USA > Tennessee > Monroe County > Sweetwater > History of Sweetwater Valley > Part 34
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ever that Mrs. Carter's father lived in Ducktown and that his name was Borong. So about 10 a. m. we left for that place to find out what we could there. That night we stayed at a Mr. Martin's about six miles southeast of Murphy. Next morning bright and early we were on our way. We had traveled for about an hour and were a short distance from the bridge over the Notla and we came to the forks of the road, when Taylor remarked "Lets get off our horses and have a consultation." I noticed that he had been unusually silent and serious for the last mile or two of our journey and looked as if in a deep study. When we dismounted he did not say any- thing for some time; then he said: "I believe Mr. Fry was right and I feel it my duty to say to you that we ought not to risk our lives for the sake of a horse that may be stolen again and may soon be impressed for the service of one army or the other. I think we had' bet- ter return by way of Murphy and let the horse go." "From what Mr. Fry said," I answered, "will it not be as dangerous to return that way as to go on." "Well I'm going back," he said, "what are you going to do?" and he turned his horse's head in the direction of Mur- phy. "I'm going to get that horse," I replied, "that's what I came for. I'm not going back home and have Pa saying I should have prevented the horse from being stolen and when he sent me after him I did not make the proper effort to get him. I do not suppose I could take the horse and man back by myself but I'm going to get that horse or know the reason why I can't." I rather thought he was bluffing and I concluded to put up one myself. Still there was no decision. After some little time he offered as a compromise that he would go to Ducktown with me and if we found out nothing there we would return home by the most feasible route. I agreed. We had not gone far till he remarked: "The fact is I could not go back and face your mother and father if I had deserted you and anything happened to you." That was the way I had him sized up but I did not think it policy to tell him so then. We then wended our way to Ducktown, a long, long, lonesome road and one of the most hilly I've ever traveled. There is not I believe a hundred yards at one place of level road, or was not at that time, between Notla Bridge and Duck-
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town. (Why the name Ducktown I've often wondered, for I have never seen a duck there, wild or tame.)
When we reached Ducktown we found Mr. Borong was engaged in roasting copper ore so as to form it into mattes. This was the crude form in which the cop- per was hauled to Cleveland, Tenn. The copper mined at Ducktown then was mostly used by the Confederacy. Mr. Taylor asked Mr. Borong if he had seen his son- in-law or if he had passed through. He said he had two or three days previously and told when asked what kind of a horse Carter was riding. He further in- formed us that his daughter was up in Fannin County, Ga., near Morganton and he thought his son-in-law had gone to where she was. Mr. Taylor then informed him that Carter was riding a horse that was stolen in Sweet- water Valley but we did not know how he got it but if he came by the horse honestly he would be protected. Mr. Borong said that his son-in-law had told him that he was absent from his regiment on furlough and that he had swapped for the horse. He said that he had no desire to shield his son-in-law if he was a thief. We thought he was honest and meant what he said but still we preferred not to take any chances and lost no time in getting to Morganton, which place we reached about sundown. We put up at the hotel. Taylor left the ho- tel soon to hunt up the sheriff of the county. He made arrangements with him to get a deputy or two and hunt up our man and horse. He kept this secret from me and they did not start on the expedition until after I had gone to sleep. As the slang phrase goes "he put one over me."
He woke me up very early in the next morning (Sun- day) and said we were ready to start home. "What, without the man and horse?" I asked. "No, we got them." I was in no good humor about his leaving me behind the night before but consoled myself that I had got a good night's rest, and that my horse was fresh.
Taylor got no more than two or three hours rest at most. He had also thought best to hire a horse for the night and let the one he had been riding get a good feed and rest so that we would be ready for any contingen- cies.
