History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 42

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013

USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 42

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His first appearance in public life was in the capacity of attorney general in the year 1833. In 1835 he was elected to the Legislature. In 1836 he resigned, and as captain led a company in the Florida war, where he distinguished himself for his kindness and gallantry. In 1837, 1839, and 1841 he was elected to Congress, the last time without opposition. During these years in Congress he served on the important Committees on Claims, Territories, and Mili- tary Affairs. His speeches in Congress show a thorough acquaintance with the subject to which he addressed him- self, and his views were expressed with great clearness and energy. With fine natural talents sedulously cultivated, his modesty prevented their frequent and general display which his friends desired.

At the close of his term in Congress, in 1843, he retired from politics. In 1846 he was elected colonel of the First Tennessee Regiment of Volunteers in the war with Mexico. In this position he acquired great reputation, thrilling the nation with his chivalrous and gallant bearing in battle.

He fought at Vera Cruz, Madaline Bridge, Cerro Gordo, and Monterey, where his command to charge took the form of " Boys, follow me !" giving to Tennessee heroism one of its historic phrases. Of this charge at Monterey, where he and his regiment took first honors, he himself wrote : " My regiment went early into action on the morning of September 21st, and was ordered to sustain some regulars who were said to be attacking a fort at one end of the city. When I arrived within point-blank musket-shot of the fort no regulars were visible. They had filed to the left and taken shelter behind some houses, and had gotten into the outskirts of the town, so that my command was left ex- posed to the most severe discharge of artillery and mus- ketry that was ever poured upon a line of volunteers. They bore the fire with wonderful courage, and were brought to the charge in a few minutes, and rushed upon the fort and took it at the point of the bayonet. It was most gallantly done. The Mississippi regiment sustained mine most gal- lantly in the charge." This charge is regarded as the most remarkable feat performed by volunteers in that war.

His gallant conduct at the head of his regiment won for that unsurpassed body of troops the sobriquet of " The Bloody First." On his return from Mexico he became one of the Circuit Court judges of the State,and held a place upon the bench for several years, was respected and es- teemed as a firm, impartial, just judge, and administered and enforced the laws to the full satisfaction of the bar and the public.

In 1851 he was by acclamation nominated as the Whig candidate for Governor, the position being urged upon him on the ground that he was the only man in his party who could make a successful canvass. Upon his nomination, Hon. Meredith P. Gentry, who had served with him in the Legislature and many years in Congress, said, " Although Tennessee is rich in noble sons, yet, in my opinion, she has not within her broad limits a nobler son than William B. Campbell. In integrity and honor, in fidelity and truth, in courage and patriotism, in all that constitutes a high, noble, and manly character he has no superior." In his accept- ance of the nomination he gave the key to his political faith, saying, " I accept, with a pledge to my friends of a heart devoted to the union of these United States, and to the honor and prosperity of my native State." He was elected over Governor Trousdale, the most popular and in- fluential man of his party at the time.

He is known in the history of the State as a soldier ; as an officer of perfect courage, discipline, and skill, both loved and feared by his men. After Jackson, he was Tennessce's best soldier. As brave as Jackson himself, he was always self-controlled and insensible of danger.

In political life he was distinguished as a plain, sensible, " honest public man," of great moderation and sincerity, a conservative. He was not a Democrat, but a conservative, a Whig in the best sense of that historical name. He was not an orator, or a politician in its usual or bad sense. He was plain, sensible, sincere in all his public speeches before the people, but cautious and prudent. He was not an office-secker. He had a high self-respect and great pride of character ; set a high value upon the good-will and respect of his fellow-men ; was ambitious, and desired the approba-

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tion of the public ; was civil, courteous, and gracious in his intercourse with his fellow-citizens, and had something of the patrician in his character. His distinguishing trait of mind was understanding. He saw things as they really are; knew men and life as it is; knew the good and bad qualities of man as he is. His judgment was sound and safe. His moral sense was another distinguishing trait of character. In fact, he understood and had made Washing- ton his model, his ideal of the great and good and wise man, and was greatly influenced by his example in his own life; and he was, therefore, in good faith a Union, a na- tional man; an old-line Whig, incapable of change; him- self personally courageous, but politically of a party in its belief wholly defensive. He lived and died a Whig. The Whig creed and its defensive spirit he would have perpetu- ated just as it was, without change, " for the Constitution and the Union just as it was."

