DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF EAST TENNESSEE--WATAUGA SCENERY--LANDON
C. HAYNES AT A DINNER PARTY--NATHANIEL G. TAYLOR--HIS WRONGS--HIS
FEARS FOR THE PEOPLE--HIS MISSION TO THE NORTH AND WORK AT
PHILADELPHIA--EDWARD EVERETT’S SPEECH AT FANEUIL HALL.
“Alas, poor country;
Almost afraid to know thyself! It cannot
Be call’d our mother, but our grave; where nothing
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile.”
MACBETH.
An intelligent observer of the condition of East Tennessee in the
spring of 1863, did not need any supernatural gift of prescience to
enable him to see that a dangerous scarcity of food would befall
its people at no very distant day. This evil especially impended
over counties where love for the Union was relatively strongest,
and from which means of sustenance for Confederate troops had been
more largely drawn. Twelve months had elapsed since Gen. E. Kirby
Smith, in chief command at Knoxville, had the sagacity to foresee the
ills that threatened the whole region because of the withdrawal of
nearly all its able-bodied men from agricultural pursuits, and had
thought it advisable to proclaim his promise that he would suspend
the operation of the conscript law until men should cultivate their
fields another season and raise crops of farm products.
Besides the more than thirty thousand men who were absentees
northward--nearly all of whom had enlisted in the Federal army--and
the unknown number who had been sent to the Southern prisons, some
thousands were in the Confederate army. So that probably more than
one-eighth of the entire population were withdrawn from all peaceful
labor and chiefly from tilling the soil. As long before as 1861 and
’62, the earth had very scantily yielded its fruits, because little
work had been done in cultivating it. Even that little had been
performed in the midst of excitements, agitations and disturbances,
and was therefore defective in quality. Many Confederate soldiers had
been quartered here and there throughout East Tennessee, or were in
active movement over it from point to point. They had to be fed, and
being imperfectly disciplined, they wasted much even of that they
bought of their friends, and still more of that they took from Union
people. The provisions and provender they ruthlessly seized, might
be transported by them elsewhere or be wantonly destroyed on the
spot. In the proclamation by Kirby Smith, April, 1862, was a clause
following the invitation to Union refugees, which testifies of his
good intentions to correct disorders committed by his own troops.
In doing this, it bears witness also to their wrong doings and the
need there was of protection from them being assured to all citizens.
He said: “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.”
The depleting causes continued during the year 1863. One who had
good opportunity to be informed on the subject says, that in the
summer of that year; “East Tennessee was full of parties marching and
countermarching, skirmishing and battling, ravaging and devastating
the whole country, which was far distant from reliable bases of
supply. The young laboring men were in the armies; and what was
left of the people’s substance being wasted, the prevailing want
pressed upon the brink of starvation and was brought to the homes
of thousands who had never known hunger before. The present and
prospective victims of the extreme destitution were women and
children, old men and invalids.” When autumn came, to be followed
by winter, the outlook was ominous and distressing. Was there any
way possible of mitigating the growing calamity? If so, how and from
whence could help be had?
It will be remembered that the first permanent settlement in East
Tennessee was on the banks of the Watauga River near the present
Elizabethton; and that there, in 1780, the “Back-water men,” as the
British Colonel, Ferguson, called them, gathered under Shelby,
Sevier and Campbell for their patriotic military expedition to King’s
Mountain. The natural surroundings of the spot are now attractive in
summer. From the site of the Old Fort, which was built in early days
for defence against the Indians on an elevation 300 yards south of
the river, the eye may rest on the blue front of Holston Mountain,
seven or eight miles distant. To the east is Lynn Mountain, three
miles away; to the south is the blue outline of the Unaka and Roan
mountains; in the southwest is the bold and craggy front of the
Buffalo Mountain, that may easily be fancied to resemble an ancient
castle of massive strength, and standing in solitude, its brow
uplifted into the skies, impresses the mind of the spectator with
a feeling of awe for its grandeur and majesty. And among all these
mountains are pleasant vallies, through which flow the Doe River,
Buffalo Creek, the Watauga River, Indian Creek, and twenty miles
away, the Nolachucky River. The various features of the landscape
combine to form a sublime and beautiful panorama.
At a dinner party given at Memphis after the recent war ended, to
members of the Mississippi Bar, Gen. N. B. Forest, of Confederate
memory, intended, it is said, to administer in pleasantry a
sharp stimulus to the rhetorical powers of his friend. Col.