Taylor told me how they had captured Carter. He
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would, they thought, likely be in the woods or on the watch in the day time and the best chance to get him would be at night. Taylor, the sheriff and one deputy, I think, found out that Carter was suspected to be with his wife about five miles from Morganton towards Noon- tootla Creek. They reached the cabin he was in about midnight. They surrounded the house and knocked at the door and the sheriff, when Carter's wife answered, told her he wanted to see her husband. She denied his being there. The sheriff said: "I know that is not so; I know he is in there. You better tell him to come out or let us in." He finally after much parley came out and surrendered. But there was no horse in the stable or near the house. When asked what he had done with him he denied having had any such horse. Taylor said that partly by threats and partly through his wife's per- suasion they got Carter to take them about a half mile from the house out in the woods to where the horse .was tied. However they found no saddle and Carter had to ride bareback. Taylor and his party reached Morgan- ton about 2 in the morning. The sheriff took charge of the prisoner and let Taylor sleep awhile. Before sun up we were on our way back with the captured man and horse, and truly glad that we had come out right so far. - One of the sheriff's deputies escorted us for four or five miles on our return as we did not know what Carter's friends might attempt to do. We did not intend to give them any time to "mobilize." The officer untied him and turned him over to us and we hurried on our way. We wanted to get out of Georgia into Tennessee in short order and we were not going to be bothered leading the horse he was riding and we warned him not to try to escape. We knew the bringing him out of Georgia into Tennessee was entirely illegal both from a civil and a military point of view. We had no order from Colonel Hart or any commanding officer to arrest him as a de- serter and we had no warrant for his arrest from any civil authorities in either Tennessee or Georgia. We had no requisition from Governor Harris of Tennessee to the governor of Georgia. We did not know even where Governor Harris was and the governor of Georgia was at Milledgeville. There were no telephone, tele- graph or railroad lines nearer than the E. T. & Ga.,
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now the Southern Railway. How much it cost to get him out of Fannin County I do not now remember. I expect though as much as the horse was worth. We had plenty of money along and even some money besides Con- federate. We knew though that Carter was in no shape to appeal either to the civil or military authorities. On more than one account however we were anxious to get out of Georgia as soon as possible.
After we traveled eight or ten miles Carter asked us by what route we intended going back. Taylor told him we thought of crossing at Taylor's Ferry and thence by the toll gate to Sweetwater the way he came. At this he was very much pleased, entirely too much so we thought. It would have been best for him to have dis- sembled and looked pained. After discussing the mat- ter in a low tone, so that he could not hear, we fully de- termined to come back by Ducktown, down Ocoee, by Benton and Athens. When we came to the Taylor's Ferry road and we took the other route he called our attention to the fact that we were taking the wrong road. When we told him we had changed our minds and were not going that way he seemed very much disappointed and tried to get us to take the Taylor's Ferry route. This strengthened us in our determination to do the op- posite. So we came down the Ocoee River for many miles. We saw nobody for nearly a half day's travel. About the only thing that attracted our attention except the scenery, and we were not thinking of that, was a gray rebel roundabout coat lying on a rock beside the road. The rapid river was on one side of us and a steep mountain on the other. We paused not to investigate but wondered whether some poor fellow had met his fate and been thrown into the river. We were then, if I mis- take not, in the Frog Mountain region, where even now after fifty years have passed, accidents sometimes hap- pen to travelers, especially deputy revenue collec- tors. That night (Sunday) we stayed at Captain Han- na's, six miles east of Benton in Polk County. We asked Captain Hanna if he could get any one to guard our prisoner while we slept. He said that he owned a boy that was half nigger and half Indian,-nigger enough to obey orders and Indian enough to be watchful and not afraid of anything and was trusty. When we told
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the half-breed that we would pay him well if he did not let the man escape, he put his hand on his gun and smiled significantly and seemed much pleased with his job. We ate dinner at Mrs. Matthews near Athens the next day, it being Monday, July 13, 1863. Mr. Taylor that afternoon turned off at Reagan's to go to his fath- er's on Pond Creek. As we had gotten to be very good friends in our two days' acquaintance I was satisfied that my companion would come quietly, however, re- luctantly, with me to my father's. This he did. My father, I. T. Lenoir, then lived one and a half miles south of Sweetwater. The horse and I were glad to get home and mother was delighted to see me but I do not think she surmised that I had been absent on anything but a rather wearisome mountain trip. Father and a rebel soldier by the name of James Wilson from Owen County, Ky., relieved me of Carter and turned him over to the Confederate authorities at Sweetwater. I heard afterward that he was sent to Richmond to be punished' as a deserter.
When I told my father what risks we ran on the trip did he embrace me and say I was a young hero? Noth- ing of the kind; but he did say that I was very, very foolish when I learned the existing conditions not to turn back-horse or no horse. I considered this unkind, as that was the nearest I ever came to doing the Casa- bianca act-except his was a ship and mine was a horse. I up and told my father that we brought back our own horse and not somebody else's like he did from Alabama and remarked more forcibly than grammatically that "If another horse gets stole it can just stay stole so far as I am concerned." I was just 16 then and this was my declaration of independence on July 13 instead of the 4th.
