GENERALS KIRBY SMITH, J. E. JOHNSON AND BRAGG--REFUGEES INVITED
HOME BY PROCLAMATION--MRS. BROWNLOW, HER CHILDREN AND MRS.
MAYNARD EXILED--GENERAL CONDITION OF THINGS RESULTING FROM
SECESSION.
“Faults are easier look’d in, than redress’d:
Men running with eager violence,
At the first view of errors, fresh in quest;
As they, to rid an inconvenience,
Stick not to raise a mischief in the stead,
Which after mocks their weak improvidence.
And therefore do not make your own sides bleed,
To pick at others.”
DANIEL.
In the spring of 1862, the authority and power of the United States
throughout East Tennessee, were thoroughly supplanted by those of the
Confederate States. Any benefits, however, which might result from
the substitution to that region and all its people did not presently
appear. There was no violence going on within its borders, except
that inflicted by Confederate soldiers; and the actual strife between
hostile armies was far away. The general condition of things was most
deplorable. As a large majority of the able-bodied men had fled or
were fleeing under the impulse of patriotism and duty to another
State, that they might stand beneath the folds and uphold the staff
of the American flag, many fields were left untilled. The fruits and
grains gathered in by farmers from their labors in 1861, had been or
were being consumed by the military who occupied the country, and
no just expectations were indulged of an ordinary harvest in 1862.
The outlook, indeed, in every respect of the people’s welfare was
discouraging. One conclusion it favored--that secession, as a remedy
for real or imaginary ills, resulted for the time in greater evils.
About this date Gen. E. Kirby Smith was appointed to the supreme
command at Knoxville. He had been at the battle of Manassas, and
was reported as wounded, but not seriously. He was reputed to have
firmness, decision of will and other qualities of character required
by his office, and also of as great humanity and kindness as consist
with the vigorous conduct of war. A marked contrast in his favor
was observed between his general bearing at the town and that of
some Confederate officers who had chief command there. In scholarly
attainments he surpassed them all, in personal morals he was without
reproach, and his manners were quiet and unpretentious.
It will bear mention in this connection that two distinguished
Generals of the Confederate army--Joseph E. Johnson and Braxton
Bragg--briefly tarried on their way at different times in the
town. There were little incidents in their respective visits that
afterwards entered into the talk of the citizens and were thought to
be characteristic.
Gen. Johnson ranked very high in people’s esteem for both
modesty and ability, and had the credit of being a natural, as
contra-distinguished from an artificial, man. During his stay he was
called on by an aged colored woman who had nursed him in childhood.
Some men would have been indifferent or repellent to the hearty
greetings she gave him in presence of stern warriors: but her words
of love and blessing made way through his coat of mail, and to the
surprise of by-standers, filled his eyes with tears.
Gen. Bragg, from his hotel, summoned a Swiss tailor, who was of like
political sympathies, to come and take his measure for a new suit of
clothes. The civilian, perhaps thinking the call too peremptory, or
desiring to honor his own vocation, declined to obey. The officer’s
demand for the tailor’s attendance was then repeated, accompanied
with the statement that “General Bragg never went out to be measured
for clothing.” The undismayed citizen again refused, and bade
the messenger say that he “never went out to measure people for
clothing.” And the warrior who commanded regiments and brigades of
soldiers was compelled to surrender to one man, whose only weapons
were a pair of shears, a needle and a tailor’s goose! _“Inter arma,
leges silent,” sed non sartori._
Gen. Kirby Smith had too clear intelligence not to see that it was
expedient or even necessary to do whatever was possible to recover
the losses already incurred and to prevent any further losses in the
able-bodied male population of East Tennessee, and to promote the
greater cultivation of lands. Therefore, on April 18th, 1862, was
published from headquarters, Knoxville, this
PROCLAMATION.