In 1861 he opposed secession. His devotion to the Union and his far-seeing statesmanship are shown in a letter written by him March 16, 1861, in which he said, " But this Southern Confederacy can never become a first- rate power. It will never rise above the dignity of a third-rate power, and with no protection or guarantee from the great Northern government, and with no sym- pathy from the great powers of the earth, she, the South, must ever be a prey to other nations, and ever regarded with contempt by them. . . . But so sure as a big war occurs between the North and the South (and that it will occur so soon as all hope of reunion shall cease to exist no one seriously doubts) then will peace be made at the ex- pense of negro slavery. . . . The South has been duped and deceived by their leaders, and they may reap the whirl- wind before an adjustment. The whole move was wrong, and the South ought at once to retrace their steps. It will be ruinous to the South if they do not. I have done all I could to preserve the peace, to prevent war, and I shall continue my humble efforts to prevent a conflict. ... But I have no hope that peace can be maintained very long. Many questions will soon arise that will bring about a conflict. I shall deeply regret to see such a result, but when it comes I shall be actuated by the same feelings which actuate you of the South, and shall stand by Ten- nessee and the Union."

He thought that the result was settled in Tennessee by the election of February, 1861, but it was preordained other- wise. Suddenly the flames of war burst out in the Cotton States, and in a few weeks swept Tennessee as a prairie on fire. The general apathy under the influence of its execu- tive gave the last blow to Unionism in Tennessee. Union men and leaders were silenced. Terror ruled the hour. Governor Campbell was self-possessed, retained his presence of mind, and was immovable in his fidelity and allegiance to the national government. He, in the midst of this scene, found himself standing solitary and almost alone. What remedy was there for it just then ? None. What could any mortal man have done but possess himself in patience and await a day when honor and duty should return, and bring back " peace come to stay ?" Speaking of what was transpiring, Campbell said it must run out and exhaust itself; opposition just then at Nashville was useless; it was

broken out and must run its course. He was silent and prudent, and immovably firm and self-possessed. The Union leaders stood appalled at the scenes transpiring, and yielded ; the people acquiesced at what seemed their fate ; his physical and moral courage stood him instead. A man and soldier, a Union man, a Whig, his influence and weight were of moment to the Confederate authorities all powerful and controlling. He was tendered the command of all the forces raised and to be raised in Tennessee in aid of their cause. He declined firmly in terms of prudence, but immovably firm ; not from any motive or motives, under heaven, but from the principle of fidelity bound to duty, to his country, and the people among whom he lived, and whom he loved in his heart of hearts. In that day his eye and voice, which never falsify, indicated the state of his head and heart; his eye was bright, his voice firm, his air, countenance, bearing, manner were those of one who knew that he was doing well in the line of duty. He returned to his home and remained in his family while the storm raged tempestuously around his dwelling and throughout the State. When, in February, 1862, the National army occu- pied Nashville and a military government was established, and a military governor was in possession of the capitol, Governor Campbell came to the seat of government at Nash- ville and gave his moral support to the United States govern- ment; a commission of brigadier-general in United States army was sent to him, and he took the oath of office under it, but shortly afterwards, for reasons deemed sufficient by him, he resigned, never having entered upon active service. He took an active part in the reorganization of the State government in 1865, and in the same year was again elected to the Congress of the United States. Under this election he performed his last public service, his death occurring suddenly at his residence Aug. 19, 1867.

It will thus be seen that he filled many high places of honor and responsibility. That he always discharged his duties with fidelity and ability is shown by the fact that he was never defeated when a candidate, and the oft-re- peated and long-continued manifestations of public confi- dence and trust reposed in him. He was an honest, sincere patriot, and will be ever held in esteem as a " worthy" of Tennessee.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE GREAT CIVIL WAR.