Now in the six days we were absent I estimate that we traveled 264 miles over rough roads, up and down mountains, fording many rivers and creeks which any serious rise would have rendered impassable. But the weather was fine and the five nights we spent away from home we were fortunate in having good stopping places. My horse was small but I did not myself then weigh more than 115 pounds, and I was accustomed to riding. We were in the saddle at least thirteen hours
.
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a day. We could get no corn for our horses but had to depend for feed on sheaf oats and new hay. The latter part of our journey we were also encumbered with a prisoner.
And all this "much ado" was about a warty horse which one of Sherman's bummers not long afterward "confiscated" and probably after he had ridden him as far as he could force him to go, left him to die by the roadside.
Carter did not strike me as being a bad man but was rather the victim of circumstances. He was about 27 or 28 years of age he said when he joined the army and had been married several years. He was very ignorant and unlettered. His volunteering as well as I could un- derstand came about in this wise. The secession ladies of Hiwassee, Ga., and the country around made a flag, baked a big dinner, advertised a rally, got a politician to make a speech: "That the Yankees wanted to take our property, free our negroes, violate state rights and force us into submission." They waved the stars and bars, the fifer played Dixie, the drummer rattled the snare drum. "Fall in line, boys, we wont be gone more than three or four months, and come back covered with glory. Whoopee! Hurrah!" Now the fellow had no property, had never seen a half dozen black folks in his life, knew nothing of state rights and secession. But he thought it would be great to ride a horse, wear a uni- form, lie around the camp fire, like he used to do coon hunting, and crack jokes with the boys. And what a good thing it would be not to have to plow, in a rocky, stumpy new ground and still have his family taken care of. Just a picnic all the time! Then he soon found out what war was. He heard from home that his wife was sick and his children were hungry. He asked for a fur- lough. Men were too scarce and he was refused. He stole a horse between suns and went anyhow. He got caught. He was returned to his command. He was probably tried by court martial for desertion. He was sentenced. A squad was ordered to take him to Rich- mond and report back in half an hour. Thus ended the chapter for him. The pity of it was he did not realize what it was all about. "What the difference?" you might say. "He was nothing but a Georgia cracker;
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just 'poor white trash'." True; yet he was a human being; there were wife and children; they loved him, needed hin.
But most of the persons mentioned above have long since passed away. Taylor died in Paris, Texas, a year and a half ago. Were it pertinent to this history it might be interesting to note the changes commercial and physical a half century has wrought in the regions we traversed on our trip; how the rivers and creeks we forded are now spanned by steel bridges; how their wa- ters once crystal have been discolored by wood and chemical acids; how the fish have been killed off by tan bark ooze and sawdust; how most of the mountains have been denuded of their magnificent forest trees; how the whole country has been crisscrossed by telephone and telegraph wires; how the whistle of the locomotive breaks the once quiet and stillness of the valleys and mountains; how the waterfall of the streams has been utilized to furnish light and power to distant cities; especially how the talc, marble, gold, iron, manganese and copper have added untold millions to the wealth of the nation, in so much that the production of the Duck- town region alone for the last fifty years would be equal to the assessed valuation of all the property in the city of Knoxville; how the log cabin has given place to the pretentious colonial dwelling; how summer residences and hotels dot the landscapes; but to do this would' re- quire a book.
And here's the conclusion of the matter :
The icy rills in leafy vales, That once did quench the thirst of deer, The tourist there stale jokes retails And in their waters cools his beer; And where the huntsman, gun and dogs, Did chase fierce bruin to his lair, The two-step girl in summer togs Hunts down the tired millionaire.
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A WAR EPISODE.
