cut off from great cities. One or two streets have a good deal of
pretension about them; and the inevitable "Capitol," with its dome,
forms the principal feature. A sentry stands at the door of each railway
car, who examines the papers of every passenger with great strictness,
and even after that inspection the same ceremony is performed by an
officer of the provost-marshal's department, who accompanies every
train.[36] The officers and soldiers on this duty are very civil and
courteous, and after getting over their astonishment at finding that I
am a British officer, they do all they can to make me comfortable. They
ask all sorts of curious questions about the British army, and often
express a strong wish to see _one of our regiments fight_. They can
hardly believe that the Coldstream is really dressed in scarlet. To-day
they entered gravely into a discussion amongst themselves, as to whether
British troops would have taken the position at Fredericksburg. The
arguments on both sides were very amusing, and opinion was pretty evenly
divided. We met three trains crammed full of soldiers for Johnston's
army. They belonged to Breckenridge's division of Bragg's army, and all
seemed in the highest spirits, cheering and yelling like demons. In the
cars to-day I fell in with the Federal doctor who was refused leave to
pass through General Johnston's lines; he was now _en route_ for
Richmond. He was in full Yankee uniform, but was treated with civility
by all the Confederate soldiers. I had a long talk with him; he seemed a
sensible man, and did not attempt to deny the universal enthusiasm and
determination of the Southerners. He told me that General Grant had been
very nearly killed at the taking of Jackson. He thought the war would
probably terminate by a blow-up in the North.[37]
I had to change cars at West Point and at Atlanta. At the latter place I
was crammed into a desperately crowded train for Chattanooga. This
country, Georgia, is much more inhabited and cultivated than Alabama. I
travelled again all night.
[36] This rigid inspection is necessary to arrest spies, and prevent
straggling and absence without leave.
[37] Notwithstanding the exasperation with which every Southerner speaks
of a Yankee, and all the talk about black flag and no quarter, yet I
never saw a Federal prisoner ill treated or insulted in any way,
although I have travelled hundreds of miles in their company.
* * * * *
_28th May_ (Thursday).--I arrived at Chattanooga (Tennessee) at 4.30
A.M., and fell in with Captain Brown again; his negro recognised me, and
immediately rushed up to shake hands.
After breakfasting at Chattanooga, I started again at 7.30, by train,
for Shelbyville, General Bragg's headquarters. This train was crammed to
repletion with soldiers rejoining their regiments, so I was constrained
to sit in the aisle on the floor of one of the cars. I thought myself
lucky even then, for so great was the number of military, that all
"_citizens_" were ordered out to make way for the soldiers; but my grey
shooting-jacket and youthful appearance saved me from the imputation of
being a "citizen." Two hours later, the passport officer, seeing who I
was, procured me a similar situation in the ladies' car, where I was a
little better off. After leaving Chattanooga the railroad winds
alongside of the Tennessee river, the banks of which are high, and
beautifully covered with trees--the river itself is wide, and very
pretty; but from my position in the tobacco-juice I was unable to do
justice to the scenery. I saw stockades at intervals all along the
railroad, which were constructed by the Federals, who occupied all this
country last year.
On arriving at Wartrace at 4 P.M., I determined to remain there, and ask
for hospitality from General Hardee, as I saw no prospect of reaching
Shelbyville in decent time. Leaving my baggage with the provost-marshal
at Wartrace, I walked on to General Hardee's headquarters, which were
distant about two miles from the railroad. They were situated in a
beautiful country, green, undulating, full of magnificent trees,
principally beeches, and the scenery was by far the finest I had seen in
America as yet.
When I arrived I found that General Hardee was in company with General
Polk and Bishop Elliott of Georgia, and also with Mr Vallandigham. The
latter (called the Apostle of Liberty) is a good-looking man, apparently
not much over forty, and had been turned out of the North three days
before. Rosecrans had wished to hand him over to Bragg by flag of truce;
but as the latter declined to receive him in that manner, he was, as
General Hardee expressed it, "_dumped down_" in the neutral ground
between the lines, and left there. He then received hospitality from the
Confederates in the capacity of a destitute stranger. They do not in any
way receive him officially, and it does not suit the policy of either
party to be identified with one another. He is now living at a private
house in Shelbyville, and had come over for the day, with General Polk,
on a visit to Hardee. He told the generals, that if Grant was severely
beaten in Mississippi by Johnston, he did not think the war could be
continued on its present great scale.
