----Whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile.--CYMBELINE.
[Sidenote: BLOODTHIRSTINESS OF REBEL WOMEN.]
No history of the war is likely to do full justice to the bitterness
of the Rebel women. Female influence tempted thousands of young men to
enter the Confederate service against their own wishes and sympathies.
Women sometimes evinced incredible rancor and bloodthirstiness. The
most startling illustration of the brutalizing effect of Slavery
appeared in the absence of that sweetness, charity, and tenderness
toward the suffering, which is the crowning grace of womanhood.
A southern Unionist, the owner of many slaves, said to me:
"I suppose I have not struck any of my negroes for ten years. When they
need correcting, my wife always does it."
If he had a horse or a mule requiring occasional whipping, would he put
the scourge in the hands of his little daughter, and teach her to wield
it, from her tender years? How infinitely more must it brutalize and
corrupt her when the victim is a man--the most sacred thing that God
has made--his earthly image and his human temple!
[Sidenote: THE BATTLE OF MEMPHIS.]
Before we captured Memphis, the sick and wounded Union prisoners were
in a condition of great want and suffering. Women of education, wealth,
and high social position visited the hospitals to minister to Rebel
patients. Frequently entering the Federal wards from curiosity, they
used toward the groaning patients expressions like this:
"I would like to give you one dose! You would never fight against the
South again!"
In what happy contrast to this shone the self-denying ministrations of
northern women, to friend and enemy alike!
In Memphis, on the evening of June 5th, General Jeff. Thompson,
commanding the Rebel cavalry, and Commodore Edward Montgomery,
commanding the Rebel flotilla, stated at the Gayoso House that there
would be a battle the next morning, in which the Yankee fleet would be
destroyed in just about two hours.
Just after daylight, the Rebel flotilla attacked ours, two miles above
the city. We had five iron-clads and several rams, which were then
experimental. They were light, agile little stern-wheel boats, whose
machinery was not at all protected against shots. The battle occurred
in full view of the city. Though it began soon after daylight, it was
witnessed by ten thousand people upon the high bluff--an anxious,
excited crowd. The Rebels dared not be too demonstrative, and the
Unionists dared not whisper a word of their long-cherished and earnest
hopes.
[Sidenote: GALLANT EXPLOITS OF THE RAMS.]
While the two fleets were steaming toward each other, Colonel Ellet,
determined to succeed or to die, daringly pushed forward with his
little rams, the Monarch and Queen of the West. With these boats,
almost as fragile as pasteboard, he steamed directly into the Rebel
flotilla. One of his rams struck the great gunboat Sterling Price with
a terrific blow, crushing timbers and tearing away the entire larboard
wheel-house. The Price drifted helplessly down the stream and stranded.
Another of Ellet's rams ran at full speed into the General Lovell,
cutting her in twain. The Rebel boat filled and sunk.
From the shore, it was a most impressive sight. There was the Lovell,
with holiday decorations, crowded with men and firing her guns, when
the little ram struck her, crushing in her side, and she went down
like a plummet. In three minutes, even the tops of her tall chimneys
disappeared under water. Scores of swimming and drowning Rebels in the
river were rescued by boats from the Union fleet.
One of the rams now ran alongside and grappled the Beauregard, and,
through hose, drenched her decks with scalding water, while her
cannoneers dared not show their heads to Ellet's sharpshooters, who
were within a few feet of them. Another Rebel boat came up to strike
the ram, but the agile little craft let go her hold and backed out. The
blow intended for her struck the Beauregard, which instantly went down,
"hoist with his own petar."
The Sumter and the Little Rebel, both disabled, were stranded on the
Arkansas shore. The Jeff. Thompson was set on fire and abandoned by her
crew. In a few minutes there was an enormous dazzling flash of light, a
measureless volume of black smoke, and a startling roar, which seemed
to shake the earth to its very center. For several seconds the air was
filled with falling timbers. Exploding her magazine, the Rebel gunboat
expired with a great pyrotechnic display.
