^UBRARY/ 
 
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 TUPELO. 
 
 REV. JOHN H. AUGHEY, A.M., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE IRON FURNACE," "THE GRAMMATICAL GUIDE.' 
 
 "SPIRITUAL GEMS OF THE AGES," ETC., AND CHAPLAIN 
 
 UNITED STATES ARMY. 
 
 LINCOLN, NEB.: 
 
 STATE JOURNAL COMPANY, PRINTERS.
 
 Entered according to act of Congress in the office of the Librarian of 
 
 Congress, A.D. 1858, 
 BY REV. JOHN H. AUGHEY, A.M.
 
 TO 
 
 MRS. MARY J. AUGHEY, 
 CHAKITOX, LUCAS Co., IOWA, 
 
 DR. J. W. AXD MRS. KATE A. FERGUSON, 
 
 COXGRESS, WAYXE Co., OHIO, 
 
 AXD IX MEMORY OF 
 
 DR. JOHN K. AUGHEY, 
 
 WHO DIED AT 
 
 SEATON, MERCER Co., ILLIXOIS, MAY 19ra, 1886, 
 
 MISS GERTRUDE E. AUGHEY, 
 
 CHARITOX, LUCAS Co., IOWA. 
 
 MY BELOVED WIFE AND CHILDREN, 
 
 This volume is affectionately inscribed, by 
 
 THE AUTHOR.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 ' / 
 
 g CHAPTER I. 
 
 CO 
 
 >. SECESSION. 
 
 QC 
 
 Secession Speech by Col. Drane Rejoicing Secessionists at the 
 Election of Lincoln Address by Capt. Eove Opposing 
 Secession His Line of Thought and Excellent Argu- 
 ments A Secessionist Speaks Deals in Vituperation, 
 Sophistry, and Cursing Sermon Words of Warning 
 
 ^ x Arguments Against Secession Its Results Predicted 
 
 ? Charity Enjoined ...................................... pp 21 to 45 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Vigilance Committee and Court Martial The Unique Sum- 
 
 C> inons Skull and Crossbones Coffin, Grave, Gallows, and 
 
 <> Victim The Trial and its Result The Midnight Attack 
 
 ^ by the Vigilantes Their Incontinent Flight Mr. John 
 
 Mecklin's Visit His Advice Removal to Attalla County, 
 
 LJ near Kosciusko Dr. Smith's Attempt at Assassination 
 
 uj The South Arming for the War Dr. Hughes' Visit Mur- 
 
 der of Rev. James Pelan Return to Tishomingo County 
 
 Events by the Way Battle in Good Springs Glen 
 
 5; Murder of Payson and Murchison by the Vigilantes Miss 
 
 Silverthorn's Letter Summons to Attend Court Martial 
 
 Escape to Rienzi Return to Paden's Mills The Battle 
 
 near Booneville The Arrest by Hill's Cavalry Examin- 
 
 ation by Col. Bradfute Gen. Pfeiffer and Gen. Jordan 
 
 Enter the Dungeon at Tupelo Cruel Treatment of Pris- 
 
 oners Murder of Poole and Harbaugh Songs of Incar- 
 
 cerated Slaves ........................................... pp. 46 to 116 
 
 452589
 
 CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Visited by Col. Mark Lowery and Others Miss Daisy Carson's 
 Visit Witherspoon's Escape Pursued by Cavalry with 
 Blood-hounds Witherspoon and Denver Overtaken Con- 
 demned to Death Death of their Captors Mrs. Wither- 
 spoon's Letter Old Pilgarlicand his son Oscar His Trial 
 before Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard Gen. Braxton Bragg 
 X)rders Prof. Yarbrough's Execution He is Shot Re- 
 stored to Consciousness by his Friends His final Escape 
 Death of the rebel Capt. Pender Celebration of the 
 Fourth of July in Prison Escape of Aughey and Malone 
 Separate in the Encampment Set out Alone Concealed 
 in the Chaparral The Booming Cannon and Passing 
 Soldiers Soldiers' Conversation about the Escaped Pris- 
 oners Overheard Crosses an Affluent of the Tombigbee 
 River David Hough's Cabin The Re-arrest Running 
 the Gauntlet amid Rebel Camps Again at Gen. Jordan's. 
 Head-quarters Examined and Shackled Returned to 
 Tupelo Examined by the Rebel Generals To be Shot in 
 an Hour Letter to My Wife The Reprieve Remanded 
 to Prison Reception by the Prisoners Floor Spiked 
 Down Guards Increased pp. 116 to 160 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Benjamin Clarke's Story Pursuit by Cavalry with Blood- 
 hounds Capture of the Bear Death of Snediker and 
 Rucker at the Bagnio in Fulton Death of Downs 
 Clarke's Wife and Children Arrive at Paden's Mills 
 The Search of the House, Mills, and Negro Quarters The 
 Minorcans Louis Las Cassas Lornette Col. Feuilvert 
 His Interview with his Nephew Louis The Rescue 
 Cavalry Battle at Paden's Mills Interview with Col. 
 Walter, the Jude Advocate Charges Preferred Bailie 
 and Childress Shot Second Visit of Col. H. W. Walter 
 Cruel Treatment by Col. Clare French Officer's Visit 
 Personal Appearance of Gen. Bragg Champe and Brax- 
 ton Murder of Chenault, Vedder, Bynum, and other 
 Unionists Hymns Foreordination Debate on, by Maple 
 ar.c" Melvin Herman Bledsoe, The East Tennessee Union- 
 ist The Greenville Convention The Loyal Address 
 Bledsoe's Arrest Escape From Death by Fire His 
 Travels, Re-arrest, and Incarceration in Tupelo Escape of
 
 CONTENTS. 7 
 
 Bovord "Willis Pursuit by Cavalry With Hounds Nar- 
 row Escape Troyer Anderson's Remarkable Dream 
 Letter to My Wife Obituary The Prisoners' Petition to 
 Abraham Lincoln and William H. Seward Murder of 
 Street and Maynard Address <to be made from the Gal- 
 lows Resolve to escape Plan Adopted Proves Successful 
 Under the Prison Among the Guards In the Forest 
 Meet a Negro Perishing From Hunger and Thirst Find 
 Water The Ethiopian Charley The Unionist, Israel" Nel- 
 son Col. Barry Col. Barry and his Son Yolney Torn to 
 Pieces by Blood-hounds Traveling in a Circle, pp. 1GO to 24& 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Pursued by Bloodhounds Death Imminent Ascent of the 
 OaK Death Imminent The Hounds Baffled Jingo Dick 
 Under the Juniper. The Singing Birds Homeward I 
 Plod My Weary Way Perishing From Hunger and 
 Thirst The Presentiment Find Water, Bright Spark- 
 ling Water The Bear Hunt Climb a Tree The Con- 
 scripts Rebel Encampments In at the Death Blood- 
 hounds Meet the Videttes The Fierce Dog Find 
 Friends Mr. and Mrs. Chism The Storm Mr. Sanford 
 The Night in the Barn The Midnight Ride Reach 
 Mr. John Downing's Meet Many Unionists Death of 
 Newsorn Daughter of Gan. Nathaniel Green Meet Rebels 
 Thrilling Adventure and Escape Halted by Guerrillas 
 Fired at and Guide Wounded Reach the Union Lines 
 at Rienzi Kind Reception Serenade Speech Hosts of 
 Friends Cols. Bryner and Thrush Meet Malone Wife 
 and Child Gen. Jefferson C. Davis His Kindness Gort- 
 ney' s Tragic Death pp. 249 to 289 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Melvin Estill's Letter The Escape from Saltillo Pursuit by 
 Cavalry with Blood-hounds Jasper Cain, Laverty Grier, 
 and John Graham Overtaken Tragic Fate of Four 
 Unionists Their Scalps Taken Mrs. Cameron and 
 Daughter Alverna The Cavern Fed by Slaves Reach 
 the Union Lines Enlistment in Federal Service Loyal 
 Southern Women Tampering with the Ballot Box
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Wholesale Frauds Views of Grady and Clarke Extract 
 from President Cleveland's Inaugural Bill to Promote 
 Election Frauds Visit to the Legislature in Columbia 
 News and Courier Speaks Peon Slavery Public School 
 System of South Carolina When Inaugurated Synod of 
 Atlantic Moderator Moses Aaron Hopkins Bowling 
 Green, Ky. Interview with Col. Geo. M. Edgar Believes 
 in the Right of Secession Political Deliverances of the 
 Southern General Assembly The Question, of Reunion of 
 Northern and Southern Presbyterian Churches A Con- 
 summation to be Desired Objections to Reunion Causes 
 of Delay The Prospect of Reunion Ecclesiastical Deliv- 
 erance on Evolution The "Open Letter" Miscegena- 
 tion More Political Deliverances Northern General As- 
 sembly on Decoration Day Purity of the Ballot Box 
 must be Preserved or the Nation will Perish Probable 
 Solution of the Difficulty pp. 289 to 330 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Bill Arp (ColT Smith) in Atlanta Constitution His Arrogant 
 and Presumptuous Demand Gen. Benjamin H. Grierson's 
 Report in Regard to the Southern Unionists Pollard, the 
 Southern Historian, on Conscription James Blackburn's 
 Atrocious Letter Persecutions of North Carolina Union- 
 ists They Reach Philadelphia and are Hospitably Re- 
 ceived Col. Chandler's Report in Regard to Southern 
 Prisons Murder of Major Bradford Gen. W. T. Sherman 
 to Mayor of Atlanta, Ga. Capt. Phillips' Statement in 
 Regard to Unionists of North Alabama Col. Fremantle's 
 Views Murder of Montgomery, a Texan Unionist Duff's 
 Regiment Sent to Quell Counter Revolution of Unionists 
 in Texas Texas Unionist Confides His Sentiments Gen. 
 Bankhead Magruder's Abhorrence of the Puritans Gen- 
 eral Houston Col. Chubb, who Hired a Colored Crew at 
 Boston, and Coolly Sold them as Slaves at Galveston Cru- 
 elty to the Captured Crew of the Harriet Lane Miuden, 
 La. Gen. Jo. Johnston Wounded Ten Times Gen. Van 
 Dorn Shot by Dr. Peters Burning of Unionists at Frank- 
 lin, Tenn. The Confederacy Calling upon the Negro for 
 Help Preamble to Florida Ordinance of Secession Ad- 
 dress by Stephen A. Douglas Murder of Unionists in 
 Kentucky Valley, Ala. Terrible and Swift Retribution- 
 Gideon Brevoort His Faithful Service His Death His
 
 CONTEXTS. 9 
 
 Monument Prof. Franklin Brevoort At Tensas, Miss. 
 Isaac Simpson Brevoort and Simpson Reach Cairo, 111. 
 White League Murder of Judge Chisholm and His Son 
 and Heroic Daughter Rev. James Pelan Southern Hos- 
 pitality Rev. Mr. Bland, of Memphis Presbytery Four 
 Grave Elders Comity among Physicians A Laudable 
 Custom as Old as the Medical Profession pp. 330 to 366 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Is Deception ever Justifiable ? Gen. L. Q. C. Lamar's State- 
 ment Southern Heroines Speech by Jefferson Davis at 
 Holly Springs, Miss. His Hatred of the North Southern 
 Slaves and Northern Mudsills No Homogeneity between 
 Cavaliers and Puritans Pollard's Estimate of Jeff. Davis 
 Quotation from Pollard's Lost Cause He Degrades La- 
 bor, Denies its Dignity, and Eulogizes and Attempts to 
 Justify Human Slavery Poor Whites of the South 
 Causes of Their Poverty Atavism Heredity Degrada- 
 tion of Labor through Slavery Lack of Educational and 
 Religious Culture Their Unfortunate Environment De- 
 spised by the Slave-holding Oligarchy pp. 366 to 383 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Rev. L. B. Gaston's Essay Educational Facilities of North 
 and South Compared The Educational System of Prussia 
 Commended Prediction Concerning Prussia Free School 
 System of the, North Urges the South to Adopt a Free 
 School System Result of HLs Article Servile Insurrec- 
 tions Dreaded Judge Scrogg'*, of Holly Springs, Miss. 
 One Slave Murders Another No Law to Punish the Hom- 
 icide The Murderer Whipped and Returned to His Mas- 
 fer, Governor Mathews, of Salem Tippah County, Miss. 
 Negro Testimony Not Valid The Southern Barbecue 
 Sermon on the General Judgment The Concourse, the 
 Judge, the Witnesses, the Testimony, the Sentence Dies 
 Irse American Slavery as it now Stands Revealed to the 
 World (from a Scottish Magazine) The Death of Slavery 
 (by William Cullen Bryant) Sermon Preceding Memorial 
 Day (by Rev. J. H. Aughey, Pastor of the Presbyterian 
 Church, Farmington, Fulton County, Illinois) Purity of
 
 10 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 the Ballot (Rev. T. C. Evans) Memorial Day Poem- 
 Poems: How Sleep the Brave? Decoration Day The 
 Blue and the Gray Answer to the Blue and the Gray 
 The Nation's Dead Sleep, Comrades, Sleep The Veter- 
 an's Request (by Bayard Taylor) The Soldier's Reprieve. 
 
 pp. 383 to 461 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The United States in 1984 The English or American Lan- 
 guage (from Grammatical Guide, by Rev. J. H. Aughey, 
 Pastor of the West Union Presbyterian Church, Dallas, 
 Marshall County, West Virginia, 1876-1881) The Com- 
 mercial Language of the World Soon to be the Universal 
 Language Duty of Christian Ministers and People (by 
 Miss Sarah Hosier, of Boston, Mass.) The Burning of Co- 
 lumbia, S. C., in 1865 Lemuel Lorimer Memorial Day 
 Address (by Rev. W. F. Bartholomew, of Chariton, Iowa) 
 Memorial Sermon (by Rev. W. F. Slocum, of Wooster, 
 Ohio) Spiritual Gems of the Ages (by Rev. John H. 
 Aughey, Pastor of the Churches of Congress, Chester, and 
 Wayne, Wayne County, Ohio) pp. 462 to 512
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 A celebrated author thus writes: "Posterity is 
 under no obligations to a man who is not a parent, 
 who has never planted a tree, built a 'house, nor 
 written a book." Having fulfilled all these requisites 
 to insure the remembrance of posterity, it remains to 
 be seen whether the author's name shall escape oblivion. 
 
 It may be that a few years will obliterate the name 
 affixed to this Preface -from the memory of man. 
 This thought is the cause of no concern. I shall 
 have accomplished my purpose if I can in some 
 degree be humbly instrumental in serving my country 
 and my generation, by promoting the well-being of 
 my fellowmen, and advancing the declarative glory 
 of Almighty God. 
 
 This work was written while suffering intensely 
 from maladies induced by the rigors of the Iron 
 Furnace of Secession, whose seven-fold heat is re- 
 served for the loyal citizens of the South. Let this 
 fact be a palliation for whatever imperfections the 
 reader may meet in its perusal. 
 
 There are many loyal men in the southern states, 
 \vlio to avoid martyrdom, conceal their opinions. 
 They are to be pitied not severely censured. All 
 [11]
 
 12 PREFACE. 
 
 those southern ministers and professors of religion 
 who were eminent for piety, opposed secession till 
 the states passed the secession ordinance. They then 
 advocated reconstruction as long as it comported with 
 their safety. They then, in the face of danger and 
 death, became quiescent not acquiescent, by any 
 means and they now "bide their time," in prayerful 
 trust that God will, in His own good time, subvert 
 rebellion, and overthrow anarchy, by a restoration of 
 the supremacy of constitutional law. By these, and 
 their name is legion, my book will be warmly ap- 
 proved. My fellow-prisoners in the dungeon at 
 Tupelo, who may have survived its horrors, and my 
 fellow-sufferers in the Union cause throughout the 
 South, will read in my narrative a transcript of their 
 own sufferings. The loyal citizens of the whole 
 country will be interested in learning the views of 
 one who has been conversant with the rise and pro- 
 gress of secession, from its incipiency to its culmina- 
 tion in rebellion and treason. It will also doubtless 
 be of general interest to learn something of the work- 
 ings of the "peculiar institution," and the various 
 phases which it assumes in different sections of the 
 slave states. 
 
 Compelled to leave Dixie in haste, I had no time 
 to collect materials for my work. I was therefore 
 under the necessity of writing without those aids 
 which would have secured greater accuracy. I have 
 done the best that I could under the circumstances ; 
 and any errors that may have crept into my state-
 
 PBEFACE. 13 
 
 ments of facts, or reports of addresses, will be cheer- 
 fully rectified as soon as* ascertained. 
 
 That I might not compromise the safety of my 
 Union friends who rendered me assistance, and who 
 are still within the rebel lines, I was compelled to 
 omit their names, and for the same reason to describe 
 rather indefinitely some localities, especially the por- 
 tions of Ittawamba, Chickasaw, Pontotoc, Tippah, and 
 Tishomingo counties, through which I traveled while 
 escaping to the federal lines. This I hope to be able 
 to correct in future editions. 
 
 Narratives require a liberal use of the first personal 
 pronoun, which I would have gladly avoided, had it 
 been possible without tedious circumlocution, as its 
 frequent repetition has the appearance of egotism. 
 
 I return sincere thanks to my fellow-prisoners who 
 imperiled their own lives to save mine, and also to 
 those Mississippi Unionists who so generously aided 
 a panting fugitive on his way from chains and death 
 to life and liberty. 
 
 May the Triune God bless our country, and pre- 
 serve its integrity ! 
 
 JOHN HILL AUGHEY. 
 
 Female Seminary , Steubenville, Ohio. 
 
 Above is the preface to The Iron Furnace. Since 
 writing The Iron Furnace I have learned many 
 things not known by me at the time that volume 
 was written. I was not in a fit condition physically
 
 14 PREFACE. 
 
 or mentally at that time to write anything as it should 
 be written. It was uncertain whether I should sur- 
 vive the maladies induced by the rigors of my im- 
 prisonment. Dr. France, of Harlem Springs, O., 
 whose patient I was, could not give me assurance of 
 ultimate recovery. This volume is a fuller and more 
 complete narrative of my own personal sufferings as 
 a southern Unionist, both prior to and during my 
 imprisonment and marvelous escapes from arrest, till 
 I reached the Federal lines, as well as an account of 
 the terrible cruelties to which my compatriots in the 
 dungeon at Tupelo w r ere subjected as a punishment of 
 their patriotism. Although imperfect, The Iron 
 Furnace, of which "Tupelo" is an enlarged and com- 
 pleted sequel, has received many encomiums from 
 distinguished men whose approval is the source of 
 laudable pride. Some of them will be hereinafter 
 recorded by the author. 
 
 Mountain Top, Luzerne Co., Pa., May 8, 1888. 
 
 [By REV. W. P. BREED, D.D., Philadelphia, Pa.] 
 We commend The Iron Furnace to all. The 
 author's personal narrative is one of the most thrill- 
 ing and touching/ ever written. The arrest, the im- 
 prisonment, the escape, the re-arrest, the ironing under 
 the uplifted sword, the re-incarceration, the filthy 
 dungeon, the loathsome food, the second escape, the 
 pursuit by cavalry and blood-hounds, the famishing 
 from thirst and hunger, and the final exodus from
 
 PREFACE. 15 
 
 the iron furnace and reception under the good old flag 
 form such a story that we envy not the heart of him 
 who can read it without deep emotion. Mr. Aughey 
 resided eleven years in the South, and his views in 
 regard to the rise and progress of the secession move- 
 ment till it culminated in treason and rebellion can- 
 not fail to interest all. 
 
 [By HORACE GREELEY, Editor of the New York 
 
 Tribune,} 
 
 Mr. Aughey was arrested as a traitor to the treason 
 whereto he had never actively nor passively adhered 
 and which he therefore could not betray. He was 
 heavily manacled and thrust into a crowded, filthy 
 prison, whence his companions were taken out day 
 by day to be shot and their bodies thrown naked into 
 a ditch, as a punishment of their patriotism. Mr. 
 Aughey as a more influential Unionist was reserved 
 for conspicuous hanging, but escaped before the ful- 
 fillment of that amiable intention. Traveling in the 
 opposite direction from that in which he would natur^ 
 ally be sought, wearing on his ankles the heavy iron 
 fetters which he had not been enabled to remove, hn 
 was obliged to evade the blood-hounds which arc 
 usually kept for the hunting of slaves, but are now 
 employed for the tracking of white Unionists, taking 
 care to leave none of his garments in prison, as from 
 them the scent might be taken, traveling by night, 
 and then very painfully because of the galling circlet 
 of his ankles, living mainly on green corn eaten raw,
 
 16 PREFACE. 
 
 since to raise a smoke would have been to advertise 
 his presence to bitter and unrelenting foes, he finally 
 evaded the rebel pickets and found refuge under the 
 protecting folds of the flag of freedom. 
 
 [By REV. W, J. McCoRD, Wassaic, New York.] 
 
 Much good will come from the circulation of Mr. 
 Aughey's book, and I could wish that it might be 
 read by everyone in our whole land. 
 
 [By HON. J. T. HEADLEY.] 
 I have read Mr. Aughey's book, The Iron Furnace, 
 with intense interest, and find in it only another proof 
 of how little the loud mouthed patriots of the North 
 know what true fidelity to the Government means. 
 It seems to me that somehow in the providence of 
 God this war in its progress or termination must give 
 the suffering Unionists of the South that lofty posi- 
 tion relatively which they so richly deserve. 
 
 [By HON. B. F. WADE, Washington, D. C.J 
 I have read Mr. Aughey's book, entitled, " The 
 Iron Furnace." It shows what it costs to be a 
 Unionist in the South, and strongly illustrates the 
 condition of southern society. I hope it will receive, 
 as it deserves, a wide circulation. 
 
 [By COL. BRYNER, of the 47th Illinois Infantry, 
 
 Peoria, 111.] 
 
 Mr. Aughey's book, " The Iron Furnace," proves 
 the truth of the adage, that truth is stranger than fie-
 
 PREFACE. 17 
 
 tion. His escape was one of the most remarkable on 
 record. Heavily ironed, closely guarded in the midst 
 of the great rebel army of more than one hundred 
 thousand men, the day set apart for his execution but 
 three days' distant, it required the almost miraculous 
 interposition of Divine Providence to give success to 
 his plans for escape, to guide him through a hostile 
 country swarming with foes eager in their search, 
 stimulated by the incentive of a large reward and 
 aided by the keen-scented blood-hound, till he had 
 passed over a space of more than two hundred miles 
 by the route he was compelled to travel, which inter- 
 vened between his prison in Tupelo and the Union 
 outpost of Rienzi. We have seen the manacles he 
 wore ; we have looked upon the scars caused by the 
 galling circlet of his ankles, the heavy iron fetters. 
 We have read his thrilling record on the site of its 
 occurrence in the very building in which for years 
 the author presided over the destinies of the Rienzi 
 Female College. If you wish to read a true novel, a 
 thrilling romance, a volume which will arouse and 
 keep in trembling suspense all the faculties of your 
 soul, send at once for " The Iron Furnace." 
 
 [By REV. ALFRED NEVIN, D.D. Philadelphia, Pa.] 
 ''The Iron Furnace" not a misnomer. Many have 
 inquired in regard to " The Iron Furnace," whence 
 the name? Would not the Fiery Furnace have been 
 more appropriate ? In reply wo would refer all inquir- 
 ers to Deut. iv. 20; Jer. xi. 3-4; 1st Kings viii. 51;
 
 18 PREFACE. 
 
 from which it will be observed that " The Iron Fur- 
 nace" is a most appropriate and significant title for the 
 interesting work which bears it. More than three 
 thousand copies of " The Iron Furnace" were ordered 
 in advance of its publication, and many additional 
 thousands have since been sold. It will always be 
 important as a history of the times by one whose op- 
 portunity for observation was excellent. He gives 
 an inside view. It is embellished with a beautiful 
 steel portrait of the author and engravings. 
 
 [REV. T. L.'CUYLER, D. D., Brooklyn, L. I.] 
 A much needed work. 
 
 [By REV. W. M. ENGLES, D.D., Philadelphia. Pa.] 
 It tells a true and startling story of southern slav- 
 ery and secession by a ministerial brother who is 
 highly esteemed by those who know him, and whose 
 veracity may be relied on with entire confidence. It 
 is a thrilling narrative of what the writer saw and 
 suffered, and contains a spirited and speaking likeness 
 of the author. 
 
 Rev. John H. Aughey, Commander of Post No. 145, 
 Department of Illinois, G. A. R., Farmington, 
 Fulton County, III.: 
 
 DEAR COMRADE Your comrades of the above 
 named Post most earnestly request you to publish a 
 new edition of your war history, which we have read 
 with intense interest. 
 
 ENOS KELSEY, 8. V. Com. 
 E. A. OUSTER, Adjutant.
 
 PREFACE. 19 
 
 [By GEX. U. S. GRAXT.] 
 
 Mr. Auyhey I have read your book with interest. 
 I feel much compassion for you and the great num- 
 ber of southern loyalists who have suffered such ter- 
 rible things at the hands of their disloyal fellow cit- 
 izens. I thank you for the present of your book. 
 
 [By GEN. JOHN. A. LOGAX.] 
 Mr. Aughey I thank you for your book, "The 
 Iron Furnace." I have only had time to glance 
 through it. I know that I shall be greatly interested 
 in reading it. The loyalists of the South deserve 
 much credit for their adherence to the Union amid 
 surrounding foes, an environment fraught with con- 
 tinuous peril. Truly your friend, 
 
 J. A. LOGAX. 
 
 I have many other testimonials, but the above will 
 suffice. . Vcrbum sat sapienti. 
 
 JOHN H. AUGHEY. 
 diariton, Iowa.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SECESSION. 
 
 At the breaking out of the present rebellion, I was 
 engaged in the work of an Evangelist in the counties 
 of Choctaw and Attala in Central Mississippi. My 
 congregations were large, and my duties onerous. 
 Being constantly employed in ministerial labors, I 
 had no time to intermeddle with politics, leaving all 
 such questions to statesmen, giving the complex 
 issues of the day only sufficient attention to enable 
 me to vote intelligently. Thus was I engaged when 
 the great political campaign of 1860 commenced a 
 campaign conducted with greater virulence and as- 
 perity than any I have ever witnessed. During my 
 casual detention at a store, Colonel Drane arrived 
 according to appointment, to address the people of 
 Choctaw. He was a member of one of my congre- 
 gations, and as he had long been a leading statesman 
 in Mississippi, having for many years presided over 
 the state senate, I expected to hear a speech of marked 
 ability, unfolding the true issues before the people, 
 with all the dignity, suavity, and earnestness of a 
 gentleman and patriot ; but I found his whole speech 
 to be a tirade of abuse of the North, commingled 
 with the bold avowal of treasonable sentiments. The 
 Colonel thus addressed the people : 
 [21]
 
 22 TUPELO. 
 
 " MY FELLOW-CITIZENS I appear before you to 
 urge anew resistance against the encroachments and 
 aggressions of the Yankees. If the Black Republi- 
 cans carry their ticket, and Old Abe is elected, our 
 right to carry our slaves into the territories will be 
 denied us; and who dare say that he would be a base, 
 craven submissionist, when our God-given and con- 
 stitutional right to carry slavery into the common do- 
 main is wickedly taken from the South. The 
 Yankees cheated us out of Kansas by their infernal 
 Emigrant Aid Societies. They cheated us out of 
 California, which our blood and treasure purchased, 
 for the South sent ten men to one that was sent by 
 the North to the Mexican war, and thus we have no 
 foothold on the Pacific coast; and even now we pay 
 five dollars for the support of the general Government 
 where the North pays one. We help to pay bounties 
 to the Yankee fishermen in New England; indeed tee 
 are always paying, paying, paying, and yet the North 
 is always crying, give, give, give. The South has 
 made the North rich, and what thanks do we re- 
 ceive? Our rights arc trampled on, our slaves are 
 spirited by thousands over their underground rail- 
 road to Canada, our citizens are insulted while trav- 
 eling in the North, and their servants are tampered 
 with, and by false representations, and often by mob 
 violence, forced from them. Douglas, knowing the 
 power of ^migrant Aid Societies, proposes squatter 
 sovereignty, with the positive certainty that the scum 
 of Europe and the mudsills of Yankeedom can be
 
 TUPELO. '23 
 
 shipped in, in numbers sufficient to control the destiny 
 of the embryo state. Since the admission of Texas 
 in 1845, there-has not been a single foot of slave ter- 
 ritory secured to the South, while the North has added 
 to their list the extensive states of California, Minne- 
 sota, and Oregon, and Kansas is as good as theirs; 
 while, if Lincoln is elected, the Wilmot proviso will 
 be extended over all the common territories, debarring 
 the South forever from her right to share the public 
 domain. 
 
 " The hypocrites of the North tell us that slavehold- 
 ing is sinful. Well, suppose it is. Upon us and 
 our children let the guilt of this sin rest; we are 
 willing to bear it, and it is none of their business. 
 We are a more moral people than they are. Who 
 originated Mormonism, Millerism, Spirit-rappings, 
 Abolitionism, Free-lovism, and all other abominable 
 isms which curse the world. The reply is, the North. 
 Their puritanical fanaticism and hypocrisy is patent 
 to all. Talk to us of the sin of slavery, when the 
 only difference between us is that our slaves are black 
 and theirs white. They treat their white slaves, the 
 Irish and Dutch, in a cruel manner, giving them 
 during health just enough to purchase coarse clothing, 
 and when they become sick they are turned off to 
 starve, as they do by hundreds every year. A female 
 servant in the North must have a testimonial of good 
 character before she will be employed; those with 
 whom she is laboring will not give her this so long 
 as they desire her services; she therefore cannot leave
 
 24 TUPELO. 
 
 them, whatever may be her treatment, so that she is 
 as much compelled to remain with her employer as 
 the slave with his master. 
 
 " Their servants hate them; our's love us. My nig- 
 gers would fight for me and my family. They have 
 been treated well, and they know it. And I don't 
 treat my slaves any better than my neighbors. If 
 ever there comes a war between the North and the 
 South, let us do as Abraham did arm our trained 
 servants and go forth with them to battle. They 
 hate the Yankees as intensely as we do, and nothing 
 could please our slaves better than to fight them. Ah, 
 the perfidious Yankees. I cordially hate a Yankee. 
 We have all suffered much at their hands; they will 
 not keep faith with us. Have they complied with 
 the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law ? The 
 thousands and ten of thousands of slaves aided in 
 their escape to Canada, is a sufficient answer. "We 
 have lost millions and are losing millions every 
 year, by the operation of the underground railroad. 
 How deep the perfidy of a people, thus to violate 
 every article of compromise we have made with 
 them! The Yankees are an inferior race, descended 
 from the old Puritan stock, who enacted the Blue 
 Laws. They are desirous of compelling us to sub- 
 mit to laws more iniquitous than ever were the Blue 
 Laws. I have traveled in the North, and have seen 
 the depth of their depravity. Now, my fellow-citi- 
 zens, what shall we do to resist Northern aggression? 
 Why simply this : If Lincoln or Douglas is elected
 
 TUPELO. 25 
 
 (as to the Bell -Everett ticket, it stands no sort of 
 chance), let us secede. This remedy will be effectual. 
 I am in favor of no more compromises. Let us have 
 Breckenridge, or immediate, complete, and eternal 
 separation." 
 
 The speaker then retired amid the cheers of his 
 audience. 
 
 Soon after this there came a day of rejoicing to 
 many in Mississippi. The booming of cannon, the 
 joyous greeting, the soul-stirring music, indicated 
 that no ordinary intelligence had been received. The 
 lightnings had brought the tidings that Abraham 
 Lincoln was President-elect of the United States, and 
 the South was wild with excitement. Those who 
 had been long desirous of a pretext for secession now 
 boldly advocated their sentiments, and joyfully hailed 
 the election of Mr. Lincoln as affording that pretext. 
 The conservative men were filled with gloom. They 
 regarded the election of Mr. Lincoln by the majority 
 of the people of the United States in a constitutional 
 way as affording no cause for secession. Secession 
 they regarded as fraught with all the evils of Pan- 
 dora's box, and that war, famine, pestilence, and 
 moral and physical desolation would follow in its 
 train. A call was made by Governor Pettus for a 
 convention to assemble early in January, at Jackson, 
 to determine what course Mississippi should pursue, 
 whether her policy should be submission or secession. 
 
 Candidates, Union and Secession, were nominated 
 for the convention in every county. The speeches of
 
 26 TUPELO. 
 
 two whom I heard will serve as a specimen of the 
 arguments used pro and con. Captain Love, of 
 Choctaw, thus addressed the people : 
 
 " MY FELLOW CITIZENS I appear before you to 
 advocate the Union the union of the states under 
 whose favoring auspices we have long prospered. 
 No nation so great, so prosperous, so happy, or so 
 much respected by earth's thousand kingdoms as the 
 Great Republic, by which name the United States is 
 known from the rivers to the ends of the earth. Our 
 flag, the star-spangled banner, is respected on every sea, 
 and affords protection to the citizens of every state, 
 whether amid the pyramids of Egypt, the jungles of 
 Asia, or the mighty cities of Europe. Our Repub- 
 lican Constitution, framed by the wisdom of our 
 Revolutionary fathers, is as free from imperfection 
 as any document drawn up by uninspired men. 
 God presided over the councils of that convention 
 which framed our glorious Constitution. They 
 asked wisdom from on high, and their prayers were 
 answered. Free speech, a free press, and freedom to 
 worship God as our conscience dictates, under our 
 own vine and fig tree, none daring to molest or make 
 us afraid, are some of the blessings which our Con- 
 stitution guarantees; and these prerogatives which 
 we enjoy are features which bless and distinguish us 
 from the other nations of the earth. Freedom of 
 speech is unknown amongst them; among them a 
 censorship of the press and a national church are 
 established.
 
 TUPELO. 27 
 
 "Our country by its physical features seems fitted 
 for but one nation. What ceaseless troubles would 
 be caused by having the source of our rivers in one 
 country and the mouth in another. There are no 
 natural boundaries to divide us into separate nations. 
 We are all descended from the same common 
 parentage, we all speak the same language, and we 
 have really no conflicting interests, the statements of 
 our opponents to the contrary notwithstanding. Our 
 opponents advocate separate state secession. Would 
 not Mississippi cut a sorry figure among the nations 
 of the earth? With no harbor, she would be de- 
 pendent on a foreign nation for an outlet. Custom- 
 house duties would be ruinous, and the republic of 
 Mississippi would find herself compelled to return to 
 the Union. Mississippi, you remember, repudiated 
 a large foreign debt some years ago ; if she became 
 an independent nation, her creditors would influence 
 their government to demand payment, which could 
 not be refused by the weak, defenceless, navyless, 
 armyless, moneyless, repudiating republic of Missis- 
 sippi. To pay this debt, with the accumulated inter- 
 est, would ruin the new republic, and bankruptcy 
 would stare us in the face. 
 
 " It is true, Abraham Lincoln is elected President 
 of the United States. My plan is to wait till Mr. 
 Lincoln does something unconstitutional. Then let 
 the South unanimously seek redress in a constitu- 
 tional manner. The conservatives of the North will 
 join us. If no redress is made, let us present our
 
 28 TUPELO. 
 
 ultimatum. If this, too, is rejected, I for one will not 
 advocate submission ; and by the co-operation of all 
 the slave states, we will, in the event of the perpetra- 
 tion of wrong, and a refusal to redress our grievances, 
 be much abler to secure our rights, or to defend them 
 at the cannon's mouth and the point of the bayonet. 
 The Supreme Court favors the South. In the Dred 
 Scott case the Supreme Court decided that the negro 
 was not a citizen, and that the slave was a chattel as 
 we regard him. The majority of Congress on joint 
 ballot is still with the South. Although we have 
 something to fear from the views of the President- 
 elect and the Chicago platform, let us wait till some 
 overt act, trespassing upon our rights, is committed 
 and all redress denied ; then, and not till then, will 
 I advocate extreme measures. 
 
 " Let our opponents remember that secession and 
 civil war are synonymous. Who ever heard of a 
 government breaking to pieces without an arduous 
 struggle for its preservation? I admit the right of 
 revolution when a people's rights cannot otherwise be 
 maintained, but deny the right of secession. We are 
 told that it is a reserved right. The constitution 
 declares that all rights not specified in it are reserved 
 to the people of the respective states ; but who ever 
 heard of the right of total destruction of the govern- 
 ment being a reserved right in any constitution? 
 The fallacy is evident at a glance. Nine millions of 
 people can afford to wait for some overt act. Let us 
 not. follow the precipitate course whicli the ultra politi-
 
 TUPELO. 29 
 
 cians indicate. Let W. L. Yancey urge his treason- 
 able policy of firing the Southern heart and precipita- 
 ting a revolution, but let us follow no such wicked 
 advice. Let us follow the things which make for 
 peace. 
 
 " We are often told that the North will not return 
 fugitive slaves. "Will secession rem^ply this grievance ? 
 "Will secession give us any more slave territory ? No 
 free government ever makes a treaty for the rendition 
 of fugitive slaves thus recognizing the rights of the 
 citizens of a foreign nation to a species of property 
 which it denies to its own citizens. Even little 
 Mexico will not do it. Mexico and Canada re- 
 turn no fugitives. In the event of secession the 
 United States would return no fugitives, and our pe- 
 culiar institution would, along our vast border, be- 
 come very insecure ; we would hold our slaves by a 
 very slight tenure. Instead of extending the great 
 Southern institution it would be contracting daily. 
 Our slaves would be held to service at their own 
 option throughout the whole border, and our gulf 
 states would soon become border states; and the 
 great insecurity of this species of property would 
 work, before twenty years, the extinction of slavery, 
 and, in consequence, the ruin of the South. Are we 
 prepared for such a result? Are we prepared for 
 civil war? Are we prepared for all the evils attend- 
 ant upon a fratricidal contest for bloodshed, famine, 
 and political and moral desolation? I reply, we are 
 not; therefore let us look before we leap, and avoid- 
 ing the heresy of secession
 
 30 TUPELO. 
 
 " ' Rather bear the ills we have, 
 Than fly to others that we know not of.'" 
 
 A secession speaker was introduced, and thus ad- 
 dressed the people : 
 
 " LADIES AND GENTLEMEN Fellow citizens, I am 
 a secessionist out and out; voted for Jeff Davis for 
 Governor in 185), when the same issue was before 
 the people; and I have always felt a grudge against 
 the free state of Tishomingo for giving H. S. Foote, 
 the Union candidate, a majority so great as to elect 
 him, and thus retain the state in this accursed Union 
 ten years longer. Who would be a craven-hearted, 
 cowardly, villainous submission ist? Lincoln, the 
 abominable, white-livered abolitionist, is President- 
 elect of the United States ; shall he be permitted to 
 take his seat on Southern soil ? No, never ! I will 
 volunteer as one of thirty thousand to butcher the 
 villain if ever he sets foot on slave territory. Seces- 
 sion or submission ! What patriot would hesitate 
 for a moment which to choose? No true son of 
 Mississippi would brook the idea of submission to 
 the rule of the baboon, Abe Lincoln a fifth-rate law- 
 yer, a broken-down hack of a politician, a fanatic, an 
 abolitionist. I, for one, would prefer an hour of vir- 
 tuous liberty to a whole eternity of bondage under 
 Northern, Yankee, wooden-nutmeg rule. The halter 
 is the only argument that should be used against the 
 submissionists, and I predict that it will soon, very 
 soon, be in force. 
 
 " We have glorious news from Tallahatchie. Seven
 
 TUPELO. 31 
 
 tory-submissiomsts were hanged there in one day, and 
 the so-called Union candidates, having the wholesome 
 dread of hemp before their eyes, are not canvassing 
 the county ; therefore the heretical dogma of submis- 
 sion, under any circumstances, disgraces not their 
 county. Compromise ! let us have no such word in 
 our vocabulary. Compromise with the Yankees, 
 after the election of Lincoln, is treason against the 
 South ; and still its syren voice is listened to by the 
 demagogue submissionists. We should never have 
 made any compromise, for in every case we surrendered 
 rights for the sake of peace. Xo concession of the 
 scared Yankees will now prevent secession. They 
 now understand that the South is in earnest, and in 
 their alarm they are proposing to yield us much ; but 
 the die is cast, the Rubicon is crossed, and our deter- 
 mination shall ever be, no union with the flat-headed, 
 nigger-stealing, fanatical Yankees. 
 
 " We are now threatened with internecine war. The 
 Yankees are an inferior race; they are cowardly in 
 the extreme. They are descended from the Puritan 
 stock, who never bore rule in any nation. We, the 
 descendants of the Cavaliers, are the Patricians, they 
 the Plebeians. The Cavaliers have always been the 
 rulers, the Puritans the ruled. The dastardly 
 Yankees will never fight us; but if they, in their 
 presumption and audacity, venture to attack us, let 
 the war come I repeat it let it come ! The confla- 
 gration of their burning cities, the desolation of their 
 country, and the slaughter of their inhabitants, will
 
 32 TUPELO. 
 
 strike the nations of the earth dumb with astonish- 
 ment, and serve as a warning to future ages, that the 
 slaveholding Cavaliers of the sunny South are terri- 
 ble in their vengeance. I am in favor of immediate, 
 independent, and eternal separation from the vile 
 Union which has so long oppressed us. After sepa- 
 ration, I am in favor of non-intercourse with the 
 United States so long as time endures. We will 
 raise the tariff, to the point of prohibition, on all 
 Yankee manufactures, including wooden-nutmegs, 
 wooden clocks, quack nostrums, etc. We*will drive 
 back to their own inhospitable clime every Yankee 
 who dares to pollute our shores with his cloven feet. 
 Go he must, and if necessary, with the blood-hounds 
 on his track. The scum of Europe and mudsills of 
 Yankeedom shall never be permitted to advance a step 
 south of 36 30'. South of that latitude is ours 
 westward to the Pacific. With my heart of hearts I 
 hate a Yankee, and I will make my children swear 
 eternal hatred to the whole Yankee race. A mongrel 
 breed Irish, Dutch, Puritans, Jews, free niggers, 
 etc. they scarce deserve the notice of the descendants 
 of the Huguenots, the old Castilians, and the Cava- 
 liers. Cursed be the day when the South consented 
 to this iniquitous league the Federal Union which 
 has long dimmed her nascent glory. 
 
 " In battle, one southron is equivalent to ten north- 
 ern hirelings ; but I regard it a waste of time to speak 
 of Yankees they deserve not our attention. It 
 matters not to us what they think of secession, and
 
 TUPELO. 33 
 
 we would not trespass upon your time and patience, 
 were it not for the tame, tory submissionists with 
 which our country is cursed. A fearful retribution 
 is in waiting for the whole crew, if the war which 
 they predict, should come. Were they then to advo- 
 cate the same views, I would not give a fourpence for 
 their lives. We would hang them quicker than old 
 Heath would hang a tory. Our Revolutionary fathers 
 set us a good example in their dealings with the 
 tories. They sent them to the shades infernal from 
 the branches of the nearest tree. The North has 
 sent teachers and preachers amongst us, who have 
 insidiously infused the leaven of Abolitionism into 
 the minds of their students and parishioners ; and 
 this submissionist policy is a lower development of 
 the doctrine of Wendell Phillips, Gerritt Smith, 
 Horace Greeley, and others of that ilk. We have a 
 genial clime, a soil of uncommon fertility. We have 
 free institutions, freedom for the white man, bondage 
 for the black man, as nature and nature's God de- 
 signed. We have fair women and brave men. The 
 lines have truly fallen to us in pleasant places. We 
 have indeed a goodly heritage. The only evil we can 
 complain of is our bondage to the Yankees through 
 the Federal Union. Let us burst these shackles from 
 our limbs, and we will be free indeed. 
 
 " Let all who desire complete and eternal emancipa- 
 tion from Yankee thraldom, come to the polls on the 
 day of December, prepared not to vote the cow- 
 ardly submissionist ticket, but to vote the secession 
 3
 
 34 TUPELO. 
 
 ticket; and their children, and their children's chil- 
 dren, will owe them a debt of gratitude which they 
 can never repay. The day of our separation and vin- 
 dication of states' rights, will be the happiest day of 
 our lives. Yankee domination will have ceased for- 
 ever, and the haughty southron will spurn them from 
 all association, both governmental and social. So 
 mote it be ! " 
 
 This address was received with great eclat. 
 
 On the next Sabbath after this meeting, I preached 
 in the Poplar Creek Presbyterian church, in Choctaw, 
 now Montgomery county, from Romans xiii. 1 : 
 " Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. 
 For there is no power but of God : the powers that 
 be, are ordained of God." 
 
 Previous to the sermon a prayer was offered, of 
 which the following is the conclusion : 
 
 " Almighty God we would present our country, 
 the United States of America, before thee. When our 
 political horizon is overcast with clouds and darkness, 
 when the strong-hearted are becoming fearful for the 
 permanence of our free institutions, and the prosperity, 
 yea, the very existence of our great Republic, we pray 
 thee, O God, when flesh and heart fail, when no 
 human arm is able to save us from the fearful vortex 
 of disunion and revolution, that thou wouldst interpose 
 and save us. We confess our national sins, for we 
 have, as a nation, sinned grievously. We have been 
 highly favored, we have been greatly prospered, and 
 have taken our place amongst the leading powers of
 
 TUPELO. 35 
 
 the earth. A gospel-enlightened nation, our sins are 
 therefore more heinous in thy sight. They are sins 
 of deep ingratitude and presumption. We confess 
 that drunkenness has abounded amongst all classes of 
 our citizens. Rulers and ruled have been alike guilty ; 
 and because of its wide spreading prevalence, and be- 
 cause our legislators have enacted no sufficient laws 
 for its suppression, it is a national sin. Profanity 
 abounds amongst us ; Sabbath-breaking is rife; and 
 we have elevated unworthy men to high positions of 
 honor and trust. We are not, as a people, free from 
 the crime of tyranny and oppression. For these great 
 and aggravated offences, we pray thee to give us re- 
 pentance and godly sorrow, and then, O God, avert 
 the threatened and imminent judgments which impend 
 over our beloved country. Teach our senators wis- 
 dom. Grant them that wisdom which is able to 
 make them wise unto salvation ; and grant also that 
 wisdom which is profitable to direct, so that they may 
 steer the ship of state safely through the troubled 
 waters which seem ready to engulf it on every side. 
 Lord, hear us, and answer in mercy, for the sake of 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen and Amen ! " 
 The following is a synopsis of my sermon: 
 Israel had been greatly favored as a nation. No 
 weapon formed against them prospered, so long as 
 they loved and served the Lord their God. They 
 were blessed in their basket and their store. They 
 were set on high above all the nations of the earth. 
 
 When all Israel assembled,
 
 36 TUPELO. 
 
 ostensibly to make Rehoboam king, they were ripe 
 for rebellion. Jeroboam and other wicked men had fo- 
 mented and cherished the spark of treason, till, on this 
 occasion, it broke out into the flame of open rebellion. 
 The severity of Solomon's rule was the pretext, but 
 it was only a pretext, for during his reign the nation 
 prospered, grew rich and powerful. Jeroboam 
 wished a disruption of the kingdom, that he might 
 bear rule ; and although God permitted it as a pun- 
 ishment of Israel's idolatry, yet he frowned upon 
 the wicked men who were instrumental in bringing 
 this great evil upon his chosen people. 
 
 " The loyal division took the name of Judah, though 
 composed of the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. 
 The revolted ten tribes took the name of their lead- 
 ing tribe, Ephraim. Ephraim continued to wax 
 weaker and weaker. Filled with envy against Judah, 
 they often warred against that loyal kingdom, until 
 they themselves were greatly reduced. At last, after 
 various vicissitudes, the ten tribes were carried away, 
 and scattered and lost. We often hear of the lost ten 
 tribes. What became of them is a mystery. Their 
 secession ended in their being blotted out of existence 
 or lost amidst the heathen. God alone knows what 
 did become of them. They resisted the powers that 
 be the ordinance of God and received to themselves 
 damnation and annihilation. 
 
 "As God dealt with Israel, so will he deal with us. 
 If we are exalted by righteousness, we will prosper; 
 if we, as the ten tribes, resist the ordinance of God,
 
 TUPELO. 37 
 
 we will perish. At this time many are advocating the 
 course of the ten tribes. Secession is a word of frequent 
 occurrence. It is openly advocated by many Nul- 
 lification and rebellion, secession and treason, are 
 convertible terms, and no good citizen will mention 
 them with approval. Secession is resisting the pow- 
 ers that be, and therefore it is a violation of God's 
 command. Where do we obtain the right of seces- 
 sion ? Clearly not from the word of God, which en- 
 joins obedience to all that are in authority, to whom 
 we must be subject, not only for wrath, but also for 
 conscience's sake. 
 
 " There is no provision made in the Constitution of 
 the United States for secession. The wisest states- 
 men, who made politics their study, regarded seces- 
 sion as a political heresy, dangerous in its tendencies, 
 and destructive of all government in its practical ap- 
 plication. Mississippi, purchased from France with 
 United States gold, fostered by the nurturing care, 
 and made prosperous by the wise administration 
 of the general government, proposes to secede. 
 Her political status would then be anomalous. 
 Would her territory revert to France? Does she 
 propose to refund the purchase money? Would she 
 become a territory under the jurisdiction of the 
 United States Congress? 
 
 " Henry Clay, the great statesman, Daniel Webster, 
 the expounder of the constitution, General Jackson, 
 George Washington, and a mighty host, whose names 
 would fill a volume, regarded secession as treason. 
 
 452589
 
 38 TUPELO. 
 
 One of our smallest states, which swarmed with tories 
 in the Revolution, whose descendants still live, invented 
 the doctrine of nullification, the first treasonable step, 
 which soon culminated in the advocacy of secession. 
 Why should we secede, and thus destroy the best, 
 the freest, and most prosperous government on the 
 face of the earth, the government which our patriot 
 fathers fought and bled to secure? What has Mis- 
 sissippi lost by the Union? I have resided seven 
 years in this state, and have an extensive personal 
 acquaintance, and yet I know not a single individual 
 who has lost a slave through northern influence. 
 I have, it is true, known of some ten slaves who 
 have run away, and have not been found. They 
 may have been aided in their escape to Canada by 
 northern and southern citizens, for there are many 
 in the South who have given aid and comfort to the 
 fugitive; but the probability is that they perished in 
 the swamps, or were destroyed by the blood-hounds, 
 " The complaint is made that the North regards 
 slavery as a moral, social, and political evil, and that 
 many of them denounce, in no measured terms, both 
 slavery and slaveholders. To be thus denounced is 
 regarded as a great grievance. Secession would not 
 remedy this evil. In order to cure it effectually, we 
 must seize and gag all who thus denounce our pecu- 
 liar institution. We must also muzzle their press. 
 As this is impracticable, it would be well to come to 
 this conclusion : If we are verily guilty of the evils 
 charged upon us, let us set about rectifying those
 
 TUPELO. 39 
 
 evils ; if not, the denunciations of slanderers should 
 not affect us so deeply. If our northern brethren 
 are honest in their convictions of the sin of slavery, 
 as no doubt many of them are, let us listen to their 
 arguments without the dire hostility so frequently 
 manifested. They take the position that slavery is 
 opposed to the inalienable rights of the human race ; 
 that it originated in piracy and robbery; that mani- 
 fold cruelties and barbarities are inflicted upon the 
 defenceless slaves ; that they are debarred from intel- 
 lectual culture by state laws, which send to the pen- 
 itentiary those who are guilty of instructing them ; 
 that they are put upon the block and sold, parent and 
 child, husband and wife being separated, so that they 
 never again see each other's face in the flesh ; that 
 the law of chastity cannot be observed, as there are 
 no laws punishing rape on the person of a female 
 slave; that when they escape from the threatened 
 cat-o'nine-tails, or overseer's whip, they are hunted 
 down by blood-hounds and bloodier men ; that often 
 they are half starved and half clad, and are furnished 
 with mere hovels to live in ; that they are often mur- 
 dered by cruel overseers, who \vhip them to death, or 
 overtask them until disease is induced which results 
 in death; that masters practically ignore the mar- 
 riage relation among slaves, inasmuch as they fre- 
 quently separate husband and wife, by sale or re- 
 moval; that they discourage the formation of that 
 relation, preferring that the offspring of their female 
 slaves should be illegitimate, from the mistaken notion
 
 40 V TUPELO. 
 
 that it would be more numerous. They charge, also, 
 that slavery induces in the masters, pride, arrogance, 
 tyranny, laziness, profligacy, and every form of vice. 
 
 " The South takes the position that if slavery is sin- 
 ful, the North is not responsible for that sin ; that it 
 is a state institution, and that to interfere with slav- 
 ery in the states in any way, even by censure, is a 
 violation of the rights of the states. The language of 
 our politicians is, upon us and our children rest the 
 evil ! We are willing to take the responsibility and 
 to risk the penalty ! You will find evil and misery 
 enough in the North to excite your philanthropy and 
 employ your beneficence. You have purchased our 
 cotton; you have used our sugar; you have eaten 
 our rice ; you have smoked and chewed our tobacco 
 all of which are the products of slave labor. You 
 have grown rich by traffic in these articles ; you have 
 monopolized the carrying trade and borne our slave- 
 produced products to your shores. Your northern 
 ships, manned by northern men, brought from Africa 
 the greater part of the slaves which came to our con- 
 tinent, and they are still smuggling them in. When, 
 finding slavery unprofitable, the northern states 
 passed laws for gradual emancipation, but few ob- 
 tained their freedom, the majority of them being 
 shipped South and sold, so that but few, compara- 
 tively, were manumitted. If the slave trade and 
 slavery are great sins, the North is particeps criminis, 
 and has been from the beginning. 
 
 "These bitter accusations are hurled back and forth
 
 TUPELO. 41 
 
 through the newspapers, and in Congress crimination 
 and recrimination occur every day of the session. 
 Instead of endeavoring to calm the troubled waters, 
 politicians are striving to render them turbid and 
 boisterous. Sectional bitterness and animosity pre- 
 vail to a fearful extent, but secession is not the proper 
 remedy. To cure one evil by perpetrating a greater 
 renders a double cure necessary. In order to cure a 
 disease, the cause should be known, that we may treat 
 it intelligently and apply a proper remedy. Having 
 observed, during the last eleven years, that sectional 
 strife and bitterness were increasing with fearful ra- 
 pidity, I have endeavored to stem the torrent, so far 
 as it was possible for individual eifort to do so. I 
 deem it the imperative duty of all patriots, of all 
 Christians, to throw oil upon the troubled waters, 
 and thus save the ship of state from wreck among 
 the vertiginous billows. 
 
 "Most of our politicians are demagogues. They 
 care not for the people, so that they accomplish their 
 own selfish and ambitious schemes. Give them 
 power, give them money, and they are satisfied. 
 Deprive them ol these, and they are ready to sacri- 
 fice the best interests of the nation to secure them. 
 They excite sectional animosity and party strife, and 
 are willing to kindle the flames of civil war to ac- 
 complish their unhallowed purposes. They tell us 
 that there is a conflict of interest between the free and 
 slave states, and endeavor to precipitate a revolution, 
 that they may be leaders and obtain positions of trust
 
 42 TUPELO. 
 
 and profit in the new government which they hope 
 to establish. The people would be dupes indeed to 
 abet these wicked demagogues in their nefarious de- 
 signs. Let us not break God's command, by resist- 
 ing the ordinance of God the powers that be. I 
 am not discussing the right of revolution, which I 
 deem a sacred right. When human rights are in- 
 vaded, when life is endangered, when liberty is taken 
 away, when we are not left free to pursue our own 
 happiness in our own chosen way so far as we do 
 not trespass upon the rights of others we have a 
 right, and it becomes our imperative duty to resist 
 to the bitter end the tyranny which would deprive 
 us and our children of our inalienable rights. Our 
 lives are secure; we have freedom to worship God. 
 Our liberty is sacred ; we may pursue happiness to 
 our hearts' content. We do not even charge upon 
 the general Government that it has infringed these 
 rights. Whose life has been endangered, or who has 
 lost his liberty by the action of the Government? If 
 that man lives, in all this fair domain of ours, he has 
 a right to complain. But neither you nor I have 
 ever heard of or seen the individual who has thus 
 suffered. We have therefore clearly no right of 
 revolution. 
 
 " Treason is no light offence. God, who rules the 
 nations, and who has established governments, will 
 punish severely those who attempt to overthrow them. 
 Damnation is stated to be the punishment which 
 those who resist the powers that be, will suffer. Who
 
 TUPELO. 43 
 
 wishes to endure it ? I hope none of my charge will 
 incur this penalty by the perpetration of treason. 
 You yourselves can bear me witness that I have not 
 heretofore introduced political issues into the pulpit, 
 but at this time I could not acquit my conscience 
 were I not to warn you against the great sin some of 
 you, I fear, are ready to commit. 
 
 " Were I to discuss the policy of a high or low tariff, 
 or descant upon the various merits attached to one or 
 another form of banking, I should be justly obnox- 
 ious to censure. Politics and religion, however, are 
 not always separate. When the political issue is 
 made, shall we, or shall we not, grant license to sell 
 intoxicating liquors as a beverage? the minister's 
 duty is plain ; he must urge his people to use their 
 influence against granting any such license. The 
 minister must enforce every moral and religious 
 obligation, and point out the path of truth and duty, 
 even though the principles he advocates are by states- 
 men introduced into the arena of political strife, and 
 made issues by the great parties of the day. I see 
 the sword coming, and would be derelict in duty not 
 to give you faithful warning. I must reveal the 
 whole counsel of God. I have a message from God 
 unto you, which I must deliver, whether you will 
 hear, or whether you will forbear. If the sword 
 come, and you perish, I shall then be guiltless of your 
 blood. As to the great question at issue, my honest 
 conviction is (and I think I have the Spirit of God,) 
 that you should with your whole heart, and soul, and
 
 44 TUPELO. 
 
 mind, and strength, oppose secession. You should 
 talk against it, you should write against it, you should 
 vote against it, and, if need be, you should fight 
 against it. 
 
 " I have now declared what I believe to be your 
 high duty in this emergency. Do not destroy the 
 government which has so long protected you, and 
 which has never in a single instance oppressed you. 
 Pull not down the fair fabric which our patriot fathers 
 reared at vast expense of blood and treasure. Do not, 
 like the blind Samson, pull down the pillars of our 
 glorious edifice, and cause death, desolation, and ruin. 
 Perish the hand that would thus destroy the source 
 of all our political prosperity an happiness. Let 
 the parricide who attempts it receive the just retribu- 
 tion which a loyal people demand, even his execution 
 on a gallows high as Hainan's. Let us also set about 
 rectifying the causes which threaten the overthrow of 
 our government. As we are proud, let us pray for 
 the grace of humility. As a state, and as individuals, 
 we too lightly regard its most solemn obligations; 
 let us, therefore, pray for the grace of repentance and 
 godly sorrow, and hereafter in this respect siu no 
 more. As many transgressions have been committed 
 by us, let the time past of our lives suffice us to have 
 wrought the will of the flesh, and now let us break 
 off our sins by righteousness, and our transgressions 
 by turning unto the Lord, and he will avert his 
 threatened judgments, and save us from dissolution, 
 anarchy, and desolation.
 
 TUPELO. 45 
 
 " If our souls are filled with hatred against the people 
 of any section of our common country, let us ask from 
 the Great Giver the grace of charity, which suffereth 
 long and is kind, which envieth not, which vaunteth 
 not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself un- 
 seemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, 
 thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but re- 
 joiceth in the truth ; beareth all things, believeth all 
 things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, and 
 which never faileth ; then shall we be in a suitable 
 frame for an amicable adjustment of every difficulty; 
 nil will soon be thrown upon the troubled waters, and 
 peace, harmony, and prosperity would ever attend 
 us; and our children, and our children's children 
 will rejoice in the possession of a beneficent and stable 
 government, securing to them all the natural and 
 inalienable rights of man,"
 
 46 TUPELO. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 VIGILANCE COMMITTEE AND COURT-MARTIAL. 
 
 Soon after this sermon was preached, the election 
 was held. Approaching the polls, I asked for a Union 
 ticket, and was informed that none had been printed, 
 and that it would be advisable to vote the secession 
 ticket. I thought otherwise, and going to a desk, 
 wrote out a Union ticket, and voted it amidst the 
 frowns, murmurs, and threats of the judges and by- 
 standers, and, as the result proved, I had the honor 
 of depositing the only vote in favor of the Union 
 which was polled in that precinct. I knew of many 
 who were in favor of the Union, who were intimi- 
 dated by threats, and by the odium attending it, from 
 voting at all. A majority of the secession candidates 
 were elected. The convention assembled, and on the 
 9th of January, 1861, Mississippi had the unenviable 
 reputation of being the first to follow her twin sister, 
 South Carolina, into the maelstrom of secession and 
 treason. Being the only states in which the slaves 
 were more numerous than the whites, it became them 
 to lead the van in the slave-holders' rebellion. Be- 
 fore the 4th of March, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, 
 and Texas had followed in the wake, and were en- 
 gulfed in the whirlpool of secession. 
 
 It was now dangerous to utter a word in favor of
 
 TUPELO. 47 
 
 the Union. Many suspected of Union sentiments 
 were lynched. An old gentleman in Winston county 
 was arrested for an act committed twenty years be- 
 fore, which was construed as a proof of his abolition 
 proclivities. The old gentleman had several daugh- 
 ters, and his mother-in-law had given him a negro 
 girl. Observing that his daughters were becoming 
 lazy, and were imposing all the labor upon the slave, 
 he sent her back to the donor, with a statement of 
 the cause for returning her. This was now the 
 ground of his arrest, but escaping from their clutches, 
 a precipitate flight alone saved his life. 
 
 Self-constituted vigilance committees sprang up all 
 over the country, and a reign of terror began ; all 
 who had been Union men, and who had not given 
 in their adhesion to the new order of things by some 
 public proclamation, were supposed to be disaffected. 
 The so-called Confederate States, the new power, 
 organized for the avowed purpose of extending and 
 perpetuating African slavery, was now in full blast. 
 These soi-disant vigilance committees professed to 
 carry out the will of Jeff. Davis. All who were con- 
 sidered disaffected were regarded as being tinctured 
 with abolitionism. My opposition to the disruption 
 of the Union being notorious, I was summoned to 
 appear before one of these august tribunals to answer 
 the charge of being an abolitionist and a Unionist. 
 My wife was very much alarmed, knowing that were 
 I found guilty of the charge, there was no hope for 
 mercy.
 
 48 TUPELO. 
 
 On the evening before the session of the vigilance 
 committee, I walked out in the gloaming for medita- 
 tion and prayer. When a short distance from my 
 residence, I encountered an old colored man who be-;- 
 longed to a planter named Major F. M. Henderson. 
 The old man, who was kno\vn as Uncle Simon Peter, 
 embraced every opportunity of hearing me preach. 
 He approached me with his hafr unde* his arm, and 
 in a very deferential manner. Said he, " Master, I is 
 in great trouble." 
 
 "What troubles you, Uncle Peter?" 
 
 " Master, I brings a note to you, and I'se 'feared 
 it bodes no good to you. Master and Gus Mecklin 
 and some more folks what I didn't know fixed it up 
 las' night, and de way dey talked dey's ready to 'sas- 
 sinate you." 
 
 " Give me the note, Uncle Peter." 
 
 "Here it am." 
 
 The paper was unique. A skull and cross-bones 
 illuminated one corner, a coffin and newly-made grave 
 were rudely drawn in another corner, a gallows was 
 conspicuous, a victim whose hands were bound be- 
 hind his back and a cap drawn over his face, stood 
 upon the trap ready for execution. In bold letters 
 was written, "Such be the doom of all traitors." 
 Within was the following citation : 
 
 " Parson John H. Aughey, your treasonable pro- 
 clivities are known. You have been reported to us 
 as one of the disaffected whose presence is a standing 
 menace to the perpetuity and prosperity of our newly-
 
 TUPELO. 49 
 
 organized government the Confederate States of 
 America. Your name heads the proscribed list. You 
 are ordered to appear on to-morrow afternoon at 2 
 o'clock before our vigilance committee, in AV. H. 
 Simpson's carriage shop, to answer to the charges of 
 treason and abolitionism. 
 
 "BY ORDER OF THE VIGILAXTES. 
 
 "K. K.K.&K.G.C." 
 
 Flight was now impossible, and I deemed it the 
 safest plan to appear before the committee. I found 
 it to consist of twelve persons, five of whom I knew, 
 viz., Rev. John Locke, Armstrong, Cartledge, Simp- 
 son, and Wilbanks. Parson Locke, the chief speaker, 
 or rather the inquisitor-general, was a Methodist 
 minister, though he had fallen into disrepute among 
 his brethren, and was engaged in a tedious strife with 
 the church which he left in Holmes county. The 
 parson was a real Nimrod. He boasted that in five 
 months he had killed forty-eight raccoons, two hun- 
 dred squirrels, and ten deer ; he had followed the 
 blood-hounds, and assisted in the capture of twelve 
 runaway negroes. W. H. Simpson was a ruling elder 
 in my church. Wilbanks was a clever sort of old 
 gentleman, who had little to say in the matter. Arm- 
 strong was a monocular Hardshell-Baptist. Cart- 
 ledge was an illiterate, conceited individual. The 
 rest were a motley crew, not one of whom, 1 feel con- 
 fident, knew a letter in the alphabet. The committee 
 assembled in an old carriage shop. Parson Locke 
 acted as chairman, and conducted the trial, as follows : 
 4
 
 50 TUPELO. 
 
 " Paraon Aughey, you have been reported to us as 
 holding abolition sentiments, and as being disloyal to 
 the Confederate States." 
 
 " Who reported me, and where are your wit- 
 nesses ? " 
 
 "Any one has a right to report, and it is optional 
 whether he confronts the accused or not. The pro- 
 ceedings of vigilance committees are somewhat in- 
 formal." 
 
 " Proceed, then, with the trial, in your own way." 
 
 " We propose to ask you a few questions, and in 
 your answers you may defend yourself, or admit 
 your guilt. In the first place, did you ever say that 
 you did not believe that God ordained the institution 
 of slavery?" 
 
 "I believe that God did not ordain the institution 
 of slavery." 
 
 "Did not God command the Israelites to buy 
 slaves from the Canaanitish nations, and to hold them 
 as their property for ever ? " 
 
 "The Canaanites had filled their cup of iniquity 
 to overflowing, and God commanded the Israelites to 
 exterminate them ; this, in violation of God's com- 
 mand, they failed to do. God afterwards permitted 
 the Hebrews to reduce them to a state of servitude ; 
 but the punishment visited upon those seven wicked 
 nations by the command of God, does not justify war 
 or the slave trade." 
 
 " Did you say that you were opposed to the slavery 
 which existed in the time of Christ ? "
 
 TUPELO. 51 
 
 " I did, because the system of slavery prevailing 
 in Christ's day was cruel in the extreme ; it conferred 
 the power of life and death upon the master, and was 
 attended with innumerable evils. The slav.fi had the 
 same complexion as his master ; and by changing his 
 servile garb for the citizen dress, he could not be re- 
 cognized as a slave. You yourself profess to be 
 opposed to white slavery." 
 
 " Did you state that you believed Paul, when he 
 sent Onesimus back to Philemon, had no idea that 
 he would be regarded as a slave, and treated as such 
 after his return?" 
 
 "I did. My proof is in Philemon, verses 15 and 
 1 6, where the apostle asks that Onesimus be received, 
 not as a servant, but as a brother beloved ? " 
 
 "Did you tell Mr. Creath that you knew some 
 negroes who were better, in every respect, than some 
 white men ? " 
 
 " I said that I knew some negroes who were better 
 classical scholars than any white men I had as yet 
 met in Choctaw county, and that I had known 
 some who were pre-eminent for virtue and holiness. 
 As to natural rights, I made no comparison ; nor did 
 I say anything about superiority or inferiority of 
 race. I also stated my belief in the unity of the 
 races," 
 
 " Have you any abolition works in your library, 
 and a poem in your scrap-book, entitled ' The Fugi- 
 tive Slave,' with this couplet as a refrain, 
 
 ' The hounds are baying on my track; 
 Christian, will you send me back? "
 
 02 TUPELO. 
 
 " I have not Mrs. Stowe's nor Helper's work ; they 
 are contraband in this region, and I could not get 
 them if I wished. I have many works in my library 
 containing sentiments adverse to the institution of 
 slavery. All the works in common use amongst us, 
 on law, physic, and divinity, all the text-books in 
 our schools in a word, all the works on every sub- 
 ject read and studied by us, were, almost without 
 exception, written by men opposed to the peculiar 
 institution. I am not alone in this matter." 
 
 "Parson, I saw Cowper's works in your library, 
 and Cowper says : 
 
 1 1 would not have a slave to fan me when I sleep, 
 And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth 
 That sinews bought and sold have ever earned.' " 
 
 "You have Wesley's writings, and Wesley says 
 that ' Human slavery is the sum of all villainy.' You 
 have a work which has this couplet : 
 
 ' Two deep, dark stains, mar all our country's Bliss : 
 Foul slavery one, and one, loathed drunkenness.' 
 
 You have the work of an English writer of high 
 repute, who says, ' Forty years ago, some in England 
 doubted whether slavery were a sin, and regarded 
 adultery as a venial offence ; but behold the progress 
 of truth ! Who now doubts that he who enslaves 
 his fellow-man is guilty of a fearful crime, and that 
 he who violates the seventh commandment is a great 
 sinner in the sight of God?' ' 
 
 " You are known to be an adept in phonography, 
 and yon are reported to be a correspondent of an 
 abolition phonographic journal."
 
 TUPELO. 53 
 
 " I understand the science of phonography, and I 
 am a correspondent of a phonographic journal, but 
 the journal eschews politics." 
 
 Another member of the committee then interro- 
 gated me. 
 
 " Parson Aughey, what is funnyography ? " 
 
 "Phonography, sir, is a system of writing by 
 means of a philosophic alphabet, composed of the 
 simplest geometrical signs, in which one mark is used 
 to represent one and invariably the same sound." 
 
 "Kin you talk funnyography? and where does 
 them folks live what talks it?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, I converse fluently in phonography, and 
 those who speak the language live in Columbia." 
 
 "In the Deestrict?" 
 
 "No, sir, in the poetical Columbia." 
 
 I was next interrogated by another member of the 
 committee. 
 
 "Parson Aughey, is phonography a abolition 
 fixin'?" 
 
 "Nor, sir; phonography, abstractly considered, has 
 no political complexion ; it may be used to promote 
 either side of any question, sacred or profane, mental, 
 moral, physical, or political." 
 
 "Well, you ought to write and talk plain English, 
 what common folks can understand, or we'll have to 
 say of you, what Agrippa said of Paul, ' Much learn- 
 ing hath made thee mad.' Suppose you was to preach 
 in phonography, who'd understand it? who'd know 
 what was piped or harped? I'll bet high some
 
 54 TUPELO. 
 
 Yankee invented it to spread his abolition notions 
 underhandedly. I, for one, would be in favor of 
 makin' the parson promise to write and talk no more 
 in phonography. I'll bet phonography is agin slav- 
 ery, tho' I never hearn tell of it before. I'm agin 
 all secret societies. I'm agin the Odd-fellers, Free- 
 masons, Sons of Temperance, Good Templars, and 
 phonography. I want to know what's writ and 
 what's talked. You can't throw dust in my eyes. 
 Phonography, from what I've found out about it to- 
 day, is agin the Confederate States, and we ought to 
 be agin it." 
 
 Parson Locke then resumed : 
 
 "I must stop this digression. Parson Aughey, are 
 you in favor of the South?" 
 
 " I am in favor of the South, and have always en- 
 deavored to promote the best interests of the South. 
 However, I never deemed it for the best interests of 
 the South to secede. I talked against secession, and 
 voted against secession, because I thought that the 
 best interests of the South would be put in jeopardy 
 by the secession of the Southern States. I was honest 
 in my convictions, and acted accordingly. Could the 
 sacrifice of my life have stayed the swelling tide of 
 secession, it would gladly have been made." 
 
 " It is said that you have never prayed for the 
 Southern Confederacy." 
 
 "I have prayed for the whole world, though it is 
 true that I have never named the Confederate States 
 in prayer."
 
 TUPELO. OO 
 
 " Where and by whom were you educated ? " 
 
 "In my childhood I attended the free schools in 
 New York state and also in Steubenville, O. I was 
 a student of Grove Academy, in Steubenville, O., 
 1844-5. Rev. J. W. Scott, D.D., was the principal. 
 I was a student of Richmond College, Richmond, 
 Jefferson Co., Ohio, three years. Rev. J. R. W. 
 Sloane, D.D., was the president. Prior to this I 
 studied classics two years with Rev. John Knox, of 
 Springfield, Jefferson Co., O. I am an alumnus of 
 Franklin College, New Athens, Harrison Co., O., 
 was graduated during the presidency of Rev. A. D. 
 Clark, D.D." 
 
 "Did you ever attend Oberlin College, O.?" said 
 the presiding officer. 
 
 " I never had that honor, sir." 
 
 " What were the views of your educators on the 
 slavery question?" 
 
 "They all believed that human slavery was a 
 moral, social, and political evil a cancer on the 
 body politic, to be eradicated as soon as possible by 
 mild means, or by heroic treatment as the exigencies 
 of the case might demand, in order to the preserva- 
 tion of the national life. Since I came South I have 
 taught in Winchester, Ky., Baton Rouge, La., Mem- 
 phis, Tenn., Holly Springs and Rienzi, Miss., and 
 have been acting pastor of the churches of Waterford 
 and Spring Creek, in the Presbytery of Chickasaxv, 
 near Holly Springs, Miss.; and of Bethany Church 
 in North Mississippi Presbytery."
 
 56 TUPELO. 
 
 "Are you a Mason or Odd Fellow ? " said Parson . 
 Locke. 
 
 " I object to that question," said Mr. Armstrong, 
 who belonged to a church that refused to fellowship 
 any members of secret societies. 
 
 "I will not press the question," said the parson. 
 " You may retire." 
 
 As I wended my way home I saw a large con- 
 course in front of the shop, in the garb or rather 
 guise of hunters. They had guns upon their shoul- 
 ders and pistols in their belts. I recognized the 
 majority of them as Unionists who had come, doubt- 
 less, to see that no harm befell me. There were a 
 few virulent secessionists in the post-office, who, as 
 I passed through it to the street, looked fiercely at 
 me, and with horrid blasphemy gave their views as 
 to what fate should befall traitors, tories, submission- 
 ists, and unionists. These remarks were intended 
 for my ears. 
 
 After I had retired, Parson Locke said : " Mr. 
 Cartledge, what is your opinion ? Is Parson Aughey 
 guilty or not guilty of the crimes charged against 
 him in the indictment? " 
 
 "Guilty, sir, guilty. I node that afore I come 
 here to-day. I node it after I hcarn him preach 
 that sermon agin secession, an' when I seed him rite 
 out an' vote the Union ticket I dident need no more 
 evidence of his a being guilty of all that is charged 
 agin him, an' more too. Put me down in favor of 
 hangin'."
 
 TUPELO. 57 
 
 "Very well said, Mr. Cartledge. An honest, un- 
 equivocal, straightforward expression of your con- 
 victions. General Bolivar, let us hear from you." 
 
 Bolivar was a foundling. The gentleman at 
 whose gate the babe was abandoned gave him to the 
 colored women to raise. He was a great admirer of 
 the South American patriot and liberator, General 
 Simon Bolivar, so he named the waif, Simon Bolivar. 
 The gentleman lived in Boyle Co., Ky., on Rock 
 Creek, near Danville. Bolivar, when grown, mar- 
 ried a poor white girl, and they lived in a cave on 
 the banks of that stream. He joined his fortunes 
 to a class of poverty-stricken people who were known 
 as rock angels, from their habitation amid the clefts 
 of the rocks. They procured a precarious livelihood 
 by hunting and fishing, often eking out their meagre 
 supply of life's necessaries by predatory excursions 
 to the sheep-folds and hen-roosts of the neighboring 
 gentry. Bolivar came to Mississippi in the employ 
 of a man who brought a drove of mules for sale, and 
 liking the climate he returned and brought his family. 
 
 Bolivar, when addressed, started suddenly as from 
 an apparent revery, and ejecting a quantity of arnbier 
 from his filthy mouth, replied : " I agrees with my 
 neighbor Cartledge. Better men nor him hez been 
 hung in this county lately, an' it has done good. I 
 can't see no reason why he shouldent hang, an' that's 
 the way I votes." 
 
 "Major Wilbanks, how do you vote in regard to 
 the guilt or innocence of the prisoner?"
 
 58 TUPELO. 
 
 "You wish my candid opinion?" 
 
 "Yes, we do." 
 
 " Well, then, I will give it for what it is worth. 
 I am in favor of a free country, a free press, free 
 speech free men, a free ballot and fair count." 
 
 " You might have added free niggers and com- 
 pleted your free catalogue," said Parson Locke. 
 "Bro. Simpson, please give us your opinion and 
 advice." 
 
 " Parson, I am halting between two opinions. I 
 do not approve the views of my pastor, but he has 
 never committed any overt act of treason. We can 
 afford to wait for that. It may be possible should 
 the sentiments of those who have spoken prevail 
 that civil war would be inaugurated in our midst. 
 The assembled crowd in front of this building is 
 ominous of evil. I have looked out upon them, and 
 I know that many of the men out there have been 
 far more outspoken in the expression of opinions 
 adverse to the Southern Confederacy than him whom 
 we have had before us to-day, and they are armed to 
 the teeth." 
 
 Parson Locke turned pale, and said if Bro. Simp- 
 son thought there was any immediate danger of ex- 
 citing a riot, he would adjourn the session till some 
 time in the near future, when, it was hoped, the ex- 
 citement would have subsided. 
 
 Mr. John Mecklin arose and said, " I am but a 
 spectator, but I Avould advise you to adjourn at once. 
 Many of our best people think this to be an un-
 
 TUPELO. 59 
 
 warranted and illegal proceeding. Civil law is still 
 in force, and even if it were superseded by military 
 law that fact would not justify the arbitrary course 
 of this committee, who have acted without any 
 proper or competent authority, civil or military. 
 This man is not under your jurisdiction, and you 
 may have to answer for this day's proceedings." 
 
 Parson Locke, who was an arrant coward, replied 
 that he could not fully agree with the last two speak- 
 ers, but in the interests of peace and harmony he 
 would adjourn this meeting to a time in the near 
 future, when it would be convened at the call of the 
 president. 
 
 The committee then hastily adjourned. Par-son 
 Locke made his exit by a door in the rear of the 
 building, and, making a circuit through the woods, 
 reached his home without observation. 
 
 The crowd was informed that an adjournment had 
 taken place, and that no formal verdict had been ren- 
 dered. In a short time the crowd had dispersed. 
 Some of the more violent secessionists were greatly 
 exasperated when they learned that the vigilance 
 committee had not rendered a verdict of guilty and 
 ordered my execution. They determined to take the 
 matter into their own hands. I was speedily advised 
 of their threats. My friends provided me with arms, 
 and I resolved to defend myself to the best of my 
 ability. One evening I had gone over to a neighbor's, 
 Mr. Pickens Mecklin's. It was the dark of the 
 moon. As I returned, at a late hour, I heard the
 
 60 TUPELO. 
 
 trampling of steeds. I concealed myself as they 
 approached me. When they had come quite near, the 
 men dismounted and tied their horses to trees. One 
 said, "Do you think he's at home?" Another,. 
 " Well, boys, the tory parson's got to sup with Pluto 
 to-night." Another said, "All I'm afeard of is that 
 some of us will have to sup with him in Pluto's do- 
 minions. He's got fight in him, an' no mistake." 
 
