CHAPTER IX.

SEVERE TREATMENT OF UNION MEN--OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE--IMPRISONMENTS--EXECUTIONS.

“Patience, my lord; why ’tis the soul of peace: Of all the virtues ’tis the nearest kin to heaven; It makes men look like gods: the best of men That e’er wore earth about him, was a sufferer, A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit, The first true gentleman that ever breathed.” DECKER.

The attacks from armed Unionists upon different points that were expected and feared by the Confederate authorities just after the bridge-burnings, did not occur. Previously, disaffected people in some instances and at various localities had been violently treated by over-zealous neighbors or by lawless soldiers in small squads--whipped with hickories or arrested for their Union sentiments and forced to pay money for their release. It was not considered the business of officials to redress such wrongs, even when brought to their attention; for to be a Union man was regarded in their minds as itself a crime, and injustices suffered on that account outside the operation of the law, could not rightfully be appealed into court. Besides, to interpose for their repression would tend to cool the ardor and check the activity of Southern partisans, and that would be bad policy.

Now that the Union people had grown restive under a power which they felt to be alien and hostile to their Government and Country, and a few adventurous spirits among them had assailed that power, it was concluded that the whole population was blameable, and should be dealt with more severely by the Confederate Government. General Zolicoffer wrote from his headquarters at Jacksboro, Nov. 12th, to Col. Wood, at Knoxville:

I will to-morrow send dispatches to the forces near Jamestown, the cavalry near Huntsville, that near Oliver’s, and start out the cavalry here, to commence simultaneously disarming the Union population. You will please simultaneously send orders to all detachments under your command to inaugurate the same movement at the same time in their various localities. Their leaders should be seized and held as prisoners. The leniency shown them has been unavailing. They have acted with duplicity and should no longer be trusted.[23]

On the 20th of November Col. Wood wrote from Knoxville to Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of War, Confederate States, at Richmond:

SIR: The rebellion in East Tennessee has been put down in some of the counties, and will be effectually suppressed in less than two weeks in all the counties. Their camps in Sevier and Hamilton counties have been broken up and a large number of them made prisoners. Some are confined in this place and others sent to Nashville. In a former communication I inquired of the Department what I should do. It is a mere farce to arrest them and turn them over to the Courts. Instead of having the desired effect to intimidate them, it really gives encouragement and emboldens them in their traitorous conduct. Patterson, the son-in-law of Andrew Johnson, State Senator Pickens and several other members of the Legislature, besides others of influence and distinction in their counties,--these men have encouraged the rebellion, but have so managed as not to be found in arms. Nevertheless all their actions and words have been unfriendly to the Government of the Confederate States. Their wealth and influence have been exerted in favor of the Lincoln Government and they are the parties most to blame.

They really deserve the gallows, and if consistent with the laws, ought speedily to receive their deserts. But there is such a gentle spirit of conciliation in the South, and especially here, that I have no idea that one of them will receive such a sentence at the hands of any jury. I have been here at this station for three months, half the time in command of this Post; and I (have) had a good opportunity of learning the feeling pervading this country. It is hostile to the Confederate Government. They will take the oath of allegiance with no intention to observe it. They are the slaves of Johnson and Maynard and never intend to be otherwise. When arrested, they suddenly become very submissive and declare they are for peace and not supporters of the Lincoln Government, but yet claim to be Union men. At one time, while our forces were at Knoxville, they gave it out that a great change had taken place in East Tennessee and that the people were becoming loyal.

At the withdrawal of the army from here to the (Cumberland) Gap and the first intimation of the approach of the Lincoln army, they were in arms and scarcely a man but was ready to join it and make war upon us. The prisoners we have, all tell us that they had every assurance that the enemy was already in the State and would join them in a few days. I have requested at least that the prisoners I have taken be held, if not as traitors, as prisoners of war. To convict them before a Court is next to an impossibility. But if they are kept in prison for six months it will have a good effect. The bridge-burners and spies ought to be tried at once.

To this communication was replied:

WAR DEPARTMENT, RICHMOND, November 25, 1861.

