Three companies went to the ground this morning, and recovered every thing belonging to my picket, except a few of the horses. The enemy were engaged all night long in boxing up their dead. Two of their officers were killed. They laid out twenty-three on the porch of a neighboring farm house. I will bury my poor fellow to-morrow. The report of the skirmish sounds like fiction, but it is not exaggerated. The fight was really one of the most desperate on record, and abounds with instances of wonderful daring and coolness."* mish, in his official report, "to sending my mounted pickets, thirteen men in all, to different posts along the several approaches to Cumberland. Finding it next to impossible to get reliable information of the enemy yesterday, I united the thirteen, and directed them, if possible, to proceed to Frankfort, a town midway between this place and Romney, to see if there were rebel troops there. They went within a quarter of a mile of the place, and found it full of cavalry. Returning they overtook forty horsemen, and at once charged on them, routing and driving them back more than a mile, From a letter written from the rebel killing eight of them, and securing seven-camp at Romney to Senator Mason, it teen horses. Corporal Hayes, in com- would appear that the party met by mand of my men, was desperately wound- Hayes in the first encounter was a deed with sabre cuts and bullets. Taking tachment from Captain Ashby's comhim back they halted about an hour, and pany, led by his brother Dick Ashby, were then attacked by the enemy, who who is represented as "terribly cut up, were reinforced to about seventy-five one of his eyes being shot out and his men. The attack was so sudden that head and neck badly cut by balls." they abandoned the horses and crossed Captain Ashby, it is also stated, "had to a small island at the mouth of Patter- 40 shots fired at him, and his escape son's Creek. The charge of the rebels was miraculous. His horse was shot was bold and confident, yet twenty-three twice and killed under him, and he was fell under the fire of my pickets, close wounded slightly in the leg, which has about and on the island. My fellows not prevented him from pursuing the were finally driven off, and, scattering enemy." This, adds the writer, "is a each man for himself, they are all in fighting regiment, the chaplain and surcamp now. One, Corporal Hayes, of geon fighting first and praying and docCompany A, was wounded, but is re- toring afterwards."+ covering. One, John C. Holdingbrook, of Company B, is dead. The last was taken prisoner, and brutally murdered. * Colonel Lewis Wallace to Major-General McClellan, June 27, 1861. General Order of Major-General Patter son, Hagerstown, June 30, 1861 + Moore's Rebellion Record, I, 242. CHAPTER XX. EASTERN TENNESSEE. dangerous arts of political intrigue, the other had an equally reckless conspirator in Harris-"King Harris," as he was popularly called, in consequence of his assumption of authority and tyrannical proceedings. In both States there was indeed a show of submitting the question of secession to a popular vote, but in both instances a treaty was formed with the rebel government, and the military resources of the State were placed at the command of Jefferson Davis before the vote was taken. Of course coercion and terrorism prevailed alike, with a deeper shade of malignity however in Tennessee, in proportion to the nearness of that State to the seat of the rebel gov. EASTERN TENNESSEE, it was confident- | Southern Confederacy. If one had a ly expected, would rank herself by the Letcher in the chair versed in all the side of Western Virginia in opposition to the measures taken to alienate the State from the Union. There was a certain similarity in the position and interests of the two districts which would place them in the same relation to the other portions of their respective States and to the Southern Confederacy. In both the influences of the same mountain range of the Alleghanies were impressed upon the character and fortunes of the inhabitants. For the most part a simple, industrious, agricultural people, owning the lands which they cultivated, with comparatively few slaves among them, the dwellers on the Holston like the Virginians on the Ohio, were ardently attached to the democratic privileges ernment. The ties of Eastern Virginia and institutions which had been guaran- to the South were those of imperfect teed to them by the Federal Govern- sympathy and doubtful interests; for ment. While both regions had to con- though a great portion of her wealth tend with a hostile dominant power in was derived from raising and selling their States, and while both were in like slaves to the cotton planters, yet the manner betrayed by the arts and treach- great capacities of the country demanded ery of their local rulers, the situation of northern skill and labor for their develEastern Tennessee was in some important opment; while Western Tennessee was respects less advantageous for the pre- not simply related to the South in manservation of the liberties of the people ners and culture, but might be considthan that of her northern neighbor. ered an integral part of the South itself. Each had that foe to loyalty to contend