USA > Tennessee > DeKalb County > History of De Kalb county, Tennessee > Part 14
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On January 29, 1863, General Morgan, with Major Steele, Captain Carroll, and a few men, came to Liberty from McMinnville and selected fifty men to enter Nashville stealthily, burn the commissary stores, and in the confusion of the fire make their escape. Among
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these intrepid scouts was Captain Quirk. But at Stewart's Ferry, on Stone's River, they met the cap- tain of a Michigan regiment with twenty men. For a while the enemy conversed, Morgan claiming to be Captain Johnson, of the Fifth Kentucky Regiment of Federals. Presently the Federals saw under their over- coats the Confederates' gray pants. This spoiled the raid; for while fifteen of the Federals were captured, the others reached Nashville and gave the alarm.
Before Mr. B. L. Ridley, of Murfreesboro, became a lieutenant on the staff of Lieut. Gen. A. P. Stewart he was a private in Colonel Ward's regiment, camped at Liberty. In a letter dated March 23, 1914, he writes :
I was a boy then-had been in the war a good while before, but had never regularly enlisted until Morgan settled down in Liberty. Our quarters for the winter were near where the pike runs through between the creek and the hillside, forming a covered road [Allen's Bluff]. We were just north of the road that runs toward Woodbury, and my regiment guarded that road. We also scouted toward Auburn and Alexandria; and on one occasion Colonel Ward took us over to near Car- thage, where we captured a big wagon train and a large escort of guards. All the prisoners we marched through Liberty to the rear.
Rosecrans was stationed at Murfreesboro, and General Wilder was one of our adversaries. With him was Stokes's regiment. The latter, with Wilder's support, made frequent raids upon us. They came out on foraging expeditions and a number of times drove us back to Snow's Hill. Sometimes Federal parties would go out on the Woodbury Pike to Mc- Minnville. Then we would intercept the raiders by marching out from Liberty and threatening the rear, when they would get back toward Murfreesboro. My company was often made to picket the Woodbury [Clear Fork] Road. One day our
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base was near the house of a man who seemed to have two hundred chickens. He looked as surly as a snarling cur. His folks were in the Yankee army, and he was no doubt a home guard. We tried to buy some of his chickens, but he would not sell. Anyhow, the boys captured twenty-five and hid them. The officers found it out, and we had to carry them back. He refused even to give us one or two!
We got the wife of one of Stokes's cavalry to wash our clothes and cook our rations. We made a contract with her that if we captured her husband we would treat him kindly if she promised she would make him be kind if he captured us. She agreed. But after the war Favor Cason told me it was fortunate that we did not fall into that fellow's hands, as he was a cutthroat. I have forgotten his name.
Together with my brother, I called on Mrs. W. B. Stokes, and she treated us kindly.
All of these raids were made by General Wilder, but Stokes's cavalry was usually with him.
While at Liberty the battle of Milton came off, Captain Cossett, of my company, being killed by my side. He was under arrest for writing a letter to President Davis asking for a pass to slip into the Federal lines and kill Abe Lincoln, but, securing weapons, went into the fight .*
The battle of Milton took place March 20, 1863. Early that morning Morgan's men at Liberty were notified to hasten toward Milton and attack Colonel Hall, who had already driven the Confederate outposts to within a few miles of Liberty. All was excitement. The pike from the village was crowded with horsemen,
*All Americans have heard of the assassination of Presi- dent Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, the actor. Few have heard that it was meditated two years previously by a soldier in camp at Liberty. Were Booth and Captain Cossett ren- dered insane by brooding over the war and its havoc?
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first in a gallop, then in a wild dash toward Auburn. Many horses fell, but the Confederates passed through Auburn amid cheers and waving of handkerchiefs by the citizens. Colonel Hall retreated, but was over- taken and forced to fight; then came the pop of small arms, the roar of cannon, and the yells of the con- testants. The battle was stubborn and long. It lasted three hours, the Confederate loss being about three hundred. Morgan's ammunition gave out, and he had to withdraw. The Federals went back to Murfrees- boro, the Confederates to Liberty. Captains Cossett, Cooper, Sale, and Marr were killed.
When Morgan reached Liberty with his two thou- sand cavalry the citizens looked on a sight they would always remember-the dead cavalrymen tied on horses and the dead artillerymen strapped on the caisson and gun carriages.
