USA > Tennessee > The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and early western history, including a chronological summary of battles and engagements in the western armies of the Confederacy > Part 25
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wower rather as a rod held in terrorem over evil-doers, than as an actual means of punishment. His men deprecated the occasioning of his dis- pleasure more than they feared the effect of it, and Old Pat's dictum carried with a vast deal of weight and respect outside of the obedience inculcated in the Army Regulations. His labors (and they were un- remitting) were directed to improving the efficiency of his command, and officers and men felt constrained to accord him a formal support at least, however irksome the task. Yet, they never became machine soldiers ; they were not of the stuff of which such are made, and they always preserved an individuality which resented a blind obedience to pointless formalities which overtaxed physical endurance in the per- formance of them. Thus, while the division was encamped at Tun- nell Hill, Ga., in the winter of 1863-4, the weather was often excess- ively cold, and the routine duties of guard were evaded as much as possible by the men who, for the most part, were poorly clad. On this coming under the observation of the Division Inspector, he deter- mined to preserve the majesty of the violated law by appearing in per- son on these occasions and insisting upon a full performance of every detail laid down in the Regulations. The consequence was, he soon had a war upon his hands in which the odds were greatly against him ; but he elected to hold his ground, which gave him one advantage : he had his revenge in exacting a full and rigorous compliance with the law; the more tedious the performance and bad the weather, the sweeter his revenge. But woe unto him the while this was going on, or when he came in view of camps on other occasions; hostile tongues, from a hundred coverts, wagged in his derision, and his ears were regaled with the choicest bits of sarcasm and blasphemy belong -. ing to the repertory of camp. At length, Old Pat himself became in- volved in the war, upon the representations of his Inspector, whom he sought to shield, and issued a very positive order against further inter- ruption of this officer or any passing horsemen. This rendered the op- posite party a little more circumspect in giving offense, and lessened the amount of clamor, but not its individual intensity when a favorable opportunity occurred. Threats of wholesale arrest were made by the General, but never executed. Gradually the ramrod which stiffened the Inspector's backbone bent under the pressure, and he ceased to make any defense. In truth, the rebellion was more against the man than the law-his manner than his authority.
But Old Pat had one hobby which some of us grieved over at the
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time as an evidence of decided weakness on his part, but we cam .. afterward, to applaud its practical working out.
In the spring of 1863, he obtained a copy of a little work on " Rid Shooting," which had been issued under direction of a board of officer as a text book for the English Army. He went to work at once, and. in a short while, mastered its contents in his usual thorough way. Hay. ing been a corporal in the British Army, the imprimatur was sufficier .: to enlist Cleburne's endorsement, and the next thing was to give hi division the benefit of its wonderful teachings. An order brought ! his headquarters at Wartrace, Tenn., a line officer from each regimen .: "picked for intelligence," etc. Those of us who belonged to his old brigade had become familiar as pupils with his method of teaching while at Corinth and Tupelo, Miss., and were prepared, to a certain extent, for the ordeal ahead. He exhibited the book, ran over the topics, and then told us, in the most direct way, that we were to learn the system, so that we could impart it to the regimental officers, and through them to the men. Major Benham, of his staff, was to instruc: us, and he himself would supervise. He had put Benham to hammer- ing at it before our arrival. The work was somewhat interesting, a: first, but lost its novelty after a going over which, in the end, we found to be very superficial indeed. Benham was a good fellow, and. withal, a capital story-teller ; and, as our tasks began to get irksome, i: was an easy matter to beguile him into a story of western adventure. of which he had quite a fund from long residence in California as United States District Attorney. So, as our acquaintance with our teacher grew, the reins got slacker and attendance irregular. Some ci ยท the better dressed and sleeker of the pupils had the effrontery to ap- pear in rivalry with General Hardee and his staff in attentions to som: neighboring belles, and came to meetings occasionally with highly co !- ored reports of successful adventure. The rest of us generally met a: the usual hour every day for form's sake, played mumble-peg under the wide-spreading beeches, joked and lolled in a dolce farniente style that was regarded as blissful in comparison with the hot drills and re- strictions of life back at camps. In other words, we had a soft thin. of it. We concluded, further, that the system was purely theeretica .. and of no earthly value to old squirrel-hunters. In the meantime. what had become of Old Pat? No one seemed to know or care. Benham would say occasionally, in deprecation of our idleness and in. attention, that "Cleburne would get hold of us if we didn't do bes
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:er ;" but the admonition was lost on this Normal Military School daily assembled for chit-chat and make-believe.
