GROWING WRATH--JOY OVER VICTORY--GEN. ZOLICOFFER--A YANKEE BOY’S
PASSPORT--LIGHTS AND SHADOWS--ESCAPE OF CONGRESSMEN--FORGED
LETTERS TO BOSTON--A MILITARY ZEALOT--BRIDGE-BURNING.
“The days of the nations bear no trace
Of all the sunshine so far foretold;
The cannon speaks in the teacher’s place--
The age is weary with work and gold,
And high hopes wither, and memories wane;
On hearths and altars the fires are dead;
But that brave faith hath not lived in vain--
And this is all that our watcher said.”
FRANCES BROWN.
The indignation of the Union men and the intolerance of the
Secessionists were obviously increased by the election of the 8th
of June and its announced result. The first declared the vote was
fraudulent; the second exulted, that by it the State became a member
of the Southern Confederacy. The railroads were busy much of the
time, as they had been for a short time before, in the transportation
of troops from the Southwest through East Tennessee to Virginia.
This transit of soldiers was witnessed by people loyal to the Union
with feelings of strong dissatisfaction, which sometimes grew
into great animosity and wrath. Once a mass-meeting of Unionists
was in progress at Strawberry Plains, Jefferson County, during
the excitement over the election, when a regiment from the South
passed by on the railway. A conflict with fire-arms between members
of the two hostile parties took place, but no life was lost. The
incident tended to exasperate the public temper. It was exceptional,
however. Generally the people repressed their grief and pain at such
scenes--enough, at least, to avoid all violent demonstrations towards
their adversaries. They vented them to one another, sometimes with
bated breath.
The United States flag had been lifted up and displayed from liberty
poles without a rival, at the beginning of the dissensions. Then
it had for months contested supremacy in the air with the flag of
the Southern Confederacy. At length the United States flags were
taken down under compulsion, except in a few instances, where, being
private property, their removal was prevented for a time by the
boldness and firmness of the owners.
News of the first battle of Manassas in July, 1861, was hailed with
gushing delight by the friends of the Confederacy. In the town they
were not so strong numerically as in actual ascendency, and tidings
of that victory encouraged the manifestation of their special
sympathies in the war more freely and defiantly. In the overflow of
their elation of spirits, various means of noisily celebrating the
recent triumph were adopted. Even the bells of churches, innocent as
they were of all connection with bloody fields of conflict between
brethren, were joyfully rung. Zealous citizens, who never before
had shown any particular interest in the musical instruments whose
business it is to call Christian people to the house of prayer,
were active in making them contribute their voices to the general
Jubilee.[22] Words of bitterness and wrath against “the Yankees,”
and against Union men under several opprobrious names, were more
freely used. Alienations of close kinsmen and ruptures of friendly
relations, were widened and deepened. Other swords there are besides
those of steel, wielded in civil wars. Quite as sharp and effective
are they in wounding feelings and cutting through social ties, as are
metallic blades in severing limbs and piercing bodies.
About this time Gen. Felix K. Zolicoffer, of Nashville, was appointed
to the supreme command in East Tennessee, and with his military
staff, he went into camp at Knoxville. Years before, he had been a
journeyman printer in the town, and his friendships then formed among
its citizens, had subsequently been increased in number. He seemed
disposed to exercise authority over the people with a lenient hand,
and to abstain from needless severities. At the beginning of the
Southern Confederacy, complaint was made at some localities, that
in filling offices under the new Government, Democrats were chiefly
appointed to the rejection of Whigs, who were equally or more
competent. This may have been done, because Democrats were known as a
party, to have had stronger sympathy with the secession movement at
its initiation, and were believed to be worthy of fuller confidence
in its interests. Zolicoffer, while the Whig party survived, was
prominent in its ranks, and some of those who affiliated with him
at that time, were in 1861 devoted to the Union. With them, after
entering upon his military duties, he chose to continue friendly
intercourse. This caused jealousy and ill-feeling towards him among
intolerant observers, and the _Register_, a small daily newspaper
of the town, blamed him in its editorial columns, for too mild use
of his power. These censures did not seriously affect his mind. He
still permitted the _Whig_ newspaper edited by William G. Brownlow to
continue its weekly issues, although its sentiments were in obvious
sympathy with the United States, and its submission to the Southern
Confederacy was clearly the result of necessity. At the same time he
had the editor’s son, John Bell Brownlow, arraigned before him upon
accusation by Gen. Lane, of McMinn County, of circulating a copy of
Helper’s book, entitled “Impending Crisis of the South.” The youth
accidentally found a copy of the book which had been sent to the
editor by mail, and loaned it upon urgent request to a friend. He was
speedily acquitted of the alleged offence: but, under an order before
issued concerning arrested civilians, he was, after three days’
detention as a prisoner in camp, handed over to the Confederate
Court. Judge Humphreys repeated the acquittal, but suggested the
administration to the youth of the specific for doubtful loyalty,
_i. e._ an oath of allegiance, which he refused to take, and was
released. Altogether, Gen. Zolicoffer manifested sufficient official
zeal, and a few months later he was severe in sending his cavalry
abroad to disarm peaceable Union men in Anderson, Campbell, Scott and
Fentress Counties.
