USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee, from 1833 to 1875, their times and their contemporaries > Part 27
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The people of the North believed that the noise and wild cry for war in the South, with the boasted preparations, were mere braggadocio-the froth and foam of political excitement- which would soon evaporate and pass away. They had no con- ception of the delirious spirit of war which everywhere existed, impelling a whole people toward battlefields. They did not dream of their deep and determined purpose to achieve inde- pendence, or sacrifice all they had in the attempt. They did not know, or if they knew, they did not care for the fact that all business, all thought of business, was abandoned for the great purpose of war. Nor had they any idea of the vast resources of the South. They did not dream of the ingenuity and inventive genius which necessity would call forth, and did call forth, en- abling the Southern people to supply the means and resources necessary for the equipment of armies, almost equal to those furnished by their own shops and factories, or purchased from abroad. They had no conception of the bravery and endurance which the well-reared and luxurious Southerner would manifest in sustaining a cause as dear to his heart as life itself. They had no conception either of the vast supplies of grain and pro- visions which Southern fields could furnish. They did not dream that the delicate sons of Southern planters, accustomed only to ease, luxury, and pleasure, would make as good soldiers as ever went into battle; that they could live for days at a time on half rations-composed of food such as would have created a mutiny in a Northern army ; that they could endure hardships, fatigues, and privations such as were never surpassed. And back of all this the Northern people did not know, and could not realize the fact, that the women of the South, both young and old, high and low, were urging on their fathers and sons and brothers with an enthusiastic spirit scarcely ever known in history. The men who would not fight in such a glorious cause for the rights and the liberties of the South were denounced by them as cowards, recreants, and traitors, worthy only of infamy and dishonor. In fact, the earnest spirit of the people of the South in defense of their supposed rights was not understood by the North until the war was half over, and even then it was not
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wholly understood. Never were a people more earnest, more determined, and, for the most part, more honest in fighting, not only for their independence, but for their liberties likewise.
The people of both sections sadly misunderstood each other. The North miscalculated, as we have pointed out, the spirit and the determination of the people of the South. The Southern people, on the contrary, greatly undervalued the courage of the Northern people. They believed honestly that Northern men would not fight. The boast and the claim were everywhere made that one Southern man could whip five Yankees.
Why the Southern people should have been so infatuated is incomprehensible. It would seem that history and a little reflec- tion ought to have taught them better. The Northern and the Southern people were, for the larger part, of substantially the same blood and race. While far from being homogeneous in sentiment, opinion, and in customs, they were not so unlike as to make them two distinct peoples, as are the English and the French. There had been at all times, since the settlement of the colonies, a considerable intermingling of the people of the two sections. Northern people had come South, and Southern people had gone North, and especially into the Northwest. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa received a large percentage of their population from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. There were entire neighborhoods in Illinois composed of Tennesseeans. Kansas was largely settled by people from Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The dominant race in Pennsylvania to-day, the Covenanters, commonly called the Scotch-Irish, and perhaps in New Jersey and Delaware also, as well as a large element in New York and Ohio, is the same race that is so large and influ- ential in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North and South Caro- lina, and in Georgia, and indeed in all the Southern States. This race molded and fashioned the institutions of North Caro- lina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and perhaps had the largest influence of any race in the same direction in Virginia. From the busy hives of those States, for more than fifty years, had poured toward the West a constant stream of Covenanter blood. The Puritan and the Covenanter, and to some extent the Cavalier, had met (in the West) on the same great theater of activity and enterprise, and had become a homogeneous people. The Dutch of New York and the Ger- mans of Pennsylvania had, along with the Covenanters, found
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their way in considerable numbers into Virginia and Tennessee, while the Puritan had gone everywhere, and was to be found everywhere, at the opening of the late war.
