the will of one man, and him a secessionist.  Great God, on what a slender thread hung everlasting things!  The jails in East Tennessee and North Alabama were overfull of Union men.  The Union men there had never flinched.  They stood firm now.  The Government, whatever else it did, should immediately relieve them from the grinding and destroying oppression of secession.

He related an instance of a young man, named John C. Hurd, and exemplary citizen and church member, with a wife and two little children, who was convicted of bridge burning.  He was notified but one hour before he was hung that he was to be executed.  He asked for a minister of the Gospel to come and sing and pray with him, but was told that praying would not do traitors to the South any good, and he was thus insultingly refused his dying request.  But the rebels Sent with him to the gallows a miserable, drunken, and demoralized Chaplain of one of their regiments, who stood on the gallows and told the crowd assembled to see the hanging, that the young man about to be executed had been led into the commission of the crimes for which he was to suffer, by designing men, and was sorry for what he had done.  The man about to be hung sprang to his feet, and called out that every word that Chaplain had uttered was false.  He was the identical man who had burned the New Creek Bridge.  He knew what he was about when he did it, and would do it again if he had a chance.  They might go on with their hanging.  He was ready for it.  And they hung him forthwith.  The Parson told of an inoffensive citizen, who was pointed out to a part of straggling soldiers, while at work in a field, as “a d--- Unionist.”  He was at once fired upon, and so mangled that he died within a few hours.

The Parson said it might astonish them, but the greatest negro thieves in the world were the Confederate soldiers.  He spoke feelingly on this subject.  They had stolen from him a likely negro boy, fourteen years old, and worth a thousand dollars.  He had never heard from the boy since he was taken away, and never expected to see him again or get a cent for him.  It was a solemn fact that the Confederate soldiers had stolen more negroes during this war, than all the Abolitionists had stolen for forty years.  These soldiers were the off-scourings of the earth.  Not one half of them had ever owned a negro, or were connected by any degree of social affinity or consanguinity, with anybody who ever did own a negro.  Not only did they steal negroes, but they entered houses and took the clothing from the beds, broke open the drawers, and took all the money and jewelry they could lay their hands upon.  They were, emphatically, thieves as well as traitors.

He had recently had a conversation with a secesh lady, who spoke as usual of one of their chivalry whipping five Yankees.  He asked her about Fort Donelson, &c.  She explained that by saying, the people of the north-west are sons of emigrants from the South.  They were Southern stock and fought like Southerners.  He inquired what of the blue-bellied Yankees, under Burnside, but she did not know how that was; in fact had heard but little about it.

The parson spoke in an animated style, and presently his voice gave signs of failing.  He has been troubled with a bronchial affection, and is still weak from the illness contracted during his imprisonment.  He remarked that he had not for some months attempted to speak at length in public, and his failing strength admonished him that he must close.

He thanked God that he could see daylight now.  The game of the rebellion was pretty near played out.  A “little more grape” and we would have them.  His motto for the war was “grape shot for the armed masses, and hemp for the leaders.” – {Commercial.

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

Parson Brownlow

CINCINNATI, April 1. – Parson Brownlow has accepted the liberal offer of Mr. Childs, the eminent Philadelphia publisher.  And at the Parson’s request, a copy of the book will be given to the editor of every paper in the country, so that they can see what it costs to be loyal in the secessiondom.  Editors will apply to George w. Childs, Esq., Philadelphia

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

Parson Brownlow and Andy Johnson . . .

. . . have been life-long political antagonists.  The Parson once prayed that the Lord, in his infinite mercy, would save even Andy Johnson.  Each knows by this time how to appreciate the other. – {Louisville Democrat.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 3

A Point Of Honor

Merideth P. Gentry was once an eloquent member of the United States Congress from Tennessee.  He flew off the handle, as a Whig, when Gen. Scott was nominated for the Presidency.  How much he contributed to Scott’s defeat, it is impossible to tell, as he was a much more respectable man than he is now; but it is certain, the rebound of his fire killed Gentry as a Whig.  As a Know-Nothing he ran afterward for Governor, Against Andrew Johnson, and was badly beaten.  Now he is a member of the so-called Southern Congress at Richmond.  On his way to the seat of piracy, from his resident in Bedford county Tennessee, he called on Dr. Brownlow.  Being well stiffened up with his usual stimulant, he was talkative.

