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bition of the case, as presented by the reached the town in the forenoon of the senior generals, that they should be re- Sunday on which the surrender took lieved of command, to await further or- place, while many of the people were ders whenever a reliable judgment can on their way to church. The effect of be rendered on the merits of the case."* the ill tidings was enhanced by the preThe fleet of Commodore Foote imme- vious bulletins which had been sent by diately followed up on the Cumberland General Pillow, with assurances of victhe advantage gained by the surrender tory. "Instantly every consideration of Donelson. On the evening of the gave place to the thought of personal 16th, the gunboat St. Louis ascended the safety. Every means of transportation river to the Tennessee Iron Works, six at hand was employed to remove furnimiles above Dover. There was no force ture and valuables; the depots were to defend the works, and there being thronged with men, women, and chilabundant evidence of their employment dren, anxious to leave the city; train by the Confederate government, the after train was put in motion; governestablishment was set fire to and des- ment stores were thrown open to all who troyed. Mr. John Bell, the recent can- chose to carry them away, and negroes, didate for the Presideney of the United Irish laborers, and even genteel looking States, was one of the owners of this persons, could be seen toting' off their property. On the 19th, Commodore pile of hog, clothing, or other property Foote, with the gunboats Cairo and belonging to the army, though, by order Conestoga, reached Clarksville, where of the military authorities, much of this the forts commanding the town were was recovered on the ensuing day. In a found to be abandoned. The Union flag single word, the city was crazy with a was hoisted on the works, and numbers panic. Governor Harris is said to have of citizens having fled in alarm, at the ridden through the streets at the top of suggestion of the Hon. Cave Johnson, his speed, on horsehack, crying out that Judge Wisdom, and the Mayor of the the papers in the capitol must be recity, Commodore Foote issued a pro- moved; and, subsequently, with the legclamation, announcing "to all peaceably-islature, which had at once assembled, disposed persons, that neither in their left the city in a special train for Mempersons nor property shall they suffer phis." molestation by me, or by the naval force under my command, and that they may safely resume their business avocations with assurances of my protection." At the same time, he required that all military stores and army equipments should be surendered, and forbade the exhibition of any "secession flag or manifestation of secession feeling." Brigadier General C. F. Smith was placed in command of the city.

The flight of the broken armies of the Confederacy was well calculated to strengthen these disastrous impressions. On this very terror-stricken Sunday, besides the arrival of the fugitives with Floyd and Pillow, the rebel army of General A. S. Johnston from Bowling Green, in full retreat before the advance of General Buell's forces, worn and harrassed by their forced march of eighty miles, passed through the city. General The important city of Nashville, the Johnston had abandoned Bowling Green capital of Tennessee, next fell into the-a post which he had adroitly mainhands of the Union army. The fall of Donelson, on which it had relied for its defence, threw the citizens into a fearful panic. The news of the loss of the fort

* Message of Jefferson Davis, March 11, 1862.

tained by ingeniously "magnifying his forces "-with 14,000 effective men; the fatigues of the march had reduced this

*Nashville Correspondent of the Richmond Despatch, Squier's Pictorial History, vol. i. p. 319.

force on reaching Nashville to less than 10,000. Unable to hold the city against the forces of the Union advancing by land and water, General Johnston left a rear guard, under General Floyd, to secure the stores and provisions, and proceeded with the remainder of his forces to Murfreesboro. General Floyd having under his command the demoralized wreck of an army, mainly of fugitives, in spite of the remonstrances of the citizens, destroyed the costly railway and wire suspension bridges over the Cumberland. Besides the bridges, two valuable steamboats, in process of conversion into gunboats, were destroyed, lest they should fall into the hands of the Union army, which was hourly expected. The week which ensued was one of utter panic and confusion. Sick and wounded soldiers were dying rapidly in the overcrowded, ill-appointed hospitals; lawless soldiers were rioting, and plundering private houses; a mob was contending with the military authorities for the public stores, of which Nashville had been one of the most important depots of the Confederacy, which were at one time given to the people, at another withheld to be removed for the retreating army. Heavy rains meanwhile poured down upon the devoted region and added to the embarrassments and melancholy of the scene.