The Major General commanding this Department, charged with the
enforcement of martial law, believing that many of its citizens
have been misled into the commission of treasonable acts through
ignorance of their duties and obligations to their State, and
that many have actually fled across the mountains and joined our
enemies under the persuasion and misguidance of supposed friends,
but designing enemies, hereby proclaims:
First. That no person so misled, who comes forward, declares
his error, and takes the oath to support the Constitution of
the State and of the Confederate States, shall be molested or
punished on account of past acts or words.
Second. That no person so persuaded and misguided as to leave
his home and join the enemy, who shall return within thirty days
of the date of this proclamation, acknowledge his error, and
take an oath to support the Constitution of the State and of the
Confederate States, shall be molested or punished on account of
past acts or words.
After thus announcing his disposition to treat with the utmost
clemency those who have been led away from the true path of
patriotic duty, the Major General commanding furthermore declares
his determination henceforth to employ all the elements at his
disposal for the protection of the lives and property of the
citizens of East Tennessee--whether from the incursions of the
enemy or the irregularities of his own troops--and for the
suppression of all treasonable practices.
He assures all citizens engaged in cultivating their farms, that
he will protect them in their rights, and that he will suspend
the militia draft under the State laws, that they may raise
crops for consumption in the coming year. He invokes the zealous
co-operation of the authorities and of all good people, to aid
him in his endeavors.
The courts of criminal jurisdiction will continue to exercise
their functions, save the issuance of writs of _habeas corpus_.
Their writs will be served and their decrees executed by the aid
of the military, when necessary.
When the courts fail to preserve the peace or punish offenders
against the laws, those objects will be attained through the
action of military tribunals and the exercise of the force of his
command.
(Signed) E. KIRBY SMITH,
Maj. Gen. Comm’dg Dep’t E. T.
Five days after the issuance of the above proclamation there was
published as follows:
TO THE DISAFFECTED PEOPLE OF EAST TENNESSEE.
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,
OFFICE PROVOST MARSHAL, April 23, 1862.
The undersigned, in executing martial law in this Department,
assures those interested who have fled to the enemy’s lines, and
who are actually in their army, that he will welcome their return
to their homes and their families: they are offered amnesty and
protection, if they come to lay down their arms and act as loyal
citizens, within the thirty days given them by Major General E.
Kirby Smith to do so.
At the end of that time, those failing to return to their homes
and accept the amnesty thus offered, and provide for and protect
their wives and children in East Tennessee, will have them sent
to their care in Kentucky, or beyond the Confederate States’
line, at their own expense.
All that leave after this date, with a knowledge of the above
acts, their families will be sent after them.
The women and children must be taken care of by husbands and
fathers, either in East Tennessee or in the Lincoln Government.
(Signed) W. M. CHURCHWELL,
Col. and Provost Marshal.
It is obvious from the preceding documents, that the Confederate
authorities were uneasy over the prospect of a diminished harvest
from the soil the ensuing season; and not only for political reasons,
but to avoid a scarcity of food because of the departure of many
farmers, they would be glad to have them return home.
The men thus invited to return, made no answer from beyond the
mountains which walled in their beloved land on the north. It was
like whistling to the winds to call them back. And they continued
to go until they were thirty thousand strong--wearing the blue.
As to the threat that after thirty days, unless they recanted
their faith in the Union, came home and swore to be loyal to the
Confederate States, their wives and children should be sent after
them at their own expense, it was a mere _brutum fulmen_ and if it
ever reached their ears they treated it with indifference or perhaps
with derision. Its fulfillment belonged to the category of human
impossibilities. The expulsion and march of an army of women and
children from East Tennessee over mountains and rivers into Kentucky
who could be counted by tens of thousands, would have sent a thrill
of amazement akin to horror throughout enlightened Christendom. It
is not to be supposed, however, that the Confederate authorities
intended to carry into effect the threat of such retaliation. Nor
does it appear that the threat emanated from or was approved by
the Major General commanding the Department of East Tennessee. He
did, however, authorize the order of the Provost Marshal for the
compulsory removal from Knoxville _via_ Norfolk, Virginia, beyond the
Confederate lines of the wives and families of two prominent Union
men--Hon. Horace Maynard and Rev. William G. Brownlow. In those cases
special reason for the harsh measure was assigned. The following
letter was sent from headquarters addressed to--
_Mrs. W. G. Brownlow, Knoxville_:
MADAM--By Major General E. Kirby Smith I am directed most
respectfully to inform you that you and your children are not
held as hostages for the good behavior of your husband, as
represented by him in a speech at Cincinnati recently, and
that yourself and family will be required to pass beyond the
Confederate States’ line in thirty-six hours from this date.
