USA > Tennessee > Johnson County > History of the Thirteenth Regiment, Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, U. S. A. > Part 33
USA > Tennessee > Carter County > History of the Thirteenth Regiment, Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, U. S. A. > Part 33
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After the congregation was dismissed one of the men was heard to say to the other. "What do you think of the sermon ?" The other replied : "Well, there is a great deai of truth in what he said, there was a great deal of un- necessary cruelty shown towards the loyal men of East Tennessee by our people."
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At another time the Rev. Mr. Hughes was engaged in what is known as a union-revival meeting at a Southern M. E. Church. It so happened that the minister of that church had been a Confederate soldier. The meeting was a very successful one and resulted in many conver sions and a general awakening of religious fervor and zeal. At one of the meetings the ministers both got very happy and were shaking hands around when the Southern minister grasped the hand of Mr. Hughes and said : "Thank God, Brother Hughes, there will be no deform- ities in heaven, and no eyes shot out there." The brother replied : "Yes, and thank the Lord there will be no rebels there to shoot them out." The good old brother prob- ably did not mean it in the sense that no rebels would get to heaven, but that in that world all would be peace and brotherly love.
In writing up the various subjects pertaining to the people of Carter and Johnson counties we have had fre- quent occasion to allude to the manners and customs and their modes of enjoyment previous to the Civil War. It might be well to say that circumstances have wrought many changes that are not to be regretted; but whether these changes have brought about a greater amount of happiness it is needless to discuss.
The car of progress lias driven before it many primi- tive customs that were necessary and desirable in their day and generation, and which contributed to the happi- ness and welfare of the people under the conditions that existed then, but we can scarcely lament that elegant school and college buildings, such as may be found at Elizabethton and Milligan, Mountain City and Butler, and throughout the more rural sections of Carter and Johnson counties, as well, have supplanted the less pre- tentious school buildings of those towns in the ante-bellunt days, and the rude log school houses and slab-benches of the rural districts. The advancement in education, we trust, is driving out the great impediment to progress and refinement to social order, and to that desirable state of society that will discountenance. disapprove and banish
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forever from its presence that greatest enemy of man- kind, alcohol, which has been so fruitful of crime and so detrimental to all that is good and noble and elevating, both among the rich and the poor, and in high and low places. Neither can we very well offer regrets that the quiltings and log-rollings and corn-huskings, the shoot- ing matches and musters, the frolics and dances have given place to a great extent, at least in the better class of society, to more refined amusements and enjoyments, such as the theatre, the club-room, the reading-room, tea parties, Sunday-school, the Christian Associations of various kinds, and other modern modes of entertainment looking to a higher enjoyment of life, and to the improve- ment of the mind, enlarging human capacity to enjoy the manifold blessings of life, and teaching the great lesson of love which embraces the whole Divine law.
Let us trust that in the Divine plan the scenes through which the generation that is now rapidly passing away, passed, was for some great purpose, though incomprehen- sible to us. Perhaps such scenes were necessary to dem- onstrate the horrors of civil war with such awfulness that none would dare repeat it ; to place the seal of condemnna- tion forever upon human slavery, and to teach other great lessons. Perhaps it was all necessary to seal, in an indis- soluble Union, never to be broken, the great common- wealths, extending from ocean to ocean, and from the icy and inhospitable climate of the North to the gentle breezes of the gulf where perennial flowers grow, so that, united they would bless mankind forever with an ex- ample of "Liberty enlightened by law;" and its effulgent rays be destined to give light and liberty to all peoples to the end of time.
Were these the purposes and designs of the great Civil War in the mind of Deity, which for the fierceness of the struggle, the heroism displayed on both sides, its dura- tion, loss of life and property, the suffering it entailed, has no parallel in the history of modern times, (and who can say these were not its purposes?) then the South, as well as the North, was in the right. Those who fought under the stars and bars were fulfilling the same destiny
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as those who fought under the stars and stripes, and all were instruments, first in purifying, and next in giving prestige to a Government that is to be the hope of the world, and the arbiter of nations; whose flag must be the emblem of peace, and whose strength and greatness must lie in the intelligence, patriotism and Christian prin- ciples of its people, and, with the world's consciousness of a mighty power, to be wielded only for the right, and for the defense of the weak, peace will at last prevail over all the earth, and war, with its horrors, will be known no more.