The General Bragg received a fifty-pound shot, which tore off a
long plank under her water-mark, and she was captured in a sinking
condition. The Van Dorn, the only Rebel boat which survived the
conflict, turned and fled down the river.
The battle lasted just one hour and three minutes. It was the most
startling, dramatic, and memorable display of the whole war. On our
side, no one was injured except Colonel Ellet, who had performed such
unexampled feats with his little rams. A splinter, which struck him in
the leg, inflicted a fatal wound.
As our fleet landed, a number of news-boys sprang on shore, and, a
moment after, were running through the street, shouting:
"Here's your _New-York Tribune_ and _Herald_--only ten cents in silver!"
The correspondents, before the city was formally surrendered, had
strolled through the leading streets. At the Gayoso House they
registered their names immediately under those of the fugacious Rebel
general, and ordered dinner.
The Memphis Rebels, who had predicted a siege rivaling Saragossa and
Londonderry, were in a condition of stupor for two weeks after our
arrival. They rubbed their eyes wonderingly, to see Union officers and
Abolition journalists at large without any suggestions of hanging or
tarring and feathering. Remembering my last visit, it was with peculiar
satisfaction that I appended in enormous letters to my signature upon
the hotel register, the name of the journal I served.
[Sidenote: A SAILOR ON A LARK.]
On the day of the capture, an intoxicated seaman from one of the
gun-boats, who had been shut up for several months, went on shore
"skylarking." Offering his arms to the first two negro women he met,
he promenaded the whole length of Main street. The Memphis Rebels were
suffering for an outrage, and here was one just to their mind.
"If that is the way, sir," remarked one of them, "that your people
propose to treat southern gentlemen and ladies--if they intend to
thrust upon us such a disgusting spectacle of negro equality, it will
be perilous for them. Do they expect to conciliate our people in this
manner?"
I mildly suggested that the era of conciliation ceased when the era of
fighting began. The sailor was arrested and put in the guard-house.
[Sidenote: APPEARANCE OF THE CAPTURED CITY.]
Our officers mingled freely with the people. No citizens insulted our
soldiers in the streets; no woman repeated the disgraceful scenes of
New Orleans by spitting in the faces of the "invaders." The Unionists
received us as brothers from whom they had long been separated. One
lady brought out from its black hiding-place, in her chimney, a
National flag, which had been concealed there from the beginning of the
war. A Loyalist told me that, coming out of church on Sunday, he was
thrilled with the news that the Yankees had captured Fort Donelson;
but, with a grave face, he replied to his informant:
"That is sad business for us, is it not?"
Reaching home, with his wife and sister, they gave vent to their
exuberant joy. He could not huzza, and so he relieved himself by
leaping two or three times over a center-table!
There were many genuine Rebels whose eyes glared at us with the hatred
of caged tigers. Externally decorous, they would remark, ominously,
that they hoped our soldiers would not irritate the people, lest
it should deluge the streets with blood. They proposed fabulous
wagers that Sterling Price's troops could whip the whole Union army;
circulated daily reports that the Confederates had recaptured New
Orleans and Nashville, and talked mysteriously about the fatality of
the yellow fever, and the prospect that it would soon break out.
Gladness shone from the eyes of all the negroes. Their dusky faces
were radiant with welcome, and many women, turbaned in bright bandanas,
thronged the office of the provost-marshal, applying for passage to
the North. We found Memphis as torpid as Syria, where Yusef Browne
declared that he saw only one man exhibit any sign of activity, and he
was engaged in tumbling from the roof of a house! But stores were soon
opened, and traders came crowding in from the North. Most of them were
Jews.