People are apt to suppose that in time of war the authority of a
General, like that of a Judge or Governor in time of peace, will be
respected by his civilian allies, and that a wrong done by them in
despite of it, is easily remedied. On the contrary, the excessive
ardor of the allies sometimes blinds their respect for the authority,
which then fails to redress the wrong. The sign manual of Gen.
Zolicoffer proved of no avail to a young man from Connecticut, who
had been a student of the University at Knoxville for two years. In
1861 a few of his fellow-students, catching the spirit of intolerance
from their elders, annoyed and angered him with reproachful words
because of his nativity. He decided to return home, and Gen.
Zolicoffer gave an official letter that should permit him to travel
without interruption into Kentucky by way of Nashville. But when
about to leave that city by railroad, he was arrested without cause
and taken before a committee of citizens, the chairman of which was
also from Connecticut, and illustrated the opinion that “Northern
men with Southern principles” not unfrequently during the war
exceeded Southerners in their sectional zeal. The student’s letter
of safe conduct through the State was adjudged insufficient, and the
committee required him to take an oath of their dictation in order to
prosecute his journey. Gen. Zolicoffer, when informed of the facts,
promised an inquiry. The student, on reaching Connecticut, joined
a company of United States volunteers, was repeatedly promoted for
gallant conduct, left the army at the end of the war a Major, and is
now a worthy, prosperous citizen of Los Angeles, California.
Gen. Zolicoffer had a pleasant military family at his encampment,
where visitors were kindly received. Every circle of personal
associates, composed of men who are in the front of the strife at
such stormy periods, is liable to quick and fatal disruption. In this
instance the speedy mortality was impressive.
On the bright, delightful morning of the second of September, 1861, a
civilian from the town was conducted to the tent of Gen. Zolicoffer,
with whom were Gen. William R. Caswell, Commander of Tennessee
Provisional soldiers, and Major F. B. Fogg, only son of the eminent
lawyer and excellent man, Francis B. Fogg, Esq., of Nashville, who
was a steadfast friend of the Union. Major Fogg and other young
men--members of the Chief’s staff--talked with lively interest of
the news they found in the mail just then brought to camp, that
General Albert Sidney Johnston had arrived in the Atlantic States
from California. The visiting citizen, having but a small stock of
knowledge on hand concerning military men, asked: “And who is Albert
Sidney Johnston?” The prompt reply was: “O, he is the greatest of all
the Confederate Generals.”
The annals of events in the succeeding twelve months, cast sombre
shadows upon the remembrance of that scene:--the cheerful company,
holding pleasant converse,--the fresh and sunny autumnal air, and the
mingled light and shade of the forest playing among the tents. For
during that short period, the principal persons in the scene were no
more! General Zolicoffer was killed at the battle of Mill Springs,
Kentucky, in January, 1862. Major Fogg was there mortally wounded.
In August, General Caswell was murdered in the woods near Knoxville,
as was believed by a fugitive slave whom he was endeavoring to
arrest. And General Albert Sidney Johnston, the object of their
special admiration, and around whom clustered thickly the confidence
and hopes of friends of the Southern Confederacy, fell heroically
contending for it on the battle-field of Shiloh.
Early in August the usual bi-ennial elections in Tennessee for
Governor, the Legislature and members of Congress took place.
The Union candidates for Congress were elected by overwhelming
majorities. They held that they were properly members elect of the
_United_ States Congress, and accordingly they were quickly furnished
by the sheriffs of the counties with authenticated returns of the
voting, that they might proceed at once to Washington, leaving
vacant the seats in the Confederate Congress at Richmond which East
Tennessee was entitled to fill. Had their purpose fully succeeded,
a humorist might have found in the result a grim joke, to which
considerations of even-handed justice would have lent a flavor. For
the electors were friends of the United States, and if represented in
any Congress, should have been so in that of the United States.