The St. Louis writer to the Confederate Veteran, R. L. Thompson, mentioned a while ago, was a soldier at Liberty at this time. In his article he says of the battle of Milton: "While in camp at Liberty I remem- ber one morning about two o'clock, while the cold rain was pouring down, Cooper the bugler gave the boots and saddle call quick and lively. At the same time Johnson's pickets were hotly engaged on the Murfrees- boro Pike. We went briskly toward the sounds of the guns and continued to go until we reached the town of Milton. There we found General Morgan with a part of his force in battle with Federal infantry. Two batteries were engaged in a duel when we arrived. As soon as our regiment put in its appearance the Federal
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battery began firing on our column. One shell stopped at our feet, and Comrade Judge emptied his canteen of water on it, extinguishing the fuse. We dismounted and entered a large cedar thicket, the ground being covered with large rock which sheltered us from bullets. When the battle ceased we withdrew, bringing the dead and wounded away, all that we could find, on our horses, the dead tied on. The battery re- moved its killed and wounded in the same way, the dead strapped on the caisson and gun carriages."
The writer recalls this scene of the dead soldiers. The day was cool and cloudy. The main street was then about where W. L. Vick's business house stood in 1814. At this point the command halted. Some of the wagons with the dead were near the yard fence of the writer's home.
A former DeKalb Countian and a gentleman of veracity writes: "An incident of the Milton fight I remember very distinctly. I was then at Sligo Ferry, a small boy. My father had been paroled and had taken his family to Sligo. Captain Ragen, of Mor- gan's command, was sick at our house. Learning of the probable fighting at Milton, he went to his com- mand against my mother's protest. Leaving one day, he was killed the next. I presume he was one of the dead men brought through Liberty tied on horses. Another incident: The Kentuckians at one time were camped in the woods on our place at Sligo. They had no tents. One mess, sleeping behind a log, were, with the exception of one man, killed by a falling tree. All were buried at Sligo. My mother took their trinkets
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and forwarded the same to their relatives. After- wards their remains were removed, I think, to Ver- sailles, Ky. About eight years ago I was on a train going from Louisville to Chicago and met a very handsome gentleman, finely dressed and prosperous- looking. I cannot now recall his name, but in the course of conversation I learned that he was the soldier who escaped death from the falling tree. He had been hurt, but not seriously."
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CHAPTER XIX.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES.
DURING the winter and spring of 1863 the Federals advanced three times in heavy force against Liberty- cavalry, infantry, and artillery. On these occasions the noncombatants went in droves to the hills north- west of town for protection, stopping either at the home of John Bethel or that of Thomas Richardson. From Bethel's the movements of the troops could be seen. If the Confederates were beaten and pushed back on Snow's Hill, they often followed the pur- suers when the latter retired.
While all this was occurring Allison's Squadron fre- quently took part. Not infrequently it was engaged alone with the enemy. James H. Burton, of the squad- ron, relates this experience : "On one occasion a part of the battalion was camped in the beech grove near Daniel Smith's, just north of Liberty-about seventy- five men, portions of the three companies. Lieut. D. Brien was in command of the picket guard of ten men. He placed a vidette at the corner of the two streets, where stood the storehouse of William Vick that was burned. The picket guard were all the troops whose horses were saddled, when a stranger came along with a wounded horse and told us that a large force of Fed- erals had fired on him at the forks of the pike, two miles west of Liberty. The guard went to meet them and did meet them not far from Salem Church. We fired a volley, and then the race back through the vil-
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lage and toward Snow's Hill began. All the guard had an even start, but by the time I reached Leonard Moore's (about the center of Liberty) I was at least seventy-five yards ahead and constantly gaining. I soon made the turn down the main street and heard no more bullets. When the Yankees began shooting down the main street I had made the turn for the bridge. Keeping the advantage to the end, I beat the other guards about one hundred yards. The boys guyed me for leaving them. I resented this, when Colonel Alli- son said he saw the race from start to finish and that I came out ahead only because I had the best horse."