How long this hasheesh indifference would have lasted, if undis- turbed, we have no means of knowing, but we have a distinct recol- lection of how summarily it ended when Old Pat appeared among us one day with the stern placard expressed in every lineament, "No liberties allowed here." Benham, who knew his man well, was the first to startle the reposing group with the exclamation, " By gracious, yonder comes Cleburne !" There was but one book in the class, and all could not get the benefit of appearing at that instant absorbed in the profound study of its sublime teachings. So there was no help for it but to submit like sheep dumb before their shearers, or like derelict pupils before a North Ireland School-master, wielding the rod an hun- dred years ago, or, later still, in the days of Cleburne's pupilage, for where else did he learn the role he played so well? In ten minutes, or less, he had guaged every fellow's proficiency in the Theory of Rifle-shooting to a fraction-the sum of which could easily have been expressed in fractions, of which one thousand was the least denomina- tor applicable. He ran the question of "How many pin-holes are there in the tumbler ?" from "next" to "next" so rapidly that we all failed to answer it. He was evidently up to the business. I do'nt believe that Benham himself could have told a gun-barrel from a ram- rod. Our dream of blissful repose on beds of roses, with blue grass carpeting and beechen bough overhangings, was rudely broken from this time forward. Morning didactics and afternoon practice was the order of the day, and rigidly carried out. The morning lesson con- sisted of a dissection of the rifle-musket to its minutest anatomy, fol- lowed by instruction in the laws of projectiles. This was conned over day after day until repetition brought its reward. But the afternoon lesson played a different variation. Hic opus, hic labor. The correct estimate of distances was a corollary of the morning study, and hot stretches of open field-work, rarely infringing on a border land of shade, with human flesh and blood for markers, monotonous guesses and repeated trials back and forth, regulation of the pace and verifica- tion of distances-these things made us earn our rations, and really trained the eye to a useful purpose in the art of destruction, which is the chief point in the economy of war. As each step assured prog- ress, rigor relaxed somewhat ; and when the school was dispersed by the advance of Rosecrans, the General had become quite proud of its
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promise of good. However, this information did not come direct from him. It was obtained second hand from some ladies at Chattanooga whom he visited, and, according to their report, his "school" was the only topic upon which he exhibited any animation. To us, he was as dumb of approbation as the Sphynx. The first order, on set- tling into camp at Tyner's Station, concerned his " school," which he now set to work in the several regiments as instructors, and which he supervised with characteristic thoroughness and persistency. That all of his pains and trouble bore good fruit he never doubted, and he pointed to the after achievements of his division as a result. In truth, the corps of Whitworth Sharp-shooters which he organized for the cam- paign of 1864 was probably not surpassed in the Confederacy. This body, twenty in number, was selected with great care from the differ- ent regiments of the division, and placed under the command of Lieu- tenant A. B. Schell, of the Second Tennessee-a most fitting selection, in every respect, of aptitude, love of adventure, and unflinching bravery. It was exempted from all duty but this special service, and this it per- formed in a style that was exceedingly gratifying to General Cleburne. On the Dalton-Atlanta Campaign we judge that hardly a day passed that it did not score victims to its deadly aim. At Resaca we remem- ber seeing it silence batteries repeatedly at eight hundred yards range ; and a skirmish line of Federal Kentuckians, which had been pushed forward into a deadening between the lines, was almost annihilated by its fire. The telescope with which this gun was fitted, made its aim very accurate even at long distances. These guns were imported from England in 1863, and cost the Confederate Government $1,000 each, with an accompaniment of one thousand rounds of cartridges to the piece. The barrels were rifled after the manner of the old-fash- ioned American Rifle, and the balls were nearly two inches in length, though the diameter was quite small.