Thus the people of the North and the South were largely of the same blood, except in New England, when our great Civil War broke out, and they were in no sense alien races. It is especially to be noted that the Covenanter-that hardy, tena- cious, brave people, who never yielded, never turned back, but always went forward to the full accomplishment of its purpose- was scattered everywhere throughout the South, and through the North and the Northwest, and was to be found in every State and Territory, even in considerable numbers in New Eng- land. The whole history of that people-their deadly struggle for one hundred years with tyrants and priestly bigots in Scot- land, their heroic sufferings in Ireland, and their splendid cour- age and noble patriotism in the Colonies in behalf of liberty- bore testimony to the fact that in whichever army they might be, whether in that of the North or that of the South, there would be unyielding courage and persistent fighting, and that the war would never cease until one side or the other was over- come by exhaustion.
Before the North, with almost humiliating subserviency, had ceased to dream of concessions and compromises, in 1861, there arose in the South, out of chaotic elements, a government work- ing in harmonious order, strong and vigorous in its administra- tion, and haughty, confident, and defiant in spirit. With almost incredible promptitude they organized, equipped, and put into the field large armies, led by able generals, and won great vic- tories. For nearly four years they waged against nearly three times their numbers in population, an obstinate and unequal con- test, becoming the wonder and the admiration of the civilized world. With scanty material they improvised warships which carried dismay into the navy of their great rival. The Merri- mac, hurriedly constructed, swept everything before it and caused universal consternation up to the moment of the timely appearance of the Monitor, commanded by the daring Lieu- tenant John L. Worden, which, after perhaps the most remark- able fight recorded in naval warfare, put an end to this work of destruction. Confederate cruisers were put afloat, which threatened to drive from the high seas the commerce of the United States. No merchant ship was anywhere safe from the
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destructive energy and daring of such men as Captain Raphael Semmes. It was late in the war before the gallant Captain John A. Winslow, in his splendid ship, the Kearsarge, overtook the Alabama and challenged her to battle. After a splendid fight, in the presence of thousands of spectators who lined the French shore, the Confederate cruiser was sent to the bottom of the ocean.
A little recollection of history ought to have dispelled the idea that the Northern people would not fight. The racial elements of which this people was mostly composed were the Puritans, the Covenanters, the Dutch, the Germans, and the Irish. The Covenanters, as before stated, had long ago established their reputation for courage in their great contest with the crown of England, and with a Papal and Episcopal Prelacy in their struggle for religious freedom.
The Irish and the Germans were everywhere known to be brave. The Dutch were the descendants of the brave men who, under the lead of William the Silent, had made the grandest fight for freedom recorded in all history against the immense power of Phillip II of Spain, finally ending in the independence and the establishment of the Dutch Republic. The Puritans, too, had a history resplendent with deeds of noble courage. It was the untrained plowmen of New England, with a courage scarcely ever surpassed, who stood the first shock of the Revolu- tion and made the names of Concord, Lexington, and Bunker Hill immortal.
It was the descendants of these several historic people, scat- tered from Maine to the Pacific Coast, which the Southern leaders challenged to battle. When the war opened they were engaged in the peaceful pursuits of life and wholly unused to war. Never, perhaps, were a people in feelings, thoughts, and habits less prepared for martial pursuits. A majority of them were small farmers engaged in tilling the soil. Others were tradesmen, mechanics, and laborers. But in them still lingered the spirit, though dormant for the time, of their ancestors.
It was no surprise that Southern soldiers won the first battles of the war. They possessed more dash, and were more im- petuous than Northern men. In the sense of the word as used in the South, they had a keener sense of honor-more spirit, more chivalry. They were accustomed to fights and duels. An insult was sure to be followed by a blow, or must be avenged on
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the field of honor. The spirit of chivalry was a part of the life of the Southern gentlemen. The laws of honor were next in their hearts to their religion. To fail to resent an insult was a perpetual disgrace. They were ready for any danger, for the most daring enterprises. They sighed for glory in politics or in
war. Such were the majority of the Southern people. They were brave, generous, and magnanimous. While fond of luxury and magnificence, these were as dross in comparison with honor and glory. They were intense in feeling, earnest in opinion, and prompt in action. Wealth and luxury were only stepping- stones on which to mount to power and position. They had a contempt for what Senator Hammond of South Carolina called the "mudsills"-the mechanics and laboring men-of the North. The Puritan was in the estimation of the South the synonym of abasement, selfishness, and hypocrisy. The shoemakers of Lynn and the cotton and wool spinners and weavers of Lowell were base churls, with no manhood, no spirit, no courage. I am happy to say that the South has no such feeling to-day.