Everywhere we saw the deep eyes and pronounced features of that
strange, enterprising people. I observed one of them, with the
Philistines upon him, marching to the military prison. The pickets
had caught him with ten thousand dollars' worth of boots and shoes,
which he was taking into Dixie. He bore the miscarriage with great
philosophy, bewailing neither his ducats nor his daughter, his boots
nor his liberty--smiling complacently, and finding consolation in
the vilest of cigars. But in his dark, sad eye was a gleam of latent
vengeance, which he doubtless wreaked upon the first unfortunate
customer who fell into his clutches after his release.
Glancing at the guests who crowded the dining-hall of the Gayoso, one
might have believed that the lost tribes of Israel were gathering there
for the Millennium.
[Sidenote: GRANT ORDERS AWAY THE JEWS.]
Many of them engaged in contraband traffic, supplying the Rebels with
food, and even with ammunition. Some months after, these very gross
abuses induced Grant to issue a sweeping ukase expelling all Jews from
his department--an order which the President wisely countermanded.
The Rebel authorities had destroyed all the cotton, sugar, and
molasses they could find; but these articles now began to emerge from
novel hiding-places. One gentleman had fifty bales of cotton in his
closed parlor. Hundreds of bales were concealed in the woods, in lofts,
and in cellars. Much sugar was buried. One man, entombing fifteen
hogsheads, neglected to throw up a mound to turn off the water; when he
dug for his sugar, its linked sweetness was _too_ long drawn out! The
hogsheads were empty.
On the 17th of June, a little party of Union officers came galloping
into the city from the country. They were evidently no gala-day
soldiers. Their sun-browned faces, dusty clothing, and jaded horses
bespoke hard campaigns and long marches.
One horseman, in a blue cap and plain blouse, bore no mark of rank, but
was noticeable for the peculiar brilliancy of his dark, flashing eye.
This modest soldier was Major-General Lew. Wallace; and his division
arrived a few hours after. He established his quarters at the Gayoso,
in the same apartments which had been occupied successively by four
Rebel commanders, Pillow, Polk, Van Dorn, and Price.
[Sidenote: A REBEL PAPER SUPERVISED.]
_The Memphis Argus_, a bitter Secession sheet, had been allowed to
continue publication, though its tone was very objectionable. General
Wallace at once addressed to the proprietors the following note:
"As the closing of your office might be injurious to you
pecuniarily, I send Messrs. Richardson, of _The New York
Tribune_, and Knox, of _The New York Herald_,--two gentlemen
of ample experience--to take charge of the editorial
department of your paper. The business and management will be
left to you."
The publishers, glad to continue upon any terms, acquiesced, and
thereafter every morning, before _The Argus_ went to press, the
proof-sheets were sent to us for revision.
The first dress-parade of Wallace's original regiment, the Eleventh
Indiana Infantry, was attended by hundreds of Memphians, curious to
see northern troops drawn up in line. They wore no bright trappings
or holiday attire. Their well-kept arms shone in the fading sunlight,
a line of polished steel; but their soiled uniforms had left their
brightness behind in many hard-fought battles. They went through the
drill with rare precision. The Rebel bystanders clapped their hands
heartily, with a certain unconscious pride that these soldiers were
their fellow-Americans. The spectacle dimmed their faith in their
favorite five-to-one theory.
"Well, John," asked one of them beside me, "how many regiments like
that do you think one of ours could whip?"
"I think that whipping one would be a pretty hard day's work!" was the
reply.
[Sidenote: "A DAM BLACK-HARTED ABLICHINESS."]
Months before our arrival, a Union employé of the Memphis and Ohio
Railroad sold a watch to a Secession comrade. Vainly attempting to
collect the pay, he finally wrote a pressing letter. The debtor sent
back the dun with this reply:
"SIR: My privet Apinion is Public express is that you ar A
Dam Black harted ablichiness and if I ever hear of you open
you mouth a gane you will get you head shave and cent Back to
you free nigar Land Whar you be along these are fackes and
you now I can prove them and I will Doet."