Mr. Burton adds: "When the picket guard reached the command north of Daniel Smith's, the boys were mounted, and a running fight occurred to Dry Creek bridge. Here Company C, under Capt. R. V. Wright, stopped and waited for the Federals, then fired when they came up, checking them for a short time. At the Stanford home Company B, under Captain Reece, was left on the south side of the pike. His men, when the Federals approached, fired again, checking them the second time. Company A was left behind Asbury Church, and it held the enemy back till our company wagons, loaded with bacon, got well up Snow's Hill. The bacon was what we were fighting for. One of our men, Tom Coleman, was slightly wounded in the foot by a spent ball. In the skirmish at Dry Creek bridge Lieut. D. Brien's horse got away from him. He could not be caught, and, seeing the Federals would get the animal, Brien ordered the men to shoot him. At Stanford's place a good roan horse came into our
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lines, and Lieutenant Brien got him. He had blood on the saddle and a Spencer rifle and belt of cartridges on the saddle horn. There were seventy-five men all told on our side, and fifteen hundred Federals. They thought we were the advance guard of Morgan's Cav- alry. If they had known our real strength, they would have made short work of us. I never knew till I came to Arkansas that we hit any of the enemy, when Frank Dowell told me they used his barn for a hospital; that four died, and he thought four more died later. Dowell lived near the Dry Creek bridge."
A considerable fight came off near the intersection of the Murfreesboro and Lebanon roads, or the forks of the pikes. Lieut. Ed Reece, who took part, tells this incident in connection with the affair: Capt. Jack Reece's company of Allison's Squadron, which usually camped near Alexandria, left the camps on Helton Creek, going west toward Wilson County. They were scouting for Yankees. None being discovered, they made a fierce attack on John Barleycorn, intrenched at Isaac Smith's stillhouse, on the road leading north from the present store or post office called Mahone. Turning back toward Alexandria directly, they learned of an engagement going on near the forks of the pike and galloped in that direction. Reaching the scene of battle, Captain Reece and his troopers took a position in the woods and awaited orders. While there Colonel Allison and the remainder of the squadron arrived.
"Captain Reece," said Allison, "you have no busi .. ness here. Withdraw your company." "Colonel Alli-
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son," was the reply [Captain Reece feeling the stimu- lus yet over the victory of John Barleycorn], "Com- pany B will remain where it is." "Captain Reece, you are drunk," asserted Allison. "Colonel Allison," snapped Reece, "you're a damned liar."
At this the two urged their horses nearer each other and on horseback engaged in a savage fist-and-skull battle. When both were nearly out of breath, and it was forced upon all that their energies were needed against the common enemy, comrades interfered.
Isaiah White was in this skirmish, and he says the Federals and Confederates were so near each other that he recognized acquaintances on the Federal side- Captain Hathaway, Colonel Blackburn, and others. H. L. Hale, recalling boyish memories of these occa- sions, says that there were times, as the Confederates were pushed back stubbornly through Liberty and north toward Snow's Hill, when the opposing forces were only a few hundred yards apart. Part of Stokes's Regiment was advancing one day, and he saw Miss Mattie Hathaway run out to the front gate and speak a few words to her sweetheart, Capt. W. L. Hathaway, while bullets were whizzing around them.
Skirmishes were so frequent that comparatively slight disturbances would put the citizens and soldiers in commotion. About sunset on one occasion a tre- mendous roar, somewhat resembling the roll of thun- der, was heard westward. Confederates at supper in the writer's home hastened to the street. The sound grew louder as the moments passed. The mystery was soon solved. A Federal wagon train had been cap-
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tured, and the captors were forcing the teamsters to drive their fastest. This may have been the train men- tioned elsewhere by Lieutenant Ridley. It proved a rich haul. That evening boxes were opened and the Confederates' hosts and hostesses given many fine presents.
The following notes may be of interest, some of them being illuminative of village life during war times :
In January, 1863, Maj. J. P. Austin and Capt. Wil- liam Roberts, Confederates, with fifty men, left Liberty for the Andrew Jackson home to capture a squad of Federal couriers stationed there. Passing through Alexandria, then between Lebanon and Baird's Mills, they reached the Hermitage by midnight. The couriers having left, Morgan's men repaired to Lavergne, where, finding the enemy barricaded in a log house, they captured the latter, thirteen in number, and car- ried them to Liberty. By the way, during the time Morgan's men were in the county, says General Duke, they captured more Federals than there were effective men in Morgan's command.