In apparent fulfillment of such a destiny, at the close of hostilities, more than a million of armed men, fresh from the field of strife, assumed the duties of citizenship, and turned their thoughts at once to building up ruined homes and fortunes, exhibiting no trace of the demoralization of the camp, but became the leading citizens of the nation. and the country went forward in progress, in the arts and sciences, in agriculture and in all the peaceful pursuits of life as no other country ever has done, obliterating the scars of Civil War, building churches and institutions of learning, uniting the remote parts of the country by bands of steel, pushng out for their share of the world's com- merce, keeping pace with the age in inventions, and only pausing at almost the close of the century that had seem- ingly come near witnessing its annihilation, to drive Spain from the Western Continent at almost a single blow, to emphasize its adherence to the Monroe Doctrine, and dem- onstrate that our nation is a world-power.
We have ample reason to believe that our country un- der the guidance of wise and safe rulers, purified through the fiery furnace of civil war, united, prosperous and happy, has a destiny before it far greater and grander than its most optimistic founders, builders and defenders ever dared to dream of.
"Sail on, O, ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great ! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, "Is hanging breathless on thy fate."
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CHAPTER XXIX.
A Sketch of Daniel Ellis' Adventures as Union Pilot, With Many Thrilling Adventures and Hair-Breadth Escapes of This Brave and Daring Scout and Pilot Who Took More Than 4000 Men Into the Federal Army From East Tennessee, South- west Virginia and Western North Carolina, and Whose Name is Familiar to Thousands of Unior Veterans All Over the United States.
The remarkable career of Daniel Ellis as a daring and successful scout and pilot, and the extraordinary service rendered to the United States Government in conducting 4000 men from East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina into the Federal lines, swelling the Union ranks by that large number of brave men at a time when they were greatly needed to uphold the Union cause, deserves more than a passing notice. We there- fore devote this chapter to a sketch of the life and ad- ventures of this unpretentious citizen and soldier whose services were no less helpful and important to the Union people, especially of Carter and Johnson counties, Tenn., than they were to the Government he served so faithfully and well.
A description of the man, and an account of his early environments, and the distinctive personality that fitted him for the peculiar service that made him famous will no doubt be read with absorbing interest by those who enjoy reading about the romantic or heroic phases of human life.
Daniel Ellis was born in Carter county, Tenn., De- cember 27, 1827. His father, Wiley Ellis, though a small land holder, was comparatively poor and he and his chil- dren, eight in number, were compelled to labor to secure a modest living.
Daniel was not of a literary turn of mind and if he had been he had poor opportunities to improve his mind, as the schools in the neighborhood were poor and his father
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was not able to send him off to school. Hence he grew up to manhood with little learning or knowledge of the world. His youth had been spent working on a poor farm, hunting, fishing and indulging in the usual sports and pastimes of the ordinary backwoods boy of that day.
Being full of patriotism and fond of adventures, he, together with a large number of young men from Carter and Johnson counties, responded to the call for volunteers to go to Mexico. He enlisted in Captain Patterson's company of the 5th Regiment, Tennessee Volunteers, in March, 1847. His company left Jonesboro, Tenn., about the Ist of March, 1847. It went in flat boats to Chatta- nooga, Tenn., where the boats were taken in tow by steamboats and taken to Memphis, and from there to New Orleans. The regiment reached Vera Cruz, Mexico, about April 1, 1847. The war ended before this regi- ment got into any very exciting service.
Ellis, together with his comrade; from Carter and John- son counties, returned to their homes. He then served an apprenticeship as wagon and carriage-maker at Jones- boro, Tenn. After learning his trade he married in Wash- ington county, Tenn., and returned to his native county, where he settled down. He divided his time thereafter between farming and working at his trade. There was nothing in his character to distinguish him from the ordinary citizen until after the beginning of the Civil War. He had seen a little more of the world, perhaps, on his trip to Mexico than fell to the lot of most of his neighbors. The Civil War found him a man 34 years of age, in the prime of his manhood. He was six feet high, of athletic build and with sinewy muscles. His com- plexion was slightly dark, with black hair and keen black eyes.