 I had heard enough. I hastened home. My wife 
 had retired. I quickly armed myself, after barri- 
 cading the doors. After awhile there came a knock. 
 No notice was taken of it. Soon a voice said, " Hal- 
 loo !" Within the house all was silent as the grave. 
 I had cocked both barrels of a gun heavily loaded 
 with buckshot. I sat on a chair and aimed at the 
 door, resolved to shoot the first that entered, should 
 they succeed in breaking in the door. Soon there 
 was a noisy demonstration. At length two of the 
 men volunteered to go to the rear of the building, to 
 the woodpile, and get a log to use as a battering- rani 
 to break down the door. In their hot haste they ran 
 against a clothes-line. I had eked the line with a 
 piece of telegraph wire that some one in Vaiden had 
 given me a short time before. Both of these men, 
 John Cook and a Mr. Tower, were prostrated by the 
 recoil, and quite severely injured. Cook was ren- 
 dered unconscious, and Tower howled like a beaten 
 hound. Several ran to their assistance. At this 
 juncture two volleys of firearms were heard in quick 
 succession. My would-be assassins ran and cried 
 and fled.
 
 TUPELO. 61 
 
 A Mr. Denman had just finished digging a well 
 for me. The structure at the surface, to guard against 
 the danger of falling into the well, had not been com- 
 pleted. Some of the fugitives fell into the well, de- 
 scending with the bucket. How they succeeded in 
 getting out, I know not. Dr. Le Grand told me of 
 one man, who was his patient, who died of the in- 
 juries received on that eventful night. How I had 
 been so opportunely delivered was a mystery I could 
 not fathom. My little daughter said to her mother, 
 in the lull of the storm, " Ma, may I pray those 
 verses you taught me?" Upon receiving permission, 
 she arose in bed, knelt upon the pillow, and folding 
 her little hands, said : " The angel of the Lord en- 
 campeth round about them that fear him, and he 
 delivereth them. The righteous cry, and the Lord 
 heareth them and delivereth them out of all their 
 troubles. They cry unto the Lord in their trouble, 
 and he bringeth them out of their distresses. Oh, 
 that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and 
 for his wonderful works to the children of men. 
 Deliver us, O our God, out of the hand of the 
 wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel 
 men. Oh, God ! be not far from us. Oh, God ! 
 make haste for our help. For Christ our Redeemer's 
 sake. Amen." Then she lay down, and was soon 
 lost in innocent and unconscious slumber. 
 
 In an hour after the flight of these midnight ma- 
 rauders I heard a knock, which I recognized as a 
 preconcerted signal of recognition among Unionists.
 
 62 TUPELO. 
 
 I went to the back door, whence the knock sounded, 
 and signaled a reply. A low voice then uttered in a 
 distinct tone the sentence, " Liberty and union, now 
 and forever, one and inseparable." I opened the 
 door ; half a dozen friends entered. They and others, 
 who remained on duty, had been guarding my house 
 unknown to me. They remained an hour, uttering 
 words of comfort, and gave me the assurance of all 
 the assistance I should need, though at the peril of 
 their lives. After part : ng salutations, I opened the 
 door, and my friends disappeared \a the darkness. 
 We named this the battle of Wyandoue, the name of 
 my home. Probably the first blood of the war was 
 shed in this rencontre. 
 
 " War is dread when battle shock and fierce affray 
 Perpetuate a tyrant's name; 
 But guarding freedom's holy fane, 
 Confided to her valiant keeping, 
 The sword from scabbard leaping 
 Flashes a heavenly light." 
 
 In the afternoon of the next day Elder John Meck- 
 liu and his estimable wife came to visit us, bringing 
 their young son Reemer M-ith them. Mr. Mecklin 
 advised us to say nothing about this attempt upon my 
 life, as reticence in war time was a virtue. The per- 
 petrators of the dastardly attack would conceal theii 
 participation in it, even though some of their number 
 should die of their wounds. Excitement must be 
 allayed as much as possible. He feared that this 
 assault would be followed by others, till they had 
 accomplished their nefarious purpose. He said that
 
 TUPELO. 63 
 
 my public position and avowed sentiments, and the 
 fact that I was of northern birth and education, had 
 concentrated upon me the malice of all those of seces- 
 sion proclivities,' but he assured me that my friends 
 would defend me at the risk of their lives. I advised 
 him of my intention of removing into Attala county, 
 near Nazareth church, which was also in my field of 
 labor. He approved this course, since the excitement 
 here ran very high, but affirmed that there was no 
 place within the seceded states very safe for one whose 
 Unionism was of so pronounced a type. 
 
 At this time there was a man named Dr. Smith 
 who resided in Canton, Mississippi. He frequently 
 visited friends in Choctaw county. He was a violent 
 secessionist. Having learned of the failure of the 
 attempt upon my life, he resolved to take charge of 
 the matter himself, and execute summary vengeance 
 upon one who had too long been suffered to live. 
 
 I had the charge of three churches Poplar 
 Creek and French Camp, in Choctaw county, and 
 Nazareth, in Attala county. French Camp was 
 twelve miles from my home, and Nazareth twenty- 
 eight miles distant. Dr. Smith determined to come 
 to French Camp on the Sabbath I preached in that 
 church, and kill me there. He ordered his fast trot- 
 ter, Bucephalus, to be attached to the buggy, and pre- 
 paring his pistols, he started in hot haste ta effect his 
 murderous purpose. He reached French Camp about 
 one o'clock P.M. He learned that after service I had 
 gone to dine with Major Garrard. This was a mis-
 
 64 TUPELO. 
 
 take; I dined with Col. Hemphill. Dr. Smith 
 dined with Dr. John Hemphill. He made known 
 to DK. Hemphill the object of his visit. The doctor 
 tried in vain to dissuade him from his purpose. He 
 now determined to follow me to my home and murder 
 me there. He called at Col. Hemphill's and learned 
 that I had dined with the colonel, and had left en- 
 ronte for my home an hour before. I called at 
 Esquire Pilcher's to see his daughter, Miss Belle, who 
 was quite ill of malarial fever. After administer- 
 ing to her spiritual need, I pursued my journey 
 homeward. Dr. Smith had just passed, driving Jehu- 
 like (furiously). I followed rapidly, as a storm 
 seemed imminent. I heard the Vehicle in advance 
 and tried to overtake it, as I desired company on this 
 lonely road, but my horse was no match for the doc- 
 tor's swift steed, so I providentially failed to over- 
 take him. 
 
 About three miles from my home Dr. Smith left 
 the main road for one that led to a Methodist chapel. 
 He drove up to the chapel, descended from his buggy 
 and ordered a colored boy to hold his horse. He ap- 
 proached a group of men, and noticing one who was 
 quite well dressed and had a ministerial look and 
 bearing, addressed him thus: 
 
 " Are you, sir, a messenger of the Lord of Hosts?" 
 
 The gentleman smiled and made no reply. The 
 
 doctor then presented a pistol and fired. The ball 
 
 passed through the lungs of his victim. Reason had 
 
 left her throne. The doctor was a raving maniac.
 
 TUPELO. 65 
 
 The congregation rushed out of the chapel, took the 
 doctor into custody, and resolved to administer sum- 
 mary vengeance according to the code of Judge Lynch. 
 While they were waiting for a halter for which they 
 had sent, Dr. Smith's brother and other friends 
 arrived. They rescued him with difficulty from the 
 infuriated crowd, conveyed him to his home in Can- 
 ton, an alienist pronounced him hopelessly insane, 
 and he soon after became an inmate of the insane 
 asylum at Jackson. Deacon Colclough (pro. kokely), 
 the doctor's victim, lingered for months on the border 
 of the spirit land. The latest information I had in- 
 dicated a fatal termination. Thus in the providence 
 of God I was once more delivered from the wrath of 
 man. 
 
 A rumor found its way into the papers that I had 
 been fatally shot by Dr. Smith, of Canton. A friend 
 residing in Carthage, Leake county, sent me a paper 
 containing this notice: 
 
 " Rev. John H. Aughey, a Presbyterian minister, 
 who has been doing evangelistic work in Attala and 
 Choctaw counties, was fatally shot last week by Dr. 
 Smith, of Canton. The doctor was a monomaniac. 
 He believed himself to be commissioned by heaven 
 to exterminate all who were not friendly to the Con- 
 federate States of America. He had been informed 
 that Mr. Aughey had expressed disloyal sentiments, 
 and was a leader of the disaffected. He left home 
 with the avowed intention of killing him on sight. 
 The doctor's brother, learning the nature of his mis- 
 5
 
 66 TUPELO. 
 
 sion, followed, but was unable to overtake him till he 
 had committed the fatal deed. The particulars we 
 have not learned. Mr. Aughey had the reputation of 
 being an able minister, and very faithful in the dis- 
 charge of his ministerial duties. That he was one of 
 the disaffected is true. The extent of his opposition 
 w6 have not learned. In times of great excitement 
 rash acts are committed which are not warranted or 
 required for the public safety. We regret Mr. 
 Aughey 's tragic end, and if justifiable we regret the 
 necessity that required it. He leaves a widow and 
 one child. Requiescat in pace." 
 
 Commodore Spiva, a planter and leading member 
 of my church in Attala county, offered myself and 
 family a home as members of his family upon condi- 
 sion that I would superintend the studies of his son 
 and daughter. They had entered upon a course of 
 private study supplementary to the finished education 
 they had received it the college and seminary. We 
 were now domiciled in his spacious mansion on the 
 banks of the meandering Yockanookany. We en- 
 joyed comparative quiet for a time. My students 
 were very much enamored of belles-lettres, and we 
 took delightful rambles in the higher walks of liter- 
 ature. We enjoyed a continuous feast of reason and 
 flow of soul. In my absence my wife became my 
 vicegerent, and their rapid advance was not retarded. 
 
 The battle of Manassas had been fought and the 
 boastful spirit of the secessionists was almost unendur- 
 able. The whole confederacy did nothing but brag
 
 TUPELO. 67 
 
 of what had been done and what would be done if 
 the Yankees persisted in their futile attempts to sub- 
 jugate the South. The South was arming for the 
 war. Joyfully and with alacrity the young chivalric 
 sons of the slave-holding aristocracy responded to 
 the call for volunteers. The young ladies presented 
 company and regimental flags of costly material, 
 deftly embroidered by their own fair fingers with rare 
 and significant designs, to every regiment as it left 
 for the theater of war. Upon their departure to the 
 seat of war, they were given an ovation, barbecues 
 were held, grandiloquent orations were pronounced, 
 in which the superiority of the South over the North 
 in valor, military skill, and chivalric spirit was an- 
 nounced in terms that admitted no contrary opinion. 
 They were assured that when they returned victor- 
 ious of which result there was not the least shadow 
 of doubt and had secured the independence of a 
 glorious slave-holding confederacy, they would be 
 honored living, and when tlead their memory 
 would be embalmed in the hearts of a grateful pos- 
 terity and remembered with veneration, even until 
 the last moment of recorded time. Sax-horn bands 
 discoursed de icious music. " The Bonnie Blue 
 Flag that Boasts a Single Star," "Maryland, my 
 Maryland," and pre-eminently, " Dixie," were played 
 and sung by band and orchestra and choir. The 
 South had donned her holiday attire, and wine-cup, 
 dance, and song ruled the hour. 
 
 "Oh! that the Yankees would come," cried they,
 
 68 TUPELO. 
 
 " we would welcome them with bloody hands to hos- 
 pitable graves. One of our companies is equivalent 
 to a regiment of Yankees, and a southern regiment 
 more than a match for ten thousand northern 
 mudsills." 
 
 One evening Commodore Spiva met me as I walked 
 museful in a grove. He joined me in a walk, and 
 shortly drew me to a seat beneath a fig tree and thus 
 began: 
 
 " Are you aware that your life is in danger? " 
 
 " Whence the danger ? " 
 
 " There are men in our neighborhood that would 
 have made the attempt to assassinate you ere this, but 
 they know you are under my protection. I fear that 
 as you travel about in the discharge of your pastoral 
 duty they may waylay and murder you." 
 
 "I am prepared, if attacked, to defend myself." 
 
 "Your pistols would avail nothing at long range 
 against men armed with rifles." 
 
 "Well, whatwoul'd you advise?" 
 
 "Dr. Hughes will call upon you to-morrow and 
 inform you of the decision arrived at at an informal 
 meeting attended by the leading members and sup- 
 porters of Nazareth Church." 
 
 On the next day Dr. Hughes called to inform me 
 that if I wished to live long on the earth I must de- 
 clare my adhesion unequivocally to the government 
 of our nation, the sovereign state of Mississippi, and 
 also my good-will toward the subordinate Confeder- 
 ate States of America, and my approval of their 
 constitutions.
 
 TUPELO. 69 
 
 " Declare my adhesion unequivocally to the gov- 
 ern ment of our nation, the sovereign state of Missis- 
 sippi, and also my good-will toward the subordinate 
 Confederate States of America, and my approval of 
 their constitutions? Doctor, is there any virtue in 
 such a political creed to promote long life?" 
 
 "Yes, we all think so, and we believe the time has 
 come when we cannot longer tolerate any sentiments 
 in conflict with the vie\ys of the dominant class in 
 our country. AVe like you as a man and as a min- 
 ister, but we deprecate your treasonable opinions, 
 and we cannot much longer, if we would, save you 
 from the vengeance of the soldiers and the vigilantes. 
 I will call to-morrow for your decision." 
 
 On the morrow he called, and I told him that I 
 had decided to return to Tishomingo county. He 
 expressed his approval. I removed my household 
 goods to Goodman, a town on the Mississippi Cen- 
 tral R. R., ordering their shipment to luka. I con- 
 veyed my wife and child by private conveyance. 
 We spent one night in Macon, Noxubee Co. Rev. 
 James Pelan had been called to the pastorate of the 
 Presbyterian church of Macon. He was a Unionist. 
 A committee was appointed by the citizens to ex- 
 amine his library. Many of his books were con- 
 demned by this committee as containing abolition 
 sentiments. Rev. James Pelan was a man of excel- 
 lent spirit a ripe scholar and a worthy Christian 
 gentleman. His life was being embittered by his 
 political enemies. Every sermon was misconstrued
 
 70 TUPELO. 
 
 and tortured into teaching something contrary to the 
 interests of the sovereign state of Mississippi and the 
 Confederate States of America. Threats of lynching 
 were freely made. The Unionists often conveyed 
 secret information of plots against the life of this 
 good man. Often his foes endeavored to impair his 
 reputation by slander and calumny, but these as often 
 recoiled upon their fabricators. Wearied of such a 
 life of turmoil, he resigned his charge and removed 
 to the country, but the malice of his enemies pursued 
 him to his rural retreat. One evening, when walk- 
 ing on the lawn near his home, concealed assassins 
 fired upon him, wounding him severely. For a long 
 time he lingered between life and death, but a natu- 
 rally strong constitution, together with good nursing, 
 triumphed, and he began to convalesce. But his 
 enemies were on the alert, and ascertaining that he 
 was likely to recover, three devils incarnate came 
 armed to his house. Mr. Pelan was sitting in a 
 chair eating some delicacy that his wife had prepared 
 for him. These demons in human form asked Mrs. 
 Pelan if they could have supper. She replied, 
 "Certainly, I will order my servants to prepare sup- 
 per for you.' She left the room to give the order 
 These men then arose and one of them said, "All the 
 supper we want is to kill you, you infernal Unionist 
 and abolitionist." Instantly they all three fired upon 
 their wounded and defenseless victim. Mrs. Pelan, 
 hearing the report, rushed in and caught her husband 
 in her arms. In ten minutes he was a corpse. Be-
 
 TUPELO. 71 
 
 fore losing consciousness the dying martyr said, 
 " Father, forgive them, they know not what they 
 do." He also said, " Farewell, dear wife, I die, but 
 the government'still lives and will eventually subvert 
 rebellion, for God is just." His last utterance was, 
 " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Rev. James Pelan 
 was of English birth and parentage. His brother. 
 Rev. Wm. Pelan, was pastor of the Presbyterian 
 church in Connorsville, Ind., for twenty years, now 
 of Wells, Faribault Co., Minn. 
 
 Thus died one of my co-presbyters and dear friends. 
 When our presbytery the presbytery of Tombeck- 
 bee convened at Aberdeen, we lodged and roomed 
 together at the female seminarv, of which Rev. R. S. 
 
 o / / 
 
 Gladney* was principal. Rev. f R. S. Gladney was a 
 violent secessionist. He had just written a poetical 
 defense of slavery, and was woefully vexed that the 
 blockade had prevented his publishers, the Lippen- 
 cotts, of Philadelphia, from sending him the books. 
 A young licentiate named Gallaudet was ordained at 
 this session of presbytery to the full work of the 
 gospel ministry. Mr. Gladney rebuked him quite 
 severely in open presbytery because he had given a 
 negative answer to the question, "Will slavery exist 
 during the millennium?" Mr. Gladney affirmed 
 that it would exist during the millennium, and would 
 also exist in a modified form in heaven. The neces- 
 sity of the marriage relation would terminate with 
 earth, but he thought the southern people would re- 
 quire slaves in heaven in order to promote their 
 highest happiness.
 
 72 TUPELO. 
 
 Rev. Gallaudet became pastor of the Presbyterian 
 church in Aberdeen. Being a Unionist, the seces- 
 sionists bitterly opposed him. At length to save his 
 life he was compelled to abandon his field of labor. 
 He made good his escape to the North. But poor 
 Pelan was not so fortunate. The villain most promi- 
 nent in his murder was killed in battle just three 
 days after his diabolical crime. The righteous retri- 
 bution of Divine Providence was not long delayed. 
 Near this Judge Chisholm and his lovely daughter 
 were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. 
 
 We spent one night in Okolona, lodging at a 
 hotel. A friend whom I had long known lived here. 
 His name was Col. Carothers. He was ^a strong 
 secessionist. He met me just as I had given my 
 horse and buggy into the care of the proprietor of 
 the hotel. He advised me to register under an as- 
 sumed name, as the vigilantes had my name on their 
 list of proscribed persons, and if recognized my fate 
 would be sealed. He said : " On the morrow a 
 regiment will leave for the seat of war in Virginia, 
 and if your presence should become known they will 
 surely take your life. Colin Mclvor was hanged 
 last Monday as a Unionist, although I and several 
 others exerted our utmost influence to save his life. 
 But it was without avail. We pleaded, but in vain, 
 for a respite of two hours that he might make his 
 will and bid his family farewell." 
 
 I demurred and declared that I was not ashamed 
 of my name, that I had not done anything to dis-
 
 TUPELO. 73 
 
 grace it. He assured me that I must take his advice 
 or pay the penalty of my temerity with my life. I 
 walked up to the register and made this record: 
 " George Bush-rod Washington, wife, and daughter, 
 Mt. Vernon, Va." After supper we entered the 
 ladies parlor. Mrs. Des Lande, a lady boarder at the 
 hotel, called our child to her, took her into her lap 
 and said : " What is your name, my dear?" 
 
 " Anna Kate Aughey," she lisped. 
 
 " Where do you live ? " 
 
 " Near Kosciusko, Attala Co., Mississippi." 
 
 " Where are you traveling?" 
 
 " To grandpa's, Mr. Alexander Paden's, at luka. 
 But I think my pa is going to 'scape Norf from the 
 bad people that tried to kill him. I heard him tell 
 ma so. I ask God every day to take care of my 
 dear pa, and ma does too. We are good people and 
 love God; what do they want to shoot my poor pa 
 for?" 
 
 The ladies present gave each other significant 
 glances. Soon after Col. Carothers called me out. 
 Said he: "You should not have registered by a 
 name so renowned. It has attracted the attention of 
 all the loungers at the hotel, and your little daughter, 
 Major Linden informs me, has betrayed your secret. 
 You should have registered your nom de guerre as 
 John Smith, of Pontotoc, or some obscure town.- 
 Xow do you and family retire to your room at once. 
 I will arrange for your safety with Major Linden. 
 He will order an early breakfast, and you can start
 
 74 TUl'ELO. 
 
 by daylight or a little before. Drive rapidly to 
 avoid pursuit, if it should be made, and it would be 
 Avell to start southward and make a circuit as a 
 blind." 
 
 We took his advice, and left ere the shades of night 
 had lifted from the magnolia-embowered streets of 
 Okolona. We started in a southern direction, made 
 a circuit of several squares, and left the town via the 
 northern suburbs. My good horse, Bcllerophon, 
 assumed a gait that led us to fear no pursuers. 
 
 " They will have swift steeds that follow with any 
 prospect of success," said my wife. 
 
 Our horse slackened not his speed for several hours, 
 and our babe slept sweetly and calmly. While the 
 guests were at breakfast that morning in Okolona 
 the chief of the vigilantes called to ascertain the ante- 
 cedents and business in their city of the traveler who 
 had registered as George Bushrod Washington. He 
 learned, to his surprise and regret, that he had left at 
 an early hour. The landlord disclaimed all knowl- 
 edge of him or of his destination. At a meeting of 
 the vigilantes that morning this matter was brought 
 to their attention, but no definite action was taken, 
 for lack of testimony, except that this telegram was 
 sent to Tupelo: "Look sharp for a suspicious char- 
 acter traveling in a buggy with a lady and child. He 
 travels incognito, or rather, under the assumed name 
 of George Biinhrod Washington. If he visits Tu- 
 pelo, arrest him and send us word. He evaded us by 
 leaving in the night. All charges will be paid out
 
 TUPELO. ( 
 
 B -V 
 
 of our secret service fund." Similar messages were 
 sent southward to the vigilantes in Columbus, 
 Lowndes county, and Meridian, Lauderdale county. 
 
 Upon reaching Marietta, Prentiss county, we met 
 Misses Bettie Greene and Josephine Young, my former 
 pupils at the Rienzi Female College. At their urgent 
 solicitation, we spent the night with their parents. 
 These families were Unionists. They informed us 
 that Messrs. Wroten and Nowliu, Unionists, had 
 been abducted by the vigilantes a month ago, and 
 had not been heard of since. They were either lan- 
 guishing in prison, or had been murdered. Their 
 families w r ere in great distress because of their omi- 
 nous absence. We reached the residence of Mr. Alex- 
 ander Paden, my wife's father, the next afternoon, at 
 four o'clock, without further incident of interest, ex- 
 cept that when we reached Mackey's creek we met 
 Major Stephen Davenport and Dr. Orton Choate, two 
 virulent secessionists, who hurrahed for Jeif Davis 
 and the Southern Confederacy. They asked me how 
 that suited me. I replied, "I am in favor of the 
 Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement of the 
 laws." They produced a flask of liquor and drank 
 contusion and death to all Yankees, tories, traitors, 
 subniissionists,. renegades, and abolitionists, North 
 and South. Saying, "We will see you later," they 
 rode off, brandishing their sword-canes and singing 
 "Dixie" in maudlin tones. 
 
 Upon our arrival in Tishomingo county I found 
 that the great heart of the county still beat true to
 
 76 TUPELO. 
 
 the music of the Union. At the last election they 
 were permitted to hold the Union delegates received 
 1,400 majority. Union sentiments could be expressed 
 with entire safety in many localities. Corinth, luka, 
 and Rienzi had been from the commencement of the 
 war camps of instruction for the training of Confed- 
 erate soldiers. These three towns in the county being 
 thus occupied, Unionists found it necessary, in their 
 vicinity, to be more cautious, as the cavalry made 
 frequent raids throughout the county, arresting and 
 maltreating those suspected of disaffection. Cor- 
 inth is a very important strategical point, situated in 
 a semi-mountainous country, a branch of the Appa- 
 lachian range which diverges from the Allegheny 
 mountains and forms the mountains and gold-bearing 
 regions of Georgia and Alabama. Here, also, is the 
 junction of the Memphis and Charleston with the 
 Mobile and Ohio railroads, which form the means of 
 communication between the Atlantic and Gulf sea- 
 boards. After the reduction of Forts Henry and 
 Donelson, and the surrender of Nashville, the Con- 
 federates made the Memphis and Charleston railroad 
 the base of their operations, their armies extending 
 from Memphis to Chattanooga. Soon, however, they 
 were all concentrated at Corinth, in Tishomingo 
 county. 
 
 Tishomingo and luka were two Indian chieftains. 
 The town of luka was named for one and Tisho- 
 mingo Co. for the other. After the battle of Shiloh, 
 which was fought on the 6th and 7th of April, 1862,
 
 TUPELO. 77 
 
 the Federal army advanced to Farmington, four miles 
 north of Corinth, while the Confederates occupied 
 Corinth, their rear extending to Rienzi, twelve miles 
 south on the Mobile & Ohio railroad. Thus there 
 were two vast armies encamped in Tishomingo Co. 
 Being within the Confederate lines, I, in common 
 with many other loyalists, found it difficult, to evade 
 the rigorously enforced conscript law. Believing 
 that in a multitude of counselors there is wisdom, we 
 held secret meetings in order to devise the best meth- 
 ods for evading the law. We met at midnight's 
 weird and solemn hour. Often our wives, sisters, 
 and daughters met with us. Our meeting place was 
 some ravine or secluded glen, or by some mountain 
 m?re, as far as possible from the haunts of the seces- 
 sionists. All were armed; even the ladies carried 
 concealed revolvers which they knew well how to 
 use. We had countersigns so as to recognize friends 
 and discern enemies. Taisez vous was the counter- 
 sign known by loyalists from the Ohio river to the 
 Gulf of Mexico. The recognition of it was Oui, Oui 
 (pronounced we, we). It was never discovered by 
 the disloyal during the war. The nefarious crime of 
 treason we were resolved not to commit. Our coun- 
 sels were somewhat divided. We did not coincide 
 in opinion upon the question whether we should at- 
 tend the militia musters. Some advocating as a 
 matter of policy the propriety of attending them; 
 others, myself among the number, opposing it for 
 conscience's sake, and for the purpose of avoiding
 
 78 TUPELO. 
 
 every appearance of evil. Many who would not 
 muster nor be enrolled as conscripts resolved to es- 
 cape to the Federal lines, and making the attempt in 
 squads, under skillful guides who could course it from 
 point to point through the densest forests, with the 
 unerring instinct of the panther or catamount or 
 aborigines, at length reached the Union army, en- 
 listed under the old flag, and have since done good 
 service as patriot warriors. 
 
 The vigilantes became very troublesome. They 
 arrested and murdered Unionists wherever they 
 could be found. Few loyalists dared sleep at home, 
 but seeking out some jungle or copse they impro- 
 vised a rude arbor or den in which they spent the 
 night, and to which they betook themselves when an 
 alarm was given by their families or friends. Late 
 one evening I saw the beacon fires burning. Alt. Sinai 
 was all ablaze, the flames ascending high. The moon 
 was obscured by dark dismal clouds. Mt. Nebo 
 was lurid. The lambent flames from Pisgah had 
 enveloped a stately pine long since dead standing 
 on the lofty summit far above all other trees. Her- 
 mon and Iloreb were dark as Erebus. Unless these 
 two were illuminated it was but a call to an ordinary 
 meeting. We gave these peaks those names to desig- 
 nate them so that by the fires kindled upon them 
 they might serve as danger signals or call together in 
 solemn assemblage the scattered Unionists. At 10 
 o'clock P.M. Horeb and Hermon blazed out from 
 their lofty summits. The fierce and spiral flames
 
 TUPELO. 79 
 
 recalled the pictures of Etna and Vesuvius in the 
 geographies of my school days, where the mighty 
 waves of glittering fire, through- some internal con- 
 vulsion, shot from their craters far upward into the 
 midnight sky. These indicated a special call, either 
 some impending danger was to be guarded against or 
 some Unionist had been wounded or slain. I was 
 just returning from a visit to Josselyn, Amos, Petrie, 
 Aaron, and Morrow, who were in hiding and were 
 awaiting the return of the guides who had gone with 
 a squad to the Federal lines. As soon as I ascer- 
 tained that Hermon and Horeb were blazing I re- 
 turned to the lair of these hidden ones, and when from 
 the summit of a hill they had seen the signal fires 
 blazing, they at once started to the place of rendez- 
 vous. I did the same after I had secreted my horse 
 in the stable of a friend. 
 
 THE MIDNIGHT MEETING, AND BATTLE IN GOOD 
 SPRINGS GLEN. 
 
 Dark hills frowned on every side; the waters of 
 a crystal spring bubbled up and in mournful cadence 
 murmured a sad refrain, then swiftly glided away 
 adown the glen ; the midnight moon gazed wistfully 
 down from the zenith; fitful clouds and the over- 
 arching branches of the lofty forest trees, stately 
 monarchs of the woods, obscured her light. I 
 reached the place of rendezvous just at the noon of 
 night. Quietly approaching from all possible points, 
 human forms appeared, gliding noiselessly into the
 
 80 TUPEPO. 
 
 narrow arena around the spring. The numbers in- 
 creasing, this place was tacitly surrendered to the 
 women, the men retreating to the hillsides adjacent. 
 John Beck received in a whisper from each the coun- 
 tersign, "The Union Forever." He reported ninety- 
 four present, sixty-five men and twenty-nine ladies. 
 T was the presiding officer, supported by two vice 
 presidents, Henry Spence and Byron Hall. 
 
 Washington Gortney arose and said : " Mr. 
 President We are here assembled to determine what 
 is the best method of evading the conscript law and 
 keeping out of the rebel army. I favor enlisting in 
 the Federal army. We will then be far more effi- 
 cient in defending our government from subversion 
 by traitors. James Reece, who is seated by yonder 
 linden tree, and I have proved our faith by our 
 works. We are soldiers in the Federal army. We 
 fought at Shiloh and are with the army at Farming- 
 ton assisting in the siege of Corinth, and soon we 
 hope to capture that stronghold and bring deliverance 
 to the persecuted Unionists in North Mississippi. If 
 you stay here you will be forced into the rebel army, 
 or you will be shot or hung, as too many of our 
 loyal fellow citizens have been. There are already 
 three hundred from this county in the Federal army, 
 and four hundred from Franklin, the county contigu- 
 ous to this in North Alabama. Leave your families; 
 it will be only for a short time. Corinth will fall 
 and before the Fourth of July this county, and prob- 
 ably the whole state, will be delivered from rebel
 
 TUPELO. 81 
 
 domination. I will make this motion : Be it re- 
 solved, that we believe it to be conducive to the best 
 interests of ourselves personally, and the Union 
 cause, to which we will ever adhere, for all of suitable 
 military age to escape to the Federal army now be- 
 sieging Corinth and to enlist in that army." 
 
 Carle Bitter arose and said : " With all my heart 
 I second this motion, and I hope that it may be 
 adopted with entire unanimity. Our numbers have 
 been more than decimated by rebel violence within 
 the last month, and I firmly believe that this resolu- 
 tion presents the best method of securing our own 
 safety and overthrowing this ungodly rebellion 
 against the best government that ever existed on 
 earth a rebellion inaugurated by slave holders in 
 the interests of an institution we detest." 
 
 The president called for remarks. Several made 
 brief addresses in favor of its passage. It was then 
 passed with entire unanimity. 
 
 At this juncture ominous sounds were heard. 
 Dark forms were seen on the hillside to the south. 
 Soon a line of battle was formed by our foes. We 
 quietly formed in line on the north hillside. They 
 dispatched a messenger who crossed the ravine to in- 
 form us that they were friends. John Beck hurried 
 over and found that they had a former countersign, 
 but he saw Bill Robinson and Major Ham at the 
 head of the line. Then we knew that we had been 
 betrayed and must fight for our lives without hope 
 of quarter if defeated. We told them not to ap- 
 6
 
 82 TUPELO. 
 
 proach a step nearer as we knew their character. 
 Major Ham was in command of this force sent to de- 
 stroy us. He crossed the ravine and informed us 
 that he had been within twenty feet of the president 
 of the meeting, had heard the speeches and resolu- 
 tions passed, was cognizant of our traitorous designs 
 against the Southern Confederacy, and informed us 
 that we must surrender unconditionally, give up our 
 arms, and be sent as prisoners to Corinth. He would 
 give us ten minutes for consultation. Should we re- 
 fuse he would not hold himself responsible for the 
 consequences. He feared that we would all be put 
 to death. We replied that we would not surrender 
 but would stand for our lives and do the best we 
 could, if attacked. He retired, deprecating our 
 course. They were startled at our apparent numbers. 
 They were led to believe that there were but few of 
 us, and that our disparity of force compared with 
 theirs would lead us to surrender at once. Had we 
 surrendered not one of us would have left that glen 
 alive. The gathering clouds indicated the near ap- 
 proach of a storm. The lightning flashed, the thun- 
 der rolled, the rain commenced to fall in torrents. 
 In the midst of the storm Ham's men advanced and 
 delivered a volley. James Brown fell dead at my side. 
 Smith Burgess was shot through the left hand. We 
 returned the fire with effect. The women crowded 
 round the spring in terror, all except Sadie Beck 
 and Sallie Hitter, who from behind two trees kept 
 up an incessant fire with navy repeaters. This in-
 
 TUPELO. 83 
 
 decisive contest had continued for an hour. The 
 storm had passed and the moon shone brightly, no 
 cloud intervening. John Beck detached nineteen men, 
 passed down the glen, and making a circuit ap- 
 proached from the summit of the hill in the rear of 
 Ham's men. Our fire slacking someAvhat, Ham re- 
 solved on a charge across the ravine. As they crossed 
 the ravine we fired rapidly ; one man approaching 
 me I emptied all the chambers of my revolver. He 
 did the same with his. I was now without any means 
 of defense. He approached and raised his revolver 
 to strike me with it. I -struck first and he fell un- 
 conscious at my feet. At that moment I received 
 a blow on my head and fell unconscious on my pros- 
 trate foe. The last sounds I heard were the cheers 
 of Beck and his men coming down the hill in the 
 rear of Ham. When consciousness returned I was 
 lying on a bed in a cabin surrounded by forest trees. 
 Two ladies were the only persons present in the 
 cabin, one of whom was seated at my bedside. On 
 the green-sward in front of the door lay a man bound 
 with cords. Gortney and Reece were seated on the 
 ground near him. Gortney had recognized him as 
 the guerilla who had murdered his brother only a 
 week before because of his Unionism, and for this 
 crime declared that he must die. At the moment of 
 my fall Ham and his force, finding themselves as- 
 saulted in front and rear, precipitately retreated, leav- 
 ing the Unionists masters of the field. Six were 
 killed outright, two Unionists and four rebels. The
 
 84 TUPELO. 
 
 dead were buried in separate graves on the hillside. 
 I pleaded for the life of Bill Hodge, but Gortney 
 was inexorable. I told him that I forgave Hodge 
 for the wound he had inflicted upon me. Gortney 
 and Reece went to procure me some water. After 
 considerable persuasion I secured the consent of the 
 ladies and after receiving a solemn oath from Hodge 
 that he would not reveal the whereabouts of the 
 cabin or anything to our injury I severed the cords 
 that bound him and let him loose. He sprang away 
 nimbly, and was ascending a knoll fifty yards dis- 
 tant when the sharp report ef a rifle rang out on the 
 morning air and I saw Hodge fall. When Gortney 
 reached him he was dead. He and Reece buried him 
 where he fell. 
 
 On the evening preceding this the vigilantes had 
 tried and immediately hung George Payson and 
 Rhoderick Murchison. They compelled them to dig 
 their own graves, and then hung them and buried 
 them in the graves they had dug. They had insisted 
 upon being buried. The vigilantes said, " Yes, we'll 
 bury you, but you shall dig your graves." 
 
 Payson said that he was a citizen of Bay Minette, 
 Baldwin Co., Ala., and Murchison claimed his resi- 
 dence in Citronelle, Mobile Co., in the same state. 
 He had removed from Multona Springs, Miss., a few 
 months before. They said when arrested that they 
 were en route to Enola, Butler Co., Ky., to visit 
 friends. Upon searching them a letter was found on 
 the person of Payson which read thus :
 
 TUPELO. 85 
 
 ALPHARETTA, MILTON Co., GA., 
 
 Jan. 28, 1862. 
 Dear Gco.: 
 
 The Confederate authorities are becoming very 
 cruel. They have incarcerated a number of our 
 neighbors in a filthy prison, and forced several into 
 their army. They say traitors to their Confederacy 
 must die the death of dogs. My brothers, Leonidas 
 and Perceval, have not slept at home for a month. 
 More than fifty Unionists are in hiding. Good guides 
 are difficult to procure. Two are expected from 
 Selma soon, and we trust they will be successful in 
 conducting to the Federal lines a large company. 
 Gillam, Gilson, and Gillette, three Unionists of Seg- 
 uin, Guadalupe Co., Texas, arrived here yesterday. 
 They had many hairbreadth adventures in reaching 
 this place. They were pursued by hounds, but suc- 
 ceeded in poisoning the dogs. They were compelled 
 to leave Lee Ayler, who started with them, sick at 
 the house of that staunch Unionist, Hornbrook Grad- 
 wohl. O, the troublous times we have fallen upon. 
 I hear while I write the howling of the hounds in 
 search of my brothers and other Unionists, led by 
 those terrible vigilantes. But I feel sure that they 
 will not be able to find them, thanks to the swamp, 
 Little Dismal, and their knowledge of all the success- 
 ful methods of destroying the scent and of evading 
 or killing the dogs. I must close. I have to pre- 
 pare food for the hidden ones. It will be taken to 
 them to-night. Dear cousin, the loyal people will
 
 86 TUPELO. 
 
 never be satisfied till the cruel perpetrators of so 
 great outrages upon them are adequately punished. 
 They deserve a severe penalty for the crimes com- 
 mitted to promote the interests of a usurpation or- 
 ganized to destroy the best government this world 
 has ever known, and to perpetuate an institution sub- 
 versive of the rights of man. 
 
 Your aifectionate Cousin, 
 
 JENNIE SILVERTHORN. 
 
 This letter led the vigilantes to infer that Payson 
 and Murchison were endeavoring to escape to the 
 Federal lines. They were convicted and hanged, 
 and buried in the grave they were compelled to dig. 
 
 I received three citations to appear on a certain 
 day to be enrolled to attend muster as a conscript. I 
 paid no attention to the citations. At length I received 
 this summons to attend court-martial : 
 
 Ma. the 22, 1862. 
 Parson John H. Awhay: 
 
 You havent tended nun of our mustters as a kon- 
 skrip. Now you is herby summenzd to atend a kort 
 marshal at Jim Mocks. June the furst. 
 
 BLOUNT. 
 
 When I received this summons I called a meeting of 
 the Unionists. Several had on the same day received 
 similar official notices to attend the court-martial. 
 We spent a whole night in consultation. We were 
 one hundred strong, and I advocated attending in a 
 body, properly armed, and, if necessary, to accept the
 
 TUPELO. 87 
 
 gage of battle, but McElhinny and Scotland's 
 wives had learned that a large force of cavalry from 
 Corinth would be sent to assist the vigilantes. The 
 majority refused to credit this report till a note was 
 read from Miss May Coe, who was a spy in our in- 
 terest. We could not doubt the authenticity of her 
 information, corroborative of Mesdames McElhinny 
 and Scotland's report. We then resolved as a dernier 
 resort to make the attempt to reach Farmington, 
 where the Federal army was encamped besieging 
 Corinth. When I reached Rienzi it was evident 
 that the Confederates were evacuating Corinth. On 
 the 1st day of June (the day appointed for the con- 
 vening of the court-martial) I had the pleasure of 
 once more beholding the star spangled banner, as it 
 was borne in front of General Gordon Granger's 
 command, which led the van of the pursuing army. 
 Thus for the present I escaped death at the hands of 
 the rebels. 
 
 General W. S. Rosecrans upon his arrival made 
 his head-quarters at the house of my brother, David 
 H. Aughey, where I had the pleasure of forming his 
 acquaintance, and that of Generals Ammen, Smith, 
 Pope, and others. Tishomingo county was now 
 measurably in possession of the Federal army. Col. 
 Elliott, in his successful raid upon Booneville, passed 
 Jim Mock's, at whose house the court-martial was to 
 convene, scaring him so greatly that he dared not 
 sleep in his house for several weeks. The Union 
 cavalry, scoured the country in all directions, and we
 
 88 TUPELO. 
 
 were rejoicing in the prospect of continuous safety 
 and freedom from outrage. 
 
 The rebels in their retreat had burned all the cot- 
 ton which was accessible to their cavalry on their route. 
 At night the flames of the burning cotton lighted up 
 the horizon for miles around. These baleful pyres 
 with their lurid glare bore sad testimony to the hor- 
 rors of war. In this wanton destruction of the great 
 southern staple, many families lost their whole staff 
 of bread, and starvation stared them in the face. 
 Many would have perished had it not been for the 
 liberal contributions of the North, for learning of the 
 sufferings of the poor of the South, whose whole sup- 
 ply had been destroyed by pretended friends, they 
 sent provisions and money, and thus many who were 
 left in utter destitution were rescued from perishing by 
 this timely succor. I have often heard the rejoicings 
 and benedictions of the poor, who, abandoned by their 
 supposed friends, were saved with their children from 
 death by the beneficence of those whom they had been 
 taught to regard as enemies the most bitter, impla- 
 cable, and unmerciful. Their prayer might well be, 
 "Save us from our friends, whose tender mercies are 
 cruel." I have never known a man to burn his own 
 cotton, and I have heard bitter anathemas and fierce 
 invective hurled at those who thus robbed them, and 
 their denunciations were loud and deep against the 
 government which authorized such cruelty. It is true 
 those who lose their cotton, if secessionists, receive a 
 promise to pay, which all regard as not worth the
 
 TUPELO. 89 
 
 paper upon which it is written. Ere pay day those 
 who are dependent upon their cotton for the neces- 
 saries of life would have passed that bourne whence 
 no traveler returns. 
 
 'Tis like the Confederate bonds at first they were 
 made payable two years after date, and they were 
 printed upon paper so worthless that it would be en- 
 tirely w r orn out in six months, and the promise to 
 pay would have become illegible in half that time. 
 The succeeding issues were made payable six months 
 after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the 
 United States and the Confederate States. Though 
 not a prophet, nor a prophet's son, I venture the 
 prediction that those bonds will never become due. 
 The war of elements, the wreck of matter, and 
 the crash of worlds announcing the final consum- 
 mation of all things will be heard sooner. 
 
 As the prospect was so favorable that this whole 
 region of country would soon be in the hands of the 
 Federal troops and occupied by them, I deemed it 
 safe to return to my father-in-law's, in the south-east- 
 ern part of Tishomingo Co. I applied to Gen. Rose- 
 crans for a pass through the lines for myself, wife, 
 and child. Gen. Rosecrans went with me to see 
 General Pope, and after introducing me and vouching 
 for my loyalty, asked him for the pass I desired. 
 Gen. Pope said that he had issued orders to the effect 
 that no passes through the lines should be granted 
 for a specified time. Gen. Rosecrans then proffered 
 to send Captain Gilbert, one of his staff officers, with
 
 90 TUPELO. 
 
 us beyond the lines. This he said was done in con- 
 sideration of the kindness I had shown him and staff 
 upon his arrival in Rienzi. He told me that the 
 rebels were over there in the woods not more than a 
 fourth of a mile distant, and that they were about to 
 move upon them. He advised me to return to Rienzi 
 till the rebels were driven farther south. We were 
 then near Mr. McClaren's, seven miles from Rienzi, 
 on the road to Booneville. I resolved to run the risk, 
 as Mrs. Aughey was anxious to return to her father's. 
 We started and had not gone far when the screaming 
 shells and bursting bombs came howling through the 
 valley. Then followed the rattle of musketry, and 
 presently the impinging of steel. The din of battle 
 sounded in our ears. Suddenly a shell, screeching like 
 a howling demon, passed over us. The pomp and 
 circumstance of glorious war were displayed to our 
 startled gaze. A retrograde was as dangerous as a 
 forward movement, and we persistently followed our 
 leader, Captain Gilbert. Our child, not realizing the 
 danger, laughed merrily at the grand panorama. 
 Soon a charge was sounded and the rebels fled pell- 
 mell, pursued vigorously by the victorious boys in 
 blue. I had no fear for my own personal safety be- 
 cause of the excitement, but feared greatly that some 
 of the missiles might injure wife or child. But they 
 seemed to bear a charmed life, for though the air was 
 full of messengers of death, and many whistled by in 
 close proximity, none did us the least injury. Several 
 times when a shell exploded near, our horse reared
 
 TUPELO. 91 
 
 and plunged, to the imminent peril of the occupants of 
 the vehicle. Before the noise of the battle had wholly 
 ceased my wife pointed to a navy repeater^ lying- on 
 the ground. I descended from the buggy and secured 
 it. 
 
 At this time all marketable commodities were com- 
 manding fabulous prices. Flour sold at $30 per bar- 
 rel, bacon 40 cents per pound, coffee one dollar per 
 pound ; salt was nominally one hundred dollars per 
 sack of one hundred pounds, but there was none to 
 be obtained even at that high price. All manufactured 
 goods were very costly. Upon the occupation of the 
 country by Federal troops goods could be obtained 
 at reasonable prices, but our money was all expended 
 except Confederate bonds, which were worthless. 
 Planters who lived beyond the lines of the retreating 
 rebel army had cotton, but they feared to sell it as 
 the rebels called it treason to trade with the invaders, 
 and threatened to inflict the penalty in every case. 
 As there was no penalty attached to the selling of 
 cotton by one Mississippian to another, my Unionist 
 friends offered to sell their cotton to me for whatever 
 price I could afford to pay. I was also solicited to 
 act as their agent in the purchase of commodities. I 
 agreed to this risk because of the urgent need of my 
 friends, many of whose families were destitute of the 
 indispensable necessaries of life. I thought it was 
 better that one should take a great risk than that 
 many people should perish. By this arrangement 
 my Unionist friends would escape the punishment
 
 92 TUPELO. 
 
 meted out to those who were found guilty of trading 
 with the Yankees ; if discovered I alone would be 
 amenable^to their unjust and, under the appalling 
 environment, extremely cruel and vindictive laAV, and 
 my friends would thus save their cotton liable to be 
 destroyed at any moment by a dash of rebel cavalry. 
 I sold their cotton, procured supplies for the famish- 
 ing, and thus relieved the wants of many. I did not 
 charge one cent for commission fees, and expended 
 one hundred dollars of my own money to furnish 
 provisions for families utterly destitute, some of whom 
 had not tasted food for days. One day I rode into 
 luka to the head-quarters of Gen. Wm. Nelson. The 
 Gen. told me that he learned that Norman's bridge 
 over Bear creek was held by a force of rebels. He 
 asked me if I could send one or two Union men to 
 that place to ascertain the number and position of the 
 troops holding that point. I replied that I could. 
 I secured the services of Wm. ami John Thompson, 
 who were brothers and staunch Unionists, to accom- 
 plish this hazardous undertaking. Only one of them 
 succeeded. He got through on the pretext that he 
 was desirous of getting medicine for his sick wife. 
 He gave the diagnosis, procured the medicine at a 
 cost of three dollars, and returned. During his brief 
 stay he learned the probable number and disposition 
 of the troops stationed at the bridge, and discovered 
 the vulnerable point and recommended a plan of at- 
 tack. I conveyed his report to Gen. Nelson. The 
 next nio-ht the attack was made and not a rebel sol-
 
 TUPELO. 93 
 
 dier escaped death or capture. Thus was Norman's 
 bridge captured and destroyed. 
 
 One day I rode over to Mr. Holland Lindsay's on 
 business. I had learned that he was a rabid seces- 
 sionist, but supposed that no rebel cavalry had come 
 so- far north as his house since the evacuation of Corr 
 inth. Mr. Lindsay had gone to a neighbor's. His 
 wife was engaged in weaving. She was a coarse, 
 masculine woman, and withal possessed of a strong 
 prejudice against all whom she did not like, but an 
 especial hatred of the Yankees rankled in her bosom. 
 I sat down to await the return of her husband. Soon 
 Mrs. Lindsay broached the exciting topic of the day, 
 the war. She thus vented her spleen against the 
 Yankees : 
 
 " There wur a Yankee critter company (cavalry) 
 come along here last week. They hearn a noise an' 
 thought our troops waz a cornin' so they drawed up 
 in two streaks of fight right in front ov our house. 
 Arter a while they axed me ef I haddent seen no 
 rebels scoutin' round here lately. I jes' tole 'em it 
 warntnone ov their bizness. Them nasty, no-account 
 scamps callin' our men rebels. Them triflin', nigger- 
 stealin' scoundrels. They runs off our niggers an' 
 won't let us take 'em to Mexico an' the other terri- 
 tories." 
 
 I ventured to remark, " The Yankees are mean 
 indeed, not to let us take our negroes to the territories 
 and not help catch them for us when they run off." 
 
 The emphatic us and our *nettled her, as none of
 
 94 TUPELO. 
 
 the Lindsays had ever owned a negro, being classed 
 by the white nabobs as poor white trash, nor did I 
 ever own a slave. 
 
 She replied: " I've hearn that you is a tory." She 
 became reticent, indeed quite morose. I concluded 
 to ride over to Mr. Spigener's, to whose house Mrs. 
 Lindsay had informed me her husband had gone. 
 On the way I met Hill's cavalry. One of them 
 halted me, inquired my name and business, which I 
 gave. He informed me that Mr. Lindsay had gone 
 across the fields home and that he was on his way to 
 Mr. Lindsay's. When we reached Mr. Lindsay's 
 house we saw him in the yard. I transacted my busi- 
 ness with him as quickly as possible. Some soldiers 
 had gone into the house. Mrs. Lindsay told them 
 that I was a double-dyed tory and advised my arrest. 
 The cavalrymen were all around me. Davis, Lind- 
 say's nephew, came out and ordered my arrest. He 
 sent my horse to the stable. After supper my horse 
 was brought and I was taken to camp. I was now 
 a prisoner in the hands of my own and my country's 
 enemies. Four men were detached to guard me dur- 
 ing the night. They ordered me to lie down on the 
 ground and sleep. The ground was wet and I had 
 no blanket, so I insisted upon going to Mr. Spige- 
 ner's, about one hundred yards distant, to secure a 
 bed. They Avould not consent, but I started without 
 permission. The guards followed me. Mr. Spige- 
 ner gave me a bed, the guards remaining in the room 
 watched me while I -slept. The next morning I
 
 TUPELO. 95 
 
 asked permission to see their captain, whose name 
 was Hill. I asked to be allowed to return home, in- 
 forming him that I had been arbitrarily arrested by 
 some of his men. I said that I was a civilian and 
 not amenable to military law. Capt. Hill replied : 
 
 "Are you a Unionist?" 
 
 " I voted the Union ticket, sir." 
 
 " That is not a fair answer. I voted the Union 
 ticket myself. Kow I am warring against the 
 Union." 
 
 "I have seen no valid reason for changing my 
 sentiments." 
 
 " You confess, then, that you are a Unionist ? " 
 
 " I do. I regard the union of these states as of 
 paramount importance to the people inhabiting them." 
 
 "You must go to head-quarters, where you will be 
 dealt with as we are accustomed to deal with all the 
 abettors of an abolition government." 
 
 A guard numbering fifteen were detached to take 
 charge of me. The apparent leader was a soldier 
 named Saccapee Vaudreuil, who claimed that he was 
 a descendant of Pocahontas in the 10th generation. 
 They then started to convey me to Fulton, the county 
 seat of Itawamba Co., Miss. When we reached a 
 cross-roads about 12 miles from the point of starting, 
 we found a company in charge of a Unionist prisoner 
 named Benjamin Clarke. We were then placed in 
 charge of two men, Dr. Crossland, of Burnsville, and 
 Ferdinand Woodruff. They were under the influence 
 of liquor and were very insulting in their denuncia-
 
 96 TUPELO. 
 
 tions of all traitors to the Southern Confederacy. 
 They detailed to each other a history of their licen- 
 tious amours. Dr. Crossland was the father of a 
 very pretty little girl whose mother was a poor white 
 woman. We halted for dinner. They asked me to 
 pay for it, which I did, they promising to refund the 
 money when we reached Fulton. This they forgot 
 to do. 
 
 On our arrival at Fulton we were taken to the 
 head-quarters of Col. Bradfute, the commander of the 
 post. My fellow-prisoner was examined first. Wood- 
 ruff stated that they had played off on Clarke. They 
 had visited him as he was plowing in his field, tell- 
 ing him that they were Federal soldiers they were 
 disguised as such Clarke assured them that he was 
 a Unionist, and that he hoped soon to enlist in the 
 Federal army. Bradfute became very angry upon 
 hearing this, swearing that Clarke ought to be taken 
 out and shot then, but he said a few days' respite 
 would make but little difference, as Geu. Beauregard 
 would not allow such a tory to live long. Said he, 
 addressing the guards, " Had you hung Clarke you 
 would have saved us some trouble and have done 
 your country good service." The colonel, turning 
 round, glared upon me with eyes inflamed with pas- 
 sion and liquor, and thus addressed me : " Are you 
 a Unionist, too ? " 
 
 " I am, sir. I have never denied it." 
 
 " Where do you reside?" 
 
 " My home is Rienzi, Tishomingo Co., Miss."
 
 TUPELO. 97 
 
 "What is your profession ?" 
 
 "I am a minister of the Gospel." 
 
 " I suppose, then, that you go to the Bible for your 
 politics, and that you are a sort of higher law man?" 
 
 " My Bible teaches, let every soul be subject to the 
 higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The 
 powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, 
 therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance 
 of God, and they that resist shall receive to them- 
 selves damnation. I have seen no valid reason for 
 resistance to the government under which as a nation 
 we have so long prospered." 
 
 "I command you to hush ; you shan't preach trea- 
 son to me, and if you were to get your deserts you 
 would be hanged immediately. Have you ever been 
 within the Federal lines?" 
 
 "I have, sir." 
 
 "At what points?" 
 
 "Rienzi and luka." 
 
 " When were you at luka?" 
 
 "On last Saturday." 
 
 " Had the Federals a large force at that place, and 
 who was in command?" 
 
 " They have a large force, and Generals Thomas 
 and Steedman were in command." 
 
 " That is contrary to the report of our scouts, who 
 say that there are but two regiments in the town. 
 I fear you are purposely trying to mislead us." 
 
 "Gen. Steedman has but two regiments in the 
 town, but Gen. Geo. II. Thomas is within striking 
 distance with a large force." 
 
 O 
 
 7
 
 98 TUPELO. 
 
 "What was your business at luka?" 
 
 " I went there to pay a debt of fifty dollars which 
 a widow Mrs. Nixon Pad en owed. She wished 
 it to be paid in Confederate money before it became 
 worthless." 
 
 " Have you a Federal pass ? " 
 
 " I have none with me, but have one at home." 
 
 "How does it read?" 
 
 "It was given by Gen. Wm. Nelson, and reads 
 thus : l The bearer, Rev. John H. Aughey, has per- 
 mission to pass backward and forward through the 
 lines of this division at will.'" 
 
 " Where were you born ? " 
 
 " In New Hartford, Oneida Co., New York." 
 
 "Yankee born," said the colonel, with a sneer, 
 "you deserve death at the rope's end, and if I had 
 the power I would hang all Yankees who are among 
 us, for they are all tories, whatever their pretensions 
 may be." 
 
 " My being born north of the nigger line, Col., if 
 a crime worthy of death, was certainly my misfor- 
 tune, not my fault, but the fault of my parents. 
 They did not so much as consult me as to any pref- 
 erence I might have as to the place of my nativity." 
 
 Woodruff, one of the guards, now informed Col. 
 Bradfute that I was a spy, and while the Confeder- 
 ates were at Corinth had, to his certain knowledge, 
 visited Nashville, Tenn., carrying information. 
 
 I told Woodruff that his statement was false, and 
 that he knew that it was utterly without foundation 
 in fact.
 
 TUPELO. 99 
 
 At the close of the examination, Col. Bradfute and 
 an officer, whom the guards told us was Gen. 
 Chalmers, spent fifteen or twenty minutes in bitterly 
 cursing and denouncing all traitors, Yankees, and 
 tories, as they termed us. 
 
 Gen. Chalmers wrote me from Washington City, 
 while he was a member of congress, that he was not 
 the officer Avho was present with Col. Bradfute. 
 That on that day he was eight miles east of Fulton, 
 busily engaged in making preparations for a battle 
 with Gen. Philip Sheridan, which was fought on 
 the next day; and he asserted that he would not 
 have treated prisoners with so great insolence and 
 severity. He also denied any complicity in the Fort 
 Pillow massacre. This officer, at the instance of 
 Col. Bradfute, wrote to Gen. PfeifFer. He absented 
 himself for a short time, and I, from my position 
 behind his chair, could read the letter. The follow- 
 ing sentences occurred in the document : " An avowed 
 Unionist. Has done our cause much harm. Advo- 
 cates reconstruction at this late day. A pestilent 
 fellow. Has in our presence uttered treasonable sen- 
 timents, and seems to take pleasure in doing so. 
 He has held treasonable correspondence with the 
 enemy, and has more than once enacted the spy. 
 We can furnish testimony to establish all the above 
 charges." We were then placed under guard and 
 sent to the head-quarters of Gen. Pfeiffer, in Saltillo. 
 We were brought into the august presence of this 
 redoubtable general. When he read the letter handed
 
 100 TUPEPO. 
 
 him by the guards, he soundly berated us, and then 
 sent us out a mile and a half from town, where we 
 were placed under guard for the night in a small 
 plat of ground surrounded by a chain. Quite 
 a number of prisoners were there under guard; 
 it was a sort of guard house, except that there 
 was no house. No supper was furnished us, and 
 the bare, cold ground was our bed and the blue 
 canopy of heaven our covering. 
 
 The next morning we were brought into the pres- 
 ence of Gen. Pfeiifer. I asked for breakfast. This 
 was refused. I offered to pay a dollar for a meal, 
 as I was very hungry. To this he deigned no reply. 
 I then offered three dollars for a lunch for myself 
 and Clarke. This offer was arrogantly refused. He 
 said he had no supplies for traitors at any price. 
 
 Said he, "I learn that you were born in New 
 Hartford, New York, brought up in Steubenville, 
 Ohio. How long have you lived in the South?" 
 
 " I have lived in the South eleven years." 
 
 " Where have you lived?" 
 
 " In Winchester, Clark county, Ky., Baton Rouge, 
 La., Memphis, Tennessee, Holly Springs, Miss. 
 My home at present is Rienzi, Miss." 
 
 "Are you a slave-holder?" 
 
 " I am not," 
 
 " Will you take the oath of allegiance to the Con- 
 federate States of America?" 
 
 "I will not." 
 
 " Have you recently taken the oath of allegiance 
 to the United States of America?"
 
 TUPELO. 101 
 
 "I have." 
 
 "Where and when?" 
 
 "Gen. Wm. Nelson administered to me the oath 
 June 8th, 1862, at his head-quarters in luka, Miss." 
 
 "Do you regard that oath of any binding force?" 
 
 " I do, most assuredly." 
 
 "Did you take it voluntarily?" 
 
 "I certainly did." 
 
 " Do you know that in taking that oath you be- 
 came guilty of treason against the Confederate States 
 of America, and the Republic of Mississippi?" 
 
 " I could not be a traitor to a cause I never es- 
 poused, nor betray the interests of a government 
 which I have always denounced as a usurpation. I 
 profess to be a loyal citizen of the state of Mississ- 
 ippi and of the United States of America, and I 
 hope to see this state, whose true interests I have 
 ever endeavored to promote, return to her allegiance 
 to the Federal Union which she has for the present 
 endeavored to repudiate. I hope the sober second 
 thought will lead her to see and repent her folly. 
 Had the secession ordinance been submitted to the 
 people and a free ballot and a fair count allowed, 
 then we would have voted it down by a majority of 
 more than two to one." 
 
 "Are you a higher law man?" 
 
 " Yes, I believe in the command, * Let every soul 
 be subject unto the higher power/ the powers that 
 be." 
 
 " Well, the Confederate authorities are the higher
 
 102 TUPELO. 
 
 powers, and the powers that be. The Confederate 
 government is the government de facto, and by the 
 Bible rule you ought to submit to it as a good citi- 
 zen." 
 
 "Any insurrectionary faction usurping temporarily 
 the reins of government, may have a de facto power 
 to compel obedience to its behests by those who 
 are willing to acquiesce rather than endure the 
 penalty for resistance of its illegal and tyrannical 
 exactions. Mobs in cities are often the powers that 
 be, and a horde of bandits have often been the de facto 
 rulers, terrorizing the people of a wide district, and 
 for a time defying the civil authorities. I regard 
 the Federal government engaged in quelling rebellion 
 as the dejure government to which I owe allegiance. 
 Those who are engaged in rebellion against this gov- 
 ernment are traitors to their God, recreant to their 
 own best interests, and are guilty of treason against 
 the best government the world has ever known." 
 
 " Do you know, sir, that all you have uttered has 
 been recorded, and that you have spoken these words 
 against your own life?" 
 
 We were then delivered to the guards, fourteen in 
 number, and conducted to a hamlet near Verona, 
 where were the head-quarters of Gen. Sterling Price. 
 We were brought into the presence of Gen. Thomas 
 Jordan, Gen. Beauregard's chief of staif. When he 
 read the letter from Gen. Pfeiffer, handed him by 
 one of the guards, he said, looking at me sternly : 
 "You, sir, are charged with sedition."
 
 TUPELO. 103 
 
 " What does sedition mean ? " 
 
 " It means enough to hang you, you villainous 
 tory. Where were you born." 
 
 "In New Hartford, near Utica, Oneida county, 
 New York." 
 
 " Born in an abolition state, you doubly deserve 
 to die, and no mercy or pity should be shown you." 
 
 " As to the guilt attached to my first seeing the 
 light in the Empire state, if sin, it is not mine, but 
 the sin of my parents. But you talk as a veritable 
 son of folly, and in so doing you reproach God. 
 Parents, native place, and clime. All appointed were 
 by Him. But I glory in my native state. New 
 York has never done anything to stain her fair 
 escutcheon. She has never repudiated her just debts. 
 She has never nullified Federal laws. She has never 
 attempted to secede from the Union. Permit me, 
 General, to ask you where you were born and edu- 
 cated?" 
 
 " I was born in Georgia, and graduated from the 
 military academy at West Point, in your native 
 state." 
 
 "New York may have, in some degree, tarnished 
 her fair fame by nourishing in her bosom and allow- 
 ing to be educated within her borders, a few traitors 
 to the Federal government, but it is some palliation 
 that it was not wittingly done." 
 
 " Do you call me a traitor to my face ?" 
 
 " I make no personal application, but allow each 
 one for himself to draw the inference his own con- 
 duct justifies."
 
 104 TUPELO. 
 
 " If you were so enamored of Xew York, why 
 did you not stay there or return when Mississippi 
 seceded, or when an act was passed by the congress 
 of the Confederate States of America, entitled 'An 
 act respecting alien enemies/ warning and requiring 
 every male citizen of the United States, fourteen 
 years old and upward, to depart from the Confeder- 
 ate States of America within forty days from the date 
 of the president's proclamation, which was issued 
 August 14, 1861, this proclamation excepting from 
 its operation Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Mis- 
 souri, District of Columbia, and the territories of 
 New Mexico, Arizona, and Indian Territory." 
 
 "I regard Mississippi as still a member of the 
 Federal Union, and the act of secession illegal and 
 unconstitutional, and therefore void. I am a citizen 
 of the United States of America. If the proclama- 
 tion issued August 14, 1861, was aimed at and in- 
 cluded the Unionists, we were recognized as citizens 
 of the United States at that date, many months 
 after the passage of the secession ordinance, and as 
 we have as often as it has been offered, firmly refused 
 to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate 
 States of America, and thereby become citizens of the 
 Southern Confederacy 1 , we are still, as you must 
 acknowledge, citizens of the United States of America. 
 If we are citizens of the Confederate States of Amer- 
 ica, why so persistently offer us the oath of allegi- 
 ance. Many citizens of Germany, Great Britain 
 and Ireland, and other foreign countries, have long
 
 TUPELO. 105 
 
 resided in our country and have never taken the oath 
 of allegiance, or become naturalized. Why not allow 
 us to remain as residents within, but not as citizens 
 of, the Confederate States of America ? " 
 
 " By your own statement you are an alien enemy 
 of our Confederacy, and have no rights that we, are 
 bound to respect. You clearly come within the 
 scope of the law and proclamation. My plan would 
 have been to suffer all alien enemies to depart in 
 peace who were willing to accept the offer, and hang 
 those who desired to stay and do us all the harm 
 they could." 
 
 " The Unionists are a mighty host. In forty days 
 they could not dispose of their property." 
 
 " No, they would not be allowed to take with them 
 any of their property. Our congress passed a law to 
 the effect that the property of all in the South who have 
 a domicile in the North shall escheat to the Confederate 
 States, and that any of our citizens who are indebted 
 to citizens of the United States shall, upon payment 
 of three-fourths of their indebtedness to the treasury 
 of the Confederate States of America, be liberated 
 from any claim upon them by their alien creditors." 
 
 " Perfidy personified ! Now, sir, suppose the cause 
 of the Union should triumph, what will become 
 of those like you who have taken a solemn oath to 
 support the government at whose expense you have 
 been educated, and then in violation of that oath, and 
 forgetful of her fostering care, as base ingrates have 
 rebelled and with malice prepense are endeavoring to
 
 1 06 TUPELO. 
 
 subvert the best government on earth, a government 
 which has never in person or property inflicted upon 
 you a single injury, but has bestowed many favors, 
 and superabundant blessings ? " 
 
 " I will never ask clemency from a government I 
 detest. There is no danger of abolitionism and 
 puritanism triumphing. Should they do so I would 
 make my home in Brazil or Cuba. I will hear no 
 more of your detestable palaver. Jefferson Davis, in 
 clemency and mercy to the misguided, issued his 
 proclamation ; those who have not availed themselves 
 of it must bear the terrible and just consequences." 
 
 " My friends who expressed their willingness to 
 accept Jeff Davis' permission to leave, are either dead 
 or languishing in gloomy prisons. It was only a 
 piece of treachery on the part of your honorable pres- 
 ident and his most honorable congress. But just give 
 me a pass to go north and I will go instauter." 
 
 " The first pass you will get will be a free ticket 
 to hell, where you would have been long ago if the 
 devil had his due, or the Confederate officers had 
 done their duty." 
 
 " Thanks, for your kind offer to give me a free 
 ticket to the infernal regions. I was not aware be- 
 fore that you were the devil's ticket agent. You 
 have me in your power and may take my life, but 
 you cannot destroy the government. It will live 
 long after you and I are dead. But what right, may 
 I ask, have you, who believe in state sovereignty, 
 you, a citizen of what you term the republic of
 
 TUPELO. 107 
 
 Georgia, to leave your own nation, and crossing the 
 foreign republic of Alabama, enter the republic of 
 Mississippi, and interfere with me, one of its humble 
 citizens, who has never breathed the air of your 
 august republic to do you or any of the citizens of 
 your foreign government any harm. This is an un- 
 warranted and unlawful act, and evinces a high 
 degree of presumption upon the part of an alien a 
 foreigner who has not, I opine, been naturalized 
 since his advent into our nation, the independent, 
 sovereign republic of Mississippi." 
 
 " Did you oppose the secession of Mississippi ?" 
 
 "I did, but I now favor it. I trust that she will 
 soon become convinced of her folly and secede from 
 this confederation and resume her allegiance to the 
 Federal union." 
 
 " That tongue of yours will not long give utterance 
 to such vile and treasonable sentiments, you ought 
 upon your capture to have been sent to hell from the 
 lowest lateral limb of the nearest tree. Corporal of 
 the guard, take charge of the prisoners." 
 
 We were soon under way to Tupelo. When we 
 reached this town we were conducted to the office of 
 the provost marshal. We underwent an examination 
 here in presence of officers of high rank, Gen. Brax- 
 ton Bragg, Gen. Hardee, and Gen. Sterling Price 
 being among the number. Their insignia of high 
 rank, their dignified bearing, their resolute demeanor, 
 their searching and subtle questions, wisely put to 
 elicit the desired information to secure our condeni-
 
 108 TUPELO. 
 
 nation, awed me into reticence. I perceived that niy 
 life hung in a balance, and realized as never before 
 the necessity of exercising great discretion in giving 
 answers so as not to provoke these officers (who had 
 the authority to order my immediate execution), and 
 thus avoid the doom which a single incautious word 
 would doubtless precipitate. 
 
 I told General Bragg, in reply to one of his lead- 
 ing questions, evidently designed to force from my 
 lips a confession of my guilt, that it was an admitted 
 principle in law, that no one is required to criminate 
 himself. 
 
 General Sterling Price, who had just completed a 
 dispatch which he handed to a courier, ordering him 
 to convey it as speedily as possible to some subaltern 
 in Verona, with a sharp look and an air of triumph 
 said, " Your answer, by implication, admits your 
 guilt. You would, it seems, shelter yourself behind 
 a provision of the common law, which is suspended 
 in its operation by martial law, which supersedes 
 civil law during the continuance of the war. Will 
 you take the oath of allegiance?" 
 
 " I will not make any admission nor confession, 
 nor will I take the oath of allegiance." 
 
 " Well," said General Bragg, " we will await the 
 testimony. From the tenor of this paper which I 
 hold in my hands, there seems to be an abundance 
 of it. We have too long been lenient with this dan- 
 gerous class in our midst. I am inclined to punish 
 them hereafter to the extent of my authority and the 
 demerit of their treasonable conduct."
 
 TUPELO. 109 
 
 Clarke trembled like an aspen, and utterly refused 
 to make any statement. I felt greatly depressed. I 
 was hungry, thirsty, greatly fatigued, and mentally 
 disquieted, knowing that my wife would be much 
 distressed because of my ominous absence, the cause 
 of which she could only conjecture. 
 
 We were then taken into the presence of the com- 
 mander of the post. The provost marshal's name 
 was Paden the name of the commander was Clare. 
 Gen. Thomas Jordan was now present, as well as the 
 former named officers of distinguished rank. Gen- 
 eral Jordan made a statement. I feared from the 
 interjected utterances of Gen. Bragg that we would 
 be shot or hung at once. He was very angry, and 
 several times declared that we deserved immediate 
 execution. At length, in apparently great excitement 
 and indignation, he called the officer of the guard, and 
 I feared the worst, but he only ordered him to take 
 us to the dungeon. We were speedily committed to 
 prison. When we entered, two men, Capt. Bruce 
 and Lieut. Richard Malone, men who had been 
 elected to these positions by their fellow prisoners, 
 received us with a cordial greeting. We told them 
 that we were perishing from hunger and thirst. 
 Bruce and Malone set two of the prisoners at work to 
 prepare something for us to eat. Bruce, addressing 
 us, said, "Our bill of fare is not very extensive nor 
 inviting. We have no coffee, nor molasses, nor sugar, 
 nor salt, nor beef, nor vegetables. In these war 
 times we must not be epicures nor expect the luxuries
 
 110 TUPELO. 
 
 of life, but be content with what we can get, just 
 what is indispensable in prolonging 'existence. We 
 are allowed to do our own cooking, but that, in the 
 kindness of heart of the Confederate authorities, is 
 accorded as a favor, an indispensable sanitary regula- 
 tion. We have but little exercise, they say, and ex- 
 ercise being conducive to health, cooking promotes 
 that object. We will soon have ready for you some 
 corn-bread and a little meat. The meat makes up in 
 strength and odor what it lacks in quantity, and the 
 parasites will impart a freshness to it so that you will 
 think of fresh meat while chewing it." The prison 
 was filthy in the extreme, and full of vermin, even 
 our food was infested. No brooms were furnished 
 us, and we could not sweep the floor. No beds or 
 bedding were provided, and we were compelled to sleep 
 upon the floor without covering and nothing but the 
 hard planks underneath us. When night came a 
 space on the floor was assigned to Clarke and myself. 
 We lay down on our hard bed and tried to sleep, 
 but our slumbers were sadly disquieted by the cold 
 and filth and hardness of the floor, and the gray- 
 backs, with which our clothing was already infested. 
 The building had been an old grocery. Now it was 
 metamorphosed into a prison. Where we lay the 
 floor was saturated with molasses. When I tried to 
 rise in the morning I could not. My coat was ap- 
 parently hermetically fastened to the floor. Clarke 
 was in the same condition. He, through the aid of 
 a fellow prisoner, succeeded in freeing himself from
 
 TUPELO. Ill 
 
 the adhesive floor. He then assisted in extricating 
 me, but a part of my coat remained attached to my 
 wooden couch. 
 
 The crimes charged upon the prisoners were deser- 
 tion, trading with the Yankees, adhesion to the Fed- 
 eral Government or Unionism, enacting the spy, re- 
 fusing Confederate bonds and money, piloting the 
 Yankees, the utterance of treasonable language, etc. 
 The crime of the negroes, mulattoes, quadroons, and 
 octoroons was endeavoring to escape from Dixie-land 
 and the Iron Furnace of slavery, via the underground 
 railroad. These remained till their masters, learning 
 of their arrest, came for and released them. On the 
 evening succeeding our incarceration two prison- 
 ers had been led out and shot. I soon learned 
 that this was not an unusual occurrence. Nearly 
 every day one or more suffered death as the punish- 
 ment of their patriotism. Many of the prisoners 
 wore heavy fetters. Some were handcuffed, had fet- 
 ters on their ankles, and were chained to bolts in the 
 floor. Often, without previous warning, the guards 
 came, accompanied by an officer or two, usually two 
 officers, and marched the poor prisoners to the fatal 
 spot and shot them to death or ended their existence 
 by suspension from the gallows. The two prisoners 
 who were shot a few hours after we entered the prison 
 were named Jerome B. Poole and Calvin Harbaugh. 
 Being Unionists, they refused to take the arms offered 
 them, when they were arrested and brought in as 
 conscripts. Poole was from Brazella, and Harbaugh
 
 112 TUPELO. 
 
 from Shuqualak, Noxubee Co., Miss. They were 
 then suspended by the thumbs till they begged the 
 officers to order them to be shot, as they preferred 
 death to such excruciating torture. After the endur- 
 ance of every refinement of cruel torture, they were at 
 length brought to Tupelo, tried, and condemned to 
 be shot to death. They inferred by a remark made 
 by one of the officers who brought us into prison that 
 I was a minister. Poole came to me and told me 
 that they would be shot at sunset, and wished me to 
 explain to Harbaugh more fully the way of salvation. 
 He had tried to do so in a feeble way, but feared 
 that he had not made it sufficiently plain to the mind 
 of his friend. Harbaugh then asked me what he 
 must do to be saved. I replied, "Believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You 
 must exercise faith in Jesus Christ. Come to Jesus 
 just as you are, not waiting to cleanse your soul from 
 one dark blot. Do not tarry till you are better. 
 Away from Christ you will only become more guilty. 
 Come with all your guilt and fear oppressed, and say 
 God be merciful to me a sinner. Ask him to receive 
 you and forgive you, and adopt you into his family 
 and make you one of his dear children by adopting 
 love and grace for Christ's sake." 
 
 Harbaugh asked, " What is faith in Jesus Christ ? " 
 " Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby 
 we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as 
 he is offered to us in the gospel." 
 
 "But Poole says I must be born again that I 
 must have a change of heart."
 
 TUPELO. 113 
 
 "The bible tells us that whosoever believeth that 
 Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. Ye are all the 
 children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. There- 
 fore if a man be in Christ he is a new creature. He 
 is born again. And as Moses lifted up the serpent 
 in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be 
 lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
 perish but have eternal life. Whosoever believeth 
 then has eternal life, and whosoever has eternal life 
 surely sees and enters the kingdom of God, so that 
 whosoever believeth is born again. For God so 
 loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
 that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish 
 but have everlasting life. God loved and gave, we 
 believe and have, and this is all of it to attain life 
 and experience the new birth." 
 
 " I do believe on Jesus Christ and accept him as 
 my Savior. I have never been baptized. Will you 
 baptize me ? " 
 
 " Yes, I will, gladly." 
 
 Capt. Bruce asked one of the guards to call an of- 
 ficer. When the officer came he sent a prisoner un- 
 der guard for water. Harbaugh now told me that 
 his father \vas a Baptist minister, and that he had 
 taught him that the true scriptural mode of baptism 
 was by immersion. An officer was called to whom 
 the request was preferred that I should be allowed to 
 immerse the prisoner in Old Town creek near by. 
 Old ToAvn creek is a tributary of the Tombigbee 
 river. The officer returned stating that the military 
 8
 
 114 TUPELO. 
 
 authorities absolutely refused to grant this request, 
 believing it a ruse to secure an opportunity to effect 
 an escape. Harbaugh said that he would submit to 
 baptism by pouring or sprinkling, though he did not 
 believe it to be the scriptural mode. He trusted that 
 the good Lord would look upon the sincerity of his 
 intentions to obey his command, which he was doing 
 to the extent of his ability and opportunity. He 
 did not think the Lord would require an impossi- 
 bility. 
 
 In the presence of the prisoners and in the most 
 solemn manner possible (the circumstances enhanced 
 the solemnity), the ordinance was administered. 
 Just at its close food prepared by the prisoners was 
 brought and offered these men. They took it in 
 their hands, but ere it was tasted the sun began to 
 dip his disk beneath the western horizon, the 
 dreaded squad appeared before the door. These men, 
 putting away the food untasted, said, " We go to eat 
 bread in the kingdom of God. Pray for us that we 
 may have grace to deport ourselves with becoming 
 dignity and propriety in our last moments. Fare- 
 well till we meet before the great white throne. 
 You will probably come soon, for our foes are cruel 
 as the grave." 
 
 The officers unlocked their gyves, led them out, 
 and we saw them no more. A half dozen captured 
 slaves seated in a corner of the prison, led by a 
 young octoroon, sang some hymns. They called 
 .them spiritual songs. The following, to the tune,
 
 TUPELO. 115 
 
 Old Folks at Home, was very melodiously and 
 sweetly rendered : 
 
 'OUR FATHER'S HOME. 
 
 Far over Jordan's rolling river, 
 
 Eternal day. 
 There's where my eyes are turning ever, 
 
 There's where the angels stay. 
 All through this vale of sin and sorrow, 
 
 Patient we roam, 
 Still trusting for the happy morrow. 
 
 Bright in our Father's home. 
 
 Chorus. 
 All our heavy load sits lighter 
 
 Every storm we bide. 
 Oh ! brothers, how the way grows brighter, 
 
 Near to the Savior's side. 
 
 Far from his tender arms benighted, 
 
 Dark was our way. 
 Still every precious promise lightened, 
 
 Where could the spirit stay. 
 Down at the foot of Calvary's mountain, 
 
 Pilgrims we come, 
 Oh, may we through that crimson fountain, 
 
 Come to our Father's home. 
 C horus. 
 
 One lovely form among the sainted, 
 
 Heaven within, 
 Stands on my vision ever painted, 
 
 Stretched on the cross for sin. 
 When shall we hear his voice commanding, 
 
 Come, higher, come, 
 When in his golden courts be standing, 
 
 With our beloved ones at home. 
 Chorus.
 
 116 TUPELO. 
 
 THE SOUTHERN SLAVE'S SONG. 
 
 Oh, poor negro, he will go. 
 
 Some one day. 
 Over the water and the snow, 
 
 Far away. 
 Over the mountain big and high, 
 
 Some one day. 
 To that country in the sky, 
 
 Far away. 
 