_Col. W. B. Wood_:

SIR--Your report of the 20th instant is received, and I now proceed to give you the desired instruction in relation to the prisoners of war taken by you among the traitors of East Tennessee.

First. All such as can be identified in having been engaged in bridge-burning are to be tried summarily by drum-head court-martial, and, if found guilty, executed on the spot by hanging. It would be well to leave their bodies hanging in the vicinity of the burned bridges.

Second. All such as have not been so engaged are to be treated as prisoners of war, and sent with an armed guard to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, there to be kept imprisoned at the depot selected by the Government for prisoners of war.

Whenever you can discover that arms are concentrated by these traitors, you will send out detachments, search for and seize the arms. In no case is one of the men, known to have been up in arms against the Government to be released on any pledge or oath of allegiance. The time for such measures is past. They are all to be held as prisoners of war, and held in jail to the end of the war. Such as come in voluntarily, take the oath of allegiance and surrender their arms, are alone to be treated with leniency.

Your vigilant execution of these orders is earnestly urged by the Government.

Your obedient servant, (Signed) J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of War.

COL. W. B. WOOD, Knoxville, Tenn.

P. S.--Judge Patterson Andy Johnson’s son-in-law, (Rem. Corresp.), Col. Pickens and other ring-leaders of the same class, must be sent at once to Tuscaloosa to jail as prisoners of war.

The Hon. W. H. Humphreys had been on the Bench of the United States District Court before Tennessee seceded. He had warmly espoused the cause of the Southern Confederacy and was appointed by it to a similar office under its Government. As preliminary to his new duties, he announced from the Bench his determination to punish all treason and rebellion against the authority he represented. Union men were arraigned before him upon various charges. The only crime of a majority of them was love of the Union. For their political purgation, an oath of allegiance was thought to be sufficient, and upon taking it they were summarily released.

The compulsory swearing of fealty during the progress of the war had in many instances a demoralizing effect. It made familiar to men the idea of an oath as having in itself no binding force, and therefore tended to increase the lenient regard which was before too prevalent for the crime of perjury. No doubt an oath of allegiance was administered to many men on both sides of the conflict, under compulsion of their wills, who in their hearts considered it null and void. They felt as Hudibras puts it:

“He that imposes an oath, makes it, Not he that for convenience takes it: Then how can any man be said To break an oath he never made.”

Said a Union man, when rumor was current that everybody would soon be made to swear loyalty to the Confederacy, he would take such an enforced oath “from the teeth out.” And so too, an ex-Confederate soldier, made to swear loyalty to the United States, muttered to his friend the words of Galileo when compelled to abjure the Copernican system: “It still moves!” Yet both the Unionist and the Confederate were conscientious, worthy citizens, who alike in times of peace, would esteem the oath before a court of justice as “a recognizance to heaven,” and again, to quote pithy lines from Hudibras, as--

Being “not purposed more than Law To keep the good and just in awe. But to confine the bad and sinful, Like moral cattle in a pinfold.”

However, despite all ethical objections to the miscellaneous administration of the oath of allegiance, and the numerous instances of its futility in the war, its reputation still held good as a specific for curing disloyalty; or at least, as a certain preventive of ill consequences from that political sickness through men afflicted with it. Therefore the extensive use of it by Judge Humphreys in his court-room with Union citizens indicated no lower degree of intelligence in him, although in the opinion of some it might show his lack of judicial wisdom. Instances were not wholly wanting in which the use of that requirement was denied him, because the patient thought the prescribed dose too astringent for health of conscience, as may be seen by the following from the _Knoxville Whig_ of that period:

“On Saturday evening, Mr. Perez Dickinson, for the last thirty years a successful merchant of Knoxville, returned from the North whither he had gone with a written permit from Governor Harris, to attend to business connected with the two firms of which he is a member. On Monday morning he was arrested upon a warrant based upon an affidavit by Attorney Ramsey, setting forth that said Dickinson was born in the State of Massachusetts, and that he had been to the North and held intercourse with the Northern people. This was the charge, and this affidavit was all the proof offered against him. His Honor Judge Humphreys, bore testimony to the good character and high standing of Mr. Dickinson, and proposed to him that he should at once and without any investigation (by the court), take an oath of allegiance and fidelity to the Confederate States. Mr. Dickinson rose and responded in a brief address--spoke of his coming here when a boy some thirty years ago--of his being an orderly and law-abiding citizen--of his all being here, and of the bones of his mother, sisters and brother being here--denied that he had held any intercourse with the people of the North in violation of his parole to Governor Harris, and declined, under the circumstances of compulsion surrounding him, to take the oath. His Honor then instructed him that he would have to give a bond of ten thousand dollars for his good behavior during the few days allotted him to remain in the State.”

The reputable merchant refused to give the bond, and was prepared to depart. Notwithstanding that refusal, the Judge, upon advice of political friends, permitted him to remain.

Arraignment of prisoners before the Judge sometimes rested on no foundation whatever. Rev. W. H. Duggan, a Methodist minister, of McMinn County, was charged in the indictment with having prayed for the United States Government: but the evidence showed that the praying had been done before Tennessee seceded from the Union. The manner in which he was treated was described at the time in the _Whig_ newspaper, under the eyes of the authorities. It illustrated the condition of things in the region:

“Some twenty-five persons, citizens of McMinn County, were brought before Judge Humphreys on Monday, about twenty of whom were released on the ground that there was nothing against them. The truth is, they had voted the Union ticket and they had voted for years against certain men: and this explained their arrest. They were taxed with small fees to pay costs and required to take the oath, although they had committed no offense. The other five were retained for further hearing and sent into camps under a military escort for the night. Among these was Rev. W. Duggan, a member of the Holston Annual Conference, and the preacher in charge of the Athens Circuit, ... a man of truth and integrity.

“He was arrested at a quarterly meeting on Friday night, and marched on foot on Saturday nine miles, being refused the privilege of riding his own horse: and on Sabbath he was landed at Knoxville. He is a large, fleshy man, weighs two hundred and eighty-one pounds, and was recovering from a long spell of fever. He gave out at a spring some seven miles from where he started. The day was warm, and his feet were sorely blistered. He begged permission to ride; he was refused, cursed, denounced and threatened with bayonets! His horse was led after him as if to aggravate him. They even refused him water to drink or anything to eat until Sunday.”

He is represented in the same editorial to have had “the confidence of men of other denominations.”

That he was “a very poor man, with a wife and six helpless children” could have availed him nothing had he been guilty, but the absence of all evidence that he had done anything for which he should be punished, induced his discharge after three days custody in camp, “without entering into bonds or taking any oath.”

Some of the Union men arraigned before Judge Humphreys were temporarily imprisoned. It was not, however, until his departure from the scene and after the bridge-burnings, that more severe measures were adopted against that class of citizens.

Commissioner Robert B. Reynolds presided over these stringent proceedings at first and for some time. He was a native Tennesseean, had “the courage of his opinions” and had been conspicuous as one of the few and faithful, who at the home of Hugh Lawson White, adhered to Martin Van Buren as Andrew Jackson’s lineal successor. Afterwards he was a Paymaster in the United States Army. Probably his appointment to the office of Confederate States Commissioner was more due to two of his qualifications than to anything else. These were, his great zeal for “the South,” according to a current phrase, “in its contest for its rights,” and his understood inflexibility of will. There were members of the Bar who thought his knowledge of the Law to be deficient, and his adversaries attributed brusqeness and austerity to his judicial manner. On the other hand, his political friends commended his performance of duty to the Government he served with such full and ardent sympathy. No one could complain of him for want of diligence and energy as a worker.