When I presented my letters of introduction, General Hardee received me
with the unvarying kindness and hospitality which I had experienced from
all other Confederate officers. He is a fine soldierlike man,
broad-shouldered and tall. He looks rather like a French officer, and is
a Georgian by birth. He bears the reputation of being a thoroughly good
soldier, and he is the author of the drill-book still in use by both
armies. Until quite lately he was commanding officer of the military
college at West Point. He distinguished himself at the battles of
Corinth and Murfreesborough, and now commands the 2d _corps d'armée_ of
Bragg's army. He is a widower, and has the character of being a great
admirer of the fair sex. During the Kentucky campaign last year he was
in the habit of availing himself of the privilege of his rank and years,
and insisted upon kissing the wives and daughters of all the Kentuckian
farmers. And although he is supposed to have converted many of the
ladies to the Southern cause, yet in many instances their male relatives
remained either neutral or undecided. On one occasion General Hardee had
conferred the "accolade" upon a very pretty Kentuckian, to their mutual
satisfaction, when, to his intense disgust, the proprietor produced two
very ugly old females, saying, "Now, then, general, if you kiss any you
must kiss them all round," which the discomfited general was forced to
do, to the great amusement of his officers, who often allude to this
_contretemps_.
Another rebuff which he received, and about which he is often chaffed
by General Polk, was when an old lady told him he ought really to
"leave off fighting _at his age_." "Indeed, madam," replied Hardee,
"and how old do you take me for?" "Why, about the same age as
myself--seventy-five." The chagrin of the stalwart and gallant general,
at having twenty years added to his age, may be imagined.
Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk, Bishop of Louisiana, who commands the
other _corps d'armée_, is a good-looking, gentlemanlike man, with all
the manners and affability of a "grand seigneur." He is fifty-seven
years of age--tall, upright, and looks much more the soldier than the
clergyman. He is very rich; and I am told he owns seven hundred negroes.
He is much beloved by the soldiers on account of his great personal
courage and agreeable manners. I had already heard no end of anecdotes
of him told me by my travelling companions, who always alluded to him
with affection and admiration. In his clerical capacity I had always
heard him spoken of with the greatest respect. When I was introduced to
him he immediately invited me to come and stay at his headquarters at
Shelbyville. He told me that he was educated at West Point, and was at
that institution with the President, the two Johnstons, Lee, Magruder,
&c., and that, after serving a short time in the artillery, he had
entered the church.
Bishop Elliott, of Georgia, is a nice old man of venerable appearance
and very courteous manners. He is here at the request of General Polk,
for the purpose of confirming some officers and soldiers. He speaks
English exactly like an English gentleman, and so, in fact, does General
Polk, and all the well-bred Southerners, much more so than the ladies,
whose American accent can always be detected. General Polk and Mr
Vallandigham returned to Shelbyville in an ambulance at 6.30 P.M.
General Hardee's headquarters were on the estate of Mrs ----, a very
hospitable lady. The two daughters of the General were staying with her,
and also a Mrs ----, who is a very pretty woman. These ladies are more
violent against the Yankees than it is possible for a European to
conceive; they beat their male relations hollow in their denunciations
and hopes of vengeance. It was quite depressing to hear their
innumerable stories of Yankee brutality, and I was much relieved when,
at a later period of the evening, they subsided into music. After Bishop
Elliott had read prayers, I slept in the same room with General Hardee.
* * * * *
_29th May_ (Friday).--I took a walk before breakfast with Dr
Quintard, a zealous Episcopal chaplain, who began life as a surgeon,
which enables him to attend to the bodily as well as the spiritual wants
of the Tennessean regiment to which he is chaplain. The enemy is about
fifteen miles distant, and all the tops of the intervening hills are
occupied as signal stations, which communicate his movements by flags in
the daytime, and by beacons at night. A signal corps has been organised
for this service. The system is most ingenious, and answers admirably.