“Well, Brownlow,” said he, “I am going to Richmond on a point of honor.  You know I had retired from politics, and had no desire to re-enter the arena.  But my old friends and neighbors insisted that I should run for the Confederate Congress, and I was elected.  Now I make it a point of honor to go, just because they say that McClellan will bag Richmond, and capture the entire Congress.  I wish them to see that I am not afraid.”

“Yes, Gentry,” replied Dr. Brownlow, “and there is another point of honor, which you have failed to mention.  Buell and his army are at Nashville, and are therefore nearer to Bedford county than McClellan is to Richmond. – You are like a pismire on a chunk fired at each end; you have a point of honor on either side of you.”

Gentry acknowledge the corn. – {Nashville Correspondence Cin. Gaz.

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

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

Parson Brownlow

As the name of this eccentric preacher has been introduced so much of late, to the public, and as little is known of him at the east, we publish the following description of him and an anecdote, which will give a very good idea of the individual:

Brownlow is a man of medium height and rather slim, with a round, “bullet” head, a quiet, pleasing countenance, and a good address; is an excellent, logical and persuasive speaker, and is as little in personal bearing and appearance like the blackguard he likes to make himself appear as one can imagine.

A characteristic story is told of him that is worth recording.  Upon the borders of Virginia, there was a settlement of rough “hard shell” Baptists.  The Methodists had long essayed to effect a lodgment in this quarter, but were summarily defeated by the decisive mode of turning their missionaries neck and heels out of the place – and this is no very tender or “do as you would be done by” style of Christian treatment.  With such vigor did the Baptists hold this tower of the Lord that the Methodists, with all their zeal for propagating the Gospel, and their resolute devotion to the great duty, paused before this Baptist Gibraltar.  The task seemed a hopeless one, and not one of the faithful could be found to encounter the inevitable risk of personal violence – especially as a coat of tar and feathers had been designated as the fate of any new warrior of the cross who should appear in that region in Methodist garb.  At last, Parson Brownlow was appointed to the duty of converting these heathens from the errors of their ways.

Parson Brownlow was much younger, less celebrated than he is now, but the same fiery and reckless spirit animated him then that has since extended his reputation so widely.  He knew the risk was chosen to encounter, and rather relished the novelty and excitement of this new field.  Accordingly, mounted upon his horse, with the inevitable saddle-bags of the Southern horseback traveler, he entered the enemy’s camp, on Saturday morning, and announced his purpose to give the barbarians in their locality a “creed of the new doctrine on the holy day to follow.”  The result was that horse and saddle-bags were taken as spoils, his person roughly maltreated, and he was turned loose in the outskirts of the place and ordered, at his peril, never to study daylight in that quarter again.  The parson footed it home as best he might, but soon after reappeared at the scene of contest, and conflict, with another horse and another pair of saddle-bags, to commence his labors.  His treatment was commensurate with the hearty and religious indignation of his foes, and once more the parson footed it home, sore and horseless.

A third time the irrepressible Brownlow appeared upon the field, to be served about as before; only his pertinacity and courage had worked upon the curiosity as well as the fancy of a portion of the good people of the region.  Some were for hearing “what the cuss was arter” but he was finally again unhorsed and unsaddle-bagged, and he started home afoot, but he had effected a lodgment among those rude people, who love pluck and grit if they did not love Methodism.  Of course he was expelled again.  And sure enough the fourth time, with the fourth horse and fourth pair of saddlebags, appeared the persevering Parson Brownlow.  By this time there had arisen a decided curiosity to hear what the “cuss” had to say, and the parson at last was allowed to preach.  Well suited in tastes and impulses to the rude congregation before him, he soon won their confidence, and closed a decidedly popular man.  A dozen invitations pressed him to dinner – a universal request that he would come again as soon as he could, and a full restoration of the value of the lost horses, and saddle-bags proved the final triumph of the “irrepressible Methodist.”  The final result was, the place became the most invincible of the Methodists and Parson Brownlow one of the most popular preachers among them.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 29, 1862, p. 3

Parson Brownlow at Louisville

LOUISVILLE, March 27. – Parson Brownlow has arrived here and leaves for Cincinnati at noon to-day.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 29, 1862, p. 3