Passports will be granted you from this office.
Very respectfully,
W. M. CHURCHWELL,
Colonel and Provost Marshal.
April 21, 1862.
[Illustration: HON. HORACE MAYNARD.]
At Mrs. Brownlow’s immediate written request the time of departure
was extended a few days, and on April 25th, she and her family, being
a party of four adults and four children, were conducted by way of
Norfolk out of the Confederacy. With these exiles were sent Mrs.
Horace Maynard and family, whose expatriation could not of course be
covered by the plea of Mr. Brownlow’s utterances in Cincinnati: but
although Mr. Maynard was not inculpated by that alleged offence, or a
like one from his own lips, he was highly obnoxious as a Union leader
who had gone to the enemy.
Mrs. Brownlow was a native Tennesseean, and Mrs. Maynard, born in
Massachusetts, had resided in the town for some twenty years. In
the pending conflict their sympathies were naturally and properly
with their husbands, but they had stood entirely aloof from active
politics, and no charge of misdemeanor in word or deed was made
against them. Mrs. Maynard, a lady of superior culture and fine
sensibilities, was sickened in the enforced departure from her home
by its excitement and worry, and a hemorrhage of her lungs ensued:
but her spirit was bravely equal to the emergency, and when the
appointed hour came she was ready for the journey under military
escort.
As the war advanced, shops and mercantile houses in some instances
were closed, but as a rule, they kept open doors with diminished
stocks. A few new shops were established and traders found employment
not unprofitable. Prices gradually increased until they became
very high. Many articles in frequent or habitual use by the people
could not be had at any price, or if at all, only in the smallest
quantities. Coffee, which formerly could be bought at from 14 to 16
cents a pound, became scarce soon after hostilities began, and before
long sold at one dollar a pound. Salt, almost a necessary of life,
could only be obtained with difficulty, and its price of 2½ and 3
cents a pound, rose to 30 cents and more. Brown sugar advanced from
12½ cents to 75 cents a pound. Common calicoes, before sold at 12½
cents a yard, increased eight fold in price by retail. Men’s ordinary
apparel shared in the upward movement of values, especially shoes of
all kinds, which sold by and by, for from ten to twenty dollars a
pair, and boots, which went up to twenty dollars and more.
The great increase in prices of dry goods and groceries induced a
corresponding advance by producers in those of grain, meat, poultry,
vegetables and fruits. Provision for their own maintenance demanded
of the farming class that what they had to sell should be valued
higher.
At the beginning of the troubles gold and silver passed out of
general circulation. Next the notes of the various banks chartered
by the State gradually disappeared. Numbers of people hoarded these
notes as a provision for possible exigencies, and they were valued in
exchange at twenty-five per cent. more than Confederate notes. The
banks themselves were ready enough to pay out the latter notes to
customers, and by doing this withdrew much of their own paper from
circulation. Gold was sold for Confederate notes at a premium of one
hundred per cent. or more.