 Jesus, Massa, bring me home, 
 
 Some one day. 
 Then I'll live with the Holy One, 
 
 Far away. 
 Sin no more my heart make sore, 
 
 Some one day. 
 I praise my Jesus evermore, 
 
 Far away. 
 
 Our privations were so great from a lack of good r 
 wholesome food and pure water for the scanty sup- 
 ply of water allowed us was tepid and foul and 
 from a want of beds, cots, couches, or something bet- 
 ter than a filthy floor whereon to sleep, that I re- 
 solved upon an attempt to escape at the risk of my 
 life. I felt sure that I could not long survive the 
 horrors of this prison-pen. As soon as my arrest 
 became known to the 32d Mississippi regiment, en- 
 camped in the suburbs of Tupelo, the officers called 
 upon me. Col. Mark Lowrey, Capt. L. A. Lowrey, 
 the Col.'s brother, Major Arnold, and Adjutant Irion. 
 This regiment was raised in Tishomingo Co. One 
 of its companies, the Zollicoffer Avengers, having 
 been raised in Rienzi, where I had been for years
 
 THE PRISONER'S BATH IN TUPELO.
 
 TUPELO. 117 
 
 the proprietor and president of the Rienzi Female 
 College. The daughters of many of the officers of 
 this regiment had been educated at this college dur- 
 ing my connection with it. Owing me a debt of grati- 
 tude as they professed, could I expect less than the 
 manifestation of deep sympathy with me in my sad 
 condition confined in a gloomy dungeon, deprived 
 of the comforts, yea, even the necessaries, of life, and 
 menaced and insulted by the officers in whose power 
 I was ? Some ofthese officers had publicly expressed 
 themselves under great obligations to me for the 
 thorough moral, mental, and physical training their 
 daughters had received while under my care. In 
 proof of this I have their own statements published 
 in the public journals of the day. Whatever may 
 have been my hopes, they were doomed to disappoint- 
 ment. These summer friends, so obsequious in my 
 prosperity, conversed for a time upon indifferent top- 
 ics, never alluding to my condition, and I did not 
 obtrude it upon their attention, except that Capt. 
 Lowrey, looking around upon the prisoners clanking 
 their chains as they moved uneasily, trying to secure 
 'a less painful posture, said this is war grim-visaged 
 war with all its attendant horrors. When they left 
 they said, " We will call soon again." I replied, 
 "Do so, gentlemen, you will always find me at home," 
 yet I was hoping they would not my mind was 
 bent upon and occupied with the high resolve of es- 
 caping or dying in the attempt, and even then I was 
 maturing a plan to compass that end.
 
 118 TUPELO. 
 
 A young gentleman and his sister, by virtue of a 
 pass, entered our prison. They conversed with the 
 prisoners freely. An officer escorted the young lady 
 to the part of the prison which I occupied. She en- 
 quired naively : " What is the charge against this 
 prisoner?" The officer replied that I was an avowed 
 Unionist. She said to me, "Are you a merchant?" 
 I replied that I was a minister. 
 
 "Of what church?" 
 
 "Of the Presbyterian church." 
 
 "We are Presbyterians," said she. 
 
 She then made inquiries about Reverends Wm. A. 
 Gray, of Ripley, Jno. H. Miller, of Pontotoc, Jas. 
 Stafford, of Danville, Dr. E. T. Baird, of Crawfords- 
 ville, J. N. Carothers, of Okolona, R. Henderson, of 
 Danville, and others. While she conversed with me 
 the officer visited another part of the prison. She 
 then said taisez vous, and slipped into my hand a 
 note. She gave me her name as Miss Daisy Carson. 
 
 The note was written with a pencil, and read : 
 " We sympathize deeply with you. We will aid you 
 in any way you may suggest. -We live two miles 
 from Tupelo due [the cardinal point indi- 
 cated \vas so defaced that it was illegible]. If you 
 could reach our house you would find all possible 
 assistance. We are true blue. Ambrose Kavanaugh 
 will visit the prison soon, if he can secure a pass. 
 Ernest Travis, of Verona, informed us of your im- 
 prisonment. I met you at Mr. Price's, in Ripley, 
 but you may not remember me. My friend, Miss
 
 TUPELO. 
 
 Jane Kendrick, often speaks of you. Chew and swal- 
 low this as soon as you have read it. I take a great 
 risk in this matter, but I am of a romantic turn and 
 love adventure. After the war and the triumph of 
 the government it will be pleasant to recount our ex- 
 ploits in behalf of the suffering patriots. Taisez vous, 
 
 Votre amie. 
 
 ^ "CHARLOTTE COKDAY, 
 
 " My nom de guerre. 
 
 " P. S. Prof. Yarbrough lodged with us one 
 night. We sincerely hope that he has safely reached 
 his destination ere this. Do not become dispirited, 
 you have hosts of friends and are doubtless under the 
 kind protecting care of Jesus. 
 
 "'Tis late before 
 The brave despair. 
 
 Stand 
 Firm for your country, 
 
 It were a noble life, 
 To be found dead embracing her. 
 
 There is strength, 
 
 Deep bedded in our hearts, of which we reck 
 But little. 
 
 "Very respectfully, 
 
 " C. C." 
 
 A prisoner came to me and said, "Chaplain, I 
 have been informed that I will be shot to-morrow, 
 and I am not prepared to die." 
 
 " What was your offense ? " 
 
 " I was a Unionist was forced into the army. I 
 deserted, they followed me with blood-hounds. When
 
 120 TUPELO. 
 
 the hounds came near I got my back against a tree, 
 and with a knotty club of pecan wood I killed six 
 hounds. The cavalry came up and fired upon me. I 
 fell, wounded in the head and left arm. The wounds 
 were not very severe. They brought me to Tupelo, 
 and I had my trial yesterday by court-martial. My 
 captain, who just now left, informed me that on to- 
 morrow I would be shot as a deserter." 
 
 "What is your name?" 
 
 "My name is John R. Witherspoon. I was born 
 in Sumter, South Carolina, but have lived in Bolivar, 
 Tennessee, for ten years. I have a wife and seven 
 children, six are girls. The baby, John R. Wither- 
 spoon, Jr., is my only boy. My oldest daughter, 
 Gertrude Maud, named for her mother, is fifteen 
 years old. She is a good scholar, has a talent for 
 music and painting. All my children are devotedly 
 attached to their parents. What will become of 
 them God only knows. I own one hundred acres of 
 land in McNairy Co., Tennessee. My wife's mother 
 gave her a colored girl. I am a poor man and will 
 leave my family dependent. I am a member of the 
 Presbyterian church, but have been living in the neg- 
 lect of duty for some time, and now I must die 
 unprepared." 
 
 "What caused your neglect?" 
 
 " I became a candidate for office, and as it was cus- 
 tomary to treat a great deal when canvassing the dis- 
 trict, I did so. I formed convivial habits that were 
 disastrous to devotional duties. I became negligent
 
 TUPELO. 121 
 
 and absented myself from the church. My wife and 
 family are faithful, and many prayers are sent up to 
 heaven in my behalf. O, if I were rescued from this 
 impending doom I would, by the grace of God, no 
 longer neglect duty." 
 
 I pointed him as well as I could to the Lamb of 
 God that taketh away the sin of the world. We 
 went up into a corner of the prison and knelt down. 
 I prayed God to heal his back-sliding and restore to 
 him the joy of His salvation, then asked him to offer 
 up a prayer in his own behalf. He did so in lan- 
 guage and with an unction that surprised me. At 
 the close he earnestly implored God to spare his life 
 for the sake of his dear family. He asked to be 
 longer spared that he might atone in some degree for 
 his past remissness in duty by devoting all the days 
 of his allotted time to faithful service in his heavenly 
 father's vineyard. I asked him if he entertained any 
 hope. He replied that he did, and wished he could 
 live to test its genuineness, but he -had some fear. 
 
 And now came still evening on. Mr. Witherspoon 
 volunteered to go for water. He took two buckets, 
 one in each hand. Two guards accompanied him, 
 one on each side. He drew the water and started 
 back. It was now dark ; when he reached a clump 
 of bushes he dropped one bucket and raising the other 
 he dashed it in the faces of the guards, and sprang 
 for the bushes. The guards speedily brought their 
 muskets to bear, fired in the direction of the fugitive, 
 and instead of pursuing at once, ran to the tents of
 
 122 TUPELO. 
 
 some officers and gave the alarm. The whole camp 
 was soon intensely excited and hundreds joined in 
 the pursuit. A cry would be heard, " Here he goes." 
 A few minutes later in an opposite direction the same 
 cry would be taken up. Unionists impressed into 
 the service did this to contribute to the escape of the 
 prisoner. He made good his escape, and succeeded 
 after some time in getting his family conveyed to the 
 North, through the kindness of Major General Hatch. 
 An account of his escape has been published. He 
 encountered much difficulty in avoiding the blood- 
 hounds. At one time he heard their howling in his 
 rear, and not more than a mile distant. He came to a 
 field in which cattle were grazing. He sprang upon 
 the back of an ox, and using a goad he compelled 
 the ox to carry him across the field in a direction that 
 broke the trail and baffled pursuit. 
 
 His final adventure, his last peril before his safety 
 was insured, may be worth narrating. One day as 
 he lay concealed ii>a ditch he heard in the remote dis- 
 tance in the direction whence he came the faint howl- 
 ing of hounds. The sound became more and more 
 distinct, till he became convinced that they were pur- 
 suing him and had found his track. He arose from his 
 moist bed, and hastened onward with all the speed his 
 enfeebled condition would permit. He had not gone 
 far till he descried another fugitive a short distance 
 in advance. He called upon him to halt. The man 
 obeyed. He gave his name as John Denver. The 
 vigilantes of the vendetta, as they called themselves,
 
 TUPELO. 123 
 
 had attacked his house last night. He had defended 
 himself. They fired through a window, wounded 
 him and killed his little daughter Nellie. He rushed 
 out, slew the murderer of his child, and wounded two 
 others. They beat a hasty retreat. He had lost an 
 ear, and had a flesh wound in the left thigh which 
 made travel difficult. He was on his way to Corinth 
 to get assistance from the Federal commander, so that 
 he and his family might go North. The howling of 
 the hounds indicated to him that the vigilantes had 
 been reinforced and were in pursuit of him. As rap- 
 idly as possible these panting fugitives made their 
 way toward Corinth. The hounds gained upon them. 
 Mr. Denver had two revolvers. He gave his com- 
 panion one of them, and they both resolved to sell 
 their lives as dearly as possible. The hounds were 
 but a mile distant, when, to their joy, they suddenly 
 met a regiment of Federal cavalry on a scouting ex- 
 pedition. They as quickly as possible explained the 
 situation of affairs. The colonel ordered the regiment 
 to fall back out of sight. He ordered a company to 
 dismount and conceal themselves in the chaparral, he 
 sending their horses back. He requested Witherspoon 
 and Denver to climb two small trees and await their 
 pursuers. He then joined the company in ambush. 
 When the pursuers came up they ordered the fugitives 
 to come down from the trees. There were twenty of 
 the vigilantes. They asked Witherspoon who he 
 was. He replied, " A prisoner from Tupelo, escap- 
 ing to the Federal lines." After a few moments'
 
 124 TUPELO. 
 
 consultation, they told these men that they had but 
 five minutes to live, and if they wished to say their 
 prayers they might spend the time in that way. They 
 had but one rope, which they had brought to use in 
 hanging Denver, but one of their number Burnished 
 a halter, taking it from his horse's neck. Two men 
 approached, threw the nooses over the heads of their 
 victims and adjusted them. They then selected two 
 lateral limbs projecting from a tree near by, threw 
 the ends of the ropes over them and were awaiting 
 the order of Jack Clinkskales, their leader, to con- 
 summate their murderous purpose, when a volley from 
 the ambushed Federal troopers made sixteen of them 
 bite the dust. The four survivors rushed to their 
 horses, but a second volley caused them to fall bereft 
 of life. The bodies were scrutinized closely to be sure 
 that life was extinct. They were then piled up in 
 the chaparral, and the hounds killed. Upon the re- 
 turn of the regiment a few hours after a drove of wild 
 hogs were found feeding upon them. Thus perished 
 a band of desperadoes not fit to live, less fit to die. 
 Mr. Denver's family were brought into Corinth in 
 an ambulance, and soon after came North to Evans- 
 ville, Indiana. Mr. Denver enlisted in the Federal 
 army, and did effective service in his country's cause. 
 Mr. Witherspoon also enlisted in the Federal service. 
 He died on the field of honor. He was instantly 
 killed on the 1st day of the battle of Gettysburg. 
 Mrs. Witherspoou thus wrote me :
 
 TUPELO. 125 
 
 " My dear husband often spoke of you, and had 
 hoped to meet you again, but Providence otherwise 
 ordered it. His death is a sad bereavement to me 
 and the dear children. But God makes no mistakes, 
 and I bow submissively to His will. He has prom- 
 ised to be the husband of the widow and the father 
 of the fatherless. I trust implicitly in the promises 
 of a covenant-keeping God. The tone of my dear 
 husband's piety was very different after his impris- 
 onment in Tupelo. He seemed to think that he could 
 not do too much to show his gratitude to the God 
 who in his providence delivered him from the execu- 
 tion of the death sentence already pronounced by the 
 court-martial, and which only lacked a few hours of 
 fulfillment at the time of his escape. Pray for me 
 and my dear children, that we may be enabled to 
 bear with becoming resignation this afflictive dispen- 
 sation of Divine Providence, and that it may be sanc- 
 tified to the highest and holiest interests of our souls, 
 work in us the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and 
 while looking to things unseen and above a far more 
 exceeding and eternal weight of glory. We will, 
 Providence permitting, move soou to Cincinnati. 
 My daughter Gertrude has secured a position as teacher 
 in one of the public schools of that city. We would 
 be happy to have you visit us at your earliest con- 
 venience. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 MRS. G. M. WITHERSPOON.
 
 126 TUPELO. 
 
 OLD PILGARLIC. 
 
 An elderly gentleman was ushered into prison on 
 the morning of the 2d of July, 1862. He seemed 
 anxious to convince the officer who accompanied the 
 guard that he was mistaken in regard to some 
 abstruse question. As soon as the officer left, I ap- 
 proached the prisoner, and after gaining his confi- 
 dence, drew from him his sad history. His true 
 name was Prof. Lorimer Vickroy Yarbrough, a na- 
 tive of Fincastle, Va. He had resided in Austin, 
 Texas, and New Orleans, La. He loved the old 
 flag, and resolved to reach the North, in company 
 with his son Oscar. By some means suspicion was 
 aroused, and they were taken from the steamboat at 
 Vicksburg, Miss., and thrown into prison, where 
 they languished for months. At length, through the 
 aid of Unionist friends they escaped from, prison, and 
 in due time from the city of Vicksburg. 
 
 Prof. Yarbrough had a friend named Leroy 
 Paden, living in Hazelhurst, Miss., upon whom he 
 could depend for aid. He also held a note overdue for 
 two thousand dollai's, upon a gentleman who resided 
 in Brookhaven, in Lincoln county, Miss. Could he 
 collect the money due on this note it would assist him 
 materially in making his way to the North. On 
 the border of Copiah county, they were arrested by a 
 committee of vigilantes, and thrown into an extem- 
 porized prison. Here they were immured six weeks 
 and fed on corn bread and water. At length, Oscar
 
 TUPELO. 127 
 
 enlisted in a company bound for the seat of war in 
 Virginia, with the intention of deserting upon the 
 first favorable opportunity. His. father was still held 
 a prisoner. Now malarial fever of a malignant 
 type supervened. During its progress reason left ner 
 throne, but a naturally vigorous constitution tri- 
 umphed, and the prisoner began to convalesce. 
 Hearing the attendants say he had known nothing 
 for three weeks, Prof. Yarbrough resolved upon a 
 ruse which he hoped would give him an opportunity 
 to escape. He would, by the use of incoherent ex- 
 pressions and singular conduct, feign madness. In 
 the course of time, health returned, and the military 
 authorities sent him to Gen. Beauregard at Tupelo. 
 Gen. Beauregard believed him te be a malingerer, 
 and sent for two alienists to decide upon his sanity. 
 On the 12th of June, 1862, the commission to deter- 
 mine the sanity of the prisoner convened. A num- 
 ber of officers of high rank were present. 
 
 I will give the account of the examination in 
 Yarbrough's language : 
 
 " I was brought in under guard, a seat furnished 
 me, and the farce commenced. 
 
 " Gen. Beauregard enquired, ' What is your name?' 
 
 " t My name, Capting, air old Pilgarlic.' 
 
 "Gen. B. 'What does that mean?' 
 
 " ( It means old Baldhead. You see, Capting, I 
 hain't got no har on the top of my head. I was 
 born so, and when some growed on, a nigger girl 
 spilled some rusma on my crown, and I hain't hed 
 no har sence.'
 
 128 TUPELO. 
 
 " Gen. B. ' Well, old Pilgarlic, you are in a 
 bad fix.' 
 
 " ' Yes, Capting, and ef I bed as soft a skull ez 
 sum of these here young chaps, I could raze har to 
 sell.' 
 
 "Gen. B. ' Where do you live?' 
 
 " ' I live in a cabin with a stick chimly, in Ar- 
 kansaw.' 
 
 " Gen. B. ' Does your chimney draw well ?' 
 
 "Yes, Capting, it draws the 'tention of every fool 
 that passes on that trail.' 
 
 " Gen. B. ' Are you a married man ? ' 
 
 " ' Not now, 1 ain't, but I spect to be before long, 
 fur you see, Capting, I hev the refusal of mor'n half 
 a dozen widders.' . 
 
 "Gen. B. ' Where did you say you were from?' 
 
 "'From every place but this, an' ef you'll j is send 
 them fellers away with the guns an' bayonets I'll be 
 away from this in a giffy, that is, providin' you takes 
 this jewelry off'n my legs an' wrists.' 
 
 " Gen. B. ' Pilgarlic, what's your opinion about 
 this war?' 
 
 " ' I thinks, Capting, that no Southerner ort to 
 fight agin liberty, nor no Yankee agin his country.' 
 
 " Gen. B. ' Where's your son ? ' 
 
 " 'Well, Capting, I duzzeut know. He give me 
 the slip. I spec he went off ter the Avar/ 
 
 "Gen. B. 'Well, sir, your son attempted to 
 desert to the enemy, and he now lies in prison with 
 a ball and chain attached to his ankle.'
 
 TUPELO. 1 29 
 
 " I then commenced to sing as loudly as I could : 
 
 Spread all her canvas to the breeze, 
 
 Set every threadbare sail, 
 And give her to the god of storms, 
 
 The lightning and the gale. 
 
 " The General ordered me to cease. I heeded him 
 not, and sang : 
 
 When a deed is done for freedom, 
 
 Through the broad earth's aching breast 
 Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on 
 
 From east to west ; 
 And the slave, where'er he cowers, 
 
 Feels the soul within hi in climb 
 To the awful verge of manhood, 
 
 As the energy sublime, 
 Of a century bursts full blossomed 
 
 On the stormy stem of time. 
 
 "The alienists felt my pulse and inserted a ther- 
 mometer into my mouth, which I crushed betxveen* 
 my teeth. I then sang, or rather shouted vocifer- 
 ously : 
 
 Oh ! for an hour of youthful joy, 
 Give me back my twentieth spring, 
 
 I'd rather laugh a bright- haired boy, 
 Than reign a gray-haired king. 
 
 " At this j uncture Gen. Beauregard ordered the 
 guards to make me hush. I then yelled, for it could 
 not be called singing : 
 
 Prudent on the council train, 
 
 Dauntless on the battle plain, 
 Ready at the country's need 
 
 For her glorious cause to bleed.
 
 130 TUPELO. 
 
 " By the general's order the guards bound and 
 gagged me. The alienists differed in opinion as to my 
 sanity. One regarded me as a malingerer, the other 
 declared that I was in a state of mental aberration 
 which bid fair to culminate in incurable insanity. I 
 was confined under guard in a room in a hotel in Tu- 
 pelo till yesterday, when I was incarcerated in this 
 dungeon." 
 
 Gen. Beauregard was now superseded by Gen. 
 Braxton Bragg. Gen. Bragg had been but a short 
 time in supreme command when he reviewed the testi- 
 mony in the case of Prof. Yarbrough. On the lltli 
 of July, 1862, the order came for his execution. He 
 was taken from our prison to the fatal spot where so 
 many brave Unionists had ended their lives. His 
 request that they would not blindfold him was granted. 
 Jle faced the muskets with an unblanched counte- 
 nance. A volley rang out upon the evening air, and 
 the professor fell pierced by the bullets of the squad. 
 When his struggles ceased and he was pronounced 
 dead by the sergeant, the corpse was given into the 
 custody of Billiugsly and Kaiser, conscripts, from 
 near Tallaloosa, Miss., and relatives, they claimed, of 
 the professor. They bore the body tenderly to a 
 house in the suburbs of Tupelo. These men were 
 Unionists, and had been forced into the Confederate 
 service. This family, whose name was Montreal, 
 were pronounced Unionists. When the putative 
 corpse was laid upon the couch prepared for its re- 
 ception, an examination revealed that one ball had
 
 TUPELO. 131 
 
 shattered the left arm so that amputation would have 
 been required had no other wound caused death. A 
 ball had glanced from the ribs, another ball had 
 passed through his clothing. The limbs had not as- 
 sumed rigidity, and it was evident that the professor 
 was not dead, but only in a state of syncope. From 
 this condition he slowly rallied. Billingsly under- 
 stood surgery, and with the aid of some Unionist 
 neighbors Prof. Yarbrough's arm was amputated, and 
 upon his recovery, which was rapid, he was conducted 
 by night from one Union neighborhood to another, 
 till at length he reached La Grange, Tenn., which 
 was in the possession of the Federal troops. Among 
 the first to visit him were his son Oscar, now a cap- 
 tain of a company in a Federal regiment, and a 
 nephew, Charles Barry, formerly of D'Arbonne, La., 
 now an officer in the Union army, Gen. Beauregard's 
 statement in regard to the capture of Oscar Yar- 
 brough being false. 
 
 The following letter will unfold some of the more 
 thrilling incidents of his final escape : 
 Rev. John H. Aughey: 
 
 DEAR FRIEND Having learned through John 
 H. Stauton that you are chaplain of Gen. Benjamin 
 Grierson's old regiment, the 6th 111. cavalry, I send 
 you by him this short letter. Please inform me how 
 you escaped from Tupelo. I heard Gen. Bragg tell 
 Major Grosvenor, when he tried to say something in 
 your defense, that you would be hanged on Tuesday 
 of the next week as sure as there was a God in heaven.
 
 132 TUPELO. 
 
 He said you deserved to suffer a hundred deaths for 
 your disloyal speeches and your many treasonable 
 acts. ' That there was a ghost of a chance for you 
 seemed incredible, chained as you were, and so vigi- 
 lantly guarded, far away from the Federal lines and 
 surrounded by the great rebel army. Do write me 
 at once and tell me all about your escape. It must 
 have been well-nigh miraculous. The first intima- 
 tion I had of your escape was an extract from the 
 New York Tribune of an address delivered by you 
 in Cooper Institute in that city, from which I learned 
 that you had succeeded in effecting an escape, but the 
 particulars were not given. 
 
 After I was able to travel I was conducted from 
 one neighborhood to another, till at length I reached 
 the Federal lines. At one time we thought it best to 
 travel in daylight. There were ten of us in company, 
 eight of us Unionists endeavoring to reach the Fed- 
 eral lines. Two were guides, Paden Pickens and 
 Paul Paden. We called at the house of a widow 
 named Mrs. Violetta Markle. Her husband had 
 been tried by a vigilance committee and shot, April 
 19, 1861, as a Unionist. We gave her the counter- 
 sign taisez vous. She replied oui t oui, all right, and 
 then after preparing a meal for us, she informed us 
 that we were near a rebel camp, and advised us 
 to take the route traveled by the guide, Solomon 
 Frierson, who had called at her house yesterday on 
 his return from a trip to the Federal lines, to which 
 he had conveyed twenty Unionists from Oktibbeha
 
 TUPELO. 133 
 
 and Pontotoc counties. After leaving Mrs. Markle's, 
 Pickens climbed a tree and made an observation of 
 the surrounding country. Two rebel encampments 
 were visible, one to the north-east, another to the 
 north-west. He thought that we might pass between 
 them without much danger. "VVe started on our way. 
 At one point it became necessary to travel on a road 
 a short distance so as to obviate the necessity of as- 
 cending a lofty and precipitous hill. We had just 
 entered upon the road when we sa\v a company of 
 rebel cavalry about half a mile distant. They had 
 just appeared on the summit of a hill behind which 
 they had been concealed from view. They descried 
 us, and putting spurs to their horses came rapidly 
 toward us. We gave up all for lost, and Avere about 
 to break for the woods, when Paden, taking ropes 
 from his pockets, told Bryson and Birney to put 
 their hands behind them, when he securely bound 
 them Avith the ropes. As soon as the cavalry reached 
 us we Avent to one side of the road to let them pass. 
 The captain, whose name Avas Pender, Avished to 
 know Avhat this cavalcade meant. Paden replied 
 that they had in charge these tAA'O tories, and Avere 
 taking them to camp to surrender them to the general 
 in command, that they might get their just deserts. 
 " Good," said the captain, " I'll go back with you. 
 Sergeant Buford, take command, and go on ; I'll go 
 back to camp Avith these men." 
 
 On the Avay back Paden proposed to the captain 
 that Ave try these men now, and if they are found
 
 134 TUPELO. 
 
 guilty shoot them. Capt. Pender agreed to this at 
 once. He said that was the object of his expedition 
 at this time to quell the disaffected traitors to the 
 Confederacy. He declared that it was he that had 
 ordered the shooting of ten tory devils in the Pop- 
 lar Springs neighborhood, led by one Methuselah 
 Knight, as arrant a tory as ever lived. We then left 
 the road, and coming to a copse of dwarf tamaracks, 
 we held a trial, and upon their own confession con- 
 victed Bryson and Birney of treason against the 
 Confederate States of America. Paden and Pickens 
 asked the privilege of shooting the prisoners. This 
 Capt. Pender granted. Upon the pretense that they 
 had no pistols, Pender drew his pistols from their 
 holsters and presented them to Paden. Paden 
 handed one to Pickens. The prisoners were then 
 bound to two saplings. Paden asked Pender to 
 give the command. The captain told the prisoners 
 that, in compassion to their souls, he would grant 
 them five minutes to make their peace with God. 
 
 Birney said, " Captain, we have long ago made our 
 peace with our God. Have you done the same ? " 
 Pender replied, " I have killed Union traitors 
 enough to save me." 
 
 He then gave the command, " Make ready, TAKE 
 AIM, FIRE. Pickens and Paden fired simultane- 
 ously, but not at the prisoners. Pender fell pierced 
 by two balls, and in five minutes his soul had taken 
 its flight to the bar of God. As Pender fell he said, 
 " D n the traitors," and without uttering another
 
 TUPELO. 135 
 
 word his spirit left its clay tenement. It became 
 necessary to kill the horse, as his presence would en- 
 danger our safety. Bryson and Birney were un- 
 bound, and we pursued our journey rejoicing, leav- 
 ing Pender where he fell. Without further incident 
 of importance we reached the Union lines, and 
 received a cordial welcome. 
 
 Let me hear from you at your very earliest con- 
 venience. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 L. V. YARBROUGH, 
 Alias, OLD PILGARLIC. 
 
 Having determined to attempt an escape at all 
 hazards, I thought it would be well to secure a 
 companion who would undertake with me the peril- 
 ous adventure. Two are better than one. After 
 due deliberation, I selected Richard Malone, his 
 piercing eye and his intellectual physiognomy led me 
 to believe that if he should consent to make the 
 attempt with me, our prospect for success would be 
 enhanced. Upon broaching the matter to him, he 
 drew from his pocket a paper containing the proper 
 route to pursue, mapped out clearly. A. Unionist 
 friend had covertly conveyed it to him. Gray AVal- 
 ton was his name. For some days Malone had 
 resolved to escape or perish in the attempt. With 
 all the ardor imparted by a new born hope, we en- 
 tered upon the formation of a plan of escape. We 
 went out now upon every possible pretext. We no 
 longer tried to avoid the guard that came to obtain
 
 136 TUPELO. 
 
 detachments of prisoners to do servile labor- We 
 were the first to present ourselves, our object being to 
 reconnoitre, in order to learn where guards were 
 stationed, so as to determine the best method of escap- 
 ing through the town after leaving the prison, and 
 of passing through the great army that environed us. 
 During the day we made these observations, that two 
 guards stationed on the western enclosure attached to 
 the prison were very communicative and very ver- 
 dant, that after relief they would come on duty 
 again at midnight, that there was a building on the 
 south side of the prison, sixteen feet distant from it, 
 which extended beyond our prison, and beyond the 
 enclosure in the rear of the prison in which the 
 guards were stationed. We learned that the moon 
 would set about 11 P.M., and we ascertained that 
 there were no guards upon the south side of the 
 prison during the day. I learned this by vol- 
 unteering to go for water. Two guards accom- 
 panied me ; as I neared the prison, having drawn 
 the soft hat I was wearing down pretty well, I 
 peered from under it and scanned the surroundings as 
 closely as possible, observing where every vidette 
 was stationed, and gaining by close scrutiny all possi- 
 ble information. We learned that one of the planks 
 in the floor was in a condition to be readily removed. 
 The building was placed on blocks, and the planks 
 were nailed on perpendicularly, and the ragged edges 
 did not in some places reach the ground. Apertures 
 were thus formed by which we hoped, if once under
 
 TUPELO. 137 
 
 the prison, egress might be secured. We then hoped 
 to reach the building which was about sixteen feet 
 distant, on the south side, and by crawling along 
 close to it pass the enclosure on the western end of 
 our prison in which the guards were stationed. 
 Trover Anderson, and De' Gruruniond, Federal 
 prisoners, assisted by Hernion Bonar, Prince Shelby, 
 and Gaither Breckenridge, Unionists, managed to 
 raise the plank from the floor and replace it loosely, 
 so that it could be removed at the opportune moment. 
 Benjamin Clarke came to me and said, " Take me 
 along with you." I referred him to Malone, who re- 
 fused. Clarke came back, and told me that Malone 
 would not consent, and begged me to try to prevail 
 upon Malone to agree to take him with us. Said 
 he, " I have been tried and condemned, and should I 
 be shot my poor wife and eight children will perish." 
 I went to Malone and asked him to consent to take 
 Clarke along. Said he, " Xo, Clarke has not nerve 
 sufficient to face the glittering bayonet, which we 
 may have to do, nor has he the tact necessary to make 
 his way through this great army without detection. 
 He would do something that would betray us, not 
 intentionally, of course." As Malone was inexorable, 
 I told Clarke that he and Robinson must come half 
 an hour after us. This they failed to do. They 
 dared not make the attempt, which was indeed peril- 
 ous. This was July 4, 1862. We improvised a 
 4th of July celebration. I was the orator of the 
 day, and delivered a eulogy of our patriot fathers
 
 138 TUPELO. 
 
 who had fought and bled to secure our country's 
 liberty. 
 
 We may say of these noble men as was said of the 
 cathedral builder : / 
 
 The hand that rounded Peter's dome, 
 And groined the aisles of Ancient Eome, 
 Wrought with a sad sincerity; 
 Himself from God he could not free, 
 He builded better than he knew 
 The conscious stone to beauty grew. 
 
 Yes, they builded better than they knew. They 
 erected a temple of freedom which we trust shall be 
 lasting as time. No weapon formed against it shall 
 prosper. In the providence of God no parricidal 
 hand shall be permitted to succeed in overthrowing 
 this grand edifice, this glorious temple of our coun- 
 try's liberties. Let us endeavor to be worthy sons of 
 these noble sires, imitate their virtues, prize the herit- 
 age bequeathed to us by them, and preserve it unim- 
 paired as a blessing to our posterity forever. , 
 
 Breathes there a man with soul so dead, 
 Who never to himself hath said, 
 This is my own, my native laud, 
 Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned; 
 As home his footsteps he has turned 
 From wandering on a foreign strand ? 
 If such there be, go mark him well, 
 For him no minstrel raptures swell. 
 High though his titles, proud his name, 
 Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; 
 Despite these titles, power, and pelf, 
 The wretch concentered all in self,
 
 TUPELO. 139 
 
 Living, shall forfeit fair renown, 
 
 And doubly dying shall go down 
 
 To the vile dust from whence he sprung, 
 
 Unwept, unhcmored, and unsung. 
 
 Perish the hand that with parricidal intent would 
 apply the torch of the incendiary to the fair fabric 
 erected at so great a cost by our revered ancestors. 
 
 Ah, never shall the land forget 
 
 How gushed the life-blood of the brave, 
 
 Gushed warm with hope and courage yet 
 Upon the soil they fought to save. 
 
 Oh, is there not some chosen curse, 
 Some hidden thunder in the store of heaven 
 Red with uncommon wrath to blast the man 
 Who would compass our loved country's ruin ? 
 
 A dishonored grave and a hell of torment will be 
 the final fate of every traitor, and while he lives 
 remorse will haunt the impious wretch. 
 
 Not sharp revenge, nor hell itself can find 
 A fiercer torment than a guilty mind, 
 Which, day and night, doth dreadfully accuse, 
 Condemns the wretch, and still the charge renews. 
 
 Such be the doom of all traitors. May Jehovah, 
 God of nations, blast all treasonable designs against 
 the best of governments, a government founded upon 
 justice and equity, and promotive of all the holiest 
 interests dear to the heart of every true patriot, anct 
 philanthropist, and only subversive of despotic prin- 
 ciples which would impair human rights and over- 
 throw constitutional liberty.
 
 140 TUPELO. 
 
 Yes, my native land, I love thee, 
 All thy scenes I love full well. 
 Land of every land the pride. 
 
 It is your high prerogative and mine to be able to 
 say, I am an American citizen. 
 
 Our glorious government will live and flourish and 
 dispense innumerable blessings broadcast over a smil- 
 ing land long after treason has been consigned to an ' 
 infamous and gory grave. 
 
 We may not live to see this prediction verified, but 
 " It is sweet to die for our country," 
 
 and to know that although we perish as patriot mar- 
 tyrs, our children and the millions yet unborn who 
 are to come into the possession of this glorious herit- 
 age, will enjoy during the coming cycles of the future 
 the perennial sweets of liberty, equality, and frater- 
 nity. May God speed the day when the enemies of 
 our Lord and of our country's liberty shall be over- 
 thrown. 
 
 I see officers approaching who may not be able to 
 appreciate and approve sentiments such as I am 
 enunciating. Permit me, therefore, to close some- 
 what abruptly with this sentiment : 
 
 Our Banner: Now wave in strength its pennons fair, 
 
 In peerless grandeur round the world, 
 Proclaiming far that freemen dare 
 
 Defend the right with flag unfurled. 
 
 We then sang with a will, 
 
 My country, 'tis of thee, 
 Sweet land of liberty, etc.
 
 TUPELO. 141 
 
 J. A. H. Spear, of Ellisville, 111., or Troyer An- 
 derson, sang a patriotic song. I remember but one 
 couplet : 
 
 We've lofty hills and lovely vales, 
 And streams that roll to either sea. 
 
 It was well received. Some of the Federal pris- 
 oners started, 
 
 Rally round the flag, boys, 
 
 Rally once again, 
 
 Shouting the battle cry of freedom. 
 
 The officers who had entered, now in great anger 
 forbade any further patriotic demonstration. They 
 carried off our flag which we had improvised, and 
 told the guards to inform them if we disobeyed their 
 orders. 
 
 At four o'clock P.M., our plan was fully matured. 
 At midnight (the moon having set and the verdant 
 guards being on duty) we would raise the plank, get 
 under the floor, and, myself in advance, make our 
 exit through one of the apertures upon the south side 
 of the jail, then crawl to the building some ixteen 
 feet distant, and thence continue crawling close to the 
 building till we had passed the sentinels in the 'west- 
 ern enclosure, then rise and make our way as 
 cautiously as possible to a point in a corn-field in 
 view from the prison, and where was a garment sus- 
 pended from a fence post. The one who arrived 
 first must await the other. A signal was agreed 
 upon to prevent mistake. The signal was to place 
 the arms akimbo. The countersign, taisez vous, the
 
 142 TUPELO. 
 
 response, oui, oui, (pro.) we, we. If the guards or- 
 dered us to halt we resolved to risk their fire, for our 
 firm resolve was liberty or death. 
 
 As soon as the prisoners learned that I was a minis- 
 ter, they with entire unanimity and great cordiality 
 chose me chaplain, and I preached to them every even- 
 ing as long as I remained with them. Xight drew on 
 apace. Thick darkness settled upon prison, camp, and 
 town. Murky clouds o'erspread the sky and obscured 
 the stars as we partook of our scanty allowance of 
 corn-bread and water foul, tepid water. I took this 
 meal with the Federal prisoners who were tempora- 
 rily incarcerated till after some formalities they would 
 be sent to prison at Camp Oglethorpe, Macon, 
 Ga., and other places. Their names were Jesse L. 
 McHatton, Co. H, 59th 111. Yols., J. A. H. Spear, 
 Ellisville, Fulton Co., 111., Brocket and Benedict, 
 35th Reg. 111. Vol. Inft., Sullivan, Howell Trog- 
 don, of St. Louis, Mo., M. Troyer Anderson, Fos- 
 ter, Lowery, and a German, who went by the name 
 of Charlie, who wore a saddler's knife sewed on his 
 coat sleeve, "Win. Soper, Co. D, 22d Reg. Ind. Vol. 
 Inft., and DeGruniniond, of Galesburg, 111. The 
 breeches I wore were light colored. McHatton ex- 
 changed a pair of brown colored for mine, so that I 
 might better evade the guards. 
 
 About ten o'clock Malone raised the plank, and I 
 went under to reconnoitre. I remained under the 
 floor about ten minutes, having learned that there 
 Were no guards patroling the south side of the
 
 TUPELO. 1 43 
 
 prison, as we feared might be the case after night. I 
 had learned by observation, when returning with 
 water, that there were none during the day. Just at 
 the noon of night we heard the relief called. Malone 
 and I tried to find the prisoners who were to raise 
 the plank, but not being able readily to do so we 
 raised the plank ourselves, and both succeeded in 
 getting under without much difficulty. Malone hav- 
 ing gotten under first was compelled, contrary to our 
 arrangements, to take the lead. As he was passing 
 through the aperture he made considerable noise. I 
 patted him upon the back to indicate silence and 
 warn him of danger. He reached back, gave my 
 hand a warm pressure to assure me that all was right, 
 and passed out. I followed. I heard Malone in 
 advance of me, but it was so dark that I could not 
 see him. As I reached the point opposite the senti- 
 nels in the rear, one of them, apparently on the 
 alert, and startled by the noise, came to the side of 
 the enclosure nearest me, and leaning over peered 
 into the darkness. He remained a considerable time 
 in that inquisitive attitude. I remained very quiet. 
 At length he walked to the door and looked into the 
 prison. I moved on as noiselessly as possible, pass- 
 ing all the sentinels. It required great presence of 
 mind and vigilant care to pass them without at- 
 tracting attention or exciting their suspicion. I 
 reached the pre-arranged place of meeting, but Ma- 
 lone was nowhere to be found. I gave the pre- 
 concerted signals, but they elicited no response.
 
 144 TUPELO. 
 
 Some mistake had been made, and after waiting a 
 long time I was compelled to set out alone. Not 
 being able to rejoin my friend, I regarded as a great 
 misfortune. He had the chart to guide us, and after 
 reaching a point fifteen miles north-west of Tupelo 
 he would be familiar with the topography and 
 geography of the country. I had frequently passed 
 through Tupelo in the cars, but knew but little of 
 the country off the railroad through which I must 
 pass. Somewhat depressed in spirits by the loss of 
 my companion de voyage, I resolved to reach my 
 family by the safest and most practicable route. I 
 feared the hounds and the cavalry which would 
 scour the country in search of us as soon as our es- 
 cape became known. I was still in the very midst of 
 the great rebel army, and found great difficulty in 
 avoiding the videttes that seemed to be well-nigh 
 omnipresent. I soon found that day was brighten- 
 ing in the east. I felt glad to think that I was ' 
 no longer in the gloomy prison. I could say with 
 the Psalmist, " I am escaped as a bird out of the 
 snare of the fowler. The snare is broken and 
 I am escaped. God hath delivered me out of the 
 hand of my enemy." I looked to the east, and lo! 
 the orb of day was peering above the horizon. I 
 must find a place to hide. I speedily discovered a 
 small but dense thicket amid a grove of tupelo trees. 
 This grove gave name to the town of Tupelo. I 
 secreted myself as covertly as possible. A tree with 
 low branches was near; I would ascend this if the
 
 TUPELO. 145 
 
 hounds should discover my track. After the excite- 
 ment and consequent mental strain, I tried to woo 
 tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep, and had 
 partially succeeded, when the noise and horrid din of 
 the great encampment sounding in my ears startled 
 me, and drove far hence the winged Somnus. Soon 
 many soldiers passed and repassed me. I was still 
 in the very midst of the great army, and liable to 
 discovery at any moment. I broke off twigs and 
 covered myself with leaves and branches of the un- 
 derbrush surrounding me. I was within thirty 
 yards of Old Town creek, an affluent of the Tombig- 
 bee river, or rather one of the creeks forming the 
 Tombigbee. The soldiers had found a suitable pool 
 for bathing, and they passed and repassed all day ; 
 on one side their path or trail ran only six or eight 
 feet distant, on the other the path was but fifteen or 
 twenty feet distant from my lair. About nine o'clock 
 A.M. I heard the booming of cannon all around 
 me, proceeding from the various encampments. The 
 passing soldiers, whose lowest tones were distinctly 
 audible, said that the artillerists were firing salutes in 
 honor of a great victory obtained over General Mc- 
 Clellan in the peninsula of Virginia. According to 
 their statements, his whole army, after a succession 
 of losses during eight days' continuous fighting, had 
 been completely annihilated at a place named Mal- 
 vern, and they were quite sure that Stonewall Jack- 
 son would be in Washington City within a week. 
 This sad news depressed me more by far than the 
 10
 
 146 TUPELO. 
 
 thought of my own condition. The hours dragged 
 heavily. At one time two soldiers came within two 
 feet of me in search of blackberries. I feared that 
 one of them would tread upon my feet as they passed 
 out of the copse, but he did not, although he must 
 have missed stepping upon my feet by but a few 
 inches. About noon, judging from the vertical rays 
 of the sun, two soldiers sat down at the point closest 
 to me on the nearer path. They were almost in jux- 
 taposition. Their lowest tones were frightfully 
 audible. One of them informed his companion that 
 he had been in Tupelo in the morning, and that two 
 prisoners had broke jail. They were Parson Aughey 
 and Dick Malone. He said a big reward was offered 
 fur bringin' 'em in dead or alive. He said : " I seed 
 the cavalry start after 'em with two all-fired big 
 packs of dogs. One pack went this away, and the 
 other that away. [I supposed he indicated the direc- 
 tions by pointing.] I'd give my wages fur six 
 month to ketch ary one of 'em. Think uv the honor 
 uv it, Jim, to ketch 'em afore the dogs and cavalry 
 did. Ole Bragg wouldn't stop at a cool thousand or 
 two. Ole Jurdan he were bad flustered. He was 
 a cavortin' aroun' hollerin' out his orders at the top 
 uv his voice, jest a niakin' the air blue with his 
 cussin'. I wouldn't be in them prison gards' place 
 for no money. I seed them officers put the irons on 
 'em, an' they took 'em in ter that same jail thet the 
 tories lied got out on." 
 
 The other replied, "It aint no use, Jack Simeral,
 
 TUPELO. 147 
 
 fur you to talk about them fellers. I'll bet they's 
 sharp an' they's safe a hidin' with sum of thar tory 
 friends hours ag6. I'll bet they aint two miles from 
 town. Jack, you know the Clines an' Kaverners, 
 they'd die ter save a Union man. They hid Jake 
 Broome a month, an' your own cousin Tillie Jack, 
 she carried him grub till the Union fellers got the 
 thing fixt up an' sent him off ter the Yankees Bill 
 Hawkins a giden' a squad of em'. 
 
 "Well," said the other, "them dogs'll kuni up 
 with 'em if they hev haf a chance, an' they'll never 
 make it to the Yankee lines, sure as my name's Jim 
 Billick." 
 
 Soon one of them arose and struck a bush almost 
 above my head. I thought that he had discovered 
 me and was about to rise and run, when I heard him 
 say to his comrade, "Bill, that was the biggest snake 
 I've seen lately, a regular water moccasin, but it got 
 off inter the bushes. I reckin' it's makin' fur the 
 creek, kase they don't git far from water." 
 
 I began to feel somewhat uncomfortably situated 
 when I learned that I was in close proximity to a 
 large and poisonous snake, but I would have much 
 preferred meeting an anaconda, boa constrictor, or 
 even the deadly cobra di capello, rather than those 
 vile secessionists, thirsting for innocent blood. They, 
 too, passed on and left me to gloomy rumination. 
 Presently a large number coming from the creek 
 were about to enter this thicket in quest of berries, 
 when one of their number swore that there were no
 
 148 TUPELO. 
 
 berries in that thicket. He had been there last even- 
 ing with a crowd and cleaned them out teetotal ly. 
 He then took them to a place where he said there 
 were plenty of berries, much to my relief. I thought 
 this 5th of July was the longest day I had ever 
 known. The sun was so long in reaching the zenith, 
 and so long in passing down the steep ecliptic way to 
 the Occident. But as all days, however long seem- 
 ingly, come to an end, so did this. The stars came 
 glittering one by one. I soon recognized that old, 
 staunch, and immovable friend of all travelers on 
 the underground railway, the polar star. Rising 
 from my lair, I was soon homeward bound, guided 
 by the north star and an oriental constellation. 
 Plunging into a dense wood, I found my rapid ad- 
 vance impeded by the undergrowth, and had great 
 difficulty in following my heavenly guides, as the 
 overarching boughs of the great oaks rendered them 
 invisible or dimly seen. I came to the creek Old 
 Town creek. At that place it was deep and wide. I 
 found a place where a fallen tree partly spanned it. 
 I walked on the trunk till I nearly reached its ter- 
 minus, then I ran and jumped as far as I could. I 
 alighted near the further shore, in water only up to 
 my arm-pits. I speedily reached the dry ground 
 and hastened onward. The water quenched my rag- 
 ing thirst, but I was very hungry, tired, and sleepy. 
 I at length lay down at the foot of a large water-oak, 
 resolving to take only a nap, and then rise and pur- 
 sue my journey. When I awoke the sun was rising.
 
 TUPELO. 149 
 
 I arose full of regret for the loss of so much precious 
 time. Though somewhat refreshed by my sound 
 sleep, my hunger was almost unendurable, and I was 
 famishing from thirst. At length I descried a small 
 log house by a roadside. In the distance I could see 
 tents. Feeling sick and faint, I resolved to go to the 
 house to obtain water, and if I liked the appearance 
 of the inmates, reveal my condition and ask for aid. 
 I never had much difficulty in discerning between a 
 Unionist and secessionist family. The bile and bitter- 
 ness of the rabid secessionist was patent, and readily 
 revealed his true character. He gloried in making 
 his proclivities known. TheUnionist was ordina- 
 rily reticent, unless he was playing the role of a 
 secessionist, and even then his theatrical performance 
 was transparent to one who had himself found it 
 necessary upon occasion to assume that guise, or to 
 one who had mingled with both classes and had stud- 
 ied their idiosyncrasies. 
 
 I went to the door of the log edifice and knocked. 
 A gruff voice said, "Come." I entered, but a glance 
 revealed to me the character of the proprietor. I did 
 not like his physiognomy. He looked the villain. 
 A sinister expression, a countenance revealing no 
 intellectuality except a sort of low cunning, bore testi- 
 mony that it would be the extreme of folly to repose 
 confidence in the possessor of such villainous looks. 
 I asked for water, intending to drink and leave his 
 rude domicile. He pointed, to the bucket without 
 speaking. A gourd dipper was floating upon the
 
 150 TUPELO. 
 
 surface of the water which filled it. I drank and 
 bade him good-bye, and took my departure, glad to 
 escape so easily. I had proceeded but a few steps 
 when I heard the command, halt ! uttered in a sten- 
 torian tone. Upon looking backward I saw two 
 soldiers within a few steps. One was presenting a 
 double-barreled gun, the other was heavily armed. 
 I asked the soldier who had given the command by 
 what authority he halted me, to which he replied, "I 
 know you, sir, I have heard you preach frequently, 
 you are Parson Aughey, and you w r ere arrested and 
 lodged in prison at Tupelo. I was in Col. Mark 
 Lowrey's regiment yesterday, and learned that you 
 had broken jail, and now, sir, you must return. My 
 name is Dan Barnes. You may have heard of me." 
 I had indeed heard of him. His father had held the 
 office of postmaster. His son had systematically 
 robbed the mail, and for a long time eluded detection. 
 A detective, at length, through a decoy letter, dis- 
 covered his guilt. When he was arrested the letter 
 with its contents was found upon his person. While 
 being conveyed to prison he escaped from the officer, 
 fled to Napoleon or Helena, Arkansas was followed, 
 brought back, and incarcerated in jail at Pontotoc. 
 As the evidence against him was positive and admit- 
 ted no doubt of his guilt, he would have been con- 
 victed and sent to the penitentiary, but fortunately 
 for this criminal, at this juncture Mississippi seceded. 
 The jurisdiction of the Federal authorities was re- 
 garded at an end a nolle prosegui was entered in the
 
 DAN. BAENES.
 
 TUPELO. 151 
 
 case of Barnes, and he was liberated and soon after 
 joined the Confederate army. 
 
 Soon Barnes clime to me and said, " Parson, I feel 
 sorry for you, I can sympathize with you for I Avas 
 once in a tight place myself, and would have been 
 much pleased to have found a friend to lend a help- 
 ing hand. Now, if you will pay me a reasonable 
 sum I will afford you an opportunity of escaping." 
 I distrusted Barnes 7 sincerity, but could not make 
 the matter worse by accepting his proffered aid. He 
 named two hundred and fifty dollars as the reason- 
 able sum to secure his connivance at my escape. I 
 proffered two hundred and forty dollars. It was ac- 
 cepted, and I paid it over to him. When he had 
 secured the money, he said, Avith a sardonic laugh, 
 "I was just playing off on you. You must go back 
 to prison. I have no sympathy for d d tories, and 
 wish they were all in h 1." They then brought me 
 into the presence of General Jordan, whose head- 
 quarters were still at the place where I had the mis- 
 fortune to meet him at first. The proprietor of the 
 log cabin Avas named David Hough. He accompa- 
 nied Barnes and Eph. Hennon, as they returned me 
 to the rebel authorities. Barnes proclaimed, as he 
 passed through the camps, his good fortune, and re- 
 ceiA'ed the congratulation of the soldiers. He re- 
 ceived everywhere an ovation. It Avas a sort of tri- 
 umphal march, which he enjoyed greatly. 
 
 I became the cynosure of all eyes. As Barnes 
 Avould stop and recount his heroic and marvelous ex-
 
 152 TUPELO. 
 
 ploit in arresting me, the soldiers would crowd around 
 me, gazing and hurling at me a torrent of questions. 
 They wanted me to tell them where Malone was, and 
 assured me that old Bragg would be d d glad to see 
 me. After running this gauntlet for hours, I was 
 ushered into the august presence of Gen. Jordan. He 
 said, "Where is Malone?" I told him that I did 
 not know that I had not seen him after T had left 
 the prison. He refused to credit any of my state- 
 ments. He told me that Malone would soon be 
 brought in, dead or alive. He could not evade the 
 hounds and the cavalry. He hoped to heaven that 
 they might catch him speedily, that we might die to- 
 gether. He then ordered a guard to conduct me to a 
 blacksmith's shop. He ordered the blacksmith to 
 forge fetters bands and chain so large and strong 
 that I might be so securely manacled as to prevent 
 the least possibility of my giving them the slip till I 
 had expiated my crimes upon the gallows. The 
 blacksmith was ordered to put -the bands on while 
 red hot, and my boots were burnt in the process of 
 ironing. It was quite painful, though the blacksmith 
 was as gentle as possible. Gen. Jordan stood by 
 with drawn sword, superintending the execution of 
 his order. 
 
 The blacksmith said, " Taisez vous." I replied, 
 " Oui, oui" He gave me his name, and embraced 
 every opportunity of offering a word of comfort. 
 He was a Unionist. He asked Gen. Jordan to allow 
 me to go to his house and get something to eat, but

 
 TUPELO. 153 
 
 his request was arrogantly refused. I think his 
 name was Monday or Friday. I remember that it 
 was the name of 'one of the days of the week. I 
 thus associated it in my mind at the time. He told 
 Gen. Jordan that he had never manacled a man, and 
 was averse to obeying such an order. The General 
 told him to go to work at once, or go to prison. 
 The blacksmith only obeyed upon compulsion. 
 
 " Iron him securely, SECURELY, sir" was the 
 General's oft repeated order. The ironing caused 
 me much pain, my ankles being long discolored from 
 the effects. By wearing shackles so long, ulcers were 
 formed which have left life-long scars. After I was 
 secured by these manacles, they assisted me to re- 
 mount the horse. I was compelled to ride sidewise. 
 The irons prevented me from riding astride. I told 
 Gen. Jordan that I had been told that iron had be- 
 come scarce in the Southern Confederacy, but that he 
 had given me an abundant supply. I was conducted 
 under guard to Tupelo. Upon my arrival the 
 provost marshal and commander of the post were 
 much rejoiced to see me. They became hilarious. 
 Barnes, in grandiloquent style, stated that I had 
 attempted to bribe him, that he had listened to my 
 proposition with indignation, and when he had got- 
 ten the money did what he regarded was his duty. 
 The commander replied that all of the property of 
 traitors was theirs, and commended Barnes for de- 
 ceiving me after he had secured the bribe. He also 
 recommended Barnes for promotion for his heroic
 
 154 TUPELO. 
 
 and patriotic act in arresting me, and for his incor- 
 ruptible integrity. 
 
 The provost marshal said to me : " Why did you 
 attempt to leave us ? " 
 
 " Because, sir, your prison was so filthy, your fare 
 so meagre and unwholesome, and your treatment so 
 harsh, cruel, and vindictive, that I could not long en- 
 dure it and survive." 
 
 "Parson, you know the bible says, 'the wicked 
 flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as 
 bold as a lion.' You must have, been guilty of 
 crime or you would not have attempted to escape." 
 "I confess to the truth of some of the charges 
 made against me, and yet hold that I am innocent of 
 any crime against God or man for which I am 
 amenable to the state or Confederate states. As to 
 pursuit, I think two companies of cavalry with 
 blood-hounds would indicate quite vigorous pursuit." 
 
 " You shall never be remanded to the prison vou 
 left; rest assured of that. Did any of the prisoners 
 know of or aid you in your escape ? " 
 
 <( No, sir, none of them knew anything about it." 
 
 "Are you telling the truth?" . 
 
 "I am." 
 
 "Where is Malone?" 
 
 "I know not. I never saw him after I left the 
 prison." 
 
 " He cannot escape. He will be brought in, dead 
 or alive. Why did you attempt to bribe Dan 
 Barnes ? "
 
 TUPELO. ] 55 
 
 " It was his own offer. I knew that his cupidity 
 was great, and thought it no harm to accept his 
 proffered venal aid. If Barnes had his deserts, he 
 would now be immured in the penitentiary at hard 
 labor." 
 
 " Did the jury that tried him acquit him?" 
 
 " No, the secession of Mississippi alone saved him. 
 I refer you to Col. Tison. He, being marshal of 
 North Mississippi, arrested Barnes. He found on 
 his person the evidence of his guilt the money and 
 drafts stolen when he robbed the mail." 
 
 I might say here, that after this Barnes was in 
 company with several soldiers, boon companions of 
 his. One of them, named Maness, said to Barnes? 
 in reply to some fanciful story that he had been tell- 
 ing, " Now, Dan, you know that that is a lie." Dan, 
 in anger, said, " If you repeat that I will shoot you." 
 Maness replied, "We all know it isn't true." 
 Barnes immediately shot Maness, and then fled to 
 Chepultepec, Alabama. Was pursued, overtaken, and 
 arrested. On their return, near the place where 
 Barnes had shot Maness, near Paden's mills, the 
 guard, three of whom were brothers of the murdered 
 man, held a consultation, which resulted in a decision 
 to inflict summary punishment upon the murderer. 
 He had escaped the penalty due his crime in robbing 
 the mail, and they feared that if they returned him 
 to the army he might escape merited punishment. 
 They compelled him to dig his own grave, and then 
 they hanged him and buried him in the grave he had
 
 156 TUPELO. 
 
 dug. His doom was just, and no tears were shed 
 over his tragic fate. 
 
 Some of the general officers entered the provost 
 marshal's office. After a short consultation, one of 
 them, approaching me, said, "You will be shot within 
 an hour. If you have any message for your friends 
 you may write it, and I will see to its delivery." 
 
 I wrote thus : 
 
 TUPELO, Miss., July 7, 1863. 
 
 MY DEAR WIFE I must die within an hour, so 
 General Bragg has this moment informed me. This 
 "is the last letter you will ever receive from me. I 
 die because I have pursued unswervingly what I re- 
 garded as my duty to my God and my country. I 
 would not, even for the consideration of long life 
 and the endearments of a happy home, prove recreant 
 to duty and swerve from fidelity to a government 
 that has never infringed my rights of person or 
 property. 
 
 To the kind protecting care of a covenant-keeping 
 God I commit you and our dear Kate and the un- 
 born babe, whose face in this world I will never see. 
 God has promised to be the husband of the widow 
 and the father of the fatherless, and he is faithful 
 who has promised. I die at the hands of cruel, im- 
 placable, and vindictive men, my own and my 
 country's enemies. This is the hour and power of 
 darkness, but it is my time to die. My hour has 
 come. It is appointed unto man once u o die. Of 
 man the scriptures say, his days are determined, the
 
 TUPELO. 157 
 
 number of his months is with thee. There is an 
 appointed bound that he cannot pass. The wicked 
 go when their cup of iniquity is full, the righteous 
 when they have fulfilled the mission appointed them 
 by Jehovah. Our Savior was slain by wicked men car- 
 rying out according to the freedom of their own will 
 their own murderous purpose, as Peter declared at Pen- 
 tecost, Him being delivered by the determinate coun- 
 sel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by 
 wicked hands have crucified and slain. Kiss our 
 darling Kate for me. I have no fear of death. I 
 go trusting in Jesus. We will meet beyond the 
 river. Farewell, a long fare\vell. 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 JOHN H. AUGHEY. 
 
 I wrote within the lines an occasional word in 
 phonography, which read thus: Inform Generals 
 Nelson and Rosecrans of my re-arrest and my sad 
 fate. 
 
 I was then placed under guard and conducted to a 
 small room in a hotel till preparations might be 
 made for my death by shooting. Two guards re- 
 mained in the room with their guns with bayonets 
 fixed, with strict orders to shoot or bayonet me if I 
 made the least, show of an attempt at escape. There 
 were two guards also stationed just outside the door, 
 with the same orders, to be enforced if necessary. 
 
 I remained in this room an hour or more, suppos- 
 ing that as soon as the necessary arrangements for my 
 execution were completed I would be led to death.
 
 1 58 TUPELO. 
 
 After a time orders came and I was marched into 
 the presence of the officers. General Bragg said, 
 u We have concluded to hang you." 
 
 I replied, "I deprecate that mode of execution. 
 Do please shoot me." 
 
 He then said, " You will also have a trial, and if 
 it results in conviction, of which there is no doubt, 
 you will be hanged in the presence of the army." 
 
 The guards were then ordered to take charge of 
 me. My chain was so short that I could only step 
 about ten inches. I could just set my heel in step- 
 ping even with the toe of the opposite foot. They 
 brought me to the same old prison. When I en- 
 tered it, my old friends, the true, tried, and trusted 
 prisoners who still survived, crowded around me. 
 Captain Bruce addressed me in his facetious manner. 
 In prison his wit had beguiled many a tedious hour. 
 His humor was the pure Attic salt. 
 
 "Parson Aughey, you are welcome back to my 
 hotel, though you have played us rather a scurvy 
 trick in leaving without giving me or any of us 
 the least inkling of your intention, or settling your 
 bill." 
 
 I replied, " Captain, it was hardly right, but I did 
 not like your fare, and your hotel was sadly infested 
 with chinches, chiggers, ticks, and graybacks." 
 
 " Well, you do not seein to have fared better 'since 
 you left, for you have returned." 
 
 "Captain, my return is the result of coercion. 
 Some who oppose this principle when applied to
 
 TUPELO. 159 
 
 themselves have no scruples in enforcing it upon 
 others. 
 
 'No rogue e'er felt the halter draw 
 
 'With good opinion of the law,' 
 
 is an old saw, and the truth of proverbs is seldom 
 affected by the lapse of time. I am your guest by 
 compulsion, but remember I will leave you upon the 
 first opportunity." 
 
 Upoji hearing this statement, an officer present, 
 named Cecil Hindman, with a bitter imprecation, 
 said that when I next crossed the threshold of that 
 building it would be to go to cross the railroad to 
 the place of execution. 
 
 The prisoners gathered around me upon the exit 
 of the officers, and I related to them my adventures. 
 They then informed me of what had occurred during 
 my absence. At roll call the neyt morning we were 
 missed. Clarke was taken out to guide a company 
 in search of you. The guards on duty during the 
 night were put under arrest. Your method of escape 
 was speedily discovered and the guards were released, 
 as they were not at fault. The floor was spiked 
 down, the guards increased in number, and greater 
 vigilance enjoined. The prisoners were questioned 
 as to whether they knew of your escape or had in 
 any way contributed to effect it. We all positively 
 denied any knowledge of or complicity in the escape. 
 They asked me if I had given the officers any infor- 
 mation about their knowledge oi our designs and 
 co-operation in effecting them. I told them that I
 
 160 TUPELO. 
 
 had positively denied that any except Malone and 
 myself were privy to our plans. Was this right? 
 Is falsehood ever justifiable? 
 
 If I had revealed the aid received from my fellow- 
 prisoners they would have been severely punished, 
 perhaps some of them capitally, at once. And my 
 fellow-prisoners would have regarded me as a base 
 ingrate, and would not a second time, as they did, 
 have risked their lives to set me free and save my 
 life. We ought to speak every man truth to his 
 neighbor, but those secessionists, thirsting for innocent 
 blood, were in no true sense our neighbors, though 
 too near neighbors, in regard to physical proximity, 
 for our welfare. In order to save life we may take 
 life, and may we not deceive by words, and be guilt- 
 less, those who would use their knowledge to destroy 
 the innocent? I asked Benjamin Clarke, when he 
 was remanded to prison, to give us the particulars of 
 the pursuit of Malone and myself by the cavalry and 
 blood-hounds, to which request he assented. 
 
 BENJAMIN CLARKE'S STORY. 
 
 "You were not missed till roll-call in the morning. 
 Your name was the first on the roll. This man [lay- 
 ing his hand on the shoulder of a prisoner] is a great 
 mimic. When he tries he can beat a mocking bird. 
 He can mimic any man's voice. He can call up any 
 animal or bird when he wants to* shoot it. This man, 
 Will Croghan's his name, sung out, 'Here.' Some of 
 us that knowed you was gone looked round, thinkin'
 
 TUPELO. 161 
 
 it was your voice. When they got to Malone's name, 
 Jim Benton sung out present, but he wasn't no 
 mimic, and the officer called out agin, Dick Malone, 
 an' nobody answered. He then stopped calling the 
 roll and sent out an orderly. It wasn't long till old 
 Bragg, Hardee, and some other officers come into the 
 prison in a hurry. The officer commenced calling the 
 roll agin. Croghan was afeard to chirp, an' they found 
 that you and Malone was gone. Bragg stormed 
 round a spell, and afore long I was sent for. They 
 told me to mount a horse a nigger was holdin'. I 
 done so, and we all started off. They told me to 
 guide them straight to Paden's mill. We had twenty- 
 five cavalry men and forty dogs. They started with 
 that many, seein* they might have to separate to fol- 
 low different trails. How the hounds did howl and 
 yelp. To give you a chance, i took ; em round by 
 Bull Mountain, up one hill an' down the same, an' 
 up another. They wanted to find some of your cloze 
 in the prison to let the dogs git a scent. I thought 
 Alex. Spear, that Federal prisoner from Ellisville, 
 Illinois, an' you had traded pants, so you could git a 
 dark pair so as to git by the guards, but they wazent 
 none the wizer for me knowin' that. Well, nigh on 
 to 4 o'clock in the evenin' we struck a trail. The 
 hounds follered it lively. I waz awful feared it waz 
 yourn, still I thought you wouldeut be sich a fool as 
 to go off on a straight shoot for Fulton, where they 
 took us on our way here, an* where all the roads waz 
 picketed. The trail was fresh, and the hounds got 
 11
 
 162 TUPELO. 
 
 about a mile ahead. All at once we knowed they had 
 treed their game, an' agin I jist trembled in my boots 
 for fear it waz you. We loped along as fast as we 
 could, but the ground got swampy an' the bushes 
 waz thick, an' drekly we knowed the dogs hed come 
 up with some big varmint, an' it was givin 'em bat- 
 tle, and they waz gittin' the wust of the skrimmage. 
 We hed an awful time to git through the chaparral, 
 an' we had to go out of our way a long trip to git 
 round a sloo. But when we did come up with the 
 dogs they hed killed an awful big bar. But afore he 
 knocked under he'd got his work in on the dogs, an' 
 you may never b'leve me agin ef there wazzent four- 
 teen dogs lyin' dead as herrin's an' some more com- 
 pletely uzed up. The best sentin' hound waz lyin' 
 close to the ded bar, and the bar's jaws was clozed 
 on one of his hind legs like a vise. We got his jaws 
 loose, but the dog's leg waz mashed into a jelly, an' 
 we hed to shoot him to put him out of hiz mizery. 
 Well, these cavalry fellows swore they wazzent goin' 
 to leave till they hed tried some of the bar steaks. 
 They drug the carcass of the bar half a mile to a 
 hummock, an' rolled up logs till they hed made a big 
 log-heap, then sot it on fire, skinned the bar, sliced 
 off the nice steaks, an' jist enjoyed themselves. 'Fore 
 this waz done it waz very dark, an' the cap'n in 
 charge of the squad sed he reckoned they'd best go 
 inter camp fer the night. 'Twazent fur from Fulton. 
 'Bout midnight ten of these fellers stole off to go to 
 Madam Dunderberg's, in Fulton. She kep a bagnio
 
 TUPELO. 163 
 
 on the edge of town. They got into a row with 
 some roughs that waz there an' hed monopolized all 
 the girls, and Bill'Snediker and Jo Rucker was killed, 
 an' Nath Downs waz hurt bad. They had a tough 
 time gitten back. The cap'n hed to leave Downs at 
 a settler's cabin, an' sent the settler fer a doctor, but 
 before the doctor kum Downs hed gone wher they 
 don't need no doctors, fur as we know. "Well, 'twas 
 nigh about noon, an' the cap'n said we'd bury Downs 
 decent afore we left, so we hed dinner fust of 'n the 
 bar, then we dug a grave 'en buried Downs with the 
 honors of war. I thought about escapin', but there 
 wazent the ghost of a chance. The dogs was allowed 
 to tackle the bar, an' there wazent much of bruin, as 
 the cap'n called him, left after they had done satisfied 
 their appetites. The cap'n, Hindman I think waz 
 his name, was purty bad flustered. He'd give me 
 his compass, an' I, hopiu' to escape, pertended I'd 
 dropped it accidental in the swamp. The cap'n waz 
 mad as blazes, an' swore wus than old Van Dorn 
 when he foun' out the parson and Malone hed broke 
 jail. He told me I must git them to Paden's mill 
 agin night, or he'd tie me up by the thumbs. I told 
 him that was onpossible. He said onpossible or not 
 it must be did. "Well, we started off, bearin' north- 
 east. We passed right by my house. I said, " Cap'n 
 les make some inquiries here." We pulled up before 
 the door, it opened an' my wife an* children come to 
 to the door. I got down ofn the horse an' they all 
 gathered about me like so many bees. Lilly May,
 
 164 TUPELO. 
 
 the baby, nestled her head in my bosom. Jini said, 
 ' Pa, we've been workin' like beavers since you waz 
 taken away from us. You'll find the crops all right. 
 Ma helped us, too.' Just then the cap'n ordered me 
 to mount my horse. ' Oh, pa/ the children shouted, 
 'Ain't you come home to stay?' but the cap'n hur- 
 ried on, and the last sight I had of my wife and babes 
 they waz all weepin' as ef their hearts would break, 
 an' its the last sight of 'em I ever expect to have in 
 this world. 
 
 He stopped to weep and we all wept iu sympathy 
 with him. "When we got to Mackey's creek," he con- 
 tinued, "near Paden's mill, \ve camped fur the night. 
 Next mornin', bright an' early, we rode up to Mr. 
 Paden's. The cap'n told Mr. Paden he had a dis- 
 agreeable duty to perform. He had been ordered to 
 search his premises for a prisoner a son-in-law of 
 hizzen that hed broke jail at Tupelo. Mr. Paden 
 said he might search, but they would find no one. 
 They searched the house upstairs and down, .then 
 sent a squad to the negro quarters, another to the 
 mills, but their errand waz a bootless one. 
 
 Again he stopped to weep, we all wept with him. 
 Saying, " Excuse me I could not help it," he contin- 
 ued : "Your wife sat on the sofa in the parlor, pale 
 as death. Before we left she came to the door and 
 looked at the hounds and listened to their howling. 
 Her hands were clasped together. Once I saw her 
 lips move. I thought she was praying. I stood 
 near her, but I did not hear her speak. I think she
 
 TUPELO. 165 
 
 couldent speak for sorrow. Oh, how my heart bled 
 for her, an' how much I wanted to tell her that I 
 believed you waz safe in the Federal lines, but I 
 could not git a chance to do so without notice. I got 
 a chance to say to her father, I believed you waz safe 
 in Bienzi by this time, an' I told him to tell his 
 daughter so, which I haint no doubt but what he did. 
 We left an' come back in a hurry. The other com- 
 pany that went due north got back about the time 
 we did. A squad of them reported that they caught 
 Malone, but that he got away from them at a house 
 where they went to git water. They fired on him, 
 and have no doubt that they wounded him bad, an' 
 think he never could make the Federal lines. Our 
 cap'n told everybody he met that a big reward was 
 offered fur you, an' described you the best he could, 
 an' stuck up notices describing you an' offering a re- 
 ward fur catchin' you. When they got back they 
 put me back in prison, an' I waz very sorry to see 
 you here. Well, we'll have a chance now to go to 
 heaven together. I reckon there aint much show fur 
 either of us." 
 
 M. T. Anderson said, " If I am ever exchanged 
 I'll publish this from one end of the Xorth to the 
 other. I'll tell of the heroic endurance of the south- 
 ern loyalists who prefer death to dishonor, who pre- 
 fer an ignominious death to the guilt of treason 
 against the best government the sun shines upon." 
 
 I approached a prisoner who was heavily fettered. 
 Both hands and feet were bound with iron bauds,
 
 166 TUPELO. 
 
 and he was chained to the floor, the chain being 
 fastened to a bolt. I learned that he was a Minor- 
 can. I said, " You are a Minorcau, I learn." He 
 replied, " I have that honor, sir." After confidence 
 had been established between us, he gave me his his- 
 tory, thus : 
 
 " My name is Louis LasCassas Lornette. My 
 father is a native of the island of Minorca. He re- 
 moved with his family and a large number of 
 Minorcans to a town on the St. John's river, Florida, 
 in the year 1826. There I was born May 8, 1828. 
 My mother gave birth to triplets all boys Louis, 
 Pierre, and Philippe. We always dressed alike, 
 and bore a striking resemblance to each other. We 
 were devotedly attached to each other and were 
 inseparable companions. We became mighty hun- 
 ters before the Lord. We pursued this vocation con 
 amore, and the founder of Nineveh himself, the re- 
 nowned Nimrod, could not have been more successful 
 than we. At length the tocsin of war sounded 
 civil war. We had all attended the academy of a 
 professor named Nathan Hale, of the state of Ver- 
 mont. He was a great admirer of the great statesman, 
 Daniel Webster. He had a copy of his speeches 
 which we were permitted to read. We admired 
 them much, especially his debate with Hayne, Cal- 
 houn, and others in the U. S. senate in regard to the 
 right of a state to nullify the laws of the national 
 government, or to secede from the Union. We 
 thought those statesmen were like pigmies in the
 
 TUPELO. 167 
 
 hands of a giant. When the war came, and we were 
 told that the government must be disrupted in the 
 interest of human slavery, my brothers and I resolved, 
 come weal or come woe, we would never, never be 
 guilty of treason to subserve an institution we de- 
 tested. Our parents had taught us to hate slavery 
 with a perfect hatred. Many a poor hunted fugitive 
 have we protected, and taught him how to defend 
 himself from the terrible Siberian blood-hound. We 
 had never entertained for a moment the idea that we 
 ourselves would ever be the object of pursuit by these 
 same horrible dogs. One night a company of cav- 
 alry surrounded our father's house, during a re-union 
 of his family. We three brothers were seized, bound, 
 and after various vicissitudes were placed in prison 
 in New Orleans, La., on the charge of treason 
 against the Confederate States of America. We were 
 tried and condemned to be shot. They then offered 
 us a pardon on condition that we would enlist in the 
 Confederate army. They gave us one week's respite 
 for consideration. W r e were permitted to occupy the 
 same cell in prison. We debated the matter, pro and 
 con. At first we thought it best to send in our decis- 
 ion in the negative at once. Pierre reasoned in this 
 way : ' Would it not be well to accept their terms, 
 take the oath, enter the army, and at the first favor- 
 able opportunity desert and make our way to the 
 Federal lines.' ' But what about the oath ? ' said 
 Philippe. 'An oath exacted under such circum- 
 stances is much more honored in the breach than in
 
 168 TUPELO. 
 
 the observance/ replied his brother. In a moment 
 of weakness we sent in an affirmative answer. We 
 begged to be permitted to enter the same regiment 
 and the same company. This request was denied. 
 We were mustered in in different regiments, and thus 
 separated widely. I was put in a Mississippi regi- 
 ment. I deserted, hoping to reach the Federal lines. 
 A company of cavalry, with a pack of fierce 
 Siberian blood-hounds were sent out in search of me. 
 I came to a planter's quarters. The colored people 
 and I searched all one* day, thus losing much precious 
 time, to find some herbs with which I could have 
 compounded a subtle poison, and by means of pieces 
 of meat saturated with it, I could have destroyed a 
 large pack of hounds. But we could not pro- 
 cure the herbs. They are indigenous to a low, 
 swampy country. They abound in the everglades of 
 Florida. The colored people furnished me with 
 cayenne pepper, onions, and matches, and I felt 
 comparatively safe. But one day I heard a pack of 
 hounds behind me. I used every ruse and stratagem 
 I could devise, but just as I felt assured that the trail 
 was broken a company who had gone north in search 
 of you, while returning, came upon me and ordered 
 me to come down from the tree in which I had taken 
 refuge, and here I am." 
 
 " What will be your fate? " I asked. 
 
 He replied, " They have discovered the regiment 
 to which I belonged, and I am condemned to death 
 by shooting."
 
 TUPELO. 169 
 
 About 11 o'clock A.M., Col. Gustave Feuillevert 
 came into the prison. He was a planter, a slave- 
 holder, and a friend of General Sterling Price. He 
 was of French ancestry. Had formerly lived in 
 Florida, and was an uncle of Louis Lornette, the 
 prisoner. He recognized him at once, as Louis a few 
 years before had visited his uncle and spent the sum- 
 mer with him. Col. Feuillevert, who was an ultra- 
 secessionist, tried to induce some of the prisoners to 
 promise to enlist in his regiment in case he secured 
 their release upon that condition. He was not success- 
 ful in a single instance. He then approached his 
 nephew, Louis, who was sitting alone in the corner of 
 the prison, and informed him that his brothers, 
 Philippe and Pierre, were at his house in hiding. He 
 said they had deserted from Florida regiments, and af- 
 ter many remarkable adventures had reached his house 
 in as ragged and forlorn a condition as it was possible 
 for men to be found. He detested their treason, but 
 their aunt would save them at the peril of her life, 
 and although he would not betray them he felt sorry 
 and angry at their obstinacy. The colonel urged his 
 nephew to abjure his allegiance to a government that 
 made war upon the institutions of the South and re- 
 fused to keep faith with the Southern states, and had 
 measurably nullified the provisions of the fugitive 
 slave law ; but all in vain, Louis refused to swerve 
 from his loyalty. The colonel bade his nephew 
 adieu, and departed. The day of Louis' execution 
 dawned. I conversed with him, prayed with him,
 
 170 TUPELO. 
 
 took his last messages to wife and children, promis- 
 ing that if I survived the horrors of this prison I 
 would faithfully deliver them, but of this I had lit- 
 tle hope. Louis told me it was clear to his mind 
 that God in His providence had sent me to this prison 
 for such a time as this. Those appointed to die 
 needed the presence of one who could point them to 
 the Savior, and, as a humble instrument in the hand 
 of God, prepare them for a dying hour. It was a 
 source of poignant regret that he had, even for the 
 hope of escape, taken the oath of allegiance to the 
 Confederate States of America. His oath of allegi- 
 ance to the state of Florida he thought was right and 
 proper, as he understood it. 
 
 At noon the guards brought in a prisoner who had 
 voluntarily surrendered himself, declaring that he 
 was Louis Las Cassas Lornette and desired to rejoin 
 his regiment. When confronted with the condemned 
 Louis, they bore such a striking resemblance to each 
 other that the officers were puzzled. Gen. Bragg 
 would be absent from Tupelo for a few days, and 
 Gen. Sterling Price, to whom the case was referred, 
 granted a respite till Gen. Bragg's return. Each 
 prisoner insisted that he was Louis Las Cassas Lor- 
 nette, and refused to recognize the other. The offi- 
 cers took the matter under advisement, and thought 
 it best to send the two prisoners to Gen. Bragg for 
 his decision. Should they fail to carry out Gen. 
 Bragg's orders promptly they feared the conse- 
 quences. A regiment was detailed for this purpose.
 
 TUPELO. 171 
 
 They went via Paden's Mills. Here they met a reg- 
 iment of Federal cavalry ; a skirmish ensued, several 
 were killed, and their bodies lie buried in Mr. 
 Paden's orchard. The Confederates fled and were 
 pursued four miles. They left their prisoners in the 
 hands of the Federals. 
 
 So Louis and Pierre still live to tell their children 
 the trials and persecutions of the Southern loyalists. 
 Philippe soon rejoined them in the !North, and enlist- 
 ing in the same regiment, they served faithfully till 
 the close of the war. Philippe died May 8, 1866, of 
 a wound received in the engagement which resulted 
 in the capture of Fort Fisher. Xot till the war was 
 ended did their families rejoin them. Louis' and 
 Pierre's and Philippe's families are citizens of Cali- 
 fornia. Pierre had resolved to save his brother or 
 perish with him. The affection of Damon and 
 Pythias could not have been stronger. A kind 
 Providence crowned the scheme to save his brother 
 Louis with abundant success, and these elderly vet- 
 erans, still as much alike as in their youth, save the 
 scar of a sabre thrust which laid open the cheek of 
 Louis, are still fighting their battles over at the urgent 
 solicitation of their children and their grand- children 
 and neighbors. 
 