From a paper prepared by Mrs. M. T. Williams, en- titled "Reminiscences of the Bushwhackers," J. C. Vaughn, Chapter U. D. C., by permission, we make the
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following extracts: Mrs. Williams relates that shortly after the Battle of Philadelphia, in October, 1863, she and her husband and children were spending a quiet evening at home, not expecting any unusual happening, but, she says : "On glancing up we saw a company of. bushwhackers approaching us, who however passed di- agonally by us going toward the Tellico River. We sat and watched them pass out of sight. My husband left immediately, as I supposed, to go to the woods to look after his stock, as the only way we could keep stock to work the land was to hide it in the woods. But in- stead of going there he went to Colonel C. M. McGhee's. (Here Mr. Williams takes up the story.) "From Col -. onel McGhee I secured one of his fleetest (race) horses. I went (post haste) to Sweetwater to notify General Vaughn, who was there reorganizing his regiment, which had not been exchanged after the Battle of Vicksburg. General Vaughn, after getting the information, at once took command of a company or small squadron of cav- alry, of the 8th Tennessee, commanded by Captain Mc- Gentis containing also a few soldiers from different com- mands, who chanced to be on hand, and started late in the evening in pursuit of the bushwhackers. I had just got to Sweetwater off of Wheeler's raid and volunteered to go along. I took supper at Madisonville with Bob Houston who went with us. We rode to near Coco Creek that night where the command rested until near morn- ing. Meantime I had scouted the country and found that the bushwhackers had struck the old turnpike road at Coco Creek and gone on in the direction of North Car- olina. Dressed as a Yankee soldier I acted as scout and went on in advance of General Vaughan and the com- mand to locate the crowd. We overtook them at Evans' Mill on Beaver Dam Creek, in Cherokee County, N. C. When I rode into them I turned back and notified Gen- eral Vaughn, when he notified Captain McGentis to charge them at once. We killed two and captured seven- teen, including Lieutenant Conley, a Yankee officer with Bryson. We lost one man killed. I chased Bryson some distance but he, being better mounted than I, got away from me in the mountains. Captain Jim Taylor, with a squad of Indians, trailed him across the mountains a few days afterwards, perhaps the next day, and killed
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him on Coco Creek, near where he lived. However that did not break up the bushwhackers in Monroe County.
THE TOWN OF PHILADELPHIA.
I have access to a map owned by W. C. Cannon, of Philadelphia, which purports to be a certified copy of the original map of Phila- delphia, which William Knox had laid off in 1822 or prior thereto. This map was copied from one drawn by Robert Wear. The num- bers of the lots ran from 1 to 70, commencing at the northwest corner of the town in the bend of the creek number one and ending in num- ber seventy on the west side of what is known as the Bacome Branch. The map shows the purchasers of lots up to April, 1822, at which time about twenty-five lots had been sold. James Price was the purchaser of lot number one, and Joseph Price, the brother of James Price, pur- chased lot number two. Most of the names mentioned as purchasers of lots arc unfamiliar to the present generation. Few of their descen- dants are now living in this section. Jacob Pearson purchased- lots numbers ten and eleven, opposite to where the mill now stands. Jacob Pearson built the brick house which stands west of the spring, where Mrs. W. G. Lenoir now (1916) lives. Lot No. 39, now owned by Robert Mims, formerly the home of Robert Cleveland, was bought by John Grigsby. Lot No. 58 was the one on which Matthew Nelson, former treasurer of the State, built the log house in which he lived and which is still standing. Lot No. 18, where the Presbyterian church now stands, was purchased by Amos Chesnut. Lots Nos. 19, 20 and 21 were purchased by Richard Hill, John Haskins and Hiram Lambert, respectively. Lot No. 28, where Dr. Ben Franklin once lived and now owned by John Thompson, was purchased by Jonas Israel. Lots Nos. 45, 46 and 47 constitute the public square of the town.
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF U. S. A. AT PHILA- DELPHIA
Was organized in 1820 by the Rev. William Eagleton and first had a temporary place of worship in the town. The first building was a brick which was .erected about. 1829 in the cemetery north of the creek and town. This building was destroyed by fire during the Civil War. The present building was erected during 1872 and was dedicated on September 22, of that year. The church at Philadelphia was called the Mt. Zion Church. Dur- ing its early days Revs. William Eagleton, Abel Pear- son and Hilary Patrick were its ministerial supplies. In 1828 the Rev. Thomas Brown became its pastor and remained in charge until 1872. The Rev. Thomas Rob- erts served the church in the years of 1872 and 1873. The Rev. C. E. Tedford was pastor from June, 1874, un- til June, 1877; the Rev. Donald McDonald 1877 to 1883, inclusive; the Rev. Joseph Clements 1884 to 1886 and
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the Revs. J. H. McConnell, James McDonald and P. M. Bartlett were temporary supplies until 1892 when the Rev. J. B. Creswell took charge in May of that year and remains the pastor until this time (1916).
The following persons have served as elders:
In 1827, Moses Renshaw, James Patton, Stephen Low, Robert Shaw, James Martin, Thomas Craighead, Jacob Pearson, John Ramsey, Cum- mings McCoy.