The result was not wholly successful with the three gentlemen chosen.
The only route any one of them could take to Washington without
certain arrest, led through the Cumberland Mountains which divide
East Tennessee from Kentucky, and over the rough, hilly country that
lies on both sides of those mountains. Ridge after ridge and river
after river would have to be crossed and the journey be made on
horseback.
The Hon. Horace Maynard, Representative from the second or Knoxville
District, in order to avoid armed arrest, was already on the way from
his home to the Kentucky border when the election occurred, and soon
after was safely beyond it. A sort of consternation among friends
of the South in the town followed upon tidings of his adventurous
exodus. And although he was an esteemed ruling elder in one of the
Presbyterian Churches, some of the public petitions provoked by the
unwelcome news were scarcely in harmony with the Spirit of the Lord,
for they savored more of anathema than of benediction. Fortunately
for the intended victim, as one may fairly conclude from subsequent
events, the petitions did not ascend as high as the ceiling of the
house.
The Hon. Thos. A. R. Nelson was less fortunate than Mr. Maynard. He
attempted to pass from his home at Jonesboro through the southwestern
corner of Virginia into Kentucky. At Cumberland Gap the lines of
Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee converge to a point. It was already
occupied by Confederate troops, and a small body of them intercepted
him on the road at night. He was taken by way of Abingdon, Va., to
Richmond a prisoner, and had to run the gauntlet of infuriated and
threatening people at the various railway stations. After a short
detention in custody, he was released upon giving a written promise
to the President of the Confederacy to abstain from overt acts of
hostility against it, and returned to dwell peaceably in Tennessee.
The Hon. George W. Bridges, of the Third or Athens District,
contrived to effect his escape into Kentucky through the Cumberland
Mountains in Fentress County, Tennessee. It was pre-arranged that
his wife and children should immediately follow him, but they were
made the means of ensnaring his feet. The Confederate commander of a
post on the border detained his family, decoyed him to return by a
message of his wife’s illness, and then placed him in arrest. Another
instance was thus added to the many furnished by history, teaching
that in all important and dangerous enterprises it is wise to “look
not back,” even for the sake of cherished objects of natural
affection, lest through the adroit use of them by enemies, they
become fatal impediments. Mr. Bridges was carried to Knoxville, where
he signed a pledge or took an oath of submission to the Confederacy.
In a short time he obtained permission to pass into Kentucky to
transact a matter of business, and improved that opportunity to
extend his journey to Washington, where he served a term in Congress.
[Illustration: HON. ANDREW JOHNSON.]
Hon. Andrew Johnson had preceded Mr. Maynard to that city. In June
the _Richmond_ (Va.) _Enquirer_ had made publication concerning a
recent transaction at Knoxville which, if Mr. Johnson were indeed
a party to it, seriously involved him; but the facts went to show
that an attempt had been made to obtain money for political uses by
the forgery of his name. On the 30th of that month he published from
Washington a statement, “in order,” to use his own words, “to expose
the dishonorable and wicked means resorted to by ‘Secession’ to carry
out its nefarious and corrupt designs in attempting to overthrow and
break up the best Government the world ever saw.”
Mr. Amos A. Lawrence, of Boston, received a forged letter, marked
PRIVATE, and dated “Knoxville, Tenn., May 15, 1861”--on which day
Andrew Johnson, whose signature it bore, was addressing a Union
Convention at Elizabethton, one hundred and eighteen miles from
Knoxville. It read:
DEAR SIR: I received your kind favor on yesterday and hasten
to reply. Thank you for the high regard you seem to have for my
patriotism and my devotion to my country.
What assurances can I have from you and your people of _material
aid_ in the way of money, men and arms, if I can succeed in
arousing my people to resistance to this damnable treason in the
South? This is very important. We have a formidable Union element
in East Tennessee, which can be judiciously managed, if we can
obtain the aid alluded to. Harris, Governor of the State, will
not let us have arms nor money: therefore we _must appeal_ to
you. Let me hear from you forthwith.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
(Signed) ANDREW JOHNSON.
To the above, this answer was sent:
BOSTON, May 18, 1861.