 These brothers are still soldiers, faithful soldiers 
 of the Cross. Louis dates his conversion from the 
 time of his incarceration in Tupelo, and when he 
 writes to me addresses me as his spiritual father, and 
 speaks of himself as my son in the gospel, begotten
 
 172 TUPELO. 
 
 in iny bonds. Pierre and Philippe united with the 
 regimental church at Beaufort, North Carolina, 
 brought to Jesus by their brother Louis, and their 
 Christian graces rapidly developed under the faithful 
 ministrations of that godly pastor, Chaplain LaSalle 
 Coligny, of Huguenot ancestry. 
 
 We are living, we are dwelling, 
 
 In a grand and awful time, 
 In an age on ages telling, 
 
 To be living is sublime. 
 
 After being remanded to prison, I felt that my 
 condition was utterly hopeless. For a time, as often 
 as I approached the door, the guards would order me 
 back. I preached to my fellow-prisoners every 
 evening. The best possible order was maintained, 
 as they stood or sat upon the floor and listened to the 
 words of eternal life. A deep seriousness prevailed, 
 and many believed, to the salvation of their souls. 
 The songs of Zion resounded through the prison 
 house, and a great concourse of soldiers assembled 
 outside the guards in front of both doors. Several 
 officers saw fit to come in during divine service. 
 Some of them behaved decorously, but on one or two 
 occasions, officers who neither feared God nor re- 
 garded man, nor the proprieties becoming gentlemen, 
 interrupted the services by talking in a loud and in- 
 sulting tone, and asking me how I liked my jewelry, 
 pointing to my fetters. The prisoners protested 
 against their rude and ungentlemanly conduct, but 
 without effect ; they sent a remonstrance to the com-
 
 TUPELO. 173 
 
 mander of the post, but he treated it with silent 
 contempt. 
 
 We were a motley assemblage. All the southern 
 states and every prominent religious denomination 
 had representatives among us. The youth in his 
 nonage, and the gray-haired and very aged man were 
 there. The learned and the illiterate, the superior 
 and the subordinate were with us. The descendants 
 of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, were here on the same 
 common level, for in our prison were Afric's dark- 
 browed sons, the descendants of Pocahontas, and the 
 pure Caucasian. Death is said to be the great leveler ; 
 the dungeon at Tupelo was a great leveler. A fel- 
 low feeling made us wondrous kind ; none ate his 
 morsel alone, and a deep and abiding sympathy for 
 each other's woes pervaded every bosom. When our 
 fellow-prisoners were called to die, and were led 
 through our midst with pallid brows and agony de- 
 picted upon their countenances, our heartfelt expres- 
 sions of sorrow and commiseration were not loud 
 (through fear) but deep. 
 
 An officer entered. My name was called. I arose 
 from the floor on \vhich I had been reclining. I 
 recognized him as my old friend, Col. H. W. Walter, 
 of Holly Springs, Miss. After the ordinary saluta- 
 tions, he informed me that he was judge advocate of 
 this army, and that he came to inform me of the day 
 appointed for my trial, and to learn whether I 
 wished to summon any witnesses, and whom. I 
 gave him the names and addresses of several wit-
 
 174 TUPELO. 
 
 nesses, but he refused to send for them, upon the 
 plea that they lived too near the Federal lines. I 
 replied that the cavalry that had gone in pursuit of 
 me had visited those localities. 
 
 He then asked me what I wished to prove by those 
 witnesses. I replied that I wished to prove that the 
 specifications under the charge of enacting the spy 
 are false ; that Ferdinand Woodruff is a man of no 
 moral worth; that Barnes is a mail-robber, and 
 therefore riot a competent nor veracious witness. 
 
 "Your own admissions," said the colonel, "are 
 sufficient to cause you to lose your life. Both 
 charges against you will be fully established. The 
 testimony as to your guilt is clear and positive." He 
 then read the charges and specifications : 
 
 "First charge. Treason. 
 
 "First specification. That Rev. John H. Aughey, 
 a citizen of the state of Mississippi, and of the Con- 
 federate States of America, stated to a member of 
 Hill's cavalry, that if McClellan were defeated the 
 North could raise a much larger army in a short 
 time ; that the North would eventually conquer the 
 South, and that he was a Unionist this for the pur- 
 pose of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. 
 
 " Second specification. That when said Aughey 
 was requested to take the oath of allegiance to the 
 Confederate States of America, he refused, giving as a 
 reason that England and France and himself had 
 not as yet recognized the Southern Confederacy ; 
 stating also that he had voluntarily taken the oath
 
 TUPELO. 175 
 
 of allegiance to the United States government, which 
 he regarded as binding this in North Mississippi. 
 
 "Third specification. That said Rev. John H. 
 Aughey was acting as a Federal agent in the pur- 
 chase of cotton, and that he had received a large sum 
 of gold from the United States government to pay 
 for the cotton purchased. 
 
 " Second charge. Enacting the spy. 
 
 " That said Aughey, while a citizen of the Con- 
 federate States, repeatedly came into our lines for the 
 purpose of obtaining information for the benefit of the 
 enemy, and that he passed through the lines of the 
 enemy at will, holding an unlimited pass from Gen. 
 Wra. Nelson, of the Federal army, granting that 
 privilege this in the vicinity of Corinth, Mississippi, 
 in '6 1-2. 
 
 " Witnesses Wallace, Ferdinand Woodruff, J. B. 
 Coyner, Daniel Barnes, David Hough, . Williams, 
 and J. R. Simonson." 
 
 I demanded a copy of these charges, which Col. 
 Walter promised to furnish. He kindly bade me 
 good-bye, and left the prison. 
 
 About 3 o'clock in the afternoon, I approached 
 two prisoners who were heavily ironed. They were 
 handcuffed, had bands and chains upon their ankles, 
 similar to mine, and were also chained together and 
 to a bolt in the floor. I inquired for what offence 
 they were incarcerated. The prisoner whom I ad- 
 dressed was a tall gentleman with a very intellectual 
 expression of countenance and of prepossessing man- 
 ners. He was pale and sad.
 
 176 TUPELO. 
 
 " We are charged with desertion." 
 
 "Did you desert?" 
 
 " I enlisted in the Confederate service for twelve 
 months. At the expiration of my term of service I 
 asked permission to return home, stating that I had 
 learned from a trustworthy source that my family 
 were suffering from a lack of the necessaries of life ; 
 that they lived in Tennessee, which is occupied by 
 Federal troops. Confederate money there has no 
 purchasing power, not being worth the paper on 
 which it is printed ; that I desired to relieve my 
 family from their distress, and as my term of service 
 had expired, I demanded my discharge. This they 
 refused, stating that the Confederate congress had 
 passed a law requiring all soldiers who had enlisted 
 for any term, however short, to be held to service 
 during the war, and that all who left before its close 
 would be considered guilty of desertion, and if 
 arrested would be shot. Regarding the law as a 
 tyrannical enactment, aud of no binding force, I at- 
 tempted to return to my family, but was arrested and 
 committed to this prison." 
 
 "What will be your fate? " 
 
 " I don't know, but fear the worst. At our trial 
 Gen. Bragg said some salutary examples must be 
 made to deter soldiers from deserting, or the army 
 would waste away as snow before the bright beams 
 of the vernal sun. His bile and bitterness over- 
 flowed in acrimonious invectives." 
 
 The other prisoner's statement was a perfect coun- 
 terpart of his comrade's.
 
 TUPELO. 177 
 
 The first was named Melville Baillie, of Raleigh, 
 Tennessee, and the other Polk Childress, of Hickory 
 Wythe, Tenn. Their friend, Parley Van Horn, of 
 Colliersville, Tenn., they left sick at the home of his 
 cousin, Felix Grundy Ayres, in Byhalia, Miss., who 
 thus escaped. I left them and walked to the oppo- 
 site side of the prison, when I observed a file of sol- 
 diers drawn up in front of the prison. Two officers 
 entered, and walking up to the prisoners with whom 
 I had just been conversing, unfastened their chains, 
 and ordered them to follow. As the officers passed 
 Capt. Bruce, he asked, " What are you going to do 
 with these men ? " " Going to shoot them," was the 
 reply. They then showed him the warrant for their 
 execution, having written across it in red letters, 
 " condemned to death." When the prisoners reached 
 the door, the file of soldiers separated, received the 
 prisoners into the space in their midst, marched 
 them across the railroad, and shot them. 
 
 Thus was perpetrated an act of cruel tyranny that 
 cries loudly to heaven for vengeance. T\vo families, 
 helpless and destitute, were thus each deprived of its 
 head, upon whom they were dependent for support, 
 and abandoned to the cold charity of a selfish world. 
 The wages earned by a year's service in behalf 01' 
 the wicked, cruel, and vindictive Confederate states, 
 was an ignominious death and a dishonored grave. 
 The widow and the fatherless cry to heaven for ven- 
 geance, and their cries have entered into the ears of 
 the Lord of Sabaoth. 
 
 12
 
 178 TUPELO. 
 
 The judge advocate of the army, Col. H. "W. 
 Walter, returned to the prison and called iny name. 
 I speedily confronted him. He brought a copy of 
 the charges preferred against me. 
 
 He said : " My wife feels a deep interest in you. 
 She is very anxious in some way to secure your 
 acquittal. I received a letter from her to-day, a por- 
 tion of which I will read you : l Mr. Aughey's many 
 friends in Holly Springs, and I am of the number, 
 earnestly request you to do all you can for his re- 
 lease, that will comport with the interests of our 
 government. Remember that he is a minister 
 of the gospel, and deserves all the courtesy, con- 
 sideration, and kind treatment due to one who has 
 faithfully and zealously fulfilled his high calling in 
 our immediate vicinity at Waterford and Spring 
 Creek. Our dear friend, Mrs. Louis Thompson, has 
 a mother's affection for him, and will visit him if 
 permitted, that she may minister to his comfort and 
 intercede for his release. He has often been our 
 guest and has ever deported himself as a Christian 
 gentleman, sans peur et sans reproche,' etc." 
 
 He informed me that my trial had been deferred 
 until Monday. He said, "You will be tried on 
 Monday and hanged on Tuesday at 2 o'clock P.M." 
 
 "Colonel, if my death is a foregone conclusion, you 
 may as well reverse the order, and hang me on Mon- 
 day and try me on Tuesday." 
 
 " I have examined the testimony against you. I 
 know the intention of the officers. Your own ad-
 
 TUPELO. 179 
 
 missions are sufficient to condemn you. It is my 
 duty as judge advocate to do all I can for the pris- 
 oner, and as a friend I would take pleasure in 
 securing your acquittal, if that result would comport 
 with the interests and safety of the Confederate 
 states. But you have done us all the harm you 
 could. "Winfrey and Armstrong, young soldiers 
 from Choctaw county, have informed me all about 
 your seditious language and conduct while pastor of 
 churches down there. They will appear against you. 
 The full extent of the injury you have done our 
 cause in North Mississippi can only be conjectured, 
 but it was to the extent of your ability and oppor- 
 tunity. "Woodruff, Barnes, Crossland, Capt. George, 
 David Hough, Wallace, and J. B. Coyner, have 
 given sufficient testimony to Gens. Bragg, Beaure- 
 gard, Jordan, and Price, of your treasonable exploits 
 to fill a volume. At one time Gen Bragg became so 
 angry at the recital of your Norman Bridge feat, 
 that he came near ordering a detail to hang you at 
 once, without the forms or farce of a trial. And he 
 would have done so, only Gen. Sterling Price inter- 
 posed and insisted that as you were a minister of the 
 gospel the right thing to do was to give you a fair 
 and impartial trial. As you were chained and 
 closely guarded in the very midst of this great army, 
 escape was not possible, and a few days' respite could 
 not by any possibility injure the Southern Confeder- 
 acy. Gen. Jordan, who is Beauregard's chief of staff, 
 declared that he ordered and inspected the ironing,
 
 180 TUPELO. 
 
 and that he would vouch for the security of the 
 prisoner, for a few days at least. At another time, 
 when Dr. Crossland recounted your insolence to 
 Gen. Pfeiffer, at Brooksville, Gen. Bragg could 
 scarcely restrain his wrath, and was upon the point 
 of ordering your immediate execution. He thought 
 Gen. Pfeiffer did wrong to allow you to express 
 treasonable sentiments and to denounce the Confeder- 
 ate cause. Your execution will be as conspicuous as 
 possible. It will take place in the presence of two 
 brigades, composed of soldiers, many of whom are 
 personally acquainted with you. There are many 
 Unionists up there in North-eastern Mississippi, and 
 a salutary example will not be lost on them. Some 
 of them are in our army here perforce, and will wit- 
 ness an execution suggestive of their own fate if they 
 should be guilty of treasonable language or conduct. 
 Your crimes will be read to them and commented 
 on by Major General Hardee, if present, or Gen. 
 Mark Lowrey, in case of his absence." 
 
 "Colonel, I am a civilian. What right have they 
 to try me by military law. The civil court has juris- 
 diction, and not a court-martial." 
 
 "All citizens of the Confederate States between 
 18 and 35 have been declared in the army, by con- 
 gressional enactment, and have been required to re- 
 port themselves at the head-quarters of the com- 
 mander of the nearest military district within a given 
 time, or be considered deserters. Have you com- 
 plied with this law?"
 
 TUPELO. 181 
 
 "No, I have not. You have furnished me a copy 
 of the charges against me, with the specifications. 
 Desertion is not one of the charges." 
 
 "No, there are charges enough without that. I 
 only mention it to show you that that enactment 
 gives military jurisdiction over all citizens of military 
 age. All your interests are with the South. It is 
 your adopted home, though like myself you are of 
 northern birth. Why did you not cast in your 
 lot with the dominant class, for whose society you 
 are fitted by literary culture, and not with that class 
 which is giving us so great trouble, and whose trea- 
 sonable utterances and acts we must suppress with an 
 iron hand. Our own safety requires that we tolerate 
 no longer the traitors in our midst. We must con- 
 fiscate their property and exterminate them as we 
 would venomous serpents." 
 
 "Jefferson Davis, in his inaugural address, quoting 
 from the Declaration of Independence, declares that 
 when governments become destructive to the ends 
 for which they were established it is the right of the 
 people to alter or abolish them. Was it the end for 
 which our government was established to foster the 
 interests of human slavery? If so, and you deem it 
 right to protect those interests, go and fight in their 
 defence, but do not endeavor to compel me and the 
 great majority of the southern people who own no 
 slaves to fight for your interests, and to become the 
 foes of a government that has never trespassed upon 
 our rights, a government which has no superior
 
 182 TUPELO. 
 
 upon the face of the earth. You may murder me, 
 but you cannot murder the government. If I had 
 a thousand lives I would gladly lay them all upon 
 the altar of my bleeding country." 
 
 " Parson, recanting your opinions would not save 
 you now. You have forfeited your life, and I will 
 not insult you by characterizing your crimes by their 
 true names." 
 
 "Who said anything about recanting? I have 
 no desire to recant truthful principles. You may 
 express your opinion of my crimes, if you wish, and 
 give their true names." 
 
 "Well, your crimes are, treason, enacting the spy, 
 base ingratitude to your benefactors, and those who 
 have heretofore reposed confidence in you, by siding 
 with their enemies." 
 
 "Colonel, I have given a fair equivalent for all 
 that I have received, and I have injured no one wit- 
 tingly, in person, property, or reputation. My 
 present condition indicates that the ingratitude is all 
 upon the other side. I have labored faithfully for 
 eleven years to promote the intellectual and moral 
 and religious interests of the southern people, and 
 they thus repay me with bonds and imprisonment, 
 and they intend to pay the last installment by put- 
 ting me to an ignominious death on the scaffold." 
 
 "Parson, I will call to-morrow, and should you 
 have any requests to make, such as conveying mes- 
 sages to friends, disposition of property, or benefit 
 of clergy at your execution, I will fulfill them for 
 you."
 
 TUPELO. 1 83 
 
 " I would be glad to have Rev. James A. Lyon, 
 D.D., of Columbus, to be present at my execution, also 
 Rev. James Pelan, of Macon." 
 
 "I will telegraph them at once." 
 
 " I will prepare messages for my wife and other 
 friends by to-morrow evening." 
 
 " I will secure their delivery at the earliest possible 
 moment." 
 
 "Thanks, Colonel." 
 
 Soon after Col. Walter left, Col. Clare came in 
 and asked me whether I had been president of a 
 female college in Rienzi. I replied in the affirma- 
 tive. 
 
 "'Tis strange," said he, "that one who has been 
 so favored, and one who has accumulated property 
 in the South, should prove a traitor to his adopted 
 country and become its enemy." 
 
 I replied that I had given a fair equivalent for 
 every dollar I had obtained from the citizens of the 
 South; that for eleven years I had labored faithfully 
 as an educator and minister of the gospel to promote 
 the educational, moral, and spiritual interests of the 
 southern people in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, 
 Louisiana, and Mississippi, and that now I was receiv- 
 ing my reward by being chained, starved, and insulted, 
 and that they intended soon to pay the last installment 
 by putting me to death ignominiously on the scaffold. 
 I denied being an enemy to my country or to the 
 South, I regarded those who would promote divisions 
 and overthrow the government as the real enemies
 
 ] 84 TUPELO. 
 
 of the South who were imperiling all her best inter- 
 ests. If my advice had been followed the South 
 and the whole country would now be enjoying its 
 wonted peace and unparalleled prosperity, and would 
 not have suffered "W. L. Yancey and other dema- 
 gogues to precipitate a desolating and ruinous 
 revolution. 
 
 He replied, " Ingrate, traitor, wretch, I have no 
 sympathy for you." He then called upon all the 
 supernal and infernal powers to blast my soul in 
 everlasting death and confine it forever in fiery 
 torments. 
 
 The prison walls echoed and re-echoed his blatant 
 blasphemy. The prisoners stood aghast, and with 
 faces blanched with fear for my safety, plucked me 
 away and crowded the space between me and this 
 vile blasphemer, who, with hand upon the hilt of 
 his sword and pistol belt alternately, seemed ready 
 to wreak his vengeance upon me. 
 
 At this moment Major Irion entered, and was in- 
 formed by this minion of Jeff Davis that he had re- 
 lieved his mind by giving me a "good cussen." 
 He left the prison with this officer, cursing as he 
 went. 
 
 Perhaps I should have been more circumspect 
 more reticent, and thus prevented this outpouring of 
 the vials of Confederate wrath by this cursing 
 Shimei. 
 
 At this moment Gen. Braxton Bragg and several 
 officers of high rank entered. A distinguished
 
 TUPELO. 185 
 
 French officer was visiting this country on a tour of 
 inspection. He desired to visit this prison, and this 
 was the occasion of their visit. When they came to 
 the place where I was standing, Gen. Bragg said, 
 " This man dies on Tuesday next." 
 
 " What is his offence?" inquired the officer. 
 
 " He is a prisoner of state, and is guilty of treason." 
 
 "Are they all state prisoners in this prison?" 
 
 "All except a few prisoners of war, who will be 
 removed to Macon, Ga., in a few days." 
 
 " This is a bastile, I suppose, but what has this 
 prisoner done?" 
 
 " What has he not done, would be a more perti- 
 nent question. He has thrown all the influence of 
 his official position as a minister of the gospel into 
 the scale of opposition against our government." 
 
 " He is a minister, then ?" 
 
 "Yes, a Presbyterian minister, of Northern birth 
 and education." 
 
 "Ministers are usually regarded as non-com- 
 batants." 
 
 "Yes, but by word and deed and sermon and pen 
 and every species of treasonable act and utterance, he 
 has done our cause infinite harm. He is far from 
 being a non-combatant." 
 
 "What is his name?" [Producing a note-book]. 
 
 " He spells his name A-u-g-h-e-y. I am not sure 
 of its pronunciation." 
 
 " O, yes, General, I recognize that name as of 
 French origin. We have the name in France a
 
 186 TUPELO. 
 
 family of Huguenots. Many of that family were 
 banished because of their opposition to the religious 
 traditions of our empire, and some of them, after the 
 revocation of the edict of Nantes, fled to the British 
 Islands, and to Germany and Holland, to avoid the 
 penalty affixed to disobeying the ecclesiastical regula- 
 tions of our country. He comes by his refractory 
 opinions and conduct legitimately." 
 
 Gen. Bragg is a cadaverous, plain-looking man. 
 He has bushy black eyebrows and piercing eyes. He 
 stoops slightly in walking, and his stubby iron-gray 
 beard and his receding forehead give him a plebeian 
 look. He is cruel as the grave. Nearly every day 
 he shoots some of his own soldiers, often for trivial 
 offences. Cruelty is plainly written in indelible char- 
 acters upon every lineament of his features, which 
 are stern and almost savage in their expression. 
 
 After a thorough inspection of the prison our dis- 
 tinguished visitors retired. 
 
 I approached two elderly, gray-haired men, who 
 sat in the north-west corner of the prison. These old 
 gentlemen had become fast friends, and wept at the 
 thought of their bleeding country's woes, brought on 
 by designing, scheming politicians (not statesmen) in 
 the interests of an institution subversive of all the 
 inalienable rights of man. They gave me their 
 history. The older gentleman, John Champe, was 
 the youngest son of a revolutionary sire. His father 
 had been chosen by AY asn ' n gtn to effect the capture 
 of Benedict Arnold after his treason, so as to save
 
 TUPELO. 187 
 
 the life of Major Andre 1 . This, because of untoward 
 circumstances, he could not accomplish. But the 
 effort was a gallant and heroic one, and merited and 
 received high commendation from Gen. Washington. 
 This is his story : 
 
 "I resided in Tuscumbia, Ala. I had four sous-. 
 Three of them had joined the Federal army. One 
 night an attack was made on my house. My young- 
 est son and I defended ourselves, but after killing 
 four of our assailants, they burst in the door. We 
 fled by the back door, and endeavored to reach the 
 Federal lines. A company pursued us with blood- 
 hounds. They overtook us. We fought with des- 
 peration. We killed five hounds and four of the 
 soldiers. We expended all our ammunition. We 
 were both severely wounded. They hung my son to 
 the limb of a tree, and left the body to be devoured 
 by the birds of prey. They put me in irons and 
 brought me here. Why they spared my life I know 
 not. The surgeon informs me that my wound in the 
 breast will prove fatal in a short time. It gives me 
 great pain. I would like much to see my aged wife, 
 who, alone and surrounded by bitter foes, is mourn- 
 ing our absence." 
 
 The other said : " My name is Carter Braxton. I 
 was named for my grandfather, a signer of the Dec- 
 laration of Independence. My home is in Obion 
 county, Tenn. My four sons are all in the Federal 
 army. This is the cause of my imprisonment. They 
 asked me if I were a Unionist, and I replied that it
 
 188 TUPELO. 
 
 was a principle of law that no one was bound to 
 criminate himself. I have had my trial. They 
 proved that I had refused to take Confederate money, 
 that I have traded with the Yankees, that my four 
 sons were in the Federal army, that I was not a 
 slaveholder, that I refused to take the oath of allegi- 
 ance to the Confederate states, that after the reduction 
 of Fort Donaldson I had told one George Sarbaugh 
 that it would take more than one Southerner to whip 
 five Yankees." 
 
 While he was yet speaking, the officer entered, and 
 this old gentleman and a prisoner named Jason Che- 
 nault were unchained and marched to the fatal plat 
 and shot. Chenault was a Kentucky Unionist, who 
 had come to Mississippi to collect money due him for 
 mules sold the year before. He was arrested, charged 
 with enacting the spy, found guilty, and shot. I 
 might record the sad fate of Nicholas Vedder, Bynum, 
 Sorrell, and OsM r ald, all shot at the same time, for 
 avowed Unionism, but space is wanting. I may 
 place upon permanent record in the near future the 
 biographies of these and other martyrs to the holy 
 cause of our country's integrity imperiled by traitors. 
 
 I preached every evening. One evening my text 
 was I. Kings xviii. 21 : "How long halt ye between 
 two opinions." As none of us had a hymn book, I 
 composed these hymns for the occasion. I parceled 
 them out by couplets, and all joined in the singing: 
 
 How long ! O, sinner, wilt thou halt, 
 How long! remain in guilty doubt.
 
 TUPELO. 189 
 
 While heaven and earth and air and sea 
 
 The Lord is God, responsive shout. 
 "Whilst thou arrt halting, sin grows strong, 
 
 And lust and passion rule thy soul, 
 And all the powers of hell combined 
 
 Still hold thee 'neath their stern control. 
 O, sinner, choose in this thy day 
 
 To serve the Lord who loves thee well, 
 Oh ! choose to walk in wisdom's way 
 
 And break thy league with death and hell. 
 Then will the host of heaven rejoice, 
 
 Then will the powers of darkness rage, 
 But thou, a soldier of the cross, 
 
 Wilt a successful warfare wage. 
 And when the glorious victory's won, 
 
 Thou wilt a king, a conqueror be, 
 Wear on thy brow a diadem, 
 
 And have a right to life's fair tree. 
 
 HYMX AFTER SERMON. 
 
 Spirit of the living God, 
 Water now the precious seed, 
 Slay the sinner with Thy sword, 
 Comfort to Thy saints afford. 
 Satan, like the birds of prey, 
 Strives to catch the seed away, 
 Cares in countless numbers come, 
 Shines with scorching heat the sun. 
 Thus we see our Savior's foes 
 Strive to blast the seed he sows. 
 In the hearts of young and old, 
 Prosper it, a hundred fold. 
 Holy Spirit, Father, Son, 
 Aid us till our work is done; 
 Then, instead of worthless leaves, 
 We shall bring our precious sheaves.
 
 190 TUPELO. 
 
 Two young men, John N. Maple, of Verona, 
 Miss., and Samuel Melvin, of Tallaloosa, Miss., the 
 former a Primitive Baptist, the latter a Methodist, 
 held a discussion on the doctrine of foreordination. 
 Some point in my sermon occasioned it. They both 
 appeared to believe in the doctrine, since the term 
 was used in the Bible. Melvin said the decrees of 
 God were founded upon His foreknowledge. In the 
 case of Paul, God foresaw all the contingencies and 
 knew because of His prescience how they would 
 eventuate, and based His decree that Paul should 
 stand before Csesar upon that foreknowledge. Maple 
 affirmed that God knew that Paul would stand be- 
 fore Caesar because He had decreed it. That He did 
 not stand aside an indifferent spectator to observe 
 how affairs would result, and then decree that they 
 should take place, as He foresaw they would happen 
 anyhow. That all that God does in time He always 
 intended to do, and all that wicked men do He 
 always intended to suffer or permit them to do. He 
 would allow them to do wickedly in the exercise of 
 the freedom of their will, only so far as He chose to 
 overrule their wickedness for the promotion of His 
 declarative glory, and the remainder of wrath He 
 would restrain. Beyond the boundary of His will 
 He would hem them in by His providence, and say, 
 so far shalt thou go and no farther. Foreordination 
 is founded upon the will of God, and not upon His 
 foreknowledge of what man will do or what He 
 foresees will happen. At the close of their debate
 
 TUPELO. 191 
 
 it was found that neither had convinced the other of 
 his error, nor any one else. 
 
 A man of Herculean frame, whose height was six 
 feet eight inches, occupied the space on the floor next 
 to mine as sleeping quarters. This space he called 
 his dormitory. He gave me his history thus: 
 
 " I am a native of East Tennessee. I was born in 
 Tellico Plains, Monroe Co., measurably brought up 
 in Conasauga, Polk Co. I married Miss Tennie 
 Paden, bought a farm near Dandridge, of one Geo. 
 Cogsil, and moved on it in the year 1860. My own 
 name is Hermon Bledsoe. I M'as chosen a delegate 
 to the mass convention of Unionists, held June 17, 
 1861, in Greenville, Tennessee, to protest against the 
 tyranny inaugurated over us by the rebel authorities. 
 I was a member of the committee which prepared the 
 following address, which was adopted by the conven- 
 tion with entire unanimity. We first detailed the 
 facts of the election, how in Middle and West Tennes- 
 see the people were overawed, bullied, persecuted into 
 an adoption of the ordinance ; how the secessionists 
 had prepared for the furtherance of their schemes, 
 though the state had voted No Separation ; how no 
 provision was made for examining the returns other- 
 wise than by a disunion governor, whose hold on 
 power depended upon the success of the secession pro- 
 gram; how volunteers in the secession army were 
 allowed to vote within and icithout the state, contrary 
 to any law; how discussion was forbidden in those 
 sections where the secession vote was triumphant,
 
 192 TUPELO. 
 
 while every Union paper there was crashed out ; how 
 a military despotism was ruling in spite of the wishes 
 and rights of the people. The address then went on 
 to say, in behalf of the loyal Unionist majority: 
 
 "'We prefer to remain attached to the Government 
 of our fathers. The Constitution of the United 
 States has done us no wrong. The congress of the 
 United States has passed no law to oppress us. The 
 president of the United States has made no threat 
 against the law abiding people of Tennessee. Under 
 the Government of the United States we have enjoyed, 
 as a nation, more of civil and religious freedom than 
 any other people under the whole heaven. We be- 
 lieve that there is no cause for secession nor rebellion 
 on the part of the people of Tennessee. None was 
 assigned by the legislature in their miscalled declara- 
 tion of independence. No adequate cause can be as- 
 signed. The select committee of that body asserted 
 a gross and inexcusable falsehood in their address to 
 the people of Tennessee, when they declared that the 
 Government of the United States had made war upon 
 them. 
 
 ( ' The secession cause has thus far been sustained 
 by deception and falsehood, by falsehood as to the 
 action of congress; by false dispatches as to bat- 
 tles that were never fought and victories that were 
 never won ; by false accounts as to the purpose of 
 the president; by false representations as to the views 
 of Union men ; and by false pretenses as to the facil- 
 ity with which the secession troops would take pos-
 
 TUPELO. 19-J 
 
 session of the capital and capture the highest officers 
 of the Government. The cause of secession or rebell- 
 ion has no charms for us, and its progress has been 
 marked by the most alarming and dangerous attacks 
 upon the public liberty. In other states, as well as 
 our own, its whole course threatens to annihilate the 
 last vestige of freedom. While peace and prosperity 
 have blest us in the Government of the United States, 
 the following may be enumerated as some of the 
 fruits of secession. 
 
 " ' It was urged forward by members of congress 
 who had sworn to support the Constitution of the 
 United States, and were themselves supported by the 
 Government ; it was effected without consultation 
 with all the states interested in the slavery question, 
 and without exhausting peaceable remedies. It has 
 plunged the country into civil war, paralyzed our 
 commerce, interfered with the whole trade and busi- 
 ness of our country, lessened the value of our prop- 
 erty, destroyed many of the pursuits of life, and bids 
 fair to involve the whole nation in irretrievable 
 bankruptcy and ruin. It has changed the entire re- 
 lations of states, and adopted constitutions without 
 submitting them to a vote of the people, and where 
 such a vote has been authorized, it has been upon the 
 condition prescribed by Senator Mason, of Virginia, 
 that those who voted the Union ticket must leave the 
 state. It has advocated a constitutional monarchy, a 
 king, and a dictator, and is, through the Richmond 
 press, at this moment recommending to the conven- 
 13
 
 194 TUPELO. 
 
 tion in Virginia a restriction of the right of suffrage, 
 and in severing connection with the Yankees, to 
 abolish every vestige of resemblance to the institut- 
 ions of that detested race. It has formed military 
 leagues, passed military bills, and opened the door 
 for oppressive taxation, without consulting the peo- 
 ple, and then, in mockery of a free election, has re- 
 quired them by their votes to sanction its usurpations, 
 under the penalty of moral proscription or at the 
 point of the bayonet. It has offered a premium for 
 crime in directing the discharge of volunteers from 
 criminal prosecutions, and recommending the judges 
 not to hold their courts. It has stained our statute 
 book with the repudiation of Northern debts, and has 
 greatly violated the Constitution, by attempting 
 through its unlawful extension to destroy the right 
 of suffrage. It has called upon the people in the 
 state of Georgia, and may soon require the people of 
 Tennessee, to contribute all their surplus cotton, corn, 
 wheat, bacon, beef, etc., to the support of pretended 
 governments alike destitute of money and credit. It 
 has attempted to destroy the accountability of pub- 
 lic servants to the people by secret legislation, and 
 set the obligation of an oath at defiance. It has 
 passed laws declaring it treason to say or do anything 
 in favor of the Government of the United States, or 
 against the Confederate states, and such a law is now 
 before, and we apprehend will soon be passed by, the 
 legislature of Tennessee. It has attempted to destroy, 
 and we fear will soon utterly prostrate, the freedom
 
 TUPELO. 195 
 
 of speech and of the press. It has involved the 
 Southern states in a war whose success is hopeless, 
 and which must ultimately lead to the ruin of the 
 people. Its bigoted, overbearing, and intolerant 
 spirit has already subjected the people of East Ten- 
 nessee to many petty grievances; our people have 
 been insulted ; our flags have been fired upon and 
 torn down ; our houses have been rudely entered ; 
 our families subjected to insult ; our peaceable meet- 
 ings interrupted ; our women and children shot by a 
 merciless soldiery ; our towns pillaged ; our citizens 
 robbed and some of them assassinated and murdered. 
 Xo effort has been spared to deter the Union men of 
 East Tennessee from the expression of their free 
 thoughts. The penalties of treason have been threat- 
 ened against them, and murder and assassination have 
 been openly encouraged by leading secession journals. 
 As secession has been thus overbearing and intoler- 
 ant while in the minority in East Tennessee, nothing 
 better can be expected of the pretended majority than 
 wild, unconstitutional, and oppressi ve legislation ; an 
 utter contempt and disregard of law ; a determination 
 to force every Unionist in the state to swear to the 
 support of a constitution he abhors, and to yield his 
 money and property to aid a cause he detests, and to 
 become the object of scorn and derision as well as the 
 victim of intolerable and relentless oppression. 
 
 " In view of these considerations, and of the fact 
 that the people of East Tennessee have declared 
 their fidelity to the Union by a majority of about
 
 196 TUPELO. 
 
 twenty thousand votes, therefore we do resolve and 
 declare/ 
 
 " Here followed a series of patriotic resolutions, 
 and the appointment of a committee to prepare a 
 memorial, asking the consent of the legislature of 
 Tennessee to consent to the separation of East Tenn- 
 essee, and those counties of Middle Tennessee which 
 desired it, from the rest of the state, that they may- 
 be formed into a separate state. 
 
 " Brownlow, Maynard, Etheridge, Nelson, Hawk- 
 ins, Johnson, etc., led the Unionists. It was not 
 long before those Unionists and protestants against 
 wrong were flying for their lives, and were hunted 
 down like wild beasts. The leaders disappeared 
 from observation, and the people could only become 
 quiescent in a state of affairs which, in the presence 
 of the armed minions of the Southern Confederacy, 
 they were powerless to prevent. 
 
 " I was placed on the proscribed list, and was com- 
 pelled to hide, in a cavern with other Unionists. 
 One night I visited my family, which consisted of 
 my wife and twin babes, Mark and Paul. A band 
 of guerrillas, lying in ambush in the chaparral near my 
 residence, surrounded the house, and rushing through 
 the door, which for the moment I had forgotten to 
 fasten, took me prisoner. They searched my person 
 and found several copies of the address above given, 
 and some letters in a drawer, which were construed 
 unfavorably by these cruel men. They handcuffed 
 me and took me to the chaparral copse. They held
 
 TUPELO. 197 
 
 a brief trial, which resulted in my conviction and 
 condemnation to death. Immediate preparations 
 were made for 'my execution. Douglas Flinn de- 
 clared that hanging was too good for such a wretch 
 as I. Jim Bainbridge coincided with him in opin- 
 ion. ' What do you want done with him ? ' said 
 Bob. Torrence, who commanded the gang. ( Let us 
 burn him at the stake, like Col. Brown's Sam last 
 week, for assaulting a white girl.' l All right,' said 
 Torrence. { All in favor of burning this d d ren- 
 egade, this Lincolnite, this tory and traitor, say aye.' 
 A vociferous aye resounded. ' All opposed, no.' Only 
 two voices responded in the negative. Sam Lovell 
 took off the handcuffs and bound me to a sapling 
 with the rope with which they had intended to hang 
 me. The trial had begun in the gloaming, and now 
 darkness had enshrouded all the land. Flinn ran 
 and gathered an armful of dry sticks and deposited 
 them in a pile at my feet. Soon many were engaged 
 in gathering fagots. Flinn declared that this was 
 the happiest night of his existence. He would soon 
 have the pleasure of seeing this miserable traitor 
 going up like Elijah in a chariot of fire. ' So mote 
 it be,' growled Jacob Embry, in a sepulchral tone. 
 George Goshen, Peter Peters, and J. B. Coyner were 
 dispatched to Aunt Sylvia Caldwell's for a firebrand 
 with which to ignite the pile of fagots. I commended 
 my soul to God and calmly awaited death. Flinn 
 approached me with a pile of (as he said) very dry 
 wood. He approached quite near, and dropping the
 
 198 TUPELO. 
 
 fagots he placed a knife handle between my teeth. 
 The large blade of the knife was open. He then 
 ran to and mounted a stump about fifty yards dis- 
 tant, and commenced to deliver a harangue laudatory 
 of the Southern Confederacy, and denouncing all 
 traitors, wishing them in the bottom of the lowest 
 hell. 
 
 "With some effort I managed to sever the cord bind- 
 ing my wrists. I then cut the cord bound around 
 my waist, and quietly and quickly made my escape. 
 The crowd around Flinn, who was doubtless a 
 Unionist in disguise, were cheering vociferously, 
 which aided my escape, as the noise drowned the 
 crackling of the fagots as I removed or trampled 
 upon them on the farther side from the stump orator 
 and his auditors. Soon the men with the fire ar- 
 rived and applied it to the heap around the sapling. 
 Looking back from a hill about two miles distant I 
 saw the flames rising higher and higher, till a large 
 space was illuminated. Suddenly I heard fierce yells 
 of disappointment and rage, emanating from the 
 throats of this infuriated and disappointed crowd of 
 demons incarnate, maddened to frenzy by my escape. 
 I traveled by night, but lay concealed during the 
 day. 
 
 " When in hiding near Siluria, Shelby county, 
 Alabama, I heard the sound of a Wood-chopper's ax, 
 quite near, and peering from the copse in which I 
 was concealed, I saw a slave at work felling a tree. 
 Soon he began to declaim a piece :
 
 TUPELO. 199 
 
 ' ' ' The hillsides in places are white I know, 
 But the \vhiteness is not occasioned by snow. 
 It is only the petals of apples and cherries 
 And peaches and plums and all sorts of berries, 
 Just falling in sport from their bowers, 
 As if to represent April showers. ' 
 
 " ' Now/ said he, apparently well satisfied with his 
 effort, 'Dat's 'bout as good as young Massa 
 Josiah hisself could spoke it.' Soon he broke forth 
 in song : 
 
 " ' On Jordan's banks we stand, 
 
 An' Jordan's stream roll by, 
 Xo bridge de watahs span, 
 
 De flood am risin high. 
 Heah it foam an' roar, de dark flood tide, 
 How shel we cross to de oder side. 
 
 ' De riber deep an' strong, 
 De wabes am bery cole, 
 We see it rush along 
 ~ But who can venture bole. 
 Heah it foam and roar, etc. 
 
 'A little chile step down, 
 
 It go in de riber deep, 
 Kin little feet touch groun' 
 
 Whar mountain billows sweep. 
 Heah it foam and roar, etc. 
 
 ' Dere comes a flash of light 
 
 Ober de cole dark wabes, 
 Dere come de angel's flight, 
 
 See, shinin' hands dat sabe, 
 Prom de watah's foam, de dark flood tide 
 Fer de Lawd hab seen from de oder side. 
 
 'Heah music swellin' gran', 
 Yes, songs of welcome ring.
 
 200 TUPELO. 
 
 White wings de riber span, 
 
 De little chile to bring. 
 Den let old Jordan roar, de dark flood tide, 
 We'se borne across to de odder side. ' 
 
 " I called, ' Halloo, uncle ! ' as he rested for a mo- 
 ment from his labor, with arms akimbo. 'Who am 
 dat calling ? ' he cried out, with some degree of trep- 
 idation. As he looked in my direction, I beckoned 
 him to approach me. When he came near I said, 
 'To whom do you belong? Where do you live?' 
 He replied, 'I belongs to Major Cay ce, of Talladega. 
 He bought me and my wife of Col. Shorter, of Choc- 
 colocco, Calhoun county, last year. I was borned 
 the slave of Parson Lagow, of Emuckfaw. When I 
 wuz six months old, master died, an' ole lady Rudisil 
 bought me at the sale fur $500. I lived wid her at 
 Chepultepec till I wuz ten years old, den she died, 
 and I wuz sold agin to Gov. Peyton Claiborne, of 
 Sylacauga. I'se bin around sum, but I'se never bin 
 but en the state of Alabam. I buys my time from 
 my now master, Major Cayce, for twenty-five dollars 
 a month. I lives in that cabin up yonder on the 
 hill.' He pointed with the index finger of his right 
 hand to a cabin almost lost to sight in the distance, 
 nestling among the trees in a grove surmounting a 
 hill of great height. He named it cosy cot, and the 
 name was not a misnomer. 
 
 "I revealed my condition to this quadroon slave, 
 and he and his kind wife fed and lodged me for a 
 week, till I was sufficiently recovered from my 
 fatigue to continue my journey.
 
 TUPELO. 201 
 
 On the broad highway of action, 
 
 Friends of worth are far and few; 
 But when one has proved his friendship, 
 
 Cling to him who clings to you. 
 
 Should opportunity ever be afforded for reciprocating 
 the kindness of this slave husband and wife, Isam 
 and Tabitha, I will gladly avail myself of it, and do 
 them all the kindness in my power. 
 
 "I continued my journey, and with but little of 
 incident or adventure worth narrating, I at length 
 arrived at the home of my cousin, Jerry Humboldt, 
 in Selma, Ala. My cousin was a staunch Unionist, 
 a stalwart, uncompromising friend of the United 
 States government and the old flag, the star-spangled 
 banner, the emblem of freedom and the inalienable 
 rights of man. 
 
 "Every day dangers thickened around us. We 
 were compelled to devise a plan of escape to the 
 Federal lines. Twenty-five of us set out together, 
 under the guidance of Leander Browning. At Tal- 
 lahatta Springs, Clark county, a band of guerrillas, 
 or partisan rangers, as they called themselves, over- 
 took us as we were camping for the night. We 
 fought them long and well, till we had slain nearly 
 twice our number of our pursuers, then, as the dark- 
 ness grew denser, the remnant of us, wounded and 
 bleeding, fled. 
 
 " I was captured at Sanwilpa, was taken to Tus- 
 cahoma, put into a guard house. Soon after I was 
 conveyed to Pushmataha ; thence I was removed to
 
 202 TUPELO. 
 
 this dungeon in Tupelo, Miss. I adroitly concealed 
 my identity, and though under violent suspicion 
 nothing definite was proved against me. To save 
 my life, I have agreed to take the oath of allegiance, 
 and join the rebel army. I may soon be able to de- 
 sert and reach the Union lines. My nom de guerre 
 is Ralph Benton." 
 
 " Have you any conscientious scruples about the 
 propriety of taking an oath with the deliberate in- 
 tention of violating it ? " 
 
 " Not any. It may save my life. At least deliver 
 me from this prison. Deception is certainly justifi- 
 able in a case like this. The rebels have violated 
 every oath that they have ever taken. Shall we 
 keep faith with them ? Naught but Punic faith for 
 them. As soon trust a rattlesnake as a rebel. I 
 hope to reach the Union lines and offer my services 
 to General Pope as a volunteer in his army." 
 
 On the next day my friend was permitted to take 
 the oath and enter the rebel army. He had several 
 copies of the address concealed about his person, as 
 he thought beyond the reach of rebel search, one of 
 which he gave me. I retain it as a sacred memento. 
 A rumor reached me through Philip Henson, a 
 Federal spy, that my friend was under violent sus- 
 picion by the rebels, and was caught in his attempt 
 at escape, and shot by order of Gen. N. B. Forrest. 
 
 Anent this rumor, Gen. Jefferson C. Davis told me 
 that a soldier in his command bore the name and 
 answered the description of Hermon Bledsoe ; that
 
 TUPELO. 203 
 
 he was a deserter from the enemy ; that he was 
 severely wounded in a skirmish, and that his recol- 
 lection was that his wound proved fatal. 
 
 One of my fellow-prisoners became suddenly insane. 
 He frothed at the mouth, rolled his eyes wildly, and 
 butted his head against the walls of the prison. His 
 paroxysms were very violent in the presence of the 
 officers. I sat near him, and after observing him for 
 awhile I came to the conclusion that he was a malin- 
 gerer. Presently an officer entered, at that instant 
 the crazy man was seized with another paroxysm. 
 He became very violent. The officer watched him 
 for Some time and then said, " We must remove him 
 to the hospital that he may die there, for there seems 
 to be but little hope of his ultimate recovery, he is 
 so sick and crazy and fierce." This man's name was 
 Bovard Willis, a Unionist, of Biloxi, Miss. After 
 the officer's departure he quieted down in a very short 
 time. I approached him and said: 
 
 " Willis, I do not profess to be an alienist, but I 
 know that you are no more crazy than I am. I will 
 not betray you. What is your motive in feigning 
 madness ? " 
 
 He replied, "If I am taken to the hospital I will 
 have a by far better opportunity of escaping. I voted 
 against secession, I led the Unionists in our county, 
 I became very obnoxious to the secessionists, and 
 there is no hope for me but in escape." 
 
 In the evening he was removed to the hospital. 
 The next morning he was missing. He had unfor-
 
 204 TUPELO. 
 
 innately left some clothing in the hospital. The 
 company that went in search of him let the hounds 
 smell the garment. Soon they struck his trail and 
 followed it to the creek. "Willis, upon reaching the 
 creek, waded in it three miles, and thus baffled his 
 pursuers for several hours. In the afternoon they 
 recovered the trail and followed it rapidly for sev- 
 eral miles. By this time Willis had reached a house 
 ten miles south-west of Tupelo. He went to it at a 
 venture. He asked for water. The proprietor 
 seemed to know by intuition the character of this 
 wanderer. He told his wife to prepare some food for 
 this stranger. While he was eating, the howling of 
 the hounds was heard. Willis rose in great trepida- 
 tion. His host at once interpreted the reason. No 
 plan seemed feasible for the concealment of the fugi- 
 tive. Mrs. Quay suggested the closet as a hiding 
 place, but her husband thought it unsafe, as it was in 
 a part of the house so exposed that it would be among 
 the first places searched. The blood-hounds finding 
 the track fresh were pursuing with great speed. 
 
 Mr. Quay said, pointing to a tree about two hun- 
 dred yards distant, "If you could reach that tree, you 
 would find a secure asylum till your pursuers had 
 gone on, or returned supposing they were on the 
 wrong trail. The horses are in the field, if I can 
 only get one up in time and carry you over to the tree 
 and get back before they reach us you will be safe." 
 
 Just then the hounds broke out afresh into loud 
 howls and sharp yelps.
 
 TUPELO. 205 
 
 "They are too near for that" said Willis, "I am 
 lost." 
 
 "Pa," said little Violetta Quay (who was only 
 six years old), "you just tote that man over to the 
 tree." 
 
 " I'll do it," said her pa. He stooped down, and 
 Willis perched himself upon his shoulders and was 
 borne to the tree, and in an incredibly short space of 
 time was concealed amid the foliage of the loftiest 
 branches of this mighty king of the forest. 
 
 Quay had just time to return and enter his house 
 when the hounds bounded into his yard, their fierce 
 yelps betokening that they knew that the object of 
 their pursuit was near. Soon the pursuing cavalry 
 entered the yard, and dismounting, began uncere- 
 moniously a thorough but bootless search of the house 
 and premises. They questioned strictly each member 
 of the family, but they were all woefully ignorant. 
 The officer in charge asked little Violetta if she had 
 seen any stranger about lately. She replied, " If I 
 had I wouldn't tell you. I just wish the poor man 
 would come here, I'd hide him if I could from those 
 awful dogs." The hounds were completely baffled. 
 They would not leave the track indicated by the 
 scent of Willis' garment for any other. After two 
 hours of fruitless endeavor to recover the track, thev 
 left Mr. Quay's house and returned. 
 
 Willis was now among friends. After some nights 
 spent in hiding, Willis was conveyed by nocturnal 
 journeys from one friendly post to another, till he
 
 200 TUPELO. 
 
 reached the Federal lines at Memphis, Term. "Willis 
 did not change quarters till the guides were ready to 
 enter upon their perilous task of guiding a band of 
 Unionists, of which Willis was one, to the Federal 
 lines. He said, " There is no place so safe as where 
 the hounds have been." And so the experiment 
 proved the adage true. Willis was not molested in 
 this sylvan retreat, though the whole country north 
 to the Federal lines was repeatedly traversed by cav- 
 alry and hounds. 
 
 M. T. Anderson, of Millersburg, Holmes Co., O., 
 came to me and said : 
 
 " Mr. Aughey, I am very sorry for you. There is 
 hope for me. I am a prisoner of war. If I survive 
 the horrors of imprisonment I will be exchanged, 
 but for you, a prisoner of state, there is no hope ex- 
 cept by eluding the vigilance of the guards and mak- 
 ing your way through this great army, and traversing 
 a long stretch of hostile country to the Federal lines. 
 Now, sir, I am not superstitious, but I had a dream 
 last night that has deeply impressed me. I thought 
 that I was caught up into heaven, into the midst of 
 the Paradise of God, and as I stood dazed amid the 
 splendors of the city of the Great King, and bewil- 
 dered by the light and resplendent glory that ema- 
 nated from the great white throne, and Him that is 
 seated thereon, I heard a voice saying, 'Who will go 
 for us to earth, and deliver my servant from bonds 
 and imprisonment and impending death, that he may 
 longer proclaim my gospel?' Suddenly there ap-
 
 TUPELO. 207 
 
 peared before the throne a form of wondrous beauty, 
 apparently a young man of radiant countenance; 
 from every feature beamed love and peace and good- 
 will, who said, ' Here am I. Send me. I will go 
 and deliver him and bring him safely to the desired 
 haven.' 'Who art thou?' said the recording angel, 
 who sat hard by the throne of God. * I am Ariel, 
 the lion of Jehovah, who am made strong to deliver 
 his chosen ones from all their enemies that rise up 
 against them to destroy them. I delivered Peter 
 from Herod's dungeon, and many saints who were 
 shut up in prison have I released,' and he was bidden 
 to perform the mission. And then I heard the voice 
 of a multitude saying, 'Go, and Jehovah, merciful 
 and gracious, mighty and strong to deliver, give thee 
 abundant success.' And all the host of heaven re- 
 sponded, ' Amen.' Then a voice said to me, 'Return 
 and make known the vision to my servant, who in 
 bonds is breaking to thee and those with thee the 
 bread of eternal life.' I awoke trembling and aston- 
 ished. 
 
 "Now, I entertain more than a mere presentiment 
 of your escape. I am so fully impressed with the truth 
 that my dream was a revelation of God's will con- 
 cerning you, that I firmly believe that these wicked 
 men will not be suffered in the providence of God to 
 take your life. I predict that many, many years of 
 successful labor in your Master's vineyard are before 
 you; many souls, by your instrumentality, are to be 
 brought into the fold of Christ and the kingdom of 
 heaven."
 
 208 TUPELO. 
 
 "I wish you may not be a false prophet, and that 
 your dream may be verified. The eye of faith alone 
 can discern a ray of hope. Sight shows a prison, 
 strong and closely guarded, a mighty army of watch- 
 ful and malignant foes, chains, fetters, guards on the 
 alert, pickets, patrols, videttes, blood-hounds innu- 
 merable, my sun of life apparently on the horizon's 
 verge. The hour of my departure fixed. Many, 
 many miles intervening between my prison and a 
 place of safety a city of refuge. A physical frame 
 enfeebled by starvation and surrounding horrors 
 which have been endured for many weary months, 
 which are lengthening into years. It does indeed 
 require strong faith to discern a ray of hope or glim- 
 mer of light to irradiate the future. Next Tuesday 
 ends all, my foes have decreed. If God in his prov- 
 idence has longer life in store for me I will be spared. 
 But I feel that I have received dying grace, and dy- 
 ing grace is reserved for a dying hour. However, 
 should any plan of escape present itself, I will not 
 be slow to avail myself of it. But my only hope is 
 in escape. The vindictive Confederate authorities 
 are determined to put me to death at the hour men- 
 tioned by Col. Walter. They are implacable and 
 unmerciful, and it irketh them to await the ap- 
 pointed hour. I would like much to live for my 
 dear wife's sake, and our dear infant's sake. By 
 this cruel deed of rebel hate, my wife will be wid- 
 owed and my child made fatherless. But God has 
 promised to be the husband of the widow and the
 
 TUPELO. 209 
 
 father of the fatherless. To his covenant-keeping 
 care I commit them both, and the babe unborn." 
 
 Feeling assured that my departure from this ter- 
 restrial sphere was near, I sat down upon the floor of 
 my dungeon and penned the following letter to my 
 wife : 
 
 TUPELO, MILITARY BASTILE. 
 My Dear Mary: 
 
 The Confederate authorities announce to me that I 
 have only a few more days to live. When you re- 
 ceive this letter the hand that penned it will be cold 
 in death. My soul, divested of the body, will have 
 passed the solemn test before the bar of God ; I have 
 a good hope through grace that I will then be rejoic- 
 ing amid the sacramental host of God's elect, singing 
 the new song of redeeming love in the presence of 
 Him who is the chief among ten thousand and the 
 one altogether lovely. Mary, meet me in heaven, 
 where sorrow and tears and temptation and sin are 
 unknown, and where the wicked cease from troubling 
 and the weary are at rest. If General Bragg will 
 permit my body to be taken in charge by my friends, 
 I will ask your brother, D. R. Paden, and cousin, 
 Capt. Jas. H. Tankersley, to convey it to you. Bury 
 me in the cemetery at Bethany church. That was 
 my first ministerial charge. Plant a cedar at my 
 head and one at my feet, and there let me repose in 
 peace till the archangel's trump shall sound, sum- 
 moning the dead to the judgment of the great day, 
 and vouchsafing to saints the long hoped forredemp- 
 
 14
 
 210 TUPELO. 
 
 tion of the body. As to my property, it has all, by 
 Confederate laws, been confiscated, and after years of 
 incessant toil I leave you penniless and dependent, 
 but I implore you to trust in God. To his kind, 
 protecting care I commit you and our dear little Kate. 
 Jehovah has promised to be the widow's husband and 
 the father of the fatherless. Rest assured the Lord 
 will provide. Only trust Him and love Him with 
 your whole heart and soul and mind and strength. I 
 know that it shall be well with them that love God. 
 Be not faithless, but believing, and though clouds 
 and darkness surround you at present, well-nigh ob- 
 scuring the spiritual sky whence hope emanates, yet 
 be assured a more auspicious day will dawn, and 
 God will bring you safely to your journey's end, and 
 our reunion in heaven will be sweet. 
 
 Our dear little daughter, Kate, bring up in the 
 nurture and admonition of the Lord. Teach her to 
 walk in wisdom's ways, for all her ways are pleas- 
 antness and all her paths are peace. Her infant 
 mind may be compared to wax in its susceptibil- 
 ity for receiving impressions, and to marble for its 
 power in retaining those impressions. O ! that she 
 may be satisfied early with thy mercy, O, God, that she 
 may rejoice and be glad all her days. Teach her to 
 remember her Creator in the days of her youth, be- 
 fore the evil days come in which she shall say, I have 
 no pleasure in them. Make the Bible, the precious 
 Bible, her constant study, and let its words be as 
 household words to her. Inspire her mind with a
 
 TUPELO. 211 
 
 love of the Book which is able to make wise unto sal- 
 vation. See to it that the words of Christ dwell 
 richly in her soul, that she may be filled with knowl- 
 edge and wisdom and spiritual understanding. Pray 
 for the Holy Spirit to bless your labors and counsels. 
 Without his blessing all your labor would be in 
 vain. Pray that the third Person of the adorable 
 Trinity, the Spirit of the living God, may take up his 
 abode in her heart, to abide with her forever. As 
 my duties in regard to instructing our child will de- 
 volve solely upon you, take for your guidance in 
 this respect Deut. vi. 5-9. Let your example be 
 such as you would wish her to follow. Children 
 are much more inclined to follow example than 
 precept. Exercise care in this respect, for as is the 
 mother so is her daughter. I regret that my family, 
 from the force of circumstances, will be compelled to 
 remain in a section where, by many, my course of 
 conduct which led to my death will be considered 
 disgraceftd. But this cannot be avoided. The 
 time, I feel sure, will come when, even in Mississippi, 
 I will be regarded as a patriot martyr. My con- 
 science is void of offence as regards guilt in the 
 charge preferred against me. When the wicked bear 
 rule the people mourn. What cruelties are being 
 perpetrated by rebels against God and their country. 
 How long, O, Lord, how long shall the wicked tri- 
 umph? How long will God forbear to execute that 
 vengeance which is his, and which he will repay in his 
 own good time? I have an abiding confidence that
 
 212 TUPELO. 
 
 i 
 
 the right cause will prevail, and though I shall not 
 live to see it, for my days are numbered, yet I firmly 
 believe since God is a God of justice and an avenger 
 of the righteous who serve him faithfully, that the 
 rebel power will be destroyed utterly. 
 
 " Truth crushed to earth shall rise again 
 The eternal years of God are hers 
 But error wounded writhes in pain 
 And dies amid his worshipers." 
 
 I write this letter amid the din and confusion inci- 
 dent to a large number of men crowded into a nar- 
 row compass and free from all restraint. 
 
 This letter will be conveyed to you by friends. 
 The names of those friends you will know here- 
 after. My real estate will be restored to you 
 when the Union cause triumphs. That it will 
 do so ultimately is beyond the possibility of a 
 doubt. Give my love to all my friends. Remem- 
 ber that I have prayed for you and our dear Kate 
 unceasingly during my imprisonment, and my last 
 utterances on earth will be prayers for your welfare. 
 Farewell, God bless you and keep you and our dear 
 child from all harm. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 JOHN H. AUGHEY. 
 
 I then wrote my obituary, which I placed in the 
 hands of Mr. De Grummond, a Federal prisoner, by 
 whom it was to be sent to the Philadelphia Presby- 
 terian for publication. I copy a portion of it :
 
 TUPELO. 213 
 
 OBITUARY. 
 
 Died in Tupelo, Itawamba county, Miss., July 15, 
 1862, Rev. John H. Aughey. 
 
 The subject of the above notice suffered death on 
 the gallows at the hands of the Confederate military 
 authorities, on the charges of treason and enacting 
 the spy. John H. Aughey was born in New Hart- 
 ford, Oneida county, X. Y., May 8, 1828. Removed 
 with his parents to Steubenville, O., July 4, 1837. 
 Is an alumnus of Franklin College, Xew Athens, 
 Ohio. His theological instructors were, Revs. L. A. 
 Lowrey, Winchester, Ky.; Jahleel Woodbridge, Baton 
 Rouge, La.; John H. Gray, D.D., Geo. W. Coons, 
 D.D., and Rev. J. O. Steadman, D.D., Memphis, 
 Tenn.; Rev. Chas. S. Dod, Rev. H. H. Paine, and 
 Rev. S. Irwin Reid, Holly Springs, Miss. Was 
 licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of 
 Chickasaw, October 4, 1856. Ordained to the full 
 work of the ministry by the Presbytery of Tom- 
 beckbee, April 19, 1861. Was married January 
 22, 1857, by Rev. R. Henderson, to Miss Mary J. 
 Paden, of luka, Miss., who, with one child, a daugh- 
 ter, born September 3, 1858, survives him. God 
 blessed his labors by giving him many souls as seals 
 to his ministry. After eleven years labor in the 
 South as an educator and minister of the gospel, 
 having never injured a citizen of the South in per- 
 son or property, he fell a victim to secession hatred, 
 and died a felon's death, because he would not be-
 
 214 TUPELO. 
 
 come a traitor to the government which had never 
 in a single instance trespassed upon his rights of per- 
 son or property. He rests in peace and in the hope 
 of a blessed immortality beyond the grave. " Take 
 ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the 
 time is." Mark xiii. 33. 
 
 "Leaves have their time to fall, 
 And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 
 And stars to set but all ! 
 Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O ! Death." 
 
 ADDRESS TO MY SOUL. 
 
 O ! my soul, thou art about to appear in the pres- 
 ence of thy Creator, who is infinite, eternal, un- 
 changeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, 
 justice, goodness, and truth. He cannot look upon 
 sin. He is a sin-avenging God, and thou art defiled 
 by sin. Thy transgressions are numerous as the 
 stars of heaven. Thou art totally debased by sin 
 and thy iniquities abound. Thou art guilty of sins 
 both of omission and commission. Justice would 
 consign thee to banishment from heaven and to ever- 
 lasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and 
 the Glory of his power. Guilty, helpless, wretched 
 as thou art, what is thy plea that sentence of eternal 
 death should not be pronounced against thee? 
 
 THE SOUL'S REPLY. 
 
 I plead the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ whose 
 blood cleanses from all sin, even from sins of the 
 deepest dye. I plead the atonement made by Him
 
 TUPELO. 215 
 
 who made an atonement for sin, who bore my sins 
 in his own body on the cross of Calvary and wrought 
 out a perfect righteousness which I may obtain by 
 simple faith. No money, no price is demanded. 
 This I could not pay, for all my righteousness is but 
 filthy rags, and I must perish were any part of the 
 purchase price demanded. Nothing in my hand I 
 bring. My salvation must be all of grace, or to me 
 it would be hopeless. I trust that Christ will clothe 
 me in the perfect, spotless robes of his own righteous- 
 ness and thus present me faultless before the throne. 
 With this trust I go to the judgment seat, assured 
 that the soul that implicitly trusts in Jesus shall 
 never be put to shame. He is faithful who has 
 promised. 
 
 MILITARY DUNGEON, 
 TUPELO, Miss., July 11, 1862. 
 My Dear Parents : 
 
 Life is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing to behold 
 the sun. All that a man hath will he give for his 
 life. Having promise of the life that now is. The 
 life is more than meat. They hunt for the precious 
 life. These quotations from the Word of Life show 
 the high estimate that is placed upon life. My life 
 is not precious in the eyes of these virulent secession- 
 ists, for their military rulers declare that on the 15th 
 inst. my life must terminate. Yet a few days and 
 me the all-beholding sun shall see no more in all his 
 course. Mourn not for me, my dear parents, as, 
 those who have no hope. For me to live is Christ,
 
 216 TUPELO. 
 
 and I can say also with the apostle, and to die is 
 gain. I fear not those who, when they have killed 
 the body, have no more that they can do. But I 
 fear Him whose fear casteth out every fear. When 
 these lines are read by you he who penned them will 
 be an inhabitant of the Celestial City, the New Jeru- 
 salem. He will have a palace home by the crystal sea, 
 and be the possessor of a kingdom and a crown as 
 eternal in duration as the throne of Jehovah. He will 
 be reposing in his Savior's bosom in the midst of the 
 Paradise of God. 
 
 Next to God my thanks are due to you, my dear 
 parents, for guiding my infant feet in the path of 
 wisdom and virtue. In riper years I have been 
 warned and instructed. By precept and example I 
 have been led, until my habits became fixed, and 
 then, accompanied by your parental blessing, I sought 
 a distant home to engage in the arduous duties of life. 
 Whatever success I have achieved, whatever influence 
 for good I may have exerted, are all due to your 
 pious training. I owe you a debt of gratitude which 
 I can never repay. Though I cannot, God will grant 
 you a reward lasting as eternity. It will add to that 
 exceeding and eternal weight of glory which will be 
 conferred upon you in that day when the heavens 
 shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with 
 fervent heat. I die for my loyalty to the Federal 
 Government. I know that you would not have me 
 turn traitor to save my life. Life is precious, but 
 death, even death on the scaffold, is preferable to dis-
 
 TUPELO. 217 
 
 honor. Remember me kindly to all my friends. 
 Tell Sallie, Violetta, David, Lizzie, Mary, and 
 Emma, my dear sisters and brother, to meet me in 
 heaven. I know that my Redeemer lives. Dying is 
 but going home. I have taught many how to live 
 and how to die happily. Now by example I am 
 called to teach them how to die as becometh the 
 Christian. May God in mercy grant that as my day 
 my strength may be, and that in my last moments I 
 may not by slavish fear bring dishonor upon my 
 Master's cause, but may glorify Him in the fires. 
 Remember me to my old, tried, true, and trusted 
 friend, Henry Spence. I have DO doubt you are con- 
 stantly praying for me. I will soon be in that glo- 
 rious home where prayer is lost in praise, faith is 
 changed to sight, and death is swallowed up in 
 victory. Farewell till we meet beyond the river. 
 Your affectionate son, 
 
 JOHN H. AUGHEY. 
 
 To David and Elizabeth Aughey, Amsterdam, Jeffer- 
 son county, Ohio. 
 
 CENTRAL, MILITARY PRISON, 
 TUPELO, ITAWAMBA Co., Miss., July 11, 1862. 
 Hon. Wm. H. Seward: 
 
 DEAR SIR A large number of citizens of Mis- 
 sissippi, holding Union sentiments, and who recog- 
 nize no such military usurpation as the so-called 
 Confederate States of America, are confined in a 
 filthy prison, sadly infested with vermin, and are
 
 218 TUPELO. 
 
 famishing from hunger a sufficient quantity of food 
 not being furnished us. We are separated from our 
 families, and not suffered to hold any communication 
 with them. We are compelled under a strong guard 
 to perform the most menial services, and are often 
 grossly and flagrantly insulted by the officers and 
 guards of the prison. The nights are very cool, after 
 the torrid heat of the day. We are not furnished 
 with bedding, and are compelled to lie down upon 
 the hard floor of our dungeon, where refreshing sleep 
 is not possible. When exhausted nature can hold out 
 no longer our slumbers are broken, restless, and of 
 short duration. Our property is confiscated and our 
 families left destitute of the necessaries of life, all that 
 they possessed, yea, all their living having been seized 
 by the Confederates and converted to their own use. 
 Heavy iron fetters are placed upon our limbs, and 
 daily some of us are led to the scaffold or to death by 
 shooting. Many are forced into the army, instant 
 death being the penalty in case of refusal, thus con- 
 straining us to bear arms against our country, to be- 
 come the executioners of our friends and brethren, or 
 to fall ourselves by their hands. 
 
 These evils are intolerable, and we ask protection 
 through you from the United States Government. 
 Please present our humble and earnest petition to his 
 excellency, Abraham Lincoln, president of the United 
 States, that he may take it under advisement and if 
 possible afford us speedy relief. The Federal Gov-. 
 eminent may not now be able to release us, but we
 
 TUPELO. 219 
 
 ask the protection which the Federal prisoner receives. 
 Were his life taken, swift retribution would be 
 visited upon the rebels by just retaliation ; one or 
 more rebel prisoners would suffer death for every 
 Federal prisoner whom they destroyed. 
 
 Let this rule hold good in case of Unionists who 
 are citizens of the states in rebellion. The loyal 
 Mississippian deserves the same protection accorded 
 the loyal Rhode Islander or Pennsylvania!!. We 
 ask also that our confiscated property be restored to 
 us, or, in the event of our death, to our families. If 
 it be destroyed, we ask that reparation be demanded 
 from the rebel authorities, or that the property of 
 known and avowed secessionists be sequestered to 
 that use. Before this letter reaches its destination 
 the majority of us will have ceased to be. The judge 
 advocate, Col. H. W. Walter, of the rebel army, has 
 informed the writer that he must die on the 15th 
 inst. We have therefore little hope that we individ- 
 ually can receive any personal benefit from this peti- 
 tion, even though you should regard it favorably and 
 consent to its suggestions, but our families who have 
 been robbed, so cruelly robbed, of all their substance, 
 may, in the future, receive remuneration for their 
 great losses, and should citizens of avowed secession 
 pioclivities who are within the Federal lines be 
 arrested and held as hostages for the safety of Union- 
 ists who are and may be hereafter incarcerated in 
 Tupelo and elsewhere, the rebels will not dare put 
 another Unionist to death.
 
 220 TUPELO. 
 
 Trusting that you will deem it proper to take 
 the prayers presented in our petition under advise- 
 ment, and afford us the protection desired, we remain 
 with high considerations of respect and esteem your 
 oppressed and imprisoned fellow-citizens, 
 
 JOHN H. AUGHEY, 
 BENJAMIN CLARKE. 
 B. D. NABOBS, 
 JOHN ROBINSON, 
 And thirty-eight others. 
 
 Two young men, Donald Street and Samuel May- 
 nard, informed me to-day that they had been im- 
 pressed into the rebel service. They had been taken 
 prisoner at Corinth by General Pope, and had taken 
 the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government, to 
 which their hearts had always been loyal. Recently 
 they had been arrested by Parson Ellis and six other 
 guerrillas, near Rienzi, and being brought by them 
 into the rebel camp, they refused to rejoin their regi- 
 ments, and in consequence were immured in this 
 dungeon. From the threats of the officers they ex- 
 pected to be shot at any moment. They had used 
 every means to banish the thoughts of death had 
 forced themselves to engage in pleasantry and mirth 
 to drive away the sadness and gloom which 
 oppressed them when alone, and when they recalled 
 the delights of their happy homes which they would 
 never see again. I counseled them to prepare to 
 meet their God in peace, wisely to improve the short 
 time granted them to make their peace, calling, and
 
 TUPELO. 221 
 
 election sure. They replied that they hoped all 
 would be well. They had long since confessed 
 Christ before men, and hoped for salvation through 
 his merit alone. Still, they could not help feeling 
 sad, young as they were, in the near prospect of 
 death. They were both in their 20th year. 
 
 While I was gone for water, these men were taken 
 to their doom and I never saw them more. 
 
 One morning, as I lay restless and sore, endeavor- 
 ing to find some position which would be suffi- 
 ciently easy to permit me to secure, even for a few mo- 
 ments, the benefit of tired nature's sweet restorer 
 balmy sleep, the thought occurred that it would be 
 well to attempt an escape, though it should result in 
 death from the fire of the guards ; this would be by 
 far preferable to death by strangulation at the rope's 
 end, and in the presence of a large concourse of hoot- 
 ing, jeering, yelling, infuriated rebels. I had just 
 finished the preparation of the following address, to 
 be delivered from the scaffold if not forbidden. I 
 gave a copy to M. T. Anderson, who desired it for 
 publication upon his exchange: 
 
 ADDRESS TO BE READ FROM THE GALLOWS. 
 
 My Unionist Friends : 
 
 Hear the words of a man about to die. Last 
 words are of solemn import. Keep them in remem- 
 brance. Follow the counsels given, if they com- 
 mend themselves to your judgment. The Confeder- 
 ate officers have brought you here to witness my fate,
 
 222 TUPELO. 
 
 that you may thus learn the penalty they deem 
 proper to be inflicted for inflexible adherence to pa- 
 triotic principles. They declare that I am guilty of 
 treason. Who are the traitors ? I affirm that those 
 who would subvert the integrity of the government 
 founded by our patriotic ancestors, are the real 
 traitors. Our politicians, I will not call them states- 
 men, would first overthrow the best of governments, 
 and then construct from its ruins a government 
 whose corner-stone shall be human slavery. "Will 
 it stand? Forbid it, Almighty God ! forbid it, heaven. 
 The millennium dawn is too near for God to permit 
 to prosper a government organized to maintain a 
 barbaric relic of the dark ages, and to preserve in- 
 tact an institution subversive of all the rights of man. 
 Human slavery is made a fundamental feature of the 
 Confederate States of America the corner-stone, as 
 Alexander Stephens terms it. Should we who have no 
 slaves risk life and limb in the interests of slave- 
 holders, and at their bidding war against a govern- 
 ment that has never trespassed upon our rights ? I, 
 for one, prefer death, and gladly welcome its embrace 
 rather than to violate the monitions of conscience, the 
 voice of reason, the decision of judgment, and the 
 teachings of pious and patriotic ancestors. You be- 
 lieve in state rights, so do I. State sovereignty and 
 national supremacy. They are not incompatible. 
 State and nation each sovereign in its own sphere. 
 One needs not and has not trenched upon the prerog- 
 atives of the other. E pluribus unum, one com-
 
 TUPELO. 223 
 
 posed of many. Distinct as the billows, yet one as 
 the sea. Forced into the army as conscripts, you are 
 not warring against the government by choice. Ac- 
 cept deliverance when it comes. See to it that the 
 republic receives no detriment at your hands. The 
 time is not far distant when the last assassin's dagger 
 shall be stricken from his rebellious hand. How earn- 
 estly I have prayed to be permitted to see the^lownfall 
 of treason, but God in his wisdom declines to grant 
 my petition. The government will live and flourish 
 long after all its foes are dead, buried, and forgotten, 
 for the memory of the wicked shall rot. It will dis- 
 pense blessings to your posterity and mine, till the 
 angel of Jehovah, standing with one foot on the sea 
 and the other on the solid land, shall, with trumpet 
 voice, proclaim that time shall be no more. It is the 
 last, the best, and most benign government ever be- 
 stowed upon man by Him who establishes the na- 
 tions and fixes their boundaries and ordains their 
 duration. Our government would be unworthy of 
 respect were it impotent to enforce obedience to its 
 wise, humane, and beneficent laws, and to perpetuate 
 its existence, if necessary, by the complete overthrow 
 of all opposing forces. The government under 
 which we have as a nation so greatly prospered is 
 the ordinance of God. The wheels of the chariot 
 which bears it onward will ever revolve. He who 
 stands in the way of its progress will be crushed as 
 sure as fate. 
 
 Although in durance vile, and in rebellious ranks
 
 224 TUPELO. 
 
 perforce, your conscience, your judgment, the teach- 
 ings of true wisdom, the word of God that enjoins 
 obedience to lawful authority, the patriotic utterances 
 of Washington and his compatriots, should be the 
 chart to direct you in the path of duty in every emer- 
 gency. Firmly resolve that the republic, through 
 you, shall receive no detriment. The government 
 has done you no harm. Reciprocate with grateful 
 hearts the benefits received from its benignant laws 
 and beneficent institutions. When treason dies an 
 ignominious death, be present to bury its gory corpse 
 beyond the possibility of a resurrection. I see be- 
 fore me many who were with us on the high hills 
 and in the deep glens devising plans to resist the de- 
 tested conscription. Many of your comrades are in 
 the ranks of the patriotic army aiding in crushing 
 the hydra serpent head of treason and rebellion. See 
 to it that they suffer no harm at your hands. May 
 their lives be precious in your sight. 
 
 " Oh, Liberty, how many crimes are committed in 
 thy name," exclaimed one well known to fame, but 
 we are murdered by the craven hordes of treason to 
 promote the fancied interests of chattel slavery, of 
 human bondage. 
 
 I die, but the sacred cause I humbly represent will 
 not perish with me on this scaffold. The roots of the 
 tree of liberty, moistened by the blood of the noble 
 phalanx of hero-martyrs who have perished here in 
 Tupelo and on other fields, made classic and sacred 
 by the outpouring of the precious blood of true
 
 TUPELO. 225 
 
 Southern patriots, will strike deep and spread wide, 
 and will send up through every pore the vital fluid 
 which shall keep forever fresh and green the leaves 
 of that sacred tree planted by our fathers in the 
 primeval forest, under whose wide-spreading branches 
 they and their children, and, we trust, their remotest 
 posterity, will find safety and freedom and peren- 
 nial happiness. 
 
 'These, our murderers, would dig up the tree of 
 liberty and plant in its stead the deadly upas tree of 
 human bondage. Its roots would reach down and 
 take hold upon perdition. The inalienable rights of 
 man would perish beneath its blighting shade. 
 
 Shall we tamely and basely surrender our God- 
 given heritage of freedom to save our lives imperiled 
 by treason's minions? Shall we basely betray a 
 cause dearer to us than life, for the sake of eking out 
 a miserable, cowardly existence, purchased at the 
 cost of our manhood and of every virtuous and holy 
 principle? Shall we sell our birthright for a mess 
 of pottage, and thus ignobly receive, as a boon gra- 
 ciously accorded by these fiends incarnate who are 
 thirsting for our blood, a few years' longer lease of 
 life, till nature calls us to pay the inevitable debt, 
 and we slink into dishonorable graves ? 
 
 No. A thousand times, no. My free soul, not 
 trammeled by the fetters that bind and torture my 
 body, gladly, joyfully embraces death, exultingly 
 leaping into its outstretched arms in preference to 
 the acceptance of life on terms so vile, so ignominious, 
 
 15
 
 226 TUPELO. 
 
 that were I to do so, high heaven with ire would 
 spurn ray wretched soul, when seeking admission into 
 Paradise, from all association with the spirits of the 
 pure and good, and consign it to the doom of those 
 who rebelled in heaven and on earth against the God 
 who ordained the powers that be, to whom, when 
 ruling by divine appointment, all are commanded to 
 be subject. 
 
 The glorious cause, in the interests of which I lay 
 down my life, will ultimately triumph. Truth 
 crushed to earth will rise again. Entertain no doubts 
 on this subject. Rebellion will be utterly subverted 
 as sure as the God of justice reigns, who will ever 
 prosper the cause approved in heaven. 
 
 For right is right, since God is God, 
 
 And right the day must win; 
 To doubt would be disloyalty, 
 
 To falter would be sin. 
 
 May God subvert rebellion by the speedy over- 
 throw of all its enemies and the restoration of civil 
 and constitutional liberty to the people of these dis- 
 tracted, discordant, belligerent, and rebellious South- 
 ern states. Liberty calls upon each one of you to do 
 your duty, that her blessings may be dispensed to 
 and enjoyed by all. 
 
 They love her best who to themselves are true, 
 And what they dare to dream of dare to do. 
 
 Remember my advice heretofore given on many a 
 high hill and secluded, lonely glen, at the solemn 
 midnight hour. I am now ready to be offered up,
 
 TUPELO. 227 
 
 and the time of my departure has come. I only ex- 
 change earth for heaven a life of warfare for a vic- 
 tor's crown. Dying is but going home. Farewell, 
 my friends, till we meet beyond the river where pain 
 and sorrow, sin and death are felt and feared no more. 
 My own and my country's enemies cannot reach me 
 there to harm me. Those holy gates forever bar pol- 
 lution, sin, and shame. None can obtain admittance 
 there but followers of the Lamb. My prayer is that 
 of the good Dr. Valpy: 
 
 In peace let me resign my breath 
 
 And Thy salvation see ; 
 My sins deserve eternal death, 
 
 But Jesus died for me. 
 
 I have complied with the conditions upon which 
 salvation is promised. I have exercised faith in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. I have exercised loving trust 
 and trusting love, and have the assurance that Jesus 
 is my loving, precious Savior, in whose delightful 
 presence I am about to appear. So I have nothing 
 to fear. 
 
 Once to every man and nation 
 
 Comes a moment to decide, 
 In the strife of truth and falsehood 
 
 For the good or evil side; 
 Troth is now upon the scaffold, 
 
 Wrong is now upon the throne, 
 Yet this scaffold sweeps the future, 
 
 And behind the dim unknown 
 Standeth God within the shadow, 
 
 Keeping watch above his own.
 
