USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > History of Nashville, Tenn. > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
177
MILITARY HISTORY.
the fort upon the Tennessee regiment up to the moment of the charge, the order for which was given at a distance of one hundred and fifty yards from the fort. The order was promptly obeyed, and in less than ten min- utes, the Tennessee regiment being in front, the fort was in their posses- sion. He was the first captain in the fort, and when he entered it there were nine or ten other Tennesseeans in the fort, but no Mississippians. But in a few seconds, in proceeding through the fort toward a fortified stone building, and just as he left the fort, he descried Lieutenant-colonel McClung, of the Mississippi regiment, sword in hand and followed by fifteen or twenty Mississippians, about thirty steps to his right, making for the stone building. By this time our men in the fort had commenced firing upon the Mexicans on top of the stone building, when General Quitman rode up and ordered them to stop firing, saying they would kill their own men.
From this statement of Captain Cheatham it would appear that while the Tennessee regiment was first in the fort, the Mississippi regiment was first to the stone building, and thus at the time of General Quitman's or- der to stop firing between that building and the men of the First Tennes- see Regiment in the fort, who were firing into their own men.
Besides the above, there was additional evidence in a letter of Dr. S. M. Allen, of the Mississippi regiment, in which he said: " The Tennes- see regiment brought on the engagement at the most southern battery, and as we got close we found the way strewed with the wounded and the dead."
A meeting was held at the court-house in Nashville, October 28, 1846, in honor of the Tennessee volunteers. Dr. John Shelby was Chairman; Major R. B. Turner and John Davis, Esq,, Vice-presidents ; T. D. Mose- ley and James Campbell, Secretaries. Hon. Edwin H. Ewing presented a series of resolutions setting forth that as in the charging of Monte- rey the volunteers from Tennessee were especially distinguished; there- fore,
"Resolved, That in the assault upon Monterey the regiment of Ten- nessee volunteers under Colonel William B. Campbell have covered them- selves with glory, exhibiting in their charge upon the first fort the high- est qualities of the most tried veterans-calm intrepidity, fierce daring, and stubborn determination."
General Washington Barrow made a spirited address, and the question of raising a monument to the soldiers who had fallen at the storming of Monterey was initiated by the appointment of twenty-five citizens as a committee to have the matter in charge. The members of this committee from Davidson County were Washington Barrow, A. O. P. Nicholson, 12
178
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
John J. Hinton, and Thomas Claiborne. The other counties represented on the committee were Sumner, Smith, Hickman, Lawrence, Marshall, Bedford, and Lincoln.
Lieutenant Eastman, of the "Nashville Blues," died at Camargo, of disease, October 25, 1846.
In January, 1847, all the Tennessee troops were placed under com- mand of General Pillow. The battle of Buena Vista was fought on Feb- ruary 22 and 23, in which there were engaged only fifty-seven soldiers from Tennessee. Of these fourteen were killed and two wounded. After the close of the battle on the second day, there was a mutual demand on the part of each of the commanding generals for the surrender of the oth- er with his entire army. Neither complied, and General Taylor's reply to Santa Anna was caught up immediately by the people of the whole United States; and afterward in the campaign in which he was elected to the presidency it was used in an ironical manner by his political oppo- nents. It was: "General Taylor never surrenders."
The expedition for the attack on Vera Cruz landed on March 9, and almost immediately took up its march for that place. It consisted of about four thousand men, whose landing and progress afterward was op- posed by a small body of Mexican soldiers. These were driven back steadily with little difficulty, until they came to and took up a strong position on a high and steep hill. A body of Pennsylvania troops stormed the hill, but failed to dislodge the Mexicans. General Pillow, at the head of the Tennessee troops, made an attempt to dislodge the Mexicans, and in less than ten minutes was in possession of the hill. General Worth's men were quiet spectators of the success of this storm- ing party, and when asked by one of his soldiers what troops they were that had made the capture, he replied: "Tennesseeans, of course; don't you see how d-d ragged they are?" This hill thus taken was there- upon named "Tennessee Heights."