A large number of political offenders were arrested. “Union talk” became a more serious misdemeanor. The common jail was filled up rapidly. Some prisoners were sent to Alabama for confinement. One of these was the Hon. Mr. Pickens, State Senator from the counties of Blount and Sevier. He had been already designated by name as a victim, in a postscript from Secretary of War, J. P. Benjamin, to Col. Wood. His son had been of the party that unsuccessfully assailed Strawberry Plains bridge, and was there wounded, but not mortally, evaded the soldiers who pursued him until his injury was healed, then escaped into Kentucky and joined the Federal army. Senator Pickens was a person of superior character and greatly esteemed by the people. He did not long survive, a captive and exile at Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and when death had released him at one and the same moment from “this prison of the body” and from a Confederate jail, his wife, too, sickened and went to the higher freedom into which his spirit passed.

A number of persons had been arrested at different places, who were accused of having shared in the assaults upon bridges or their destruction. Col. Ledbetter, in command of the Post at Greeneville (reputed to be a native of the State of Maine), “stuck in the letter” of Secretary Benjamin’s instructions that “all such (prisoners) as can be identified in having been engaged in bridge-burning are to be tried summarily by drum-head court-martial, and if found guilty, executed on the spot by hanging,” and also “to leave their bodies hanging in the vicinity of the burned bridges.” In consequence, two men--Hensie and Fry--were hung at Greeneville by Col. Ledbetter’s immediate authority and without delay. Their bodies, instead of being quartered and distributed abroad after an old English custom, were left suspended for four days near the railroad track. In that exposure, they seem to have been less of a terror to Union men of the vicinity, than objects of merry observation to railway passengers. Had not the executions been so hasty, it might have been discovered, in time to save Fry’s life, that not he, but another person of the same surname, was the real offender in the case.

Among the many prisoners at Knoxville, were some under like accusation with the two hung at Greeneville: but proceedings against them were more deliberate. They were tried by a court-martial, organized under Gen. Carroll, of Middle Tennessee, successor of Col. Wood at the Post, and by common repute of dissipated habits. For nearly one month, Wm. G. Brownlow was an in-mate of the jail. He states that at the time he was cast into it, the prisoners numbered about one hundred and fifty; that on the lower floor where he was kept, there was not room for all to lie down at one time, and therefore they stood on their feet and rested alternately; that the only article of furniture in the building was a dirty wooden bucket, from which the prisoners drank water with a tin cup; and that their food consisted of meat and bread, scantily supplied, sometimes half raw, sometimes burned. To the truth of his description, in the main, there is extant, corroborative testimony. Some prisoners shook his hand silently with tears; some faces lighted with joy to see him; some manifested a sense of humiliation wrought by their condition, and many were depressed in spirits. A few notes taken from his diary in jail will show the nature and extent of the work carried on by the military towards suspected and convicted Union people:

SATURDAY, DEC. 7.--This morning forty of our number under a heavy military escort, were sent off to Tuscaloosa. Thirty-one others arrived to take their places from Cocke, Greene and Jefferson Counties. They bring us tales of woe from their respective counties as to the treatment of Union men and Union families, by the ... cavalry in the rebellion. They are taking all the fine horses they can find and appropriating them to their own use; they are entering houses, breaking open drawers and chests, seizing money, blankets and whatever they can use.

MONDAY, DEC. 9.--More prisoners arrived this evening. Twenty-eight are in from Jefferson and Cocke counties.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 11.--Fifteen more prisoners came in to-day from Greene and Hancock counties, charged with having been armed as Union men and accustomed to drill.

THURSDAY, DEC. 12.--Fifteen of our prisoners were started to Tuscaloosa this morning to remain there as prisoners of war. They had no trial, but were sent upon their admission that they had been found in arms as Union men, preparing to defend themselves against the assaults and robberies of the so-called Confederate cavalry. Poor fellows! They hated to go.

FRIDAY, DEC. 13.--Three more prisoners in to-day from Hancock and Hawkins Counties. Charge as usual--Union men, attached to a company of Home Guards.

SATURDAY, DEC. 14.--Three more prisoners from the upper counties were brought in to-day. They speak of the outrages perpetrated by these rebel troops, and of their murderous spirit.