We all breakfasted at Mrs ----'s. The ladies were more excited even than
yesterday in their diatribes against the Yankees. They insisted on
cutting the accompanying paragraph out of to-day's newspaper, which they
declared was a very fair exposition of the average treatment they
received from the enemy.[38] They reproved Mrs ---- for having given
assistance to the wounded Yankees at Wartrace last year; and a sister of
Mrs ----'s, who is a very strong-minded lady, gave me a most amusing
description of an interview she had had at Huntsville with the
astronomer Mitchell, in his capacity of a Yankee general. It has often
been remarked to me that, when this war is over, the independence of the
country will be due, in a great measure, to the women; for they declare
that had the women been desponding they could never have gone through
with it; but, on the contrary, the women have invariably set an example
to the men of patience, devotion, and determination. Naturally proud,
and with an innate contempt for the Yankees, the Southern women have
been rendered furious and desperate by the proceedings of Butler,
Milroy, Turchin, &c. They are all prepared to undergo any hardships and
misfortunes rather than submit to the rule of such people; and they use
every argument which women can employ to infuse the same spirit into
their male relations.
At noon I took leave for the present of General Hardee, and drove over
in his ambulance to Shelbyville, eight miles, in company with Bishop
Elliott and Dr Quintard. The road was abominable, and it was pouring
with rain. On arriving at General Polk's, he invited me to take up my
quarters with him during my stay with Bragg's army, which offer I
accepted with gratitude. After dinner General Polk told me that he hoped
his brethren in England did not very much condemn his present line of
conduct. He explained to me the reasons which had induced him
temporarily to forsake the cassock and return to his old profession. He
stated the extreme reluctance he had felt in taking this step; and he
said that so soon as the war was over, he should return to his episcopal
avocations, in the same way as a man, finding his house on fire, would
use every means in his power to extinguish the flames, and would then
resume his ordinary pursuits. He commanded the Confederate forces at the
battle of Perryville and Belmont, as well as his present _corps d'armée_
at the battles of Shiloh (Corinth) and Murfreesborough.
At 6.30 P.M., I called on General Bragg, the Commander-in-chief. This
officer is in appearance the least prepossessing of the Confederate
generals. He is very thin; he stoops, and has a sickly, cadaverous,
haggard appearance, rather plain features, bushy black eyebrows which
unite in a tuft on the top of his nose, and a stubby iron-grey beard;
but his eyes are bright and piercing. He has the reputation of being a
rigid disciplinarian, and of shooting freely for insubordination. I
understand he is rather unpopular on this account, and also by reason of
his occasional acerbity of manner. He was extremely civil to me, and
gave me permission to visit the outposts, or any part of his army. He
also promised to help me towards joining Morgan in Kentucky, and he
expressed his regret that a boil on his hand would prevent him from
accompanying me to the outposts. He told me that Rosecrans's position
extended about forty miles, Murfreesborough (twenty-five miles distant)
being his headquarters. The Confederate cavalry enclosed him in a
semicircle extending over a hundred miles of country. He told me that
West Tennessee, occupied by the Federals, was devoted to the Confederate
cause, whilst East Tennessee, now in possession of the Confederates,
contained numbers of people of Unionist proclivities. This very place,
Shelbyville, had been described to me by others as a "Union hole."
After my interview with General Bragg, I took a ride along the
Murfreesborough road with Colonel Richmond, A.D.C. to General Polk.
About two miles from Shelbyville, we passed some lines made to defend
the position. The trench itself was a very mild affair, but the higher
ground could be occupied by artillery in such a manner as to make the
road impassable. The thick woods were being cut down in front of the
lines for a distance of eight hundred yards, to give range. During our
ride I met Major-General Cheetham, a stout, rather rough-looking man,
but with the reputation of "a great fighter." It is said that he does
all the necessary swearing in the 1st _corps d'armée_, which General
Polk's clerical character incapacitates him from performing. Colonel
Richmond gave me the particulars of General Van Dorn's death, which
occurred about forty miles from this. His loss does not seem to be much
regretted, as it appears he was always ready to neglect his military
duties for an assignation. In the South it is not considered necessary
to put yourself on an equality with a man in such a case as Van Dorn's
by calling him out. His life belongs to the aggrieved husband, and
"shooting down" is universally esteemed the correct thing, even if it
takes place after a lapse of time, as in the affair between General Van
Dorn and Dr Peters.