In 1833, James Taylor and Stephen Dillard.
In 1843, James Harrison, M. D., William Rodgers, M. D .; in 1850, Thomas McCauley; in 1851, David F. Jamieson; in 1854, A. W. Cozart; in 1857, Solomon Bogart; in 1877, W. L. Brown; in 1885, George C. Ruggles; in 1891, Samuel J. Sparks.
Clerks of the Session: In 1827, Cummings McCoy; in 1829, John Ramsey; in 1843, William Rodgers; in 1846, Dr. James F. Harrison; in 1857, Solomon Bogart; in 1877, W. L. Brown.
THE BATTLE OF PHILADELPHIA.
As this was the only important engagement fought within the bounds of Sweetwater Valley during the Civil War, it would be perti- nent and interesting to relate some of the occurrences which led up to it, before giving the reports of the commanders on each side, which I hereto append.
The latter part of August, 1863, General Burnside with a large force of cavalry and mounted infantry, having crossed the Cumberland Moun- tains, struck the railroad at Lenoir's Station, now Lenoir City. The Confederate forces did not attempt to resist their approach. They had previously prepared the Loudon Railroad bridge for destruction by dis- tributing inflammable material on it, and on they set fire to it and burned it to prevent pursuit. The object of the Confederates was to concentrate somewhere about Chattanooga and to defeat Rose- crans in his flank movement on that place. So, after the battle of Chickamauga, on the 19th and 20th of September, 1863, cavalry was sent towards Knoxville by the Confederates to drive the Federals out of the country and prepare the way for Longstreet's forces to come afterwards. In the Confederate official reports there seems to be some confusion as to who was the senior officer in the Second Cavalry Brigade, Colonel G. G. Dibrell and J. J. Morrison both signing them- selves as commanding officers. It seems that the Second Cavalry Brigade was divided into two parts and approached Philadelphia, where Wolford's Brigade of Cavalry was encamped, by different routes. Colonel Morrison came through Bradley County, passing in the neigh- borhood of Georgetown, where they encamped for a couple of weeks. They crossed the Hiwassee River, partly by fording and partly by ferrying, between Charleston and the Tennessee River, and, as Colonel Morrison in his reports relates, traveled very rapidly through Meigs and Roane Counties to get between Loudon and Philadelphia to cut off Wolford's forces from their base at Loudon. The forces under his command, though not so stated by him in his official report, were the Sixteenth Battalion and the Sixth and First Georgia Cavalry, com- manded by Colonel Morrison. Scouts were sent ahead by him to ascer- tain, if possible, the location of the Federal pickets, the whereabouts and number of the Federal troops and their contemplated movements. For this duty Private J. A. Reagan and five others from Neil's Battalion
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were sent with instructions not to spare their horses and to report as soon as possible. They returned and made a clear and satisfactory report. Colonel Morrison's command succeeded in concealing their movement and struck the railroad at the old Cannon residence, one and one-half miles northeast of Philadelphia.
Colonel G. G. Dibrell, with the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, with some parts of the Third, Thirty-first and Fifty-ninth Tennessee Regiments acting as mounted infantry, approached by way of Charleston, Athens and Sweetwater. The engagement was fought on the morning of October 20th. There were some pickets stationed near the Cleveland church. A small party of Confederates, in order to make a complete surprise, attempted to get behind them by the road which crosses the railroad near the old Lillard place, between the Cleveland church and Philadelphia, but these pickets happened to see them and made their escape to Philadelphia. They reported to General Wolford that the Confederates were coming from Sweetwater. When the Con- federates found out that the pickets had not been captured they came on as rapidly as possible. About this time the Federals became aware that a force of the enemy were approaching from the direction of Loudon. They made a charge on Morrison's command with the in- tention of breaking through and escaping to Loudon, where the in -. fantry was encamped. For the space of fifteen or twenty minutes there was a very hotly contested engagement, and although Colonel Morrison's command was forced back for a short distance, they suc- ceeded in blocking the exit of the Federals towards Loudon. About that time they were attacked by the forces under Colonel Dibrell from the Sweetwater side. Those of Wolford's command that were not taken prisoners crossed Sweetwater Creek at and below the town of Philadelphia, making a disorderly retreat, each man for himself, going around to the north of Morrison's command, most of them finally reaching Loudon.
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