The Loyalist pocketed the affront, "ablichiness" and all, and nursed
his wrath to keep it warm. Meeting his debtor on the street, after the
arrival of our forces, he administered to him a merciless flagellation.
Before our Provost-Marshal it was decided to be a case of "justifiable
assault," and the prisoner was discharged from custody.
[Sidenote: CHALLENGE FROM A SOUTHERN WOMAN.]
In the deserted office of _The Appeal_ we found the following
manuscript:--
"A CHALLENGE
"where as the wicked policy of the president--Making war upon
the South for refusing to submit to wrong too palpable for
Southerners to do. And where as it has become necessary for
the young Men of our country, My Brother, in the number To
enlist to do the dirty work of Driving the Mercenarys from
our sunny south. Whose soil is too holy for such wretches to
tramp And whose atmosphere is to pure for them to breathe
"For such an indignity afford to Civilization I Merely
Challenge any abolition or Black Republican lady of character
if there can be such a one found among the negro equality
tribe. To Meet Me at Masons and dixon line. With a pair of
Colt's repeaters or any other weapon they May Choose, That I
May receive satisfaction for the insult."
"Victoria E. Goodwin."
"Spring Dale, Miss., April 27, 1861."
Confederate currency was a curiosity of literature and finance.
Dray-tickets and checks, marked "Good for twenty-five cents," and a
great variety of shinplasters, were current. One, issued by a baker,
represented "twenty-five cents in drayage or confectionary," at the
option of the holder. Another guaranteed to the bearer "the sum of five
cents from the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad Company, in freight
or passage!"
[Sidenote: A DROLL SPECIES OF CURRENCY.]
One of my acquaintances had purchased in Chicago, at ten cents a
dozen, lithographic _fac-similes_ of the regular Confederate notes,
promising to pay to the bearer ten dollars, six months after a treaty
of peace between the United States and the Confederate States. A
Memphis merchant, knowing that they were counterfeit, manufactured only
to sell as curiosities, considered their execution so much better than
the originals, that he gladly gave Tennessee bank-notes in exchange
for them. My friend subsisted at his hotel for several days upon the
proceeds of these _fac-similes_, and thought it cheap boarding. While
Curtis's army was in northern Arkansas, our officers found at a village
druggist's several large sheets of his printed promises to pay, neither
cut nor signed. At the next village one of them purchased a canteen of
whisky, and offered the grocer a National treasury note in payment. The
trader refused it; it was, doubtless, good, but might cause him trouble
after the army had left. He would receive either gold or Confederate
money. The officer exhibited one of these blanks, and asked if he would
take _that_. "O yes," he replied; "it is as good money as I want!" And
he actually sold two hundred and fifty canteens of whisky for those
unsigned shinplasters, cut off from the sheets in his presence!
Late in June, General Grant, accompanied only by his personal staff,
often rode from Corinth to Memphis, ninety miles, through a region
infested by guerrillas.
The guests at the Gayoso House regarded with much curiosity the quiet,
slightly-stooping, rural-looking man in cotton coat and broad-brimmed
hat, talking little and smoking much, who was already beginning to
achieve world-wide reputation.
A party of native Arkansans, including a young lady, arrived in
Memphis, coming up the Mississippi in an open skiff. When leaving
home they expected to encounter some of our gun-boats in a few hours,
and provided themselves only with one day's food, and an ample supply
of champagne. Accustomed to luxury, and all unused to labor, in the
unpitying sun they rowed for five days against the strong current of
the Mississippi, burnt, sick, and famishing. For five nights they slept
upon the ground on the swampy shore, half devoured by musquitoes. At
last they found an ark of safety in the iron-clad St. Louis.
During a fight at St. Charles, on the White River, the steam-drum of
the gun-boat Mound City was exploded by a Rebel shot. The terrified
gunners and seamen, many of them horribly scalded, jumped into the
water. The Confederates, from behind trees on the bank, deliberately
shot the scalded and drowning wretches!