In a sharp fight at Lavergne between DeKalb Fed- erals and a force of Confederates Charley Blackburn, brother of Col. Joe Blackburn, was killed.
There were a number of tragedies in the county. Sim Adamson, who had been in the Confederate army, was killed near Alexandria. Mon Adkins, a Union soldier, was killed by Capt. Jack Garrison, at the lat- ter's home, near Forks-of-the-Pike, at the close of the
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war. James Hays, a young man, and Mr. Bullard, an aged citizen, were brought to Liberty by Federals, tried by court-martial, and shot. A Confederate sol- dier was killed in a field near Salem Church. The killing of several Union soldiers at Smithville by Pomp Kersey's raiders is mentioned in this work. A Confed- erate prisoner named Parrish was killed one night in Alexandria by the Federal soldier guarding him. While conscripting to recruit Allison's Squadron at Alexandria John Bowman was slain.
Sometimes when the Confederates would chase the Federals out of Liberty it was a good opportunity for the wives of secessionists to get together and rejoice in secret. There was one lady, Polly Hayes Knight, who lived three or four miles away, truly a feminine fire- eater, and who frequently came to the writer's home with no other object, as she said, than to "indulge in a big laugh over some unhappy defeat of the Yanks." The stories she told and the laughter she and her listeners indulged in were really refreshing. One day while there Mrs. "Puss" Turner, the wife of a Union- ist and one of the sweetest of the neighbor women, came in.
"I was passing the house of Spicy Combs just now," she said. [Spicy was the wife of a rather sorry Fed- eral soldier named Bill Holly, but was always called by her former husband's name.] "She called me in to taste some sweet cakes she had just baked." "And you found them very crisp and nice?" she was asked. "I will let you say," said she, "when I tell you that I could
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have put my toe on the edge of one of those cakes and stretched the other side to the overhead ceiling."*
During the stay of Morgan's men at Liberty, Quirk's Scouts especially made friends with both Union and Confederate sympathizers. While snow was on the ground the soldiers would encourage the village lads to engage in cob battles and greatly enjoyed them. With Morgan's troops was a seventeen-year-old youth named John A. Wyeth. He is to-day one of the lead- ing physicians and surgeons of New York and author of the finest life yet written of General Forrest. The writer of these annals recalls one Federal soldier whom the three boys in his home learned to love-Joe Baker, probably with a regiment of Kentuckians. He was kind-hearted and loved nothing better than to romp with the children. A well-remembered Kentucky Confederate trooper of Morgan's command was Jeff Citizen, who was bibulous. When drinking he dis- ported on his calico mule and sang continuously and unmusically :
*Was there at any time during the war a United States, Confederate States, or Tennessee statute or license providing for something in the nature of trial or special marriages for the soldiers? As a small lad the writer heard such a thing discussed at Liberty, and there was a mutual-consent contract of the kind there between a soldier from another State and a widow. They cohabited about six months, when the soldier was called to some other section. The marriage thus an- nulled by mutual consent, the woman some months later married another man according to the conventional law. This is not a dream; others remember the facts.
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I lay ten dollars down, And bet them every one, That every time we have a fight The Yankees they will run.
Mr. B. G. Slaughter, formerly of Quirk's Confed- erate scouts, but after the war editor of the Winchester (Tenn.) Home Journal, wrote W. L. Vick in 1902, something of the scouts' stay in Liberty. He says that Captain Quirk had headquarters in the Methodist church, and his men were quartered near, taking meals with the villagers, Union and secession .* He recalled his own host's family, "a gentle wife and daughter and peaceful-faced old gentleman, who had a son-in-law in Stokes's Cavalry." Mr. Slaughter adds : "On one occasion we were on scout toward Murfreesboro-I think to a point about three miles from Liberty. We had just gone down a long slant through a wooded country to a branch emptying into Smith Fork (which flowed parallel with the pike). The bridge over the branch had been washed out, or else the floor had been removed by the Federals that morning as a trap should they force us to retreat. The place was a deep gulch. We had to take a stock path above the bridge to cross and get back to the pike. We had not gone far-little more than a mile-when we reached a glade to our right, where a dirt road intersected the pike at right angles, though pointing from us. Just beyond this
*The writer of this history remembers having been often aroused from slumber by the songs of the scouts-Jim Mc- Gowdy, Bill McCreary, and others-singing "Lorena" or "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground." They were a jovial set.