 228 TUPELO. 
 
 Weep not for me but for yourselves and your children. 
 God iu his righteous retribution will visit in vengeance 
 for the great sins of this rebellious people. Our blood 
 will be required at their hands. Those of you who 
 can do so, escape for your lives, for this wicked peo- 
 ple shall be crushed in the wine-press of Jehovah's 
 wrath, and will be compelled to drink to the dregs 
 the cup of divine vengeance. 
 
 Though the mills of the gods grind slowly they grind exceed- 
 ing small; 
 
 Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness ] f e 
 grinds all. 
 
 I must close. Your friend and fellow-citizen of 
 the state of Mississippi, and the United States of 
 America, JOHN H. AUGHEY. 
 
 The prisoners who were shot suffered death in the 
 following manner : A hole was dug, I can scarcely 
 dignify it by the name of grave. The victim was 
 ordered to sit with his legs dangling in it. The file 
 of soldiers took position in front of their victims, 
 when three balls were fired into the brain and three 
 into the heart, and the body falling into this rude ex- 
 cavation was immediately covered with earth. At 
 first coffins were used, but of late these had been dis- 
 pensed with, owing to the expense, and the increas- 
 ing number of executions. In some cases the sol- 
 diers purposely missed their aim. It was an odious 
 duty which they endeavored to shun, and only per- 
 formed it upon compulsion. If the corpse was to be 
 delivered to friends they invariably tried to aim so
 
 TUPELO. 229 
 
 as to wound without taking life, and many of the 
 condemned have, by feigning death, escaped in this 
 way. Gen. Bragg's name was a synonym for cruelty. 
 He shot many of his own soldiers for trivial offenses, 
 and upon the poor Unionists he had no mercy. One 
 of his officers said to me, "So many men are put to 
 death by Bragg, and executions have become so com- 
 mon that now when they occur they scarcely excite 
 remark." He was a martinet who never failed to 
 punish the most trivial offenses with great severity. 
 I had not long meditated upon this subject when I 
 arose, resolved upon immediate death or liberty. 
 Of two evils I chose the less. My intentions were 
 communicated to several prisoners, who promised me 
 all the aid in their power. My fetters were exam- 
 ined, and it was the opinion of Amos Deane and 
 Amzi Meek that with proper instruments my bonds 
 could be divested of the iron rods which secured the 
 chain rings. A long-handled iron spoon, my knife, 
 which had a file blade, and a file which one of the 
 prisoners had procured from a Unionist visitor, were 
 secured, and two were detached at a time to work 
 upon my manacles. We went to a corner of the 
 prison, and a sufficient number of prisoners stood in 
 front of us to prevent the guards from observing the 
 proceedings. We changed our location frequently 
 to avoid suspicion, and when officers entered, labor 
 was suspended till their exit. Several prisoners were 
 shot to-day, and six Unionists were incarcerated. A 
 reign of terror had been inaugurated only equaled
 
 230 TUPELO. 
 
 in its appalling enormity by the memorable French 
 revolution. 
 
 Spies and informers in the pay of the rebel gov- 
 ernment prowl through the country, using every arti- 
 fice and stratagem to lead Unionists to criminate 
 themselves. After this they are dragged to prison 
 and to death. The cavalry dash through the country 
 making daily raids, burning cotton, carrying off or 
 wantonly destroying the property of loyal citizens, 
 and committing depredations of every kind. 
 
 Several prisoners resolved to attempt to escape 
 with me. Our plan was to bring in from the euc'os- 
 ure in the rear of the prison the ax with which we 
 cut and split wood for cooking, and if possible to raise 
 a plank in the floor by cutting away the wood and 
 drawing the spikes, a sufficient number to stand 
 around those who did the work to prevent observa- 
 tion, and to make a hilarious noise so as to drown the 
 sound that would be made. Then in the night we 
 would get under the prison and make our way out on 
 the north side through the guards who were off duty. 
 At this time there were three guards in front of each 
 door, and two on the south side of the building. On 
 the north side of the prison there were no guards on 
 duty, it not being thought necessary if the other sides 
 were vigilantly guarded. There were, however, sev- 
 eral hundred guards who, when off duty, slept on this 
 side of the prison. 
 
 When relieved they came there to sleep, and those 
 whose turn it was went on duty. They were con-
 
 TUPELO. 231 
 
 stantly coming and going, and during the whole night 
 they kept up an incessant noise. My friends labored 
 unremittingly during the day to remove the irons that 
 secured the chain ring. Those who stood around us 
 to prevent the observation of the guards standing in 
 front of the doors told stale jokes and laughed at 
 them immoderately, so as to drown the noise of the 
 filing. The sun was now setting, but the ax had not 
 yet been brought into the prison. Jimmie Tevis had 
 hidden it under his blouse and tried to pass the 
 guards with it, but they detected him by the protrud- 
 ing helve, and made him return it. Now the extra 
 guards had gone on duty. There were three in front 
 of each door. The doors had been removed. The 
 apertures we called doors. A guard was seated on 
 each threshold, and one inside the building prome- 
 naded the floor backward and forward throughout its 
 entire length all night. During the day no guards 
 were on the thresholds, nor in the building. 
 
 While deliberating upon the best plan to pursue, 
 since we had failed in securing the ax, Gen. Jordan 
 and Col. Clare entered. I was standing in the mid- 
 dle of the floor, midway between the doors, eating 
 some rice which had been surreptitiously conveyed to 
 me. A note accompanied the mess, deftly enclosed. 
 It read : " From your sincere and sympathetic friend, 
 Mrs. Lydia Runyan." Gen. Jordan came directly to 
 the place where I stood, and holding a lantern in 
 front of my face, said, "You are here yet, are you?" 
 I gave an affirmative nod. " Well/' said he, to Col.
 
 232 TUPELO. 
 
 Clare, " I must examine this fellow's irons to see what 
 is their condition." Suiting the action to the word, 
 he put his hands down, and ascertaining that they 
 had been tampered with, he endeavored ineffectually 
 to pull off the bands. He did not notice that I could 
 slip the chain rings off. "These irons," said he ? 
 " are very insecure. Who helped you to put them 
 in this condition?" I made no reply. After wait- 
 ing till he was assured that I intended none, he turned 
 to Col. Clare and said : " Colonel, have these irons 
 welded, put handcuffs upon him, and chain him to 
 that bolt in the floor. The gallows shall not be 
 cheated of their due." 
 
 Col. Clare said, "Must I do it to-night?" 
 
 "Yes, to-night. Do it at once." 
 
 "But," replied the colonel, "it is nearly nine 
 o'clock, and I can't find a blacksmith to weld the 
 irons on his ankles. The forges are out of blast at 
 this hour." 
 
 "Well, wait till morning, but do it bright and 
 early." 
 
 "All right," replied Col. Clare, "I'll have it done 
 by sunrise or before." 
 
 After these officers had taken their departure, the 
 prisoners crowded around me and affirmed that they 
 believed that there was a spy in the house in the 
 guise of a prisoner. With entire unanimity they 
 held the opinion that Aleck Stephens was the man. 
 He was a red-haired, low-browed, grim-visaged, 
 freckle-faced, hard-featured, villainous specimen of
 
 TUPELO. 233 
 
 the genus homo, who sat reticent in>a corner, peering 
 from under his bushy eyebrows, and rejecting all fa- 
 miliarity or kind offices tendered by his fellow-pris- 
 oners. All realized that I must escape that night or 
 it would be too late. When chained to a bolt in the 
 floor, with securely welded anklets and wearing hand- 
 cuffs, I would be in an utterly helpless condition. 
 There were eleven guards on duty : three in front of 
 each door, one seated upon each threshold, and one 
 promenading the house, which was lighted during the 
 whole night. There was also a special police force 
 on duty, as some Federal prisoners who were in prison 
 till some formalities took place would be sent in the 
 morning to Columbus, Miss., and it was feared that 
 they might attempt to escape ere they were sent far- 
 ther south. I was seated with some Federal prison- 
 ers, sending messages to my friends. I told them 
 that I would slip off juy chain, run by the guards, 
 and that it was more than probable that I would 
 draw their fire and be shot; that perhaps my man- 
 gled corpse would be brought into the prison in a 
 few minutes. I asked them to be sure to inform my 
 friends of the manner of my death. With this re- 
 quest they promised faithfully to comply. I said, 
 " Farewell, perhaps forever," and arose to make the 
 hazardous attempt. 
 
 At this moment a young man whom we nicknamed 
 "Mississippi" ran up to me and said, "Parson, I 
 think I have found a way by which you may escape." 
 His true name, I think, was Leonard Humphrey.
 
 234 TUPELO. 
 
 Said I, "What is it?" 
 
 He-replied, " I was out in the front enclosure, and 
 I saw a hole by the step under the jail, and I think 
 you could get under." 
 
 "Why," I replied, "that would be impossible. 
 The three guards standing in front would see me; 
 the guard seated in the doorway would see me ; and 
 in their presence it would be impossible to get under 
 the building without discovery." 
 
 " I thought of that, and while you was preaching 
 I was fixing up a plan, and by golly, I think we can 
 get you off." We were permitted to go into the front 
 enclosure, three at a time, at pleasure, during the 
 day, and on moonlight nights till ten o'clock. He 
 continued, "I must have help." He soon secured 
 the requisite number, who, at the risk of immediate 
 death, upon discovery, agreed to run the risk for my 
 sake. May the Lord reward .them. 
 
 He then detailed his plan. When the guard prom- 
 enading the house approached we talked about the 
 price of cotton .or some indifferent topic. When he 
 went from us we resumed the business in hand. We 
 all promised implicit obedience. Just at 9:45 four 
 of us went out. I went out clanking my chains, to 
 lull suspicion, and they did not order me back, as 
 they had done so often before. The rule required that 
 but three be permitted to be in the enclosure at one 
 time, but they providentially did not enforce the rule 
 this time. My three fellow-prisoners stood between 
 me and the guards, and entered into a fierce discus-
 
 TUPELO. 235 
 
 sion with them in regard to the comparative merit of 
 Mississippi and Tennessee troops. The enclosures, 
 in front and rear, were formed by stakes surmounted 
 by poles. Their form was a parallelogram, whose 
 dimensions were about ten by sixteen feet. The 
 guards became much excited, and the discussion was 
 becoming loud and acrimonious. Howell Trogden, 
 a prisoner, sat inside and held the guard in conversa- 
 tion, who was seated on the threshold. I sat by the 
 aperture under the building, removed my chain, put 
 my legs under the building, and leaned my head 
 upon my elbow, my elbow upon the step, upon which 
 rested the guard's feet, who was seated upon the 
 threshold of the prison door. My fellow-pris- 
 oners, in a wordy war with the guards, were 
 diverting their attention, with every appearance of 
 success. I reflected that a few moments would 
 decide my fate. If detected in this forlorn hope, 
 this last attempt with any prospect of success, I 
 must end my life ignominiously upon the scaffold. 
 In the early morning my anklets would be securely 
 welded; I would be handcuffed and chained to a bolt 
 in the floor of our gloomy dungeon. Then all hope 
 must end, and soon my corpse would be borne into 
 the presence of her whose tears were flowing, and 
 who refused to be comforted, because of my ominous 
 absence. 
 
 'Tis ten o'clock; I hear the order for the relief 
 guard. They come ; I see their bayonets glittering 
 in the bright moonlight. The set time, the appointed
 
 236 TUPELO. 
 
 moment, pregnant with my. fate, had arrived. I 
 offered an ejaculatory prayer to Him who sits upon 
 the throne of heaven for protection at this critical 
 moment. The guards stood within ten feet of me. 
 Now they look steadily at me. I return their gaze. 
 The relief guard has confronted them. They turn 
 to receive it. At that moment I moved backward 
 under the building and disappeared from view. The 
 new guard enter upon their duty. The old guard, 
 without a backward glance, march away. The 
 prisoners are ordered into the dungeon. The guards 
 see but three, and know that that is the highest num- 
 ber permitted by regulation order within the enclos- 
 ure. They did not suspect that four had been suf- 
 fered to be out, in violation of orders. I was under 
 the prison, but there were vigilant guards on every 
 side. We were in the midst of the great rebel army. 
 The din of a multitude sounded in my ears. It seemed 
 almost impossible even now to escape detection. Bur- 
 dette Danner had thrown me his canteen, but it struck 
 against the prison wall. It glittered in the bright 
 moonlight; I was famishing from thirst, but I feared 
 to seize it, though I knew that it was full of that 
 precious liquid whose price was now estimated far 
 above rubies. I did not wish to take any unneces- 
 sary risk. The hand protruding from under the 
 prison would probably be observed by the guards 
 and excite their suspicion. I could hear their lowest 
 tones. After awhile one of them said, "Gilmore, I 
 always do forget the countersign." The other replied,
 
 TUPELO. 237 
 
 "It is ( Braxton' for to-night." Though uttered in 
 an undertone, I caught it. " Well," replied his com- 
 rade, I thought it "was ' Braxton,' or ' Bragg/ or some- 
 thing like that. I won't forgit it agin." 
 
 I crawled to the north side of the prison, and 
 found that there were three apertures which would 
 admit my egress. Upon reaching the first, I found 
 that the guards were so numerous and so close, that 
 it would be extremely hazardous .to run the risk at 
 this point. Crawling to the second, I remained till 
 there was comparative quiet. But at the instant I was 
 about to creep out, a soldier, who was lying with his 
 face toward me, sat up and commenced coughing, 
 and continued to cough at intervals for more than an 
 hour. Finding it unadvisable to run the risk of 
 detection at this point, I made my way with con- 
 siderable difficulty to the third and last aperture, 
 near the rear of the prison, and not far distant from 
 the guards in the rear enclosure. Here exhausted 
 nature could hold out no longer, and I slept. How 
 long I know not. The vermin and the cold awoke 
 me. Presently I heard one soldier say to another. 
 (/ It is 3 o'clock in the morning and we will have to 
 go on duty." I felt confident that then was my time 
 or never. Morning would soon appear, and my 
 escape would be discovered and my re-arrest follow. 
 Commending myself into the hands of God, and 
 pleading that he would mercifully keep me from 
 detection, and grant me safe conduct through this 
 mighty host of watchful foes, I arose from under
 
 238 TUPELO. 
 
 the building, and in passing two sleeping soldiers 
 lying within four feet of the prison wall, I struck 
 my foot against the head of one of them. I had not 
 walked for so long a time without a chain, which 
 necessarily compelled me to make such short steps, 
 that I reeled as if under the influence of intoxicants, 
 when freed from it. This made me swerve from my 
 intended course and strike with my foot the head of 
 the somnolent guard. He awoke, and looking at me 
 
 in the bright moonlight, said, "D n you, don't 
 
 do that again." He turned over and resumed his 
 slumbers. He doubtless mistook me for one of his 
 comrades, who, in his awkwardness, had made the 
 unintentional assault. 
 
 In prison I had purchased a shirt, paying eleven 
 dollars in gold "for it, which resembled that worn by 
 many rebel soldiers. This doubtless contributed to 
 my escape, by warding off suspicion, which would 
 have been aroused at once, if I had appeared in their 
 midst in citizen's dress. I was also wearing McHat- 
 ton's dark-colored pants. After proceeding a few 
 steps I sat down by a stump, around which a number 
 of guards were collected, some standing, some sitting, 
 and some reclining. To appear at ease I took my 
 knife from my pocket and commenced to whittle the 
 stump and to whistle. This apparent unconcern 
 may have deceived them, and contributed to ward off 
 or allay suspicion. It was an almost unparalleled 
 wonder that some of them did not observe me emerge 
 from underneath the prison, as the moon was shining
 
 TUPELO. 239 
 
 brightly and they were very near the prison wall in 
 great numbers. Doubtless God had held their eyes 
 or obscured their vision. I soon arose, returned my 
 knife to my pocket, and wound my way cautiously 
 among the various groups, endeavoring to reach the 
 corn field to which I had made my first escape. I 
 endeavored to see every vidette before he perceived 
 me. I had some narrow risks in passing them. As 
 I came near the corn field, a vidette, who had been 
 concealed behind a tree, appeared, evidently with the 
 intention of halting me if I approached nearer. I 
 halted without the order. If he had given the com- 
 mand to halt, I should have given the countersign, 
 Braxton, which I had learned while under the 
 prison, and then have made some excuse for wander- 
 ing away from my comrades. To avoid suspicion I 
 resorted to a ruse which I cannot narrate. It proved 
 successful. I, after a time, started toward the prison, 
 till, seeing videttes in front, I fell upon the ground 
 and deflected from my course toward the prison. 
 After passing through many perils and hair-breadth 
 escapes, as the least blunder would have proved fatal, 
 I reached the dense woods and bore south-west. 
 Kneeling down under a larch tree, I returned God 
 thanks for thus far crowning my efforts with success, 
 and most earnestly besought Him to continue His 
 kind protecting care, to choose my path before me, 
 and make it safe, that I might escape detection and 
 be permitted to rejoin my family and friend? in 
 safety. I had asked Him in prison to lengthen my 
 life by fifteen years, as he did Hezekiah's.
 
 240 TUPELO. 
 
 I now pursued my journey rapidly in a south- 
 westerly direction, choosing that which led directly 
 from my home for two reasons. The cavalry, with 
 the blood-hounds, would not probably be sent in 
 that direction. After listening attentively while in 
 prison to the reveille and tattoo, and the din from 
 the surrounding camps, I thought the coast was 
 clearest in that direction, and that I could, by taking 
 that route, with the greater ease evade the rebel 
 pickets. I hastened onward with all possible speed, 
 avoiding roads, till the sun arose. As I was rapidly 
 traveling along a narrow path, I suddenly met a 
 negro. He was scared. So was I. I, in a per- 
 emptory tone, addressed him in quick succession, the 
 following questions : 
 
 " Where are you going ? Where have you been ? 
 To whom do you belong? Have you a pass?" 
 
 "I belong/' said the boy, trembling, "to Col. 
 Kohlheim, I have been to wife's house, and am 
 gwine back to Massa's." 
 
 He handed me his pass which read : "The bearer, 
 Tabor, has permission to go to Major Smith's to visit 
 his wife and return. Good till to-morrow evening, 
 the inst," 
 
 " Well, sir," said he, as I handed him his pass, 
 " you see it am all right wid me." 
 
 Concluding that it was not all right " wid " myself 
 I hurried on. Tabor called to me ere I had gone 
 twenty yards. I halted. He came up and asked me 
 if " dis bill (presenting one on a Tennessee bank) was
 
 TUPELO. 241 
 
 good." " Good as the bank," said I, and hurried 
 onward, speedily leaving the path and turning into 
 a dense woods.' Traveling on till about 12 P.M., 
 judging from the vertical rays of the sun, I came to 
 an open champaign country, through which I could 
 not travel with safety, in daylight. I sought a place 
 in which to hide, and discovering a ditch which bi- 
 sected a corn-field, I concealed myself in that. Many 
 passed near me during the day. I was very hun- 
 gry. Sullivan and Soper, Federal prisoners had 
 each given me, before leaving prison, a small piece of 
 bread, which they had in their haversacks when cap- 
 tured. I found both pieces were saturated with to- 
 bacco. The prisoner with whom I had exchanged 
 pants used tobacco, and had carried some in both 
 pockets. As tobacco is very offensive to me, its 
 presence upon my bread caused me to lose it. I re- 
 flected on the best course to pursue in order to secure 
 the greatest degree of safety i n my flight. I thought at 
 one time that it would be best to go west until I 
 reached the Mississippi river, then hail a gun-boat 
 and thus be saved, but I reflected that I was a long, 
 long distance from that river that there was the great 
 Mississippi bottom to pass through, which was full 
 of lagoons, lakes, bayous, and swamps, and that it 
 was infested with bears, rattlesnakes, vipers, bull- 
 snakes, centipedes, tarantulas, and venomous reptiles, 
 and wild beasts of many kinds. I would also have 
 to swim across the Yazoo and Tallahatchie rivers, 
 which I feared I could not do, enfeebled as I would 
 16
 
 1242 TUPELO. 
 
 be when I reached those rivers, and encumbered as I 
 was with the heavy iron bands. The day ended and 
 the night came. The stars, those beautiful nocturnal 
 luminaries, came out in silent glory, one by one. 
 Fixing my eye upon the polar star, the underground 
 railroad traveler's guide, I set out bearing a little to 
 the west of north. I soon reached the thick woods 
 and found it very difficult to make rapid progress, 
 in consequence of the dense undergrowth and obscure 
 light. The bushes would strike me in the eyes, and 
 often the top of a fallen tree would compel me to 
 make quite a circuit. Soon, however, the moon ap- 
 peared in her brightness the old silver moon. But 
 her light I found to be by far less brilliant than that of 
 .the sun, and her rays were much obscured by the dense 
 foliage overhead, hence my progress was necessarily 
 slow, labored, and toilsome. During the day I had slept 
 but little, in consequence of the proximity of those 
 who might be bitter foes, and also because of the un- 
 pleasant position I occupied, as the ditch in which I 
 had concealed myself was muddy and proved a very 
 uncomfortable bed. I therefore became weary, my 
 limbs stiff from travel and from the pressure of the 
 heavy iron bands. Sleep overpowered me, and I lay 
 down in the leaves and slept till the cold awoke me. 
 I slept an hour and a half, as I judged from the 
 moon's descent. The nights arc invariably cool in 
 Mississippi, however sultry may have been the 
 weather during the day. Arising from my uneasy 
 slumber I pressed on. My thirst, which had for
 
 TUPELO. 243 
 
 some time been increasing, now became absolutely 
 unendurable. I knew not where to get water, not 
 daring to go near a well for fear of arrest. I must 
 obtain water or perish. At length I heard some 
 sucking pigs and their dam at a short distance from 
 me in the woods. There seemed to be no alterna- 
 tive. I must either perish or obtain some fluid to 
 slake my raging thirst, so I resolved to catch one of 
 the little pigs, cut its throat, and drink the blood. I 
 searched for my knife, but ascertained that I had 
 lost it. I was therefore reluctantly compelled to 
 abandon my designs upon the suckling's life. As I 
 went forward, the sow and her brood started up 
 alarmed, and in their fright plunged into water. I 
 followed fast and found a mud-hole a perfect lob- 
 lolly. The water was tepid, foul, and mingled with 
 the spawn of frogs. Removing the green scum, I 
 drank deep of the stagnant pool. My thirst was 
 only partially allayed by this foul draught, and soon 
 returned. As day dawned, I found some sassafras 
 leaves, which I chewed to allay the pangs of hunger, 
 but they formed a paste which I could not swallow. 
 I remembered that this day was the holy Sabbath, 
 but it brought neither rest to my weary frame, nor 
 composure to my agitated and excited mind. 
 
 The course decided upon as safest and best was to 
 go far to the south and west, and there wait till the 
 cavalry had returned from their search for me, then 
 by a very circuitous route to endeavor to reach the 
 Memphis and Charlestown railroad, find some Fed-
 
 244 TUPELO. 
 
 eral outpost on that road, and thus be saved. About 
 ten o'clock I came to an open country, and sought a 
 place to conceal myself. I found a dense copse on a 
 hillside, and hid within its friendly depths. I had 
 about departed to the realm of dreams when I heard 
 the voice of song. A human voice quickly aroused 
 me. I peered out from my lair, and on an opposite 
 hill I saw a gigantic Ethiopian making his way la- 
 boriously. He had a plank in his hands, there was 
 one underneath him upon which he was walking. 
 When he reached the end of it, he laid down the 
 plank he bore in his hands, stepped upon it, and 
 reaching back he lifted the other plank, and thus he 
 wended his way. He accompanied his task by sing- 
 ing a song heard often upon every southern plan- 
 tation : 
 
 My ole missus promise me, 
 
 Dat when she die, she'd set me free, 
 
 But she dun dead this many year ago, 
 
 An' yer I'm a hoin de same ole row. 
 
 Run, nigger, run, de patter-roller ketch you, 
 
 Run, nigger, run, hit's almos' day. 
 
 I'm a hoin across, I'm a hoin aroun', 
 
 I'm a cleanin up some mo' newgroun*, 
 
 Whar I lif so hard, I lif so free, 
 
 Dat my sins rises up in fronter me. 
 
 Oh, run, nigger, run, de patter-roller ketch yon, 
 
 Run, nigger, run, hit's almos' day. 
 
 But some ob dese days my time will come, 
 I'll year dat bugle, I'll year dat drum, 
 I'll see dern armies a marchin' along, 
 I'll lif my head an' jineder soug.
 
 TUPELO. 245 
 
 I'll hide no more behind dat tree, 
 
 When the angels flock ter wait on me. 
 
 Oh, run, nigger, run, de patter-roller ketch you. 
 
 Eun, nigger, run, hit's almos' day. 
 
 As he laid down his plank and stepped upon it, 
 it slid from under his feet and he fell prone upon 
 the ground. He jumped up and sang: 
 
 1 ' If Charley slip upon his track 
 Der's danger de hounds will bring him back, 
 Oh, run nigger, run, de patter-roller ketch you, 
 Run, nigger, run. hit's almos' day." 
 
 Thus he improvised his song as he wended his 
 weary way. He was trying to evade the hounds by 
 thus leaving no scent for them to follow. As he 
 passed me he sang : 
 
 "De pore white trash dey lives an' grows, 
 Dey noze far less dan the nigger noze." 
 
 Then he sang the chorus with a will : 
 
 " My name's Sam, I don't care a d n, 
 
 I'd radder be a nigger, dan a pore white man." 
 
 He look around in alarm, and muttered, "Old 
 Charley aiwa's dun furgit hizsef when he sings dat 
 song." He then passed onward in silence, carrying 
 his planks with him. 
 
 A singular noise attracting attention, as I gazed 
 up the hill I saw a man descend from a tree and look 
 around warily. As he passed near me, I called out, 
 in a low tone, Taisez vous. 
 
 Quickly glancing in my direction, he replied, 
 " Out, oul"
 
 246 TUPELO. 
 
 I bade him come to me. He did so. He had 
 been in hiding for a month, and becoming hungry 
 he left his lofty perch to procure the food that would 
 be left at the designated spot by his wife or eldest 
 daughter. He told me to await his return and he 
 would share his food with me, and he assured me of 
 all possible aid. As he emerged from the jungle, a 
 man with fierce aspect confronted him. He told him 
 to throw up his hands. I had accompanied him and 
 was about to retreat with all possible speed, but the 
 thought of abandoning my friend restrained me. I 
 determined to stand by him and abide the result. 
 My friend refused to throw up his hands. He said 
 he preferred to die there and then in preference to 
 submitting to be bound. This man, who I learned 
 was known as Col. Ned Barry, ordered us to march 
 in front of him, or if we hesitated he would let us 
 have the contents of his revolvers. We obeyed, 
 hoping to escape by darting into the woods at some 
 suitable point, or by some providential deliverance. 
 
 As we neared a large tree, Col. Barry said : " Israel 
 Nelson, I've been prowlin' around arter you for 
 more'n three weeks. Now, sir, you got ter go two 
 miles from here, an' Gen. Yerger will be d d glad 
 ter see yer." He turned around to make this little 
 speech. As he closed, and was about to advance, 
 a dusky form suddenly sprang from behind the tree, 
 a bludgeon descended swiftly upon the Colonel's 
 skull, and our would-be captor lay unconscious at 
 our feet. We found cords in his pockets and securely
 
 TUPELO. 247 
 
 bound our fallen foe. Soon he returned to conscious- 
 ness, and begged piteously for his life. We took 
 possession of hi* weapons. A little boy of ten years 
 of age appeared on the scene. He came to find his 
 father. He told him that ma wanted him to come 
 to the house at once, there was strangers there to see 
 him. What should we do to secure our own safety. 
 Nelson proposed shooting both father and son. Wo 
 took them both to the copse, and with the aid of this 
 Ethiopian, who had appeared at an opportune mo- 
 ment, gagged both father and son, and bound them 
 to the same tree. I urged Nelson to escape with me, 
 and to leave these persons bound. He replied that 
 he must see his wife, and that he would go to the 
 trysting place, and she would probably be there, or 
 in case she was not there, he would find a note 
 secreted near by. The note was there, but contained 
 no special information. Nothing but words of com- 
 fort and affectionate sympathy. 
 
 We heard hounds, and feared to return to our 
 prisoners for a long time. The African, Charley, 
 had left us, and as night had dropped down upon 
 the scene we cautiously returned to the copse. 
 
 I hope never again to witness such a ghastly sight. 
 The mangled remains of father and son were still ad- 
 hering to the tree. Fierce hounds had torn them to 
 pieces. I could no longer stay to gaze upon this sad 
 tragedy. Nelson told me that he had resolved to shoot 
 them both, as his safety and mine would be compro- 
 mised by sparing their lives. I am glad that the
 
 248 TUPELO. 
 
 terrible necessity was obviated. Nelson refused to 
 abandon his family, and I could no longer delay, so 
 hastened onward. 
 
 The dismal night passed away. I found a place 
 to hide a ditch as usual. I slept, and saw in my 
 dreams tables groaning under the weight of the most 
 delicious viands, and brooks of crystal waters bab- 
 bling and sparkling as they rushed onward in their 
 meandering course, but when I attempted to grasp 
 them they served me as Tantalus of olden time was 
 served, by vanishing into thin air or receding from 
 my grasp. While lying here, I was occasionally 
 aroused by the trampling of horses grazing in the 
 fields, which I feared might be bringing on my pur- 
 suers. Once the voices of men mingled with the sound 
 of prancing steeds upon a little bridge some twenty 
 feet distant, induced me to look out from my hiding 
 place, and lo ! two cavalry men, perhaps hunting for 
 my life, passed along. 
 
 When the sun had reached the zenith, I was again 
 startled by voices, which approached nearer and still 
 nearer my place of concealment, till at length the 
 cause was discovered. Several children, both black 
 and white, had come from a farm house about a 
 quarter of a mile distant to gather blackberries along 
 the margin of the ditch. They soon discovered me 
 and seemed somewhat startled and alarmed at my 
 appearance. I soon saw them gazing down upon me 
 in niy moist bed, with evident amazement and alarm. 
 Pallid, haggard, unshaven, and covered with mud, I
 
 TUPELO. 249 
 
 must have presented a frightful picture. As soon as 
 the children passed me, fearing the report they would 
 carry home, I arose from my lair and hastened 
 onward. After traveling three or four miles I came 
 to a dense woods bordering a stream, which had 
 ceased running in consequence of the unprecedented 
 drought that had for a long time prevailed throughout 
 this section of Mississippi. The creek had been a 
 large one, and in the deep cavities some water still 
 remained. Though warm and covered with a thick 
 green scum, and mingled with the spawn of frogs, I 
 drank it from sheer necessity, tepid and unwholesome 
 as it was. It did not allay my thirst, but created a 
 nausea which was very unpleasant. After traveling 
 several hours, I came to a place where was a depres- 
 sion in the ground. I thought I might possibly 
 find water. Soon the sight of water gladdened me, 
 but it was stagnant and covered with a thick, greenish, 
 yellowish scum. As I approached it I was startled 
 by seeing the tracks of some one who I thought might 
 have been a fugitive like myself. By closely observ- 
 ing the footsteps and the surroundings, I discerned 
 this to be the place I had left hours ago. I was 
 traveling in a circle. My bewildered brain had lost 
 its power to locate accurately the cardinal points. 
 
 About 4 o'clock P.M. I was startled by the baying 
 of blood-hounds behind me, and apparently upon my 
 track. Before escaping from jail I had been advised 
 by my fellow-prisoners to procure some onions, as 
 these rubbed upon the soles of my boots would meas-
 
 250 TUPELO. 
 
 urably destroy the scent. These could only be pro- 
 cured by visiting a garden, and I feared to approach 
 so near a house. I had not left any clothing in 
 prison from which the hounds could obtain (he scent 
 so as to recognize my track, and my starting in a 
 south-western direction was an additional precaution 
 against blood-hounds. Having heard them almost 
 every night for years, as they hunted down the fugi- 
 tive slave, I could not mistake the fearful import of 
 their howling. I could devise no plan for breaking 
 the trail. Daniel Boone, when pursued by Indians, 
 succeeded in baffling the dogs with which they pur- 
 sued him by laying hold of overhanging branches and 
 swinging himself forward. One slave on Dick's river 
 in Kentucky, near Danville, Boyle Co., ran along the 
 brink of a precipice, and dug a recess back from the 
 narrow path. Crawling into it, he remained concealed 
 till the hounds reached that point, when he thrust 
 them from the path. They fell and were dashed to 
 pieces upon the jagged rocks below. Some slaves, be- 
 fore escaping, provide themselves with a large sup- 
 ply of cayenne pepper. When the hounds are heard 
 in pursuit they set down their heels with considerable 
 force so as to make as deep an impression as possible; 
 they then sprinkle their tracks with the cayenne pep- 
 per. The hounds, in rapid pursuit, inhale the pep- 
 per. It produces such pain and irritation that they 
 will not pursue any fugitive for months, and even 
 then with caution so great that they are nearly worth- 
 less as negro dogs.
 
 TUPELO. 251 
 
 None of these plans were practicable, and I believed 
 death imminent, either from being torn to pieces by 
 the hounds or by being shot by the cavalry who were 
 following hard after them. Climbing a tree, I re- 
 solved to die rather than be taken back to Tupelo to 
 suffer death on the gallows in the presence of a hoot- 
 ing, howling, mixed multitude of infuriate demons. I 
 knew that upon my refusal to come down from the 
 tree a volley from their carbines would end my life. 
 The tree into which I had climbed was a large black 
 oak ; a j uniper tree stood on a knoll between the oak 
 and the route by which my pursuers would approach. 
 The oak would afford perfect concealment from obser- 
 vation till my pursuers stood underneath the tree, 
 then, by peering into its umbrageous recesses on all 
 sides, my presence would be discovered. Oh ! how I 
 wished for my navy repeater, that I might sell my 
 life as dearly as possible that ere I was slain I 
 might make some secessionist bite the dust. I thought 
 of the couplet in the old song : 
 
 The hounds are baying on my track, 
 Christian, will you send me back? 
 
 A feeling of deep sympathy arose in my heart for 
 the poor slave who, in his endeavor to escape from 
 the iron furnace of southern slavery, encountered the 
 blood-hounds and was torn to pieces by them. A 
 fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind. A touch 01 
 sympathy makes all the world akin. Now I hear 
 the deep-mouthed baying of the hounds. The pack 
 is large, and they realize that the object of their
 
 252 TUPELO. 
 
 search is near. I see them now on the crest of the 
 hill but a mile distant. Down the hill they plunge. 
 The cavalry follow hard after them. Men and dogs 
 seem intent upon their fell purpose. Soon they will 
 seize their prey, their hapless victim is almost within 
 their grasp. These fierce dragoons are mentally 
 gloating over the reward which they will receive for 
 their bloody work. Success will be achieved ere ten 
 minutes elapse. All hasten forward to be in at the 
 death. Must I die as the fool dieth ? Like Jezebel, 
 my blood lapped by dogs, and my body devoured by 
 these fierce blood-hounds and those wild swine feed- 
 ing near? My friends will never learn how I per- 
 ished, and 'tis better they should not know the 
 horrible circumstances attending my death. Oh ! 
 that I could see my dear wife and darling Kate, to 
 kiss them a final farewell ere the tragic scene closes 
 forever all my hopes of, and aspirations for, a long 
 and happy life in their society. Now the hounds 
 appear on the further brink of a ravine, a few hun- 
 dred yards distant, a ravine I had crossed a short 
 time before. Their loud baying, their quick, sharp 
 yelps rang with frightful clearness on the summer 
 air. All hope of escape died within my bosom. 
 There seemed to be a pack of forty fierce hounds as 
 they leaped down the steep declivity. I waited in 
 terrible suspense their advent on the hither bank. 
 The cavalry, with rattling sabers and glittering car- 
 bines, appeared on the farther bank, and halting on 
 the brink found the declivity too steep to attempt
 
 TUPELO. 253 
 
 the descent on horseback. A number dismounted 
 and speedily disappeared within the ravine. Two 
 gray foxes, driven from their covert by the noise of 
 pursuit, ran by the tree in which I was concealed, 
 and plunged into a cacti copse. A half-dozen men 
 appeared upon the crest nearest me. The hounds 
 were yet howling in the glen. They were bearing 
 eastward, up the ravine, and soon the dismounted 
 dragoons recrossed, and remounting began to follow 
 in that direction. On, on they went, with precipitate 
 speed. The howling of the hounds and the yelling 
 and horrid noise indicated that they were receding in 
 the distance. Fainter and fainter the breezes bore to 
 my ears the echoes of pursuit, till at length they were 
 lost in the distance, and I was mercifully saved from 
 a violent and horrid death. How had Divine Prov- 
 idence interposed in my behalf! It long remained 
 a mystery. A negro fugitive, escaping from slavery, 
 had crossed my path had gone up the ravine. The 
 hounds will always leave the track of a white man 
 for that of a negro. On the next afternoon they 
 caught the poor slave, who had concealed himself in 
 a tree, and returned him to bondage. His master 
 lived in Natchez, Adams Co., and this bov, Jinjro 
 
 v / O 
 
 Dick, had absconded three months before his capture. 
 I climbed down from the oak, and sat under the 
 juniper tree. I sat under it a long time, returning 
 thanks to God for my deliverance from a horrible 
 death, yet depressed with the apparently hopeless 
 prospect of ever evading my pursuers and reaching 
 a place of ultimate safety.
 
 254 TUPELO. 
 
 Soon a mocking bird from a neighboring tree began 
 to sing. He seemed to mock me in my agony. 
 When he ceased, a bird perched in the highest 
 branches of the same tree poured from its little throat 
 a song of hope the sweetest song I ever heard, and 
 then another and another joined in glad refrain, till the 
 whole grove grew vocal with their notes of joy. My 
 soul, responsive to these glad strains, grew hopeful, 
 and I, leaving more than half my weary burden of 
 care, trudged on, homeward bound. After awhile I 
 became bewildered, but soon peeping from a flowery 
 dell I saw the yellow compass flower. Its polary prop- 
 erty I knew. And true as the magnetic needle it 
 pointed the way to the desired haven. Coming to a 
 hazel dell I saw the patriotic pimpernel. Its flowers 
 of red, white, and blue were closed, and I knew that a 
 storm was impending. Soon the sky became overcast. 
 Dark, threatening, murky clouds o'erspread the sky 
 and shut out the sun. Oh ! that the rain might fall 
 in torr, nts. I could then assuage my burning, rag- 
 ing thirst. On a distant hill I saw it falling, but 
 only a few drops reached me, and my consuming 
 thirst remained unquenched. I had the same sensa- 
 tions as Burton, one of the explorers of the Dark 
 Continent. He says, "For twenty hours we did 
 not taste water, the sun parched our brains and the 
 mirage mocked us at every turn." As I jogged 
 along, with eyes shut against the fiery air, every im- 
 age that came to my mind was of water ; water in 
 the cool well, water bubbling from the rock, water
 
 TUPELO. 255 
 
 rippling in shady streams, water in clear lakes, invitr 
 ing me to plunge in and bathe. Now a cloud seemed 
 to shower upon me drops more precious than pearls, 
 then an unseen hand seemed to offer me a cup, which 
 I would have given all I was worth to receive. But 
 what a dreary, dreadful contrast. I opened my eyes 
 to a heat-reeking plain and a sky of that deep blue 
 so lovely to painter and poet, so full of death to us 
 whose only desire was rain and tempest. I tried to 
 pray but could not. I tried to think, but I had only 
 one idea water, water, water. A cup of cold water. 
 Oh ! how precious. No comparison is adequate to 
 express its worth. But I will trust Him who is able 
 to supply all my needs. 
 
 " When first before his mercy seat 
 I did to him my -way commit, 
 He gave me warrant from that hour 
 To trust his mercy, love, and power." 
 
 " Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." 
 Becoming confused again in regard to the cardinal 
 points, I fortunately came to a cemetery. In all 
 Christian lands the headstones at the graves are to 
 the west. I took my bearings and traveled on in a 
 north-easterly direction. The Savior said, in Matt, 
 xxiv. 27, "As the lightning cometh out of the east, 
 and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the 
 coming of the Son of Man be." The early Christians 
 ?upposed that this verse taught that Christ, at the sec- 
 ond advent, would appear in the east. Hence the 
 burial of the dead so that in rising on the resurrec-
 
 256 TUPELO. 
 
 tion morn they would face the east. While steadily 
 pursuing my weary way the faint howling of a dis- 
 tant pack of hounds coming from the direction in 
 which I was traveling caused me to halt in consterna- 
 tion. I was ascending a lofty hill, and was Hearing 
 the summit, when these ominous sounds were heard. 
 It was evident they were not in search of me, for they 
 were coming south, but they might accomplish my 
 destruction as certainly as if they had been commis- 
 sioned to effect this object. I hastened to the summit 
 of the hill. A lofty umbrageous oak, a venerable 
 forest king, with lateral branches near the ground, 
 stood on the highest eminence. As the' increasingly 
 distinct baying of the hounds indicated their rapid 
 approach, I resolved to climb this tree. With less 
 difficulty than I had anticipated I succeeded in doing 
 so. Higher and higher I ascended, till I reached 
 the lofty coronal of leaves that decked this mighty 
 monarch of the woods. A grand panorama was 
 spread out before me. Two miles distant, in the east, 
 the tents of a great encampment were spread out in 
 full view. The sentries were at their posts ; the roads 
 on all sides were picketed ; a general review was in 
 progress, and the bustle and excitement of camp life 
 was evident in all its appointments. A company of 
 cavalry with blood-hounds were just coming in from 
 the north. They had twenty-five or thirty men in 
 charge, in citizens' dress, evidently Unionists. They 
 were driving these men before them on the double 
 quick. Presently I saw one fall prone upon the
 
 TUPELO. 257 
 
 earth. Three or four cavalry men dismounted, and 
 pricking him with their bayonets, compelled him to 
 rise. He staggered on a short distance and fell again. 
 A second time they used their bayonets, when one 
 of the prisoners left his companions, and running 
 to the fallen man, thrust aside the bayonets. The 
 guards on foot presented their carbines. A puff of 
 smoke indicated that they had discharged them. This 
 man, who seemed desirous of aiding his fellow-pris- 
 oner, fell upon the prostrate form of the fallen man, 
 wjiom they now transfixed with their bayonets. After 
 a few moments spent in inspecting their victims, they 
 remounted their horses and rejoined their company. 
 But what startled me most was the sight of a large 
 company of hunters, composed of ladies and gentle- 
 men, who, spread over a considerable space, in high 
 glee and with loud and boisterous halloos were pur- 
 suing a bear. They were coming rapidly toward me 
 from a point due north. That they would pass near 
 me was evident. The bear was but a half mile in 
 advance of the hounds, and they were gaining rapidly 
 upon him. I perceived that the bear's strength was 
 waning. He seemed to be running in a direct line 
 toward the tree amid whose friendly foliage I was 
 concealed. A planter, whose residence was upon a 
 hill to the west, had heard the hounds, and I saw him 
 hastily make preparations to join in the chase. Colored 
 men. brought out several saddled horses; a number of 
 hounds were unleashed and unkenneled, and several 
 men mounted the horses, and with guns in hand has- 
 17
 
 258 TUPELO. 
 
 tenecl away to join in the chase. I observed that 
 from the direction they took they would not be 
 likely to intercept the bear. On, on, they rode, 
 and ere long joined the hunters in pursuit. The 
 bear, with failing strength, reached a point about 
 three hundred yards from my tree, and turning his 
 back against a tree, stood at bay. The dogs, as fast 
 as they approached, were driven back, howling in 
 agony. A.S the bear was on the opposite side of the 
 tree, I could not see the battle. It became fierce, and 
 the mingled growling of the bear and the howls aifd 
 yells of pain upon the part of the discomfited dogs 
 made for a time a perfect pandemonium. The bear 
 seemed on the point of gaining a victory, but the 
 hunters rode up, called off the not reluctant hounds, 
 and a volley from their carbines laid bruin dead at 
 their feet. I could hear their conversation distinctly. 
 The planter invite^! the hunters to come over and 
 spend the night with him. He promised to send some 
 of his slaves to flay the bear and care for the meat. 
 The visitors' dogs were taken care of by the planter. 
 They were leashed in his yard ; but his own hounds 
 were allowed to roam at will all night. The negroes 
 came down from the house, skinned and dressed the 
 bear, and it seemed to be attractive labor to them. 
 The hounds came under the tree and barked furiously. 
 One of the colored men said he believed there " was 
 coons up dat tree, or dem dogs wouldn't bark so fierce." 
 One of them said he believed he'd "go and tell mas- 
 ter dat dere was coons in dat tree." Off he started,
 
 TUPELO. 259 
 
 and soon came back to tell de boys to u kum up an' 
 take keer of sum dogs dat de bear had almost killed." 
 About ten o'clock I came down from the tree and 
 pursued my journey in the direction of the polar star. 
 I experienced greater difficulty in descending the 
 tree than in the ascent. My limbs were weary ; the 
 fetters upon my ankles had become quite galliug; 
 my tongue was swollen in my mouth and cracking 
 open from thirst. I had not gotten far from the 
 tree when a hound, which had been lapping the blood 
 of the bear, sprang toward me with open mouth. 
 A well-directed blow from a club, which I took the 
 precaution to secure, sent him howling away. All 
 the hounds within hearing howled in concert, and 
 a more frightful chorus I have never heard. I 
 hastened onward as rapidly as possible, and there 
 seemed to be no pursuit. I feared to deviate 
 from my pathway to the right or left, as I had 
 learned from my lofty point of observation, from 
 my perch in the pinnacle of the lofty monarch of the 
 forest, that there was a large camp to the eastward, 
 and a much less formidable one to the westward ; on 
 the one hand was Scylla, on the other Charybdis. 
 Every hour death stared me in the face. Foes were 
 lurking all around. There was but a step between 
 me and death. The days of my appointed time were 
 waning fast. Hunted like a partridge upon the 
 mountains, by blood-hounds and bloody men, a price 
 upon my head, escape seemed impossible. I knew 
 that prayer, fervent prayer, was continually ascending
 
 260 TUPELO. 
 
 to God in my behalf. Implicitly I believed in the 
 omnipotence of prayer that no good thing will be 
 denied the prayer of faith. But I had no promise 
 to plead for longer life. It might be the will of the 
 all- wise God to call me from earth, to suffer me to 
 perish, as many patriotic men had done since the in- 
 auguration of rebellion, by rebel cruelty. I was never 
 for an hour out of the hearing of howling hounds or 
 yelping dogs. The hound ordinarily used in the pur- 
 suit of fugitive slaves is a cross between a mastiff and 
 the bull-dog. It is very fierce, and will assault and 
 tear to pieces the fugitive as soon as caught. A hound 
 sometimes used is the blood-hound of the Talbot or 
 southern breed. He has long, pendulous, drooping 
 ears ; he is tall and square-headed ; has heavy, droop- 
 ing lips and jowl. He has a stern expression. He 
 is broad-chested, deep-tongued, and much slower than 
 the cross between the mastiff and bull-dog. His pow- 
 ers of scenting are extraordinary. Let him smell 
 any article of clothing that has been worn by the 
 fugitive, and he will at once recognize his track and 
 follow it, though it should be more than twenty-four 
 hours old. Often one or two of these blood-hounds 
 are kept to guide the pack. They are not so fierce 
 as the other dogs, and any stout negro, by getting 
 his back against a tree, so that he may not be sur- 
 rounded, could defend himself with a club, and kill 
 his assailants as fast as they approached. But the 
 ordinary dog used to hunt the fugitive the cross be- 
 tween the mastiff and the bull-dog is so large, strong,
 
 TUPELO. 261 
 
 and fierce that the fugitive stands but little chance to 
 defend himself from the combined attack of a dozen 
 of them. Were it not for the blood-hounds with 
 them, he could much more readily break the trail 
 and baffle pursuit. The blood-hound is in color 
 tawny, with black muzzles. The former dog has 
 some scenting powers, but it is as inferior in these 
 to the true blood-hound as it is superior to him in 
 blood-thirstiness and cruel, indiscriminate pugnacity. 
 It has no utility except as a man-hunter. In hunting 
 the fugitive slave men always accompany the hounds, 
 and are seldom far in the rear. When the fugitive 
 finds all his skill to baffle pursuit unavailing, he 
 climbs a tree and awaits the arrival of the horsemen, 
 who call off the hounds, order the slave to come down, 
 and they then tie him up and give him one or two 
 hundred lashes, well laid on, on his bare back. Then 
 he is ironed and conveyed home, where he receives 
 the remaining installments of the penalty due to his 
 vain attempt to secure his inalienable rights life, lib- 
 erty, and the pursuit of happiness. Life, one of the 
 inalienable rights which God ordains for man, is not 
 servile life. Servile life is induced by the avarice 
 and cruelty of man. 
 
 I lay down in the woods and fell asleep ; visions of 
 abundance both to eat and drink haunted me, and 
 every unusual sound would startle me. A fly pecu- 
 liar to the South, whose buzz sounded like the voice 
 of a man in his senility, often awoke me with the 
 fear that my enemies were near. As soon as Ursa
 
 262 TUPELO. 
 
 Minor appeared I took up my line of march. The 
 night was very dark, and I became somewhat bewil- 
 dered. At length I reached a cross-roads, and as I 
 was emerging from the woods I saw two videttes a 
 few yards distant. As quickly and as noiselessly as 
 possible, I made a retrograde movement. As I was 
 retiring I heard one vidette say to his comrade, 
 " Who is that ?" He replied, " It is the corporal of 
 the guard." "What does he want?" said the first. 
 "O," was the reply, " I suspect he's just slipping 
 around here to see if we are asleep." 
 
 After I had reached a safe distance in the bushes, I 
 lay down and slept till the moon arose. To the sur- 
 prise of my bewildered brain it seemed to rise in the 
 west. Taking my bearings I hastened on, through 
 woods, corn-fields, and swamps. Coming to a large 
 pasture in which a number of cows were grazing, I 
 tried to obtain some milk, but the cows would not let 
 me approach near enough to effect my purpose. My 
 face was not of the right color, and my costume be- 
 longed to a sex that never milked them. I traveled 
 till day-break, when I concealed myself in a cane- 
 brake. I had scarcely fallen asleep, when I heard 
 the sound of the reveille in a camp near by, and, lis- 
 tening, distinctly heard the soldiers conversing. 
 Arising, I hastily beat a retreat, and cautiously 
 avoiding the videttes I traveled several hours before 
 I dared take any rest. At length I lay down amid 
 the branches of a fallen tree and slept. Visions of 
 home and friends flitted before me. Voices sweet
 
 TUPELO. 263 
 
 and kind greeted me on all sides. The bitter taunts 
 of cruel officers no longer assailed my ears. The 
 loved ones at home were present, and the joys of the 
 past were renewed. But, alas ! the falling of a limb 
 dissipated all my fancied pleasures. The reality re- 
 turned. I was still a fugitive escaping for life, and 
 in the midst of a hostile country. I fancied the woful 
 disappointment of the rebel officers when they learned 
 that the bird had flown and that they could no longer 
 wreak their vengeance upon me, nor have the pleas- 
 ure of witnessing my execution. I thanked God 
 and took courage. I was still hopeful and trusting, 
 often repeating a verse from one of Watts' beautiful 
 hymns : 
 
 Through many dangers, toils, and snares 
 
 I have already come; 
 'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, 
 
 And grace will bring me home. 
 
 During this night I traveled steadily, crossing 
 corn-fields, woods, and pastures. I crossed but one 
 cotton-field. I suspected every bush a secessionist, 
 though I felt much more secure at night than in clay- 
 light. I avoided roads as much as possible, traveling 
 on none except to cross them, and this I did walking 
 backward, so that if the hounds found iny track the 
 cavalry would be deceived when the plain tracks in 
 the road indicated a false direction. Every possible 
 deception was practiced by Unionists to avoid 
 detection. 
 
 The rising sun still found me pressing onward.
 
 264 TUPELO. 
 
 Hunger and thirst were now consuming me. My 
 tongue w r as swollen and cracking open from thirst. I 
 thought of opening a vein in my arm and drinking 
 the blood. When I had almost despaired of getting 
 w r ater, a presentiment I may call it an assurance 
 as if an inspiration from heaven, took possession of 
 my whole soul that soon I would be supplied with 
 water. The sky w r as clear. No clouds indicated 
 rain. I quietly walked along, as consciously sure of 
 water as if I were being refreshed by it. I came to ' 
 a road and crossed it. A gin house was visible a few 
 hundred yards distant, and there was a grove near it. 
 I knew that embowered within its sylvan shade was 
 a plantation house. After crossing the road I came 
 to a gorge surrounded by converging hills, from 
 which issued a copious fountain of crystal water. 
 Near it there was no trace of human foot, nor hoof 
 of cattle. I seemed to be the discoverer. On be- 
 holding it I wept for joy. I knelt down and in 
 words of thanksgiving expressed my gratitude to 
 Almighty God for this great deliverance, this spark- 
 ling, life-giving liquid brewed amid the forest shades 
 by the hand of Jehovah, merciful and gracious. I 
 then stooped down and quaffed the living water, the 
 first pure water I had tasted since my imprisonment. 
 Oh ! that men would praise the Lord for his good- 
 ness and feel truly grateful for his common benefits. 
 Were water to become scarce men would realize its 
 worth. Blessings brighter as they take their flight. 
 I remained at this spring four hours, quaffing its
 
 TUPELO. 265 
 
 cool, refreshing waters. I removed my clothing and 
 performed my first ablution since I fell into rebel 
 hands, yet the ir6ns prevented a thorough ablution. 
 I named this spring Fons Vitse. I was rejoiced 
 when I discovered this spring, but not surprised, for 
 I felt as fully assured of finding water as if an angel 
 had spoken to me from heaven indicating its location. 
 It came into my mind with the force of a revelation. 
 My regret was sincere when I was compelled to leave 
 this spring and continue my wearisome journey. 
 
 Three o'clock P.M. arrived. I felt bewildered. I 
 knew not where I was. I might be near friends, I 
 might be near blood-thirsty foes. I could scarcely 
 walk. My iron bands had become very irksome. 
 I felt that I was becoming childish. I could tell all 
 my bones. I tried to pray, but could only utter, 
 "God, be merciful to me a sinner." The sky became 
 overcast with clouds. I could not distinguish the 
 cardinal points. I therefore concealed myself and slept. 
 It was night when I awoke, and the clouds still covered 
 the face of the sky threateningly, concealing my 
 guides, the stars of heaven, and rendering it impos- 
 sible for me to proceed. Thus when I wished most 
 to advance, my progress was arrested and my distress- 
 ing suspense prolonged. During the night I was 
 asleep and awake alternately, but could not at any 
 time discern either moon or stars. I slept behind a 
 fallen tree by a roadside. A horseman passed by 
 at midnight. His dog, a large, ferocious animal, 
 came running along by the side of the tree by which
 
 266 TUPELO. 
 
 I was lying. When he reached me I rose suddenly, 
 and brandishing a club menacingly, the alarmed and 
 howling dog incontinently and ingloriously fled, 
 leaving me master of the field. The horseman 
 stopped and listened. I. lay silent as the grave. 
 After a time, which my suspense and alarm 
 doubtless magnified, he rode onward, when I 
 changed my hiding place for safer quarters farther 
 in the dark forest. The next morning the sun was 
 obscured until nine o'clock. I guess at the time, as 
 I had not my watch. I was then sick. There was 
 a ringing in my ears, and I was afflicted by vertigo, a 
 dimness of vision, and faintness, which rendered me 
 absolutely unfit for travel. It required an hour to 
 walk a quarter of a mile. Before me was a hill, the 
 top of which I reached after two hours laborious as- 
 cent. I despaired of getting much farther. Feeling 
 confident that I must be near the point where inter- 
 sect the counties of Tippah, Pontotoc, Itawainba, 
 and Tishomingo, and knowing that there were many 
 Unionists in that district, I resolved to call at the first 
 house I came to whose appearance indicated that its 
 inmates were not slave-holders. Slave-holders were 
 almost invariably secessionists. If I remained in 
 the woods I must perish, as a great storm was im- 
 pending. If I met with a Unionist family I would 
 be saved, if with a rebel family I could but perish, 
 and I felt that I could not survive the night and ap- 
 proaching storm. 
 
 Soon I came to a cabin by the side of a road, two
 
 TUPELO. 267 
 
 miles north of New Albany, Tippah county. The 
 storm had reached me. The wind was blowing a 
 gale, and the rain 'began to fall in torrents just such 
 a storm as ^sits the gulf states after a protracted 
 drought. I went up to the door of the cabin and 
 rapped. " Come," was the laconic response. I pulled 
 the latch-string. The door blew open and I stag- 
 gered in. When the lady present looked upon me 
 she threw up her hands in terror, and said : 
 
 "Are you from Tupelo?" 
 
 "lam." 
 
 "What is your name?" 
 
 "John Hill." 
 
 I suppressed my surname. I was not much sur- 
 prised at the lady's alarm. My hair, long and un- 
 kempt, covered with mud, my clothes nearly torn 
 from my body by the thorns and briars in the 
 ditches which bisected the fields that I was compelled 
 necessarily to cross, my face pallid, the iron bands 
 upon my limbs, made me present a frightful appa- 
 rition to her startled gaze. And coming as the 
 harbinger of a fierce storm, added doubtless to her 
 terror. She, scrutinizing me closely, was about to 
 proceed w r ith her catechising. I forestalled her by 
 turning to her husband, a man of Herculean pro- 
 portions, sitting near by, saying: 
 
 "Sir, the Yankees are overrunning all our country. 
 Why are you not in the army trying to drive them 
 away ? " 
 
 The lady replied tartly, "He's not there, and he's
 
 268 TUPELO. 
 
 not goin' there, either." She then animadverted 
 upon Jeff Davis, the Southern Confederacy, and the 
 conscript law, in terms that pleased me much. I 
 never before delighted so much in hearing Jeff Davis 
 abused. I felt safe, and pointing to the iron bands, 
 told this couple Mr. and Mrs. Chism of my es- 
 cape from the prison at Tupelo and the death pre- 
 ordained by General Bragg. 
 
 Their house had been searched for Malone and me, 
 and they were cognizant of our escape. Both hus- 
 band and wife promised to render all possible aid. 
 Mrs. Chism immediately began to prepare supper. 
 I told her that I could not await the slow process of 
 cooking, that I was too near starvation for that. She 
 turned down the table-cloth which covered the frag- 
 ments remaining from dinner, and disclosed some corn 
 bread and Irish potatoes. I thought this was the sweet- 
 est morsel I had ever tasted. After eating a little 
 I became quite sick, and was compelled to desist. It 
 was so long since I had partaken of any substantial 
 food that my stomach rebelled against it. Soon Mrs. 
 Chism prepared supper, consisting of broiled chicken 
 and other delicacies. The fowl was small, and I ate 
 nearly the whole of it, much to the chagrin of a little 
 daughter of mine hostess, whom I heard complaining 
 to her ma in an adjoining room, saying, "Ma, all I 
 could get of that chicken was a tiny piece of a 
 wing, and wasent that gentleman a hoss to eat," with 
 other remarks not very complimentary to my vora- 
 cious appetite. I ate too heartily after so long a
 
 TUPELO. 269 
 
 fast, and it caused nausea and vomiting. My stom- 
 ach was too weak to bear it. After supper mine host 
 endeavored to remove the heavy iron bands with 
 which my ankles were encircled. Fortunately he 
 was a blacksmith by vocation, and with the use of 
 the implements of his trade he succeeded. I keep 
 these as sacred relics. The good lady furnished me 
 with water and a suit of her husband's clothes. 
 After performing a thorough ablution I donned the 
 suit, and was completely metamorphosed and thor- 
 oughly disguised, as my new suit was made for a 
 man of vastly larger physical proportions. I spent 
 the night with my new friends, during which a 
 heavy storm passed over, accompanied by vivid 
 lightning and loud, reverberating thunder. Had I 
 been out in the drenching rain in my wretched and 
 enfeebled condition I must certainly have perished. 
 
 A rebel camp was within a mile and a half, and 
 horsemen clad in gray passed constantly. In the 
 morning my host informed me of a Unionist who 
 knew the country in the direction of Rienzi, the point 
 which I now determined to reach. This gentleman 
 was a near neighbor, Mr. San ford by name. Mr. 
 Chism accompanied me to a thicket near his house, 
 in which I concealed myself. Before leaving I 
 handed Mrs. Chism a double eagle. She refused to 
 take it. Said I, " You have saved my life." " I 
 charge you nothing for that," was her laconic reply. 
 I threw the money down upon the table and left with 
 her husband. As we were departing, she said, " Well,
 
 270 TUPELO. 
 
 if you get to the Federal lines you won't begrudge it, 
 and if you don't you won't need it." 
 
 Mr. Chism went to the shop of Mr. Sanford, who 
 was a hatter by trade. There were two rebel soldiers 
 talking with him, so Mr. C. had to wait till they 
 went away of their own accord. As he staid more 
 than two hours I feared treachery that he might 
 have gone to the rebel camp and given information. 
 I therefore left my place of concealment and ascended 
 an adjacent hill and climbed a eucalyptus tree. When 
 I saw Mr. Chism coming, accompanied by but one 
 man, I descended. The reason for delay was given. 
 Mr. San ford said, " I am not familiar with the route 
 to Rienzi, but will accompany you to my brother-in- 
 law's, Mr. John Downihg's, who I know is well ac- 
 quainted with the road. He can take you through 
 the woods so as to avoid the Confederate cavalry. 
 As I undertake this at the risk of life, we must use 
 all possible precaution. You will have to spend the 
 day concealed in my barn. I would gladly entertain 
 you at my house, but I have a large famify and many 
 of them are girls, and you know that girls will talk, 
 and might say something that would lead to suspi- 
 cion and search, for these rebels are lynx-eyed and are 
 on the alert. There are many notices affixed to trees 
 and shops and posts in the most public places describ- 
 ing you and offering a large reward for your capture. 
 I will carry you provisions during the day, and at 
 midnight we will start to Mr. Downing's. We will be 
 compelled to make a large circuit to avoid the rebel
 
 TUPELO. 271 
 
 camp, and to go around a spur of the mountain. We 
 will have to travel forty-five miles of a circuit, while 
 it is only nine miles as the raven flies." 
 
 At one time Mr. Sanford's twin daughters came 
 into the barn in search of eggs. They approached 
 near my place of concealment, but did not discover 
 me. When Mr. S. came with delicacies his wife had 
 prepared, I informed him of it. He said, " I will 
 send all my girls to their uncle's on a visit, so that 
 there may be no danger of their suspicions being 
 aroused. We are in daily, imminent peril. I do 
 hope that the Federal troops will make haste to oc- 
 cupy the country and save us from our bitter and 
 malignant foes, who will soon attempt to force all 
 Unionists into their army ; then it will be necessary 
 to leave home and escape to the Union lines." He 
 brought his wife up to see me, and we sat sadly dis- 
 cussing the perils and troubles surrounding the loyal 
 people of the South. At length night came, and I 
 slept. At midnight Mr. S. awoke me. He told me 
 to mount the horse he held by the bridle. Said he, 
 " That is a blooded animal of high mettle and good 
 bottom, one of the swiftest 'horses in Tippah Co. He 
 runs like a streak of lightning." I provided a good 
 whip, resolving in case of danger to put my horse to 
 his utmost speed. We traveled rapidly till nine 
 o'clock in the morning, having to make a detour on 
 account of discovering an unexpected camp. We 
 must have traveled over fifty miles. When we 
 reached Mr. Downing's we partook of an excellent
 
 272 TUPELO. 
 
 breakfast. The guerrillas had a few nights before 
 murdered a Unionist a Mr. Newsom. His senti- 
 ments had become known to the rebels. They 
 watched his house till they knew of his presence at 
 home. He had been in concealment, but run the risk 
 of going home to see a sick daughter. They offered 
 him the oath of allegiance to the Confederate states. 
 He refused to take it. In their anger they resolved 
 upon his immediate death. Some proposed hanging, 
 some shooting, but the majority prevailed, and these 
 fiends in human form, these devils incarnate, then 
 deliberately heated water, and in the presence of his 
 weeping, pleading wife and helpless children they 
 scalded to death their chained and defenceless victim. 
 They then suspended the corpse from a tree, with a 
 label attached threatening a similar death to any who 
 should remove the corpse or bury it. Thus perished 
 a patriot of whom the state was not worthy. These, 
 my friends, cut down the corpse by night and buried 
 it in the forest. May God reward them. Oh, the 
 inhumanity of man to his fellow-man. The mother- 
 in-law of Mr. Newsom was a daughter of Gen. Na- 
 thaniel Green of revolutionary fame. She was very 
 aged. I asked her, for we stopped at her house, if 
 she remembered much about the war of the revolu- 
 tion. She kept repeating, " Oh, it was dreadful times. 
 The British before, the Indians behind, and the tories 
 in the middle." 
 
 Ere I left Mr. Downing's there were more than 
 fifty Unionists called to see me. They held a coun-
 
 TUPELO. 273 
 
 cil, and Mr. Downing was deputed to convey me to 
 the Federal lines. We immediately set out upon our 
 perilous journey. 
 
 Mr. John Downing, my guide, thought it best to 
 travel by day, as the recent rains had raised the 
 waters of the Hatchie and Tallahatchie rivers, both 
 of which we must cross. Fording would be quite 
 dangerous at night. We must follow trails, and thus 
 avoid, if possible, the rebel cavalry and camps. 
 There was one point of special danger at a place 
 where stood a mill, at the base of converging lofty 
 hills. We were traveling in a semi-mountainous 
 country. We at length reached the summit of a very 
 high hill. Far below us, winding around the base 
 of this hill, which might not inappropriately be 
 termed a mountain, ran the clear waters of a consid- 
 erable creek. This was the dangerous point. Here 
 was a large grist mill. We hitched our horses in a 
 copse and reconnoitered. Believing the coast to be 
 clear, we warily descended the steep declivities, till 
 at length we reached the mill. The miller appeared 
 at the door and poured forth a torrent of interroga- 
 tories, to all of which my guide answered warily and 
 discreetly, and I thought measurably allayed his sus- 
 picions. Presently we espied a covered wagon 
 drawn by Sumpter mules approaching. The saddle 
 marks were visible. It halted at the mill, and eleven 
 Confederate soldiers emerged from underneath the 
 low, dingy covering. We were .about to ride on, when 
 they halted us, and the following dialogue ensued 
 18
 
 274 TUPELO. 
 
 between my guide and the soldiers, who had been 
 out on sick furlough ever since the battle of Shiloh, 
 and were now returning to camp at Ripley, Miss. : 
 
 "Hello! strangers, whar are ye from?" 
 
 " From New Albany, Tippah county." 
 
 "Whar ye gw r ine?" 
 
 " On the hunt of stray oxen. Hev ye seen nothin' 
 of a black ox and a pided (pied) ox no whar in yer 
 travels?" 
 
 "No, we hain't." 
 
 " Is ther any danger of meeting any Yanks on that 
 road over yender ? " 
 
 " No, ther ain't. But ther's a road turns oifen it 
 'bout three mile from here, to ther right, that is a 
 mighty dangerous road. The Yankee cavalry's on 
 it most every day. Say, who's that feller with ye? 
 He jes' looks like death on a pale hoss." 
 
 " He's my brother-in-law from Alabam. He's hed 
 the aiger for more'n a year, an' ther ain't no quinine 
 in the country an' he can't git it stopt. Some of 'em 
 thinks he's purty well gone with quick consumption." 
 
 "Golly, he looks like it. But what's that air 
 uotis up thar on the mill?" 
 
 The miller replies, " It's a notis of a reward fer a 
 prisoner that broke jail at Tupelo. Jes' read it. I 
 can't," 
 
 "Nun of us kin read. Jim Colquitt stopped back 
 a piece thar to see his sister, Missis Curlee. He'll be 
 along dreckly. We is to wait for him hyar. He 
 kin read, an' rite, too."
 
 TUPELO. 275 
 
 The miller replied, " The officer that axed me to 
 stick this notis up said a prisoner that hed escaped 
 before wuz follered with blood-hounds an' tuck back 
 an' put in irons, but he'd broke jail agin the day be- 
 fore he wuz to be hung. That old Bragg wuz all- 
 fired mad about it, and offers a big reward to who- 
 soinever brings him back dead or alive. His name is 
 Mohave or suthiu like that. He is a parson an' lives 
 in Rienzi, an' it's thought he's makin' fer that point." 
 
 We were about to start, when one of the soldiers 
 said, "Stranger, what mout your name be?" 
 
 " My name is Jim Chalmette, and my brother-in- 
 law's name is Oliver Folsoni Brownlee, from Flor- 
 ence, Alabam," said my guide. 
 
 The soldier then said, " Can't one of you fellers 
 read that air notis?" 
 
 We rode up in front of it and Mr. Downing read 
 it thus: "Ten thousand dollars reward will be paid 
 for the return, dead or alive, of a prisoner who es- 
 caped from the military prison at Tupelo, Miss. His 
 name is John Mohave. He is over six feet high, of 
 dark complexion, heavy beard, black dyes, high 
 cheek bones, and was dressed in broadcloth, somewhat 
 the worse for prison wear. Any soldier who cap- 
 tures him will, in addition to the cash reward, leceive 
 suitable promotion. 
 
 "BRAXTON BRAGG, 
 "Major General Commanding" 
 
 I thought Downing had read it correctly, till I 
 rode up and read it. I felt some tremor when I rec-
 
 276 TUPELO. 
 
 ognized an exact description of myself. Even the 
 missing molar had been noticed. 
 
 One of the soldiers said, " Well, stranger, that set- 
 tles it. I thought afore yer read that notis as how 
 yer brother-in-law mought a ben the feller what 
 broke jail, but he don't fill the bill, by odds. But 
 he's got on awful fine boots an' hat. They don't suit 
 them cloze, an' his cloze don't nigh fit him. They 
 wuz made fer a long sight bigger man." 
 
 " Them's a suit of my cloze he put on this mornin' 
 so my wife could wash an' mend hizzen." 
 
 "AVell, I s'pose yer all right, but ther's a camp 
 about three mile from hyar. You an' yer brother- 
 in-law hed better let them oxen go fer awhile an' 
 come with us to camp. Chalmers or Baxter will be 
 thar, or mebbe old Forrest hisself. He'll be mighty 
 glad to see ye, I reckon. Then ye kin explain some 
 things about ye that we don't zackly understand." 
 
 At this time we were surrounded by them, and 
 Downing thought it best to express his acquiescence. 
 One of the soldiers presently went to the wagon, and 
 producing a jug, asked us to drink with him. We 
 rode to the' further side of the wagon. The soldier 
 then said, " Here's to Jeff Davis and the Southern 
 Confederacy, wishin' 'em success and that we may 
 kill a hundred Yankees apiece an' all git home safe." 
 
 At this moment Downing said, " We must go on," 
 and putting spurs to our horses we soon put consid- 
 erable space between us and these soldiers. They 
 called after us to halt. Downing said, " We haven't
 
 TUPELO. 277 
 
 time, howsomevet we're all right." We rode on 
 rapidly, thankful that we had escaped imminent 
 peril. We soon came to a turn in the road. Just as 
 we made the turn, we saw two men, with guns in 
 their hands, on a knoll covered with a heavy growth 
 of walnut trees. We were not sure whether they 
 were hunters or guerrillas. They called to us to halt. 
 We did so and asked them what they wanted. They 
 replied that they would come to the road and tell us, 
 and said, " Wait till we come to you." Downing 
 said, in a low tone, " We are in danger, as we are in 
 range, and they can bring us down with their guns. 
 We will wait till they get to the bottom of the hill, 
 among the chaparral which Avill intercept the shot if 
 they fire." He then called to them to come on. 
 They started toward us, and when they had reached 
 the dense chaparral, we put spurs to our horses and 
 galloped rapidly away. When we started, the men 
 ran back up the knoll and taking aim fired at us. 
 The shot from one of the guns whistled harmlessly 
 through the branches of a mulberry tree under which 
 we were passing. The shot from the other gun was 
 more effective. One shot struck my horse in the 
 flank. He reared and plunged wildly. I managed, 
 however, to keep my seat. A shot struck Downing's 
 saddle, and glancing inflicted a wound in the thigh. 
 The men then hastened through the chaparral, and 
 upon reaching the road, both fired the two undis- 
 charged barrels of their guns. We were now so far 
 away, and had turned a slight bend in the road, that
 
 278 TUPELO. 
 
 the shot did us no injury. We, however, heard their 
 patter and whistle as they passed through the 
 branches of the trees in close proximity to us. 
 Neither Downing nor I felt the least fear. The ex- 
 citement of the moment and the comical and excited 
 appearance of our would-be captors, both of whom 
 had lost their hats in the bushes, excited our mirth. 
 Downing said he believed the men were Porter 
 Rucker and Albert Braddock, guerrillas, or partisan 
 rangers, as Jeff Davis styled those who were engaged 
 in hunting down Unionists, and capturing and re- 
 turning to camp deserters. 
 
 u Perhaps," said I to Downing, "it will delight 
 us hereafter to recall even the present things to mind." 
 " Yes, if we outlive this terrible war and survive its 
 horrors. But there is not much pleasure in them 
 now." 
 
 In a short time we came to the road designated as 
 dangerous by our would-be captors at the mill. As 
 we reached it we saw in the distance ahead of us, 
 on the road we were now traveling, a few straggling 
 cavalrymen. They saw us and halted, apparently to 
 await our overtaking them. We turned off on the 
 road which the Yankee cavalry were said to fre- 
 quent ere we reached them. A boy whom we over- 
 took informed us that Baxter's rebel cavalry had 
 just passed. They would have swift steeds to follow 
 with any prospect of overtaking us. A former class- 
 mate in Richmond College, Ohio, Matthew Thomp- 
 son by name, was an officer under Baxter, and
 
 GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT.
 
 TUPELO. 279 
 
 would have recognized me had we been a few minutes 
 earlier at that point, and been captured by this 
 doughty rebel. Baxter's scouts infested this section 
 for a long time, murdering Unionists and hunting 
 with blood-hounds the poor conscripts who, having 
 been forced into the Confederate service, endeavored 
 to escape to the Federal lines. Baxter concocted a 
 plot to capture Gen. U. S. Grant, but failed to ac- 
 complish his nefarious purpose. 
 
 Having traveled several hours after escaping Bax- 
 ter's cavalry, we rode into the woods, dismounted, 
 and sat down to rest and take an inventory of our 
 injuries. Downing's boot had some blood in it and 
 his thigh was beginning to be quite painful. The 
 left leg of his pantaloons was completely saturated. 
 I examined his wound, and used Downing's knife as 
 a probe, but I could not find the shot. I cut off a 
 piece of cloth from one of my under garments and band- 
 aged the wound to stop the hemorrhage. My horse 
 had bled considerably from the wound in his flank, 
 but did not show any perceptible sign of weakness, or 
 flagging gait. We remounted and rode on to 
 Antioch or Hinkle. I think we passed through both 
 these hamlets. Here Downing left me to return 
 home. He must travel by a different route in re- 
 turning. He would lodge that night at the house of 
 a stalwart Unionist, Elihu Noble, who had recently 
 moved from Ingomar, Issaquena county, to Molino 
 Del Rey. I gave him a double eagle, and we parted 
 with fervent adieus and good wishes for each other's
 
 280 TUPELO. 
 
 welfare. I again assumed the role of a pedestrian, 
 and ere long reached Rienzi. 
 
 When I gazed on the star spangled banner, em- 
 blem of my country's glory and power, beneath 
 whose ample folds there was safety and protection for 
 the poor, pursued, panting, perishing Unionist, and 
 saw around me the loyal hosts of brave men, eager 
 to subvert rebellion and afford protection to the 
 wronged and persecuted southern patriot, I shed tears 
 of joy. I felt that I was safe, my perils o'er, and 
 from the depths of a grateful heart I returned thanks 
 to Almighty God, who had given me my life in answer 
 to importunate prayer, preserving me amid peculiar 
 dangers, seen and unseen, till now I had reached the 
 desired haven and was safe amid hosts of friends. 
 When I reached the picket line, a horse was fur- 
 nished me, and I was taken to the head-quarters of 
 Col. Mizener. My brother, David IT. Aughey, and 
 brother-in-law, Prof. Robert K. Knight, residents of 
 Rienzi, heard of my arrival and came at once to see 
 and convey me to their homes. Col. M. had sent an 
 orderly to report my presence. Col. Mizener re- 
 quested me to report all that would be of service to 
 Gen. Rosecrans, who was ten miles south at Boone- 
 ville, which I did, he copying my report as I gave 
 it. I reported the particulars of niy escape, the 
 probable number of Confederate troops in and around 
 Tupelo, the topography of the country, the probable 
 intentions of the rebels, the putative number of 
 troops sent to Richmond to re-inforce Gen. Lee, the
 
 TUPELO. 281 
 
 harsh, cruel, and vindictive treatment of the southern 
 Unionists incarcerated in the bastile in Tupelo, etc. 
 The Colonel requested me to go with him to visit 
 Gen. Rosecrans at his head-quarters in Booneville the 
 next morning, but at the hour specified reaction had 
 taken place, and I was very sick. My report was 
 carried up to Gen. Rosecrans by Col. Mizener, who 
 immediately forwarded it to Gen. Grant at Memphis, 
 who noted it and placed it on file. It has been pub- 
 lished in official Records of the AVar of the Rebellion, 
 Union and Confederate, Vol. 17, page 107. 
 
 Gen. AY. S. Rosecrans, upon hearing that I was 
 sick, sent Surgeon Berridge Lucas, of an Illinois 
 brigade, raised in Peoria, 111., and Dr. Hawley, of 
 the 36th 111. Infantry, to attend me during my illness. 
 Under their skillful and efficient treatment I measur- 
 ably regained health, though for some time I was 
 apparently upon the border land, and it was feared 
 that I would be a mental and physical wreck. My 
 sufferings at the hands of the rebels produced a lesion 
 from which I will never fully recover. Two of my 
 soldier comrades have recently succumbed to a similar 
 malady, and I cannot hope to resist it much longer. 
 The citadel of life must eventually yield to its force, 
 and death supervene. Skillful medical treatment and 
 extremely temperate habits alone have thus far held 
 it in abeyance. Hardships incurred afterward in the 
 service, as chaplain, aggravated the malady. 
 
 But why should I repine since my country's in- 
 tegrity and permanence has been secured, never more
 
 282 TUPELO. 
 
 to be imperiled by traitors to their government and 
 their God? The salutary lesson they have learned 
 will prevent a repetition of their folly. 
 