[Sidenote: A CLEVER REBEL TRICK.]
Halleck continued in command at Corinth. From some cause, his official
telegrams to General Curtis, in Arkansas, and Commodore Davis, on
the Mississippi, were not transmitted in cipher; and the line was
unguarded, though leading through an intensely Rebel region. In July,
the Memphis operators, from the difficult working of their instruments,
surmised that some outsider must be sharing their telegraphic secrets.
One day the transmission of a message was suddenly interrupted by the
ejaculation:
"Pshaw! Hurra for Jeff Davis!"
Individuality reveals itself as clearly in telegraphing as in the
footstep or handwriting. Mr. Hall, the Memphis operator, instantly
recognized the performer--by what the musicians would call his
"time"--as a former telegraphic associate in the North; and sent him
this message:
"Saville, if you don't want to be hung, you had better leave. Our
cavalry is closing in on all sides of you."
After a little pause, the surprised Rebel replied:
"How in the world did you know me? I have been here four days, and
learned about all your military secrets; but it is becoming a rather
tight place, and I think I _will_ leave. Good-by, boys."
He made good his escape. In the woods he had cut the wire, inserted one
of his own, and by a pocket instrument perused our official dispatches,
stating the exact number and location of United States troops in
Memphis. Re-enforcements were immediately ordered in, to guard against
a Rebel dash.
[Sidenote: A BIT OF SHERMAN'S WAGGERY.]
Later in July, Sherman assumed command. One day, a bereaved man-owner
visited him, to learn how he could reclaim his runaway slaves.
"I know of only one way, sir," replied the general, "and that is,
through the United States marshal."
The unsuspecting planter went up and down the city inquiring for that
civil officer.
"Have you any business with him?" asked a Federal captain.
"Yes, sir. I want my negroes. General Sherman says he is the proper
person to return them."
"Undoubtedly he is. The law prescribes it."
"Is he in town?"
"I rather suspect not."
"When do you think he left?"
"About the time Sumter was fired on, I fancy."
At last it dawned upon the planter's brain that the Fugitive Slave
Law was void after the people drove out United States officers. He
went sadly back to Sherman, and asked if there was no other method of
recovering his chattels.
"None within my knowledge, sir."
"What can I do about it?"
"The law provided a remedy for you slaveholders in cases like this; but
you were dissatisfied and smashed the machine. If you don't like your
work, you had better set it to running again."
On the 7th and 8th of March, 1862, occurred the battle of Pea Ridge,
in Arkansas. Our troops were commanded by General Curtis. Vandeveer's
brigade made a forced march of forty-one miles between 2 o'clock A. M.,
and 10 P. M., in order to participate in the engagement. The fight was
very severe, but the tenacity of the western soldiers finally routed
the Rebels.
There chanced to be only one New York correspondent with Curtis's
command. During the battle he was wounded by a fragment of shell. He
sent forward his report, with calm complacency, presuming that it was
exclusive.
[Sidenote: FICTITIOUS BATTLE REPORTS.]
But two other New York journalists in St. Louis, hearing of the battle,
at once repaired to Rolla, the nearest railway point, though one
hundred and ninety-five miles distant from Pea Ridge. Perusing the
very meager official dispatches, knowing what troops were engaged, and
learning from an old countryman the topography of the field, they wrote
elaborate accounts of the two days' conflict.
Indebted to their imagination for their facts, they gave minute details
and a great variety of incidents. Their reports were plausible and
graphic. _The London Times_ reproduced one of them, pronouncing it
the ablest and best battle account which had been written during the
American war. For months, the editors who originally published these
reports, did not know that they were fictitious. They were written only
as a Bohemian freak, and remained the only accounts manufactured by any
reputable journalist during the war.
After the battle, Curtis's army, fifteen thousand strong, pursued
its winding way through the interior of Arkansas. It maintained no
communications, carrying its base of supplies along with it. When out
of provisions, it would seize and run all the neighboring corn-mills,
until it obtained a supply of meal for one or two weeks, and then move
forward.