He had rather a handsome face with nothing about it to betray to the ordinary observer the resolute character he afterwards displayed. He was regarded as a man of considerable native ability and good judgment, of kind disposition and an honest, law-abiding citizen. Having been born in the mountain region he loved the hills and
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streams and delighted in the hunt and chase. He was a natural woodsman and seldom lost his way. While he never studied the stars and planets which point the way of the mariner across the seas, he was enabled to make his way through the woods and mountains for long distances, even in the darkness of the night, with no path to guide him on his journey, directed by what seemed to be that natural instinct that enables birds and animals to keep their course from one end of the continent to the other with unerring precision.
Of course he was not guided altogether in this way, but once learning the general topography of a country, and the course of its rivers and streams, and guided in his directions by the moss on the trees and other infallible sign-boards which Nature has provided, and which are familiar to woodsmen, he rarely lost his direction. His early life having been spent largely in the mountains and woods, often hunting game by night as well as by day, his senses of vision and hearing became highly developed. enabling him to see objects in the night that were in- visible to the ordinary individual, and hear sounds that others could not hear, so that he was peculiarly fitted for the daring and successful adventures that made him so famous during the Civil War.
Having followed the flag in Mexico, and possessing that spirit of loyalty and devotion to the Union that char- acterized the majority of the people of East Tennessee, he entered in the plans and purposes of the Union people with all his might and strength, soon exhibiting the qual- ities of energy, intelligence and courage that made him a noted man. He was first engaged in the bridge burning and the Carter county rebellion, and afterwards in pilot- ing refugees from the conscript officers, and escaped pris- oners from upper East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina, into the Federal lines, at first in Kentucky, and later, to Nashville, Gallatin and Knoxville, Tenn. At this period of Ellis' life he was a man of pleasing manners and averse to bloodshed. In the early part of his career as a pilot he carried no arms
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but depended entirely upon strategy and outwitting the enemy. He has been heard to say that at the beginning of the Civil War he could not have been induced to shed the blood of his fellow-man in personal combat as he be- lieved his conscience would give him no peace afterwards should he do so, but after he had made a number of hair- breath escapes, and had seen his countrymen shot down in cold-blood, and a price had been set on his own head, he did arm himself and when the exigencies of the situation demanded it, he used his arms with most deadly effect. He was a man, however, when not aroused, of kindly dis- position, little resembling the shaggy-browed heroes of fiction, or even the stern-looking heroes we read of in history.
To thoroughly understand the dangers and hardships to which Ellis was exposed it is necessary that the reader should have a clear conception of the situation then exist- ing in East Tennessee, and especially in the two counties of Johnson and Carter. It is also necessary that the reader should know something of the route over which he traveled so often.
We can give our readers no better idea of the condition prevailing in these two counties, and in the whole of East Tennessee, than by giving a quotation from a speech de- livered in New York by Hon. Champ Clark, of Missouri, at a banquet in honor of General Grant's birthday, April 25, 1892. Mr. Clark said among other things :
"In Missouri the war was waged with unspeakable bit- terness, sometimes with inhuman cruelty. It was fought by men in single combat, in squads, in companies, in regi- ments, in the fields, in fortified towns and in ambush, un- der the stars and stripes, under the stars and bars and un- der the black flag. The arch fiend himself seems to have been on the field in person, inspiring, directing, command- ing."
This description applies equally well to East Tennessee, and, indeed, wherever there was a sufficiently strong Union sentiment in the South to attempt to assert itself. No language could more truthfully portray the situation
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that existed in East Tennessee when Daniel Ellis was making his trips backward and forth to Kentucky.