DEAR SIR: If your note to me were printed in our newspapers, it
would be good for ten thousand dollars in three days’ time. But
of course I must only use it as a private letter. In order that
you may be sure of something at once, I write below this a draft,
which some of your Union bankers or merchants may be willing to
cash at the usual premium for East exchange. Probably Gardner &
Co., Evans & Co., Douglass & Co., of Nashville, will know it. The
Government will soon exhibit a power which will astonish even
you. The Nullifiers have been playing into Scott’s hand for three
weeks, and now they have lost the game.
Yours with regard,
AMOS A. LAWRENCE.
If you cannot use the draft, return it and tell me what to send.
The draft was as follows:
BOSTON, May 18, 1861.
At sight, without grace, pay to Andrew Johnson or order. One
Thousand Dollars, for value received, and charge to my account.
AMOS A. LAWRENCE.
To MASON, LAWRENCE & CO., Boston.
The acceptance of Mason, Lawrence & Co., was on the face of the draft.
Mr. Lawrence received the following in reply:
KNOXVILLE, TENN., June 6, 1861.
_Amos A. Lawrence, Esq., near Boston, Mass._:
MY DEAR SIR: I have received your two letters to-day. Thank
you most sincerely for your proffered aid. We need it,--need it
badly. As yet I have not been able to use your draft; I am afraid
to do so. Send me, if you can, $5,000 or $10,000 in New England
currency, in large bills, by mail, _via_ Cincinnati. Be sure to
do it promptly. Don’t delay. I can now purchase a lot of arms if
I had the means.
How do you propose to introduce aid or arms into East Tennessee?
By what route and by what method? Answer soon.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
(Signed) ANDREW JOHNSON.
To this communication no response was made. Mr. Lawrence, by
some means or other, had his eyes opened to the game which the
conspirators were attempting, and gave them no further attention.
Later in the autumn Gen. Zolicoffer moved his forces towards the
Kentucky border. He even passed beyond Cumberland Gap and established
his camp north of Cumberland (river) Ford, near Barbourville,
Kentucky. After his departure there was a succession of officers in
command at Knoxville. First, Col. Wm. B. Wood, of Alabama, whose
zeal was intense and did not leave room enough in his mind for the
exercise of that discretion, which is said to be the better part
of valor. On the 28th of October, his want of self-control, and
therefore, unfitness to command others, was signally shown. An affray
occurred in the town between a few citizens and some of his men,
growing out of an attempt by the police to subject the disorderly
soldiers to the civil authority, and their resistance. He represented
that the joy of Union men over the news that Gen. Zolicoffer with his
army had fallen back on Cumberland Ford, became so irrepressible
that “some eight or ten of the bullies or leaders made an attack
on some of (his) men near the Lamar House and seriously wounded
several.” He immediately marched a company of cavalry and one hundred
infantry into the town. In an overflow of wrath he slighted the
proposal of the Mayor to unite with him in restoring and preserving
order, and proceeded to search actively for the frightened guardians
of the municipality. They, meanwhile, had made their escape. Entering
the store-house of a leading mercantile firm, he demanded in a lordly
style that the building should be thoroughly examined, and sternly
threatened that if he found one of the alleged culprits secreted
in the house, he would burn it down. The quiet and brave head of
the firm assented to the demand, but as it resulted in no discovery
there was no conflagration! The general bearing on the occasion
of the wrathful officer may be inferred from this incident. It is
manifest from the correspondence between Gen. Zolicoffer, Col. Wood
and others, that the angry disaffection of friends of the Union in
East Tennessee under Confederate domination made them restless. Col.
Wood, writing from Knoxville on the first day of the month, to Hon.
J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of War, at Richmond, said: “There can be
no doubt of the fact that large parties, numbering from twenty to a
hundred, are every day passing through the narrow and unfrequented
gaps of the mountain into Kentucky to join the army. My courier, just
in from Jamestown, informs me that a few nights since, one hundred
and seventy men passed from Roane County into Kentucky. I do not
believe that the Unionists are in the least reconciled to the (C. S.)
Government, but on the contrary are as hostile to it as the people of
Ohio, and will be ready to take up arms as soon as they believe the
Lincoln forces are near enough to sustain them.”
