USA > Tennessee > Bradley County > History of the rebellion in Bradley County, East Tennessee > Part 24
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unauthorized articles. The orders already published on this subject must be enforced.
The condition and behavior of a corps are sure indications of the efficiency and fitness of its officers. If any regiment shall be found to disregard that propriety of conduct which belongs to soldiers as well as citizens, they must not expect to occupy the posts of honor, but may rest assured that they will be placed in posi- tions where they cannot bring shame on their comrades and the cause they are engaged in. The Government supplies with liberality all the wants of the soldier. The occasional deprivations and hardships incident to rapid marches must be borne with patience and fortitude. Any officer who neglects to provide properly for his troops, or separates himself from them to seek his own comfort, will be held to a rigid accountability.
By command of GENERAL BUEL.
JAMES B. FRY, A. A. G., Chief of Staff. Official : J. M. WRIGHT, A. A. G.
This proclamation is dignified and commanding, and, in some respeets, even able. In fact it is too able, respecting matters on a scale altogether too general. overlooking the peculiar and most vital points of the case. It argues in the writer a great, an overgrown, but dead heavy talent, and a moral nature that never particularly concerns itself with the individual actualities of human life. What it combines and enforces is eminently proper in all armies and on all occa- ions, but the most important combinations and enforcements in the premises arc not made at all. The position of Gen. Buell and his army at the time Nashville was surrendered into his hands was the most peculiar, remarkable, and vitally important, of the position of any General recorded in history. Gen. Buell, how - ever, utterly failed to apprehend this great fact, and, accordingly, the great fault of this proclamation is want of discrimination. It is a document, consequently, fraught with very glaring and destructive omissions. As a moral production, or production responsible to moral right, its fault is looseness of moral principle. It betrays either moral ignorance and obtuseness of moral perceptions, or the absence of a consciencions regard for known truth-the absence of a consciencious regard for the known rights of all and justice to all. It was dictated either by a misapprehension or disregard of, or rather indifference to, the spirit of the rebellion. particularly as it existed in Nashville. This proclamation disappointed and discouraged, if it did not positively mortify the Union people of Nashville and the surrounding country, while it encouraged and strengthened the hands of rebel citizens. It assured the rebels that their position as such, and what they had done as such in persecuting, robbing, murdering and driving the Union people out of the country, were not to be looked upon as crimes nor as meriting any punish- ment, or as subjecting them to any inconvenience by proscription, or restriction of their liberties or of their business. It makes not the least distinction in any respect between guilty rebels and virtuous Union people. It takes no notice of the important fact of the existence in Nashville at that time of two opposite parties, the sole issue between them being the Rebellion-one rebel the other loyal, one friends the other enemies to the Government. No notice whatever is taken of the Union people; the fact of their existence appears to have been purposely passed over through fear of giving offense to the revels. Policy, as well as duty, demanded that the integrity with which these Union people had stood by the Government should be proclaimed in this order and put in the strongest possible contrast with the treasonable and criminal conduct of the rebels. A special recog- nition in this order of the Union people of Nashville and Davidson County, as a body, and as having distinguished themselves as the friends of the Government. briefly eliminating the actual moral virtue of their position, and the services they had rendered the country, would have been a mark of distinguishing favor justly due, and which these Union people had a right to expect. This not only would have gratified the Union people, but they would have felt it a full recompense for what they had suffered if not for what they had lost, thereby being encouraged in their loyalty for the future, while this, alone, would have reflected a cutting .rebuke to the rebels, causing them to smart under the contrast thus drawn be- tween their treason and the loyalty of their Union neighbors. Gen. Buell, how- ever, was too great a man ; his military conceptions were altogether too vast, ii not too vague, to allow him to descend to these insignificant particulars, particu- lars that would have touched the hearts of the people, and that would have evinced that his policy was to be shaped and moulded from the bottom upwards, making its foundation the actual substratum of the materials among which he had to work.
