CHAPTER VIII.

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.”