Events and Causes which led to its Inception-Loyalty to the Union in Tennessee-That feeling suddenly changed by the Policy of the Government in Reinforcing Fort Sumter-Vote of Secession- Military Fame of Tennessee-Organization of Companies in David- son County-State Military Establishment.

THE success of the Republican party in electing Abra- ham Lincoln to the Presidency in November, 1860, was regarded by some of the slave-holding States as such a menace to their constitutional rights that by the 1st of February following seven of them had seceded from the Union. The possibility of a division of the Union had engaged the minds of the people of the United States for

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many years, beginning with the first introduction of the question of African slavery as an element in American politics. Never was a political question more thoroughly discussed in all of its bearings, and when a party, then regarded as hostile to the institution of slavery and bent on its final overthrow, succeeded in securing the chief magis- tracy and one branch of Congress, the people of the Cotton States deemed that argument was exhausted and that the time for action had arrived. The wisdom of this policy will not be discussed here, but its relation to events which shortly followed as affecting the remaining slave-holding States will be briefly considered. The waves of secession which swept seven States out of the Union broke against a solid barrier of adjoining States and were arrested. In fact, such was the feeling in one of them, Tennessee, that the question of calling a convention to consider the state of the country was defeated in February by a vote of over sixty thousand. The sentiment of her people, as expressed in this vote, was to take no step which would jeopardize a peaceful solution of the great questions at issue. She entered heartily into the scheme of a peace congress, through which it was hoped some constitutional guarantees could be adopted which would be the basis of reconciliation between the sections, and lead to the return of the seceded States to. the Union. This congress met, but failed of its purpose. During its session Mr. Chase, a member of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet and spokesman for his party, declared that the re- cent victory of the Republican party was not due to a mere accidental circumstance of the divisions of its opponents; that it would win victory after victory on its platform of hostility to the extension of African slavery ; that the fugi- tive slave act was a dead letter, and that the personal lib- erty acts passed by the various Northern Legislatures which nullified this law of Congress would never be repealed ; that the expression of the moral sense of a people on this question was a higher law than congressional enact- mente. In spite of the failure of this scheme, the people of Tennessee still did not despair of averting the calamities of fratricidal war, but through their General Assembly an- nounced a firm determination to await some overt act of oppression on her sister Southern States or upon herself before she would yield the Union; at the same time asking the administration to refrain from any coercive measures which would provoke a conflict of arms. On this platform stood the powerful States of North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas, whose united voices plead for peace. The immediate question upon which the issue of peace or war turned was the reinforcement and re- tention of Fort Sumter by the general government. This powerful battery stood within the harbor of Charleston, and could by its guns reach any part of the city. It was still being held for the government by Maj. Anderson ; but its evacuation had been demanded by the State of South Carolina, through the exercise of the right of eminent domain, which she claimed vested the title in herself after her separation from the Union. Gen. Scott, the com- mander-in-chief of the United States army, advised the administration, in view of the attitude of the Border slave- holding States, to evacuate the fort and trust to diplomacy for its recovery. Senator Stephen A. Douglass, and many

other leading politicians at the North, urged the same view, and begged the administration to forego the collection of custom dues, a paltry sum in comparison with the cost of a great conflict.