Landon C. Haynes, who was present and had the reputation of being
one of Tennessee’s most brilliant orators. It was the habit of
certain persons in 1861 and for some years afterwards, to speak
contemptuously of East Tennessee because of its devotion to the
Union. The habit seems not yet to have expired, seeing that not
long ago a leading journal at the metropolis of the State could
utter the historical solecism that the people of East Tennessee were
descendants of men who were friends of Great Britain in the War of
the American Revolution! Gen. Forest, merely to incite Col. Haynes
to make an eloquent response, adopted a reproachful phrase, current
among Secessionists, in giving this toast:
“Col. L. C. Haynes: our honored guest from East Tennessee--that
God-forsaken country.”
Col. Haynes was instantly on his feet, and in the spirit that
dictated the lines:
“Breathes there a man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!”
spoke in his best style of voice and manner, as follows:
“Sir, I proudly plead guilty to the ‘soft impeachment.’ I was born
in East Tennessee--on the banks of the Watauga--which in the Indian
vernacular means ‘beautiful river:’ and beautiful river it is. I have
stood upon its banks in my childhood, and looking into its glassy
waters, beheld there mirrored, a heaven with moon and planets and
trembling stars, and looking upward, have beheld the heaven, which
the heaven below reflected. Away from its rocky borders, stretches a
vast line of cedar, pine and hemlock evergreens, back to the distant
mountains--more beautiful than the groves of Switzerland--reposing
on a back-ground as perfect in grandeur as the cloud-lands of the
Sierra Nevada of the far West.
“There stands the towering Roan, the Black, and the magnificent Smoky
mountains, upon whose summits the clouds gather of their own accord,
even on the brightest day. There I have seen the great spirit of
the storm lie down in his pavilion of clouds and darkness to quiet
slumbers. Then I have seen him awake at midnight and come forth like
a giant refreshed with repose, arouse the tempest, and let loose the
red lightnings that flash for hundreds of miles along the mountain
tops swifter than the eagle’s flight in heaven. Then I have seen
those lightnings stand and dance like angels of light to the music
of Nature’s grand organ, whose keys were touched by the fingers of
Jehovah, and responded in notes of thunder resounding through the
universe. Then I’ve seen the darkness drift away, and morning get
up from her saffron bed, and come forth like a queen robed in her
garments of light, and stand tip-toe on the misty mountain heights.
And while black night fled away to his bed-chamber at the pole, the
glorious sun burst forth upon the vale and river where I was born. O,
glorious land of the mountains and sun-painted cliffs! How can I ever
forget thee?”
On the same river whose surroundings were thus described, was also
born and still dwelt, Nathaniel G. Taylor--a near kinsman of the
post-prandial orator. He it was who in debate at Knoxville during
the Presidential canvass of 1860, spoke with almost prophetic tongue
of the civil war and its train of dreadful ills, which he alleged,
the malcontent politicians of a great party were preparing to bring
upon the country if Mr. Lincoln were elected. So vivid was the
picture which he then drew of those evils, that, as before related,
some of his hearers wept. But the tears they shed, compared with the
many that fell from the eyes of women and children during the war,
were as the few scattering drops that clouds in summer send down
to tell of the torrents of rain, with which the land is soon to be
drenched. The eloquent speaker on that occasion, had been, in 1863,
grieved for more than two years by seeing and hearing of the unjust
violences to which the Union people of East Tennessee were subjected.
It is impossible now to determine with strict accuracy the details
of wrongs they suffered from their enemies. To use his words, those
wrongs included:
“The confiscation of property, merciless conscription, arrest,
imprisonment, the execution of the death sentence by drum-head
court-martial, running the gauntlet of rebel bullets and bayonets for
great distances by 30,000 men to reach the United States flag and
join its army; the martyrdom of from 2,000 to 3,000 non-combatant,
unarmed Union people in thirty-one counties, by shooting, hanging or
slaughtering in cold blood;[57] the despoilment of personal property,
and consequent upon all these, a widespread destitution of the very
necessaries of life.”
Mr. Taylor was known to be a Union man, and therefore could not be
permitted to dwell peacefully at home with his wife and children. He
was arrested and tried by a drum-head court-martial as an accomplice
in the bridge-burnings of 1862, but was acquitted. Afterwards, being
threatened with arrest and imprisonment upon the charge of High
Treason against the Confederacy--to end, perhaps, in his death--he
sought refuge in secluded and very inaccessible gorges of the
mountains. His concealment there was attended with privations, but it
disconcerted enemies in their pursuit. Upon learning of Burnside’s
advent into East Tennessee, he became perplexed in mind as to his
personal duty. He could not remain in his hiding place without
danger of being discovered and hunted from it, if not seized. The
Confederate troops were between him and Burnside at Knoxville, and
he could reach there only with difficulty and risk. If he attempted
to do so and succeeded, in what way under the protection of friendly
power, could he best serve his country? He almost determined to seek
for a suitable position in the United States army, but postponing a
conclusion, he submitted the subject to God in prayer. Upon doing
this, he was persuaded that his petition for guidance and direction
was answered by the strong impression of a new idea upon his mind.