The Puritan was supposed to be the type of the Northern people. He was the representative of perhaps the largest class. In temperament he was patient, tenacious, and resolute, In action he was persistent, never turning back, but always moving forward with steadiness of purpose toward the aim and object of life. With constant assiduity he pushed forward new enter- prises, fostered education and science, and encouraged develop- ment and progress.
He settled the wilderness and embarked in commerce on the high seas among the nations, gathering treasure from every part of the globe. Wherever a dollar was to be made, there.he was found receiving his full share. Like the ram seen in the vision, he pushed North and East, West and South. He was ready to argue and dispute. He demanded his own, even to the last iota. However humble his station, he gathered around himself all the comforts and conveniences of life. He read and thought and formed his own opinions. Books and newspapers and magazines were to be found in every home. He did not deem it necessary to fight at every insult. He was long suffering and forbearing, but no earthly power could make him yield to wrong or give up what he thought was right. Though he was smeared with dust and soot, he often possessed a cunning in logic and an extent of knowledge that would have surprised and con-
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founded those who were disposed to sncer at him. Despised as he was by Southern men, he possessed an intelligence, a keen sense of right and wrong that made him tenacious in defense of whatever principles he had once espoused. When, therefore, he went to the battlefield he carried with him convictions so firmly rooted in his mind that he was ready to risk his life for them. No better material for soldiers could anywhere be found. He was guided by a sense of duty and fought for a purpose.
In estimating the qualities of Northern men for fighting the Southern people overlooked these elements in the character of the Puritans. They also overlooked the great class of small farmers who constituted the largest part of the Northern popu- lation. These were the men who constituted at least the larger part of all Northern armies. These were men for the most part who knew perfectly well the principles and issues involved in the war. When trained as soldiers, no men were braver or cooler in action. They were wanting in the impetuosity of Southern soldiers, but they had quite as much endurance, persistency, and determination. It has been said that an army when well trained is a machine. It is controlled by one man, guided by one mind, and moves as one man. The timid are inspired and carried along by the courage of the bravest. So, in battle, the same spirit runs along the whole line. It thus becomes a solid phalanx, a machine.
Judging by their past history, why should not the Puritan have fought as bravely as the Southerner? It was the ancestors of these men who wrested the crown from Charles I and sent him to the block. It was they who under the lead of Cromwell destroyed the monarchy of England and established the Com- monwealth. It was the Puritan and the yeomanry of England who were fashioned by his genius and iron will into the most irresistible body of men seen since the time of the Roman Legions under Julius Cæsar. Before it the gentry and nobility of England under the fiery Rupert were scattered and almost annihilated on the field of Naseby. In nearly every conflict, in nearly every skirmish, the nobility and higher classes were over- come and signally routed by the psalm-singing Puritans. Naseby and Marston Moor are the lasting monuments of their bravery. Then, as at a later day, they were derided for their nasal drawling speech and wild fanaticism. They were sneered at as low-born churls, without spirit, without courage, and with-
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out manhood. But when the day of battle came a tremendous conviction of right and justice gave them a power and a might which nothing could withstand. These were the ancestors of the Massachusetts Puritans.
Come down to a later period; the Southern people should have remembered that the men opposed to them were capable of fight- ing by their conduct during the Mexican War. In the bloody battle of Buena Vista the soldiers of Illinois, under Hardin and Bissell, fought side by side with the soldiers of Arkansas under Yell; of Kentucky under Clay, McKee, and Marshall, and of Mississippi under Jefferson Davis. Nor has less honor been given to one than to the other. Hardin earned on that battle- field by the highest display of courage no less renown than Yell and McKee and Clay. He was equally lamented with them in his and their sad death on that bloody field of glory.