15
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Captain Quirk called a consultation. It was decided that the Yankees were 'laying' for us, a larger force than ours. He called me by my camp name, 'Squirrel,' and ordered me to go back to camp and bring all our men fit for duty, cautioning me that the Yankees might cut me off just ahead. With a dash I began the daring ride. At the intersection of the dirt road and pike I saw two bluecoats under spur to cut me off. They commanded me to halt, but I went down the pike, the enemy in pursuit. They were no doubt confident of capturing me at the floorless bridge. They were gain- ing ground; but with a firm, steady pull old sorrel Charley cleared the breach, a distance of nearly twenty feet and deep enough to have killed rider and horse. The animal did not make a check on the other side. With a loud cheer and a parting shot I soon left the pursuers."
The bridge mentioned was probably near the present residence of Grant Roy, the county surveyor.
Alexandria did not escape the excitement of the times. Besides the encampment of local soldiers, Gen- eral Wheeler, General Wharton, Colonel Smith, and Colonel Harrison (of the Eighth Texas) were fa- miliar in that and the surrounding communities. They were camped on the various roads-Carthage, States- ville, Lebanon, and Murfreesboro. It was from Alex- andria that General Morgan started on his famous raid through Ohio and Indiana.
Sometime during the war an old Scotch word "ske- daddle," which was applied to milk spilt over the pail in carrying it, was made to take on a new meaning.
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The Northern papers said the Southern forces were skedaddled by the Federals. The word soon became common. Many rich stories were told of how the DeKalb County noncombatants would flee from their homes when the enemy dashed suddenly into a com- munity. Perhaps one of the best is that in which Hon. Horace A. Overall figured. A number of skedaddlers on a very cold night were sleeping in a barn at the head of one of the Clear Fork hollows, among them a rather simple-minded man. This man about midnight awoke his comrades with the startling news that the Yankees were coming. "How do you know its Yan- kees?" he was asked. "Because I hear Patsy Spur- lock's dogs barkin' down the branch," was the reply. "But before I take the bitter cold," said Overall, crawl- ing back into the hay, "you'll have to convince me that Patsy Spurlock's dogs won't bark at anything but Yan- kees."
The following, contributed to a newspaper some years ago by the writer, has to do with a very small lad's memories of the time that tried the soul :
It does not appear now that war times in our village were so unpleasant. But at moments the childish heart must have been filled with fear. I remember the sudden dash of soldiers into the village now and then, the popping reports, the scam- pering to a hiding place by noncombatants. One late afternoon some Confederates took the village, but all I remember of that occasion is that one of the men entered Joe Blackburn's stable and took out a fine stallion. On another afternoon old Mr. Bullard was executed east of the steam mill, and four Feder- als, ahold of his hands and feet, brought him up the street. I noted that his hair hung down and his coat tail dragged on the
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ground. There was a night when we were awakened by ex- cited citizens on the street. Some one explained that "Uncle Ben Blades has been killed in his own house and is swelling badly." My mother told the informant to put a small bag of salt on his stomach, and it would prevent swelling. Jim Clark, a youth, had been killed on another occasion by Pomp Kersey's men. Often that day I looked across the fields toward his home, saw the crowd of sympathizing friends gathered before his burial, and wondered how he looked and how his father comported himself. General Wilder's men burned a store- house in the village. Doubtless there was fear in many hearts, but I only noticed how black the smoke was that bulged out of the chimney. Then when he burned the big mill, and I stood looking out the south window, again I was attracted mainly to the black volume rolling up from the smokestack. I marveled greatly when I saw on the ruins of the store molten glass; that it could be melted was something I had not known. One late summer afternoon an ox team toiled up the village street, stopping in front of the John Hays storehouse, which, like all others, was vacant. Seven or eight dead bod- ies, piled on the cart like rails, were carried in and laid on the floor-all that was left of Kersey's guerrillas. In one room in our home there were two beds, my father occupying one with the youngest child, Bruce, and my mother the other with two children. Suddenly one midnight the hysterical wife of a Union soldier in night clothes rapped at the door, imploring us to admit her quickly. My mother opened the door, when the woman, in the darkness and while in terror crying that the Rebels had entered the town, jumped into the wrong bed !
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