For some time he had been deeply moved at heart, in his daily and
nightly reflections, by a vision which the unhappy condition of East
Tennessee suggested; a vision of famine and death swiftly coming
upon its people. Prayer in faith had been the means of opening his
eyes as to what he should do in relation to those impending evils.
He thought that the Spirit of the Lord spoke to his own spirit:
“Your duty is to go and tell the people of the North, of this
great, threatening destitution, that they may interpose with their
beneficence between it and the suffering people of East Tennessee.”
He accepted the conclusion as from Him who inspires those who trust
in Him to all good and praiseworthy undertakings. Escaping at once
through the Confederate lines to Knoxville, he proceeded from thence
to Cincinnati upon his humane and patriotic mission. There he met
with sympathizing friends of his enterprise, to promote which several
hundred dollars were contributed by citizens, after a public meeting
had been held and an address heard from him. The amount would have
been larger, had there not been already a stream of needy refugees
from the seceded States to Cincinnati and other points on the Ohio
River, which two months later grew into “great numbers.” To provide
for that out-flow of “thousands of women, children and aged men--all
meanly clad, well-nigh starved, and many well-nigh heart-broken,” the
Refugee Relief Commission was established at Cincinnati.
Andrew Johnson, then Military Governor of Tennessee, gave Mr.
Taylor a letter of endorsement and commendation, to which President
Lincoln added a similar one, and on arriving at Philadelphia he
was received most kindly. Nearly two months before, the extreme
necessity which induced his visit, had been brought incidentally to
the attention of a few patriotic and benevolent ladies of that city.
Mrs. Joseph Canby and Mrs. Caleb W. Hallowell heard some soldiers
of Kearney’s regiment, early in December, 1863, speak of the famine
in East Tennessee, and of how they themselves had sometimes lived
on a cracker a day in order to give to the children who flocked to
the camp, begging for the remnants of their rations. Touched with
compassion, the two ladies quietly proceeded to sew and collect
articles, and being joined by friends and neighbors, including some
from Norristown and Lancaster County, a fair was held. Its cash
proceeds and several boxes of clothing were forwarded to Knoxville
and distributed to the needy.
In January, 1864, the Governor of Pennsylvania recommended to the
State Legislature the subject of Mr. Taylor’s mission, and the latter
delivered an address in the Philadelphia Academy of Music. A Relief
Association for East Tennessee was at once organized with Ex-Gov.
Jas. Pollock, President, Joseph T. Thomas, Secretary, Caleb Cope,
Treasurer, J. B. Lippincott, Chairman Committee on Collections, and
Lloyd P. Smith, Chairman Executive Committee. The people of the
city cheerfully responded to the call upon them for material aid
and contributed over twenty-six thousand dollars. From that date,
the Pennsylvania Association was of great benefit to the whole
undertaking, (especially through the Chairman of its Executive
Committee) in various ways--by wise counsels and active co-operation,
as well as by warm sympathy, encouragement and gifts.
From Philadelphia, Mr. Taylor upon advice went to Boston. On the
10th of February, a crowded assembly in Faneuil Hall, including many
ladles, gave him an enthusiastic greeting. Upon nomination by Hon.
J. Wiley Edmunds, Officers of the meeting were elected: Hon. Edward
Everett, President; Gov. Andrew, Mayor Lincoln, Hons. J. E. Field, A.
H. Bullock (Speaker), Robert C. Winthrop and Chas. B. Loring; also
Wm. Clafflin, Patrick Donahoe, Wm. B. Rogers, Chas. B. Goodrich, Jas.
Lawrence, Rich’d Frothingham, Julius Rockwell, Chas. L. Woodbury and
John M. Forbes, Esqs., Vice Presidents; and Col. F. L. Lee and Sam’l
Frothingham, Jr., Secretaries.