 When I recovered sufficiently to leave my room 
 I was honored with a serenade by a brigade brass 
 band, through the politeness of Col. Bryner and 
 Lieut. Col. Thrush, of the 47th 111. regiment. At 
 the close they called for a speech, to which call I thus 
 responded : 
 
 GENTLEMEN-^I desire to express my sincere thanks 
 for the honor conferred. In the language of the last 
 tune played by your band, I truly feel at home again, 
 and it fills my soul with joy to meet my friends once 
 more. What a vast difference between Tupelo and 
 Rienzi. There I was regarded as a base iugrate, as 
 a despicable traitor, an enemy to the country, chained 
 as a felon, doomed to die, and before the execution of 
 the sentence subjected to every species of insult and 
 contumely. Here I meet with the kindest expres- 
 sions of sympathy from officers of all ranks, from the 
 subaltern to the general, and there is not a private 
 soldier who has heard my tale of woe that does not 
 manifest a kindly sympathy. I hope you will speed- 
 ily pass south of Tupelo, but in your victorious 
 march to the gulf I wish you to fare better than I 
 did in my journey from Tupelo to Rienzi. Travel- 
 ing day after day without food or water would cause 
 you to present the emaciated appearance that I do. 
 On your route, call upon the secession sympathizers 
 and compel them to furnish you with all the viands
 
 TUPELO. 283 
 
 that you need. My good horse, Bucephalus, I left 
 at Tupelo. He is an animal of pure blood and high 
 mettle. The rebel general Hardee, in the true spirit 
 of secession, appropriated that is, stole him. He 
 often insolently rode him by our prison, surrounded 
 by his staff. lie did not return him to me when I 
 left. However, I did not call to demand him upon 
 leaving. Being in haste I did not choose to spare 
 the time, as I am a great economist of time, and leav- 
 ing in the night I did not wish to disturb the slum- 
 bers of the Tupelonians. He is a bright bay. If 
 you find him you may have him gratis. I would 
 much prefer that he serve tJie Federal army. I 
 bought him of Gen. Lionel Colquitt, at West Point, 
 Miss., for three hundred and fifty dollars. 
 
 If you take Gen. Jordan prisoner, send me word, 
 and I will furnish you with the irons with which he 
 bound me, by which you may secure him till he 
 meets the just penalty of his crimes, even death, 
 which he richly deserves for the murder of many 
 Unionists. 
 
 When I became convalescent I rode to Jacinto, the 
 Federal outpost nearest to my family. I called upon 
 Gen. Jefferson C. Davis, who at once ordered eight 
 regiments of cavalry, accompanied by a section of 
 artillery, to bring them into Jacinto. I soon had 
 the pleasure of beholding my wife and child, whose 
 faces I recently had given up all hope of ever seeing 
 upon earth. The meeting was mutually a joyful one. 
 Gen. Davis ushered them into his office, where I was
 
 284 TUPELO. 
 
 awaiting them, and then considerately retired. My 
 little daughter, during my ominous absence, would 
 often try to comfort her ma by telling her, when she was 
 weeping, "Ma, I think they will let pa loose, 'cause 
 we pray so much for him. Don't cry, I think God 
 will send him to us soon. He has said He will hear 
 us when we pray." 
 
 Richard Malone lived in Jacinto. Gen. Davis 
 and I called to see him. He rejoiced greatly upon 
 seeing me. He had informed Gen. Davis of my cap- 
 ture and re-arrest. Gen. Davis had ordered the arrest 
 of four prominent citizens of Jacinto, to be held as 
 hostages for my safety. The officer was just about to 
 start to execute the order when I arrived at his head- 
 quarters. The citizens were named John G. Barton, 
 Col. Runnels, Barton Key, and Calvin Taylor. 
 
 When Malone reached the point where we agreed 
 to meet he awaited my arrival. He gave the pre- 
 concerted signals, but I came not. We agreed to meet 
 at a point where a garment was suspended from a post 
 of the corn-field fence. But as there may have been 
 more than one garment suspended from the posts, as 
 many rebel soldiers, after washing, hung their clothes 
 out to dry, we mistook the place, and rtached the 
 corn-field at different points, and so were compelled 
 to set out alone on the hazardous journey. At one 
 time Malone resolved upon the risk of walking upon 
 a road a few hundred yards to reach a forest. A 
 company of cavalry came suddenly upon him and 
 ordered him to go before them, declaring that they
 
 TUPELO. 285 
 
 would gladly return him to prison. They made him 
 go on the double-quick. He said, presently, " I am 
 very thirsty; will you give me some water?" 
 They replied that they were going to that house on 
 the distant hill to get water. When they reached 
 the house and drew the water, Malone noticed that 
 there was no dipper at the well with which to lift 
 the water from the bucket. He said, "I will go 
 into the house and ask for a dipper." Two cav- 
 alry men followed him, and stationed themselves at 
 the door. Malone went into the house, shut the 
 door, and the back door being open, he ran through 
 the house, opened the garden gate, ran through the 
 garden, leaped over the palings at the farther end 
 into a corn-field. Two women who were in the 
 house ran to the door clapping their hands and ex- 
 claiming, "O! your Yankee is gone, your prisoner 
 has escaped." The cavalry men ran round the 
 house, and seeing Malone running through the corn- 
 field called to him to halt. Malone, not heeding 
 the order, ran onward. They fired. Malone ran 
 zigzag to avoid the bullets which whistled uncom- 
 fortably close to his ears. They failed to bring him 
 down. They followed, but Malone outran them to a 
 swamp, and after many other narrow risks reached 
 his home in Jacinto. 
 
 I returned to Rienzi. I reached Rienzi from 
 prison on the day that the 2d Michigan regiment 
 made a present of a fine black cavalry horse to Gen. 
 Philip Sheridan. As the presentation was made in
 
 286 TUPELO. 
 
 Rienzi, the general named the horse after the town, 
 calling him Rienzi. This was the horse he rode in 
 his famous ride from Winchester, Va., to Cedar 
 creek, when he turned the tide of battle, changing an 
 inglorious rout into a glorious victory over Jubal 
 Early We soon left Rienzi for the North. When 
 we reached the home of my parents the rejoicing 
 was as if one who was dead had been restored to life. 
 They had heard through war correspondents with 
 the army of my imprisonment, escape, re-arrest, and 
 re-incarceration. They had not heard of my second 
 escape. Thirteen days after our arrival at my 
 father's house a son was born to us, August 20th, 
 1862, whom we named John Knox. Our third 
 child, Gertrude Evangeline, was born February 12, 
 1867. Our first child, Anna Katharine, now Mrs. 
 Ferguson, of Congress, O., was born September 3, 
 1858. 
 
 As soon as I felt able to do so, I accepted the po- 
 sition of chaplain, first in the army of the Potomac, 
 afterwards in the western army. The officers of the 6th 
 111. calvary, of which I was chaplain, asked me at 
 one time to give them an address on the subject of 
 my arrest, imprisonment, and escapes. I complied 
 with their invitation. At the close of the address, a 
 soldier who had deserted from the rebel army and 
 was now a member of a company in our regiment, 
 came to Col. Lynch, who at this time commanded 
 the 6th 111. calvary (Col. Benjamin Grierson was 
 the 1st colonel), and informed him that he was one
 
 TUPELO. 287 
 
 of the guards on duty at the prison in Tupelo on the 
 night of my escape. He said that I was missed in 
 the morning, very early. One of the guards noticed 
 my chain, which I had coiled up and left by the side 
 of a little stump, inadvertently placing it on the side 
 next the guards. He called the officer of the guard 
 and showed him the chain. Soon many officers 
 came into the prison. All the guards who had been 
 on duty during the night were brought into the 
 prison in irons. They thought that some of them must 
 have been in collusiot with the prisoner, or he could 
 not have escaped. The prisoners were strictly ques- 
 tioned as to whether they knew anything in regard to 
 the escape, or if any of them had rendered any assist- 
 ance. They denied all knowledge of or complication 
 in the matter. One of the officers said,"God Almighty 
 alone must have known and helped him. He could 
 not have gotten away without assistance, and you all 
 deny having rendered any." Col. Lynch said, "If 
 you had known of his intention to escape, would yoxi 
 have helped him?" "No," said the soldier, "I was 
 a rebel in sentiment then, and would have done my 
 duty and taken stringent measures to prevent his 
 escape, had I known of his intention to do so. Two 
 companies of cavalry were sent in pursuit, with strict 
 orders to shoot him on sight and not bring him back 
 alive." But providentially they never got the sight. 
 One went north toward the Federal lines. The 
 other north-east. One went in sight of the Federal 
 pickets near Rienzi. The other visited my father-in-
 
 288 TUPELO. 
 
 law's, at Paden's mills, south-east of luka. They 
 again, as upon their first visit, searched the house, 
 mills, negro quarters, and every crevice capable of 
 secreting a hare. 
 
 A Unionist, Washington Gortney, whose name 
 I have mentioned, was murdered by a band of 
 guerrillas under the lead of his nearest neighbor, 
 one Bill Robinson. Gortney and Reece had en- 
 listed in the Union army. Gortney desired to 
 visit his family, one mile from Paden's mills. 
 Reece accompanied him. Robinson heard of it, and 
 gathering a few partisan rangers, murdered Gortney 
 in the midst of his family. Reece was left for dead, 
 but recovered. In retaliation, a company of Federal 
 soldiers were sent out to burn Paden's, Vawter's, 
 and Robinson's mills and ten houses. This they 
 accomplished, and returned. This salutary proceed- 
 ing had the effect of checking guerrilla murders and 
 predatory raids by them for a time. 
 
 How terrible for a family to see and hear the 
 howling hounds in search of one of their number, and 
 to hear the horrid and blasphemous oaths of the 
 fierce dragoons, swearing what terrible vengeance 
 they will wreak upon their victim when caught and 
 in their power. 
 
 "Oh ! the inhumanity of man to his fellow-man 
 
 Makes countless millions mourn." 
 " Oh ! Freedom ! How we love thy name, 
 
 We who thy choicest blessings claim. 
 
 No servile hordes now sweat and toil 
 
 Upon our consecrated soil ;
 
 TUPELO. 289 
 
 No bondman's cries fall on our ears, 
 No master's lash wrings scalding tears 
 From women's eyes; none wildly flee 
 From threatened scourge of a Legree. 
 Exempt from slavery's fearful thrall, 
 Sweet Freedom's gifts now bless us all. 
 And those who once did meekly bow 
 Beneath the yoke are voters now." 
 
 MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, February 12, 1888. 
 Rev. John H. Auyhey, Chariton, la.: 
 
 DEAR SIR I take the National Tribune, that most 
 excellent soldiers' paper. In it I noticed your re- 
 quest for the address of Leslie Barksdale and others 
 who were your fellow-prisoners in the South. I aui 
 now known as Melvin Estill, having changed my 
 name for reasons which will be hereinafter given. I 
 was a fellow-prisoner with you in that miserable den 
 at Tupelo, Miss. Delevan Morgan, John Truesdale, 
 Byron Porter, Ulysses Chenault, and I were con- 
 scripted, and because of our refusal to take the oath 
 and enlist we were immured in prison. We were 
 tried by court-martial, and condemned to death, with 
 the proviso that if we took the oath and entered the 
 army the sentence would be suspended. We were 
 given twelve hours for deliberation. You will re- 
 member we consulted you, and you advised us to 
 take the oath, enter the army, and desert the first 
 favorable opportunity and escape to the Federal lines. 
 We accordingly took the oath. I think our motive 
 was suspected. We were taken to Saltillo .and 
 19
 
 290 TUPELO. 
 
 placed under guard in an old rickety building, with 
 a number of other prisoners. 
 
 That same night we evaded the guards and escaped. 
 Guided by the north star, we hastened northward 
 with all possible speed. Soon after daylight we 
 heard the baying of the blood-hounds ; nearer and 
 nearer they came. When they came in sight three 
 of our number climbed a tree. Delevan Morgan and 
 I essayed to climb a large tree that stood near. 
 Morgan caught hold of a withered branch. It broke 
 in his grasp and he fell to the ground. He arose 
 and ran. I jumped down and followed him. The 
 hounds and cavalry appeared upon the scene. Our 
 three companions were shot, and as they fell the 
 hounds tore them limb from limb. Morgan had 
 sprained his ankle, and his progress was quite slow. 
 I made a detour and concealed myself behind the 
 huge trunk of a fallen tree. Soon the hounds over- 
 took my friend and tore him to pieces. These 
 hounds were under the care of a miscreant named 
 Jasper Cain, who was assisted by one Laverty Grier, 
 John Graham, and others. 
 
 I supposed that death was inevitable. Cain and 
 his men held a council of war. Cain enquired, " How 
 many prisoners did old Bragg say there wuz?" 
 " Four," replied Grier. " Well we've got 'em all," 
 replied Cain. Some one said he believed General 
 Bragg said, "there wuz five," but it was decided that 
 (f it wuz only four." Cain said, "Our orders wuz, 
 to take' em dead or alive. Now how will we prove to
 
 TUPELO. 291 
 
 old Bragg that we killed 'em all, an' git the reward?" 
 "Take their scalps," suggested Grier. "Good, 
 that is a bright idea," said Cain. " Now, Laverty, 
 you scalp 'ern with that 'ere knife that's in your 
 belt." The order was obeyed, the scalps stuck in 
 Grier's belt, and the cavalcade returned to camp. 
 
 I now hastened onward. After traveling about 
 four miles I came to a cabin in a clearing. I knew 
 that pursuit would not long be delayed. I went to 
 the cabin and knocked. A lady came and opened 
 the door. She bade me enter. I asked her if she 
 was Union or Secesh. She assumed an air of great 
 ignorance and stupidity, and replied, " I ain't neither, 
 I'm a Baptist." That was enough for me. I felt 
 sure she was all right. I at once revealed my condition, 
 and told of my imminent peril. She and her daughter 
 and her sick husband at once set about devising a 
 plan of escape. There was a cave in the hillside about 
 a half a mile distant. This lady, who was of Ama- 
 zonian proportions, and her daughter, carried me to 
 this cave. I found a cot within it and a little table. 
 This lady, Mrs. Cameron, gave me a pair of her 
 daughter's shoes in exchange for mine. Her daugh- 
 ter, Miss Alverna Cameron, put on my shoes and 
 traveled five miles northward to a swamp. She then 
 took off my shoes and put on a pair of her mother's, 
 which she had carried in her apron, and returned. 
 
 Jasper Cain, after considerable delay reported to 
 General Braxton Bragg, and told him of the fate of 
 the prisoners, whom he had left unburied, to be de-
 
 292' TUPELO. 
 
 voured by wild hogs and buzzards. He then dis- 
 played exultingly the scalps which he bore as a 
 trophy and as a proof of having carried out the 
 orders of his commanding general. " But there are 
 only four scalps/' said the general, " where is the 
 fifth?" "You said there wuz four prisoners what es- 
 caped/' said Cain. Gen. Bragg ordered Cain to 
 start in pursuit of the fifth at once and to bring in 
 his scalp or consequences might follow not pleasant 
 for Cain to contemplate. This infuriate demon 
 obeyed with alacrity, and ere long the domicile of the 
 Camerons was surrounded by howling hounds and 
 blaspheming rebels. Soon, however, they seemed to 
 have discovered the track, and off they went pell- 
 mell on the route which Miss Alverna had taken to 
 mislead them. 
 
 Miss Alverna and her mother visited me in the 
 cave, bringing with them hoe cake, butter, and milk. 
 The rebel soldiers had robbed them of all other pro- 
 visions. I feasted upon the regale these kind ladies 
 furnished me. They were delicious viands indeed to 
 one who brought the sauce of hunger to the repast. 
 Starvation in the rebel camp and prison had so im- 
 proved my appetite that it required all they brought, LO 
 appease it. Miss Alverna told me of the pursuit by 
 Cain with his blood-hounds, and how she had misled 
 them. They then prepared to take their departure. 
 Mrs. Cameron and her daughter sang "Jesus, lover 
 of my soul," and a hymn, one stanza of which I shall 
 ever remember.
 
 TUPELO. 293 
 
 " Savior, I look to thee, 
 Be thou not far from me 
 
 ^lid storms that lower; 
 On me thy care bestow, 
 Thy loving kindness show, 
 Thine arms around me throw 
 
 This trying hour." 
 
 Miss Alverna then read the 31st Psalm. Two 
 verses, the 35-6, seemed very pertinent. "My times 
 are in thy hand ; deliver me from the hands of mine 
 enemies and from them that persecute me. Make 
 thy face to shine upon thy servant and save me for 
 thy mercy's sake." Also the 13th verse, etc., "Fear 
 was on every side, while they took counsel together 
 against me, they devised to take away my life. But 
 I trusted in thee, O Lord, I said thou art my God. 
 Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. 
 Thou art my rock and my fortress, therefore for thy 
 name's sake lead me and guide me." Mrs. Cameron 
 then led in prayer, asking the Lord to deliver me 
 from surrounding foes, the bears, venomous serpents, 
 and still more venomous Confederates. They then 
 bade me good-bye and returned home. When night 
 came I feared to stay longer in my cave. I started 
 off on my perilous journey toward the Federal lines. 
 I lay concealed by day and traveled by night, guided 
 by the polar star. 
 
 One night I felt that I must run a great risk to 
 procure some food, as I was in a starving condition. 
 I found a cabin inhabited by slaves. I went to the 
 door and rapped. Soon a venerable aunty appeared
 
 294 TUPELO. 
 
 at the door. I asked her for something to eat. She 
 appeared alarmed, and calling a little colored boy she 
 bade him guide me to a place where I should be fed. 
 When I reached the terminus of my journey under 
 this boy's guidance, I found a man about my own age, 
 who was, like me, a fugitive bound for the Union 
 army. Soon a number of kind colored people ap- 
 peared, and in this swamp we were fed with all the 
 luxuries procurable by these kind friends who bore 
 the image of God carved in ebony. My fugitive 
 friend said his name was Johnny Peterson, and that 
 he lived on the Taccaleeche in North Mississippi. 
 After many thrilling adventures we reached the 
 Union lines and were joyfully welcomed. A minis- 
 ter of your church informs me that, by examining the 
 year book or minutes of your general assembly, he 
 learns that you are pastor of the Presbyterian church 
 in the city of Chariton, Iowa. My address will be 
 Memphis, Tenn., for a few months. Write me at 
 your earliest convenience. 
 
 After reaching the Federal lines both Peterson and 
 I enlisted and fought through the war. Through 
 fear that I might be taken prisoner and recognized, 
 I changed my name, and found it almost impossible 
 to resume my old name after the war. 
 
 I am glad to know that you made your escape. 
 Tell me all about it at your earliest convenience. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 MELVIN ESTILL.
 
 TUPELO. 295 
 
 O, woman, great is thy faith. Jesns Christ. 
 
 A good woman is the loveliest flower that blooms under 
 heaven. Thackeray. 
 
 Ah me, beyond all power to name, those worthies tried and 
 
 true, 
 Good men, fair women, youth and maid, pass by in grand 
 
 review. Whittier. 
 
 In the years of grace, 1881-2, I was pastor of the 
 churches of Ebenezer and Good Will, in Sumter Co., 
 S. C. While I was conversing with Mr. William- 
 son, a merchant in Mayesville, a gentleman in front 
 of his store said to another, who spoke of Judge S. 
 McGowen : " The Judge has a national reputation as 
 far as South Carolina is concerned." This man was 
 evidently still laboring under the delusion that South 
 Carolina was a sovereign, independent nation, and 
 that the United States was a mere confederacy of na- 
 tions to be dissolved at will by the states individually. 
 The war had taught him nothing. 
 
 In conversation with prominent citizens of Sumter 
 and Mayesville I found that there was no conceal- 
 ment of the frauds practiced at elections. They de- 
 clared that the negroes and scalawags should not rule 
 over them. They divulged to me the fraudulent 
 methods by which the dominant party, though greatly 
 in the minority numerically, retained their political 
 power. Said I, " Suppose that congress should send 
 a committee to inquire into the matter, what would 
 you do ? " " We would testify upon oath that there 
 had been a free ballot and fair count." " Would that
 
 296 TUPELO. 
 
 be morally right? " said I. "Of two evils choose 
 the less," was the reply. 
 
 Sam. Lee, had there been a free ballot and fair 
 count, would have been elected over his competitor, 
 Richardson, by more than three to one. Yet Rich- 
 ardson received the governor's certificate of election, 
 and represented the district in congress. 
 
 The Century magazine, in the April, 1885, No., 
 publishes articles by Henry "W. Grady, of Atlanta, 
 Ga., and Edward P. Clarke, from which we quote. 
 Mr. Clarke describes the revolution by which the 
 minority overcame the majority who ruled in the 
 period of reconstruction in the Carolinas, Florida, 
 Mississippi, Louisiana, etc. 
 
 " It became evident that there must be a revolution, 
 and it was carried through. The negroes were in- 
 timidated from going to the polls, so far as possible, 
 and when violence did not suffice to keep them away, 
 their ballots were tampered with and neutralized after 
 they had been cast. By force or by fraud the race, 
 which in several states possessed an actual numerical 
 majority, was reduced into an apparent minority. 
 The negro vote was practically suppressed and the 
 majority ceased to rule. This result was inevitable. 
 Reconstruction had sought 'to put the bottom rail 
 on top/ to reverse the highest and lowest strata of 
 ' society, to place ignorance and poverty in authority 
 over intelligence and property. Such an attempt 
 had never before succeeded in the world's history ; 
 it could not have succeeded permanently in the South
 
 TUPELO. 297 
 
 without destroying civilization. It was from the 
 first only a question how soon and in what way it 
 should be defeated." 
 
 Mr. Grady's opinion is plainly inferred from the 
 following, quoted from his article discussing the 
 status of the freedmen : 
 
 " As a matter of course this implies the clear and 
 unmistakable domination of the white race in the 
 South. The assertion of that is simply the assertion 
 of the right of character, intelligence, and prop- 
 perty to rule. It is simply saying that the respon- 
 sible and steadfast element in the community shall 
 control, rather than the irresponsible and the migra- 
 tory. It is the reassertion of the moral power that 
 overthrew the reconstruction governments." 
 
 Thus in many southern states the minority repre- 
 sents in Congress the suppressed majority. This is 
 in direct conflict with an explicit article in the Con- 
 stitution of the United States adopted for the express 
 purpose of preventing this flagrant wrong. To good 
 men in the southern states, to all true and loyal 
 Americans, how humiliating is this oft-repeated slan- 
 der upon the fair fame of the southern states, that 
 only by violence practiced upon a weaker race, or by 
 fraud in tampering with the ballot-box, which neces- 
 sarily includes deliberate perjury, can the cause of 
 good government be maintained in the South. We 
 do not believe any such libel, but what else can be 
 meant by the language quoted above. 
 
 We cannot do better than append here an extract
 
 298 TUPELO. 
 
 of a very different kind one that does honor to the 
 hand that wrote it and the courage that pronounced 
 it. We take it from the inaugural address of Pres- 
 ident Cleveland. 
 
 " In the administration of a government pledged 
 to do equal and exact justice to all men, there should 
 be no pretext for anxiety touching the protection of 
 the freedmen in their rights or their security in the 
 enjoyment of their privileges under the Constitution 
 and its amendments. All discussion as to their fit- 
 ness for the place accorded to them as American 
 citizens is idle and unprofitable, except as it suggests 
 the necessity for their improvement. The fact that 
 they are citizens entitles them to all the rights due 
 to that relation and charges them with all its duties, 
 obligations, and responsibilities." 
 
 The legislature was in session in Columbia. I 
 visited the halls of legislation. There was a bill 
 pending upon which there was much discussion. 
 The bill proposed to require eight separate ballot- 
 boxes and that but one voter at a time should enter 
 the polling place; that no one should speak to him 
 while in the polling place, and that if he failed to 
 deposit his ballots in the boxes properly, his vote 
 would be lost. Though the boxes were labeled, this 
 would leave the illiterate voter to the almost absolute 
 certainty of losing his vote. The fraudulent intent 
 of the bill was patent. The Charleston News and 
 Courier, commenting on this bill, says : " We have 
 great confidence in the wisdom and foresight of the
 
 TUPELO. 299 
 
 present General Assembly of South Carolina, and be- 
 lieve that in their hands the state will be safe. They 
 will not fail to remember and to act on the knowledge 
 that the colored voters outnumbered the white voters 
 in South Carolina, and that while the prosperity, 
 nay ! the existence of the state in its present con- 
 dition, depends on the supremacy of the civilization 
 which the whites represent, the people of the United 
 States (who have already proved themselves more 
 than a match for South Carolina) will not continue 
 to acquiesce in revolutionary processes, and will not 
 consent to have us represented in Congress by modes 
 which have been hitherto indispensable in the con- 
 duct of our state affairs. But were they ? " 
 
 It will be observed from the above quotation 
 that the Charleston News and Courier admits 
 the revolutionary processes, that is, fraudulent 
 methods used in controlling the elections in South 
 Carolina. I found no one who denied that fraud 
 was resorted to to defeat the scalawags and colored 
 voters. I found three colored men representing sea 
 island districts. In those districts the colored popu- 
 lation so greatly preponderated that they found means 
 to prevent election frauds being practiced upon them. 
 This may be the ultimate solution of this vexed 
 question. The whites in the southern states increase 
 decennially twenty per cent and the negroes thirty- 
 five per cent. The blacks will ultimately greatly 
 outnumber the whites in that region. In the seven 
 Atlantic and Gulf states, the two Carolinas, Georgia,
 
 300 TUPELO. 
 
 Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, arid Louisiana, the 
 whites numbered in 1880, 3,814,395, and the blacks, 
 3,721,481. There will be, at these proportionate 
 rates of increase, in 1985, about 30,000,000 whites 
 and about 1 25,000,000 blacks. This ratio of increase 
 holding, the negroes will be, in one hundred years 
 from this year of grace, 1885, quadruple the number 
 of whites in the southern Atlantic and Gulf states. 
 Long ere that date they will suppress with iron hand 
 all attempts to defraud them of the right to exercise 
 the elective franchise and to have a fair count of the 
 ballots cast. 
 
 I found peon slavery in full force in the Carolinas, 
 through the labor contract system. Men hire the 
 colored people to labor for them, taking as security a 
 lien on the prospective crop, for supplies furnished in 
 advance. At the settlement at the close of the year 
 the negroes are found to be in debt, and each annual 
 settlement only increases the indebtedness. The col- 
 ored people may labor hard from daAvn to dusk, live 
 sparingly, wear the coarsest clothing, and yet end the 
 year in debt. They cannot enforce their rights, 
 though well assured of the frauds practiced upon 
 them. 
 
 I enquired if the Southern Presbyterian Church 
 had made any provision for the education of the col- 
 ored people, their former slaves. I learned that there 
 was a theological seminary established at Tuskaloosa, 
 Ala., for the education of young colored men who 
 desired to enter the ministry. I could not learn that
 
 TUPELO. 301 
 
 there was any institution under the control of the 
 southern church for the education of the colored peo- 
 ple in the common or higher branches. The north- 
 ern church have established many good schools in the 
 South, in which all the branches of a good common 
 
 ' O 
 
 school education are taught. They have also a num- 
 ber of schools of a high order, in which the classics 
 and higher mathematics are very successfully taught. 
 I visited the Mayesville school. Misses Kate H. 
 Moorhcad and Jennie S. Hemphill, of Bridge water, 
 Beaver Co., Pa., were the very efficient teachers. There 
 were enrolled 150 scholars, in every grade of pro- 
 gress. These young ladies labored from dawn until 
 dusk, and seemed never to weary of their arduous 
 duties, which they doubtless entered upon con amore. 
 Many sable children have they enlightened and evan- 
 gelized. Many other schools and seminaries and 
 colleges under the control of the northern church are 
 doing a noble, a grand work among the children of 
 the freedmen and poor whites. 
 
 The public school system of South Carolina and 
 many other states was organized by the reconstruction 
 governments, and since these have been overthrown, 
 the powers that be have not abrogated it, though there 
 is much opposition to this relic of "Yankee, negro, 
 and scalawag rule." Revolutions seldom go back- 
 ward, and it is probable that the public school system 
 may survive, and by its beneficent effects overcome 
 the prejudice of the ex-slaveholders against the edu- 
 cation of all classes. Strange that any should oppose
 
 302 TUPELO. 
 
 universal education that glory and cheap defense of 
 states and nations. 
 
 I attended the meeting of the synod of Atlantic, 
 Avhich Avas held in Columbia, S. C., in December, 
 1881. I saw there a large number of educated col- 
 ored men, who, as Presbyterian ministers, were 
 conducting the business of synod in a very creditable 
 manner. I heard some of them preach. Their ser- 
 mons were earnest, lucid expositions of practical 
 duties, enforced by pertinent quotations from the 
 word of God. 
 
 The moderator, Rev. Moses Aaron Hopkins, pre- 
 sided with dignity and ability. 'On points of order 
 his rulings Avere admirable. He afterward received 
 the appointment from President Cleveland of minis- 
 ter to Liberia, where he died of acclimating fever, 
 lamented by the Avhole synod of Atlantic. Many 
 colored men Avere present as ruling elders, represent- 
 ing churches in the bounds of the synod, Avhich 
 embraces the states of North and South Carolina and 
 Georgia. When I Avas a citizen of the South, in the 
 ante bellum days, these men were all illiterate slaves, 
 whom to teach the alphabet was made a crime pun- 
 ishable by incarceration in the penitentiary. 
 
 It is not Avise to say that the former times Avere 
 better than these. The change for the better seemed 
 to me to indicate the millennial daAvn. 
 
 Before the Avar these men \vere helpless slaves, 
 with no rights that Avhite men felt bound to respect, 
 scourged to their tasks by the lash of the cruel, brutal 
 overseer, many of Avhoui delighted in every refine-
 
 TUPELO. 303 
 
 ment of cruelty, universally denied legal marriage, 
 even by masters who were professedly christians, not 
 suffered to learn to read the word of God, affirmed 
 by a decision of the supreme court of the U. S. to be 
 chattels personal, possessed of no rights above that of 
 the ox or ass. Now the key of knowledge is placed 
 in the hands of this chattel, by which he opens the 
 door which gives his eager, anxious mind access to all 
 the stores of intellectual wisdom and spiritual lore. 
 His disabilities are yet many, through peon bondage 
 and fraudulent disfranchisement, but they are no 
 greater than those of the poor whites of the South, 
 but he is rising in the scale of intelligence; he is 
 improving his opportunities, he is increasing and 
 waxing strong in numbers and power, and the day is 
 not distant when, rising to the full dignity of full- 
 fledged manhood, he will assert and maintain his 
 God-given rights, if need be at the cannon's mouth 
 and at the point of the bayonet. He who would be 
 free, himself must strike the blow. The government 
 has enfranchised him, and bestowed upon him all 
 civil rights, but they are in part kept back by fraud, 
 but he will ere long, we trust, burst the shackles by 
 which he is illegally bound and become a freeman, in 
 deed, as well as in name, possessed of and enjoying 
 all the rights, immunities, and franchises of an 
 American citizen with which our national constitu- 
 tion endows him, and which he, knowing and prizing 
 even above life itself, will dare maintain as his birth- 
 right forever. 
 
 Farmington, Fulton County, Illinois.
 
 304 TUPELO. 
 
 Iii 1883 I had an invitation to a field of labor in 
 Kentucky. I went down to look at the lay of the 
 land. At Bowling Green I met Col. George M. 
 Edgar, who was president of a female seminary. I 
 remarked to the colonel, who was a Presbyterian, 
 that it was unfortunate that there were two branches 
 of the Presbyterian church in that state. In many 
 towns each branch has a feeble organization strug- 
 gling for existence. United, their success would be 
 assured, and their aggressive power quadrupled. 
 The colonel replied that union could be effected in no 
 other way than by the northern branch coming over 
 to them with their property. They could never 
 unite with a church that intermeddled with politics 
 by making political deliverances, as the Northern 
 General Assembly had done during the late civil 
 war. They had declared slavery to be heresy, and 
 secession treason and rebellion, and that as a church 
 the southern branch was guilty of schism in separat- 
 ing from the northern assembly. 
 
 I replied, "Did the southern assembly ever make 
 any political deliverances?" 
 
 The colonel responded, " No, sir. I challenge you 
 to point to a single one." 
 
 I replied, "The southern assembly of 1862 took 
 action, of which this is part, ' The assembly desires 
 to record with its solemn approval this fact of the 
 unanimity of our people in supporting a contest to 
 which religion as well as patriotism now summons 
 the citizens of this country, and to implore for them
 
 TUPELO. 305 
 
 the blessing of God in the course which they are now 
 pursuing. The long continued agitations of our ad- 
 versaries have wrought within us a deeper conviction 
 of the divine appointment of domestic servitude, and 
 have led to a clearer comprehension of the duties 
 we owe to the African race. We hesitate not to 
 affirm that it is the peculiar mission of the southern 
 church to conserve the institution of slavery and 
 make it a blessing to both master and slave.' Xow, 
 colonel, if that be the peculiar mission of the south- 
 ern church, her mission has terminated, and it might 
 be well to return to the bosom of the church whence 
 you departed, It may be, however, that the follow- 
 ing deliverance made after slavery had been abolished 
 prevents it. In 1865 the southern assembly adopted 
 a long paper, in which this occurs : ' While the ex- 
 istence of slavery in its civil aspects may be regarded 
 as a settled question, an issue now gone, yet the law- 
 fulness of the relation as a question of social morality 
 and of scriptural truth has lost nothing of its impor- 
 tance.' This from the assembly of 1862: 'From all 
 our churches we hear the report that the ranks of 
 the armies of our national independence are crowded 
 with the noblest of our brethren and the choicest of 
 our youth, who have rushed to the rescue of the re- 
 public, driven by the impulses of patriotism in obe- 
 dience to the call of God and our country. We sym- 
 pathize with you as you consecrate every thing dear on 
 earth on the altar of patriotic duty.' Again : ' The an- 
 tagonism of northern and southern sentiment on the 
 20
 
 306 TUPELO. 
 
 subject of slavery lies at the root of all the difficulties 
 which have resulted in the dismemberment of the 
 Federal Union, and have involved us in the horrors 
 of an unnatural war.' In 1861 the southern assem- 
 bly resolved to spend half an hour in prayer to 
 Almighty God for his blessing on these Confederate 
 States. * * 'The assembly met and spt-nt the 
 first half hour in special prayer for the blessing of 
 God upon the cause of the Confederate States, accord- 
 ing to previous order.' After many other deliver- 
 ances, both political and martial, in 1865, the south- 
 ern general assembly, with most remarkable self- 
 complacency, made this utterance : ' Upon no one 
 subject is the mind of this assembly more clearly as- 
 certained, upon no one doctrine is there a more solid 
 or perfect agreement among those whom this assem- 
 bly represents, than the non-secular and non-political 
 character of the church of Jesus Christ.' It would 
 have been a glorious thing for your religion if you 
 had not mingled politics with it, for your politics are 
 of such a character as to impair the worth of any re- 
 ligion with which they are mixed. Now, colonel, 
 please to be silent forever hereafter as to the non- 
 political character of the southern church. How 
 could a Southerner, sentimentally opposed to human 
 slavery, and who was a loyal citizen of the United 
 States of America, remain a member of a church 
 which declared slavery to be a divine institution, 
 and declared resistance to the government to be true 
 patriotism ? "
 
 TUPELO. 307 
 
 " Well," said the colonel, " I am willing to argue 
 the question of secession." 
 
 To which I replied, "Colonel, I had hoped that 
 that issue had been buried beyond the possibility of 
 resurrection." 
 
 "Sir," said the colonel, "It is mere twaddle for 
 a man to declare that a state has no right to secede." 
 
 "Col.," I replied, "Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, 
 Gen. Jackson, and many other eminent statesmen, 
 both northern and southern, believed that a state had 
 not the right to secede." 
 
 " I admit that," said the Col. 
 
 " Well," replied I, " I prefer their twaddle to that 
 of less lights." 
 
 The Col. returned to the charge by saying that 
 Virginia and some of the other states had framed a 
 proviso granting the right of secession at will before 
 they agreed to adopt the Federal constitution. 
 
 Said I, "Did the other states agree to the proviso?" 
 
 "Yes," said the Col., "they did." 
 
 " "Well, sir," I answered, " is the proviso you speak 
 of inserted in the constitution of the United States?" 
 
 " Xo, I believe not," admitted the Col. 
 
 " Well, sir," I said, " if it is not written in the 
 constitution of the United States, it is not of any 
 binding force. But if, as you admit, it is not in the 
 constitution of the United States, where is it?" 
 
 The Col. replied that he did not know. 
 
 " No, nor does any one else know, "said I. "Your 
 statement is a mere figment of the imagination. But
 
 308 TUPELO. 
 
 when/' I continued, "will you try to exercise this 
 right of secession again." 
 
 Col. Edgar answered, "I am as far as any one 
 from ever wishing to try it again." 
 
 " Col./' said I, " it may not do much harm to hold 
 the sentiments you entertain, merely as abstract theo- 
 ries, but the moment you attempt to carry them out 
 in action and give them a practical bearing, there 
 will be ten million bayonets ready to prevent your 
 rebellious designs against our national integrity." 
 
 " Sir," said the Col., " one who entertains and ex- 
 presses the sentiments you do would not be welcomed 
 as a resident of this section." 
 
 "Sir," said I, "I have no intention of settling 
 here. I suffered once, for the expression of loyal 
 sentiments, the loss of all things temporal except life, 
 and saved that only by the skin of my teeth." 
 
 I said, " Good-bye, Col.," and started to leave. To 
 my surprise the colonel then cordially invited me to 
 visit the female seminary, at 9 o'clock the next morn- 
 ing, and to take part in the opening exercises. I ac- 
 cepted his invitation. At the close of the opening 
 exercises, which I conducted, the colonel asked me to 
 address the young ladies. I complied with his re- 
 quest. I then accepted an invitation to dine with 
 the colonel, who, as long as I remained in Bowling 
 Green, treated me with marked courtesy. I think 
 that he regretted his brusqueness. He met me on 
 Saturday, and told me that on to-morrow he must 
 hear his old friend and former pastor preach, Rev.
 
 TUPELO. 309 
 
 Dr. R. K. Smoot, of the state of Texa*, but that if I 
 should preach on the succeeding Sabbath he would 
 hear me. In the bellum and ante bellum days the 
 expression of sentiments such as I expressed would 
 have met with dire punishment. ~Ko\v the penalty 
 is comparatively light. The world moves. I vis- 
 ited the graded public schools of Bowling Green. 
 Prof. "\Vylie, of Danville, Ind., was the very efficient 
 principal. This school was conducted as successfully 
 as our best northern schools, but the public school sys- 
 tem of the state I found to be as yet quite inefficient. 
 Progress, however, is being made. Educational in- 
 terests move slowly in the South. A few years ago 
 there were no public schools, and it requires time to 
 create a popular sentiment that will give them a high 
 degree of efficiency. 
 
 The question of reunion is before the general as- 
 semblies of both the northern and southern Presby- 
 terian churches. That reunion is a consummation 
 devoutly to be wished, is patent to all who have made 
 this subject a matter of investigation. The southern 
 church was born of rebellion. Her prominent minis- 
 ters entered the arena of politics, and in sermons, 
 magazine articles, and stump speeches urged the states 
 to secede in order to the strengthening and perpetua- 
 tion of the institution of slavery. After their suc- 
 cess in inducing many states to plunge madly into 
 the maelstrom of secession and treason, they effected 
 the organization of the general assembly of the Pres- 
 byterian church in the Confederate States of America,
 
 310 TUPELO. 
 
 thus linking with their church the name of the rebel- 
 lious usurpation, recognizing it as a government to 
 which allegiance was due, praying for its success in 
 overcoming the Federal authority and in establishing 
 a permanent slave-holding confederacy founded upon 
 the total subversion of the rights of man. Rev. Dr. 
 J. H. Thormvell, of S. C., was a leader in the seces- 
 sion movement. I have heard Rev. Dr. B. M. Pal- 
 mer, Revs. Carothers and Gaston, of Mississippi, 
 Mitchell, of Alabama, J. N. Waddell, of Tenn., and 
 many other Presbyterian ministers, all from the pul- 
 pit, and some of them from the platform, discuss all 
 the phases of the secession movement, urging the 
 people to favor secession, as the institution of slavery 
 could not otherwise be extended and perpetuated. 
 This church, in its origin, history, ecclesiastical de- 
 liverances, and affiliations, is so associated with and 
 allied to slavery and secession that nothing but union 
 with the northern church can give her proper confi- 
 dence and standing with the loyal people of the 
 United States of America. The southern church 
 would, by reunion, be made national. It is now 
 territorially confined to the former slave states. By 
 union many weak churches would become strong and 
 able for self-support, through the coalescing of con- 
 tiguous congregations. "We would no longer hear of 
 the northern branch and the southern branch of the 
 Presbyterian church. The schism would be at an 
 end, and our glorious church would no longer be sec- 
 tional but national, her boundaries being coterminous
 
 TUPELO. 311 
 
 with the republic, and her evangelizing influences 
 would speedily be quadrupled in their efficiency. The 
 majority of the southern branch would not, if they 
 could, re-establish slavery, and they regard the seces- 
 sion idea as no longer tenable, and in every way they 
 give their adhesion to principles made the supreme 
 law of the laud by the stern legislation of war. 
 
 There are a few bourbons in the southern branch 
 who an unable to forget anything or to learn any- 
 thing. These bitterly oppose reunion. Did the 
 majority of the southern ministers hold the senti- 
 ments of this factious minority, reunion would be the 
 height of folly and madness. " How could two walk 
 together unless they are agreed?" at least as far as 
 essentials are concerned. A committee appointed by 
 the minority of the Southern General Assembly dis- 
 senting from reunion have published an " open letter," 
 purporting to be the views of the protestants against 
 reunion. Those who hold the opinions couched in 
 the open letter have not been reconstructed, and 
 would be a discordant element in the reunited church. 
 They hold views that could not be tolerated by the 
 northern branch, principles, both political and scien- 
 tific, so contrary to reason, truth, and justice, that 
 were they, as citizens, to attempt to give them a prac- 
 tical bearing, another civil war would speedily ensue. 
 Dr. W. C. Gray, editor of The Interior, says: "Rev. 
 Dr. R. L. Dabney (one of the committee) is constantly 
 howling, 'They have robbed us of our lawful bond- 
 men.' He doubtless desires the return of the stolen
 
 312 TUPELO. 
 
 property. Nothing but full restitution and a humble 
 apology would satisfy him. This would restore 
 human slavery to the South." The Presbyterian Ban- 
 ner thus speaks of this unreconstructed rebel : " Rev. 
 Dr. Dabncy scenis unable to accept the new situation 
 in the South, and is not in good temper with the dis- 
 pensations of Providence. He docs not believe that 
 the southern people have any direct responsibility in 
 the education of the colored people. For a man of 
 Dr. Dabncy's gifts and attainments to write such 
 stuff as this is most strange. ' The northern people 
 have everywhere proclaimed that the bible teaches the 
 abolition dogma, and advised them not to listen to 
 any bible which does not. But we know that our 
 bible condemns the abolition dogma. We cannot, 
 we dare not falsify God's truth, even for the 
 amiable purpose of getting access to the negro minds. 
 Those who have obstructed us by falsifying and mis- 
 representing God's word, must bear the responsi- 
 bility.' This accords with the view adopted by the 
 Southern General Assembly in 1865, just after the 
 suppression of armed rebellion and the enfranchise- 
 ment of the slaves, which was as follows : ' The law- 
 fulness of the relation' of slavery, 'as a question of 
 social morality and of scriptural truth, has lost noth- 
 ing of its importance.' While the war was progress- 
 ing the southern branch declared it to be the peculiar 
 mission of their church to conserve the institution of 
 slavery." As this cannot be done till the South be- 
 comes strong enough to re-enslave her " lawful bond-
 
 TUPELO. 313 
 
 men/' taken violently from her by "robbers," it 
 seems to be her duty to perpetuate the doctrine of 
 slavery as one of "social morality and scriptural 
 truth/' till it can be restored to its pristine vigor. 
 
 This committee has decided that the question, 
 " whether the allegiance of the citizen is primarily 
 due to the state or to the central authority," was not 
 determined by our forefathers. 
 
 There is probably not a minister in the northern 
 church who believes that political deliverance. All 
 regard it as a political heresy fraught with danger, 
 and as a treasonable view necessary to be suppressed 
 vi et armis, if any practical bearing should be given it 
 in the interests of state sovereignty and secession. 
 
 "We believe that our fathers who framed the Fed- 
 eral Constitution spoke with no uncertain sound, and 
 that they formed a " perpetual union," which it was 
 treason to attempt to dissever. Rev. Dr. R. Iv. 
 Smoot, one of the committeemen, was pastor of the 
 church at Bowling Green, Ily., at the commencement 
 of the war. He was a virulent and violent secession- 
 ist, and did all he could to harass and annoy the 
 members of his church who were loyal to the govern- 
 ment. One of whom, in his rebellious wrath, he 
 challanged to mortal combat in the duel, according 
 to the southern code of honor. Save the mark ! At 
 last he sent all of them letters of dismission, for 
 which they had not applied, and thus drove them out 
 of the church. "While Mr. Smoot was a student at 
 Hanover College, I-idiaua, he was repeatedly guilty
 
 314 TUPELO. 
 
 of the infraction of the college laws. The faculty 
 often found it necessary to admonish and reprove 
 him, but he remained obdurate and incorrigible. At 
 length, Rev. Drs. Edwards and Crowe, the president 
 and vice president of the college, summoned Mr. 
 Smoot into their presence and advised him to send in 
 his declinature longer to receive aid as a beneficiary 
 of the education fund, as they deemed him unworthy 
 of it. Mr. Smoot wished to know if this course were 
 compulsory upon him. They replied that in case 
 he declined to accept their advice, compulsory meas- 
 ures would be enforced. Mr. Smoot became quite 
 angry, and affirmed that this was persecution on 
 account of his southern birth, and in his wrath he 
 declared that he hoped that the time would speedily 
 come when, in civil war, he would be able with his 
 own hands to discharge a cannon loaded with grape 
 and canister for the destruction of his northern ene- 
 mies, and for. securing southern independence and 
 freedom from northern domination. Circumstances 
 pointed very strongly to Mr. Smoot as the assassin 
 of a Federal picket at Bowling Green, Ky., while 
 that city was in the occupancy of the Federal army 
 in the civil war. 
 
 A young man was robbed of $2,000 at a hotel in 
 Louisville, Ky. Dr. Smoot roomed with him at 
 the time, and many believed that the reverend Dr. 
 was the robber, as circumstances very strongly im- 
 plicated him in the robbery. The minority brethren 
 should have chosen a man of less unsavory reputation 
 to serve on their committee.
 
 TUPELO. 315 
 
 The committee state that, "It cannot be denied 
 that God has divided the human race into several 
 distinct groups, for the sake of keeping them apart." 
 They also affirm that the "differentiation through 
 color and other physical characteristics are fixed by 
 the hand of God, since science fails to trace the 
 natural causes by which it could be produced and 
 history is silent as to the time when these changes 
 occurred." Thus making their own ignorance the 
 basis and proof of a false, odious, and indefensible 
 theory. 
 
 Do they really believe in the unity of the human 
 race? 
 
 Again, the committee inform us that wherever 
 the people belonging to different groups have prac- 
 ticed amalgamation, the result has been a stock in- 
 ferior in quality to both the factors which sunk their 
 superior virtues in an emasculated progeny. That 
 in Mexico and South America, where the people of 
 different groups have intermingled and thus en- 
 feebled their offspring, we see slipping from their 
 hands the reins of power. 
 
 These last two propositions are presented as argu- 
 ments to establish the first. 
 
 Many believe that science does trace the causes of 
 difference in the races of men. They regard it as due 
 to climate, food, and mode of life. They would be 
 loth to accept without argument the ipse dixit of the 
 committee that it is due to the miraculous interpo- 
 sition of Almighty God, in order to create, propagate,
 
 316 TUPELO. 
 
 and perpetuate superior and inferior races of men. 
 Rev. David Livingstone, who spent many years in 
 the heart of Africa, and whose subjection to climatic 
 influence and food and mode of life were not differ- 
 ent from that of the natives, though a Scotchman of 
 fair complexion when he entered the Dark Continent, 
 had become, when found by Stanley, as bronzed and 
 dark as the Makololos whom he had rescued from 
 the degradation of heathenism. Had he taken his 
 wife and children with him to the land of Ham, after 
 a few generations they would have become veritable 
 negroes. There are many black Jews in Africa. 
 Climate, food, and mode of life have rendered them 
 undistinguishable from the negro. 
 
 As to the Mexicans and South Americans losing 
 power because of their mixed blood, the committee 
 is at fault, not knowing the facts of history. The 
 Spanish people are of unmixed blood. Their colo- 
 nial possessions, one after another, in Mexico and 
 South America, were, after fierce and bloody strug- 
 gles on the ensanguined plains of battle, wrested from 
 the Spaniards by the mixed races. Does this prove 
 their inferiority? 
 
 Many southern people pride themselves on being 
 lineal descendants of Pocahontas. Are her descend- 
 ants inferior in virtue or intelligence? The Ran- 
 dolphs, the Bakers, the Oswalds, the Castlemans 
 prove their superiority. Are the mulattoes, the quad- 
 roons, and the octoroons, who are found by millions 
 in the South, an emasculated progeny inferior to
 
 TUPELO. 31 7 
 
 their mothers (their fathers are supposed to be un- 
 known)? Their superior intelligence disproves the 
 theory of the committee. Must we receive as truth 
 all those political and scientific fallacies in order to 
 induce them to unite with us? The southern church 
 united with the new school body in the South on the 
 same basis of union as that which served as the basis 
 of union the standards pure and simple between 
 the old and new school Presbyterians in the North, 
 and yet this latter union is mentioned, by this com- 
 mittee, as an argument against reunion with the 
 northern church. 
 
 AVhen I lived in the South, in the ante bellum 
 days, the fact that the races of men were marked by 
 diversities of color and physical characteristics was 
 not made an objection to miscegenation, as that was, 
 and still is, practiced to a fearful extent in the South, 
 but it was advanced by the southern people as an 
 unanswerable and irrefragable argument in favor of 
 the right and duty of the superior to reduce to slavery 
 the inferior race. The committee declare : "At the 
 first we hoped to hold him (the negro) in connection 
 with us in our churches, as in the old time we were 
 accustomed to worship together in the house of God. 
 AVe were slow in coming to his ground, when under 
 the race instinct he demanded a church and ministry 
 of his own." Just prior to this they have said, or 
 rather asked the question : " How can two races be 
 brought together in nearly equal numbers in those 
 confidential and sacred relations which belong to the
 
 318 TUPELO. 
 
 ministry of the Word without entailing that personal 
 intimacy between ministry and people which must 
 end in the general amalgamation of discordant races." 
 
 Yes, there may be something of excellent reason- 
 ing in this. In the old time you were accustomed 
 to worship together in the house of God, and if 
 that "personal intimacy in those confidential and 
 sacred relations" was the true cause of that amal- 
 gamation which has resulted in changing the hue of 
 more than half of your former slaves, it is well to 
 let them have churches and a ministry of their own. 
 
 The committee speak as if they were in extreme 
 peril, and as if, were the colored people to worship 
 with the white people in nearly equal numbers, gen- 
 eral amalgamation could not be avoided and would 
 be the result in the near future. Your danger seems 
 imminent, and we would not urge you to unite with 
 the northern church if the result would be a general 
 stampede of your daughters into the arms of the 
 negro. It is your strong argument, your sheet anchor 
 to keep your barque from drifting out upon the 
 stormy ocean of reunion. Your wayward sons and 
 daughters must be restrained. At least, there must 
 be no temptation thrown in their way to induce them 
 to gratify their perverted tastes and prurient desires. 
 It might be well to elaborate additional arguments 
 so that this impending calamity may be averted. 
 Our northern missionaries and teachers who are labor- 
 ing among the colored people of the South, though 
 outnumbered by them twenty to one, are in no peril.
 
 TUPELO. 319 
 
 ~No case of amalgamation has ever occurred among 
 them. Their tastes and instincts will ever prevent 
 a calamity so deplorable. I think it possible that 
 the " race instinct/' which has led the colored people 
 to go out from you, will interpose a barrier to amal- 
 gamation, and were you to woo them, I think you 
 would not succeed in winning them back to worship 
 with you as in the old time, therefore your children 
 will be measurably safe. 
 
 Re-union, desirable as it may*be in certain aspects, 
 could not be entertained for a moment were the ma- 
 jority of the southern people found to hold the 
 political, scientific, and absurd theories of the com- 
 mittee. 
 
 The northern branch -has not made a deliverance 
 in regard to evolution. The southern branch has 
 decided, at least in part, this vexed scientific question. 
 Though they will doubtless admit that the body of 
 Eve, the mother of all living, was made of ossified 
 dust, yet they have decided ecclesiastically that the 
 body of Adam was made of dust inorganic. They 
 may deem it their duty in the near future to decide 
 the mooted question w r hether the wife of Moses was 
 an Ethiopian of the negro race, or the question, "If 
 the northern people will not restore to us our 'lawful 
 bondmen,' what means w r ould we be justifiable in using 
 to compel them to restore to us those human chattels 
 of which they have robbed us, that we may hold 
 them in bondage as we did in the old time." It is 
 true, as the Master teaches, that Christians are the
 
 320 TUPELO. 
 
 light of the world and the salt of the earth. The 
 truth of the gospel is to work like leaven until the 
 whole structure of society is changed. But there is 
 need of earnest hearts and strong hands to accomplish 
 this result. The purpose is to permeate every de- 
 partment of human life, and men are the agency. 
 Wherever there is iniquity the church is summoned 
 to cry aloud and spare not. When there is a sword 
 in the land the danger must be exposed. Who, if 
 not the church, shall dissect and denounce corruption ? 
 Who, if not the church, shall expound to the state 
 the principles of righteousness, and emphasize the 
 importance of morality in law? The function of the 
 state is comparatively limited, but the sphere of the 
 church covers the whole domain of morals and religion. 
 The Bible is dogmatic against iniquity. It is the duty 
 of the church to reprove sin wherever found, and strive 
 for its eradication, whether in the domain of science 
 or politics, whether in the state, the family, or the indi- 
 vidual. The claim of the southern church is, that it 
 is within its province "to conclude nothing but that 
 which is ecclesiastical." Its theory and practice are 
 diametrically opposed to each other. Its purely 
 political deliverances are numerous, and they were 
 all made in the interests of slavery and secession. 
 
 Rev. Dr. R. L. Dabney was a member and prominent 
 leader of the synod of Virginia, which, in October, 
 1861, made this deliverance: "Resolved, That the as- 
 sertion of their rights and separate independence by 
 the Confederate States is necessary and righteous.
 
 TUPELO. 321 
 
 ****** The question of civil alle- 
 giance has been properly determined as to us by the 
 commonwealth of which we are citizens." Now he 
 joins in condemning the northern church for "a pal- 
 pable invasion of the province of the state," in de- 
 ciding a political question. O, consistency, thou art 
 a jewel ! 
 
 The Philadelphia Presbyterian, of April 21, 1888, 
 noticing the southern digest, among other things, 
 says: "It is somewhat amusing to see that the south- 
 ern assembly in 1861 approved a .clause in the con- 
 stitution of the Confederate States." 
 
 From the synod of North Carolina, in 1861, we 
 have this deliverance: " Resolved, That the synod 
 sits appointed by her Divine Head as a witness for 
 the right and for truth, truly sympathizes with the 
 state and with the Confederate States in their present 
 righteous struggle, and cordially approves their action 
 in asserting and maintaining their sovereignty and 
 severing the ties that bound us to the late United 
 States of America." 
 
 From the presbytery of Charleston, July 24, 1861, 
 we have this deliverance: ."We do most heartily, 
 with the full approval of our conscience before our 
 Lord God, unanimously approve the action of the state 
 and people of the Confederate States of America." 
 
 When the southern general assembly, which were 
 
 holding their sessions in Baltimore in 1888, adjourned 
 
 to Philadelphia to unite with the northern general 
 
 assembly in the centennial celebration of the organiza- 
 
 21
 
 322 TUPELO. 
 
 tion of the general assembly in 1788, Rev. Dr. Bul- 
 lock, the moderator of the southern assembly, re- 
 peatedly alluded to the southern church by the ap- 
 pellation of the Presbyterian church of North 
 America. He thus seemed to ignore the United 
 States of America. Was this designed or accidental? 
 Is it true that the name of the southern church has 
 been changed so as no longer to recognize the United 
 States? Has the southern branch ever made a loyal 
 deliverance since their secession and slavery deliver- 
 ances, or during . their existence as a separate organ- 
 ization? 
 
 The Northern General Assembly of 1888, adopted 
 the following resolution, nemine contradicente: 
 
 Resolved, On the near approach of Decoration 
 Day, the day set apart in memory of those, who, 
 during the civil war, gave their lives that the union 
 and the country should not die, this General Assem- 
 bly desires to put on record its grateful recognition 
 of the inestimable services, the devotion unto death, 
 of these heroic patriot soldiers, and our undying 
 attachment to the great principle for which they 
 fought and died, and with the great multitude of our 
 fellow-citizens to extend our prayerful sympathy to 
 those throughout our whole country to whom this day 
 brings still the memory of immeasurable bereavement. 
 
 It is probable that a few leaders in the southern 
 church, if reunion were consummated, would con- 
 tinue a ceaseless agitation which would embroil the 
 church in a perpetual turmoil. Many in the South
 
 TUPELO. 323 
 
 blindly and implicitly follow the lead of those whom 
 they esteem as "big men." A few southern politi- 
 cians (not statesmen), ambitious as Lucifer, inflamed 
 that very excitable thing, the southern heart, and 
 precipitated the rebellion in opposition to the wishes 
 and warnings of the conservative and loyal majority. 
 A few ecclesiastical leaders are endeavoring to pre- 
 vent reunion by threats of secession from the church 
 if it be ap; roved by the majority, and by a resort to 
 tactics, subterfuges, and stratagems, which they will 
 persistently practice in order to compel the majority 
 to yield to them and make an unconditional surrender 
 for the sake of peace. 
 
 For these reasons it is probably best to postpone 
 reunion, at least for another decade, when it is to be 
 hoped that sentiments and theories and practices so 
 repugnant and abhorrent to Christians and friends of 
 stable government and human rights, shall have dis- 
 appeared from the southern church. Then they will 
 be welcomed with open arms and joyful acclamations 
 by the whole membership of the northern church. 
 For this blessed consummation let all true Christians 
 ever devoutly pray. Then will there be indeed a 
 new and regenerated South, relegating into the gulf 
 of oblivion the grim, absurd, and barbarous traditions 
 of the past era, and rising, phoenix-like from her 
 ashes, she will join with the North and the East and 
 the West with glad acclaim in the angel's song, 
 "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good 
 will to men." This will be indeed the golden age,
 
 324 TUPELO. 
 
 the harbinger of millennial glory, which we trust is 
 soon to be ushered in in all its fullness and blessed- 
 ness, to gladden the hearts of all men everywhere, 
 and to unite in bonds of sympathy and love all races 
 and kindreds and tongues and nations to earth's re- 
 motest bounds, and to make them one in Christ Jesus. 
 Livonia, Washington county, Indiana. 
 
 Since the war' I have been very kindly and hos- 
 pitably received by the southern people while a so- 
 jouruer among them. They say, "We will gladly 
 welcome northern people as citizens, if they will only 
 let politics alone." I enquired if that meant that 
 northern people who emigrate South must refrain 
 from voting and from holding office. They replied, 
 "That is just what we mean." Said I, "You wish 
 us to purchase citizenship at too great a cost. The 
 exercise of the elective franchise, that badge of free- 
 men, will not be basely bartered for a 'mess of pot- 
 tage' by the descendants of revolutionary sires who 
 shed their blood on many an ensanguined battle field 
 to secure this priceless boon for themselves and their 
 posterity, to be enjoyed and exercised till the last 
 moment of recorded time." 
 
 The reason assigned for this course is, that if a " free 
 ballot and fair count " were tolerated it would change 
 the political complexion of many of the southern 
 states, notably the states of South Carolina, Mississ- 
 ippi, Lousiana, and Florida. The colored people and 
 "scalawags" in these states outnumber the party in
 
 TUPELO. 325 
 
 power, 'and the majority of the northern immigrants 
 would doubtless join with them and bring about a 
 political revolution, which, they say, " we must pre- 
 vent by all the means that God and nature have placed - 
 in our power." This is the reason that they contra- 
 vene the idea of allowing residents among them of 
 northern birth to vote or hold office. 
 
 I have found a spirit of intolerance prevailing 
 among the colored people. If one of their number 
 should vote with the dominant party he immediately 
 lost caste and was virtually ostracised. I enquired 
 what punishment would be inflicted upon a renegade 
 colored man. The reply I received, which was vo- 
 ciferously applauded, was, "The women would drive 
 him from the settlement with switches." A mission- 
 ary sent them, who was not of their party, would 
 not be received as a religious teacher or minister of 
 the gospel. They are very bitter against the white 
 people who defraud them and keep them in peon 
 bondage through the infamous labor contract system, 
 and who defraud them of the exercise of the elective 
 franchise, guaranteed them by constitutional amend- 
 ment. They are earnestly hoping and praying for de- 
 liverance to come. Every American should resent 
 every insult offered to humanity, for if the rights of the 
 lowliest are trampled upon the rights of the highest 
 are not safe. 
 
 The day of vengeance and wrath will come per- 
 Jiaps much sooner than the southern people are aware. 
 Many feel as I did, when residing in the Carolinas
 
 326 TUPELO. 
 
 in 1881 and 1882, that I would be willing, if there 
 were any hope of ultimate success, to shoulder my 
 musket, and throwing down the gage of battle, con- 
 tend to the bitter end for my God-given and constitu- 
 tional rights of which I was fraudulently deprived 
 for I had no more privilege than the darkest African 
 to vote and have my vote counted if I chose to cast 
 my ballot against the dominant party. 
 
 Coming events cast their shadows before. This 
 great crime against the genius of free institutions and 
 the republican form of government will not long be 
 tolerated. This stain upon our nation's fair escutch- 
 eon will, we opine, be speedily washed away, and, 
 if necessary, in the blood of the offenders. 
 
 Before the war I felt certain that slavery was 
 doomed and near its extinction. The insolence of 
 the slave-holders, the increasing rigors and barbarities 
 of slavery, led to the conviction that if God were 
 just and merciful he would not longer tolerate in his 
 providence an institution whose victims, numbered 
 by millions, were subjected to every refinement of 
 cruelty that base men could devise. 
 
 There was an additional evidence that redemption 
 was drawing nigh in the fact that the prayers of the 
 oppressed slave for deliverance were daily ascev.ding 
 to the throne of a prayer hearing and prayer answer- 
 ing God, and in the knowledge that millions of 
 humane Christian people, North and South, were fer- 
 vently imploring God to hasten the time when Ethi- 
 opia should stretch out her hands to God, when every
 
 TUPELO. 327 
 
 yoke should be broken and the oppressed become free, 
 God thus pouring out the spirit of grace and of sup- 
 plication upon his people, putting it into their hearts 
 to pray mightily for the deliverance of the bondmen, 
 the benign spirit of the age, the quickened conscience 
 of the wise and good, the increase of an enlightened 
 public opinion, the wide dissemination of Gospel 
 truth, the signs of the times, and the fulfillment of 
 prophecy, indicating the probably speedy approach of 
 the millennium all, all conspiring to the overthrow 
 of this horrid, murderous Moloch ; and these ele- 
 ments of its destruction were observable by even the 
 least acute observer. 
 
 It is now evident that the moral sense of the na- 
 tion is aroused to a true view of the enormity of the 
 crime against civil liberty, practiced with bold effront- 
 ery, and thus far with impunity, by the southern 
 people, in preventing, by fraud, intimidation, and 
 violence, a free expression of political opinion at the 
 polls by those who have a constitutional right to exer- 
 cise the elective franchise. The end is near of this 
 great wickedness. Thousands have been murdered 
 at the polls when endeavoring to exercise the rights 
 of American freemen. Had an American citizen who 
 had committed no crime lost his life at the hands of 
 Austrians or Mexicans our government would have 
 speedily instituted a court of inquiry, or have sent a 
 minister plenipotentiary with full powers to investi- 
 gate the outrage, and see to it that the perpetrators 
 of the crime were brought to speedy and condign pun-
 
 328 TUPELO. 
 
 ishment; or, failing in this, through the escape of 
 the criminals, the nation whose citizens were the 
 guilty parties would be held responsible for the act 
 which could only be atoned for by an humble apology 
 and ample reparation. 
 
 In the South many, very many, of our best and 
 truest men, true to moral principle and loyal to the 
 government, have fallen by the hands of ex-Con- 
 federates for this reason and no other, that they were 
 loyal and patriotic and the government has been 
 silent. Occasionally congress has gone so far as to 
 appoint a committee of investigation. The murder- 
 ers were proven guilty, but they were not brought to 
 justice, and when the committee returned to make 
 their report to congress these southern murderers slew 
 all who had as witnesses testified against them. What 
 impotence on the part of congress. Can they expect 
 any more witnesses to criminate themselves (in South- 
 ern estimation), by testifying against the murderers of 
 loyal men? Many thousands of loyal men have 
 been murdered since the war. Congress has dis- 
 covered the murderers in numerous instances, but not 
 one of them has been punished, and with impunity 
 they have been suffered to continue their murders by 
 putting to death all who testified against them before 
 the congressional committee. What the object of the 
 congressional investigation was is a mystery difficult 
 of solution. Sometime, "in the course of human 
 events," congressional investigation may be under- 
 taken with some object in view worthy of the great
 
 TUPELO. 32 9 
 
 nation whose interests they have been chosen to sub- 
 cerve, and of the citizens of the republic, whose lives 
 and property they should protect by the exercise of 
 all the powers vested in them, whether the endangered 
 persons are citizens of South Carolina or Massachu- 
 setts, and without regard to their " race, color, or pre- 
 vious condition of servitude." 
 
 Land of great fertility can be purchased in the 
 Gulf states at from two to ten dollars per acre. In 
 the near future the attention of northern people will 
 be attracted to this cheap and productive land, when 
 an exodus from the North to this genial clime, of 
 gigantic proportions, w r ill be inaugurated. "Within 
 five years after its commencement ten million robust, 
 energetic Yankees, with all the vim and perseverance 
 of that people will be precipitated upon the South. 
 They will come with their churches, their free schools, 
 and their higher educational institutions. They will 
 come with their innate ideas in regard to civil liberty 
 and human rights. And as iconoclasts they will, 
 with irresistible might, destroy the idols of the south- 
 ern oligarchs, and establish and cherish civil and re- 
 ligious liberty in its true and highest sense. They 
 will coalesce with the loyal element of the South, 
 thus making it at once dominant politically and 
 ecclesiastically. Then, portraits of the arch traitors, 
 Jeff Davis, and Gen. R. B. Lee, and Stonewall 
 Jackson, et alii., will no longer be found adorning 
 the walls of southern parlors. The portraits of pa- 
 triots will supersede them. Histories of the war, laud-
 
 330 TUPELO. 
 
 ing treason and arguing in favor of the treasonable 
 principles underlying the " lost cause," will be driven 
 from circulation, and thus the minds of the rising 
 generation of southern youth will no longer be poi- 
 soned by them. Monuments erected to commemorate 
 the perfidious acts of hostility against the govern- 
 ment by perjured rebels will be suffered to fall into 
 decay, or will be removed and destroyed. The 
 southern papers would then be compelled to be loyal, 
 and in their utterances give no uncertain sound. 
 The notorious Col. Smith, under the nom de plume 
 of " Bill Arp," thus writes in the weekly Atlanta 
 Constitution of Jan. 3, 1888 : "The northern man 
 ought to say : ' Oh ! well, those people down south 
 thought they were right, and they are just as pa- 
 triotic as we are. * * * Let us begin to pension 
 their soldiers, just as we pension ours. In fact we 
 ought to pay them something for their slaves. Eng- 
 land paid for hers when they were set free, and 
 Gladstone, that great and good man, got three hun- 
 dred thousand dollars for his, and our southern 
 brethren are just as good as Gladstone. * * The 
 South is looming up, and she will come to the front 
 in a few years. She is solid and always will be," 
 etc. Pension the soldiers of the defunct Southern 
 Confederacy, that military usurpation which mar- 
 shaled its millions to subvert the government pur- 
 chased for us at infinite cost by our revolutionary 
 sires! Forbid it, Almighty God! Forbid it, 
 heaven ! The servants of the devil might as well
 
 TUPELO. 331 
 
 make this demand of the judge in the great judg- 
 ment day : " Reward us as well as those upon the 
 right hand. We served your enemy, the devil. 
 We promoted his interest with fidelity, but heaven 
 has triumphed over us and we found the devil, our 
 lord, a bad paymaster. In his service we have lost 
 all. We staked all we possessed upon the issue of 
 the contest, the supernal powers have triumphed over 
 the infernal, and all is lost. Do thou pay us, even 
 as thou payest thy loyal servants, many of whom at 
 the bidding of our master, the devil, we put to 
 death, and we would have destroyed them all if it had 
 been possible for us to compass their destruction. It 
 is true we have never repented nor confessed that 
 we erred in choosing the service of the devil, and in 
 aiding and abetting his warfare against heaven. 
 But we are in a sad plight. Do thou compensate us 
 for the losses we have incurred in our attempt to 
 subvert thy throne." 
 
 Yes, Bill Arp, you ought to be paid. You fought 
 against the government in the interest of human 
 bondage. You strove to sever the Union cemented 
 with the blood of our patriot fathers. In mistaken 
 clemency the government spared the lives of the 
 whole rebellious horde, who strove to raze it to its 
 foundations. Yes, you ought to have been paid long 
 ago, and if you had received your just deserts you 
 would not now be on terra firma to make a demand 
 so insolent, and with such brazen-faced effrontery. 
 
 " If all are pardoned, and pardoned as a mere act
 
 332 . TUPELO. 
 
 of clemency, the very substance of government is 
 made nugatory," says Isaac Taylor, and, I fear, with 
 truth. Treason should have been made odious by the 
 death penalty being visited upon many of the arch 
 conspirators. Now they demand the reward of loy- 
 alty, and compensation for their slaves. Would 
 Gladstone have received compensation for his eman- 
 cipated slaves if he had rebelled against his govern- 
 ment and inaugurated a civil war to perpetuate 
 slavery ? No. When overcome he would have been 
 blown to pieces from the mouth of a cannon, as were 
 the leaders of the Sepoy rebellion, and his property 
 would have been confiscated, including his slaves. 
 
 If the penalty due to treason had been inflicted 
 upon many of the chief conspirators in the South, 
 the survivors would have a more salutary respect for 
 the government whose mistaken clemency spares their 
 forfeited lives. Now they live to make the most inso- 
 lent demands. Now they have reached the sublime 
 height of arrogance and presumption, by asking for 
 the reward of loyalty and the same compensation as 
 that nobly earned by those who imperiled their lives 
 in defense of the government assailed by those min- 
 ions of treason. What will be their next demand? 
 
 Let there be more legislation by congress in the 
 interests of the loyal majority in the South. At 
 least let congress emancipate this loyal majority from 
 cheir disabilities imposed by the disloyal and semi- 
 loyal elements Avho bear rule and repress all opposi- 
 tion to their peculiar modes and acts against the true
 
 TUPELO. 333 
 
 principles of civil liberty and human rights. Oh ! 
 that God would in His providence hasten the time 
 when some irenicon may be found, and it can be 
 truly said of our country, 
 
 " Land of happy union, where the East 
 Smiles on the West in love, and northern sno\vs 
 Melt in the ardor of the genial South." 
 
 Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne Co., Pa. } July 4y 1888. 
 
 THE SOUTHERN LOYALISTS. 
 
 Col. Benj. H. Grierson, of the 6th Illinois cavalry 
 with his regiment, together with the 7th 111. and the 
 2d Iowa, by order of Gen. U. S. Grant, made his 
 famous raid in April, 1863, from LaGrange, Ten- 
 nessee, through Mississippi to Baton Rouge, La. 
 As a result of his operation Gen. Grierson writes : 
 " The strength of the rebels has been overestimated. 
 They have neither the arms nor the resources we 
 have given them, credit for. Passing through their 
 country I found thousands of good Union men who 
 were ready and anxious to rally round the old flag 
 whenever it Avas possible. I could have brought 
 away a thousand with me who were anxious to come 
 - r men whom I found fugitives from their homes, 
 hid in swamps and forests where they were hunted 
 like wild beasts by conscripting officers with blood- 
 hounds." 
 
 Pollard says : In the last periods of the war 
 the demoralization of the Confederacy was painfully 
 apparent. Rich and powerful citizens managed to
 
 334 TUPELO. 
 
 escape the conscription it was said in Richmond 
 that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye 
 of a needle than for a rich man to enter Camp Lee. 
 But the rigor of the law did not spare the poor and 
 helpless, and the complaint was made in the Confed- 
 erate Congress that even destitute cripples had been 
 taken from their homes and confined in the conscrip- 
 tion camps without reference to physical disability 
 so conspicuous and pitiful. It was not unusual to 
 see at the railroad stations long lines of squalid men 
 with scraps of blankets in their hands, or small pine 
 boxes of provisions, or whatever else they might 
 snatch in their hurried departure from their homes, 
 whence they had been taken almost without a mo- 
 ment's notice and ticketed for the various camps of 
 instruction in the Confederacy. In armies thus re- 
 cruited desertions were the events of every day. 
 The conscript, constantly on short rations, sometimes 
 without a scrap of meat, and frequently in a con- 
 dition bordering on absolute starvation, hearing con- 
 stantly of destitution at home, and being distressed 
 with the sufferings of his family, was constantly de- 
 vising plans of escape that he might go to their relief. 
 It was estimated in 18G4 that the conscription would 
 put more than 400,000 men in the field. Scarcely 
 one-fourth of this number were found under arms 
 when the close of the war tore the veil from the thin 
 lines of Confederate defence. Thousands of Confed- 
 erate soldiers were sent by the Confederate govern- 
 ment to engage with packs of blood-hounds in the
 
 TUPELO. 335 
 
 hunt for deserters aud conscripts, who, when caught, 
 would desert again at the first favorable opportunity. 
 Thus the army was depleted. The great majority 
 of these conscripts and deserters were Unionists. 
 They hated the Confederate cause with a perfect 
 hatred. Pollard writes in his history: Much has 
 been said of the sufferings, persecutions, humiliations, 
 and spoliations inflicted upon Union men in the 
 South, but \vhen the period arrives for a dispassion- 
 ate examination of the real facts, the reader of his- 
 tory will be amazed at the moderation of the southern 
 people, more especially of the Confederate govern- 
 ment toward a class of persons capable of so much 
 mischief in a society threatened by imminent and 
 fearful peril from within and without. He states as 
 an offset that a system of terror was established in 
 the North, where public sentiment was unanimous as 
 against the South ; opinions only differing as to the 
 best means of reducing the distant rebellion. This 
 system of terror he asserts could only be warranted 
 in the South. The following letter is a specimen of 
 the truculent hatred of the southern secessionist to- 
 ward the Unionist : 
 
 ABINGDOX, YA., Oct. 2, 1861. 
 My Dear Wife: 
 
 I have left you and our children in the land of 
 the despot, but God grant that I may soon ba able 
 to make the Union men of Kentucky feel the edge 
 of my knife. From this day I hold every Union 
 traitor as my enemy, aud from him I scorn to re-
 
 336 TUPELO. 
 
 ceive quarter, and to him I will never grant any, 
 for they are cowards and villains enough. Brother 
 Henry and I arrived here without hindrance. I 
 have had chills all the way, but I hope to live to 
 kill forty Yankees for every chill I have ever had. 
 I learn that Hardee is still in the Arkansas lines, 
 inactive, and if this proves true I will tender my 
 resignation and go immediately to Kentucky. I 
 hope that I will do my duty as a rebel and a free 
 man. Since I hate the Union men of Kentucky, I 
 hope to begin the work of murder in earnest, and if 
 I ever spare one of them, may hell be my portion. 
 I want to see Union blood deep enough to swim my 
 horse in. 
 
 Your husband, 
 
 JAMES BLACKBURN. 
 (Brother of Gov. Blackburn.) 
 The white Unionists suffered the loss of all things, 
 
 O / 
 
 and for them there is no redress. The Government 
 will not pay for their property destroyed or confis- 
 cated by the rebels, nor will they grant them a pen- 
 sion for loss of health caused by their incarceration 
 in rebel prisons, and although many have lost their 
 lives at rebel hands, their families receive no pen- 
 sion. They do not complain of this neglect, but the 
 survivors rejoice in the subversion of rebellion, and 
 feel themselves more than compensated for all their 
 losses by its overthrow. In. one settlement in North 
 Carolina there lived a large number of unconditional 
 Union men. Twelve of these men were forced into
 
 TUPELO. 337 
 
 the army by the conscripting officers. Muskets were 
 given them, but every man of them refused to touch 
 the weapons. Every conceivable insult and outrage 
 were heaped upon them. They were starved, tied up 
 and whipped; still they remained firm to their con- 
 scientious convictions. Finally the muskets were 
 strapped to their bodies. One of these men was sin- 
 gled out as especially obnoxious, and whipped un- 
 mercifully. The officer in charge was lawless and 
 brutal, and on one occasion ordered him to be shot 
 as an example to others. He called out a file of men 
 to shoot him. While his executioners were drawn 
 up before him, standing within twelve feet of their 
 victim, the latter, raising his eyes to heaven and ele- 
 vating his hands, cried out in a loud voice : " Father, 
 forgive them, they knew not what they do." In- 
 stantly came the order to fire. But instead of obey- 
 ing it the men dropped their muskets and refused, 
 declaring that they could not kill such a man. This 
 refusal so enraged the officer that he knocked the 
 victim down and then strove repeatedly to trample 
 him to death under his horse's feet. But the animal 
 persistently refused to step over his prostrate body. 
 In the end they were marched with the rebel army 
 to Gettysburg. In that battle they remained entirely 
 passive, fired no shot, and trusted in God for pres- 
 ervation. Very early in the action the officer re- 
 ferred to was killed. These men, all unhurt, were 
 taken prisoners and sent to Fort Delaware. Here, 
 by accident, it became known in Philadelphia that 
 
 22
 
 338 TUPELO. 
 
 a number of Friends were among the captured, and 
 two members of the society went down to inquire 
 into the circumstances, but they were refused permis- 
 sion to see them. They went immediately to Wash- 
 ington, and there obtained an order for their dis- 
 charge, conditioned upon their taking an affirmation 
 of their allegiance. This opened their prison door. 
 The affirmation made, these martyrs for conscience's 
 sake were released, and coming to Philadelphia were 
 cared for by the Friends of that hospitable city. 
 
 In a memorial addressed to President Lincoln by 
 Union officers who were prisoners, occurs this state- 
 ment in regard to the prisoners of war at Anderson- 
 ville: "They are fast losing hope and becoming ut- 
 terly reckless of life. Numbers, crazed by their 
 sufferings, wander about in a state of idiocy. Others 
 deliberately cross the dead line and are remorselessly 
 shot down." 
 
 The following is an extract from an official report 
 by Col. D. T. Chandler, formerly an inspector gen- 
 eral in the Confederate service, addressed to Col. 
 Chilton, at Richmond, Ya., under date of Aug. 5, 
 1864: 
 
 " My duty requires me respectfully to recommend 
 a change in the officer in command of the post, Brig- 
 adier General J. H. Winder, and the substitution in 
 his place of some one who unites both energy and 
 good judgment with some feelings of humanity and 
 consideration for the welfare and comfort (so far as 
 is consistent with their safe keeping) of the vast nurn-
 
 TUPELO. 339 
 
 her of unfortunates placed under his control ; some 
 one who at least does not advocate, deliberately and 
 in cold blood, the propriety of leaving them in their 
 present condition until their number has been suffi- 
 ciently reduced by death to make the present ar- 
 rangements suffice for their accommodation, who will 
 not consider it a matter of self-laudation, boasting 
 that he has never been inside the stockade a place 
 of horrors which it is difficult to describe, and which 
 is a disgrace to civilization the condition of which 
 he might, by the exercise of a little energy and judg- 
 ment, even with the limited means at his command, 
 have considerably improved." 
 