On the 25th, the Union forces were at the city to receive its surrender. The advance of the army which had followed in pursuit of Johnston, after his evacuation of Bowling Green-the defences of which, when General Mitchel's command, after great exertions, reached the place, were found to be far less formidable than had been supposed-had reached the neighborhood of Nashville, two days before, when it was agreed that the formal surrender of the city should be made to General Buell on his arrival. He was now present with General Mitchel, and was waited upon at Edgefield, opposite the city, by a delegation of citizens,

* General Johnston's letter to Mr. Barksdale.

headed by Mayor Cheatham, to whom, as at Clarksville, every assurance of safety and protection to the people, in their person and property, was given. In the meanwhile, on the same morning, one of Commodore Foote's gunboats, with a number of transports. arrived, bringing General Nelson, with a considerable body of troops. The interview with the officers was considered satisfactory by the committee, and the mayor, in a proclamation, on the following day, "respectfully requested that business be resumed, and that all our citizens, of every trade and profession, pursue their regular vocations.”

The same day, General Buell issued a general order to the army, from his headquarters at Nashville, congratulating his troops, "that it has been their privilege to restore the national banner to the capitol of Tennessee. He believes that thousands of hearts in every part of the State, will swell with joy to see that honored flag reinstated in a position from which it was removed in the excitement and folly of an evil hour; that the voice of her own people will soon proclaim its welcome, and that their manhood and patriotism will protect and perpetuate it." Various injunctions were added, requiring a strict observance of the rights of property, and the protection of all peaceable citizens. "We are in arms,' said he, "not for the purpose of invading the rights of our fellow countrymen anywhere, but to maintain the integrity of the Union, and protect the Constitution under which its people have been prosperous and happy."

Governor Harris, from his executive office at Memphis, whither the legislature had adjourned, issued on the 19th, a violent proclamation deploring the fate of Fort Donelson, and declaring that Tennessee was "now to become the grand theatre, wherein a brave people will show to the world, by their heroism and suffering, that they are worthy to be, what they have solemnly declared them

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

ANDREW JOHNSON, GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE.

241

The new duties and responsibilities of a mixed civil and military character thrown upon the government by the occupation of so considerable a portion of a State, in open hostility to the Union, were met by the appointment by President Lincoln, of Senator Andrew Johnson, as military Governor of Tennessee. The nomination was confirmed by the Senate on its presentation, on the 4th of March, and at the same time the rank of Brigadier-General was bestowed upon the new Governor. Fully armed with authority to establish a provisional government in the State, Governor Johnson immediately left Washington, for the seat of his new duties, in company with the Hon. Horace Maynard, member of Congress from the Knoxville district of Tennessee, and the Hon. Emerson Etheridge, a loyal member of the previous Congress from eastern Tennessee, at present clerk of the House of Representatives. The party, accompanied by other prominent Union exiles, reached Nashville on the 12th of March. Governor Johnson set himself at once to prepare the way for the restoration of the State to its legitimate position in the Union-a work which would probably have had a good prospect of success, had not the presence of the confederate armies on its soil, marked it out as the "dark and bloody

selves to be, freemen. Announcing that he would himself take the field at their head, as Governor of the State and commander-in-chief of its army, I call "said he, "upon every able-bodied man of the State, without regard to age, to enlist in its service. I command him who can obtain a weapon to march with our armies. I ask him who can repair or forge an arm, to make it ready at once for the soldier. I call upon every citizen to open his purse and his storehouses of provisions to the brave defenders of our soil. I bid the old and the young, wherever they may be, to stand as pickets to our struggling armies. *** You have done well and nobly, but the work is not yet accomplished. The enemy still flaunts his banner in your face; his foot is upon your native soil; the echo of his drum is heard in your mountains and valleys; hideous desolation will soon mark his felon track unless he is repelled. To you who are armed, and have looked death in the face, who have been tried and are the Old Guard,' the State appeals to uphold her standard. Encircle that standard with your valor and your heroism, and abide the fortunes of war so long as an enemy of your State shall dare confront you. The enemy relies upon your forfeiture to reënlist, and makes sure of an easy victory in your want of endurance. Disappoint ground" of Disappoint ground" of desperate and continuous him!"

*

In a message to the legislature the following day, Governor Harris stated, that since the passage of the State act of May, 1861, he had organized and put into the field, for the confederate service, fifty-nine regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, eleven cavalry battalions, and over twenty independent companies, mostly artillery. The Confederate government had armed about fifteen thousand of these troops; but to arm the remainder, Governor Harris had "to draw heavily upon the sporting guns of our citizens."

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conflict. The capture of Nashville, had, in fact, only transferred the war from Kentucky to Tennessee, and the struggle was not likely to grow less desperate as it was brought nearer the strongholds of the rebel authority.

In a speech to the citizens who had assembled before his hotel, on the evening immediately after his arrival, Governor Johnson reminded his hearers of the nature and progress of the rebellion, and the moderate and reasonable course taken by the government for its suppression. He found, he said, the State without authority, its executive, legislature, and judiciary dissolved, or in abeyance; he

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