Such were some of the traits and characteristics of the two great belligerent forces which were arrayed against each other in the summer and fall of 1861. The South had been wrought up to a furious state of madness. The North was not yet in full earnest. It needed more defeats to arouse it from its sad delusions.
CHAPTER III.
Discontinued Publication of Paper, October 24, 1861-Flight of Union Men to Kentucky-Thornburg and Perez Dickinson Arrested-Brown- low Refuses to Take Oath-Abortive Attempt to Escape Into Ken- tucky - Bridge-burning, November 8, 1861 - Brownlow Escapes to Mountain -- Crittenden Offers Passport After Letter from Benjamin- Brownlow Arrested-March 3, 1862, Permitted to Start for Nashville -- Flag of Truce-Brownlow Meets Johnson at Capitol.
UNDER the gloomy conditions pointed out in the foregoing chapter, away down in the heart of the South, there was one man who realized the situation; who was not intimidated at the appalling dangers hanging over his country, and who still refused to bow his knee to Baal. This was W. G. Brownlow. In spite of the constant dangers which surrounded him, he con- tinued to publish his paper until October 24, 1861. In no issue did it waver in his openly declared devotion to the Union. All men knew how he stood. In all the secession States his paper alone faltered not. All the other Union leaders and papers had long since gone over to the support of the Confederacy, or had silently disappeared. Let it be kept in mind, also, that the people of Tennessee had voted in June in favor of separation from the Federal Government; that every vestige of the author- ity of the United States had disappeared; that it was super- seded by the insignia and the power of the Confederacy ; that there was a Confederate army stationed at Knoxville, and that this point was Department Headquarters, with General Zolli- coffer in command. Let it also be kept in mind that after the battle of Manassas the prospects of a restored Union, viewed from a Southern standpoint, were gloomy in the extreme. Mr. Nelson had been arrested and silenced. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Maynard and other prominent men were refugees in the North. The other leaders who had not fled, had become silent, forced to do so. Thousands of Union men who had nerved the heart and strengthened the arms of Mr. Brownlow and his associates while the fight was still going on, had fled, or were daily flee- ing, for safety to Kentucky. Dr. J. W. Thornburgh had been arrested on a charge of treason, and taken to Nashville for
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imprisonment and trial. Mr. Perez Dickinson had also been arrested and other arrests were occurring daily. Universal gloom, fear, and despondency, like a dark pall, had settled on the hearts and minds of the Union people, and the light of hope was well nigh extinguished in all their hearts.
Yet amid all this darkness, Mr. Brownlow still pleaded for the Union, still kept the Stars and Stripes floating in defiance from his house. On October 12th, the following taunting article appeared in his paper :
"To ARMS! TO ARMS! YE BRAVES !
"Come Tennesseeans! Ye who are the advocates of Southern Rights, for Separation and Disunion-ye who have lost your rights and feel willing to uphold the glorious flag of the South, in opposition to the Hessians arrayed under the despot, Lincoln, come to your country's rescue! Our gallant Governor, who led off in this State in the praiseworthy object of breaking up the old rickety Government in the hands of the Black Republicans, calls for 30,000 volunteers, in addition to the 55,000 already in the field. Shall we have them? If they do not volunteer, we shall have our State disgraced by draft, and then we must go under compulsion. Come, gentlemen! many of you have promised that 'when it becomes necessary,' you will turn out. That time has come and the necessity is upon us. Let us show our faith by our works. We have talked long and loud about fighting the Union shriekers and the vandal hordes under the Despot, Lincoln. Now we have an opening; some of us have even said we were willing for our sons to turn out and fight Union men. We have a chance at a terrible array of Unionists in Kentucky-let us volunteer, and General Sidney Johnston will either lead us on to victory, or something else. Come, ye braves, turn out and let the world see that you are in earnest in making war on the enemies of the South. Many of you have made big speeches in favor of the war. Not a few of you have attempted to sell the army supplies, and thousands of you are willing to stoop to fill the offices for the salaries they pay ; and you have been so patriotic as to try to get your sons and other relatives into offices. Some of you have hired yourselves as spies, under-strappers, and tools in the glorious cause, at two to four dollars per day! Come, now, enter the ranks, as
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there is more honor in serving as a private. Come, gentlemen, do come, we insist, and enter the army as volunteers. You will feel bad, when drafted, and pointed out as one who had to be driven into the service of your country. Let these Union traitors submit to the draft, but let us who are true Southern men volunteer. Any of us are willing to be Judges, Attorneys, Clerks, Senators, Congressmen, and camp followers for pay, when out of danger, but who of us is willing to shoulder our knapsacks and muskets and meet the Hessians? Come, gentle- men, the eyes of the people are upon you and they want to see if you will pitch in. This is a good opening."