The siege of Vera Cruz lasted from March 22 to March 27, when the city capitulated. The First and Second Tennessee Regiments bore a conspicuous part in the storming of the works. They were at the time under the command of General Patterson, who, while not taking the com- mand away from Colonel Harney, yet formed them in line, and after a short artillery duel, a breach being made in the parapet, ordered a charge ; and Colonel Haskell, Captain Cheatham, and Captain Foster were the first men to leap over the breastworks.
After the taking of the city the Mexicans retreated to a bridge which crossed a lagoon. Here they made a stand. Colonel Harney, in his pursuit, halted at a distance of about half a mile. When Captain Cheat-
179
MILITARY HISTORY.
ham came up he resolved to make an attack upon the bridge. The bridge was forty yards long and ten yards wide, and the Mexicans had barri- caded the mouth of it and made a complete breastwork. To Colonel Harney's suggestion that an attack be made Captain Cheatham replied : "Let's send for Steptoe's battery; it can be here in two hours." In two hours Steptoe's battery was on the ground, with one twelve-pound and one twenty-four pound gun. Campbell's and Haskell's regiments also arrived at the same time. Colonel Harney ordered Captain Cheat- ham's company to the right, through the chaparral, and to commence firing on the bridge. This was to attract the attention of the Mexicans, while Steptoe moved up to within about sixty yards of the bridge with his battery. Cheatham advanced in the chaparral about two hundred yards, and halted at a distance of one hundred and fifty yards from the bridge, and as Colonel Haskell came up they began firing. When Steptoe reached his position he commenced firing on the bridge, and, after five rounds had been fired, Harney ordered a charge. Cheatham led the way, and with his company was the first on the bridge.
The battle of Cerro Gordo was fought April 18, 1847. In this battle S. W. Lauderdale, of the First Tennessee Regiment, was killed.
Lieutenant-colonel S. R. Anderson, of the First Tennessee Regiment, arrived in Nashville from Mexico May 18, the First and Second Regi- ments having left Vera Cruz for home about the 12th of that month. On June 4 a portion of the volunteers reached Nashville, the steam-boat " Clarksville" having brought them as far as Eddyville, and the "Swiss Boy" and the "Alleghany Mail" bringing them the rest of the way. There were about two hundred and fifty of them, and among them was Captain Cheatham.
On June 8 a grand reception was given the returned volunteers. The procession moved from the public square to the Nashville Female Acad- emy, where the flag given the regiment by the senior class the year be- fore was returned, its honor untarnished. Speeches were made by Colonel Campbell, Rev. C. D. Elliott, and W. N. Bilbo. A large num- ber of persons was in attendance, and the occasion was one long to be remembered.
In September, 1847, a new regiment was raised for the war, in Middle Tennessee. It was named the " Third Regiment of Tennessee Volun- teers." On the 23d ten companies were selected to compose the regi- ment, two of which were from Davidson County, commanded respective- ly by Captain Trigg and Captain Bradfute. Captain Bradfute's company was named the "Nashville Blues." The first lieutenant in this company was L. B. Sneed; second lieutenant, J. Young ; brevet second lieutenant,
180
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
L. L. Weakley; and orderly sergeant, James H. Page. The regiment rendezvoused at Nashville October I, and elected Captain B. F. Cheat- ham, colonel; - - Whitfield, lieutenant-colonel; and - - Solomon, major. On October 9 the regiment was ordered by Governor A. V. Brown to report to Major-general William O. Butler, at Louisville, Ky. On October 20 General Butler was in the city of Nashville, making prep- arations for the departure of the regiment.
Colonel Cheatham's regiment was at Vera Cruz November 16, 1847. Three men had been lost on the way: William Montgomery, of the "Nashville Blues," who stepped overboard into the Cumberland, and was drowned; John Moseley, of the "Nashville Blues," who died of sickness at Baton Rouge; and Zilman L. Walker, of Captain Trigg's company, who died on shipboard.
On November 24 the regiment, in company with the Fifth Indiana, re- ceived orders to march to Jalapa on the 25th of the month. Colonel Cheatham was in command of the brigade composed of the two regi- ments.
The brigade reached the City of Mexico January 17, 1848, at which time Colonel Joseph Lane was in command of the brigade.
Major-general Pillow and Brigadier-general Shields, whose conduct in the war with Mexico was made the subject of investigation, which is a matter of general history, were in Nashville May 19, 1848. A public dinner was tendered them, which they declined.
