USA > Tennessee > Bradley County > History of the rebellion in Bradley County, East Tennessee > Part 22
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257
IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
CHAPTER XXIV.
ARTIFICIAL CAVES.
ONE of the most sublime moral spectacles elicited by this gigantic rebellion, was that intuitive and inextinguishable faith given to the Union people of East Tennessee, amounting, almost, to a positive foreknowledge that de- liverance ultimately would come to them and their coun- try.
Through the perfidy of Gov. Harris and other Tennes- seeans in power, the State was submerged in the dark waters of the rebellion, carrying down with it and stran- gling fifty thousand Union men in East Tennessee alone -Union men encouraged by as many Union women, both determined to trust in God and wait through suffering for His providential deliverance. Notwithstanding the for- midable power with which the people of East Tennessee were overrun from the south, with the barrier of Ken- tucky's neutral rebellion on the north, they nevertheless stood firm, and willingly accepted the storm. The scourge and the prison were sure for the time, but faith and hope were amply strong to anticipate the future victory.
From the commencement of the rebellion in 1861, till the winter of 1863-4, East Tennessee struggled, fought, looked and waited for relief. Relief neared and retired, neared and retired again ; and it was not till the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge-fought re- spectively on the 24th and 25th of Novembea, 1863-that the clench of the beast was loosened from the throats of the loyal people of that part of the State.
Our victories at Forts Henry and Donelson-the former on the 6th, and the latter on the 14th, 15th and 16th of February, 1862-opened the Confederacy, and our armies swept through Nashville and south to the Tennessee, tak- ing possession of Dixie from Corinth to the gates of Chat- tanooga.
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HISTORY OF THE REBELLION
The reverberation of General Negley's cannon, the deadly missiles of which on the 7th of June, 1862, were driven through the streets and buildings of Chattanooga, swelled and re-echoed over fifteen Union counties, thrill- ing with delight the hearts of their loyal inhabitants, and awakened in them a hope that the period of their captiv- ity had expired.
On the 10th of June, 1862, Gen. Buell moved from Cor- inth, sweeping in a circuitous southern route to Athens, Tenn., where he unjustifiably delayed to reorganize, and enforce or restore discipline among his troops, by which error he lost Chattanooga, Gen. Bragg in the meantime occupying that town from Tupello, Miss .; after which Buell quietly settled down upon Battle Creek, his men whiling away their leisure hours exchanging newspaper congratulations with the rebels on the south side of the Tennessee River.
On the 2d of August following, Gen. O. M. Mitchell, at his own request, in consequence of the strong rebel sym- pathizing influence against him for his effective course, was relieved of his command of the Third Division of Buell's army ; and thus ingloriously terminated his bril- liant campaign in Tennessee.
On the 22d of the same month, the rebel Gen. E. Kirby Smith, with his corps, left the vicinity of Knoxville, pass- ing through Big Creek Gap, to invade Kentucky. On the 20th, two days earlier, Gen. Bragg started with his army from Chattanooga, passing over Waldron's Ridge, a spur of the Cumberlands, also to invade Kentucky, with partic- ular designs on Louisville. Gen. Buell was now com- pelled to abandon Tennessee, and follow Bragg in a par- allel line with him, having fears that his real designs were to strike Nashville. As Buell's army disappeared to the north, leaving the people of East Tennessee once more entirely at the mercy of the rebellion, hope died within them, to be revived only by events beyond their ability to foresee.
The disappearing of Buell's army from Battle Creek and along the Tennessee, in August, 1862, sent a gloom over
259
IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
the land like the pall of death itself; yet the faith of these people did not waver. They believed that these armies would return, and that light would again dawn upon their country.
Esq. McPherson, of Bradley, thus describes his feelings on receiving the news of this retreat of Buell's army to the north : This to him, he stated, was the darkest hour of the war, in regard to East Tennessee. In the spring of 1861, he estimated that in one year the country would be redeemed. At the time of Buell's retreat it had been scourged a year and a half already, apparently ruined ; and yet the Northern army was now compelled to fly to Nashville and Kentucky, allowing the rebellion again to swallow up the whole people like a flood! This was a state of things for which none of his former calculations had made any provision ; and although his faith yet re- mained, he very forcibly felt himself now reduced to faith alone. He still felt that Tennessee would be saved ; but the time when or the manner how, were matters that no longer entered into any part of his hopeful theory.