SUNDAY, DEC. 15.--Started thirty-five of our lot to Tuscaloosa to be held during the war. Levi Trewhitt, an able lawyer, but an old man, will never get back.[24] His sons came up to see him, but were denied the privilege. Dr. Hunt, from the same county of Bradley, has also gone. His wife came sixty miles to see him, and came to the jail door, but was refused admittance.

MONDAY, DEC. 16.--Brought in Dr. Wells and Col. Morris, of Knox County, two clever men and good citizens. Their offence is that they are Union men, first, and next they voted and electioneered as old Whigs, ... years ago.

TUESDAY, DEC. 17.--Brought in a Union man from Campbell County to-day, leaving behind six small children, and their mother dead. This man’s offence is holding out for the Union. To-night two brothers named Walker, came in from Hawkins County, charged with having “talked Union talk.”

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 18.--Discharged sixty prisoners to-day who had been in prison from three to five weeks--taken through mistake, as was said, there being nothing against them. Business suffering at home--unlawfully seized upon and thrust into this uncomfortable jail--they are now turned out.

THURSDAY, DEC. 19.--To-night twelve more Union prisoners were brought in from lower East Tennessee, charged with belonging to Col. Cliffs regiment of Union men, arming and drilling to go over to Kentucky and join the Federal army.

SATURDAY, DEC. 21.--Took out five of the prisoners brought here from the Clift expedition--liberated them by their agreeing to go into the rebel army. Their dread of Tuscaloosa induced them to go into service. They (the Confederate authorities) have offered this chance to all, and only sent off those who stubbornly refused.

SUNDAY, DEC. 22.--Brought in old man Wampler, a Dutchman seventy years of age, from Greene County, charged with being an “Andrew Johnson man and talking Union talk.”

FRIDAY, DEC. 27.--Harrison Self, an industrious, honest and heretofore peaceable man, a citizen of Greene County, was notified this morning that he was to be hanged at four o’clock, P. M. His daughter, a noble girl, modest and neatly attired, came in this morning to see him. Heart-broken and bowed down under a fearful weight of sorrow, she entered his iron cage and they embraced each other most affectionately. My God, what a sight! What an affecting scene! (The prisoners looking on were moved to tears.) But her short limit to remain with her father expired, and she came out weeping bitterly--shedding burning tears. Requesting me to write a dispatch for her and sign her name to it, I took out my pencil and a slip of paper and wrote the following:

KNOXVILLE, Dec. 27, 1861.

_Hon. Jefferson Davis_:

My father, Harrison Self, is sentenced to hang at four o’clock this evening, on a charge of bridge-burning. As he remains my earthly all and all my hopes of happiness centre in him, I implore you to pardon him.

ELIZABETH SELF.

With this dispatch the poor girl hurried off to the office two or three hundred yards from the jail; and about two o’clock in the afternoon the answer came to General Carroll telling him not to allow Self to be hung. Self was turned out of the cage into the jail with the rest of us, and looks as if he had gone through a long spell of sickness. But what a thrill of joy ran through the heart of that noble girl! Self is to be confined, as I understand, during the war. This is hard upon an innocent man; but it is preferable to hanging.

There follows in the diary an account of an interview--at first refused, and finally granted for twenty minutes--between a small farmer from Sevier County, bearing the name of Madison Cate, and his wife--she with a babe in her arms, and the prisoner too ill with a fever to stand on his feet, but lying on the floor in one corner of the jail with “a bit of old carpeting” for a bed and “some sort of bundle as a pillow.”

During the month of December three of the prisoners, having been convicted by court-martial of bridge-burning, were executed by hanging. One of these, C. A. Haun, was a young man, but the head of a small family. He was hanged alone on the eleventh day, and maintained a courageous spirit on the scaffold. The other two, whose name was Harmon, were father and son. They died after the same method six days later, and protested their innocence to the end. Whether for the sake of economy or for some other unknown reason, the military authorities had not provided for the solemn occasion suitable means for ushering more than one of the two souls into eternity at a time. The omission is to be deplored, as it left room for imputing to the managers of the pitiful spectacle a singular want of humanity in compelling the father to witness his son’s ignominious death, while awaiting his own.[25]