Peace was declared with Mexico July 4, 1848, and on the 29th of that month the Third Tennessee Regiment arrived in Nashville on the steam- boats "Vanleer" and "Countess." They were greeted at the wharf, on their return, by a large concourse of their fellow-citizens, and escorted to the court-house by the old volunteers and the citizens. An address of welcome was delivered by Rev. C. D. Elliott, and the reception was a notable affair, one in every way worthy the city and the cause.
The next war in which the citizens of Nashville participated, in com- mon with those of the State of Tennessee and the other States of the American Union, was the Civil War of 1861-65. If an attempt were made to trace the steps preliminary to this great conflict, the result would be a tolerably full history of the United States. The only choice open, therefore, is to select some event immediately connected with that war as a starting-point. The step here chosen was that of South Carolina in December, 1859, taken by both branches of her Legislature, in the adop- tion of a series of resolutions, of which the following bears most point- edly on the questions that had been for some time agitating the country :
"Resolved, That, re-affirming her right to secede from the Union, as
181
MILITARY HISTORY.
expressed in the ordinance of 1852, which was forborne from consid- erations of expediency only," etc.
These resolutions she sent to the slave-holding States, to Virginia by a special committee, and she also appropriated $100,000 " for the purpose of military preparation for any emergency."
The first expression of opinion in connection with political affairs by any public body in Davidson County, after the publication of the South Carolina resolutions, was at a Democratic meeting held January 2, 1860, at which it was resolved that the Harper's Ferry invasion was the natural consequence of the doctrines of the Black Republican and Abo- lition party ; that the Dred Scott decision met with their hearty approval; and that the squatter sovereignty doctrine was the correct one with re- gard to the Territories. Thus the meeting struck the question upon which the Democratic party in the South was at that time divided, and upon which, from that time on to the meeting of the Charleston Conven- tion, the divergence of opinion and sentiment became more widely diver- gent. The Democratic party was quite unanimous in the opinion that Congress could not constitutionally prohibit the existence of slavery in the Territories, yet almost the entire Northern wing of that party held to the doctrine that the people of any Territory, through their Legislature, could at any time exclude it from or abolish it in their Territory, and a large portion of the Democrats in the Southern States entertained the same view. The other portion of the Democratic party in the Southern States entertained the opinion that neither Congress nor the Territorial Legisla- ture had any authority whatever under the Constitution to deal with slav- ery in any way; that the people of a Territory could only deal with it in their sovereign capacity, that their sovereignty began only when they framed a State constitution, and that then they had the constitutional right to say whether slavery should or should not exist in the State. This class of Democrats taught that the squatter sovereignty doctrine advo- cated by Stephen A. Douglas, and, as before stated, adhered to by a large portion of the Southern Democracy as well as by the whole of the Northern Democracy, was as much opposed to the interests of the South as the doctrine of the Black Republican party, which advo- cated the right of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories; and to demand a National Democratic party true to the South, or otherwise to have a Democratic party at the South which would be true to those- interests. What led the Southern Democrats to this conclusion and to. make this demand was the failure of the squatter sovereignty principle to protect the rights of the South in the Territories. The practical work- ing of this principle was most clearly exhibited in Kansas, in which the:
182
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
adherents of slavery and its opponents had been for some years, and were still, struggling for the mastery; but in which it had become evi- dent that slavery must fail, and Kansas be admitted into the Union, as said the Hon. Alfred Iverson, United States Senator from the State of Georgia, with one Abolition Representative in Congress, and two Aboli- tion Senators. He could see no difference, he said, in its practical work- ings between squatter sovereignty and the Wilmot Proviso. Hon. Stephen A. Douglas afterward said that the sole object of the repeal of the Missou- ri Compromise was to enable the people of a Territory to establish or ex- clude slavery from the Territory by means of the Territorial Legislature, while yet in a Territorial condition, and he also said that every intelli- gent politician, North or South, knew that to be the case. Mr. Iverson, soon after this remark of Mr. Douglas, said that at the forth-coming Charleston Convention, at which it was expected to nominate a candi- date for the presidency, the South would demand as a condition prece- dent to any party affiliation with the Northern Democracy the recogni- tion of the South in the Territories. Subsequently Hon. George E. Pugh, United States Senator from Ohio, speaking for the Northern De- mocracy, said that it was immaterial to the entire Democracy of the North-west whether Mr. Iverson did or did not support the nominee of the Charleston Convention. They intended to support him unless South- ern fanaticism, carried to the pitch of mere folly, should drive them from the convention before nominations were made. He said to the South : "If you concur in the nominations of our choice, they will be elected; but if you nominate men who are not acceptable to us, who have sought all manner of ways to prove their devotion to the strange gods which Mr. Buchanan has lately set up to be worshiped, I give you distinct notice that they will be defeated as sure as the day of election shall arrive."