[Illustration: LIEUT.-GENERAL LEONIDAS POLK.]
News arrived this evening of the capture of Helena by the Confederates,
and of the hanging of a negro regiment with forty Yankee officers. Every
one expressed sorrow for the blacks, but applauded the destruction of
their officers.[39]
I slept in General Polk's tent, he occupying a room in the house
adjoining. Before going to bed, General Polk told me an affecting story
of a poor widow in humble circumstances, whose three sons had fallen in
battle one after the other, until she had only one left, a boy of
sixteen. So distressing was her case that General Polk went himself to
comfort her. She looked steadily at him, and replied to his condolences
by the sentence, "As soon as I can get a few things together, General,
you shall have Harry too." The tears came into General Polk's eyes as he
related this episode, which he ended by saying, "_How can you subdue
such a nation as this!_"
[38] "LOSSES OF WILLIAM F. RICKS.--The Yankees did not treat us very
badly as they returned from pursuing our men beyond Leighton (at least
no more than we expected); they broke down our smokehouse door and took
seven hams, went into the kitchen and helped themselves to cooking
utensils, tin ware, &c.; searched the house, but took nothing. As they
passed up the second time we were very much annoyed by them, but not
seriously injured; they took the only two mules we had, a cart, our
milch cows, and more meat. It was on their return from this trip that
our losses were so grievous. They drove their waggons up in our yard and
loaded them with the last of our meat, all of our sugar, coffee,
molasses, flour, meal, and potatoes. I went to a Lieut.-Colonel who
seemed very busy giving orders, and asked him what he expected me to do;
they had left me no provisions at all, and I had a large family, and my
husband was away from home. His reply was short and pointed--'Starve,
and be d----d, madam.' They then proceeded to the carriage-house, took a
fine new buggy that we had never used, the cushions and harness of our
carriage, then cut the carriage up and left it. They then sent about
sixty of the slyest, smoothest-fingered rogues I have ever seen in the
Federal army (all the rogues I ever did see were in that army), into the
house to search for whisky and money, while the officers remained in the
back-yard trying to hire the servants to tell them where we had money
hid. Their search proving fruitless, they loaded themselves with our
clothing, bed-clothing, &c.; broke my dishes; stole my knives and forks;
refused the keys and broke open my trunks, closets, and other doors.
Then came the worst of all--the burners, or, as they call themselves,
the 'Destroying Angels.' They burned our gin-house and press, with 125
bales of cotton, seven cribs containing 600 bolls of corn, our logs,
stables, and six stacks of fodder, a waggon, and four negro cabins, our
lumber-room, fine spinning-machine and 500 dollars' worth of thread,
axes, hoes, scythe-blades, and all other plantation implements. Then
they came with their torches to burn our house, the last remaining
building they had left besides the negro quarter. That was too much; all
my pride, and the resolutions that I had made (and until now kept up) to
treat them with cool contempt, and never, let the worst come, humble
myself to the thievish cutthroats, forsook me at the awful thought of my
home in ruins; I must do something, and that quickly;--hardened,
thieving villains, as I knew them to be, I would make one effort for the
sake of my home. I looked over the crowd, as they huddled together to
give orders about the burning, for one face that showed a trace of
feeling, or an eye that beamed with a spark of humanity, but, finding
none, I approached the nearest group, and pointing to the children (my
sister's), I said, 'You will not burn the house, will you? you drove
those little ones from one home and took possession of it, and this is
the only sheltering place they have.' 'You may thank your God, madam,'
said one of the ruffians, 'that we have left you and your d----d brats
with heads to be sheltered.' Just then an officer galloped up--pretended
to be very much astonished and terribly beset about the conduct of his
men--cursed a good deal, and told a batch of falsehoods about not having
given orders to burn anything but corn--made divers threats that were
forgotten in utterance, and ordered his 'Angels' to fall into
line,--thereby winding up the troubles of the darkest day I have ever
seen. MRS RICKS.
"Losses before this last raid: six mules, five horses, one waggon
(four-horse), fifty-two negroes."
