768 



TENNESSEE. 



from Nashville. At Covington, Tipton county, 

 in the western part of the State, where such 

 raids had been common, the citizens gave bonds 

 in the sum of $50,000 to protect Union resi- 

 dents, and declared their purpose of hanging 

 all guerillas who fell into their hands. The 

 interior of the State was not only harassed by 

 organized bands, such as those of Forrest and 

 Morgan, who held regular commissions in the 

 Confederate army, but were also ravaged by 

 marauders of the worst description, who had 

 no object but plunder, and robbed both 

 parties alike. The guerillas also gathered 

 in considerable force in the counties border- 

 ing on the Mississippi, and attacked trans- 

 ports and other vessels on the river, gen- 

 erally with musketry alone, but sometimes 

 with light field artillery. On the 23d of Sep- 

 tember a party of twenty-five or thirty men at 

 Randolph, armed with rifles, muskets, and 

 shot-guns, signalled the steamer Eugene to 

 land. As the boat had two passengers and 

 some freight for that point, she rounded to, 

 none of the officers perceiving the guerilla 

 band, who in fact had kept in the background 

 up to that time. It was now apparent, as the 

 guerillas sprang from their hiding place, that 

 the intention was to seize the boat ; and the 

 captain, regardless of the demand to surrender, 

 boldly pushed back into the stream amid sev- 

 eral volleys of musketry. There were a great 

 many passengers on board, including women 

 and children, but no one was killed or hurt. 



The outrage having been reported the next 

 day to Gen. Sherman, at Memphis, he sent the 

 forty-sixth regiment of Ohio volunteers and a 

 section of Willard's Chicago battery to destroy 

 the town. These troops took passage on the 

 steamers Ohio Belle and Eugene, which arrived 

 at Randolph on the 25th. The inhabitants 

 seemed to have been impressed with the con- 

 viction that the town would be destroyed, and 

 consequently most of them had left the place. 

 The quartermaster of the regiment went through 

 the town and took an inventory of the build- 

 ings and their probable worth, with their 

 owners' names, as far as they could be learned. 

 This having been done, and everything in each 

 house having been removed, every house in 

 the town was burnt to the ground, except the 

 Methodist church, which was left standing for 

 the accommodation of the few persons turned 

 out of doors by the fire. All the cotton and 

 other property of value as merchandise was 

 brought away. 



The town of Randolph, thus destroyed, con- 

 tained about ninety houses, said to be mostly 

 in a dilapidated condition. It is situated about 

 sixty miles above Memphis, and was the site 

 of extensive Confederate fortifications before 

 the Mississippi river was opened. 



To prevent similar occurrences in future, 

 General "W. T. Sherman, commanding at Mem- 

 phis, ordered that for every boat fired upon 

 ten disloyal families should be expelled the 

 city. 



On Oct. 21st the President recommended an 

 election for members of Congress to be held in 

 several districts of Tennessee, and instructed 

 the military commanders to take measures to 

 facilitate the execution of the order. 



The progress of the campaign had now 

 brought the Confederate forces almost within 

 sight of Nashville, and the guerillas, hovering 

 over the route of the regular forces, carried 

 off stragglers from the Federal columns and 

 rendered important service to their cause by 

 burning bridges, skirmishing with pickets, and 

 threatening the Union supply trains. On the 

 19th of October, Col. Forrest was defeated on 

 the Gallatin turnpike about 7 miles from Nash- 

 ville by a Union brigade under Col. Miller. 

 On Nov. 5th Morgan made a dash at a Federal 

 camp north of the Cumberland, but was re- 

 pulsed with some loss. The same active chief- 

 tain on the 9th was driven out of Gallatin by a 

 detachment of Gen. Crittenden's corps, and the 

 next day was beaten at Lebanon, where the 

 Federalists captured a quantity of stores and 

 some prisoners. On the following morning 

 Morgan returned and carried off thirty men 

 from the Union camp, soon after which exploit 

 he joined the rebel army near Murfreesboro'. 



Col. Forrest's cavalry was also active in the 

 same part of the State, but the vigorous meas- 

 ures of the Federal generals soon succeeded in 

 checking this species of irregular warfare. 



Some of the Federal soldiers, however, had 

 been guilty of excesses hardly less outrageous 

 than those of the guerillas, and rigid orders 

 were issued by Gen. Grant to prevent it. 



On the 7th of November, a portion of one of 

 the Illinois regiments broke open a shop at 

 Jackson, Tenn., and plundered and destroyed 

 property to the value of some $1,242. Gen. Grant 

 ordered that sum to be assessed against the 

 regiment, and such of its officers as were ab- 

 sent without leave at the time when the depre- 

 dations were committed, the money when col- 

 lected to be paid to the persons who had suf- 

 fered by the outrage ; and two officers who 

 had failed to prevent it were mustered out of 

 the service. 



Toward the close of the same month, a plan 

 was matured by the governor and Gen. Rose- 

 crans for requiring bonds and sureties for good 

 behavior from persons suspected as disunion- 

 ists, or knoM'n to have been formerly secession- 

 ists. 



On the 7th, a brigade of Gen. Dumont's 

 division was captured by Col. Morgan, at 

 Hartsville, near Nashville, having been sur- 

 prised in their camp, and forced to surrender 

 after a short and desultory resistance. The 

 Confederate military authorities proclaimed a 

 general conscription in Tennessee, and pro- 

 ceeded to draft into the Confederate army all 

 able-bodied men under 40, in the portions of 

 the State under their control. The Union men 

 made a determined resistance, but m general, 

 as might be supposed, with little effect. Even 

 in Middle and West Tennessee, where the na- 