The Democratic State Convention met at Nashville January 19, 1860. With reference to the great question of the day, the constitutional status of slavery in the Territories, it passed the following resolution :
" Resolved, That the Federal Government has no right to interfere with slavery in the States; nor to introduce it or to exclude it from the Ter- ritories, and no duty to perform in relation thereto, but to protect the rights of the owner from wrong and to restore fugitives from labor ; these duties it cannot withhold without a violation of the Constitution."
Commenting on the signs of the times, the Memphis Avalanche said: " Our numbers in the North have been gradually growing smaller, year after year, until we are in a hopeless minority in every Northern State. Driven from New England and most of the Northern States, the genius of Democracy found a resting-place in the prosperous young State of
183
MILITARY HISTORY.
Illinois, and it was supposed that she, aided by one or two other North- ern States, would forever serve as a breakwater to the waves of fanati- cism; but alas for the mutability of earthly expectations! the Democ- racy of Illinois are abolitionized. We can expect no more from her in future."
About the same time the Charleston News said: "There can be no doubt that the constitutional right to enter the Territories with property of any and every kind will be the test question of the union of the North- ern and Southern sections of the Democracy in the Charleston Conven- tion. This will be the preliminary question before any other business is brought before the convention."
The Washington States and Union, on the other hand, protested against the admission into the Charleston Convention of all delegates who were prepared to insist upon a distinct recognition of the great Southern Dem- ocratic doctrine of the right under the Constitution to the protection of slave property in the Territories, and on the failure to secure such recog- nition to withdraw from the convention. The States and Union said that such delegates had no more right in the convention, after having thus announced in advance their purpose to withdraw from it unless they should succeed in getting their plank inserted in the platform, than they had in the Abolition Convention in Chicago. The Louisville Dem- ocrat said that it was morally impossible for the Northern Democracy to stand on the platform so constructed as to demand protection for slave property in the Territories by Congressional enactment, in case such protection was refused by the Territorial Legislature. It also said that President Buchanan was laboring under a marvelous hallucination when he said, in his message to Congress a short time before, that the right in question had been established by the Dred Scott decision, and added : " There is but one rational end to this issue, and that is its use in uniting the South for a Southern Confederacy, and those aiming at this result have the merit of a rational purpose, wrong as it is."
The St. Louis Republican, now the St. Louis Republic, on this same question said: "If the Alabama platform should be adopted, even with the aid of South Carolina and Mississippi, there would be an end of the contest. The Black Republican party would be at once put in posses- sion of the Government, and if the dissolution of the Union should fol- low, it would be the act of the slave States ; but there is no earthly reason why we should anticipate such a result of the contest. Mr. Buchanan could not have been elected without the aid of votes from the free States, nor can any man now be elected without votes from these States; and he is a traitor in his heart now-the enemy of the Union-who would seek
184
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
to inaugurate such a state of things as would drive every free State vote from him. He contemplates disunion, and should be spotted as such."
These extracts show that upon the great question then at issue, the constitutional rights of slavery in the Territories, the two sections of the Democratic party were at open and, as events showed, at hopeless issue. This issue was carried into the Charleston Convention, and resulted in breaking up that convention, in the dissolution of the Democratic party, in the attempted dissolution of the Union, and the consequent internecine and sanguinary conflict which lasted from April, 1861, to May, 1865. When the Charleston Convention assembled, the rights of the South in the Territories was, as had been foreshadowed, made the test of affilia- tion between the two sections of the Democratic party. The platform of the Southern wing contained the test in the following resolution:
" That the Government of a Territory organized by Congress is pro- visional and temporary, and during its existence all citizens of the United States have an equal right to settle with their property in the Territory, without their rights, either of person or property, being destroyed or im- paired by Congressional or Territorial Legislation."