By the necessities of the times the question of sustenance was of
general consideration. As the rate of interest and salaries of
civilians continued the same, they who depended for maintenance upon
income from loans or upon stipends for regular services, suffered
from the derangement in all affairs. Debtors who before had such
strong reluctance to pay their just obligations, that their hearts
fainted in the endeavor, became wholly metamorphosed. They manifested
a cheerful zeal to settle their debts, which would not let them await
the coming of the creditor. For they could pay in depreciated bank
notes, or better still, Confederate notes were plentiful and could be
used in liquidation. A citizen of well known loyalty to “the South,”
especially one of prominence, could probably refuse them in payment
of debts, but such a refusal by others might lead to unpleasant
consequences. It might diminish one’s reputation as a friend of
the Confederacy, or worse still, if that reputation were already
damaged, subject him to the reproach visited upon all “Lincolnites,
tories and traitors.” Nevertheless, the pecuniary disadvantage of
taking a depreciated currency, which was going down all the time,
as a valid tender, was too plain to fail of its influence. The
unwillingness and refusals of people to be paid in Confederate notes,
at length attracted the attention of the authorities, and it was
ordered, in the spring of 1862, that persons refusing to receive such
notes should be held guilty of political offense and be punished
accordingly. The order sufficed to correct the growing tendency, as
no instance of an arraignment for violating it was publicly known.
The civil law courts were still held, but with imperfect sessions,
except the County Court, which met regularly on the first Monday of
each month. Justice, in a capacious robe, with bandaged eyes and a
pair of balances in hand, had been thrust into the back-ground. And
its imitation, dressed in regimentals, with stern visage and wielding
a sharp sword, stood in the front. In the sphere of ordinary legal
proceedings dullness reigned, but the Confederate tribunals and the
courts martial derived a stiff business look, without any pleasant
animation, from the trial of offenders for disloyalty or treasonable
practices.
From an early period of the troubled conditions, the State Deaf Mute
Asylum was appropriated to use as a hospital for sick soldiers. The
climate in winter was too cold for those who came from Alabama and
other Gulf States, and they suffered much from the inclemency of the
weather in 1861 and 1862. The mortality in hospitals that winter was
great--two or three patients dying daily for a considerable time.
After the battle of Fishing Creek, January, 1862, the buildings of
East Tennessee University were taken by the military for the lodging
of wounded men, and afterwards the Male Academy was turned by them
into a guard house. These diversions of school property to uses of
the army, seriously interfered of course with the work of educating
boys and young men. And yet the loss incurred in that way was not
very serious, because the number of students in the disordered state
of things had severely diminished. The army had absorbed some of the
older youth into its ranks, some borne on the fierce currents of
excitement, drifted off one way or another, and many were demoralized
from study by the abnormal social conditions. One of the University
professors had been for years a most successful teacher of boys. He
hailed from north of Mason and Dixon’s line, and before the secession
of Tennessee in June, 1861, had expressed his Union sentiments in
letters to friends who dwelt in the _taboo-ed_ region beyond the Ohio
River. As the State was then still in the Union, all letters from it
by mail should have been transmitted to their destination without
previous disclosure of their contents, but this was forbidden by
patriotic zeal for the Confederacy, to which the State was bound by
a military league. Of the intercepted communications to a distance
written by Union citizens, were some by the professor. Then there
went to him in writing anonymous threats of personal indignity and
injury, and the circumstances of the case appeared to justify the
fears they excited in him. After seeking judicious advice and not
being willing to contend with the wrath of his enemies, he shortly
departed for Ohio and left goods and chattels behind him, which were
afterwards seized and confiscated.
Another of the professors--a clergyman of the Presbyterian
Church--became an officer in the Confederate army. Another, who was
a native of the county, moved with fear of being forced to serve
in that army, and loving the Union, fled the country to Washington
and only returned upon the advent of Gen. Burnside into Knoxville.
The President of the University--a clergyman of the Protestant
Episcopal Church--thought that some such unwelcome advent would
occur in 1862. In the earlier part of that year, therefore, he made
a prudent arrangement with his associates to teach the few students
who remained until the session’s end, and departed for a quiet home
in North Carolina. Not long afterwards the doors of the institution
were closed to the work of education for four years. Schools for the
instruction of children continued in the town to a limited extent,
but their usefulness and success were lessened by the prevailing
anxieties and excitements.