Gen. Buel, in this order, could use the most opprobious terms in expatiating in advance upon the possible delinquencies of his private soldiers; but it contains not a word of reprimand or even advice to rebel citizens all around him in regard to their infinitely greater crimes already committed, a subject so eminently befit- ting it, crimes which had compelled these soldiers to leave their homes and expose themselves to fatigue, starvation and death, to rescue the country from that des- truction which from these crimes it was in the most iminent danger. He could forbid the private soldier to enter the grounds of rebel citizens without authority. which was all proper enough in itself, and could read him a lecture of fortitude
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and patience in bearing up under the hardships and privations of the war, though he might be reduced to hard tuck alone, indicating by a cold abrasion of lan- guage, that the abundance of rebel wealth in the country was not to be irregularly appropriated to relieve his wants in any case, however unusual or trying.
The error of Gen. Buell as a christian commander, was that he connived at crime as a means of destroying the spirit of it, instead of punishing it promptly und firmly, yet mildly, as a conscientious and humane officer, feeling the responsi- bility of having in charge the interests of the country, and the welfare of the people with whom he was dealing and those under his command.
Fort Donelson surrendered on Sunday morning the 16th of February 1862. On the following Sunday morning, the 23d, about 9 o'clock, just one week, almost to an hour, from the surrender of Donelson, the Federal troops arrived in Edge- field opposite Nashville. The news of this great rebel defeat reached Nashville the same morning the fort surrendered, in consequence of which a panic seized the rebel inhabitants of that city unequaled by any thing of the kind before known in the history of the country. Nashville rebels were smitten dumb with fear, and stood appalled at their condition. They felt themselves guilty, and very naturally expected to be punished for their crimes, when our army should arrive. Especially did they look for retribution to be visited upon them for the outragious manner in which they had persecuted, tortured, and despoiled their Union neigh- bors. They expected that the Union people would enter complaints against them to the Federals, and that they would at once have to pay bitterly for these outrages. Under the influence of these forebodings, all the rebels that possibly could, im- mediately on receipt of the news from Donelson, fled from the city in all the haste and confusion imaginable, taking refuge in Dixie. Those who could not fly but were compelled to remain and meet the consequences, were completely humbled in view of the ordeal that was approaching them. They were perfectly conque' ed. whipped and subdued. The spirit of rebellion was completely frightened out of them. During the interval between the victory at Donelson and the arrival of our troops at Nashville, their haughty and insolent bearing towards their Union neighbors entirely forsook them. They became perfectly respectful, and ap- proachable, almost universally manifesting penitence for their abusive treatment of the Union people with a disposition to be forgiven and to have old friendships restored. This was the wholesome effect upon Nashville rebels, and this was the submissive spirit which they manifested while they were in prospect of the daily arrival of Federal troops into whose hands they expected to fall, and by whom they expected to be dealt with according to their sins. No sooner, however, did this Federal army arrive, and, was this order of Buell's published, his policy in- stantaneously becoming known throughout the country, causing the rebels un- bounded relief and joy, giving them to see that they had suffered all their fears for nothing, that they were in no danger of being punished either for their rebel- lion or their injustice to the Union people, and that the complaints of these Union people were given the cold shoulder and treated with contempt, their authors in some cases even rebuked by Federal officers, and consequently, that they could do the same things again with impunity, than this door of renewed friendship with Union people was backed ont of by the rebels instanter; and the evil demon of re. bellion again took possession of them, and they went to plotting treason, the over throw of our armies and the destruction of the country with ten fold more wick edness and bitterness than before. They also assumed towards the Union people their former insolent bearing. the same haughty air and hateful look, made the same venomous flings, coupled with the same bitter spirit of persecution that characterized their course before Nashville was taken. These, though briefly stated, are historical facts, facts that can be attested to-day by hundreds of Union witnesses in Nashville.