It was after the retreat of Buell to Kentucky to circum- vent Bragg, that the Union people of East Tennessee went into the hottest of the furnace; and the manner in which they endured the flame can be accounted for upon no other principle than that patriotism is one of the strongest passions of the heart; and that the faith and hope of Esq. McPherson were an illustration of the faith and hope of the whole eighty or hundred thousand Union sufferers in East Tennessee.
The Union people of East Tennessee were under the yoke from the spring of 1861 till the winter of 1863-4. As this yoke from time to time was tightened upon their necks, in that proportion were their efforts increased and their expedients multiplied to bafile the tyrants and live through the ordeal till deliverance should reach them.
In the summer of 1862, the first rebel conscript law was passed, and East Tennessee very suddenly felt the pres- sure of this Confederate war mandate. Under its vigor- ous enforcement, fight for the rebellion, or evade the con-
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HISTORY OF THE REBELLION
scripting officer, were the alternatives before all Union men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-six. Per- haps not one in a hundred of these Union men-and there were many thousands of them in East Tennessee, north- ern Georgia and northern North Carolina-tamely sub- mitted to the former alternative; but immediately from this entire region, thousands of them were seen floating like autumn leaves in the direction of Nashville and Kentucky. Rebel conscripting officers went into a vigi- lance committee of the whole. Powder and lead, horse- flesh and bloodhounds, manipulated and driven on by de- mons incarnate, with citizen spies and reporters as a gen- eral picket guard, were brought into requisition, and many an unfortunate refugee, far from home, with his face towards his country's flag, was brought down by the fatal bullet, or sunk under the weight of the deadly blud- geon.
While in this extended field of strife it was universally the helpless refugee who bled, yet the general victory remained with him. Hate and hell nerved the arm of his thundering pursuer, but God helped the cause of the pur- sued. The loyal element of the country was not idle nor taken by surprise. A network of Union relays and re- liefs, of underground railroads and invisible camps of instruction and rendezvous, with secret places of refugee entertainment, lofts of silence, under-floor cells, natural caverns and dark places along the creeks and ravines, artificial caves in the woods, with every other conceivable place of personal abstraction, at once sprang into active being, and were systematically used from one end of the country to the other. While rebel hate did its worst, this system, being effectually carried on by an army of skill- ful citizen managers, and home guards secretly connected with two-hundred-mile pilots, disguising their regular trips to Kentucky,-the internal machinery being strung together by fraternal gripes, patriotic pass-words, Union signs and signals, and Lincolnite symbols, known and committed to heart from parent to the youngest child of every family, black as well as white,-under the blessing
261
IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
of Heaven gave the general victory to the Union people, and sent the strength and flower of the land to the aid of the Government by helping to swell the ranks of the Union army.
During these three years East Tennessee was nominally in the hands of the rebels, but virtually it was controlled by the Union people. They were not the outward author- ity, yet they were the secret and governing power that held and moved the State. By the treachery of Harris and a leprous Legislature, East Tennessee was cut loose from the government dock; but thanks to her Union men, women and children, by these means they sprang to the rescue and virtually kept her moored within the har- bor.
The most memorable of all the strategies resorted to by the Union people of East Tennessee to evade the rebel conscription, were the subterranean houses or artificial caves. One of these places is illustrated on page 263, a refugee inmate being represented as receiving food from the hand of a Union woman.
The localities of these places were the most unfre- quented forests, and usually upon hill-sides, where cav- alry would not attempt to travel. They were perpendic- ular excavations in the earth, square or oblong, to a con- venient depth for a human residence, and of a size to suit the number proposing to occupy. The excavating com- pleted, strong poles were lain across, the ends being let down a foot or more below the surface. These were then covered with strong planks, rails or stout poles, forming a roof, when the depression above was filled, beaten down, turfed over and covered with leaves, and made to corres- pond with the surrounding surface. Sometimes, to make the deception entirely complete, shrubs of pine and other wood were planted on the roofs after they were finished. A trap-door was attached to one corner of the roof, the outside of which was usually first covered with pitch, then rock moss and leaves imbedded in the pitch, to give the door the appearance of the rest of the surface. These roofs were finished with such permanence, that a cavalier
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might ride over one of them and not suspect the cavity beneath him.