It was consequently a much harder task with, a bold, unscrupulous, intriguing for the mountaineers of the Cumberland Governor and an inimical legislature, to contend with the wealthy slave proready to deliver the State bound hand prietors on the Mississippi, than for a and foot to the cruel purposes of the vigorous rural population bordering on Pennsylvania to hold their own against the occupants of the worn out, delapidated estates on the James and the Rappahannock. If the chances in both cases had been equal within their borders, the contiguity of the more Southern State to the desperadoes of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, to say nothing of the refugee enemies of the Union in Kentucky, would have turned the scale against the efforts of the patriots of East Tennessee. Congress, was chosen President of the Convention, addresses were delivered by General T. D. Arnold and Senator Andrew Johnson, and an address and series of resolutions submitted to the people, denouncing the ruinous and heretical doctrine of secession as the parent of the evils afflicting the country, and condemning in particular the "pertinacity with which those in authority have labored to override the judgment of the people," and the inconsiderate and unconstitutional legislation of the State Assembly in entering into the military league with the Confederate States, and the accompanying proceedings in raising and equipping troops, thereby burdening the people with increased and insupportable taxation. "In the spirit of freemen,' was the language of one of the resolutions, "with an anxious desire to avoid the waste of the blood and the treasure of our State, we appeal to the people of Tennessee, while it is yet in their power, to come up in the majesty of their strength and restore Tennessee to her true position." The Act of the General Assembly of Tennessee to submit to the people of the State the so-called Declaration of Independence, passed on the 6th of May, named the 8th day of June for the vote to be taken.* The loyal citizens of East Tennessee, fully impressed with the danger of the impending calamity to their political privileges, and disapproving of "the hasty and inconsiderate action" of the legislature, immediately called a Convention of delegates of the people of that region to assemble at Knoxville, the metropolis of the district, on the 30th of May, to take such counsels as might protect the liberties of the population, and promote peace and harmony among them. At the appointed day, so great was the interest manifested that more than a thousand representatives assembled, of the counties from the western declivities of the Cumberland mountains to the ascending range of the Alleghanies bordering on North Carolina; from the whole extent of the valley watered by the Holston and its numerous tributaries, and the sources of the Tennessee from Kentucky and Virginia to Georgia. The Hon. Thomas A. R. Nelson, a representative from the extreme north-eastern part of the State to the recent 36th potism-between right and wrong. It is a war in which the odds are fearfully * Ante, p. 192. These moderate resolves were seconded by the glowing popular appeal of the President of the Convention. "It is said," were his words, "this is a war between the North and the South, and we are compelled to take sides. I do not so regard it. It is a war between the Government of the United States and rebellious citizens who have committed treason against that government. Neither is it a war between Lincoln and the South. It is a war between the Constitution and those who have violated it; a war between law and no law-between order and anarchy--between freedom and des SECESSION IN TENNESSEE. 295 against us; but this should have no had not disregarded the appeal. Spite weight were justice on our side. It is a of the hostile legions encamped upon her war the end of which no man can foresee. soil and all attempts at intimidation, East Thus far the South has bragged and Tennessee stood manfully to her princiboasted and bantered. The sluggish ples. In February she had given 34,000 North has at last aroused, and difficulties votes against calling a convention; in and dangers beset us on every hand. In June, when the rest of the State had fallen the depreciation of property, the en-off from a like devotion to the Union, the hanced prices of goods, increased taxa- vote of her 29 counties reached 32,923. tion, lawless violence, the threats against The secession vote, which had stood in free speech and a free press, a military that region in February 7,550, in June array in every civil district, a wild, reck- was raised to 14,780, but the difference less end unprincipled legislation, we can was accounted for by half of that number scarcely see the beginning of the end. being rebel troops, having no authority The end is not yet.' under the Constitution to vote at any election.