An article similar to the above was published by him in his paper of October 19th. There were so many prominent men in Knoxville who had urged on secession, but who failed to enter the army, to whom these taunting, bitter reproaches manifestly applied, that a cry of rage was at once raised against Brownlow. Believing that he was about to be arrested and indicted, he determined to do, what he had all along seen he would have to do, that is, suspend the publication of his paper. Accordingly on October 24, 1861, reinserting the two scathing articles re- ferred to above, he bade farewell to his readers in a long editorial, a part of which is here given. Never at any period in his life did his iron will and heroic courage appear in grander outline. In danger of mobs, in danger of assassina- tion, in danger of imprisonment, in the midst of all this peril, he still held his head aloft, as if defying the thunderbolt. He still continued to "cry aloud and spare not."
I know of nothing in the whole Civil War that equals his defiant words in the midst of these most appalling dangers. He said in his sad farewell issue:
"This issue of the Whig must necessarily be the last for some time to come-I am unable to say how long. The Con- federate authorities have determined upon my arrest, and I am to be indicted before the Grand Jury of the Confederate Court, which commenced its session in Nashville on Monday last. I have the fact of my indictment and conse- quent arrest, for this week, from distinguished citizens, Legis- lators, and lawyers at Nashville of both parties. Gentlemen of high positions, and members of the Secession party, say that the indictment will be made, because of some 'treasonable articles' in late numbers of the Whig.
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"According to the usages of the Court, as heretofore estab- lished, I presume I could go free by taking the oath these authorities are administering to other Union men, but my set- tled purpose is not to do any such thing. I can doubtless be allowed my personal liberty by entering into bonds to keep the peace, and to demean myself properly towards the leaders of secession in Knoxville, who have been seeking to have me as- sassinated all summer and fall, as they desire me to do, for this is really the import of the thing, and one of the leading objects sought to be attained. Although I could give a bond for my good behavior, for one hundred thousand dollars, signed by fifty as good men as the country affords, I shall obstinately refuse to do even that, and if such a bond is drawn up and signed by others, I will render it null and void by refusing to sign it. In default of both, I expect to go to jail, and I am ready to start on one moment's notice. Not only so, but there I am prepared to lie, in solitary confinement, until I waste away because of imprisonment, or die from old age. Stimulated by a consciousness of innocent uprightness, I will submit to im- prisonment for life, or die at the end of a rope, before I will make any humiliating concessions to any power on earth.
"I have committed no offense. I have not shouldered arms against the Confederate Government, nor the State, nor encour- aged others to do so. I have discouraged rebellion, publicly and privately. I have not assumed a hostle attitude towards the civil or military authorities of this new Government. But I have committed grave, and I fear, unpardonable offenses. I have refused to make war on the Government of the United States; I have refused to publish to the world false and ex- aggerated accounts of the several engagements had between the contending armies ; I have refused to write out and publish false accounts of the origin of this war, and of the breaking up of the best Government the world ever knew, and all this will I continue to do, if it cost me my life. Nay, when I agree to do such things, may a righteous God palsy my right arm and may the earth open and close in on me forever.
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