Hon. Edward Everett stepped forward upon the platform and spoke. He
requested the respectful attention of the assembly to Mr. Taylor
on his own account, and also that they should “hear him for his
cause”--the cause, not simply of the Union, but of faithful Union
men who from the beginning of hostilities “had stood at the post of
danger; on whom the storm of war first broke, and on whom from that
day to this, it has beat with its wildest fury.” “At this distance
from the scene of war,” he said, “we hear only the far-off roar
of the tempest; but all its waves and billows have gone over the
devoted region for which our honored guest comes to plead.”
Mr. Everett then gave the true and beautiful description of East
Tennessee, which has been repeated in the Introduction to these
chapters. He said of that region:
“Overrun it may be by the armed forces of the rebellion, but all
its sympathies and attachments are with the loyal States. While the
aristocracy of the southeastern counties of Maryland, were shouting
‘My Maryland,’ the farmers in the western counties in Cumberland
Valley shouted back, ‘No, it’s our Maryland.’ Western Virginia, a
portion of the same grand chain of mountain and valley, is as loyal
as Massachusetts. Then comes Western North Carolina, and still
more, Eastern Tennessee, the home of our honored guest, and of as
true-hearted, loyal, Union-loving a population as there is on the
continent. As far down as Northern Alabama, the mountain district is
filled with Union sentiment. It was with the greatest difficulty it
was engineered into secession.”
In continuation the eloquent orator spoke of the large majority at
the polls in East Tennessee, February, 1861, against a convention
for the purpose of seceding and of the subsequent “outrages and
cruelties, of which the Union-loving inhabitants were made the
victims.” He told how, that “thrown upon their own resources, they
naturally sought to save themselves from being overrun by destroying
the bridges on the chief lines of communication,” and that in
consequence, the great majority of the people of the region were
subjected by the Richmond Government to great severities. In that
connection he read and sharply censured the letter of Mr. Benjamin,
Secretary (C. S.) of War, heretofore repeated.
In concluding, he said to his fellow-citizens that their brethren
of East Tennessee, fighting battles and suffering persecution,
represented a common cause, and he feared the promptest relief
extended would be too late to save some from starvation. “This,” he
added, “must not be. If the Union means anything, it means not merely
political connection and commercial intercourse, but to bear each
other’s burdens and to share each other’s sacrifices; it means active
sympathy and efficient aid.”
[Illustration: REV. N. G. TAYLOR.]
Mr. Taylor followed with a fervent and impressive address, in which
he briefly related the historical events in East Tennessee from the
beginning of 1861, told of the wrongs inflicted upon its people, of
the voluntary exile of its men and their enlistment in the United
States army, of the desolation their homes and fields had suffered
from the war, of the deep, wide and threatening destitution existing
among them, and he appealed on their behalf to the prosperous people
among whom he stood, to send them help. He spoke plainly, with strong
and earnest convictions of the truth, and with the burning passion
which a sense of the injustices he narrated had enkindled in his
soul. Inspired with a profound and lofty patriotism, by the presence
of distinguished persons and a thronged audience on a spot of lively
associations with liberty and the Republic, and by the importance
of his theme, his speech was with unwonted power. His hearers were
carried away by his eloquence as on a mighty wave of enthusiasm, and
all criticism of his style, wherein it was not in harmony with the
demands of a higher culture, was forgotten in their glowing sympathy
with his subject and the ardent love of country to which his words
quickened them.
When he had finished, resolutions expressive of hearty fellowship
with the Unionists of East Tennessee in their fidelity and
sufferings, and of a ready mind to minister to their needs, were
presented by Geo. B. Upton and unanimously adopted. Hon. Rob’t C.
Winthrop said a few words, and Judge Thomas Russell spoke ardently,
more at length. He referred to the statements of Mr. Taylor
concerning destitution among the people whose cause he pleaded, and
said:
“Let me add that this testimony is confirmed by one of the Generals
who marched to relieve Burnside. General Blair has just told me a
touching story of the devotion of the women who crowded to the line
of his forced march, to welcome the sight of our armies; to wave the
flags which in evil days they had hidden in the secret recesses of
their homes, even as they kept the love of the Union in their hearts;
to bring the last piece of bacon, the last handful of meal, to feed
the advancing soldiers of the Union cause. Often he forbade his men
to take the scanty gifts of the poor. As often, he heard the reply,
‘Take it; I have a husband, a son, at Knoxville; take it all for the
Union.’ These are the people for whom our aid is sought.”
A letter was also read from Gen. Frank Blair, reciting the same
facts, and expressing his hope that liberality would “be stimulated
by remembrance of the kindness and devotion of the loyal women of
Tennessee who succored our toil-worn soldiers on their march to the
relief of their beleaguered brothers, many of whom were sons of
Massachusetts.”