* The vote of the entire State, as proclaimed by Governor Harris, stood 104,019 for separation; 47,238, against. In the larger number were included in this official return 6,241 voting in the camps. The entire vote in February had been for no convention 70,000, against 50,000, and but three secessionists had been elected in the State. Such, in four months, was the change brought about in Tennessee, against the better judgment of the people, by the acts of designing politicians, and the excitement consequent on the aggressive measures of the cotton States, at Sumter and elsewhere, stirring up prejudices and strife, and precipitating the country into ruinous, devastating war. "Freemen of Tennessee! if you are allowed to vote on the 8th of June, it is yet in your power to arrest the despotism of King Harris' and retrieve the blunders of a misguided legislature. It is yet in your power to prevent a war in our midst; to save the lives of our citizens; to preserve our cities, towns and villages, and to secure the blessings which heaven has promised to the peacemaker. It may be yet in your power to rescue the Union itself, and preserve the Stars and Stripes as a priceless legacy to posterity. If a fair election is held and Tennessee is voted out of the Union, it behooves us all to act together to avoid civil war among ourselves. If the election is carried by force or fraud, then let every friend of the Union throughout the State cry Every man to his tents, O Israel!' Should that dreadful alternative be forced upon you, "Snatch from the ashes of your sires The loyal men of East Tennessee were not to endure this result with complacency. The Knoxville Convention, which had adjourned subject to the call of its officers, after the decision of the State had been pronounced by the popular vote, was summoned to meet at the northeastern frontier town of Greenville, on the 17th June. The delegates assembled When the vote ratifying the act of secession was taken, it was found that the people of the eastern counties, at least, sion," p. 222. * Brownlow's "Rise, Progress and Decline of Seces were cast, but five freemen had the courage to vote for the Union, and these were stigmatized in the public press as 'ignorant traitors, who opposed the popular edict.' Our earnest appeal to our brethren in the other divisions of the State was published then only to a small extent, and the members and names of those who composed our Convention, as well as the counties they represented, were suppressed, and the effort made to impress the minds of the people that East Tennessee was favorable to secession. The Memphis Appeal, a prominent disunion paper, published a false account of our proceedings, under the head, 'The Traitors in Council,' and styled us, who represented every county but two in East Tennessee, the little batch of disaffected traitors who hover round the noxious atmosphere of Andrew Johnson's home.' Our meeting was telegraphed to The New Orleans Delta, and it was falsely said that we had passed a resolution recommending submission if 70,000 votes were not cast against secession. The despatch adds that 'The Southern Rights men are de at the appointed place and, on the fourth day of the session, adopted as the result of their deliberations a Declaration of Grievances, followed by a series of resolutions, looking to the separation of Eastern Tennessee as an independent political power, from the civil conflict into which the State was throwing itself. No more instructive memorial will be handed down to posterity of the grounds and proceedings of the rebellion in the border States won over to participate in the fatal strife than this document. Reviewing the recent election and the manner in which it was conducted, it was pronounced free, with but few exceptions, in no part of the State other than East Tennessee. In the arger parts of the Middle and West Tennessee, no speeches or discussions in favor of the Union were permitted. Union papers were not allowed to circulate. Measures were taken in some parts of West Tennessee, in defiance of the Constitution and laws, which allow folded tickets, to have the ballot numbered in such manner as to mark and expose the Union votes. A disunion paper, The Nashville Gazette, in urging the people termined to hold possession of the State, to vote an open ticket, declared that a thief takes a pocket-book or effects an entrance into forbidden places by stealthy means—a Tory, in voting, usually adopts pretty much the same course of procedure. Disunionists, in many places, had charge of the polls, and Union men, when voting, were denounced as Lincolnites and Abolitionists. The unanimity of the votes in many large counties where, but a few weeks ago, the Union sentiment was so strong, proves beyond doubt that Union men were overawed by the tyranny of the military power and the still greater tyranny of a corrupt and subsidized press. In the City of Memphis, where 5,613 votes though they should be in a minority.' Volunteers are allowed to vote in and out of the State in flagrant violation of the Constitution. From the moment the election was over, and before any detailed statement of the vote in the different counties had been published, and before it was possible to ascertain the result, it was exultingly proclaimed that separation had been carried by from 50,000 to 70,000 votes. This was to prepare the public mind to enable the secessionists to hold possession of the State, though they should be in a minority.' The final result is to be announced by a disurion Governor, whose existence depends upon |