 The Confederate authorities at Richmond were thus 
 officially notified of these atrocities, and yet took no 
 action. The conclusion seems inevitable that they 
 fully approved the measures adopted by the com- 
 manding officers at Andersonville, and also at Belle 
 Isle, which was so immediately under their eyes 
 that ignorance could not possibly be pleaded. 
 
 In the southern prison pens where our soldiers and 
 Unionists were incarcerated, diarrho3a ground out 
 their bowels, scurvy cut oif their extremities, rheuma- 
 tism racked their bones, the sun parched their skin, 
 the nights chilled their blood, the storms beat upon 
 them until their garments looked like the clothing of 
 a scarecrow, and the silent frost stole upon many a 
 one and held his eyes closed so tightly that the morn- 
 ing sun could not warm to life. 
 
 John Beman, a watchman employed on a southern
 
 340 TUPELO. 
 
 steamboat, who had a family, in Boston, Mass., was 
 arrested by a vigilance committee for the expression 
 of opinions loyal to the United States government. 
 The committee proposed to forgive him if he took an 
 oath to support the southern states. He indignantly 
 repelled the proposition and said that he would die 
 first, when they immediately hanged him. 
 
 The congressional committee on the conduct of the 
 war report that Major Bradford, who was captain at 
 Fort Pillow, while being conveyed from Brownsville 
 to Jackson was taken by five rebels, one an officer, 
 led about fifty yards from the line of march and de- 
 liberately murdered, in view of all those assembled. 
 He fell instantly, pierced by three musket balls, even 
 while asking that his life might be spared, as he had 
 fought them manfully and deserved a better fate. 
 The motive assigned for the murder of Major Brad- 
 ford was the fact that, although a native of the South, 
 he remained loyal to his government. Major Brad- 
 ford had witnessed the murder in cold blood of three 
 hundred of his fellow-prisoners after their surrender 
 at Fort Pillow. 
 
 Gen. Win. T. Sherman to the mayor of Atlanta : 
 "I myself have seen, in Missouri, Kentucky, Tenn- 
 essee, and Mississippi, hundreds and thousands of 
 women and children fleeing from your armies and 
 desperadoes, hungry and with bleeding feet. Now 
 that war comes home to you you feel very differently. 
 You deprecate its horrors, but did not feel them when 
 you sent car loads of soldiers and ammunition and
 
 TUPELO. 341 
 
 moulded shell and shot to carry war into Kentucky 
 and Tennessee and Mississippi, to desolate the homes 
 of hundreds of thousands of good loyal people, who 
 only ask to live in peace at their old homes and under 
 the government of their inheritance." 
 
 Captain Phillips, who captured Florence, Alabama, 
 says, in his official report : " We have met the 
 most gratifying proofs of loyalty everywhere, across 
 the Tennessee, and in North Mississippi and North 
 Alabama, where we visited. Most affecting instances 
 greeted us hourly. Men, women, and children 
 gathered in crowds, shouted their welcome, and 
 hailed their national flag with an enthusiasm there 
 was no mistaking. It was genuine and heart-felt. 
 They have experienced, as they related, every possi- 
 ble form of persecution. Tears flowed down the 
 cheeks of the men as well as of the women." 
 
 A British officer, Lieutenant Col. Fremantle, of 
 the Cold Stream Guards, who made a tour of inspec- 
 tion during the war, says : " I met Capt. , of 
 
 Duff's Cavalry. The captain was rather a boaster. 
 Some Unionists had crossed the river to Matamoras, 
 Mexico. This captain had made a raid across the 
 river and had carried off some of these ' renegadoes/ 
 one of whom, Montgomery, he had left on the road 
 to Brownsville. General Bee, a brother of General 
 Bee who was killed at Manassas, told me that the 
 Montgomery affair was against his sanction and he 
 was sorry for it. He said that Davis, another rene- 
 gado, would also have been put to death had it not
 
 342 TUPELO. 
 
 been for the intercession of his wife. Gen. Bee had 
 restored Davis to the Mexicans. Half an hour after 
 we left Gen. Bee we came to the spot where Mont- 
 gomery had been ' left,' and sure enough, about two 
 hundred yards to the left of the road, we found him. 
 He had been slightly buried, but his head and arms 
 were above the ground, his arms tied together, the 
 rope still round his neck, but part of it still dangling 
 from a small mosquito tree. Dogs or wolves had 
 probably scraped the earth from the body, and there 
 was no flesh on the bones. I obtained this, my first 
 observation of lynch law, within three hours after 
 landing in America. About three miles beyond this 
 we came to Col. Duff's encampment. He is a fine 
 looking, handsome Scotchman. He received me with 
 much hospitality. Col. Duff confessed that the 
 Montgomery affair was all wrong, but he added that 
 
 his boys meant well. I was presented to , rather 
 
 a sinister-looking party, with long yellow hair down 
 to his shoulders. This is the man who handed 
 
 O 
 
 Montgomery. "We were treated by all the officers 
 with much consideration. Col. Luckett gave me a 
 letter to Gen. Van Dorn, whom they consider the 
 beau ideal of a cavalry soldier. They said from 
 time immemorial the Yankees had been despised by 
 the Southerners as a race inferior to themselves in 
 courage and in honorable sentiments. Duff's regi- 
 ment is called the Partisan Rangers. They are 
 armed with carbines and six-shooters. I saw them 
 come in from a scouting expedition against the In-
 
 TUPELO. 343 
 
 dians, 300 miles off. They told me that they were in 
 the habit of scalping an Indian when they caught 
 him, and that they never spared one, because the only 
 good Indian was a dead Indian. This regiment had 
 been employed in quelling a counter-revolution of 
 Unionists in Texas. Nothing could exceed the ran- 
 cor with which they spoke of those rencgadoes, as 
 they called them. When I suggested to some of the 
 Texans that they might as well bury the body of 
 Montgomery a little better, they did not at all agree 
 with me, but said it ought not to have been buried at 
 all, but left hanging as a warning to others. Col. 
 Duff comes from Perth. He was one of the leading 
 characters in the secession of Texas. He said his 
 brother was a banker at Dunkeld. At the consulate, 
 
 , a Texas Unionist, confided his sentiments to 
 
 me. On the next evening he came to me and said 
 he hoped I would not compromise his safety by re- 
 vealing to any one the sentiments he expressed the 
 day before. 
 
 " I attended the evening parade and saw Gen. Bee, 
 Cols. Luckett, Buchel, Duff, and . The 
 latter, who hanged Montgomery, improves upon 
 acquaintance. 
 
 "Gen. Bee took me for a drive in his ambulance, 
 and introduced me to Major Leon Smith, who captured 
 the Harriet Lane. After the Harriet Lane had been 
 captured she was fired into by the other ships, and 
 Major Smith told me that his blood being up he sent 
 the ex-master of the Harriet Lane to Commoctere
 
 344 
 
 Renshaw, with a message that, unless the firing was 
 stopped, he would massacre the captured crew. After 
 hearing this, Commodore Renshaw blew up his ship 
 with himself in her. I met Gen. Bankhcad Magru- 
 der. He speaks of the Puritans with intense disgust, 
 and of the first importation of them as ' that pestiferous 
 crcwof the May Flower? * * * Mr. Sargent and 
 the judge finished the gin, and the former being rather 
 drunk entertained us with a detailed description of his 
 treatment of a refractory negro girl, which, by his 
 own account must have been very severe. The dis- 
 tance from Brownsville to San Antonio is 330 miles. 
 San Antonio is prettily situated on both banks 
 of the river of the same name. It contains about 
 J.0,000 inhabitants, and is the largest place in Texas, 
 except Galvcston! The houses are well built of 
 stone, generally one or two stories high. All have 
 verandas in front. In the neighborhood of San 
 Antonio one-third of the population is German, and 
 many of them by no means loyal to the Confederate 
 cause. They resisted by force of arms, but were set- 
 tled by Duff's regiment. I heard a dispute between 
 
 and a German militia general. The latter 
 
 spoke strongly in disapproval of 'secret or night lynch- 
 ing.' In spite of their hanging, shooting, etc., there 
 is much to like in the southern chivalry. 
 
 "An able-bodied male negro in Texas brings $2,- 
 500, while a well skilled seamstress is worth $3,500. 
 In the cars I was introduced to General Samuel 
 Houston, the founder of Texan independence. He
 
 TUPELO. 345 
 
 told me he was born in Virginia seventy years ago^ 
 that lie was United States senator at thirty, and gov- 
 ernor of Tennessee at thirty-six. He emigrated into 
 Texas in 1832 ; headed the revolt of Texas, and de- 
 feated the Mexicans at San Jacinto in 1836. He 
 then became President of the Republic of Texas, 
 which he annexed to the United States in 1845. As 
 governor of the state in 1860, he had opposed the 
 secession movement and was deposed. He is evi- 
 dently a remarkable and clever man, and much dis- 
 appointed at having to subside from his former 
 grandeur. I was introduced to Col. Chubb, who 
 .served as coxswain to the United States ship Java, 
 lie was guilty of hiring a colored crew at Boston and 
 then coolly selling them at Galveston. I was intro- 
 duced to Major , a brother-in-law to the man 
 
 who had hanged the Unionist, Montgomery. He 
 spoke with some pride of the exploit of his relative. 
 An indignant drayman came to complain of a mili- 
 tary outrage. . A semi-drunken Texan, of Pyron's 
 regiment, had ordered him to halt; the latter declin- 
 ing to do so, the Texan fired five shots at him from 
 his six shooter. Capt. Foster said that the regiment 
 would probably hang the soldier for being such a 
 disgracefully bad shot. 
 
 ""\Ve breakfasted a Hnntsville. The Federal 
 officers captured in the Harriet Lane are confined 
 here in the penitentiary, and are not treated as pris- 
 oners of war. This seems to be the system now with 
 regard to officers, since the enlistment of negroes by
 
 346 TUPELO. 
 
 northerners. My fellow-travelers of all classes are 
 much given to talk about their ' peculiar institution.' 
 They do not attempt to deny that there are many 
 instances of cruelty, and all seem to be perfectly 
 aware that slavery, which they did not invent but 
 which they inherited from us (English), is and always 
 will be the great bar to the sympathy of the civilized 
 world. I have heard these words used over and over 
 again. 
 
 " I started again by stage for Monroe, La. My 
 companions were a Mississippi planter, a mad dentist 
 from New Orleans (called by courtesy doctor), an 
 old man from Matagorda, buying slaves cheap in 
 Louisiana, a wounded officer, and a soldier. The 
 soldier was a very intelligent Missourian, who told 
 me (as others have) that at the commencement of the 
 troubles both he and his family were strong Union- 
 ists, but the Lincolnites by using coercion had forced 
 them to take one side or the other and now there 
 were no more bitter secessionists. This soldier (Mr. 
 Douglas) was on his way to join Bragg's army. A 
 Confederate soldier when wounded is not given his 
 discharge, but is employed at such work as he 
 is competent to perform. Mr. Douglas is quite 
 lame, but will be employed at mounted duties or at 
 writing. 
 
 " At a charming little town called Minden, I met 
 an Englishman, who deplored to me that he had 
 been such a fool as to naturalize himself, as he was 
 in hourly dread of conscription. Nearly every man
 
 TUPELO. 347 
 
 in this part of the country has a military title. Re- 
 marking upon the prevalence of military titles, Gen. 
 Johnson said, ' You must be astonished to find how 
 fond we are of titles, though we are all republicans, 
 and as we can't get any other sort, we all take military 
 ones.' I find the soldiers sober from necessity, as 
 there is literally no liquor to be got. There is great 
 indisposition upon the part of the Confederates to 
 take prisoners, particularly among these wild Mis- 
 sissippians. One of Henderson's scouts apologized 
 for bringing in a Yankee prisoner by saying that he 
 surrendered so quick he couldn't kill him. Gen. 
 Johnston told me this evening that he had been 
 wounded ten times. He was the senior officer of the 
 old army who joined the Confederates, and he com- 
 manded the Virginia army till he was severely 
 wounded at Seven Pines, called Fair Oaks, by the 
 Federals. News arrived this evening of the hanging 
 of a negro regiment with forty Yankee officers. I 
 attended a review by Gen. Hardee. After the re- 
 view the troops were harangued by Bishop Elliott, 
 in an excellent address, partly religious, partly patri- 
 otic. Col. Richmond gave me the particulars of 
 Gen. VanDorn's death. He had ravished the wife 
 of Dr. Peters, and was shot by the aggrieved hus- 
 band." 
 
 This, from a southern newspaper indicates the 
 temper of the times in 1861 : " We unhesitatingly 
 say that the cause of justice and the cause of human- 
 ity itself demands that the black flag shall be unfurled
 
 348 TUPELO. 
 
 on every field that extermination and death shall 
 be proclaimed against the hellish miscreants who per- 
 sist in polluting our soil with their crimes. We will 
 stop the effusion of blood, we will arrest the horrors 
 of war, by terrific slaughter of the foe, by examples 
 of overwhelming and unsparing vengeance. When 
 Oliver Cromwell massacred the garrison of Drogheda, 
 suffering not a man to escape, he justified it on the 
 ground that his object was to bring the war to a close, 
 to stop the effusion of blood, and that it w r as, there- 
 fore, a merciful act on his part. The South cannot 
 afford longer to trifle. She must strike the most 
 fearful blows the war cry of extermination must 
 be raised." 
 
 The Nashville (Tenn.) Courier published this 
 news item : 
 
 " We learn that a squad of twelve men were sent 
 to Franklin yesterday to arrest some Lincolnites. 
 They had collected to the number of fifteen at the 
 house of one of their number, one Bell, and defying 
 the party, fired at them, killing one man by the 
 name of Lee, and wounding one or two more. Our 
 men then charged the house and set fire to it, and all 
 the men in it, it is believed, but two, who escaped, 
 perished in the conflagration." 
 
 The act of the Confederate congress for the sup- 
 pression of the slave trade was couched in the usual 
 terms, but contained a provision for dealing with the 
 negroes found on board the captured vessels, which 
 is somewhat amusing. " If the vessel is cleared
 
 TUPELO. 349 
 
 from any port in the United States, the president 
 shall communicate with any governor of that state, 
 and shall offer to deliver such negroes to the said 
 state on receiving a guarantee that the said negroes 
 shall enjoy the rights and privileges of freemen in 
 such state, or in any other state of the United States, 
 or that they shall be transported to Africa and there 
 be set at liberty, without expense to the government." 
 The notion of the Confederate states bargaining with 
 Massachusetts or Ohio that a negro shall have all 
 the rights and privileges of a freeman might imply a 
 doubt as to the sincerity of their professions in be- 
 half of the negro. In default of the foreign state 
 accepting this offer, the president was empowered to 
 receive any propositions made for the transportation 
 of the negroes to Africa by private persons ; should 
 no such philanthropist offer himself, the president 
 shall cause the said negroes to be sold at public auc- 
 tion to the highest bidder. This is a sad declension 
 from the lofty morality of the earlier part of the 
 clause. This act was passed with entire unanimity 
 by the Confederate congress. 
 
 Xear the close of the war the Confederate congress 
 called upon the negro for help, offering him his free- 
 dom and a quarter section of government land for 
 his services as a soldier. But the offer came too late, 
 the rebellion soon after collapsed. The South, before 
 this, professed to regard freedom as a curse to the 
 negro and slavery as a blessing. O ! consistency, 
 thou art a jewel.
 
 350 TUPELO. 
 
 The southern leaders had been preparing for years 
 to destroy the Union. Mr. Keitt, of South Caro- 
 lina, in the convention which met to carry the state 
 out of the Union, said : " I have been engaged in 
 this movement ever since I entered political life." 
 Mr. Inglis said, " Most of us have had this subject 
 under consideration for twenty years." Mr. Rhctt 
 said, " It is nothing produced by Mr. Lincoln's elec- 
 tion or the non-execution of the fugitive slave law. 
 It is a matter that has been gathering head for thirty 
 years." 
 
 Preamble to the Florida ordinance of secession : 
 
 WHEREAS, All hope of preserving the Union 
 upon terms consistent with the safety and honor of 
 the slave-holding states has been finally dissipated by 
 the recent indications of the strength of the anti- 
 slavery sentiment of Ihe free states. This compels 
 Florida to secede from the Union, and to become a 
 sovereign and independent nation, and that all ordi- 
 nances heretofore adopted, in so far as they create or 
 recognize the confederacy of states called the United 
 States of America are rescinded. 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas said : " The question is, are 
 we to maintain the country of our fathers or allow it 
 to be stricken down by those who, when they can no 
 longer govern, threaten to destroy? "What cause, 
 what excuse do disunionists give us for breaking np 
 the best government on which the sun of heaven ever 
 shed its rays ? They are dissatisfied with the result 
 of the presidential election. Did they never get
 
 TUPELO. S5i 
 
 l>eaten before? Are we to resort to the sword 
 when we get defeated at the ballot-box ? I under- 
 stand it that the voice of the people expressed in the 
 mode appointed by the constitution must command 
 the obedience -of every citizen. They assume, on the 
 election of a particular candidate, that their rights 
 are not safe in the Union. What evidence do they 
 present of this ? I defy any man to show any act 
 upon which it is based. What act was omitted to be 
 done ? I appeal to these assembled thousands, that 
 so far as the constitutional rights of slave-holders 
 are concerned, nothing has been done and nothing 
 omitted, of which they can complain. There has 
 never been a time from the day that Washington was 
 inaugurated first president of the United States, when 
 the rights of the southern states stood firmer under 
 the laws of the land than they do now ; there never 
 was a time when they had not as good cause for dis- 
 union as they have to-day. What good cause have 
 they now that has not existed under every adminis- 
 tration. If they say the territorial question now, 
 for the first time, there is no act of congress prohibit- 
 ing slavery anywhere. If ib be the enforcement of 
 the laws, the only complaints that I have beard have 
 been of the too vigorous and too faithful fulfillment 
 of the fugitive slave law. Then what reason have 
 they ? The slavery question is a mere excuse. The 
 election of Lincoln is a mere pretext. The present 
 secession movement is the result of an enormous con- 
 spiracy formed more than a year since, formed by
 
 352 TUPELO. 
 
 the leaders in the Southern Confederacy more than 
 twelve months ago. But this is no time for the 
 detail of causes. The conspiracy is now known. 
 Armies have been raised, war is levied to accomplish 
 it. There are only two sides to this question. Every 
 man must be for the Union or against it. There can 
 be no more neutrals in this war, only patriots or 
 traitors. 'V 
 
 "Thank God, Illinois is not divided upon the 
 question. I know they expected to present a united 
 South against a divided North. They hoped that in 
 the northern states party questions would bring civil 
 war between democrats and republicans, when the 
 South would step in with her cohorts, aid one party 
 to conquer the other, and then make easy prey of the 
 victors. Their scheme was carnage and civil war in 
 the North. There is but one way to defeat this. In 
 Illinois it is being so defeated by closing up the 
 ranks. I express it as my conviction before God 
 that it is the duty of every American citizen to rally 
 around the flag of his country." 
 
 Gen. Grant says: "In the South no opposition 
 was allowed to the government which had been set 
 up. The Union sentiment was thoroughly subdued." 
 
 In Kentucky Valley, Ala., ten Unionists were 
 arrested at their homes, taken to a Primitive Baptist 
 church and tried by the vigilantes, and condemned as 
 submissionists and as traitors to the Southern Confed- 
 eracy, and immediately shot. Their names were : G. 
 W. Castleman, Eli Paul Manning, Geo. Pentecost,
 
 TUPELO. 353 
 
 Emory Paden, Rodman Tankersley, Sydney Smith, 
 John Bunyan, Verner Kaiser Knight, Clay Bonar, 
 and David Crockett, Jr. 
 
 Like the ferocious tiger when he tastes blood, 
 they started to arrest Louis Saterthwaite, a noted 
 Unionist. Upon reaching his cabin they found it 
 barricaded. They ordered Saterthwaite to open the 
 door. He refused. Going to the woods they pro- 
 cured a large log to be used as a battering-ram to 
 break down the door. As they came within range a 
 well directed volley from the cabin leveled ten of 
 these miscreants in the dust. This unexpected de- 
 fense caused the assailants to drop their battering-ram 
 and beat a hasty retreat to an adjoining forest. Four 
 of their number were killed outright: Joe. Hines, 
 Sam Kendall, Bill Gaddy, and Josh Blue. The 
 others managed to crawl into the woods, but Jo 
 Bardwell, through whose head a buckshot had passed, 
 died the next day. Saterthwaite had with him five 
 friends, staunch Unionists, who resolved to sell their 
 lives as dearly as possible. Their names were Mid- 
 dleton Walker, John Franklin, Alonzo Winston, 
 Morris Jefferson, and Pelhani Shelby. Upon the 
 retreat of their enemies they held a council of war 
 and decided that as soon as the twilight deepened into 
 night they would make their escape, and abandoning 
 their homes and families for a time, would follow the 
 polar star till they reached some Union outpost. 
 They well knew that the discomfited vigilantes 
 would soon return with large reinforcements, and 
 23
 
 354 TUPELO. 
 
 they had no hope that mercy would be shown them 
 by these infuriate demons incarnate. Two days 
 elapsed before the vigilantes returned. They came 
 five hundred' strong, led by Aaron Bloch, a virulent 
 secessionist, but such was their dread that they did 
 not dare leave the woods. At length, the cannon 
 which they had sent for arrived, and they, with this 
 engine of war, demolished the cabin without demand- 
 ing a surrender. But the birds had flown and were 
 far on their way toward the Federal lines. A large 
 company for pursuit was organized. Fifty hounds 
 were secured and put on the trail. For four days 
 they followed fast. Saterthwaite and his little band of 
 compatriots had reached the Union lines. The general 
 in command, kindly granting his request, sent out a 
 large force of cavalry to bring in the families of these 
 men and of the ten that were murdered. Six hours 
 after they had left the camp they heard the loud baying 
 of the blood-hounds, indicating the near approach of 
 their foes. Concealing themselves they awaited their 
 advent. Soon they came in full view and in good 
 range. A well directed volley emptied many a sad- 
 dle. They turned and fled. Pursuit was rapid. 
 Twenty-five prisoners were captured, and many vigi- 
 lantes were slain. The families were reached and 
 brought into the Federal lines and sent north. As to 
 the twenty-five prisoners, Rufus Curlee, their leader, 
 was compelled to witness the death by hanging of 
 twenty-three of the number. Curlee then met the 
 fate of his confederates in guilt. Gideon Brevoort
 
 TUPELO. 355 
 
 recognized by Saterthwaite as a Unionist who 
 was compelled to join this band of pursuers as a 
 guide, in order to save his life. He was brought in 
 with them and at once enlisted in the service of the 
 government in a company of sappers and miners. 
 He was a man of fine physique, and of great physical 
 strength. He proved an invaluable addition to the 
 service. Near the close of the war he was instantly 
 killed by a rebel sharp-shooter, while engaged with 
 others in the construction of a pontoon bridge, and 
 was buried with the honors of war. His comrades 
 erected a monument to his memory. They confis- 
 cated a number of monuments found in a marble 
 works in a town near their encampment. Two of 
 their number, marble cutters, engraved on the monu- 
 ment the following : " In Memoriam. Died on the 
 field of honor, March 1st, 1865, Gideon Brevoort, 
 .aged 32 yrs. 4 mos. and 15 days." 
 
 Eeleased from earthly care and strife, 
 With Thee is hidden all his life ; 
 Thy word is true, thy will is just, 
 With thee we leave him, Lord, in trust. 
 
 You who come my grave to view, 
 A moment stop and think 
 That I am in eternity 
 And you are on the brink. 
 
 Soldier, rest, thy warfare o'er, 
 Sleep the sleep that knows no waking, 
 Dream of battle fields no more, 
 Days of danger, nights of waking. 
 
 Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the 
 time is. Mark xiii. 33.
 
 356 TUPELO. 
 
 So let him rest beneath the sod, 
 His form with us, his soul with God. 
 Requiescat in pace. 
 
 If we had not removed our encampment, his 
 friends, Seymour Carpenter and Marquis Glover, 
 would have covered the whole monument with laud' 
 atory inscriptions and epitaphs. 
 
 A letter from his brother, Prof. Franklin Brevoort, 
 found in Gideon's tent after his burial, may be 
 interesting : 
 
 MEMPHIS, TENN., Dec. 16, 1864. 
 Dear Brother: 
 
 I have just learned your address. I, too, 
 made my escape to the Federal lines. When 
 the tocsin of war sounded I was teaching in Pensacola, 
 Florida. Teachers and ministers employed in their 
 vocation were by Confederate law exempt from service 
 in the army. When the summer vacation of 1861 
 came I felt that body, soul, and spirit with united 
 voice demanded rest a period of absolute freedom 
 from all secular cares and avocations. The duties of 
 the class-room had been peculiarly severe and exacting 
 during the academic year just closed. But the trying 
 ordeal was passed, and vacation had come. Homer 
 and Horace, Virgil and Xenophon, Legend re and 
 Bourdon, Watts and Whately, and all the tomes of 
 ancient and modern lore were consigned for the time 
 to the gloomy alcoves of the library, there to rest in 
 silent companionship till vacation ended and schol- 
 astic duties were resumed.
 
 TUPELO. 357 
 
 The young men have donned their hunting ap- 
 parel and hied away to the forest, where the red deer 
 wander, and to the rivers, where the finny tribes 
 abound, and I, whither shall I go? The bow that 
 is kept continually in a high state of tension, and 
 the mind that is never relaxed, lose elasticity and 
 become permanently impaired. The environment 
 has a tendency to recall the duties performed in it, 
 which one wishes wholly to throw off for a time, 
 and thus the benefits of recreation are dimin- 
 ished. It is better, therefore, that needful rest be 
 taken at some place remote from the scenes of labor. 
 New scenes, new faces, new employments divert the 
 mind, and call into action other faculties, and give 
 those that have been overburdened the desired rest. 
 With this end in view I prepared to leave our classic 
 shades and hie away to the home of one of my stu- 
 dents, whose warm invitation I felt happy in accept- 
 ing. On a beautiful morning, just as the auroral 
 brightness was assuming a vermilion hue, sure har- 
 binger of coming day, the colored coachman drove to 
 my door and I was soon outward bound for the 
 home of Jasper Pettigru, whose hospitable residence 
 I was never to reach. The oriole, the mocking-bird, 
 the paroquet flitted from tree to tree, and a great va- 
 riety of feathered songsters made the forests vocal 
 with their harmony, and by the brilliancy of their 
 plumage encircled our pathway with a halo of glory. 
 One could readily imagine himself in the enchanted 
 land. The balmy air, the fragrant flowers, the sil-
 
 358 TUPELO. 
 
 very, sparkling waters, the odor-laden breeze, all 
 contributed to the highest happiness, the most ec- 
 static delight of the votaries of pleasure a crowd of 
 whom were with me in the diligence. But ever and 
 anon there came borne upon the unwilling breeze 
 an agonizing sigh, proceeding from the inmost re- 
 cesses of a bleeding, broken heart a heart crushed 
 by some sorrow too great to be sustained long and 
 the victim live. I thought perhaps it is a fugitive 
 slave on the top of the diligence who is being re- 
 turned to his master. . When we arrived at Daphne, 
 Ala., where I intended lodging for the night with an 
 old friend, Joe Poindexter, an officer got out of the 
 diligence, ordered a carriage from the livery stable, 
 and obtaining assistance, took a white man from the 
 top of the stage and placed him on the rear seat of 
 the carriage. He said this was a state prisoner whom 
 he was conveying into the presence of Col. Bonham, 
 at Teusas, to be dealt with as he was accustomed to 
 deal with all tories. As my friend lived near Ten- 
 sas, I mentioned this fact to this man, whose name was 
 Major Samuel Rodney. Major Rodney said he would 
 be glad to have me go with him for company. I 
 at once accepted the proffered favor, having a desire 
 to assist, if possible, this suffering Unionist. When 
 within two miles of Tensas we came to the residence 
 of a gentleman, a friend of Major Rodney, Co], 
 Wardlaw by name (if my memory is correct). A 
 dance was in progress at his house, and he insisted 
 upon Major Rodney's attending the dance. The
 
 TUPELO. 
 
 major said this d d tory must be delivered to- 
 night to Col. Bonham. "Can't your friend take 
 him in?" replied the colonel. "Yes, or I can drive 
 in and return/' said the major. "You'd miss oceans 
 of fun if you were to do that. Just send him in and 
 let your friend put the team in the livery stable at 
 Tensas. I'll send for it in the morning." I cor- 
 dially assented to this arrangement. 
 
 After driving a few hundred yards I asked my 
 prisoner to give me his story. He replied that his 
 name was Isaac Simpson, that he was a Unionist, 
 and supposed that this would be the last night of his 
 life, as Col. Bonham spared the lives of no Unionists* 
 and that he would not recant his opinions to save his 
 life. I replied, " I, too, am a Unionist." " Glory 
 to God," said the prisoner, " then there is yet hope 
 for me." " Yes, we will survive or perish together." 
 Col. Rodney had given me the key of the prisoner's 
 manacles. I had no difficulty in liberating him. 
 There was no road by which to turn off, so we were 
 compelled to go into Tensas, then bear north, and 
 trust in God for divine guidance. We drove rapidly, 
 and were far, very far from Tensas by daylight. Near 
 Shongalo, Smith Co., Miss., we sold our horses and 
 carriage to a planter for $500, Confederate money. 
 At Tougaloo, Hinds Co., we bought suits of clothes 
 in order to conceal our identity. At Brandon, Miss., 
 we bought tickets for Grand Junction, Tenn., and 
 without any further special adventures reached Cairo, 
 111., where we both enlisted in the Federal service.
 
 360 TUPELO. 
 
 At Brandon I bought a newspaper which gave a de- 
 scription of us, and offered a large reward for our 
 capture. 
 
 Prof. Simpson has never yet been able to corres- 
 pond with his family, nor has he heard what may 
 have befallen them since his arrest ; nor have I been 
 able to visit my student friend for whose hospitable 
 mansion I started in what appears, because of the 
 thronging events and various vicissitudes of the past 
 years, to be the "auld lang syne." We hope that 
 soon the bottom will fall out of that rotten old hulk 
 the Southern Confederacy. 
 
 Please write to me at your very earliest conven- 
 ience and tell me all about yourself. 
 
 Your affectionate brother, 
 
 FRANKLIN BREVOORT. 
 
 The song of war shall echo through the mountains 
 
 Till not one hateful Ijnk remains 
 
 Of slavery's lingering chains, 
 
 Till not one tyrant treads our plains, 
 Nor traitor lips pollute our fountains. 
 
 Princeton, Gibson Co., Indiana. 
 
 On April 29, 1877, occurred the cold-blooded 
 assassination of Judge Chisholm, of Kemper Co., 
 Miss., and the killing of his little son and the wound- 
 ing of his brave young daughter, aged eighteen, who 
 died of her wounds soon after. This tragedy, and 
 the fact that every physician in the place refused to 
 attend upon her dying father and herself, reveal the
 
 TUPELO. 361 
 
 state of terrorism which prevailed under the reign of 
 the " AVhite League" in the South. 
 
 An armed baud of two hundred chivalrous white 
 men attacked this family, and after the brave young 
 girl had, with her right arm, parried the guns of sev- 
 eral of those defenders of their rights, which were 
 placed almost against her father's breast, while with 
 the other arm around her wounded father's neck, she 
 received a wound which shattered her right hand and 
 was six times wounded in one of her legs. Her 
 father at last fell, pierced by eleven balls. He still 
 lived, and this heroic girl, though fatally wounded 
 herself, assisted her dying father to their home, a 
 distance of over one hundred yards. Her younger 
 brother of thirteen years of age was shot dead while 
 clinging to his father. Gov. Stone, of Mississippi, 
 refused to send aid and protection to this distressed 
 family. The great crime of which Judge Chisholm 
 was guilty was his staunch adherence to the govern- 
 ment, and his attempt to enforce the laws as sheriff 
 of the county. 
 
 Near this, Rev. James Pelan, my dear friend and 
 co-presbyter, was murdered because of his avowed 
 Union sentiments, though he was a non-combatant, 
 and only desired to live in quietness and retirement 
 till the contest was decided. "We were both members 
 of the Presbyter/ of Tombeckbee. I was by far 
 less discreet than my friend Pelan. I could not con- 
 ceal my sentiments by a judicious reticence when in 
 the presence of avowed secessionists. My friend
 
 362 TUPELO. 
 
 Pelan warned me again and again against rashness 
 and ill-timed expression of opinions which would be 
 sure to bring down upon my devoted head the mur- 
 derous wrath of the devotees of treason. I still live, 
 but my dear friend Pelan died a martyr to the truth, 
 at the hands of those atrociously cruel men. 
 
 When the southern people hate it is with great in- 
 tensity ; if they love their love is intense. In the 
 war times the secessionists would destroy Unionists 
 as they would vipers or rattlesnakes or water moc- 
 casins or cotton-mouths. They had no spark of 
 sympathy or compassion for them. They loved their 
 friends, and would promote their interests in every 
 possible way. They took delight in serving their 
 friends, and I personally owe them a debt of grat- 
 itude for much kindness shown me by the southern 
 people during my sojourn among them in the ante 
 bellum days. Any favor I desired was accorded 
 gladly. I never found them deceitful. If they man- 
 ifested friendship it was genuine, if they did not like 
 any one they made no pretence of friendship. I 
 found them generous and truthful. A minister in 
 traveling always went directly to a brother minister's 
 house, and invariably met a glad welcome and mu- 
 nificent entertainment. I knew of one exception. 
 The llev. Mr. Bland, of Memphis Presbytery, visited 
 the city of Memphis, accompanied by his wife. 
 They went directly to the residence of the pastor of 
 the 1st Presbyterian church of that city. They were 
 received in the parlor. It was cold weather and
 
 TUPELO. 363 
 
 there was no fire in the parlor. After remaining 
 awhile, and receiving no invitation to stay, they left, 
 quite indignant at their uncivil treatment. At the 
 next session of presbytery the attention of presbytery 
 was called to this incivility. The minister guilty of 
 this breach of the rules of hospitality prevailing in 
 the South found it necessary to make a humble apol- 
 ogy for his rudeness. He, however, never regained 
 the confidence of his brethren, and ere long found it 
 necessary to seek another and distant field of labor. 
 
 Mr. Woollcy wished to borrow money from a Mr. 
 Goodloe. Mr. John H. Brown, at the request of 
 Mr. AVoolley, agreed to become his security. Upon 
 reflection, Mr. Brown changed his opinion in regard 
 to becoming surety for Mr. Woolley, and instead of 
 going to Mr. Woolley and informing him that he 
 had reconsidered the matter and had reversed his 
 decision, he went to Mr. Goodloe and said to him, 
 "AYhen Mr. Woolley comes to you and asks to bor- 
 row money, I wish you would tell him that you 
 have no money to lend." Mr. Goodloe replied, " I 
 have the money to lend, and, sir, if a d d lie has 
 to be told you must tell it yourself." This affair 
 becoming known, Mr. Brown lost caste at once in the 
 community. 
 
 I knew of four grave elders in a northern church 
 who wished to accomplish a certain purpose which 
 they knew could only be attained by clandestine 
 means. They held a private meeting, and after a 
 full discussion of the matter, agreed upon a false
 
 364 TUPELO. 
 
 statement, to the principle underlying which at least 
 two of their number were sentimentally opposed. 
 
 At the next regular meeting of session, the one 
 designated as spokesman, in solemn tones and with a 
 sanctimonious air, made the statement agreed upon. 
 Upon the presumption of the truth of the statement 
 but one result could follow, and they secured the end 
 desired. Upon the discovery of the falsehood, one 
 of its perpetrators called upon the minister and said 
 he hoped that he would not take offense at what they 
 had done, as they had, at a private meeting, decided 
 that the course they had pursued was the best to be 
 taken under the circumstances. The minister re- 
 plied that they should have told the truth and have 
 given the real reasons which had led them to desire 
 the end they had secured by falsehood. 
 
 "Yes," he replied, "it would have been better. 
 I was opposed to the principle upon which the state- 
 ment was based. Yes, it would have been better to 
 have told the truth." 
 
 " Certainly it would, for you have led your minis- 
 ter to make unwittingly a false statement to the other 
 congregation in his pastoral charge, which, to estab- 
 lish his own veracity, he must publicly correct, and 
 must give his reasons for having been misled. This 
 will necessarily criminate you, and expose your du- 
 plicity. It was a sin of no small magnitude to 
 fabricate a falsehood, and, in your official capacity as 
 office-bearers in the church of Jesus Christ, deliber- 
 ately, and in accordance with your preconcerted
 
 TUPELO. 365 
 
 scheme announce it as the truth in order to accom- 
 plish an end really beyond the realm of your v juris- 
 diction, and thus determine a matter by no means 
 within your province to decide. It would have been 
 the part of true wisdom, even after you had taken 
 your seats as members of session, to have followed 
 the dictates of an enlightened conscience, and the 
 teachings of God's word, and to have uttered nothing 
 but truth, though with the certainty of failure to 
 accomplish your wicked and unhallowed purpose. 
 The end, even though right, which it was not in this 
 case, does not justify the use of such base, craven, 
 cowardly means." 
 
 This probably could not have occurred in the 
 South. Lying is not one of their vices. It is re- 
 garded as the act of a coward, who has not the prin- 
 ciples of a brave and true man. Their sins are open 
 before going to judgment. This probably could not 
 occur again in the North. It was probably an 
 anomalous case, without precedent or parallel. Four 
 church officers, who have been elected as overseers of 
 their brethren in spiritual things, conspiring together 
 to fabricate a falsehood and to palm it off upon their 
 unsuspecting minister as truth, is doubtless an act un- 
 paralleled in and unknown to the annals of any other 
 church North or South. 
 
 It might be well to state that the spokesman, 
 and probably the chief fabricator of the false state- 
 ment, was neither born nor bred in America, nor was 
 he brought up within the pale of the Presbyterian 
 church.
 
 36(3 TUPELO. 
 
 A custom which physicians tell me is as old as the 
 medical profession universally prevails both North 
 and South. Physicians are debarred by this custom, 
 which is of as strongly binding force as if it were a 
 statutory enactment, from making any charge for 
 medical services rendered to ministers of all denomi- 
 nations and their families, or to members of their 
 own profession. Physicians inform me that they have 
 never known this custom to be violated by any mem- 
 ber of the medical fraternity who is in good and 
 regular standing in his profession, and that were any 
 physician to violate this custom, suspicion would 
 attach to him at once. 
 
 When I speak of the Southern people as truthful 
 prior to the war, I affirm that this is still a trait of 
 their character, with this exception, they will defraud 
 the "negroes and scalawags" of a free ballot and fail- 
 count by fraud, violence, and perjury. They do not 
 attempt to conceal their conduct in this respect, de- 
 claring it to be a political necessity for the preserva- 
 tion of white supremacy. This they are determined 
 to enforce in the church, the school, and the state, 
 peaceably if they can, forcibly if they must. 
 
 During the war southern Unionists, to avoid per- 
 secution, would conceal their sentiments, sometimes 
 deeming it necessary to resort to deception in speech 
 and conduct to avoid imprisonment and death. 
 Guerrillas, Jeff Davis' "partisan warriors," when 
 arrested by Federal troops, would resort to every 
 kind of subterfuge and deception to escape the
 
 TUPELO. 367 
 
 penalty due their crimes. The course of Unionist 
 and secessionist was very much like that of the 
 English during the wars of the roses, as indi- 
 cated by a toast which used to be drank in those 
 days : 
 
 " God bless the faith, God bless the faith's defender, 
 God bless, no harm in blessing the pretender, 
 But which pretender, or \vhich king, 
 God bless us all, that's quite a different thing." 
 
 Gen L. Q. C. Lamar, of the rebel army, once said 
 to me, " The ten commandments are suspended dur- 
 ing the prevalence of war." This seemed to be a 
 true statement ; at all events the Southern Confederacy 
 ignored them all during its whole wicked existence. 
 " Inter arma leges silent " was its motto and practice, 
 both in regard to Divine and human laws, till God 
 in^his providence and wrath blotted out its name as a 
 nation from under heaven a justly merited doom. 
 
 The heroism of the loyal women of the South, in 
 their patient, uncomplaining endurance of persecu- 
 tion, often unto death, is deserving of lasting remem- 
 brance. They concealed their husbands, sons, 
 brothers, and lovers from the rage and malice of the 
 secessionists, in swamps, caverns, and mountain fast- 
 nesses, and at the risk of life carried them provisions 
 while in hiding. They toiled with their own hands 
 in the field to procure a support for themselves and 
 those dependent upon them. Many sleepless vigils 
 were endured by them while they and those dear to 
 them were every hour environed by fearful peril.
 
 368 TUPELO. 
 
 They possessed intense convictions. They were 
 women of faith and prayer, and they abounded in 
 good works. The remembrances of those righteous, 
 holy, and loyal women is blessed. 
 
 O, woman, great is thy faith. Jesus Christ. 
 
 A good woman is the loveliest flower that blooms under 
 heaven. Thackeray. 
 
 Ah ! me, beyond all power to name, those worthies tried and 
 
 true, 
 Brave men, fair women, youth and maid pass by in grand 
 
 review. Whittier. 
 
 Not she with traitorous kiss her Saviour stung, 
 Not she denied him with unholy tongue, 
 She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave, 
 Last at the cross and earliest at the grave. 
 
 Eead the fresh annals of our land : the gathering dust of time 
 Not yet has fallen on the scroll to dim the tale sublime ; 
 There woman's glory proudly shines, for willingly she gave 
 Her costliest oiferings to uphold the generous and the brave 
 Who fought her country's battles well ; and oft she periled 
 
 life 
 
 To save a father, brother, friend, in those dark years of strife. 
 Whatever strong-armed man hath wrought, whatever he hath 
 
 won, 
 That goal hath woman also reached, that action hath she done. 
 
 Ashley, Luzerne Co., Pa.
 
 TUPELO. 369 
 
 THE NORTH AND SOUTH CONTRASTED. 
 
 In the year of our Lord, 1 856, I listened to an 
 address pronounced by Col. Jefferson Davis, in Holly 
 Springs, Mississippi, in which he strongly and un- 
 equivocally avowed secession sentiments, and urged his 
 auditors to make due preparation for it, as it was an 
 event greatly to be desired and would be an accom- 
 plished fact in the near future, as .sure as fate. He 
 thus spoke: 
 
 " The people of the North and South are not hom- 
 ogeneous and thev never have been. From the first 
 
 f 
 
 the Union was an alliance between two peoples as 
 diverse in habits, manners and customs, and modes of 
 thought as in their climates and productions. The 
 South has always been restive under this bond. 
 There are strong contrasts between the character- 
 istics and idiosyncrasies of the people of each section. 
 These existed in the mother country. The chivalric 
 Norman Cavaliers settled the South. The Puritans 
 of Saxon origin, exiled and poverty stricken, settled 
 on the cold, rugged, bleak, and inhospitable shores of 
 New England. When I contemplate the hostility 
 of their descendants to our peculiar, patriarchal, popu- 
 lar, and truly beneficent institution an institution so 
 essential to southern prosperity, and the conservation 
 and development of a high type of civilization, I can 
 look with great leniency upon the persecution and 
 banishment by our ancestors of a people so super- 
 stitious, hypocritical, inappreciative, meddlesome, and 
 24
 
 370 TUPELO. 
 
 refractory. They brought the same spirit with them 
 to the new world. They envy us our superior civil- 
 ization and many advantages. The Norman and the 
 Saxon can never coalesce. They can never live un- 
 der the same government on terms of equality. The 
 Norman, by his ancestral traditions, by his intellect- 
 ual superiority and restless ambition, aspires to bear 
 rule and hold the reins of government. And this 
 consummation of his hopes and aims he eventually 
 secures. All history proves this. The Cavaliers 
 have always been the rulers. The Puritans the 
 ruled. There is no common bond of sympathy, no 
 affinity by which to cement the heterogeneous ele- 
 ments into homogeneity. Slavery gives us superiority 
 so patent that the world readily recognizes it. "When 
 our citizens travel abroad they are accorded honors 
 never bestowed upon Yankee travelers. Labor to 
 wring by the sweat of the face a bare subsistence out 
 of a barren glebe, leaves upon the features the in- 
 effaceable marks of their plebeian condition and origin. 
 I have seen them abroad aping the manners of the 
 refined end cultured Southron, and northern mud- 
 sills is the whispered comment of the courtly Euro- 
 pean, who cannot be deceived by the exhibition of the 
 stolen livery. The ass's ears protrude from the 
 lion's skin. 
 
 " They threaten war if we secede. We would have 
 secession, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must. 
 If they force war upon us because we spurn with 
 contempt governmental association with them, let
 
 TUPELO. 371 
 
 them come. AVe will welcome them with bloody 
 hands to hospitable graves. There is, however, no 
 necessity for any fear that the Yankees will attempt 
 to retain us by force in a Union which we will sever 
 whatever may be the consequences. I will volunteer 
 to shed all the blood from my own veins that will 
 be necessary to be shed because of the secession of 
 Mississippi from the Union. We have submitted 
 too long to Yankee insolence and domination. I 
 long to enjoy the sweets of liberty, and to see my 
 fellow-citizens of Mississippi in the enjoyment of 
 them. I was educated in the North and I regard it 
 as the greatest misfortune of my life. I fear that 
 during my sojourn there I adopted insensibly some 
 of their brusque manners and imbibed some of 
 the modes of thought of an inferior people. I think, 
 however, I have gotten quit of them, but it required 
 extraordinary and persistent effort to do so. I would 
 advise our people to patronize no longer teachers and 
 ministers from the North. They insidiously instill 
 sentiments hostile to southern interests. Their stu- 
 dents and parishioners are in peril so long as they are 
 under the mental and moral instruction of men born 
 and bred in the abolition states. Our slave-holding 
 population not subject to the necessity of manual labor 
 have all their time to devote to literary pursuits, to the 
 rites of hospitality, and to social and convivial pleasures 
 and recreations. This is impossible among a people 
 toiling for a livelihood, their minds engrossed with 
 the problems connected with the daily supply of their
 
 372 TUPELO. 
 
 physical necessities, taking thought in regard to what 
 they shall eat, what they shall drink, and wherewithal 
 they shall be clothed. Physical drudgery is their pre- 
 destined lot, and concomitant mental anxiety attending 
 it precludes the possibility of a high degree of culture 
 and refinement. The otium cum dignitate is found alone 
 in southern society. Slavery removes us far from 
 the untoward condition that militates against ad- 
 vanced thought. 
 
 " The slave, the serf, the peasant, the mudsills of 
 society, will always exist to toil and perform neces- 
 sary physical drudgery. Providence has so ordained 
 it, and has so constituted society. There are the 
 ruler and the ruled, the noble and the peasant, the 
 slave and his master, the employe" and the employer. 
 Those who toil and moil, and those who enjoy the 
 fruit of their labor. And we do not wish to rebel at 
 the allotments of Divine Providence. Providence 
 has been kind to us, and we must not surrender our 
 birthright. Cotton is king, and we must see to it 
 that he is not dethroned. We can rule the North 
 better out of the Union than in it. New England 
 avarice will bow the supple knee to our king. They 
 must have cotton. Subvert their manufacturing in- 
 terests and they perish. They will perforce become 
 tributary to us, and it will be a happy sight to be- 
 hold the Yankee cringing at our feet, supplicating us 
 for permission to live his insolence all gone, his 
 moral ideas radically changed, and his hostility to 
 slavery merged into professed love for our peculiar
 
 TUPELO. 373 
 
 institution. I am not a prophet, nor a prophet's son, 
 but I will venture the prediction that another decade 
 will not pass until all these things will be fulfilled. 
 Heaven speed the day of their complete consumma- 
 tion. Coming events cast their shadows before." 
 
 Pollard, the historian of The Lost Cause, thus 
 speaks of an address of President Davis upon there- 
 turn of the peace commissioners, Hunter, Campbell, 
 and Stevens : " He made a powerful and eloquent 
 address, but in parts of it he fell into weak and bom- 
 bastic speech, and betrayed that boastful characteris- 
 tic of almost all his oral utterances in the war. As 
 a writer, Mr. Davis is careful, meditative, and full of 
 dignity ; but as a speaker he is imprudent, and in 
 moments of passion he frequently blurts out what 
 first comes into his mind. On this occasion he was 
 boastful, almost to the point of grotcsqueness. He 
 declared that the march which Sherman was then 
 making would be his last, and would conduct him to 
 ruin. He predicted that before the summer solstice 
 fell upon the country it would be the Korth that 
 would be soliciting peace. He affirmed that the 
 military situation of the Confederacy was all that he 
 could desire, and drawing up his figure, and in tones 
 of scornful defiance heard to the remotest parts of the 
 building, he remarked that the Federal authorities 
 who had so complacently conferred with the com- 
 missioners of the Confederacy little knew that they 
 were talking to their masters." 
 
 O 
 
 A quotation from the same history will be perti-
 
 374 TUPELO. 
 
 nent: " Slavery is the most prominent cause of dis- 
 tinction between the civilizations or social autonomies 
 of North and South. In the ante-revolutionary 
 period the differences between the populations of the 
 northern and southern colonies had already been 
 strongly marked. The early colonists did not bear 
 with them, from the mother country to the shores of 
 the New World, any greater degree of congeniality 
 than existed among them at home. They had come, 
 not only from different stocks of population, but 
 from different feuds, in religion and politics. There 
 could be no congeniality between the Puritan exiles 
 who established themselves upon the cold, rugged, 
 and cheerless soil of New England, and the Cavaliers 
 who sought the brighter climate of the South, and 
 drank in their baronial halls in Virginia confusion 
 to round-heads and regicides. The intolerance of the 
 Puritan, the painful thrift of the northern colonists, 
 their external forms of piety, their lack of the seuti- 
 mentalism which makes up the half of modern civili- 
 zation, are traits of character visible in their descend- 
 ants. On the other hand, the colonists of Virginia 
 and the Carolinas were from the first distinguished 
 for their polite manners, their fine sentiments, their 
 attachment to a sort of feudal life, their landed gen- 
 try, their love of field sports and dangerous adventure, 
 and the prodigal and improvident aristocracy that 
 dispensed its stores in constant rounds of hospitality 
 and gaiety. Slavery established in the South a pecu- 
 liar and noble type of civilization. It was not with-
 
 TUPELO. 375 
 
 out attendant vices, but the virtues which followed 
 in its train were numerous and peculiar, and asserted 
 the general good effect of the institution on the ideas 
 and manners of the South. If habits of command 
 sometimes degenerated into cruelty and insolence, yet 
 in numerous instances they inculcated notions of 
 chivalry, polished the manners, and produced many 
 noble and generous virtues. If the relief of a large 
 class of whites from the demands of physical labor 
 gave occasion in some instances for idle and dissolute 
 lives, yet at the same time it afforded opportunity for 
 extraordinary culture, elevated the standards of 
 scholarship in the South, enlarged and emancipated 
 social intercourse, and established schools of individ- 
 ual refinement. The South had an element in its 
 society a landed gentry which the North envied, 
 and for which its substitute was a coarse, ostentatious 
 aristocracy, that smelt of the trade, and that, however 
 it cleansed itself and aped the elegance of the South, 
 could never entirely subdue a sneaking sense of its 
 own inferiority. The civilization of the North was 
 coarse and materialistic. That of the South was 
 scant of shows, but highly refined and sentimental. 
 The South was a vast agricultural country, waste 
 lands, forest, and swamps often gave to the eye a 
 dreary picture; there were no thick and intricate 
 nets of internal improvement to astonish and bewil- 
 der the traveler, no country picturesque with towns 
 and villages to please his vision. Northern men 
 ridiculed the apparent scantiness of the South, and
 
 376 TUPELO. 
 
 took it as an evidence of inferiority. But this was 
 the coarse judgment of the surface of things. The 
 agricultural pursuits of the South fixed its features, 
 and however it might decline in the scale of gross 
 prosperity, its people were trained in the highest 
 civilization, were models of manners for the whole 
 country, rivaled the sentimentalism of the oldest 
 countries of Europe, established the only schools of 
 honor in America, and presented a striking contrast 
 in their well-balanced character to the conceit and 
 giddiness of the Northern people. There is a singu- 
 larly bitter hate which is inseparable from a sense of 
 inferiority, and every close observer of northern soci- 
 ety has discovered how there lurked in every form of 
 hostility to the South, the conviction that the north- 
 ern man, however disguised with ostentation, was 
 coarse and inferior in comparison with the aristocracy 
 and chivalry of the South." 
 
 Pollard states, at the close of his history, that "the 
 Confederates have gone out of the war with the con- 
 sciousness that they were the better men" 
 
 Pollard also states that the people of the South 
 were reduced to terrible straits during the Avar. He 
 thinks the lowest degree of humiliation was reached 
 when delicate and refined ladies were compelled to 
 perform the drudgery of cooking for themselves and 
 their children to avoid starvation. The whole tenor 
 of southern teaching led to the prevalent belief that 
 manual or mental labor for pecuniary remuneration 
 was degrading. The degradation of labor was
 
 TUPELO. 377 
 
 dreaded by all classes and conditions of the whites. 
 The colored people were driven to it by the lash. 
 
 Manual labor was associated in the southern mind 
 with slavery. In the eleven seceded states forming 
 the Southern Confederacy there were but two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand slave-holders. The great 
 majority of the white population were non-slave- 
 holders. Social ostracism was rigorously enforced. 
 The poor whites were less esteemed by the rich than 
 the slaves. Many of the slaves were more intelli- 
 gent than they. Notably the house servants, who, 
 by their intimate association with their masters' fami- 
 lies, had gained a surprising amount of general infor- 
 mation. Many of them were mulattoes, quadroons, 
 and octoroons. They entertained a very low estimate 
 of the poor white, regarding him as much lower in 
 the scale of intelligence than themselves. The 
 cracker and the saudhiller were the objects of their 
 derision. They scorned association with them, and 
 often spoke of them and treated them with scorn and 
 contempt. A refrain to one of their popular songs 
 is brusque but expresses the truth : 
 
 " My name's Sam, I don't care a d n, 
 I'd rather be a nigger than a poor white man." 
 
 The cause of the poverty and illiteracy of the poor 
 whites of the South is easily accounted for by their 
 history and disabilities. Bancroft, the historian, 
 thus speaks of this class : 
 
 "A class of people dwell in the southern states 
 whose history and character have received less atten-
 
 378 TUPELO. 
 
 tion than they deserve. These people have been 
 properly called the poor whites of the South. The 
 original charter of King James, extending from 
 Florida to the present northern boundary of the 
 United States, was divided into two departments, 
 named North and South Virginia. They have ulti- 
 mately become the North and the South. The South 
 was originally colonized by the Norman clement, 
 then esteemed the English aristocracy, while the 
 North was chiefly peopled by the race termed the 
 Saxon, an equality and liberty loving people. The 
 South from the first sought to maintain high and low 
 classes ; the North equality. At a certain time the 
 English Government opened its prisons and poured 
 forth a flood of convicts upon the southern colonies. 
 At this period the aristocratic party, both in England 
 and America, was hostile to educating the lower 
 classes. 
 
 "Sir William Berkley, an early governor of Vir- 
 ginia, said, 'Every man instructs his children accord- 
 ing to his ability;' a method which left the ignorant 
 in hopeless blindness. The instinct of aristocracy 
 dreaded the general diffusion of intelligence, and even 
 the enfranchising influence of the ministers. ' The 
 ministers/ continued Sir William, ' should pray 
 oftener and preach' less. But I thank God there are 
 no free schools, no printing, and I hope we shall not 
 have them these hundred years, for learning has 
 brought disobedience, heresy, and sects into the world, 
 and printing has divulged them and libels against'
 
 TUPELO. 379 
 
 the best government. God keep us from both/ 
 Bancroft's Hist., Vol. II. The people of the South 
 now became permanently divided into an aristocracy 
 and the convict race of poor whites. The latter, for 
 the want of education, were disqualified to rise, and 
 sank deeper and deeper into wickedness and degrada- 
 tion, lost all spirit of enterprise and self-respect, and 
 became too indolent to seek fortunes or better their 
 condition. In the east they habited along the coasts of 
 North and South Carolina, and near large rivers, as the 
 Great Pedee, Yadkin, and Cape Fear, a climate that 
 favored their indolence. They lived on oysters, crabs, 
 and periwinkles, and had a strange habit of eating clay, 
 hen^e they were known by the name of clay-eaters. 
 A more substantial subsistence, however, was fur- 
 nished from half wild hogs and cattle. The former 
 of these subsisted in the woods upon roots and mast, 
 the latter upon browse and range. - To these may be 
 added the opossum, fattened upon wild grapes. 
 About the same time with the convicts, the negro 
 race was introduced intoihis country, which, from the 
 first, was held to be more respectable than the convict 
 race. The traveler, passing up the Pedee on the 
 early steamboats which navigated it, would be sur- 
 prised to see at night-fall fires lighted up along the 
 banks and on the neighboring hills. Upon en- 
 quiring he would be told that these were the encamp- 
 ments of the poor whites for the sake of shad fishing. 
 If he were a European, it would lead him to think 
 of the gypsies of his native country ; indeed they re-
 
 380 TUPELO. 
 
 sernble the gypsies. Their habits are migratory, 
 they own no real estate, and might, not inappropri- 
 ately, be called American gypsies. Their want of 
 enterprise and energy has been mentioned. To this, 
 however, there were exceptions. Many picked up 
 courage and beat back to the mountains. The famous 
 county of Buncombe was largely settled by poor 
 whites. Some of these were descendants of depreda- 
 tors and murderers who possessed great energy. The 
 spirit of violence continuing in the veins of some, 
 would reappear in future generations by the law of 
 heredity. Hence from the notorious Buncombe were 
 known to come many notorious characters, so that 
 any violent character in the settlement of the (Sosth- 
 west was commonly slanged with the epithet of 
 " Roarer from Bunkum," and in the same phra- 
 seology, a plucky deed was denominated "Bunkum." 
 Some of the most audacious thieves and bloody high- 
 waymen that ever infested the earth emigrated to the 
 
 South-west from the Pedee and Yaclkin. Such were 
 
 
 
 the Puebloes of East Tennessee, and the Harpes of 
 Kentucky. The majority of these people have not 
 the least tendency to acknowledge God or recognize 
 religion. In this they coincide with the gypsies, but 
 profanity uttered in the most trite and distasteful 
 oaths seemed to them a second nature. They practice 
 every vice and have but few virtues. Families of 
 the patrician 6rder, falling into decay, are compelled 
 by force of circumstances to migrate north or to unite 
 their destiny with this class. And many families of
 
 TUPELO. 381 
 
 poor but respectable people, being unable to educate 
 their children because of the expense attending it, 
 and manual labor being considered disgraceful, grad- 
 ually sink till they become blended with the poor 
 and vicious whites. Their aristocratic neighbors lend 
 no helping hand to enable them to avoid this catastro- 
 phe, and avert a fate worse than death. 
 
 In the ante helium days there was not a single free 
 school for the education of youth in the seven states 
 which afterward seceded and organized the Southern 
 Confederacy. The dominant class, the slave-holders, 
 numbered but a quarter of a million. This class ig- 
 nored the existence of the poor whites, except so far 
 as it was possible to use them, and they ruled with 
 rigor over the blacks, and wishing to extend their 
 domination they determined to rule or ruin the whole 
 United States of America. According to state law r s, 
 it was a criminal act to teach a slave to read. Al- 
 though there was no statutory enactment to prevent 
 the children of the poor whites from receiving in- 
 struction, they were debarred from even a rudiment- 
 ary education by their environment. Free schools 
 were unknown, the slave-holders controlled the 
 schools and rigorously excluded the children of the 
 poor. It seemed an utter impossibility for a child 
 belonging to the lower class to secure an education. 
 Senator McDuffie, of South Carolina, became the 
 patron of a poor white child, and gave him the ben- 
 efit of the schools. He learned rapidly and became 
 an eminent minister, known to the world as Rev.
 
 382 TUPELO. 
 
 Jas. H. Thorn well, D.D. Some ladies educated a 
 poor white boy who is known to fame as Hon. Alex- 
 ander Stephens. It is not for want of intellectuality, 
 but for lack of opportunity that the children of the 
 poor whites are ignorant. It seems strange that Dr. 
 Thornwell and Alexander Stephens should have be- 
 come champions of slavery, the institution guilty of 
 oppressing beyond measure the class to which they 
 belonged, and in which they would have remained had 
 it not been for the charity of individuals whose be- 
 nevolence in this line was a glorious exception to the 
 prevalent sentiment of the southern aristocracy. 
 
 I was principal of the high school connected with 
 the Princeton, Ind., graded schools. A number of 
 refugee children belonging to the poor white class of 
 the South attended these schools. They fully equaled 
 the other children in progress in their studies. After- 
 ward I was superintendent of the Cambridge City 
 and Leavenworth graded schools, in the same state, 
 and found many children of refugee families in attend- 
 ance. These children showed no intellectual inferior- 
 ity, but kept equal pace with the other children in 
 all their studies. The masses of the people in the 
 South were deprived of every privilege. They w r ere 
 kept in ignorance, that they might not know their 
 wrongs, and they were reduced to and kept in ex- 
 treme poverty by every possible device, that they 
 might not be able to rise superior to the degradation 
 which their environment had forced upon them. To 
 contemplate this bestial wretchedness, hopeless igno-
 
 TUPELO. 383 
 
 ranee, and forlorn condition, filled with joy the souls 
 of the aristocratic slave-holding oligarchy if it be 
 conceded that they were possessed of souis. 
 
 Slave-holders were bitterly opposed to the educa- 
 tion of the masses, and used every possible means to 
 prevent their acquiring even the ability to read and 
 write. They desired for their own caste a monopoly 
 of wealth, culture, and everything that rendered life 
 worth living. There were some glorious exceptions 
 to this view. Tishomingo county, in the north- 
 eastern corner of' Mississippi, contained many Scotch 
 and Scotch-Irish people. These people were anxious 
 to give their children a good education. There were 
 but few slaves in the county and the majority of the 
 people could not be induced to favor secession. A 
 Presbyterian minister, who became president of 
 Corona Female College, located in Corinth, Miss., 
 strove by tongue and pen to rouse the people of the 
 state to adopt measures looking to the education of 
 the masses. He delivered an address before the leg* 
 islature at Jackson, urging upon the legislators the 
 necessity of adopting a free school system for the 
 state, but his efforts were looked upon with disfavor 
 by the slave-holders ; some of his utterances had the 
 true ring and were well-nigh prophetic. This 
 divine, Rev. L. B. Gaston, published an article in the 
 Corona Wreath, a monthly periodical, edited by his 
 wife, Mrs. Susan B. Gaston, which I will copy. Its 
 earnest plea for the general diffusion of knowledge 
 among the people only rendered Mr. Gaston unpop-
 
 384 TUPELO. 
 
 ular, and failed of convincing men joined to their 
 idol slavery, that popular education was desirable. 
 This article was published in the July number in the 
 year 1858 : 
 
 " The idea of universal education is the grand cen- 
 tral idea of the age. But in this country no system, 
 however perfect, no enactments, however enlightened, 
 and no authority, however constituted, can attain to the 
 full accomplishment of their object, however praise- 
 Worthy and laudable, without the hearty and efficient 
 co-operation of public sentiment. These extracts are 
 taken from Randall's Common School System of New 
 York, and are placed at the head of our speculations 
 on the subject of education, as indicative of our feel- 
 ings and purposes in adopting it as a standing theme 
 for discussion and remark. It is even now apparent 
 that the current century will be noted in the pages of 
 history for the educational progress made by the hu- 
 man family, for the expansion given to the idea that 
 .knowledge is power; and for the device and estab- 
 lishment of a comprehensive system of popular in- 
 struction. In committing to record its memorable 
 events, it will be the future historian's task to trace 
 the rise of national dominion and grandeur to the 
 introduction of schools for the instruction of the 
 masses, and to contrast the conditions of those states 
 and kingdoms that adopted or rejected the policy. 
 With almost prophetic pen we can predict the attain- 
 ment of empire to the little kingdom of Prussia, 
 simply from a consideration of the vast moral and
 
 TUPELO. 385 
 
 intellectual power that is now growing up through 
 the medium of her common school system, which 
 was perfected in 1819. As the past history of the 
 world furnishes no parallel to such a case a people 
 universally educated in the best literature, science, art, 
 and religion that time has ever produced we know 
 not how to estimate the force, or calculate the action 
 of her pow r er ; but this generation will not pass away 
 before the 'national policy of Prussia will tell upon 
 the destinies of Europe. AVe have the light of all 
 past ages to show that a people trained or educated 
 to be of one mind and feeling are irresistible to all 
 surrounding nations not so taught or disciplined. 
 Numbers in this comparison are of minor conse- 
 quence. Mind has always governed matter, or mere 
 brute force, and so it ever will govern. Regarding 
 this as the order of nature, and looking to the condi- 
 tion and prospects of our own country, our feelings 
 are profoundly stirred with mingled emotion. In 
 one portion of it we find that education is fully 
 appreciated, and the means of dispensing it to all arc 
 judiciously applied. The Xorthhas always been dis- 
 tinguished for its attention to this great social inter- 
 est, but within the last thirty years it has made 
 advances that seem to border on perfection. By 
 means of public meetings, addresses, and lectures, 
 teachers' associations and institutes, governors' mes- 
 sages and superintendents' reports, the public mind 
 has become thoroughly imbued with the spirit of 
 education. The cities, towns, and populated country 
 25
 
 386 TUPELO. 
 
 have been meted out and districted for schools, with- 
 in a convenient distance from every man's dwelling, 
 and in some states the school-house door, like that of 
 the church, is thrown open and made free to all of a 
 schoolable age. These measures and appliances that 
 constitute the most powerful machinery for intellect- 
 ual elaboration and development are almost unknown 
 in the South. The work of education with them is 
 the movement of a spirit, with us it is the operation 
 of a simple sense of expediency. They have accu- 
 mulated means of knowledge, we are dependent. 
 
 " There you may see the evolution of the steam en- 
 gine in its thousand protean forms, of the steam 
 threshers, and diggers, and reapers, of the Cyclopean 
 gnomes that mould iron like wax, of the machines 
 that sew, weld, stamp, dovetail, bevel, shear, turn, 
 weigh, weave, spin, saw, veneer. . We are compar- 
 atively destitute of all these mechanical appliances 
 and powers. They have type foundries, book- 
 printing presses, authors, writers, publishers, and 
 other instrumentalities for producing and dispensing 
 knowledge of which we have scarcely any. They 
 furnish our school-books, our center table and library 
 books, and most of our current and periodical litera- 
 ture. They provide, prepare, and administer the 
 larger portion of our intellectual food, and God 
 never made a man, much less a people, to receive 
 sustenance without being subject to the sustainer. 
 While we, therefore, take pride in the North, as a 
 portion of our country, for the eminence to which it
 
 TUPELO. 387 
 
 has attained in the world of letters, and the glory to 
 which it is advancing, we cannot but view with sen- 
 sations of alarm the adverse bearing and threatening 
 tendency of its social organism upon the state and 
 well-being of the South. 
 
 " The difference of attention paid to the single mat- 
 ter of education by the two sections of the Union, 
 North and South, leads directly to the generation of 
 a strife between them, the most bitter and destructive 
 contests for power will inevitably grow out of un- 
 equal association. The wiser and more crafty por- 
 tion will strive to rule its less cultivated and capable 
 associate. To those who have the discernment to 
 perceive it, this is no longer a philosophical spec- 
 ulation; it is stubborn and grating fact. The North 
 already holds three of the four great reins of na- 
 tional control commerce, manufactures, and legisla- 
 tion. It would soon have the fourth, religion, had 
 not our southern politicians had sense enough (and 
 just about sense enough) to discover what was going 
 on, and by a sort of wild, vehement clamor, rouse the 
 whole nation to a feeling of the wrong meditated 
 against our political rights. It remained only for 
 our pulpit and religious press to become thoroughly 
 abolitionized for the North to have consummated its 
 purpose absolute ascendency. But the resistance 
 of the South, through its politicians, has brought a 
 healthier religious sentiment, and a reaction favor- 
 able to it is taking place in our own country and 
 throughout the world. But this advantage is of
 
 388 TUPELO. 
 
 small moment, and will soon pass away, if not hus- 
 banded and vigorously improved by a direct resort 
 to fundamental considerations. Our stumping pol- 
 iticians as a class are very ordinary men, and as pub- 
 lic teachers are exceedingly unreliable. Generally 
 the braggart and buffoon is more than a match for 
 the sober, earnest, sound reasoner before the people. 
 The rank of competition for office is deteriorating 
 and becoming less gifted in almost every canvass. 
 The great lights of former days have expired, and 
 we have no successors to Hayne, Crawford, Calhoun, 
 Randolph, Clay, Benton, and Jackson to lift up and 
 bear onward the banner of the South. In legisla- 
 tion and governmental policy we can no longer cope 
 with the North. Unrestrained by constitutions and 
 unchecked by master minds, they, will use us at dis- 
 cretion, and our wisdom will be to bear it. Revolt, 
 secession, or revolution will be worse than madness ; 
 for we can build no Chinese wall high and strong 
 enough to bar the intercourse or intrusion of neigh- 
 bors wiser than we are. We are doomed to degra- 
 dation low, if we do not change materially the present 
 aspect of things. 
 
 "And let us pause to consider what there is innate 
 in man or people to produce such disparity of prog- 
 ress and power. Why are they our masters? Why 
 can they control our labor, dictate our opinions, 
 agitate our passions, and lull us into quiescence as 
 they choose? 
 
 " Is it because they are naturally our superiors in
 
 TUPELO. 389 
 
 whatever advances man over his fellow-man? Has 
 our Yankee brother a clearer head, a sounder heart, 
 and a bigger soul than a southern born? Does he 
 grow up on a more fruitful soil, under a more genial 
 sun, or in a wider field for the expansion of mind 
 and the cultivation of genius? Can we believe that 
 the people who generate and mature such moral mon- 
 strosities as Millerism, Mormonism, Free-loveism, 
 Spiritism, Beecherism, women's rights conventions, 
 etc., etc., are the people that Heaven has ordained to 
 be our rulers? Eternal Justice forbid it. And yet 
 we are the strong man shorn and bound the Phil- 
 istines are upon us. Why is it so? What is it? 
 We demand, what is it that makes the difference be- 
 tween the North and South. It is simply education. 
 Would that we had a hundred tongues and iron voice 
 to proclaim it till every southern ear should hear it 
 in notes of startling thunder. We are overmatched. 
 We are subdued, and from this thrallclom there is no 
 escape by human means, but by the redeeming pro- 
 cess of universal education. To have the work par- 
 tially done one class taught and another neglected 
 is only aggravating the evils of our condition. It is 
 quickening the body politic to feel the miseries of its 
 situation, without imparting the ability to obtain re- 
 lief. We must begin at the foundation if we would 
 elevate the superstructure. We must make capable 
 voters if we would have able representatives. We 
 must be respectable at home if we would command 
 respect abroad. And we must be powerful in intel- 
 lect if we would prevail in counsel.
 
 390 TUPELO. 
 
 " We have thus opened up a subject which we ex- 
 pect to present in some form or other in every fol- 
 lowing number of this periodical. Its intrinsic 
 merits are sufficient to entitle it to all the considera- 
 tion we are able to bestow upon it. But we 
 adduce directly the plain, practical reason that ad- 
 dresses every southern man's and every national 
 patriot's heart the equalization of the different 
 parts of the Union for the integrity and well- 
 being of the whole that we may secure attention to 
 the subject. We enter a field of discussion to which 
 we see no well-defined limits. The race of man is 
 nearly six thousand years old, and yet the question, 
 What is education proper? has never been settled. 
 Perhaps it cannot be arbitrarily determined, but as 
 an appliance it must be modified and adapted to the 
 various characters and conditions of men. But be 
 that as it may be, it is with us an open question. 
 What is education pro per for us'l By what scheme 
 shall we enlist the teaching talent and subject to 
 discipline the teachable mind of the South? To 
 this investigation we hope to call forth many a com- 
 petent assistant. We hope to see it occupy a prom- 
 inent place in the newspapers of the state, and to be- 
 come a common theme for discussion by candidates 
 before the people. By so doing we hope to prepare 
 the way for our next legislature to take hold of the 
 subject of popular instruction and turn to good ac- 
 count the vast resources at our command for support- 
 ing a system of schools that may embrace all classes
 
 TUPELO. 391 
 
 and conditions of society. AVe have the materials 
 and means for rearing up the most cultivated, accom- 
 plished, refined, polished, and powerful population 
 on earth, for we have a strictly laboring class in the 
 producing and sustaining avocations of life. We 
 could have a most capable operative and managing 
 class, and then a class exempt from manual labor, 
 which by proper mental culture and application 
 would become the glory and defence of the South, 
 and command the respect and admiration of the world. 
 Let there be light." 
 
 The wealthy class in the South were not possessed 
 of a high degree of culture. They were much in- 
 ferior to the educated class in the North. They re- 
 ceived their education in northern colleges and 
 seminaries, or of teachers of northern birth and 
 education who had gone south to pursue their voca- 
 tion. Spending life in a ceaseless round of hilarious 
 social enjoyments and pleasures, and often in dissi- 
 pation and vicious associations, was not conducive of 
 a high degree of mental culture. It was a lady of 
 wealth and high social position who informed me 
 that she very much feared that there would soon be a 
 resurrection of the negroes. It was a company of 
 aristocratic slave-holders who, upon organizing them- 
 selves into the Silver Gray Home Guards, in Jan., 
 1861, adopted this as one of the articles of their con- 
 stitution: "Section 2, Art. 3. We will not leave the 
 state of Mississippi unless it be invaded.'' 7 It was a 
 physician of high standing who informed me that
 
 392 TUPELO 
 
 Gen. Albert Sidney Johnson had been killed in the 
 battle of Shiloh. He averred that the femoral artery 
 had been severed below the knee and that this caused 
 hemorrhage which resulted in death. 
 
 Servile insurrections were constantly feared, es- 
 pecially by the female portion of the population. I 
 lodged a few days at the house of Dr. Dunlap, 
 near Holly Springs. Mrs. Dunlap informed me 
 that she noticed a large gathering of their colored 
 people at one of the cabins. Wishing to learn the 
 cause, she slipped round to the back window unob- 
 served, as the night was dark, to play the role of an 
 eavesdropper. A well-dressed burly African, in an 
 earnest tone, was haranguing them after this manner : 
 " I tells you, ladies an' gentlemen, we's all gwine to 
 be free before long. We's all going to enjoy liberty, 
 nios' right away. We won't be slaves no longer an' 
 be whipped an' cuffed by de white folks." " How 
 duz you know all dat ? " said White Jim, an octo- 
 roon. " Why didn't I hear massa Jeff Davis say 
 so. I done drove him out in de carriage to dat 
 stan' where he 'dressed de people to-day, an' I hed 
 to wait to bring him back. From what he said de 
 people of de Norf is comin' down to set us free an' 
 dey'll jes mow dese southern people down as dey 
 mows de grass. An' he said de northern people be- 
 lieved in negro 'quality, dat de white folks up dar 
 wuz willing to marry our daughters an' let us marry 
 theirn. Jes be ready, as the hime sez, your redemp- 
 tion draweth nigh." The doctor, as soon as I in-
 
 TUPELO. 393 
 
 formed him of what was going on, went out with a 
 whip and drove off this orator whose incendiary speech 
 had a tendency to incite servile insurrection. He 
 ought to have tied him up and given him five hundred 
 lashes." 
 
 In 1856 one slave murdered another. Judge 
 Scroggs, of Holly Springs, inserted a card in the pa- 
 pers asking for information, as he could not find any 
 law to meet the case. Afterward he published a 
 card, stating that as there was no law to punish one 
 slave for the murder of another, he had ordered that 
 the culprit receive three hundred lashes, and had 
 sent him home to his master. A physician in Lex- 
 ington, Ky., forcibly violated the person of a female 
 patient an octoroon. A moot court was held by the 
 young lawyers of the city, who tried the physician, 
 and the jury impaneled for the occasion condemned 
 him to pay for the oysters. This woman was mar- 
 ried, and suifered severe mental anguish because of 
 the crime committed against her virtue, but she could 
 obtain no redress. A planter living in Fayette 
 county, Ky., murdered his wife because she truth- 
 fully accused him of infidelity to his marriage vows. 
 The murder was witnessed by forty of his slaves, two of 
 whom were severely wounded trying to save the life 
 of their mistress. The murderer was arrested, tried, 
 and acquitted for lack of testimony, slaves being in- 
 competent by southern law to give testimony in a 
 court of justice. But retributive justice overtook 
 this man a few months after his acquittal. He died at 
 the hands of his brother-in-law.
 
 394 TUPELO. 
 
 In the Mississippi bottoms and in mountainous 
 districts, in the everglades of Florida and places not 
 easily accessible, large numbers of maroons make 
 their homes. Here they live in comparative security 
 and raise families. The maroons prefer death to 
 slavery. They have bludgeons with sharp knife 
 blades deftly inserted in the heavy end of them, and 
 woe to the hound that comes within their reach. 
 Those who live upon the mountains are properly 
 called cimaroons. They are very adroit in evading 
 capture, and should they be captured they will in- 
 duce other slaves to escape with them and become 
 cliff-dwellers and troglodytes amid the fastnesses of 
 the mountains, or they will make their home on some 
 hummock near a lagoon, whose shores are embowered 
 by the evergreen cypress, the long-leafed pine, the 
 trailing vine, and the pendent moss. By the aid of 
 the friendly lagoon or bayou they can evade the 
 sleuth-hound, and the fish which abound are readily 
 taken in their skillfully woven nets. By the aid of 
 traps they feast upon wild turkeys, opossums, wild 
 pigeons, and every variety of game. Without the 
 aid of guns the wild deer becomes a victim of their 
 skillfully constructed snares. From a noxious plant 
 indigenous to southern swamps, they manufacture a 
 subtle poison in which they saturate meat and place 
 it near the kennels of hounds. The poison is nearly 
 inodorous and insipid. It is sure death to all ani- 
 mals born blind. The maroons call it " stagger 
 pizen," because the poisoned animal staggers as if in-
 
 TUPELO. 395 
 
 toxicated till almost the last moment of its existence. 
 When pursued by hounds, pieces of meat saturated 
 with this poisonous decoction are thrown on his track 
 by the fugitive as he flies; the hounds devour it with 
 avidity. It is a very active poison. Its fatal effects 
 are speedily developed, and as there is no known anti- 
 dote the hounds soon die in convulsive agony. Thus 
 many a poor hunted fugitive has been saved from a 
 cruel death, or the infliction of a terrible flagellation 
 with the loss of dear but precarious liberty, at appar- 
 ently the last moment, even when the hounds were 
 within a mile of their victim. Thus proving the 
 truth of the adage, " Man's extremity is God's oppor- 
 tunity." 
 
 St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 THE SOUTHERN BARBECUE. 
 