It was known to the country at this time that an attempt to provision and reinforce the place would provoke resist- ance, force the remaining Southern States to throw off their neutrality, and inaugurate a civil war. Under assurances of the administration that Sumter would be evacuated, the country breathed freer, and the advocates of secession iu the Border States were awed into silence or put to a sharper defense of their policy. The feeling in these States was that the question would be submitted to a trial of diplo- macy and not of arms; that the administration was ready to sacrifice any mere party feeling for the sake of a peace- ful solution of the question. Such was the attitude of these States when it was .suddenly announced that a large fleet had left New York with two hundred and eighty-five guns and two thousand four hundred soldiers to forcibly enter Charleston harbor and reinforce Fort Sumter. On this information being communicated to the Confederate authorities, Gen. Beauregard was ordered to reduce the fort before the arrival of the fleet, which that officer, after a bombardment of thirty-two hours, was enabled to accom- plish on the 13th of April. The news of this event shook the country like an carthquake. To the Border States it was a knell of despair for the Union. They felt that their loyal efforts for its maintenance against the strongest argu- ments of their brethren of the seceded States had been treated with contempt, insult, and perfidy, and that the blow had been struck before they could interpose their hands to arrest it. Under these circumstances their indig- nation knew no bounds, and when the administration called upon them the day after the fall of Fort Sumter to furuish soldiers for war against a people to whom they were bound by every tie of kindred, interest, and association, they flew to arms to resist what they regarded as a preconcerted at- tempt at the subjugation of the entire South. All of the Governors of the remaining slaveholding States, except Maryland, refused to issue the call for troops, alleging that the general government had no constitutional authority to coerce a State after the withdrawal of its delegated powers from the Union, as the Union was then understood. In the twinkling of an eye the feelings of the people of Ten- nessee towards the government had undergone an almost total change. The sixty thousand majority for the " Union" in the short space of less than three months had changed into a sixty thousand majority for " separation." Such, in brief, is the history of the movement which eventuated in the separation of Tennessee from the Union, the facts of which are verified by reference to the current files of the press of that day, and from the lips of living actors whose loyalty remained unshaken up to the very hour of conflict.

At this time the military fame of Tennessee was second to that of no State in the Union. She had won this fame, not from any adventitious circumstance or cast of fortune on some narrow field of conflict. On many hard-fought fields and in many conflicts she had won an enduring repu- tation for impetuous valor and chivalric devotion to the call of public duty. For nearly a century her sons had led the

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van of civilization in the Southwest, and they could justly claim an empire vast in extent and importance as mainly due to the exercise of their enterprise and valor. They had turned the tide of the Revolution at King's Mountain, wrested their own domain from the wilderness and the sav- age, thrown open the great States of Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida to peaceful occupation, saved Louisiana from the horrors of a foreign invasion, peopled Arkansas, and helped to wrench Texas from the grasp of Mexico,-an event which, a few years later, led through the Mexican war to the acqui- sition of the vast region stretching from Colorado to the Pacific Ocean. Truly, Tennessee had advanced the stand- ard of national greatness as few other States could claim. So, when she buckled on her armor again, it was evident that she would exert a mighty influence over the course and duration of the conflict, and so it proved in the end. Her sons, in taking sides for or against the Union as convictions of duty taught, upheld her honor and fame in a contest which tried their valor and fortitude to the last limit of human endurance.

The military ardor of the people of Davidson County surpassed all previous exhibitions. Many of those who a day before had been strong for the Union were the first to raise the standard of resistance, and in a few weeks nearly forty companies of infantry, cavalry, and artillery were organized and ready to take the field for the South, in obedience to a call from Governor Isham G. Harris. The Legislature quickly convened and passed an act providing for a State military establishment. Under this act among the appointments from Davidson County were Samuel R. Anderson, who had been lieutenant-colonel of the First Tennessee in the Mexican war, as major-general, and Felix K. Zollicoffer, who had been a captain in the Florida war, B. F. Cheatham, who had commanded first the Nashville Blues and afterwards the Third Tennessee, and R. C. Fos- ter (3d), who commanded the Harrison Guards in the Mexican war, as brigadier-generals. Ex-Governor Neill S. Brown and Gen. W. G. Harding were on the military and financial board. Dr. Paul F. Eve was made surgeon-general.

The theatre of the services of the Davidson County volun- teers reached, in the course of the war, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi and from the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico. Our space will not allow more than a brief summary of the services of the various companies. An extended detail would embrace the history of the war in the West, which would be incompatible with the scope and design of this work. Jus- tice would require an extensive volume for the proper treat- ment of the subject. Again, where so many acted well their parts it has been deemed improper to single out indi- viduals for notice, except where such notice was obviously just.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE COMPANIES IN THE FIRST TENNESSEE AND OTHER REGIMENTS AND BATTERIES.