But our pen is running riot with personal reminiscences of General Cleburne, when, at the outset, we only intended to reproduce some anecdotes gathered around Major Lanford's camp-fire more than four- teen years ago. The ante bellum relations of this gentleman to the sub- ject of this sketch was that of a law-partner, according to our recollec- tion, and, therefore, one of more or less intimacy. Installment num- ber one of these anecdotes shows the Irish in him in his unwillingness to take a dare ; in other respects, it exhibits his characteristic tenacity of purpose.
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Shortly after Cleburne's arrival at Helena, he was one of a party of gentlemen engaged in an afternoon stroll beyond the limits of the city. On coming to a wide ditch, of which there were numbers in the vicin- ity, the natives of the party, from long practice, leaped it with ease, leaving Cleburne behind in a quandary whether to leap or endeavor to find a better crossing elsewhere. Some one remarked that he could not jump it, and another dared him to the trial. This was enough. He had too much of the native element of Irish character to take a dare, and he essayed the leap at once. The distance was too great for his practice, and he came down in the mud and water to his waist, falling several feet short of his mark. A roar of laughter followed the performance, and Cleburne started back to the other bank instead of coming on over. To a question as to what he meant, he replied that he "intended to jump that ditch." Now ensued a succession of efforts ludicrous to the by-standers, but as toilsome to the unpracticed performer as the historic endeavor of the ant to carry a grain up the perpendicu- lar face of the wall, but with the same triumphant result. Again and again he fell short of the bank, but each time went a little nearer the mark. He was covered, from head to foot, with the filthy ooze of the swamp, but this failed to disconcert him in the least. At last, after many fruitless endeavors, his toil was rewarded, and he stood triumph- ant on the coveted bank. Major Landford says that during the entire time he made no reply to the sallies of his companions, and seemed utterly forgetful of their presence until he succeeded, when he uttered a few chuckles of triumph. But his ambition at ditch-jumping did not stop with competition : "Excelsior " was now his motto, and he prac- ticed daily until he could make leaps that his companions would not attempt.
Anecdote number two is a repetition, in spirit, of number one.
Cleburne's companions were all expert with the pistol, and one day he was asked to try his skill. The result was a laughable failure. Some weeks after this, he was present at another trial of skill, and, to the astonishment of all, he beat the entire party with the greatest ease. He had bought a pistol after his failure, and had practiced in private with his accustomed assiduity.
Anecdote number three is different from the rest only in detail.
. Major L. and he had an engagement to call upon some ladies one night. After supper, the Major repaired to Cleburne's room and found him in the act of making his toilet. Just as Cleburne was slip-
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ping his head through a clean shirt, he observed a mouse's head peer- ing through a hole in the floor. He instantly stopped his preparations, and got his pistol, remarking that he intended to "kill that little ras- cal." Lanford made some remonstrace against his giving time to such a trivial affair, but he made no reply, as he settled himself into a chair and ranged his pistol on the hole from which the mouse had now .disappeared. Thinking that Cleburne would either kill the mouse or get tired of waiting its reappearance, Lanford withdrew, with the re- mark that he would return in a half hour, when he hoped he would be ready. At the appointed time he returned, to find his companion oc- cupying exactly the same posture, with his shirt still unadjusted. He again remonstrated with him, urging the plea of his engagement with . ladies, in order to divert him from his purpose. To all of this, Cle- burne made no reply, but sat with gaze riveted on the rat-hole. Find- ing it useless to expostulate further, he slammed to the door and left. On his return about one o'clock, observing a light in Cleburne's room, he opened the door and looked in. There sat his exasperator in ex- actly the same posture, statuesque as if he had been made of stone. He closed the door and withdrew, after expressing, in vigorous Eng- lish, his opinion of the proceeding, to which Cleburne made no reply. It was probably two o'clock before he retired to his own room, which was not far off, and, as he lay in the semi-conscious state which pre- cedes sleep, he heard the pistol fire. On entering the room the next morning, Cleburne exhibited the mouse with its head shot off.