The writer visited and entered two of these subter- ranean refugee homes in the twelfth district-one near the residence of Mr. Amos Potts, the other near that of Mr. Israel Boon. In the tenth district also he examined three of these places, near the farm of Mr. Elisha Wise.
Bradley contained at least from fifty to seventy-five of these Union dungeons. They were the most numerous in the north part of the county, ranging from five to seven- teen miles south of the Tennessee River. Notwithstand- ing their number, and the extent to which they were oc- cupied, these places were constructed and inhabited with such secresy, that no instance of Union men being cap- tured either in building or occupying them, came to our owledge.
Tailoring, shoemaking, basket making. coopering, and all sorts of carving in wood, were improvised in these houses, especially by such as were heads of families- those who, notwithstanding their own sufferings and the pressure of the times, felt the claims of providing for their wives and children. Numerous samples of boots, shoes, wooden buckets, wooden dishes, baskets, and other man- ufactures, such as chairs, canes, ax handles, &c., &c .. were shown to the writer, all of which were the products of these strange exilements, the producers being nerved by a sense of duty, and by affection for those from whom they were exiled by rebellion and treason. The writer is in possession of a small oaken market basket, produced in one of these factories, which he proposes to keep while he lives, as a memorial, so far as it goes, of the truth of these statements.
Union women and children secretly conveyed provis- ions, mostly in the night, to their husbands, sons, broth- ers and fathers, immured in these dungeons.
263
IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
Perrin
ARTIFICIAL REFUGEE CAVE.
264
HISTORY OF THE REBELLION
CHAPTER XXV.
MR. AMOS POTTS.
MR. POTTS was among the earliest settlers of Bradley, being at the commencement of the rebellion upwards of sixty-five years of age. His home was in the twelfth dis- trict. Mr. and Mrs. Potts were people whose industry, frugality, and unscrupulous honesty, had procured for them through life a competency of this world's blessings; while their exemplary moral and Christian character, and their natural inoffensiveness as members of society, secured for them not only the respect and confidence, but the love and esteem of all who knew them. They were the very opposite of those whom considerate judges of human nature would suspect of intentional wrong, or whom any one could think deserving of punishment for political opinions.
Mr. Potts served in the War of 1812, under Gen. Jack- son, and like all others in advanced age, who serve their country in early life, at the opening of the rebellion, felt a proportionately stronger attachment than he otherwise would have felt for the government he once defended, and, upon the same principle, also felt an unusual venera- tion for the flag under which he fought and risked his life fifty years before. Accordingly when the rebellion showed its bloody hand, Mr. Potts and his whole family were not long in declaring themselves loyal to their country.
Mr. Potts, with his children and grand-children around him, formed a nucleus of twelve or fifteen persons, in the twelfth district, who did their share during the war of throwing obstructions in the way of the rebellion.
Albert Potts, an unmarried son, living with his father, in the fall of 1861, was arrested at the instance of Capt.
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IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
Brown, and given his choice to enlist in the rebel army or be sent a prisoner to Tuscaloosa during the war. One or the other of these propositions must be immediately complied with. Albert reflected upon the consequences to himself of going to Tuscaloosa, and balanced these against the chances of desertion in the other case, and finally, with a mental reservation which he thought jus- tifiable under the circumstances, told Capt. Brown that he would enlist. Shortly after his enlistment his regiment was sent to Knoxville, where young Potts took the bene- fit of the first opportunity, and left Capt. Brown to man- age both his Tuscaloosa prison and rebel army to suit himself. He returned to his home but soon fled to Ken- tucky, and after an absence of over two years, stole his way back, reaching home in June, 1863, and by conceal- ing himself in the woods and caves eluded his enemies until our army took the country. Mr. Langston, a son-in- law of the old gentleman, was driven into the woods, but at length fled to Nashville, where, in the employ of the government, he sickened and died. Mr. A. K. Potts and his son William, resorted to the same strategy of living in the woods, and fleeing North to escape from the rebels.