The public worship in the several Christian Churches was conducted
without interruption. In several of them politics were introduced
into the prayers to God or in the preaching to men from the pulpit,
or in both. After Confederate troops occupied the place, the chaplain
of a regiment would now and then preach in a church that was strongly
in sympathy with the Confederacy. The pastor of one of the churches
kept aloof in his sermons from the chief topic of the day, but
often made the success of the Confederacy a subject of petition in
his public devotions. The pastor of another was less reticent, and
expressed his political sentiments with much warmth and frequency
from the pulpit, in both prayers and sermons. The minister of a third
church, in 1861 became involved in local strife connected with the
great conflict of the time, to the partial hurt of his usefulness.
His successor was a stranger, and adhered more closely to the usual
line of clerical duty, but it was understood that he heartily
sympathized with the friends of secession. They were largely in the
majority among church-goers, and all these ministers were esteemed
and beloved by the great body of their respective peoples. The war
therefore, occasioned no break in the substantial unity of their
churches, nor any material decrease in the attendance of worshippers.
Than these, another church was less fortunate. Its rector entertained
Union sentiments, to which some of its more influential families were
strongly opposed. He was also in disagreement with the bishop of the
diocese, not personally, but officially, as the latter had set forth
in July, 1861, by request of the Diocesan Convention, a form of
prayer for the success of the Confederacy which the rector felt he
could not in good conscience use. The bishop, while manifesting all
fatherly kindness to the non-conforming minister, decided that he
could make no exception to the rule of obedience. He was then asked
for and gave the rector a letter dimissory to Bishop Smith, of the
Diocese of Kentucky, which was forwarded and accepted. The minister
was disabled by an accident from following the letter in person
as he intended, and the rectorship, which he had before resigned,
was filled by a clergyman from the neighboring town of Loudon. The
priest of the Roman Catholic Church was unknown in connection with
the troubles. His successor at a later period, “Father Ryan,” was
quite a young man, of delicate physique, but of a ready mind, lively
imagination and rhetorical power. He had espoused the cause of the
Confederacy with fervid enthusiasm, and used his talents zealously
in its behalf. His published poetical effusions were often inspired
by devotion to the “Sunny South” and its flag. Sometimes they were
filled with his thoughts of the wrongs it had suffered, and have
been no little admired and praised by many of its friends. It showed
the mastery of political over religious as well as other sympathies
in the war, that among those who attended upon his discourses were
men who in times of peace would not, because of their religious
prejudices, enter the door of a Roman Catholic Church.
Many citizens, because of their political sympathy or distrust of
the outcome, abstained from keeping actively along with the current
of affairs through 1862 into 1863, under the reign at the locality
of the Confederate Government. They merely subsided into quiet and
retirement. Deploring the country’s condition and observing the
progress of events with more or less interest, they yet gave their
thoughts and time to ordinary duties, content to await whatever
the future might develop. To people of truly Christian character,
the habitual surroundings of pageantry, clamors and clashes of war
were disagreeable: and for the promotion of a higher life in the
soul, they turned to seek “water out of the rock of flint.” Their
religious principles became firmer and stronger, and they themselves
more like their Master in the spirit of His mind. On the other hand,
the vicious and profane were emboldened to greater wickedness, and
the wicked dispositions of some could only be checked by military
discipline. It is not to be disputed also, that some professed
Christians were demoralized by the war and fell away from their
uprightness. History repeats itself. The results just named are like
those which have followed all great calamities to human society in
the form of civil wars, pestilences and famines.
Evidently a revolution had not only been attempted politically, but
was actually progressing in other respects. Its fruits thus far were
so ill and sour as to confirm the opinion of some that it had better
have been unborn or stifled in its birth; better that the evils
which it was proposed to remedy had been patiently borne with, and
so far as they really existed, peacefully removed. In the time to
come, its life might be short or long, and its consequences prove it
for better or worse, but one thing was certain: a most disagreeable
change of present conditions had occurred. Old things had been
displaced and new ones substituted. Citizens who preferred that the
former order were restored, found their hopefulness to that end beset
with discouragements. These very differently affected the minds of
Union men. All along the way since the spring of 1861, they had been
like an unorganized army retreating before a closely pursuing foe.