Now, had Buell possessed the penetration to fathom the depths of this malig- nancy, instead of administering the opiate of a milk and water proclamation to eradicate it, his policy, without being vindictive, would have been based upon the principle that the treason of these rebels was a crime. His action towards them would have corresponded to their own convictions of their guilt, when the prospect of falling into our hands and of being subject to the prosecutions of the Union people, whom they had injured, had brought them to their senses. A marked distinction should have been made between rebels and Union people, and adopted as the rule in point of liberties, privileges and advantages, till circum- stances warranted a generalization in these respects. Forty-eight hours after Buell's arrival in Nashville would have been sufficient to furnish him with a per- fect list of the names of all the friends and enemies of the Government in David- son county. Six or eight such men as Lawyer East, John Trimble, Esq., Post Master Lindsey, Mr. Hickey, H. C. Thompson and John L. Stewart, of Nashville, and Mr. Joseph and George Weekly, of Edgefield, with two from each of the other distriets, selected by these, the whole to act as a committee of information, in two days would have given an unexceptionable list, of the personal loyalty and treason of Nashville and the surrounding country. Two or three individuals only acting as vouchers for the people of the whole country, and that for months together, left room for great abuses. Twenty or twenty-five, all more or less ac- quainted with the people, deciding upon the political status of an individual, would have precluded the possibility of personal favoritism, and thus hundreds
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of worthy persons who were denied the passes, would have been granted them, and vice versa. All Union men in the country vouched for by such a committee, before our army had been in Nashvile three days, might have been given stand- ing and unlimited passes forthe term of the war or at least during their loyalty, judged by the same committee, to go and come as they pleased, without further molestation from the authorities. Instead of this, however, the Union people. notwithstanding what they had already suffered from the rebellion, must be subject alike with the rebels, to the very great annoyance and damage of getting their passes renewed every few days, for three years. No possible harm could have resulted to the cause' from the unrestrained liberty of these Union people, any more than from the unrestrained liberty given to Federal soldiers them- selves when sent out as spies.
Unlimited permits, also, for the transacting of business, should at the same time have been granted to all Union families and firms, subject of course, to the necessity and pressure of our military operations; while the rebels in their busi- ness should have been restricted, circumscribed and narrowed down to a point of absolute necessity. Such was something like the distinction that should have been made between rebels and Union people, and made at once after our au- thorities possessed the country, not only in Nashville, but in the whole of Ten- nessee, and particlarly in East Tennessee, as well as particularly in Nashville.
Such a course, not only would have been just, but it would have resulted greatly to the benefit of our car se. It would have afforded the Union people opportuni- ties to repair the damages which they had sustained by the rebellion, and would have encouraged them to be active in co-operating with our authorities, obtain- ing information, &c., information that would have essentially aided our authori- ties in making general progress against the rebellion.
On the other hand. restriction would have been no more than justice to the rebels for their rebellion, and as retaliatory punishment for the same treatment on their part towards the Union people, and especially in as much as it was abso- lutely necessary to restrict both them and their business in view of our own safety. Justice thus administered to the rebels in Nashville, not tyrannically, nor insultingly, nor in a vindictive spirit, but in a proper manner, mildly but with firmness, and administered at the right time, when they themselves felt that they deserved it, the rod would have done them good ; and the spirit of rebellion would have been conquered and annihilated at that time in Davidson county, as it will now not cease to exist while the present generation continues.
These remarks illustrate the principle or policy that should have been pursued by our authorities in regard to rebels and Union people throughout the State of Tennessee, or in fact wherever the persecuting spirit of the rebellion had made Union people suffer.
The Union people of Tennessee, and particularly of East Tennessee lived and suffered for three years in hope, and that hope was the Northern army. The arrival of the Northern army was to them the prospective honr and culmination of their patriotic bliss and of their country's deliverance. This was an event for which they looked, longed, waited and prayed, with an intensity proportionate to their trials, and what they considered to be the importance of the expected tri- umph. Many Tennessee boys had fled to the Northern army, and were anxiously and faithfully helping to push our lines to include their own homes. It was a common remark among Union people in Tennessee, while they were suffering under rebel oppression that, " When our friends arrive," referring to the Northern soldiers, "the tables will be turned. We shall be recognized as friends to the government, our position and our sufferings both will be appreciated, and we shall not only be protected, but our rebel neighbors will be called to an account for the wrongs they have inflicted upon us." As fast as the Northern soldiers did arrive in Tennessee, Union hands and Union hearts were open to receive them. Union tables were spread to supply their wants, and everything in the possession of the Union people that could administer to their comfort was at their disposal. At the sight of the Northern army the Union people laughed and eried for joy.