Companies C and G, Second Tennessee Regiment-Companies in the Eleventh Tennessee-Company G, Eighteenth Tennessee-Com- panies in the Twentieth Tennessee-Company G, Fiftieth Tennes- see-In the Fifth Tennessee-In the First Tennessee Cavalry-In the Second Tennessee Cavalry-McCann's Cavalry-First Battal- ion Heavy Artillery-Porter's Battery-Company A, First Artil- lery-Baxter's Battery-Baker's Battery-Maney's Battery.

IN the organization of this regiment, on May the 3d, 1861, two of the field-officers were from Davidson, Col. George Maney and Lieut .- Col. T. F. Sevier, and five com- panies, namely : Co. A, Rock City Guards, Capt. Joseph Vaulx, Jr .; Co. B, Rock City Guards, Capt. James B. Craighead; Co. C, Rock City Guards, Capt. Robert C. Foster (4th); the Tennessee Riflemen (German), Capt. George Harsh ; and the Chattanooga Railroad Boys, Capt. J. S. Butler. At the reorganization at Corinth, in 1862, three other companies from Davidson were added to the regiment, being consolidated into one company under Capt. J. M. Fulcher and constituting Co. L. These were the .companies of Capts. J. M. Hawkins, Robert Cattles, and James Felts, up to that time known as Hawkins' battalion. Soon after its organization the First Tennessee repaired to Camp Cheatham, in Robertson County, where it became the recipient of a beautiful set of colors, presented by the grad- uating class of the Nashville Female Academy, through Miss Campbell, daughter of ex-Governor Campbell, whose regiment had received a similar honor from this institution in the Mexican war. Some reverses having occurred to the Confederate arms in West Virginia, this regiment was sent thither and participated in the campaign of Gen. R. E. Lee as part of the brigade of Gen. Samuel R. Anderson, of Nashville. In January, 1862, it took part in Stonewall Jackson's expedition to Bath and Romney, secing plenty of hard service, but not getting into any engagement of moment. In the spring it returned to the West, the left wing only reaching Corinth in time to take part in the bat- tle of Shiloh, the right wing, in which were the Davidson companies, being held at Decatur to guard the bridge at that place. Thereafter it remained a constituent part of the Army of Tennessee. As a part of Maney's brigade, it was in Bragg's invasion of Kentucky and suffered a loss of nearly fifty per cent. at Perryville, where it drove the enemy from a very strong position, forcing him to abandon a number of guns. At Murfreesboro' it was heavily en- gaged against the enemy's centre, losing again severely. At Chickamauga, as part of Cheatham's division, it was compelled to bear the brunt of the Saturday's engagement, while Bragg's forces were being concentrated. It was not engaged on Sunday until late in the afternoon, when it joined in the general charge on the right, which ended the battle. On the disastrous field of Missionary Ridge it repelled an assault of the enemy and distinguished itself by a countercharge, in which it took more prisoners than it had men. On the Dalton campaign it did its full share of arduous service, performing its crowning feat of valor at Kenesaw Mountain, June 27th. On this occasion it occupied the point,

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THE COMPANIES IN THE FIRST TENNESS E REGIMENT, ETC.

thenceforward famous as the Dead Angle, with one hundred and eighty guns, fully one-half of the regiment being out of the trenches on the skirmish-line or back of the works engaged in various duties at the moment of attack. On account of the faulty location of the works, the enemy were enabled to mass a division of his troops in close order within sixty yards of the line occupied by the First Ten- nessee without being observed, and when this heavy force suddenly advanced the occasion furnished one of the most critical periods in the history of the Army of Tennessee. The attack covered about two hundred yards in extent, taking in part of Maney's and Vaughan's brigades. Seven lines of battle were defeated in succession in front of the First Tennessee with appalling slaughter, their foremost dead resting against the works. Only the most determined pluck on the part of every individual saved the point from capture and the army from a probable disaster.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 42

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1013

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013