Sooner or later, some had weakened and fallen; some had turned aside
and lain down to sleep; some still trudged on, but lagged behind
their companions. And all these had previously made up their minds to
be captured. At length the number of staunch friends of the United
States left by refugees through the mountains was largely diminished.
Among the country people there had been absolutely little submission
of mind to the power over them as a _de jure_ government, and
the spirit of patriotic adventure was strong. In more than a few
instances it incited them to toilsome and hazardous ridings over the
mountains into Kentucky, and back again with news concerning the war
which could not otherwise be had, except as it might be stintedly
published from Richmond after being distilled in Confederate
alembics. The presumption is, that as opportunity served, not
only was general news carried by these messengers, but also
valuable information relative to military situations and movements.
Among Union women there were heroines in action, equal to their
grandmothers in the first settlement of the land when the Indians
were a terror.[28]
In April, 1862, tidings brought to East Tennessee of the battle of
Corinth, like those elsewhere circulated at first in the South,
were exaggerated. “The slaughter of the Yankees,” as reported, “was
enormous,” and the number of Confederates killed and wounded was
very small. Great rejoicings followed over the victory said to have
been won by Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, but these soon abated, for
what reason Union citizens could not tell. They had their suspicions
that the actual results differed materially from the extravagant
statements that had been boastingly made, but their incredulity did
not rest upon knowledge of any facts. Former experience had taught
them not to give credence to such statements, but to discount them
largely on the score of military policy in time of war, and even more
on account of the intense party bias which prevailed in Confederate
circles. After the evacuation of Corinth by Gen. Beauregard, the
demonstrations of the Federal forces towards East Tennessee, which
had begun before, became more threatening. They compelled the
Confederate troops at Bridgeport to retire, made indecisive attacks
upon them at Chattanooga and Cumberland Gap, and harassed them in
East Tennessee into frequent and forced marches. Finally General
Kirby Smith evacuated Cumberland Gap under military necessity, and
the Federal army under Gen. G. W. Morgan occupied his fortifications.
In July, 1862, Gen. John H. Morgan, of Kentucky, who had considerable
fame as a partisan Confederate officer, having been defeated at
Lebanon, Tenn., reorganized his command and made Knoxville his
starting point for a new expedition. He passed into Kentucky,
capturing and destroying, engaged the Federals in battle at
Cynthiana, and at length withdrew from that State before a superior
force. One year later he again entered Kentucky from Sparta, Tenn.,
just west of the Cumberland Mountains, and went upon his well
known raid into Ohio and Indiana. Afterwards he again appeared in
East Tennessee, and one night, when asleep in a private dwelling,
exceptionally well provided, at Greeneville, he was surprised by a
party of United States soldiers. They had been informed as to where
he lodged, and in his attempt, partially dressed, to escape through
the garden of his hostess, a soldier fired upon and killed him.
The ordinary routine of things at Knoxville was enlivened in
the summer of 1862, by the arrival of some forty United States
soldiers who had been taken prisoners by Col. Forest, in the
military adventure and surprise he accomplished at Murfreesboro.
They bore their adversity with fortitude and unlessened devotion
to their country. Horses and wagons captured at the same time,
accompanied them and with the prisoners presented a spectacle of
military trophies that drew a crowd of triumphant beholders. Some of
these spectators made then their safe and nearest approach to the
destructive war, which they had rejoiced that others should carry
on with danger and hurt. The captured men were sent to Georgia. An
exhibition by authority--less creditable than the show of prisoners
and horses--was that of the private correspondence seized at
Murfreesboro, which was distributed the next day among soldiers and
citizens and read on the streets.
About the middle of August, 1862, Gen. Kirby Smith, having collected
forces sufficient for the purpose, made a forward movement into
Kentucky, crossing the mountains at a gap considerably west of that
named Cumberland. Soon after he departed, Col. W. M. Churchwell,
Provost Marshal, died of disease that was probably contracted through
exposure the previous winter at Cumberland Gap.