Mr. John L. Stewart, one of the most enthusiastic Union men in Nashville, had been bitterly persecuted and tortured by the rebels. During the long week of suspense between the fall of Donelson and the arrival of the Federal army in that city, Mr. Stewart could scarcely eat or sleep for his anxiety to see the Federal soldiers take possession of Nashville. When, on the morning of the 25th of Feb- ruary, 1862, the fleet of government transports headed by a gun-boat, with all her guns frowning upon either side, was descried from the Capitol ascending the Cum- berland and nearing the city, each transport with the Stars and Stripes visible at mast head, as they steamed up to the landing with banners flying, their decks burdened with dense regiments of blue coats and the shrill martial music waft- ing out the notes of Hail Columbia upon the morning air, Mr. Stewart was com- pletely overwhelmed and carried away with the sight, the effect being more than he could bear. The national glory and Union triumph that was in the scene, bringing deliverance to himself and his friends, gave him a burst of joy that quite berett him of his senses, sending him wild and insane with delight. To make use 0! Mr. Stewart's own language, for the whole day and even for a week he could compare himself to nothing but a shouting Methodist at a camp-meeting, so greas
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and unbounded was his joy, from the effects of which he did not fully recover for a month.
The case of Mr. Stewart may illustrate upon general principles the spirit in which the Union people of Tennessee, Umon women and children, particularly of East Tennessee, were prepared to hail and welcome the Federal army to their doors.
Now, the facts in the case do not warrant the statement that our armies, as they took possession of Tennessee, fully appreciated this feeling among the Union people. Reciprocated Federal friendship to this feeling fell considerably below the point of its actual existence on the part of the Union people, from the de- partment commanders down, from the beginning to the end of the war. Had Gen. Buell given the example at Nashville, shaping his policy in that direction- enjoined the practice of it upon his officers, thus infusing the true spirit into his army among officers and men, the principle, doubtless, would have remained in the army and more or less transfered itself to successive commanders and suc- cessive armies. As it was, a great proportion of the good, or in other words, a great proportion of the disposition in our army to defend and administer strict justice to the Union people, and keep the rebels in their proper places, was lost for want of this active encouragement in the department commanders, and for want of that system which such authoritative encouragement would have induced in regard to the subject. Individuals, here and there, saw the disgraceful evils and abuses, and desired to correct them but could not, only to the extent of their individual authority.
From this cold indifference to loyalty and loose manner of dealing with treason in the beginning, the evil branched off and showed itself in other forms equally injurious and mortifying to the Union people. Classing all together with little or no distinction, as equaliy virtuous, was an indirect invitation to our officers to mingle with all as egnally virtuous and equally desirable company, and this ex- posed them to the temptation of mingling mnost with those who made the greatest efforts to win their favor, and could hold out the most profuse and gratifying inducements to secure it. The rebels, at the approach of our armies, feared the consequences to themselves and their property, and having been corrupt enough to plunge the country into trouble, they could now resort to treachery and mean- ness to get themselves out of difficulty. On the arrival of our armies, rebels were the first to obtrude themselves upon the notice of our officers and continued the most constant and obsequious in their attentions upon them. Rebels invited these officers to their houses and to their parties, introduced them to their wives and daughters, feasted them at their tables, heaped upon them their good things of which they generally had plenty, By these and other means they labored in- siduously to engratiate themselves into the favor of these officers, and in many cases were too successful. Having intrenched themselves in the confidence of these officers, or rather having bought their favoritismn, these rebels were perfectly at home and perfectly independent. They could get passes and permits simply by asking for them, when modest Union men had to produce vouchers to obtain them. They could get protection papers for their property and Federal guards to stand at their doors, when upright Union men seldom requested either. Union people were infinitely above the hypocrisy and disgraceful truckling resorted to by the rebels to secure the protection of our armies. Union people had too much self-respect to descend to such meanness to court acquaintances or curry favors, especially favors that were in reality a matter of due; and had they been disposed to enter this mire of competitorship, very frequently would have labored at a great disadvantage, They had been pillaged, robbed, and had had their sub- stance lain waste perhaps by these very rebels 'till not enough remained. in many instances, for themselves and families. The rebels by their treason and friend- ship with the rebellion had escaped these misfortunes. The rebels possessed fine houses, elegantly furnished rooms and sumptious boards which were weighty arguments in their favor, and against which the Union people, in their circum- stances, felt little disposed to strive, especially considering the moral character of the contest.