Notwithstanding the eagerness with which these men were pursued by traitors, all but Mr. Langston escaped and lived to see the rebellion conquered.
Four or five times in two years these families were plundered of everything on their premises the rebels could find that struck their fancy.
On the 25th of December, 1863, a company of conva- lescent Federal soldiers passing from Chattanooga to Knoxville, camped for the night a short distance from Mr. Potts' dwelling. A squad of rebel cavalry led by a fellow named Tyner, was on the same day making a plundering cavalry dash from Dalton into Bradley, and ascertaining from rebel citizens that these Federals were passing through the country, Tyner headed his column in the direction of their trail, which he struck about four miles south of Mr. Potts' plantation, and followed it until he reached Mr. Potts' house. Feeling themselves not strong
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HISTORY OF THE REBELLION
enough, perhaps, to justify an attack of the Federals, the rebels wreaked their vengeance, what little time they dare remain, upon old Mr. Potts, accusing him of feeding the Yankees, abusing him and his family and robbing the house and premises.
Three Union boys named Winkler, brothers, were at the house of Mr. Potts when the rebels dashed up. Two made their escape, the other being lame was captured but a few rods from the house. A leader among them named McDaniels, immediately commenced to abuse Winkler, cursing him and drew his revolver to shoot him. Winkler being lame and unarmed was unable to make any defense. The old gentleman, the old lady, and their daughter, Mrs. Langston, begged McDaniels not to take his life. This appeared the more to enrage McDaniels, who with his revolver cocked, was endeavoring to aim it at Winkler's face. Mrs. Langston and the old lady threw themselves before Winkler, pleading with McDaniels not to shoot, both being able so vigorously to resist his attempts, that after struggling with him three or four minutes he desisted.
Failing to kill Winkler, McDaniels drew his revolver on old Mr. Potts, threatening to shoot him if he did not immediately deliver up his best saddle, an article, he said, which he greatly needed. The old gentleman refused, when McDaniels thrust his revolver against him, pushed him across the room and through the door into the yard, cursing him continually, and ordering him to deliver the saddle without delay. Though about seventy years of age, and exceedingly frail, instead of being frightened, when fairly out of doors, the old gentleman commenced to halloo for the Federals at the top of his voice. This seemed to operate favorably upon his cowardly assailant, who, on looking toward the Federal camp, was diverted from stealing Union saddles to making preparations for retreat.
Another circumstance besides the hallooing of the old gentleman, tended to hasten the retreat of the rebels. Miss Rebecca Potts, the daughter of A. K. Potts, con-
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IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
fronted McDaniels when assaulting her grand-father, and told him that she would go herself and report him to the Federals. One of the rebels informed her that if she left the house she would find herself overtaken with a bullet. Unintimidated, she started in full view of the whole party, ran to the Federal camp and reported the rebels. They left, however, before the Federals could attack them.
The lame Winkler boy being unable to travel, and the rebels having no horse for him to ride, he was left behind. Another boy, however, named Mitchell, whom they there captured, was taken to Dalton, but he subsequently escaped.
Before reaching the house of Mr. Potts, while on the trail of the convalescents, the rebels captured thirteen of their number, those who had fallen behind their com- panions, and were resting in the houses by the way. These with young Mitchell were hurried off to Dalton that night, some of whom no doubt suffered and possibly lost their lives in the horrible pens at Andersonville or other rebel prisons in the South.
Although the rebels were at Mr. Potts' but a few'min- utes, yet they stripped the house and premises of what they could find that suited them. As to McDaniels. besides his abuse of Mr. Potts, and robbing Albert of his money and other valuables notwithstanding the extent of his cowardly threatening, the haste of his departure was such that Mr. Potts is still in the possession of his saddle.