Now to show the physical endurance necessary to ac- complish what Ellis did the reader should know that in making his trips to Kentucky he had the following ob- stacles to encounter. First, the Doe and Watauga rivers ; often so swollen they could not be crossed for days at a time, or in Winter running with mush-ice, keeping his men in waiting and exposed to capture, which often meant death. Then came the North and South Forks of the Holston river, presenting a formidable obstacle, espe- cially when swollen, or in the Winter when it often had to be swam or waded, regardless of the temperature. Then came Bays and the Clinch Mountains, steep and rugged ranges over which the travelers must pass, and then the Clinch river, another large stream must be crossed. Next came a steep ridge, called Coffer Ridge, and a large stream, almost a river, called Coffer Creek. Then came Powell's Mountains, tall rough and rugged, and Waldens Ridge, the Wildcat Mountain and then Powells river, and then the great Cumberland Mountain and the large and swiftly flowing Cumberland river. It would seem now a herculean task for a man to start to the interior of Ken- tucky on foot, and by night, even over the public high- ways, but then the river crossings and most of the moun- tain passes were guarded and the valleys were swarming with rebel soldiery.
In the beginning Ellis was wholly unaware of his adaptability to the profession (as it may be termed) of pilot, but it is said that great occasions produce men suit- able to the emergency. and immediately after the bridge burning and Carter county rebellion there was great need of some strong, bold man, to guide the fugitives from the wrath of the Southern soldiery to a haven of safety across the rugged ranges of the Cumberland mountains.
ELLIS' FIRST ADVENTURE.
Ellis' first real adventure occurred near what was then known as "O'Brien's Old Forge," now Valley Forge. Our
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the 16th of November, 1861, Gen Leadbetter, having dis- persed the Union forces at the Doe River Cove who had been engaged in rebellion, sent a company of soldiers down Doe River in the direction of Elizabethton, arrest- ing Union men indiscriminately. The officer had with him Stanford Jenkins, the guard captured and released by the bridge burners at Zollicoffer, for the purpose of identifying bridge burners. Among others arrested was Daniel Ellis. While the column was halted in front of Elbert Range's house, Jenkins identified Ellis as a bridge burner. The rebel officer in charge said to Ellis: "You d-d scoundrel, you shall not live two minutes." .Ellis, notwithstanding there were rebel soldiers all about him, made a dash through an open gate and through an open porch or entry between the kitchen and main building of Range's house, shedding his bear-sl:in overcoat as he went. The house screened him for some distance, and the soldiers were too much surprised at his audacity to think of firing until he was some distance away ; but as he went up the hill, in plain view, through the open field, the shots came thick and fast, and the cavalryman followed him shouting and yelling, but he made his escape into the friendly shelter of a cedar thicket unharmed.
After this adventure Ellis made his way to the Pond Mountain in the eastern part of Carter county and went into a camp with Col. Dan. Stover and others far back in the mountain where they were waiting with much anxiety for the advent of the Federal army, which at that time was daily expected to come to the relief of the Union men. As Ellis was known to be a good woods- man, trusty and capable of much endurance, he was selected to go back into the vicinity of Elizabethton to convey letters to the men's families, learn the news and bring back letters and such articles of necessity as he could carry back to the camp.
ELLIS' FIRST TRIP TO KENTUCKY.
Not being able to learn anything about the movements of the Federal army, Ellis at length determined to go to
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Kentucky and see for himself what the prospects for the relief of the Union people were. Accordingly about the Ist of April, 1862, he started out on his first journey through the mountains to Kentucky, not as a pilot, for as yet the way was unknown to him, but in company with one other man as far as Bays Mountain in Sullivan county, Tenn. He parted with his companion after learn- ing the names of a number of Union men along the way he expected to go, and traveled alone until he fell in with a company of Union men who were being piloted to Kentucky by a man named William McClain. He found in this company a number of his acquaintances from Car- ter county, and in company with them made the journey through the mountains, enduring much suffering for want of food and water, and undergoing much fatigue from climbing the precipitous hills and mountains, but at iength reached Cumberland Gap in safety. This place was then occupied by Federal troops under Gen. G. W. Morgan. One of the Federal brigades of Tennessee troops was commanded by Gen. S. P. Carter, whom Ellis had known from boyhood.