These anecdotes of General Cleburne forcibly recall the patient tasks of Stonewall Jackson, as narrated by his biographer, Dabney. Patience, fortitude and self-denial are not virtues of a moment's growth, to be called for only on great occasions and laid aside as inconveniences in the every- day duties of life. The flesh must learn to suffer and endure by repeated trials, as an athlete removes the soreness of yesterday's performance by exercise to-day. The center of nervous sensibility must be trained to take no heed of the messages of pain and disquiet continually throng- ing the conductors of sensation, and be able to insulate the mind from the body at will. This office of the will grows in power with each vic- tory over swaying passions and emotions, and is weakened by every defeat. The brightest genius may yield to the importunities of fleshly cravings, and be dragged down to ruin by their nautilus like arms, whose combined strength he is unable to resist. Robert E. Lee was a fair type of athletic character, obtained after a long life of moral dis-
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cipline and daily victories over self. Duty was his guiding star, amid the many temptations of army life, whether at the posts remote from civilization with their attendant ennui, absence of pleasurable diversion and provocation to artificial excitements, or amid the gayeties of the National Capital, where his position, handsome face and fine reputa- tion won him a place in society, but exposed him to a thousand allure- ments, involving a loss of time and subversive of self-discipline. Yet he passed unchanged through it all, although his kindly, genial nature craved the indulgence of its scope.
Jackson disciplined himself for the specific benefit accruing from a treatment relentlessly carried out. The results in these two cases are read in the histories they left behind. But Cleburne's self-discipline seemed more the working of some inherent element of his nature than of a design mapped out and matured by reflection. He probably had no model. His early history has never been unveiled to the public, and it may be that there was something in his social condition and the political state of his native land, which, acting upon his peculiar bent, helped to foster and strengthen those positive traits of character so prominently developed in later years.
THE EVACUATION OF NASHVILLE.
The Panic that Succeeded the Fall of Fort Donelson-Incidents Connected with the Surrender of the City.
BY JNO. MILLER M'KEE.
"It would be argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest forever."-SHAKSPEARE. (Concluded.)
M ONDAY morning, the 17th, came, but it brought no gunboats or Federal troops. It had rained considerably the previous night, and the streets were full of mud, yet the Confederate troops continued to pour in in a continuous stream, and the city was soon filled with sol- diers, wet, hungry and worn out by long and continuous marches. As the day wore away they gradually fell back southward, so that compar- atively few remained in the city over night.
The excitement of the previous day had abated but little. Business
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of all kinds was suspended, and the stores and shops remained closed. Almost every body seemed to be upon the streets, hurrying to and fro, many seeking friends to advise with, while, perhaps, the same friends were out upon a similar mission ; others were to be seen congregated in little groups upon the corners discussing the probabilities of the fu- ture, or listening to the miraculous stories of some soldier who had es- caped from Fort Donelson, and had made his way to this city. Some of them told wonderful stories. We recollect encountering one in our perambulations, who professed to have followed General Floyd through his campaign in Western Virginia, and his graphic descriptions of how his chieftain eluded the plodding Rosecrans formed quite a spicy little episode in the panic of that day. A "Maury county boy " was en- tertaining an interested crowd on another corner with the daring ex- ploits that were performed at Fort Donelson, and wound up by declar- ing that he could have walked upon the bodies of dead Yankees for acres without ever touching the ground.
Many who were wealthy removed themselves and what property they could take with them out of town, while the thousands of poor had no alternative but to remain and make the best disposition of themselves they could, as there was no possibility of getting out of town, except at enormous cost, the military authorities having taken charge of all the railroads leading out from the city, and the owners of vehicles refused to hire them out, unless the hirer would pay a price approximating the cost of carriages and horses. Notwithstanding these exhorbitant demands, large numbers paid the price and left the city, seemingly with no object in view except to get out of Nashville.