[39] This afterwards turned out to be untrue.
* * * * *
_30th May_ (Saturday).--It rained hard all last night, but General
Polk's tent proved itself a good one. We have prayers both morning and
evening, by Dr Quintard, together with singing, in which General Polk
joins with much zeal. Colonel Gale, who is son-in-law and volunteer
aide-de-camp to General Polk, has placed his negro Aaron and a mare at
my disposal during my stay.
General Polk explained to me, from a plan, the battle of
Murfreesborough. He claimed that the Confederates had only 30,000
troops, including Breckenridge's division, which was not engaged on the
first day. He put the Confederate loss at 10,000 men, and that of the
Yankees at 19,000. With regard to the battle of Shiloh,[40] he said that
Beauregard's order to retire was most unfortunate, as the gunboats were
doing no real harm, and if they (the Confederates) had held on, nothing
could have saved the Federals from capture or destruction. The
misfortune of Albert Johnston's death, together with the fact of
Beauregard's illness and his not being present at that particular spot,
were the causes of this battle not being a more complete victory.
Ever since I landed in America, I had heard of the exploits of an
Englishman called Colonel St Leger Grenfell, who is now
Inspector-General of Cavalry to Bragg's army. This afternoon I made his
acquaintance, and I consider him one of the most extraordinary
characters I ever met. Although he is a member of a well-known English
family, he seems to have devoted his whole life to the exciting career
of a soldier of fortune. He told me that in early life he had served
three years in a French lancer regiment, and had risen from a private to
be a sous-lieutenant. He afterwards became a sort of consular agent at
Tangier, under old Mr Drummond Hay. Having acquired a perfect knowledge
of Arabic, he entered the service of Abd-el-Kader, and under that
renowned chief he fought the French for four years and a half. At
another time of his life he fitted out a yacht, and carried on a private
war with the Riff pirates. He was brigade-major in the Turkish
contingent during the Crimean war, and had some employment in the Indian
mutiny. He has also been engaged in war in Buenos Ayres and the South
American republics. At an early period of the present troubles he ran
the blockade and joined the Confederates. He was adjutant-general and
right-hand man to the celebrated John Morgan for eight months. Even in
this army, which abounds with foolhardy and desperate characters, he has
acquired the admiration of all ranks by his reckless daring and
gallantry in the field. Both Generals Polk and Bragg spoke to me of him
as a most excellent and useful officer, besides being a man who never
lost an opportunity of trying to throw his life away. He is just the
sort of man to succeed in this army, and among the soldiers his fame for
bravery has outweighed his unpopularity as a rigid disciplinarian. He is
the terror of all absentees, stragglers, and deserters, and of all
commanding officers who are unable to produce for his inspection the
number of horses they have been drawing forage for. He looks about
forty-five, but in reality he is fifty-six. He is rather tall, thin,
very wiry and active, with a jovial English expression of countenance;
but his eyes have a wild, roving look, which is common amongst the
Arabs. When he came to me he was dressed in an English staff blue coat,
and he had a red cavalry forage-cap, which latter, General Polk told me,
he always wore in action, so making himself more conspicuous. He talked
to me much about John Morgan, whose marriage he had tried to avert, and
of which he spoke with much sorrow. He declared that Morgan was
enervated by matrimony, and would never be the same man as he was. He
said that in one of the celebrated telegraph tappings in Kentucky,
Morgan, the operator, and himself, were seated for twelve hours on a
clay-bank during a violent storm, but the interest was so intense, that
the time passed like three hours.[41]
General Polk's son, a young artillery lieutenant, told me this evening
that "Stonewall Jackson" was a professor at the military school at
Lexington, in which he was a cadet. "Old Jack" was considered a
persevering but rather dull master, and was often made a butt of by
cheeky cadets, whose great ambition it was to irritate him, but, however
insolent they were, he never took the slightest notice of their
impertinence at the time, although he always had them punished for it
afterwards. At the outbreak of the war, he was called upon by the cadets
to make a speech, and these were his words: "Soldiers make short
speeches: _be slow to draw the sword in civil strife, but when you draw
it, throw away the scabbard._" Young Polk says that the enthusiasm
created by this speech of old Jack's was beyond description.