Gen. Carter treated him with great kindness, but gave him little hopes of early relief for his friends, and after resting a few days he determined to return to Carter county and make known to his friends there the true state of affairs. In company with McClain he started on his return, crossing the Cumberland and Powell's moun- tains, Walling's ridge, and wading rivers and streams. after a tedious and toilsome journey of five days, he reached his home.
He gained much valuable information on this trip rela- tive to the country, directions, dangerous places, where to find friends and where to be on the lookout for enemies. both from his own observations and what information he obtained from McClain.
The Union men who were hiding in the mountains soon learned of Ellis' return home and began to impor tune him to pilot them at least as far as Sullivan, county. where they hoped to fall in with McClain. After resting
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a few days he consented, and on the night of the 28th of August, 1862, started from a point near Elizabethton with 75 men, under promise to conduct them to what was called the boat-yard, in Sullivan county, Tenn., a distance of thirty miles from Elizabethton. After traveling through a most terrific storm the first night, the second right he succeeded in reaching the boat-yard, and turn- ing the men over to McClain who piloted them the re- mainder of the way to Cumberland Gap. While on his return he came very near falling into the hands of some rebel soldiers, but with his usual quick wit managed to clude them.
These were his initial trips, and upon his return home he found J. W. M. Grayson, who was afterwards a Major in the Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry, with 100 recruits waiting to be taken through the lines. The position of pilot was not sought by Ellis but thrust upon him.
Every mountain pass and river crossing was now closely guarded. Rebel cavalry could be seen riding through the valleys by the men as they rested upon the mountain sides, concealed from view, during the day. Dangers menaced them on every hand but by the skillful management of their leader this large body of men got safely through. Having piloted so large a body of men safely through the lines, while many other companies of men under other pilots had been captured at different points in East Tennessee, Ellis' reputation was estab- lished. and his services sought on every hand. But we cannot follow him, as for more than three years he con- tinued in this hazardous business going sometimes t. Cumberland Gap, Barboursville, Camp Dick Robinson and Lexington, Kentucky. and later across the mountains of Washington, Cocke, Greene and Sevier counties, and across the Nola Chucky, French Broad and Holston riv- ers, to reach Knoxville, Nashville and other points in Tennessee.
He made his return trips all alone, and at one time came onto three putrid bodies of men, near a spring, who had been captured and hanged and left to be devoured by
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the buzzards. He often found the skeletons of men in the mountains, some of whom had probably been shot and cthers had given out on the way and had perished from starvation. When he would return to his native county the fact was soon made known, often through his indis . creet friends to whom he had brought letters, money and valuable packages from their friends in the army.
We shall not attempt to follow him through all his escapades in his many marches across the mountains with his men, or on his lonely trips as he made his way back burdened with letters and tokens of love and remem- brances that he was bearing back to the mother, wife, sister or sweetheart, from the loved ones in the army. Nor shall we attempt to describe his feelings, when, though the familiar landmarks told him he was approaching the play- place of his boyhood and the home of his manhood that held all that was dear to him in life, he knew deadly foes were lurking there to kill or capture him.
But his friends compared him to an "old red fox" be- cause the fox is sly and hard to catch napping, and ver- often when its pursuer thinks he has it hemmed on all sides, Reynard slips out in some mysterious way. So it was with Ellis, there seemed to be a charm about his life.
Once, when returning from one of his trips to Ken- tucky he came in sight of a crossing place on the river, but rebel soldiers were continually passing back and forth in squads of two, three or more, going to a distillery near- by. The river was swollen and he could not wade or swim it. He was pinched by hunger, having traveled long without eating. He remained for several hours watching from his place of concealment and at last all were out of sight except one rebel soldier, but he had a gun. He was preparing to take the boat to the opposite side of the river. Ellis watched his opportunity and when the soldier was not looking towards him, he stepped into the path and walked, unconcerned, towards him, hailed him and asked him to set him across the river. The sol- dier scrutinized him for a moment and seeing nothing about him to arouse suspicion, told him to get in the boat.
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