Of course, the city was filled with rumors of every conceivable de- scription, and it would have been perfect folly to have attempted to glean a grain of truth from the reports which one would meet at every corner, yet thousands seemed to believe every thing that was told in regard to the numbers and rapid approach of the Federals, so true is it, that
" Rumor doth double, like the voice and echo, The numbers of the fear'd."
At one time it was asserted with a degree of confidence that almost in- spired belief in the sincerity of the narrator, that the gun-boats were only a few miles below the city, then another would assert, in terms equally as positive, that there was not a Federal soldier of General Buell's army this side of the Kentucky line, nor a gun-boat this side
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of Clarksville. It was evident that not a few were trying to "play upon a harp of a thousand strings."
Arrival of Generals Pillow and Floyd -- The Surrender of Fort Donelson.
During Sunday a rumor reached the city that Generals Pillow and Floyd had escaped from Fort Donelson with a portion of their respec- tive commands, after the surrender had been determined upon. This rumor was subsequently confirmed by telegraph from Clarksville. A Wat arrived here early Monday morning, which brought these Gener- "is up, together with a number of officers and privates who had par- ticipated in the engagement at Fort Donelson, and much anxiety was manifested to hear their version of the capitulation of that post, and many called upon them to satisfy themselves in regard to the matter. The purport of the information imparted by them was, that the Feder- als had been largely reinforced Saturday evening by fresh troops, and that it was regarded impossible for the already worn out Confederates to protract the unequal contest, with no hope of receiving reinforce- ments, and that at a council of war held that night it was determined to surrender, and that previous to the surrender, they, with a portion of their respective commands, made their escape. The statement was meagre and unsatisfactory, and as this point in the history of the war is one in which the people of Nashville then took a deep interest, we have thought it not amiss to incorporate here the fullest and most sat- isfactory account of the events immediately preceding the capitulation we have seen. It was communicated to the New Orleans Picayune by a correspondent, who writes from Decatur, Ala., under date of the 15th of March. The following is his statement :
The denunciations, wrongs and injustice heaped upon General A. S. Johnston, for his retrograde movement, are, in every way, undeserved. Long before Gen- eral Johnston was compelled to make his retrograde movement, he addressed let- ters to the Governors of the different States, informing them of the condition of affairs, and was thus compelled to expose his feeble condition ; but neither the people nor the government listened to his admonitions. As I have before stated, General Johnston had become convinced that neither Bowling Green nor Donel- son was tenable; and, with the hope of saving the latter, he sent all the rein- forcements he could spare to Dover, reserving for himself a force hardly sufficient to cover his own retreat had the enemy fallen upon him.
It is stated that the message of President Davis, in relation to Fort Donelson, says that the reports of Floyd and Pillow do not state that reinforcements were asked for; and it is not shown that the position could not be evacuated, and the whole army saved, as well as part. Nor is it shown by what authority the two
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senior Generals abandoned their responsibility by transferring their commands to junior officers. In explanation, in part, of the omissions thus stated, and as part of the history of the surrender of Fort Donelson, I have obtained from a junior officer, who was present on that occasion, the following reliable statement of the particulars of the surrender, which will be read with interest :
On the morning of the 16th of February, about one o'clock, it had been deter- mined by the commanding officers to cut our way through the enemy's lines, destroy the army stores, and retreat from Dover to Nashville. For this purpose, scouts were sent out to ascertain whether the enemy occupied the ground they had been driven from the day previous, and some of Forrest's men were ordered to in- spect a slough, covered with back water from the river, to see if it was passable for infantry. The scouts returned soon after, and reported that the roads were perfectly alive with troops, and that their camp-fires were burning in every direc- tion : also, that the slough was half leg deep in mire, and the water reaching to the saddle-skirts. This information produced a change of operations, and a con- ference then took place, at which were present Generals Floyd, Pillow and Buck- ner ; Colonels Forrest and John C. Burch ; Majors Gilmer, Henry, Haynes and Jones; and Lieutenants Martin and Nicholson-the two last being aids of Gen- eral Pillow.
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