This platform being put to a vote, it was lost by 165 votes against it to 138 for it. The plank of the Douglas party presented to the convention was without definite meaning on this subject. It said:
"Resolved, That the Democratic party will abide by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on questions of constitutional law."
Upon the refusal of the convention to adopt the platform which had been reported by a majority of the Committee on Resolutions, the dele- gates from Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana withdrew from the con- vention, as did also a portion of the delegates from several other Southern States, to the number in the aggregate of forty-nine. After the seces- sion of these forty-nine members, Mr. Howard, of Tennessee, intro- duced a resolution, which was adopted, to the effect that notwithstanding a portion of the delegates had withdrawn, two-thirds of the vote of the entire convention should be required to nominate a candidate for the presidency. This resolution made it impossible for the friends of Judge Douglas to secure his nomination in that convention, and it was com- pelled to adjourn without having presented a candidate to the country.
It is well known who were the candidates of the respective parties in the campaign which followed, and it is also well known that through the irreconcilable differences in the Democratic party over the rights of slavery in the Territories while they remained Territories that Abra- ham Lincoln, of Illinois, was elected President of the United States by a
185
MILITARY HISTORY.
popular vote of 1,857,610, as against a popular vote of 2,804,560 for the other three candidates combined. The vote in Nashville was as follows:
NAMES.
First
Ward.
Second
Ward.
Third
Ward.
Fourth
Ward.
Ward.
Ward.
Seventh
Ward.
Eighth
Ward.
Total.
Bell ..
275
217
253
327
5II
239
115
171
2,108
Breckinridge
252
I2I
195
161
I35
I86
95
80
1,225
Douglas ..
34
33
50
38!
20
42
2
14
235
The totals in the county were as follows: Bell, 3,851; Breckinridge, 2,431 ; Douglas, 383.
The total vote in the State for John Bell was 69,710; for John C. Breckinridge, 65,053; and for Stephen A. Douglas, 10, 384.
On November 26, 1860, an address was published to the people of Tennessee, suggesting that primary meetings be called in the various counties, at which resolutions should be adopted calling upon the Gov- ernor to convene the Legislature, with the view of providing for a State Convention, the object of which should be to bring about a conference of the Southern States to consider existing political troubles and if pos- sible to compose sectional strife. This address was signed by Neill S. Brown, Edwin H. Ewing, Allen A. Hall, John H. Callender, Andrew Ewing, Leon Trousdale, S. R. Anderson, C. C. Winston, S. L. Finley, W. R. Hurley, H. S. Foote, Charles M. Carroll, John Lellyett, and H. H. Harrison. The meeting in Davidson County, held in accordance with this suggestion, was on December 1, 1860. A meeting was held at the court-house December 29, 1860, of which Russell Houston was made President; W. H. Polk, Andrew Ewing, and Dr. W. R. Hur- ley, Vice-presidents; and the various city editors requested to act as Secretaries. On motion of Governor Foote, the President of the meet- ing appointed a Committee on Resolutions as follows: Governor H. S. Foote, W. H. Polk, F. K. Zollicoffer, Hon. Andrew Ewing, James Whitworth, J. E. Manlove; General H. Smith, of Sumner County; R. C. Foster, Sr., W. G. Harding, M. M. Monahan; D. D. Holman, of Robertson County; Dr. W. P. Jones; William Ellis, of Williamson County; M. D. Cardwell, of Weakley County; and W. A. Bunter. Governor Foote, as chairman of the committee, reported a series of reso- lutions, the preamble to which recited that a President of the United States had just been elected by a political party which was undoubtedly sectional; that the extreme sectional opinions held by that party might involve the domestic institutions of the South in the most serious jeop- ardy; that the State of South Carolina had already seceded from the Union; and that incipient arrangements had been made in several of
Fifth
Sixth
186
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
the other Southern States to follow her example; yet notwithstanding these steps, the compact of union provided for in the Federal constitution and the provisos embodied in that sacred instrument were still of inesti- mable value and should be firmly and everlastingly maintained.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.