TENNESSEE. 



with power to enroll all free colored males be- 

 tween sixteen and fifty for building fortifica- 

 tions ; to repeal all laws in regard to bowie- 

 knives ; and to suspend the distribution of the 

 common school fund. 



On the 17th of June a large Union convention 

 was held at Greenville, East Tennessee. All the 

 counties were represented except Rhea. It con- 

 tinued for three days. A declaration of grievances 

 was adopted, which stated facts showing that 

 the right of free suffrage had been obstructed 

 by a disunion government ; that the people had 

 been subjected to insults, their flags fired upon 

 and torn down, their houses rudely entered, their 

 families insulted, their women and children shot 

 by a merciless soldiery, and their citizens robbed 

 and assassinated ; and that, in view of these 

 fact?, they resolved that the action of the State 

 Legislature, in passing a declaration of inde- 

 pendence, and in forming a military league with 

 the Southern Confederacy, was unconstitution- 

 al, and not binding upon loyal citizens. In or- 

 der to avoid a conflict with their brethren, a 

 committee was appointed to prepare a memo- 

 rial, asking the consent of the Legislature that 

 the eastern part of the State may form a sepa- 

 rate government. The aggregate votes in the 

 several divisions of the State were then an- 

 nounced to be as follows on the ordinance of 

 separation : 



For Separation. No Separation. 



East Tennessee 14,780 32,92-3 



Middle Tennessee 58,265 8,198 



West Tennessee 29,127 6,117 



Military Camps 2,741 



104,913 

 47,233 



Majority 57,675 



47,233 



The commanding general, Pillow, of the 

 State forces, issued, on the 21st of June, an or- 

 der confiscating, under the State law, the stock 

 and claims of non-residents belonging to the 

 Northern States : 



"All merchants, broker?, and other persons 

 owing allegiance to the State of Tennessee, and 

 all banks in the State having on deposit bal- 

 ances, or on hand balances of specie, bills of 

 exchange, notes, or other funds, or causes in 

 action for collection, and belonging to the ene- 

 mies of Tennessee, are, by a law of the State 

 Legislature of the State, and by the laws of 

 war, due to the State, and are hereby declared 

 seized and sequestered, in reprisal for illegal 

 siezures by the people and Government of the 

 North." 



A report of assets was ordered to be made to 

 the adjutant-general's office. 



On the 6th July, the Legislature adjourned. 

 It passed the bill exempting State bonds for 

 military purposes from taxation. Another act 

 authorized the Governor to issue treasury notes 

 for three millions of dollars, of the denomination 

 of not less than five nor more than five hun- 

 dred dollars, with interest not exceeding six 

 per cent., the same to be receivable as cur- 



rency. An act was also passed to make the 

 treasury notes of the Confederate States bank- 

 able in Tennessee. 



The first day of August was fixed for the 

 State election, for the purpose of choosing Gov- 

 ernor, members of the Legislature, and repre- 

 sentatives in Congress ; and on the day of the 

 general election, the people win.- to vote for or 

 against the permanent Constitution of the Con- 

 federate States. 



Confederate troops were sent at the earliest 

 moment to take possession of the three gaps in 

 the mountains of East Tennessee, known as the 

 Fentress, Wheeler, and Cumberland. Cleveland 

 was also declared a military station. The mails 

 of the United States were, by order of the 

 proper department, continued in twenty-six of 

 the counties of East Tennessee at this time, in 

 consequence of the Union feeling which was 

 manifested. 



They were as follows : Anderson, Bledsoe, 

 Blount, Bradley, Campbell, Carter, Claiborne, 

 Cocke, Grainger, Green, Hamilton, Hancock, 

 Hawkins, Johnson, Knox, Marion, McMuir, 

 Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Polk, Rhea, Sevier, 

 Sullivan, and Washington. 



On the other side every effort was made to 

 procure arms. The Governor sent instructions 

 to the clerks of all the county courts, request- 

 ing them to issue to each constable in their re- 

 spective counties an order requiring him to 

 make diligent inquiry at each house in his ciyil 

 district for all muskets, bayonets, rifles, swords, 

 and pistols belonging to the State of Tennessee, 

 to take them into possession, and deliver them 

 to the clerks. 



A reward of one dollar was to be paid to the 

 constable for each musket and bayonet or rifle, 

 and of fifty cents for each sword or pistol thus 

 reclaimed. 



The arms thus obtained were to be forward- 

 ed, at public expense, to the military author- 

 ities at Nashville, Knoxville, and Memphis, as 

 might be most convenient, and information sent 

 to the military and financial board at Nashville, 

 of the result. 



Stringent measures were adopted with the 

 Union people of East Tennessee. Many, upon 

 bare suspicion, were arrested and taken prison- 

 ers, insulted, abused, and carried into camps, 

 there to be disposed of as the Confederate mob 

 thought proper. Squads of cavalry and infantry 

 were" scouring over the country, offering the 

 people, male and female, every indignity that 

 ruffian bands are capable of ; destroying crops 

 and substance without regard to the condition 

 or circumstances of the persons ; pasturing their 

 horses in corn-fields, wasting hay-stacks, taking 

 provisions of every description without regard 

 to quantity, not even asking the price or ten- 

 dering an equivalent therefor in any shape 

 whatever. 



Nashville was put under martial law. Pass- 

 ports were required, and all baggage was ex- 

 amined under directions of the Committee of 

 Safety. 