One of the most remarkable visits, however, that Mr. Potts received from his rebel friends during the rebellion. was that of a rebel, who at the time said his name was Husten; but whose right name probably was Hunley, a rebel colonel. He, with two others, on the 25th of Sep- tember, 1864, came to Mr. Potts' house enquiring for horses. Mr. Potts owned a fine young horse, a large clay colored animal, already evidently reported to Hunley by rebels in the vicinity, as appeared from his conversation. He found where the horse was kept, and demanded of Mr. Potts the keys to the stable. Mr. Potts began to ex-
ยท
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HISTORY OF THE REBELLION
postulate with him upon the injustice of taking his prop- erty in the way he proposed, when Hunley instantly went into a rage, clutched the old gentleman by the throat and choked him to the ground. The old lady being present when the conversation about the keys commenced, and seeing that the rebel was becoming angry, thought it best to give up the keys, and hurrying into the house to get them, she was returning with them through the door as the old gentleman went down under Hunley's grasp. She quickly handed him the keys. He took them without say- ing a word, and deliberately went to the barn and took
COL. HUNLEY CHOKING OLD MR. POTTS.
the horse. With the attention of the old lady, Mr. Potts soon began to recover, and as Hunley was leading the animal past the door, was able to tell the thief what he thought would become of such men as himself, and say- ing that it was his prayer, that God for the future would deliver him and his family fron. the hands of all bloodthirsty men of his class. To this address Hunley returned no reply, but got himself through the gate as hastily as possible and left with his booty without so much as a look of thanks toward its owner.
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IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
This was the last that Mr. Potts saw of this rebel colo- nel, but this is not the sequel of the transaction. The next day, ten or twelve miles from Mr. Potts' plantation. Col. Hunley turned the horse loose, or rather left him with Mr. Abram Slover, desiring Mr. Slover to send him back to Mr. Potts, or send Mr. Potts word where he could find him, Hunley representing to Mr. Slover that he sim- ply borrowed the animal to use for a short time in driving out a lot of stock that he had purchased in Bradley. Mr. Slover immediately delivered his trust to its proper owner, when both Mr. and Mrs. Potts were as greatly surprised and rejoiced at the appearance, in this way, of their favorite animal, as they were the day before afflicted to loose him.
The only solution that could be reached in reference to this sudden change in Col. Hunley, was that a guilty con- science commenced a controversy with him on the sub- ject of his treatment of Mr. Potts.
The most ripened villain could hardly avoid an hour of returning consciousness after thus abusing such a man as Mr. Potts, a man nearly seventy years of age, and one whose very countenance and tone of voice indicated him to be among the most innocent and harmless men in the world-one that never wilfully injured a hair on the head of a human being. That Col. Hunley was pursued by the ghost of his outrage upon such a victim is not remarkable ; and the fact that he yielded and restored the property, is evidence that, though the outward hardening had fear- fully progressed and was fast turning his nature into a stone, an impressible point remained in the centre which the petrifaction had not fully mastered.
After this by various strategies Mr. Potts kept this valuable animal out of the hands of the rebels until the next July, a period of about ten months, when he was again taken in a similar manner. Martin McGriff, Bud Beagles, and Reuben Boyd were the individuals who com- mitted the robbery the second time. McGriff was raised in Bradley and was then living in Cleveland.
The three came to the house of Mr. Potts together,
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HISTORY OF THE REBELLION
McGriff acting as the leader. Mr. Potts was not at home, and McGriff enquired of the old lady where her husband kept his clay-bank horse, adding th t her sons were tle Federal army fighting against the Confederacy, and he should take the horse if he could find him. They soon found the animal and took him away.
McGriff was mistaken in supposing that the old lady's sons were at that time in the Northern army. Albert, with three of the Winkler boys were then concealed in the barn, and saw him bridle the horse, and could have shot him while in the act, and would have done so had they known that only two other rebels were present, and had it not been for the revenge which they knew would be visited upon the family in consequence, the whole country then being at the mercy of the rebellion. Mc- Griff was a notorious rebel, though in justice to the family it ought to be stated, that he had brothers who were good Union men, and who lectured him at the time on his vil- lainy in thus robbing one of the most worthy and inoffen- sive citizens of the county. These Union brothers tried to prevail on Martin to return the horse but without avail. He was seen riding him about the country, and once or twice rode him past Mr. Potts' house. In order to screen himself from the odium of being called a thief, McGriff reported that he purchased the animal of Mr. Potts, and paid for him $600.
The old gentleman never obtained his horse, and never fully ascertained what disposition was made of him. Mc- Griff, doubtless disposed of him to great advantage, as he was universally conceded to be one of the finest animals in the country.
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