It was patent throughout the country, and during the first and second years of the war, was the universal newspaper topic from Boston to Chicago, as well as the universal theme of army conversation that Tennessee was filled with suffer- ing and outraged Union people. These Union people were not unadvised of this fact. They were perfectly aware that their situation was fully known to the Government and the army ; and very naturally expected that Government kept an eye to their condition. They also supposed that one of the principal objeets for which the army was sent into that country was their relief; and that on the arrival of our armies, their grievances would be redressed. They did not pre- sume that it would be necessary, on the arrival of those armies, for them to board and swarm upon our officers at once, and load them not only with their com- plaints, but their physical dainties, in order to be recognised and appreciated. The rebels. however. having the impudence to take this course, thus stealing the march not only upon the Union people, but even upon these officers themselves immediately secured their confidence, then engrossed their attention and pro, cured their protection, while Union people disappointed and mortified, stood a- a distance, and looked on with disgust.
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Rebels were frequently known to boast that it was better to be a rebel, than a Union man. To be a rebel, they asserted, gave them indemnity from loss while the rebels held the country, and left them something with which to bribe yankee officers. and bny indemnification of the Federals on their arrival, and have an abundance for themselves besides; with the other advantages of escaping en- tirely the storms and persecutions universally endured by the Union people.
It is not intended by these remarks to convey the idea, that these abuses be- came absolutely the rule throughont the State of Tennessee, during the war ; but it is safe to assert that they were so frequent in many localities, owing to the looseness of the general policy in this respect, and owing to the number of Fed- eral officers in the army, whose principles and patriotism were as loose as those of the rebels, that these abuses lost the character of positive exceptions to the rule, and more or less in every county in the State, mortified and disgusted the Union people.
While we appeal to the Union people of Tennessee for the truth of what we have said upon this subject, we nevertheless do not offer it as an adequate defence of their cause, either in regard to the diabolical cruelties of their immediate enemies, or the indifference of many. and the perfidy of some of their friends. The suffer- ings of the Union people of East Tennessee, and the horrors of Andersonville, Belì Island and Libby, are the two mountainous-distinguishing and diabolical wrongs of the rebellion, and are subjects that will not be exhausted by the historical themers of the coming century.
At the commencement of this article Gen. O. M. Mitchel was spoken of as a com- mander in Tennessee whose policy was an exception to the fault we have here complained of. No writer ought to touch this subject without leaving it distinctly recorded that Gen. Mitchel as clearly, if not more clearly than any other com- mander in Tennessee, saw this subject in its true light. Had his policy upon this subject, inaugurated during his brilliant campaign from Nashville through Ten- nessee to Alabama in the spring and summer of 1862, been adopted as the general rule, the evil we have here spoken of, to any appreciable extent, never would have existed. The eminent justice of that policy, however, created him enemies whose relentless opposition cost him his command of the Third Division of the Army of the Ohio, and in all probability was the initiatory step that cost him his valuable life. He saw at a glance the depths of the wickedness of the rebellion, from which stand point a policy in regard to it in Tennessee was dictated that emphatically announced him as the friend of the Union people of the State, and could not, in any proper sense of the term, announce him as an enemy to her rebels. Had he been permitted, as he earnestly requested of the Secretary of War in the fall of 1861. to march with his command from Louisville through Cumberland Gap to Knoxville, with a view to relieve East Tennessee, the result could scarcely have been other than anational blessing, as well as a merciful relief to the suffering Union people of that part of the State. After having been granted his request by the Secretary of War. Mr. Cameron, President Lincoln, infinenced by the miserable jealousy and selfish complaints of other Generals in the Army of the Cumberland, was indneed to countermand the order; and thus that important expedition was aban- cloned, and the valuable services of Gen. Mitchel as prospectively connected with it were lost, and East Tennessee for three years left to be consumed by the venom of the destroyer.
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