On November 8th, an organized plan was partially carried out, by
parties of Union men, to burn the bridges of the two railways
from Knoxville, one eastward to the Virginia line and the other
westward to Chattanooga, and Dalton, Georgia. The bridges over the
Hiwassee River, Lick Creek, Greene County, and three other streams,
were destroyed. That over the Holston River at Strawberry Plains,
Jefferson County, was saved by the bravery of its watchman. These
violences created great excitement and alarm. They were the first
overt acts of resistance from among the people to the power by which
they were subjected; and were committed, no doubt, not in a spirit of
mere wanton mischief, but of war upon an enemy and for the purpose of
seriously interrupting the military communications of the Southern
Confederacy. Some political friends of the destructive workers
justified the burnings as acts of war. Others, while not dissenting
from that opinion, yet thought them inexpedient,--hurtful to public
convenience, and as a military movement, conducive to no important
practical results, because unsupported by a sufficient armed force
from outside the region.
The Confederate States authorities had apprehended an outbreak of
the slumbering discontent of the people; but they could not at first
measure the import of this particular aggression. They were therefore
liable to suppose it was the forerunner of a general uprising against
them, which would be sustained by United States soldiers from
Kentucky. The circulation of the news concerning it was quick and
general and bred universal agitation, especially among friends of
the Confederacy. Citizens gathered in towns and soldiers in camps,
to hear declamations. Everywhere, these assaults and the danger of
others, were their topics of conversation. Telegrams flew on the
wires and letters went by mail to Knoxville, increasing the alarm. A
dispatch from Charleston, Tenn., said, “Seventy-five Union soldiers
were to-day near Harrison. They had knapsacks.” And again, “Jeff
Mathes is within twelve miles of this place: has one hundred men.”
From Chattanooga: “About nine hundred men, part of them from Bradley
County, leave Clift’s in this county to-day in squads, either to
organize for operations against this place and Loudon bridge, or to
meet Union forces from Kentucky. The regiment is formidable.” A later
message said, “They have formed a camp at Bower’s, near Smith’s Cross
Roads. They may return to this place or to Loudon. They calculate to
organize one thousand men.” From Athens it was written that “some
fifteen hundred Lincoln men are under arms in Hamilton County,
ostensibly for Jamestown. Their destination is more probably Loudon
bridge.” The Major in command at Loudon, on the Tennessee River,
thirty miles west of Knoxville, wrote: “The Union feeling in this
county is exceedingly bitter, and all they want, in my opinion, to
induce a general uprising, is encouragement from the Lincoln armies.
They have a great many arms, and are actually manufacturing Union
flags to receive the refugee Tennesseeans when they return. They are
getting bold enough.” Col. Wood wrote: “The whole country is now in a
state of rebellion. A thousand men are within six miles of Strawberry
Plains and an attack is contemplated to-morrow” (November 12).
“They (the Unionists) are gathering in large force and may secure
(Washington bridge) in a day or two.” “About two miles from here in
Sevier County, already three hundred in camp, are being reinforced.”
Knoxville was at once put under martial law. The people’s houses were
arbitrarily entered day and night by military direction and their
guns and pistols demanded. Even weapons intended only for sporting
uses or for rivalry in marksmanship were included in the exaction.
In but few instances was the requisition evaded by timely secretion
of the implements. In others, they were indignantly surrendered,
carried off to the armory, and some of them never restored. No one
was allowed to depart from the town without a passport signed by a
committee of three leading secessionists from among the select few
citizens, whom Editor Sperry, of the town newspaper, compared, not
facetiously but seriously, to the few righteous men who might have
saved Sodom and Gomorrah if they could have been found. At first no
one was permitted to enter the town without a paper of that kind,
which could only be procured from the committee centrally located.
Church-going people from the vicinity were surprised on Sunday
morning to find armed men in the way who refused them ingress until
a messenger, sent by some friend known to be loyal to “the South,”
went and returned with the requisite passes. An old citizen of the
county who had a mind of his own and stoutly adhered in sentiment
to the Union, went to town without interruption, probably through
oversight of the guard, but on returning homeward, his passport
was demanded. He had none to show, for to procure such a document,
it was necessary by order of the Committee of Three to take an
oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy, and _that_ he had
predetermined he would not do. He was arrested, led back, arraigned
before the committee, and refusing to take the prescribed oath, he
was placed on confinement to the limits of the town until his case
should be tried before the Confederate States Commissioner. Whether
he was sent to jail, into which many were then being cast for what
was called “Union talk,” does not appear. Col. Wood, writing from
Knoxville to Adjutant General Cooper at Richmond, said: “I feel it to
be my duty to place this city under martial law, as there was a large
majority of the people sympathizing and communicating with them by
the unfrequented mountain paths, and to prevent surprises and the
destruction of public property. I need not say that great alarm is
felt by the few Southern men here. They are finding places of safety
for their families and would gladly enlist if we had arms for them.”