[Sidenote: CURTIS'S GREAT MARCH THROUGH ARKANSAS.]
Day after day, the Memphis Rebels told us, with ill-concealed glee,
that Curtis's army, after terrific slaughter, had all been captured, or
was just about to surrender. For weeks we had no reliable intelligence
from it. But suddenly it appeared at Helena, on the Mississippi,
seventy-five miles below Memphis, having marched more than six hundred
miles through the enemy's country. Despite the unhealthy climate, the
soldiers arrived in excellent sanitary condition, weary and ragged, but
well, and with an immense train of followers. It was a common jest,
that every private came in with one horse, one mule, and two negroes.
The army correspondents, disgusted with the hardships and unwholesome
fare of Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, often
predicted, with what they thought extravagant humor:--
"When Cincinnati or Chicago becomes the seat of war, all this will
be changed. We will take our ease at our inn, and view battles
æsthetically."
But in September, this jest became the literal truth. Bragg, leaving
Buell far behind in Tennessee, invaded Kentucky, and seriously
threatened Cincinnati.
Martial law was declared, and all Cincinnati began arming, drilling,
or digging. In one day, twenty-five thousand citizens enrolled their
names, and were organized into companies. Four thousand worked upon the
Covington fortifications. Newspaper proprietors were in the trenches.
Congressmen, actors, and artists, carried muskets or did staff duty.
A few sneaks were dragged from their hiding-places in back kitchens,
garrets, and cellars. One fellow was found in his wife's clothing,
scrubbing away at the wash-tub. He was suddenly stripped of his
crinoline by the German guard, who, with shouts of laughter, bore him
away to a working-party.
New regiments of volunteers came pouring in from Indiana, Michigan,
and the other Northwestern States. The farmers, young and old, arrived
by thousands, with their shot-guns and their old squirrel-rifles. The
market houses, public buildings, and streets, were crowded with them.
They came even from New York and Pennsylvania, until General Wallace
was compelled to telegraph in all directions that no more were needed.
One of these country boys had no weapon except an old Revolutionary
sword. Quite a crowd gathered one morning upon Sycamore street, where
he took out his rusty blade, scrutinized its blunt edge, knelt down,
and carefully whetted it for half an hour upon a door-stone; then,
finding it satisfactorily sharp, replaced it in the scabbard, and
turned away with a satisfied look. His gravity and solemnity made it
very ludicrous.
Buell, before starting northward in pursuit of Bragg, was about to
evacuate Nashville. Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of Tennessee,
implored, expostulated, and stormed, but without effect. He solemnly
declared that, if all the rest of the army left, he would remain with
his four Middle Tennessee regiments, defend the city to the last,
and perish in its ashes, before it should be given up to the enemy.
Buell finally left a garrison, which, though weak in numbers, proved
sufficient to hold Nashville.
[Sidenote: "THE SIEGE OF CINCINNATI."]
The siege of Cincinnati proved of short duration. Buell's veterans, and
the enthusiastic new volunteers soon sent the Rebels flying homeward.
Then, as through the whole war, their appearance north of Tennessee
and Virginia was the sure index of disaster to their arms. Southern
military genius did not prove adapted to the establishment of a navy,
or to fighting on Northern soil.
[Sidenote: GLOOMIEST DAYS OF THE WAR.]
Maryland invaded, Frankfort abandoned, Nashville evacuated, Tennessee
and Kentucky given up almost without a fight, the Rebels threatening
the great commercial metropolis of Ohio--these were the disastrous,
humiliating tidings of the hour. These were, perhaps, the gloomiest
days that had been seen during the war. We were paying the bitter
penalty of many years of National wrong.
"God works no otherwise; no mighty birth
But comes with throes of mortal agony;
No man-child among nations of the earth
But findeth its baptism in a stormy sea."