 Twenty-four hours before the feast is to be served 
 the preparations are under way. Seventy-two South- 
 down sheep have been slaughtered and suspended 
 in undivided carcasses. Twenty-five shoats bear the 
 mutton company. While the butchers are doing their 
 work, a gang of darkeys, whose shovels fly as if it 
 was a labor of love, have excavated three trenches, 
 sixty feet long, three and a half feet wide, and four 
 feet deep. They are side by side, clean cut through 
 sod and clay, and if a surveyor had gone over them 
 he could not have found fault with the symmetry. 
 Then the wood is hauled. It is only the best seasoned 
 hickory which goes into the pits, and cord after cord
 
 396 TUPELO. 
 
 is piled in, until there is an amount which would 
 stock a wood yard in a northern city. Stick after 
 stick is laid on until the wood rises above the surface. 
 Coal oil is brought and poured on the wood. Then 
 fire is applied in a dozen places and the contents of 
 the trenches blaze from end to end. From midnight 
 till daylight the smoke and flames and the trenches 
 are not approachable. It is Gehenna in miniature. 
 At five o'clock the contents have settled down to a 
 bed of coals a foot thick, from which arises a fervent 
 heat. In the waiting hours the spits, long, smooth- 
 shaven poles of hickory, have been made ready, and 
 in pairs have been run through the carcasses length- 
 wise. They form stretchers, and as they rest on sup- 
 porters the sheep or shoat is stretched out flat. 
 Grasping these hickory poles the darkies, one at each 
 end, carry the carcasses and lay them over the trenches, 
 the spits holding them in position. Over the intense 
 heat, the surface flesh begins to sputter and fly, and 
 then ensues a lively scene. To prevent scorch ing the 
 carcasses have to be turned over every ten minutes, 
 and the attendants fairly rushed along the sides of 
 the trenches grasping and flopping over the roasting 
 pork and mutton. At one end of. the pits is a great 
 cauldron, where the seasoning, salt and pepper and 
 other condiments, is mixed in water and boiled. This 
 compound is dipped out in buckets, and men go from 
 carcass to carcass with great swabbing cloths tied on 
 sticks. In this way they apply the seasoning. As 
 the embers drop lower the heat becomes less intense,
 
 TUPELO. 397 
 
 and the barbecuing goes on more soberly. Occasionally 
 a little water is thrown on the coals, and steam relieves 
 the cooking of too much dryness, but the basting goes 
 on unceasingly. In ordinary times Uncle Jake Hos- 
 tetter may be an humble citizen in Lexington. Now, 
 as master of the barbecuing, he rules supreme in the 
 cooking lot, for the trenches are enclosed by a tight 
 board fence, and it requires some persuasion to get 
 past the guards. There are only a few favored per- 
 sons within. The thousands who sniff the odors, and 
 look longingly toward the incense arising from the 
 fires, are wandering through the park wondering when 
 dinner will be ready. The master of the barbecue 
 moves among the trenches and his word is law. He 
 served his apprenticeship away back when presidents 
 came to these Kentucky festivities. Barbecues have 
 not been so frequent of late years. But Uncle Jake 
 feels safe in his experience, and he shows no uneasi- 
 ness over the fact that 5,000 people are holding him 
 responsible for their dinners, and some of them have 
 gone breakfastless to stimulate appetite. Now and 
 then two of the cooking corps bring up from the 
 trenches to the table under the big tree a carcass to 
 inspect. He cuts into it, slices off bits of the flesh, 
 tastes, and looks knowing. Even the president of the 
 day, Hon. -AV. C. P. Breckenridge, recognizes the 
 authority. The speaking has commenced from a 
 stand in the park, and somebody wants to know when 
 the orators are going to stop for dinner. " Just when 
 Uncle Jake Hostetter says the mutton is done to a
 
 398 TUPELO. 
 
 turn," replies Mr. Breckenridge, and another states- 
 man is let loose to say a great many pretty compli- 
 ments about Kentucky, and a very few words about 
 national politics. 
 
 The Blue Grass country has contributed to this 
 occasion three great caldrons. Whatever useful pur- 
 pose they may have subserved about hog killing time, 
 they are now doing duty in the manufacture of 900 
 gallons of burgoo. Burgoo has a basis, as the 
 chemist says. The basis on this occasion consists of 
 150 chickens and 225 pounds of beef in joints, and 
 other forms best suited for soup. To this has been 
 added a bushel or two of tomatoes. The heap of 
 shaven roasting ears tells of another accessory before 
 the fact. Cabbage and potatoes and probably other 
 things in small quantities, but too numerous to men- 
 tion, have gone into the pots. The fires were lighted 
 under the vats before the roasting commenced on the 
 trenches, and the burgoo has been steadily boiling 
 ever since. This boiling necessitates steady stirring, 
 and next to Uncle Jake's ministerial powers the old 
 expert who presides over each kettle conies in for due 
 respect and glorification. " You might not think it/' 
 says the old grey-headed Kentuckian whose eye is 
 on the largest of the pots where 500 gallons of bur- 
 goo are bubbling, "but a piece of mutton suet as 
 large as my hand thrown into the pot would spoil 
 the whole mess. That shows you that there are 
 somethings you can't put in burgoo. Sometimes out 
 in the woods we put in squirrels and turkeys, but we
 
 TUPELO. 399 
 
 didn't have any this time. I think they've got a 
 leetle too much pepper in that pot down there, so if 
 you don't find what you get is just right come to me 
 and I'll fix you up with some of this." As the meat 
 boils from the bones the latter are raised from the 
 bottom of the kettle by the paddle and thrown out. 
 Gradually vegetables lose all distinctive form and 
 appearance, and the compound is reduced to a homo- 
 geneous liquid, about the consistency of molasses. 
 "Burgoo ought to boil about 14 hours," says the old 
 expert, " we've only had about 8 for this, but I think 
 they'll be able to eat it." 
 
 Gradually the heap of barbecued meat accumulates 
 before Uncle Jake. He goes over and looks at the 
 burgoo, and consults with the old expert. Then he 
 glances over the fence at the long tables, and finds 
 that two wagon loads of bread have been hewn into 
 rations and strewn along the pine boards. The 
 tin cups, 3,000 of them, are hurriedly scattered with 
 the bread. From all parts of the grounds there is a 
 sudden but decorous movement toward the tables, 
 and the orator on tap runs off a peroration and stops. 
 Uncle Jake's corps of assistants bring out the carcasses 
 still on the stretchers, and every rod of table length 
 finds a smoking sheep and a shoat. Gus Jaubert and 
 a dozen butchers, with their long, sharp knives, shave 
 and cut and deal out with all the speed that long 
 practice has given them. The burgoo, steaming hot 
 in new wooden buckets, is brought in, and as the 
 attendants pass along the lines the hungry people dip
 
 400 TUPELO. 
 
 out cupfuls and sip it as it cools. There are no knives 
 nor forks. Nobody asks for or expects them. 
 Neither are there spoons for the burgoo. The great 
 slices of bread serve as plates for the meat. There 
 are 5,000 people eating together, and all busy at once. 
 Not a basket has been brought. All types and classes 
 of Blue Grass people are facing those tables, and 
 handling their bread and meat and burgoo with mani- 
 festations of appetite which tell of the relish of the 
 fare. Finally, nothing but skeletons remain of the 
 sheep and shoats, and the tables are swept. Uncle 
 Jake moves among the throng, and men like Senator 
 Beck and Gov. Blackburn and Gen. Wm. Preston 
 shake his hand, and tell him he has eclipsed his 
 former efforts. It is the proud happy hour of Uncle 
 Jacob's life. He is the hero of the hour. Don 
 Piatt and several other reporters were present taking 
 notes of this wonderful institution, the southern bar- 
 becue, and graphic reports find their way to the 
 northern papers. The southerner, notably the Ken- 
 tuckian, regards the man's life a failure who has not 
 attended a barbecue. 
 
 Winchester, Clark Co., Ky. 
 
 I preached the following sermon just before uiy 
 successful attempt to escape from prison. I supposed 
 that it would probably be the last sermon I should 
 ever preach on earth, as the chances for escape seemed 
 very slender :
 
 TUPELO. 401 
 
 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 The text was 2 Cor. v. 10 : "We must all appear 
 before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one 
 may receive the things done in his body, according 
 to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 
 
 The doctrine of a general judgment was revealed 
 to mankind at a very early period of the world's 
 history. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophe- 
 sied, saying, "Behold the Lord cometh with ten 
 thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, 
 and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all 
 the ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, 
 and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners 
 have spoken against him." Job declares: "I know 
 that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at 
 the latter day upon the earth." Daniel also speaks 
 of a general judgment: "I beheld till the thrones 
 were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, 
 whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of 
 his head like the pure wool ; his throne was like 
 the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A 
 fiery stream issued and came forth from before him ; 
 thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten 
 thousand times ten thousand stood before him : the 
 judgment was set, and the books were opened." 
 The New Testament is also explicit in its declara- 
 tions that God hath appointed a day in which he will 
 judge the world in righteousness by that man whom 
 he hath ordained. The text declares that we must 
 all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. 
 26
 
 402 TUPELO. 
 
 The scenes which will usher in the judgment of 
 the great day will be of the most magnificent character. 
 "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, 
 and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the 
 earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be 
 burned up." This does not indicate annihilation. 
 God will never annihilate any of his creatures, ani- 
 mate or inanimate. 
 
 The inquiry is often made, what becomes of the 
 soul after death, and where does it await the general 
 judgment? A sect called the Soul-sleepers take the 
 position that the soul, after death, goes into a torpid 
 state, like bears in winter, and thus remains till the 
 sounding of the Archangel's trump. There is no 
 scripture to sustain this view, and it is only assumed, 
 to avoid the objection that God would not judge a 
 soul, and send it to reward or punishment, and then 
 bring it back, to be again judged. That the soul, at 
 death, passes immediately into glory or torment, is 
 proved by many scriptures. Paul "desired to de- 
 part, and be with Christ, which was far better," than 
 remaining on earth. He declares that to be present 
 with the body, is to be absent from the Lord. The 
 dying Stephen calls upon the Lord Jesus to receive 
 his spirit. These holy men would not thus have 
 spoken, if they supposed that ages must elapse ere 
 they entered heaven. God is not the God of the dead 
 or torpid, but of the living. Moses and Elias ap- 
 peared on the mount of transfiguration in a state far 
 from torpidity. The dying thief received the prom-
 
 TUPELO. 403 
 
 ise, " This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." 
 No mention is made of purgatory or torpidity. The 
 objector urges that paradise is not heaven. We are 
 told that the river of life flows from the throne of 
 God, that the tree of life grows on both sides of the 
 river, and that the tree of life grows in the midst of 
 the paradise of God. The paradise of God is where 
 he is seated on his throne, which is heaven. Para- 
 dise is where Christ is. The thief would be with 
 Christ in paradise. He who regards the Lord Jesus 
 as the Chief among ten thousand, the One altogether 
 lovely, will deem his presence heaven indeed. As 
 to the wicked, it is said of the rich man, that in hell 
 he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. If, after 
 being judged, the souls of believers do pass immedi- 
 ately into glory, and the wicked into torment, what 
 use is there of another or general judgment. I reply, 
 we are responsible not only for our acts, but for the 
 influence which those acts exert through all time. 
 Gibbon, Hume, Rousseau, Paine, and other infidel 
 writers wrote works which, during the life of the 
 authors, did great evil. If those wicked men passed 
 away from earth impenitent, they are now suffering 
 the vengeance of eternal fire. But the influence for 
 evil of those wicked works did not cease with the 
 death of their authors. Thousands of young men 
 every year are led into pernicious and hurtful errors 
 by their perusal. At the general judgment the ac- 
 cumulated guilt for the baleful influence exerted 
 through their writings in all time will sink them
 
 404 TUPELO 
 
 deeper in the flames of perdition. The sainted Alex- 
 ander and other pious men who are now in heaven 
 wrote many works whose influence for good was 
 great while their authors lived, and since their death 
 they are, and will continue to be, instrumental in the 
 hand of God in turning many to righteousness. All 
 the good accomplished by their writings through all 
 time, will, at the judgment, add to their exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory. 
 
 In this life, we often see the righteous man con- 
 tending with life's unnumbered woes ; all the dealings 
 of Providence seem to be adverse. While the wicked 
 are in great power they flourish in life like the green 
 bay-tree, and have no bands in their death. These 
 things are strange and mysterious.- We understand 
 them not now, but we shall learn in that great day 
 when all mysteries are made plain that God's dealings 
 were just, both with the righteous and the wicked. 
 
 The text declares that we must all appear before 
 the judgment seat of Christ. This we includes all 
 who are now within the sound of my voice, and not 
 only us, but all who live upon the face of the earth ; 
 and the Archangel's trump will wake the pale nations 
 of the dead and summon them to judgment. The 
 dark domain of hell will be vacated, and the angels 
 that kept not their first estate and are now reserved 
 in chains of darkness will appear in the presence of 
 the Judge. Heaven's holy inhabitants will be present. 
 Thus heaven, earth, and hell will be represented in 
 that august assemblage. This scene will bear some
 
 TUPELO. - 405 
 
 resemblance to that which takes place in our earthly 
 courts. The Lord Jesus Christ will be the Judge, 
 and the angels and saints will be the jurors, who will 
 consent to and approve of the acts of the Judge. 
 The angels will be the officers who will summon from 
 the prison-house of hell the devils to the trial, and 
 also those wicked men who will call upon the rocks 
 and mountains to fall upon them to hide them from 
 the face of the Lamb. Nor, as is so often the case 
 with earthly officers, will any be able to elude the 
 vigilance of these. They will be clothed with ample 
 power to compel the attendance of all ; none will 
 escape. We must all appear before the judgment 
 seat. As in earthly courts, law is the basis of judg- 
 ment, so we shall be judged according to law in that 
 day. The heathen will be judged by the law of na- 
 ture the law written in their hearts and on their 
 consciences. The light of nature teaches the being, 
 wisdom, power, and goodness of God. For a viola- 
 tion of this law they will be beaten with few stripes. 
 The Jews will t>e judged by both the law of nature, 
 which they have in common with the heathen, and 
 the Mosaic law. But we who live in the nineteenth 
 century, in the full blaze of gospel light, will be 
 judged not only by the light of nature and the Mo- 
 saic law, winch we possess in common with the 
 heathen and the Jew, but also by the glorious gospel 
 of the Son of God, which brought life and immor- 
 tality to light ; and if condemned, how fearful our 
 doom, who are so highly favored ! In earthly courts.
 
 406 TUPELO. 
 
 we are judged for our overt acts alone, but in the 
 court of heaven the commandment is exceeding broad ; 
 it reaches every thought. Our words, too, are taken 
 into account. We must give an account for every 
 idle word. By our words we shall be justified, and 
 by our words we shall be condemned. Our thoughts, 
 our words, our deeds will all be taken into account. 
 
 As in our courts there are witnesses, so also there 
 will be at the bar of God. Our pious relatives and 
 friends will bear this testimony, that they have prayed 
 with us and for us ; that they had a deep concern for 
 our souls, and that we who are found on the left hand 
 of the Judge, refused all their counsel, and despised 
 their admonitions. Ministers of the gospel will 
 testify that they came as ambassadors from the King 
 of kings, and beseeching you, in Christ's stead, to be 
 reconciled to God, pointing to the coming wrath, and 
 warning you from that wrath to flee; and yet their 
 labor of love ye despised, and scorned the message 
 from on high. The Bible will be a witness against 
 you. Its teachings are able to make wise unto salva- 
 tion. It is the chart which is given to guide us 
 through this wilderness-world, to fairer worlds on 
 high. It tells of the Lamb of God, who taketh 
 away the sin of the world. It is truth without any 
 mixture of error, and yet you have despised this 
 necessary revelation, and chosen to perish, with the 
 Word of Life open before you. God, the Father, 
 will be a swift witness against you. In the greatness 
 of His love for you, in the counsels of eternity, He
 
 TUPELO. 407 
 
 devised the plan of salvation, and sent His only be- 
 gotten Son to suffer and die, that you might live, and 
 yet you have despised that love, and rejected that 
 Saviour. God, the Son, will bear this testimony, 
 that He came from the shining abodes of glory,, 
 where seraphim and cherubim fell prostrate at His 
 feet, in humble adoration, and emptying Himself of 
 His glory, bore all the ills of life the persecutions, 
 of wicked men, and the accursed death of the cross, 
 that salvation might be yours, and yet ye refused it,, 
 and trod the blood of the Son of God under foot, and 
 put Him to an open shame. The Holy Spirit, the 
 Third Person of the adorable Trinity, will bear wit- 
 ness that He often knocked at the door of your hearts 
 for admittance; that He wooed you to embrace His 
 love, offering to abide with you forever, and yet you 
 rejected the offer, and did despite to the Spirit of 
 Grace, till, in sorrow, He took His everlasting flight. 
 The devil is now going about as a roaring lion, 
 seeking whom he may devour. And sometimes trans- 
 forming himself into an angel of light, he is tempt- 
 ing you to sin, by presenting before your minds the 
 superior charms of the riches and pleasures of earth, 
 to things that are unseen and eternal. He has no 
 power to compel you to sin. His evil suggestions 
 are whispered in your oft too willing ears, and then 
 it remains with you to accept or reject. He has no 
 power of compulsion. Your sin must be an act of 
 your own will, or it is not sin. When you consent 
 to the wiles of this arch enemy, and sin against God,
 
 408 TUPELO. 
 
 remember that with eager desire and base ingratitude 
 he will fiercely accuse in the great day of God 
 Almighty, and urge these very sins of his suggestion 
 as a reason that he should have you to torment you 
 forever in the bottomless pit. 
 
 That internal monitor, that light which enlightens 
 every man that cometh into the world the moral 
 sense, or conscience will be a swift witness against 
 you. By it you have been enlightened and warned ; 
 and in the case of many who have denied a future 
 state of punishment, the goadings of remorse have 
 convinced them that there is a hell, the kindlings of 
 whose fires they have felt in their own bosoms. 
 Conscience will compel you to confess that your doom 
 is just, though forever debarred from the joys and 
 happiness of heaven. O ! my fellow-prisoners and 
 travelers to the bar of God, listen to her warning 
 voice to-day, before it be too late, and you are com- 
 pelled mournfully to exclaim, " The harvest is past, 
 the. summer is ended, and I am not saved!" The 
 conscience of the sinner will be compelled to admit 
 the truth of the testimony. In earthly courts, often- 
 times witnesses are suborned, and their testimony 
 false. Not so at the grand assize. Not a scrap of 
 false testimony will be admitted. The evidence will 
 be in truth, and the judgment in righteousness. 
 
 After all these scenes have occurred, the Judge will 
 render a verdict, and pronounce the sentence, which 
 will be irreversible and eternal. With regard to the 
 righteous, though they have been guilty of many sins,
 
 TUPELO. 409 
 
 both of omission and commission, and have no merits 
 of their own to plead, and consider themselves justly- 
 obnoxious to eternal banishment, their Advocate, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, in whom, while in the flesh, they 
 exercised a true and living faith, will now present 
 them, clad in the white robes of His perfect righteous- 
 ness, faultless before His Father, and they will ,now 
 hear the welcome plaudit, "Come, ye blessed, inherit 
 the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
 the world." But those on the left hand, who all 
 their life rejected the mercy offered the great salva- 
 tion proffered without money and without price 
 will now hear the dread sentence, "Depart, ye cursed, 
 into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
 angels ! " 
 
 O my dear, impenitent fellow-prisoners ! how can 
 ye take up your abode, your eternal abode, in ever- 
 lasting burnings? How can ye dwell with devour- 
 ing fire? How can ye endure everlasting destruction 
 from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His 
 power, shut up forever in the fearful pit out of which 
 there is no egress except for the vision of the damned, 
 and the smoke of its torment? Be wise to-day, 'tis 
 madness to defer. Procrastination is the thief of 
 time. Delay is fraught with awful danger. Trust 
 not in promisjes of future amendment. The way to 
 hell is paved with good resolutions, which are never 
 kept. The future convenient season never arrives. 
 Like Felix, we may tremble when the minister reasons 
 of a judgment to come; and like Agrippa, we may
 
 410 TUPELO. 
 
 be almost persuaded to be Christians, and yet come 
 short of the gloiy'of God through procrastination. 
 Procrastination has populated hell. All the doomed 
 and damned from Christian lands are victims of this 
 pernicious and destructive wile of the devil. It is 
 foolish to procrastinate. Though the Bible teems 
 with rich and glorious promises of a hundred-fold 
 blessings in this life, and eternal glory in the world 
 to come, to those who break off their sins by right- 
 eousness, and their transgressions by turning unto 
 the Lord, yet all these promises are limited to the 
 present tense. There is not a single blessing prom- 
 ised the future penitent. He procrastinates at the 
 risk of losing all. Behold, now is the accepted time, 
 and now is the day of salvation. To-day if ye will 
 hear his voice, harden not your hearts. " Ho, every 
 one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; and he that 
 hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy 
 wine and milk without money and without price." 
 "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteous- 
 ness." "And the Spirit and the Bride say, come; 
 let him that heareth say, come; and let him that is 
 athirst, come; and whosoever will, let him take the 
 water of life freely." 
 
 Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. There is 
 no warrant for deferring till to-morrow the moment- 
 ous and eternal interests of the immortal soul. The 
 shortness and uncertainty of life furnish a strong 
 reason that we should not procrastinate. In the 
 Bible, life is compared to everything that is swift,
 
 TUPELO. 411 
 
 transient, and fleeting in its nature. It is compared 
 to the swoop of the eagle hastening to the prey ; to 
 the swift post, to the bubble on the river. Life is 
 compared in its duration to a year, a day, and to 
 nothing, yea, less than nothing, and vanity. All 
 these comparisons indicate that it is very brief and 
 evanescent. We have no lease of life ; we hold it by 
 a very slight tenure ; and this is especially true of us 
 in our present condition. Confined in prison, some 
 of us led to death every day without a moment's 
 warning, every evening I address some who, before 
 the next evening, are in eternity. Myself in chains, 
 my life declared forfeited, ought we not all to be 
 deeply impressed with the necessity of immediate 
 preparation to meet our God? I feel that I am 
 preaching as a dying man to dying men, and I be- 
 seech you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 
 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye shall be 
 saved. Trust in Him for salvation, for He is faith- 
 ful who has promised. God has never said to any 
 seek ye my face in vain. By the love and mercy of 
 God, by the terrors of the judgment, by the sympathy 
 and compassion of Jesus, I entreat you, my fellow- 
 prisoners, to seek an interest, a present interest, in 
 the great salvation ! 
 
 I close for the present. We shall never all engage 
 in divine service together again on earth. We sepa- 
 rate some to go to a distant prison, and some to 
 death. May God grant that when we are done with 
 earthly scenes, we may all meet in the realms of bliss,
 
 412 TUPELO. 
 
 where there is in God's presence fulness of joy, and 
 at his right hand pleasures forevermore ! And may 
 the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and the communion of the Holy Spirit, rest and 
 abide with us, and all the Israel of God, now, hence- 
 forth, and forever, Amen ! 
 
 The following hymn was then sung : 
 
 In the sun, and nioon, and stars, 
 
 Signs and wonders there shall be; 
 Earth shall quake with inward wars, 
 
 Nations with perplexity. 
 
 Soon shall ocean's hoary deep, 
 
 Tossed with stronger tempests, rise; 
 
 Wilder storms the mountains sweep, 
 Louder thunders rock the skies. 
 
 Dread alarms shall shake the proud, 
 
 Pale amazement, restless fear; 
 And, amid the thunder-cloud, 
 
 Shall the Judge of men appear. 
 
 But though from his awful face, 
 
 Heaven shall fade, and earth shall fly. 
 
 Fear not ye, his chosen race, 
 Your redemption draweth nigh. 
 
 I preached longer than I had intended, having 
 become so fully engrossed with the subject as to for- 
 get my chains and my frustrated plans. My fellow- 
 prisoners were listening apparently with interest; 
 great solemnity prevailed, and penitential tears 
 were flowing. It was evident that the Spirit of the 
 living God was in our midst; and though danger 
 and death were before our eyes, the consolations of
 
 TUPELO. 413 
 
 the glorious gospel of the blessed God caused our peace 
 to flow like a river. The precious seed was sown 
 in tears. May we not entertain a good hope that he 
 who cast the seed into this soil, prepared by affliction, 
 shall come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 
 with him. 
 
 DIES IR^. 
 
 Day of wrath! that awful day 
 Shall the world in ashes lay, 
 Sacred seers and heathen say. 
 
 What a trembling there will be 
 When the Judge on earth they see 
 Making strictest scrutiny. 
 
 Trumpet sending awful sound, 
 Through the tombs beneath the ground 
 Summons all the throne around. 
 
 Death and nature stand in dread 
 When arise the millions dead 
 At the Judge's bar to plead. 
 
 In the record shall be sought 
 Every deed, and word, and thought, 
 And a world to judgment brought. 
 
 When the Judge sits shall be seen 
 All the hidden deeds of men 
 ^Taught shall go unpunished then. 
 
 What shall wretched I then say, 
 W*hom secure to help my plea, 
 When the just scarce saved be? 
 
 King of Majesty severe, 
 
 Who Thine own dost freely clear, 
 
 Save me, Fount of Pity, spare !
 
 414 TUPELO. 
 
 Think, Lord ! 'twas for me astray 
 Thou didst tread life's weary way. 
 Let me not be lost that day. 
 
 Sitting tired Thou still hast sought, 
 On the cross my pardon bought; 
 Shall such labor be for naught? 
 
 Judge of vengeance, just the fount, 
 
 remit the great amount 
 Ere the day of strict account. 
 
 1 accept the sinner's place, 
 Guilty shame o'erspreads my face; 
 Give, Lord, to the suppliant, grace. 
 
 Thou Who Mary hast forgiven, 
 To the robber openedst heaven, 
 Even hope to me hast given. 
 
 Though I pray unworthily, 
 Set, I pray Thee graciously, 
 Me from fire eternal free. 
 
 With the sheep a place I pray, 
 Keep me from the goats away, 
 At Thine own right hand to stay. 
 
 When the cursed, their shame confessing, 
 Eager flames are sore distressing, 
 Come to me then with a blessing. 
 
 Pray I suppliant and prone, 
 Heart abashed as ashes grown, 
 Leave me not at last alone. 
 
 On that day of srad surprise, 
 When from ashes shall arise 
 Guilty man to judgment come, 
 Keep me from the dreadful doom. 
 
 THOMAS CELANO.
 
 TUPELO. 415 
 
 AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT NOW STANDS REVEALED 
 TO THE WORLD. 
 
 (From Good Words, edited by Norman McLeod, D.D., and published in 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland.] 
 
 Whatever may be yet the issue of the American 
 conflict, it will have done two great things, it will 
 have cast a flood of light upon the condition of the 
 American slaves, it will have given freedom to great 
 masses of them, if not to all. 
 
 Until the secession war broke out, the means of 
 accurately ascertaining the positive conditions of the 
 slave in the United States were scanty, and to a great 
 extent doubtful. On the one hand, we had the rep- 
 resentations of masters and of their friends. These 
 were always likely to be warped by self-interest; 
 even when most sincerely meant, to exhibit but a 
 portion of the truth. In all countries the best em- 
 ployers are the most accessible, the most willing to 
 come forward in testimony of the condition of the 
 employed ; yet none are generally more ignorant of 
 the worst practices used in their trade. How much 
 more must this be the case in the slave system, 
 where every possible malpractice in the employment 
 of labor must be intensified a hundredfold, by the 
 practically absolute powers of the master, and by the 
 darkness with which he has the right to surround 
 his proceedings. Here evidently those who come 
 into the light of publicity will be those only who
 
 416 TUPELO. 
 
 have no cause, or think they have no cause, to fear 
 it ; and who, living in comparative light themselves, 
 have no idea of what may be passing in the dens of 
 darkness around them. The tendency of slave-own- 
 ing is, moreover, emphatically one of insulation. 
 The best of slave-owners as well as the worst would 
 fain have never a neighbor, since all intercourse with 
 other plantations tends to undermine either the slave- 
 owner's moral or his physical authority. 
 
 Now slavery has come to be seen at once in all its 
 breadth and in all its detail. Where formerly it 
 could only be outlined or lightly sketched from a few 
 points of view, it may now be photographed in its 
 minutest features, and from every point. The mass 
 of testimony is overwhelming, and may be checked 
 and counterchecked from white to black and from 
 black to white to any extent. But an ugly picture 
 it offers, look at it how and whence you will. For 
 the result of all this mass of new evidence is simply 
 this, that the worst that has been hitherto said by 
 isolated voices against American slavery, has been 
 abundantly confirmed ; that the distant picture of it 
 has turned out faint and pale beside the reality ; that 
 contact with the "patriarchal institution," so far 
 from converting one sincere abolitionist from the 
 errors of his ways, or confounding one dishonest one, 
 has turned into ardent abolitionists, hundreds and 
 thousands of men who, when they first went down 
 South, were avowedly strong pro-slavery men. 
 
 The legal elements of the slave's condition have
 
 TUPELO. 417 
 
 long since been known. They are all mainly 
 summed up in this : He is not a person, but a thing ; 
 at least as towards his master, he or she has no signal 
 honor, no family ties. There is no punishment un- 
 der any of the southern slave-codes for the worst out- 
 rage by a master on a slave woman's virtue, on a 
 slave man's marriage-tie ; no legal limit to the uses 
 to which he may put either. The slave has no 
 rights of property; is legally forbidden to develop 
 his intellect by education. 
 
 Instead of saying, Because slaves are property they 
 will be well treated, the true reasoning is, Because 
 slaves are property, therefore they will be ill-treated, 
 therefore they will surely call forth against them in 
 many an instance every latent capacity of absolute 
 devilhood which lies in the master's bosom. 
 
 Are you sorry that this should be so ? God forbid. 
 As is the tree, so is its fruit. Thank God that men 
 do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ! 
 else would they allow the whole world to be over- 
 spread of them. Let the thorn tear, let the thistle 
 prick, that man may know that they are there simply 
 to be fought with and rooted out. 
 
 Now the worst side of slavery is no doubt the 
 moral side of it. Though it had no evil physical 
 side to it, it would yet be abominable. Though ev- 
 ery slave had plenty to eat, plenty to drink, good 
 shelter, good clothing, moderate work, skillful care 
 in sickness, it is yet hideous that a man should not 
 be a man, a husband not a husband, a father not a 
 27
 
 418 TUPELO. 
 
 father. But the war has shown that the physical 
 maltreatment of slaves was anything but a rare 
 exception. 
 
 An officer, writing from Louisiana to the Boston 
 Transcript, stated that not one recruit "in fifteen is 
 free from marks of severe lashing," and that " more 
 than one-half * * are rejected" (the rejections 
 being themselves more than half of the number that 
 offer) " because of disability, arising from lashing of 
 whips, and biting of dogs on their calves and 
 thighs;" whilst Mr. Wesley Richards, a surgeon, 
 writing May 25, 1863, to the Cincinnati Free Nation, 
 after examining about 700 recruits, says that "at 
 least one-half bore evidence of having been severely 
 whipped and maltreated in various ways;" some 
 " stabbed with a knife, others shot through the limbs, 
 some wounded with clubs until their bones were 
 broken," and others had their hamstrings cut to pre- 
 vent their running off. And General Saxton, in 
 command of the Department of the South (compris- 
 ing South Carolina, Georgia, Florida), on being exam- 
 ined before the " Freedmen's Inquiry Commission," 
 stated that there was scarcely one of the negroes 
 whose back was not " covered with scars." East 
 and West, it will be seen, the testimony is the same. 
 
 The Rev. William Taylor, in a pamphlet on the 
 " Cause and probable results of the Civil War in 
 America," relates the following, which has the ad- 
 vantage of showing the patriarchal institution under 
 its "pious" aspect:
 
 TUPELO. 419 
 
 "A dear friend of mine, in my native county, in 
 the Shenaudoah Valley, Virginia, was passing the 
 house of a neighbor, and saw in the barn-yard, sus- 
 pended from a beam * * * a colored woman 
 hung up by her hands. She was nearly naked, had 
 been whipped until she was unable to moan aloud, 
 and had an ear of Indian corn stuck in her mouth 
 as a gag. In that condition she was left hanging till 
 her master should take his breakfast, and have fam- 
 ily prayers. My friend went in to see him, and 
 remonstrated in vain to have her taken down, till 
 after the family devotions were over. * * * This 
 pious (?) family I knew well, and their three children, 
 William, Arthur, and Adeline, were taught authority 
 between the ages of five and ten years by being set to 
 whip the said poor woman at will, and she was beaten 
 and scarred up so as to present a most unnatural and 
 hideous appearance." 
 
 But these are only the milder mercies of the east- 
 ern seaboard. We must go to the dreaded Southwest 
 to find the lashings carried to the pitch of disabling 
 the sufferer the stabbings, shootings, poundings of 
 limbs with clubs, cuttings of hamstrings, of which 
 the surgeons speak. Yet the surgeons had nothing 
 to say but to men, and those living ones. In God's 
 avenging hosts, which we see not, there may be other 
 and more helpless recruits. The Rev. Mr. Aughey, 
 who was a minister in Mississippi at the outbreak of 
 secession, in a work called the " Iron Furnace," tells 
 of some of these. "Mr. Pipkin, who resided near
 
 420 TUPELO. 
 
 Holly Springs (Mississippi), had a negro woman 
 whipped to death while I was at his house during a 
 Session of Presbytery. Mr. Cole, of Waterford, 
 Mississippi, had a woman whipped to death by his 
 overseer. But such cruel scourgings are of daily 
 occurrence. * * * Mrs. Frederick recently 
 whipped a boy to death within a half a mile of my 
 residence. Old Mr. Cole, of Waterford, Mississippi," 
 (apparently the same patriarch as before referred to) 
 "punished his negroes by slitting the soles of their feet 
 with his bowie-knife. One man he put into a cotton- 
 press, and turned the screw until life was extinct. 
 He stated that he only intended to alarm the man, but 
 carried the joke too far." Of course the laws which 
 exist in every state against the murder or torturing of 
 slaves are about as well observed as might be laws 
 enacted by wolves against sheep-murder, and pro- 
 viding that between wolf and sheep no sheep could 
 be witness. Sometimes, indeed, in this black South- 
 west, some peculiarly atrocious excess of patriarchal- 
 ism raises the horror even of the white crowd, and 
 the offender is lynched or his or her home burnt 
 down. But in no single one of the instances above 
 quoted do we find that any punishment was inflicted. 
 When Mrs. Frederick, of Mississippi, whipped her 
 slave boy to death, the coroner's jury returned a ver- 
 dict of death by cruelty ; but Mr. Aughey expressly 
 states that " nothing more was done." 
 
 In the real South the lash is evidently a regular daily 
 element of the institution. "lam residing," writes Mr.
 
 TUPELO. 421 
 
 Aughey, " on the banks of the Yockanookany. * * 
 In this vicinity there are large plantations, cultivated 
 by hundreds of negroes. * * * Every night the 
 negroes are brought to a judgment-seat. The over- 
 seer presides. If they have not labored to suit him, 
 or if their task is unfulfilled, they are chained to a 
 post and severely whipped." Of these overseers the 
 writer has just said: "I never knew a pious over- 
 seer never. * * * Overseers, as a class, are 
 worse than slave-owners themselves. They are cruel, 
 brutal, licentious, dissipated, and profane. They 
 always carry a loaded whip, a revolver, and a bowie- 
 knife." Such are the dispensers of the Southern 
 slave-owners' justice. Of course the terror they ex- 
 cite is extreme ; and the writer says he has known an 
 instance of a woman, through fright, giving birth to 
 a child at the whipping-post. It need hardly be said 
 that it is at the option of the overseer to strip the 
 slaves to any extent. "In Louisiana, women, pre- 
 paratory to whipping, are often stripped to a state of 
 perfect nudity." Black women only, some aristocrat 
 of color may think. "There is a girl," said one Col- 
 onel Hanna, a member of Mr. Aughey's church, to 
 the latter, "who does not look very white in the face, 
 owing to exposure; but when I strip her to whip her, 
 I find that she has a skin as fair as my wife." It is 
 thus evidently the habit of these Mississippi patri- 
 archs to strip and whip women as white of skin as 
 their own wives. And the slaves are so fond of the 
 system that "every night," Mr. Aughey tells us, "the
 
 422 TUPELO. 
 
 Mississippi woods resound with the deep-mouthed 
 baying of the blood-hounds." 
 
 Remember always, that, between Virginia, and 
 even South Carolina, on the one hand, and the South- 
 west on the other, every intermediate stage must be 
 supposed to exist. E. g., Mr. Taylor a Virginian, 
 let us recollect, of the Shenandoah Valley, whose 
 wife was brought up in Alabama mentions an in- 
 stance in the latter state where a master, riding home 
 with a runaway, flogged the latter with a heavy 
 whip " till he sunk in his tracks, and died within a 
 few hours ;" whereupon all the neighborhood sympa- 
 thized deeply with the patriarch who had lost so val- 
 uable a man, and deemed the accident "a warning to 
 niggers to stay at home and mind their own business." 
 " One beautiful Sabbath morning," says Mr. Aughey, 
 " I stood on the levee at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and 
 counted twenty-seven sugar-houses in full blast. I 
 found that the negroes were compelled to labor eigh- 
 teen hours per day, and were not permitted to rest 
 on the Sabbath during the rolling season. The 
 negroes on most plantations have a truck patch, which 
 they cultivate on the Sabbath. I have pointed out 
 the sin of thus laboring on the Sabbath, but they 
 plead necessity ; their children, they state, must suffer 
 from hunger if they did not cultivate their truck 
 patch, and their masters would not give them time 
 on any other day." But even where the work is not 
 in itself so severe, it is made oppressive by its con- 
 tinuousness. Thus, in the sea islands, where the
 
 TUPELO. 423 
 
 hours of work were from daylight to five P.M., there 
 was no cessation of labor allowed for meals, and the 
 slave must eat whatever food he could get without 
 leaving off his hoeing or cotton picking. And those 
 who are most overworked are of course the weakest 
 those least able to bear it women and children. 
 
 In passing from the physical to the moral aspects 
 of slavery, we are met by the great difficulty that a 
 large portion of its daily working consists really of 
 things such as should not be named among Christian 
 men. It is difficult for us to realize the fact that 
 men and women professing to be Christians should 
 allow other men and women around them, whom they 
 claim as their own property, to gratify their passions 
 like brute beasts, the name of marriage representing 
 a mere temporary relation. In the sea islands, Cap- 
 tain Hooper bears testimony to the fact that " many of 
 the negro men have two or three wives, and children 
 by each." The masters, it is distinctly stated, do not 
 care whether the slave women are married or not, so 
 long as they have children, nor have they, as a matter 
 of fact, any scruple in breaking up such unions. The 
 wife and children of Solomon Bradley, an "Uncle 
 Tom" among the Port Royal negroes, were sold away 
 some years ago, and he never expects to meet with 
 them again. - Between white and colored it is a prin- 
 ciple of law throughout the slave states that there can 
 be no legal union. But the number of mixed bloods 
 shows that the white man's horror of "amalgama- 
 tion" only starts into vitality within the church
 
 424 TUPELO. 
 
 door. On Port Royal island already the "yellow 
 niggers " form a 'considerable part of the population. 
 "In almost all the schools/' says Mr. Nordhoff, "you 
 find children with blue eyes and light hair oftenest 
 yellow." Yet the description lists found at Hilton 
 Head of the slaves shipped thence showed that the 
 greater number of these were mixed bloods. Now 
 as such shipments are almost universally for the 
 dreaded South, it follows that the " patriarchs " and 
 their overseers send their own offspring to a harsher 
 slavery than that around themselves. And, owing 
 partly to these shipments of the mixed breeds, partly 
 to the more unbridled licentiousness of the whites 
 themselves, it appears beyond a doubt that in the 
 South and Southwest the proportion of "white" and 
 "yellow niggers" is far higher than in the eastern 
 states. Mr. Aughey speaks of preaching "to a large 
 congregation of slaves, the third of whom were as 
 white as himself," some with red hair and blue eyes. 
 AVe remember that slave in Mississippi whose skin, 
 when she was stripped for whipping, was as white as 
 that of her master's wife. Mr. De Camp, the surgeon 
 above referred to, speaks of having seen standing be- 
 fore him three negro recruits, in whom the "the most 
 critical examination could not detect the slightest 
 trace of negro blood." General MacDow says that 
 in the district of Louisiana which he is writing from, 
 there are very few slaves of unmixed negro blood. It 
 is notorious that many planters have families of white 
 and families of colored children, and perhaps give the
 
 TUPELO. 425 
 
 latter to wait on the former. Remember always that 
 the chastity of the slave has no legal protection. I 
 cannot here enter into details ; suffice it to say that 
 the slave system has ere this enforced incest at the 
 will of the master. But, without descending to such 
 horrors, let any of my countrywomen picture to her- 
 self what must be the lot of women (often, as- we 
 have seen, as white as herself) placed from year's end 
 to year's end under the absolute control of an over- 
 seer such as Mr. Aughey, and in fact almost all wit- 
 nesses, describes "cruel, brutal, licentious," always 
 armed with the loaded whip, the bowie-knife, and the 
 revolver liable, too, at any time, without any re- 
 course under heaven, to be sold or hired out into 
 harlotry, as is practically done in every southern city 
 and then say whether the system in which such 
 things are possible has the right to insult God and 
 man any longer by its existence. 
 
 Treating the slave thus like a brute, none could feel 
 surprised if he were to become such. The colored 
 witnesses who have been examined before the Freed- 
 men's Inquiry Commission are very frank on the 
 subject of the moral condition of their race. The 
 slaves, says Robert Small a bold fellow, who ran a 
 steamer, the " Planter," out of Charleston Harbor, 
 past Sumter and its dangers, to join the Federal fleet, 
 a feat which Mr. Nordhoff calls " one of the bravest 
 and most brilliant acts of the war" are very envious 
 of one another, cannot bear to see any one of their 
 number advanced to any position which all cannot
 
 426 TUPELO. 
 
 reach, and will resort to any means in their power to 
 degrade him. They are, as slaves, selfish, cowardly, 
 untruthful, thievish. Though they have strong 
 religious impulses, their religion is little more than 
 sentiment. Even professedly pious slaves have often 
 no scruple in "taking" from their masters the term 
 "stealing" being reserved for thefts as between them- 
 selves the general argument being that, as their 
 masters take everything from them, they may take 
 back what they can. And let it always be remem- 
 bered that the negro has no means of self-improve- 
 ment. A father is known to have received twenty 
 lashes for teaching his son to read. "In Missis- 
 sippi," says Mr. Aughey, " a man who taught slaves 
 to read or write would be sent to the penitentiary 
 instanter." As a matter of fact, out of the eight 
 thousand slaves whom the occupation of Port Royal 
 threw upon the hands of the Federal government, 
 only a very few had picked up the elements of book 
 learning, and a couple of the older men were able 
 actually to read. And whilst the means of self- 
 instruction are forbidden by law, religious teaching 
 is entirely subject to the discretion of the master. If 
 the preacher does not preach sound patriarchal doc- 
 trine he is either hunted out of slavedom or lynched 
 within it. 
 
 The jargon used by the slave is of itself sufficient 
 proof of the degradation to which he has been reduced. 
 It is not, like the dialects and patois of our own coun- 
 try, of France, Germany, Italy, a form of speech prob-
 
 TUPELO. 427 
 
 ably coeval with the language, and which had origi- 
 nally as good a chance of developing into the stand- 
 ard one. It is a mere corruption of the master's 
 language, the fruit of estrangement and neglect. 
 
 Such, then, is southern slavery, as it now stands 
 thoroughly revealed to the world a system which, 
 aiming at treating black men as brutes, not only suc- 
 ceeds in making them such, but generally makes two 
 brutes for one the white and the black. Mr. Aughey, 
 after an experience of eleven years in eight different 
 slave states, declares that he has " never yet seen any 
 example of slavery " that he did not " deem sinful." 
 He "cannot do otherwise than pronounce it an 
 unmitigated curse" to white and black alike. 
 
 There is but one touch to add to the above picture. 
 Bad as it was in itself, slavery was getting worse. 
 South Carolina the acknowledged pioneer of seces- 
 sion, which tried thirty years ago, by means of " nul- 
 lification," to throw off the control of the Federal 
 authority; which was the first to declare actual seces- 
 sion, the first to fire upon the Federal flag, the first 
 to reduce a Federal fort by force of arms is a state 
 which, as one of tiie luminaries of secession, the Hon. 
 L. W. Spratt, has declared, fairly exhibits "the normal 
 nature of the institution " in a population where the 
 slaves outnumber the freemen by 120,000. Yet in 
 this state the Freedmen's Inquiry Commissioners em- 
 phatically declare slavery "has been darkening in its 
 shades of inhumanity from year to year." They 
 found "conclusive evidence that half a century since
 
 428 TUPELO. 
 
 its phase was much milder than now. It is the uni- 
 form testimony of emancipated freed men from this 
 state, above the age of sixty, that in their youth 
 slavery was a merciful and considerate system com- 
 pared with what it has been for thirty years past. 
 These old men are bright and intelligent compared 
 with the younger field hands, in many of whom a 
 stolid, sullen despondency attests the stupefying in- 
 fluence of slave-driving under its more recent phase." 
 And what is true of South Carolina is true of all 
 the South. Within the last quarter of a century es- 
 pecially, slavery, from a mere practice, has grown 
 into a system and a creed. Its economic powers have 
 been calculated to the last figure. It has reckoned 
 exactly what work could be got out of a man at every 
 species of labor how many years he should " last" at 
 cotton-growing, how many at rice-growing, how 
 many at sugar-growing, etc. ; the relative advantages 
 of driving him i.e. f killing him off quick or hus- 
 banding his strength, have been discussed ; and food, 
 clothing, shelter, have been regulated with reference 
 to the data obtained. On the other hand since by 
 one of the most inflexible, most awful, yet most sal- 
 utary, rules of God's government, those who " set up 
 their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling-block 
 of their iniquity before their face," when they inquire 
 of the Lord, shall always be answered "according to 
 the multitude of their idols," so the South, proclaim- 
 ing the evil thing slavery to be good, has thought to 
 find its consecration even in that Book which is a
 
 TUPELO. 429 
 
 message to all mankind of deliverance from every 
 shape of bondage ; and it has hardened itself in this 
 faith, and its priests and prophets have been deceived 
 of the Lord to speak lies in its ears, to prophesy unto 
 it the smooth things which it loved, till at last, in its 
 devilish pride, unable to brook the very contact of 
 freedom, it turned away as from an accursed tiling, 
 and would fain set up its own model republic, based, 
 said its vice president, " upon the great truth that the 
 negro is not equal to the white man ; that slavery, 
 subordination to the superior race, is his natural and 
 moral condition." 
 
 And then were seen upon the walls of slavery's 
 palace fingers of a man's hand, writing " Mene, mene, 
 Tekel * * Then struck for the Southern slave 
 
 an hour such as his friends afar off had scarcely hoped 
 to see, but which, with blind God-sent instinct, he 
 seems himself to have been long waiting for. From 
 the moment that the secession flag was raised, slavery, 
 as all see now, was doomed. 
 
 And while we may admire the gallantry with which 
 the southern slave-holders have carried on the contest 
 with the North ; and may do full justice to the purity 
 of the motives which led a Stonewall Jackson into 
 the thick of so many a fight, we must remember that 
 the heroic defense of Vicksburg or Sumter no more 
 palliates southern slavery than did the heroic defense 
 of Jerusalem by the Jews palliate the crucifixion of 
 our Lord. 
 
 J. M. LUDLOW. 
 
 December, 1863.
 
 430 TUPELO. 
 
 THE DEATH OF SLAVERY. 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 
 
 O thou great wrong that through the slow-paced years, 
 Didst hold thy millions fettered, and didst wield 
 The scourge that drove the laborer to the field, 
 And turn a stony gaze on human tears, 
 
 Thy cruel reign is o'er ; 
 
 Thy bondmen crouch no more 
 In terror at the menace of thine eye ; 
 For He who marks the bounds of guilty power, 
 Long suffering hath heard the captive's cry 
 And touched his shackles at the appointed hour, 
 And lo ! they fall, and he whose limbs they galled 
 Stands in his native manhood disenthralled. 
 
 A shout of joy from the redeemed is sent : 
 Ten thousand hamlets swell the hymn of thanks ; 
 Our rivers roll exulting and their banks 
 Send up hosannas to the firmament ! 
 
 Fields where the bondman's toil 
 
 No more shall trench the soil, 
 Seem now to bask in a serener day ; 
 The meadow-birds sing sweeter, and the airs 
 Of heaven with more caressing softness play, 
 Welcoming man to liberty like theirs. 
 A glory clothes the land from sea to sea, 
 For the great land and all its coasts are free. 
 
 Within that land wert thou enthroned of late, 
 And they by whom the nation's laws were made, 
 And they who filled its judgment seats obeyed 
 Thy mandate, rigid as the will of fate. 
 
 Fierce men at thy right hand 
 
 With gesture of command, 
 
 Gave forth the word that none might dare gainsay ; 
 And grave and reverend ones who loved thee not 
 Shrank from thy presence, and in blank dismay 
 Choked down unuttered the rebellious thought,
 
 TUPELO. 431 
 
 While meaner cowards mingling with thy train, 
 Proved from the book of God thy right to reign. 
 
 Great as thou wert and feared from shore to shore, 
 The wrath of heaven o'ertook thee in thy pride : 
 Thou sitt'st a ghostly shadow : by thy side 
 Thy once strong arms hang nerveless evermore. 
 
 And they who quailed but now 
 
 Before thy lowering brow 
 Devote thy memory to scorn and shame, 
 And scoff at the pale powerless thing thou art, 
 And they who ruled in thy imperial name, 
 Subdued, and standing sullenly apart, 
 Scowled at the hands that overthrew thy reign 
 And shattered at a blow the prisoner's chain. 
 
 Well was thy doom deserved ; thou didst not spare 
 Life's tenderest ties, but cruelly didst part 
 Husband and wife, and from the mother's heart 
 Didst wrest her children, deaf to shriek and prayer ; 
 
 Thy inner lair became 
 
 The haunt of guilty shame ; 
 
 Thy lash dropped blood ; the murderer at thy side, 
 Showed his red hands, nor feared the vengeance due. 
 Thou didst sow earth with crimes, and far and wide, 
 A harvest of uncounted miseries grew 
 Until the measure of thy sins at last 
 Was full, and then the avenging bolt was cast ! 
 
 Go now accursed of God, and take thy place 
 With hateful memories of the elder time, 
 With many a wasting plague, and nameless crime, 
 And bloody jvar that thinned the human race ; 
 
 With the Black Death, whose way 
 
 Through wailing cities lay, 
 Worship of Moloch, tyrannies that built 
 The Pyramids, and cruel deeds that taught 
 To avenge a fancied guilt by deeper guilt 
 Death at the stake to them that held them not.
 
 432 TUPELO. 
 
 Lo ! The foul phantoms, silent in the gloom 
 Of the flown ages, part to yield thee room. 
 
 I see the better years that hasten by 
 
 Carry thee back into the shadowy past, 
 
 Where, in the dusty spaces, void and vast, 
 
 The graves of those whom thou hast murdered lie. 
 
 The slave-pen, through whose door 
 
 Thy victims pass no more, 
 
 Is there, and there shall the grim block remain 
 At which the slave was sold ; while at thy feet 
 Scourges and engines of restraint and pain 
 Moulder and rust by thine eternal seat. 
 There, mid the symbols that proclaim thy crimes, 
 Dwell thou a warning to the coming times. 
 May, 1866. 
 
 MEMORIAL SERVICE. 
 
 Eev. J. H. Aughey, Commander of Geo. Hunter 
 Post, No. 145, G. A. R., will deliver the annual sermon 
 preceding memorial day, on Sunday, May 14th, at 
 10:30 A.M. in the Presbyterian church. Geo. Hun- 
 ter Post will attend in a body and members of Co. 
 A, 7th Regt., are requested to meet at the Hall at 10 
 o'clock to march to the church to attend service. 
 
 The following prayer was offered before the 
 sermon : 
 
 Almighty God, humbly we come before Thee, our 
 Creator, Preserver, Guide, and Protector. We thank 
 Thee for our lives, for the mercy that has kept us 
 until this hour; for Thy guidance in our marches by 
 day and by night ; for Thy constant care in the hour 
 of danger, and for the preservation of our nation?:!
 
 TUPELO. 
 
 integrity and unity. We thank Thee that so many 
 of us have been permitted by Thy providence to 
 assemble here this day to worship Thee, and to meet 
 our former companions in arms and to rejoice with 
 them that war's deadly blast has blown by and that 
 gentle peace has returned, and that Thou didstr grant 
 the victory to those who contended for human rights 
 and national integrity and for the subversion of re- 
 bellion by the re-establishment of constitutional law 
 and national supremacy. Be graciously near to our 
 comrades who suffer from disease or wounds and to 
 the widows and orphans of those who fell in our 
 holy cause. In all distress comfort them, and give 
 us willing hearts and ready hands to supply their 
 needs. Grant that the memory of our noble dead, 
 who so freely gave their lives for the land they loved, 
 may dwell ever in our hearts. God bless our coun- 
 try. Bless all its loyal defenders and well wishers. 
 Ever subvert rebellion and all traitorous designs 
 against the land we love the best. Keep our names 
 on the roll of Thy servants, and at last receive us 
 into that better country, where there is fullness of 
 joy, and at Thy right hand pleasures forevermore, 
 where Thou art the Supreme Commander. We ask 
 all in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen : 
 
 The following is the sermon of Rev. J H. Aughey 
 at tha Presbyterian church, Farmington, Hi. Geo. 
 Hunter Post and Co. A, Militia, attended en masse: 
 
 "And the soldiers likewise demanded of Him, 
 saying, and what shall we do?" Luke iii. 14. The 
 28
 
 4*34 TUPELO. 
 
 word of the Lord came to John the Baptist in the 
 wilderness and he came into all the country about 
 Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the 
 remission of sins. His words were in demonstration 
 of the Spirit and in power. The Jewish church 
 was asleep, vital piety was well-nigh extinct. They 
 were resting in forms. Though strict in the observ- 
 ance of ceremonial law, they knew nothing experi- 
 mentally of true repentance, a turning from sin unto 
 God. Supreme love of God and equal love of their 
 fellow men formed no part of their creed. John the 
 Baptist announced himself as the forerunner of the 
 Messiah whom the Jews were now expecting. His 
 strange aspect, coarse apparel, manner of life, start- 
 ling doctrine, intense earnestness, and his unflagging 
 zeal, attracted universal attention. Multitudes flocked 
 to his ministry and heard him enunciate truths to 
 which they had been strangers. Many were con- 
 vinced and convicted, and professing repentance were 
 baptized. Seeing the Scribes and Pharisees in at-' 
 tendance upon his ministry, whose traits of character 
 were hypocrisy, falsehood, and avarice, he exclaimed^ 
 Oh ! generation of vipers, who hath warned you to 
 flee from the wrath to come. Plain, pungent preach- 
 ing, but presenting a true description of their char- 
 acter. He then instructs them in duty. Bring forth 
 fruits meet for repentance. The people then wished 
 to learn their duty, and he enjoins charity. The 
 man that has clothing and food must impart to him 
 that is destitute. When the tax-gatherers made the
 
 TUPELO. 435 
 
 inquiry, what must we do, he informed them that 
 they must exact; no more than that which is appointed 
 them. The sin of fraud or extortion was the one to 
 which they were addicted and they needed special in- 
 struction on this point. Then came the soldiers and 
 made the inquiry of the text, and what shall we do? 
 They had professed repentance and desired baptism, 
 and they wished to learn what were the fruits meet 
 for repentance in their case. Repentance includes 
 faith and true faith includes repentance. When the 
 convicted sinner comes to the minister or Christian 
 layman for instruction, saying, men and brethren 
 what must we do ? The answer must invariably be 
 given, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
 shalt be saved. God, the proprietor of salvation, 
 has the right to ordain the condition upon which he 
 will bestow it. He has done this, making no other 
 condition than that of simple faith. Faith comes 
 without money and without merit, and appropriates 
 all the blessings of the everlasting covenant. Faith 
 honors God, it takes Him at His word. It believes 
 in the sincerity of his offer and accepts His mercy. 
 Faith realizes the inability of paying the purchase 
 price of salvation, and rejoices that it is freely 
 offered. Were it otherwise it would be impossible 
 to the sons^of men. Nor does faith plume itself on 
 its own merit, for it recognizes the fact that it is 
 merely a receptive grace and he who exercises it is 
 no more deserving than the beggar who accepts the 
 4ilms of the beneficent. Faith is not a simple reception
 
 436 TUPELO. 
 
 of testimony concerning Christ. It is a grace which 
 is the gift of God. It is a new operative vital prin- 
 ciple in the soul. It works by love. It is divinely 
 energetic. Faith is a depending, self-emptying, self- 
 denying grace, and casts every crown before the 
 throne. Unbelief is a habit of the mind, formed in 
 opposition to the instincts of man's moral nature, and 
 is a sin against the soul. It is a sin against the 
 remedy, and by its very nature precludes salvation. 
 Faith is a belief of the precepts and implicit trust in 
 the promises. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving 
 grace, whereby we receive and rest on Him alone for 
 salvation as He is offered to us in the gospel. The 
 soul is the life of the body, faith is the life of the 
 soul, and Jesus Christ is the life of faith. God is 
 good and wise and faithful and true. He is omni- 
 present and omnipotent. We may implicitly trust 
 in one possessing all these attributes. We would 
 be verily guilty of a great sin to do otherwise. A 
 commander in the army who was good, wise, brave, 
 and always sought to promote the best interests of 
 the soldiers in his command, deserved the obedience 
 and esteem of them all, and the soldier who was 
 guilty of insubordination deserved punishment to the 
 extent of his demerit. Those who disobey the King 
 of Kings, much more deserve punishment. 
 
 John the Baptist said to the soldiers, do violence 
 to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content 
 with your wages. What glorious fruits would fol- 
 low obedience to these injunctions. Discipline is
 
 TUPELO. 437 
 
 essentially necessary. A regiment of well disciplined 
 soldiers will put to flight twenty thousand undis- 
 ciplined men. Without discipline an army is a mere 
 rabble of little worth when confronting an enemy. 
 In order to proper discipline, the recruit must study 
 military tactics and attend drill regularly. The 
 Christian soldier must to this end study the Bible. 
 There he learns all about the wiles and stratagems 
 of his enemies and how to circumvent them. He 
 learns what is duty on the march and in the camp. 
 He learns all about the necessary armor and how to se- 
 cure it. He learns the use of the sandals, the breast- 
 plate, the helmet, the girdle, the shield, and the 
 sword. He in this way becomes a good soldier of 
 Jesus Christ. He learns not to entangle himself 
 with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him 
 who has called him to be a soldier. 
 
 The remembrance of past perils and hardships 
 forge indissoluble bonds of friendship. Together 
 you followed Sherman to the sea. Together you 
 stormed and carried the heights of Lookout Mountain 
 and gained a glorious victory on Mission Ridge. 
 Side by side you entered Fort Fisher and placed the 
 starry banner upon its ramparts, deemed impregnable 
 by its defenders. Animated by the same spirit you 
 turned the tide of battle at Five Forks, and grandly 
 assaulted and captured the MalakofFs and Redans that 
 formed the frowning battlements of Petersburg. 
 Together standing upon the sumit of Round Top you 
 repelled the fierce onset of Lee's veterans and made
 
 438 TUPELO 
 
 the field of Gettysburg grandly historic. Facing the 
 grape and canister and screaming shell and bursting 
 bomb, the leaden rain and iron hail, you followed the 
 starry banner in company on many a well fought field 
 till victory perched upon your standards, until your 
 country's liberty and integrity were preserved intact 
 beyond the shadow of a doubt, the possibility of a 
 peradventure, then you marched home arm in arm to 
 receive the plaudits and honors accorded by your 
 grateful countrymen. These hallowed recollections 
 and associations should burnish brightly friendship's 
 golden chain, and preserve intact and inviolable the 
 amity of the years that tried men's souls. Do not 
 make your comrade an offender for a word. With- 
 out due reflection in an unguarded moment he may 
 have said something that gave offense. Think of 
 Champion Hill, and Black River Bridge, and Jack- 
 son, and Vicksburg, where he faced the glittering 
 bayonet, and where he stood shoulder to shoulder 
 with the bravest of the brave, facing death with un- 
 blanched cheek and without the tremor of a nerve, 
 caring not what became of himself so that the cause 
 which lay nearest his heart might triumph. Think 
 of his heroism and patriotism and forgive. The 
 soldier of the civil war should do nothing that would 
 tarnish his well merited fame. He deserves well of 
 his countrymen. When the tocsin sounded the alarm, 
 when his imperiled country called her sons to arms* 
 he left home with all its ties and delightful environ- 
 ment, and devoted health and life, yea, all his-
 
 TUPELO. 439 
 
 personal interests to her service and to do her high 
 behest. Republics are not always ungrateful. When 
 a boy, I remember that the place of honor was always 
 accorded to the surviving veterans of the Revolu- 
 tionary war. And a portion of every address upon 
 all public occasions was devoted to a recital of their 
 patriotic deeds. Now the graves of our deceased 
 comrades are decked with flowers by fair hands, 
 prompted by loving hearts. In coming years, ere the 
 departure to their Celestial home of the final corps 
 of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the 
 mighty host of loyal heroes who participated in the 
 war for the Union, the post of honor will be assigned 
 them whenever and wherever their venerated presence 
 is recognized in public assemblies. Were there pres- 
 ent here to-day a hero who had fought at Bunker 
 Hill and Gerrnantown, or at Brandywine and Sara- 
 toga and Yorktown, one who had witnessed the sur- 
 render of Burgoyne and Cornwallis, you would be 
 so engrossed in contemplating this distinguished 
 visitor and in admiration of his heroic services in the 
 dark days of the Revolution that the services of the 
 hour would pass by unheeded. And at the close you 
 would crowd up and grasp him by the hand and 
 assure him of your deep gratitude for his inestimable 
 services in the achievement of our country's inde- 
 pendence. This honor will be accorded you, my 
 comrades, in coming years even now you are receiv- 
 ing the earnest of it, the first fruits of that greater 
 harvest which our surviving comrades will reap in
 
 440 TUPELO. 
 
 the near future. The heroes of Chickamauga and 
 Antietam and Corinth and the Wilderness, and Tupelo 
 and luka, and a hundred other well fought fields, 
 will be held in honorable and everlasting remem- 
 brance by their grateful fellow countrymen. Do 
 nothing to forfeit the respect and esteem in which you 
 are deservedly held, or to abate a jot of the meed of 
 honor which is your due, so that in coming years the 
 marble monument which marks your sleeping dust 
 with deep cut letters may record but truth when it 
 recounts your virtues and speaks to posterity of your 
 sacrifices and perils in the subversion of the rebellion 
 which with treasonable hands sought the overthrow of 
 the Republic in the interests of a slave-holding 
 oligarchy. Comrades, you have not escaped unscathed 
 from the perils of camp life and the shock of battle. 
 Many bear honorable scars. Many carry crutch or 
 cane to support their tottering frames as they walk 
 our streets intent upon the pursuits and avocations 
 by which they procure their daily bread. 'Tis rare 
 to find one who does not suifer from some lesion as 
 the result of his war experience. But few murmur 
 or complain of the pain they endure. With unre- 
 pining fortitude they walk about our streets and only 
 those who are intimately acquainted with them know 
 that many of them are physical wrecks, by mala- 
 dies engendered in the service fast approaching the 
 vital part, the citadel of life, to still forever its throb- 
 bing. More than half the survivors of the war have 
 crossed death's dark river and have entered upon their
 
 TUPELO. 441 
 
 eternal destination, and we are following fast. During 
 the war four hundred thousand loyal men in camp, 
 in prison, and on the battle field, gave up their lives 
 to attest their love for the starry banner and the 
 principles it represents. 
 
 "On fame's eternal camping ground 
 
 Their silent tents are spread, 
 And glory guards with solemn round 
 
 The bivouac of the dead." 
 
 " Peace to the perished ! may the warrior's meed 
 And tears of triumph their reward prolong." 
 
 " Such graves as theirs are pilgrim shrines 
 
 To no creed or clime confined. 
 The Delphic vales, the Palestines, 
 
 The Meccas of the mind." 
 
 We must all ere long attend the grand review on 
 high. Let us all so live that clad in the regulation 
 uniform, the conqueror's robe which has been washed 
 white in the blood of the Lamb, we may be accepted 
 in that day and be welcomed to the Grand Army- 
 above, the sacramental host of God's elect where 
 we will forever praise Him who as the Captain of our 
 salvation, secured for us the inheritance and who, 
 giving us grace to conquer, if we prove faithful unto 
 death will bestow upon us a crown of life. A soldier 
 true to his country from patriotic motives has a title 
 to nobility more honorable than that conferred by 
 royal prerogative, but a soldier who is not only true 
 to his country but also true to his God a loyal 
 soldier of the cross, is still more worthy of honor.
 
 442 TUPELO. 
 
 There were devout soldiers in the days of our 
 Savior and His Apostles. Cornelius and the devout 
 soldier who journeyed from Joppa to Cesarea with a 
 message to Peter deserve honorable mention. Col. 
 Gardiner, Gen. Havelock, and Gen. Gordon, of the 
 British army, were brave officers and sincere Chris- 
 tians. In America our own Washington, Admiral 
 Foote, Commodore Stockton, and Gens. Howard and 
 Fisk, as well as many subalterns in the service, prove 
 that high Christian character is not incompatible with 
 the soldier's profession. Let us never forget that 
 our great national destiny must be woven out of the 
 fibers of individual character and achievement. The 
 life of the nation is the life of its citizens. 
 
 Let us see to it that though our days are but a 
 hand-breadth, the nation's recurring centennials of 
 magnificent progress shall take no dimness nor weak- 
 ness from that strand which our little life has worked 
 into it. The soldiers said to John, "and what shall 
 we do, that is, what ^shall we do to escape condemna- 
 tion, and bear fruit unto eternal life?" Your first 
 duty is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Com- 
 mit all your interests for time and eternity unto Him. 
 This Paul did, and thus confidently affirms : " I 
 know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that 
 he is able to keep that which I have committed unto 
 him against that day." Are you ignorant? He is 
 the All-wise God. Are you weak? He is strong. 
 Are you sinful? He was holy, harmless, undefiled, 
 and separate from sinners the sinless one. Are ir ou
 
 TUPELO. 443 
 
 destitute of all things ? In Him all fullness dwells. 
 Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, 
 and all these things shall be added unto you. Xo 
 good thing will He withhold from them that walk 
 uprightly. Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt 
 thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. 
 Loving trust and trusting love is the essence of true 
 religion. Jehovah calls for volunteers. He wants 
 you to come and be mustered in as recruits in the 
 grand army of the church militant. He does not 
 wish you to be spiritual guerrillas, serving as suits 
 your own individual whim, under no recognized com- 
 mander, and liable to be cut off in detail or captured 
 and hanged as spies, or mere hangers on, receiving 
 neither pay nor honor. Enlist in the army of King 
 Immanuel. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay 
 hold upon eternal life. War a good warfare. En- 
 dure hardness as becometh good soldiers. March 
 with unfaltering steps under the blood-stained ban- 
 ner of the Cross toward glory, immortality, and 
 eternal life. We promise you wages. It may be, 
 while the conflict lasts, a fierce and agonizing con- 
 test, and during life there is no discharge in this war, 
 but at death you will receive your discharge, or rather 
 you will be translated from the church militant on 
 earth to the church triumphant in glory. Then you 
 will have a palace home by the crystal sea, a king- 
 dom and a crown will be given you as eternal in its 
 duration as the throne of God, and throughout the 
 ceaseless cycles of eternity -on will sing the victor's
 
 444 TUPELO. 
 
 song, and rejoice with your companions in glory, and 
 so be forever with the Lord. And now unto the 
 King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only true God, 
 be glory and honor, and dominion and power forever. 
 Amen. 
 
 Be bold, be firm, be strong, be true, 
 
 And dare to stand alone; 
 Strike for the right whate'er you do, 
 
 Though helpers there be none. 
 
 Strike for the right, and with clean hands, 
 
 Exalt the truth on high; 
 Thou'lt find warm sympathizing hearts 
 
 Among the passers by. 
 
 Those who have thought and felt and prayed, 
 
 Yet could not singly dare 
 The battle's brunt, but by thy side 
 
 Will every danger share. 
 
 Then learn this truth, the base of all, 
 That all are equal, so they fill 
 Their proper sphere and do God's will, 
 There is no other great or small. 
 
 There is a tear for all that die, 
 
 A mourner o'er the humblest grave, 
 
 But nations swell the funeral cry, 
 And triumph weeps above the brave. 
 
 Cowards are cruel, but the brave 
 Love mercy, and delight to save.
 
 TUPELO. 445 
 
 FROM MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS BY REV. T. C. EVANS, 
 FARMINGTON, ILL. 
 
 The urgent call of our country. The Union was 
 not saved by sentiment. Our nation cannot live on 
 gush. Hard work, faithful service is now demanded. 
 At present I will not speak of the two-horned moral 
 monster now growing fat beneath our flag. I mean 
 Mormonism, with its bigamy and polygamy. Just 
 now I will not speak of that fiery, fatal, infernal 
 fiend which flourishes under the American segis. I 
 mean the liquor traffic, with its long trail of slimy 
 sins. Of one crime I must now speak. Silence in 
 this presence would be sin. The crime is that of 
 tampering with the ballot-box. It is the father of all 
 evils to our land. It is moral treason. It is Brutus 
 sneaking with a concealed dagger to bury the blade 
 in the heart of the Nation. What is the ballot-box? 
 It is the heart and lungs of the Republic. It is the 
 force that sends the blood through the arteries of the 
 Nation. It is also the organ that cleanses the blood 
 in the body politic. The man or the gang that cor- 
 rupts the ballot-box poisons the blood of America. 
 Can we allow that? No, never and be worthy of 
 the name of American. If our courts of justice forget 
 themselves so far as to permit the heart of justice and 
 the neck of franchise to be crushed under the heels of 
 legal technicality and judicial disagreement, the 
 soldiers must come to the rescue. Members of the 
 Grand Army of the Republic, keep your bayonets
 
 446 TUPELO. 
 
 bright, keep your cannon clean, keep your powder 
 dry, keep your trust in God, and when called on 
 smite to the ground the traitor at the* voting poll, 
 even him that tampers with the ballot-box. If the 
 safety of Troy N depended upon the preservation of the 
 statue of Pallas, so much more does the preserva- 
 tion of the right of suffrage and the purity of the 
 ballot inure to the safety of the Republic. Hence 
 every president who will not as commander in chief 
 of the army protect every legal voter in casting his 
 ballot is recreant both to his- oath and duty, and in 
 that case should be called to account for cowardice or 
 abetment. 
 
 " There is a weapon surer set 
 And better than the bayonet, 
 A weapon that comes down as still 
 As snow-flakes fall upon the sod, 
 Yet executes a freeman's will 
 As lightning does the will of God ; 
 Nor from its force nor bolts nor locks 
 Can shield them 'tis the ballot-box." 
 
 "WILL CARLETON'S FAMOUS MEMORIAL DAY POEM 
 "COVER THEM OVER." 
 
 Cover them over with beautiful flowers; 
 Deck them with garlands, these brothers of ours; 
 Lying so silent by night and by day, 
 Sleeping the years of their manhood away; 
 Years they had marked for the joys of the brave; 
 Years that must waste in the sloth of the grave. 
 All the bright laurels they fought to make bloom 
 Fell to the earth when they went to the tomb. 
 Give them the meed they have won in the past; 
 Give them the honors their merits forecast;
 
 TUPELO. 447 
 
 Give them the chaplets they won in the strife, 
 Give them the laurels they lost with their life. 
 Cover them over, -yes, cover them over 
 Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover : . 
 Crown in your heart these dead heroes of ours, 
 
 And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 
 
 i 
 
 Cover the faces that motionless lie, 
 Shut from the blue of the glorious sky : 
 Faces once light with the smiles of the gay 
 Faces now marred with the frown of decay. 
 Eyes that beamed friendship and love to your own; 
 Lips that sweet thoughts of affection made known; 
 Brows you have soothed in the day of distress; 
 Cheeks you have flushed by the tender caress; 
 Faces that brightened at war's stirring cry; 
 Faces that streamed when they bade you good-bye ; 
 Faces that glowed in the battle's red flame, 
 Paling for naught, till the death angel came. 
 Cover them over yes, cover them over 
 Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover: 
 Kiss in your heart these dead heroes of ours, 
 And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 
 
 Cover the hands that are resting half-tried, 
 Crossed on the bosom or low by the side: 
 Hands to you, mother, in infancy thrown; 
 Hands that you, father, close hid in your own; 
 ttands where you, sister, when tried and dismayed, 
 Hung for protection, and counsel, and aid; 
 Hands that you, brother, for faithfulness knew; 
 Hands that you, wife, wrung in bitter adieu. 
 Bravely the Across of their country they bore; 
 Words of devotion they wrote with their gore; 
 Grandly they grasped for a garland of light, 
 Catching the mantle of death -darkened night. 
 Cover them over yes, cover them over 
 Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover:
 
 448 TUPELO. 
 
 Clasp in your hearts these dead heroes of ours, 
 And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 
 
 Cover the feet that, all weary and torn, 
 
 Hither by comrades were tenderly borne; 
 
 Feet that have trodden through love-lighted ways, 
 
 Near to your own, in the old happy days; 
 
 Feet that have pressed, in life's open morn, 
 
 Eoses of pleasure and death's poison thorn. 
 
 Swiftly they rush to the help of the right, 
 
 Firmly they stood in the shock of the fight. 
 
 Ne'er shall the enemy's hurrying tramp 
 
 Summon them forth from their death-guarded camp ; 
 
 Ne'er till Eternity's bugle shall sound, 
 
 Will they come out from their couch in the ground. 
 
 Cover them over yes, cover them over 
 
 Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover: 
 
 Rough were the paths of these heroes of ours 
 
 Now cover them over with beautiful flowers. 
 
 Cover the hearts that have beaten so high, 
 Beaten with hopes that were born but to die; 
 Hearts that have burned in the heat of the fray ; 
 Hearts that have yearned for the homes far away; 
 Hearts that beat high in the charge's loud tramp; 
 Hearts that low fell in the prison's foul damp. 
 Once they were swelling with courage and will, 
 Now they are lying all pulseless and still; 
 Once they were glowing with friendship and love, 
 Now the great souls have gone soaring above. 
 Bravely their blood to the nation they gave, 
 Then in her bosom they found them a grave. 
 Cover them over yes, cover them over 
 Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover: 
 Press to your hearts these dead heroes of ours, 
 And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 
 
 One there is, sleeping, in yonder low tomb, 
 Worthy the brightest of flowers that bloom.
 
 TUPELO. 449 
 
 Weakness of womanhood's life was her part; 
 Tenderly strong was her generous heart. 
 Bravely she stood by the sufferer's side, 
 Checking the pain and the life-bearing tide: 
 Fighting the swift-smeping phantom of death, 
 Easing the dying man's fluttering breath. 
 Then when the strife that had nerved her was o'er, 
 Calmly she went to where wars are no more. 
 Voices have blessed her now silent and dumb; 
 Voices will bless her in long years to come. 
 Cover them over yes, cover them over 
 Blessings, like angels, around her shall hover: 
 Treasure the name of that sister of ours, 
 And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 
 
 Cover the thousands that sleep far away 
 Sleep where their friends cannot find them to-day; 
 They who in mountain, and hillside, and dell, 
 Rest where they wearied, and lie where they fell. 
 Softly the grass-blade creeps round their repose; 
 Sweetly above them the wild flow 'ret blows; 
 Zephyrs of freedom fly <;ently o'er head, 
 Whispering names for the patriot dead. 
 So in our minds we will name them once more, 
 So in our hearts we will cover them o'er; 
 Roses and lilies and violets blue 
 Bloom in our souls for the brave and the true. 
 Cover them over yes, cover them over 
 Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover, 
 Think of those far-away heroes of ours, 
 And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 
 
 "When the long years have crept slowly away, 
 E'en to the dawn of earth's funeral day; 
 When at the Archangel's trumpet and tread 
 Rise up the faces and forms of the dead; 
 When the great world its last judgment awaits; 
 When the blue sky shall swing open its gates, 
 
 29
 
 450 TUPELO. 
 
 And our long columns march silently through, 
 Past the Great Captain for final review 
 Then for the blood that has flowed for the right, 
 Crowns shall be given, untarnished and bright; 
 Then the glad ear of each war-martyred sou, 
 Proudly shall hear the good judgment, " Well done." 
 Blessings for garlands shall cover them over 
 Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover: 
 God will reward these dead heroes of ours, 
 And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 
 
 HOW SLEEP THE BRAVE ! 
 
 How sleep the brave who sink to rest 
 By all their country's wishes blessed ! 
 When spring, with dewy fingers cold, 
 Keturns to deck their hallowed mould, 
 She there shall dress a sweeter sod 
 Than fancy's feet have ever trod. 
 
 By fairy hands their knell is rung, 
 By forms unseen their dirge is sung; 
 There honor comes, a pilgrim gray, 
 To bless the turf that wraps their clay; 
 And freedom shall awhile repair, 
 To dwell a weeping hermit there ! 
 
 DECORATION DAY. 
 
 The muirled drum's sad roll has beat 
 
 The soldier's last tattoo; 
 No more on life's parade shall meet 
 
 The brave but fallen few. 
 On fame's eternal camping ground 
 
 Their silent tents are spread, 
 And glory guards with solemn round 
 
 The bivouac of the dead. 
 
 No rumor of the foe's advance 
 Now sweeps upon the wind;
 
 TUPELO. 451 
 
 No troubled thoughts at midnight haunt, 
 
 Of loved ones left behind; 
 No vision of the morrow's strife 
 
 The warrior's dream alarms; 
 Nor braying horn, nor screaming fife 
 
 At dawn shall call to arms. 
 
 Their shivered swords are red with rust, 
 
 Their plumed heads are bowed; 
 Their haughty banner trailed in dust 
 
 Is now their martial shroud, 
 And plenteous funeral tears have washed 
 
 The red stains from each brow, 
 And the proud forms by battle gashed 
 
 Are freed from anguish now. 
 
 Now 'neath their parent turf they rest, 
 
 Far from the gory field. 
 Borne to a Spartan mother's breast 
 
 On many a bloody shield; 
 The sunshine of their native sky 
 
 Smiles sadly on them here, 
 And hundred eyes and hearts watch by 
 
 The soldier's sepulcher. 
 
 Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead, 
 
 Dear as the blood ye gave ! 
 No impious footsteps here shall tread 
 
 The herbage of your grave; 
 Nor shall your glory be forgot 
 
 "While fame her record keeps, 
 Or honor points the hallowed spot 
 
 Where valor proudly sleeps. 
 
 Yon faithful herald's blazoned stone 
 
 \Vith mournful pride shall tell, 
 When many a vanished age hath flown, 
 
 The story how ye fell !
 
 452 TUPELO. 
 
 Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's flight, 
 Nor time's remorseless doom 
 
 Shall mar one ray of glory's light 
 That guilds your deathless tomb. 
 
 THE BLUE AND THE GRAY. 
 
 By the flow of the inland river, 
 
 Whence the fleets of iron have fled, 
 Where the blades of grave-grass quiver, 
 
 Asleep are the ranks of the dead. 
 Under the sod and the dew, 
 
 Waiting the judgment day 
 Under the one the Blue, 
 
 Under the other the Gray. 
 
 These in the robings of glory, 
 
 Those in the gloom of defeat, 
 All, with the battle blood gory, 
 
 In the dusk of eternity meet. 
 Under the sod and the dew 
 
 Waiting the judgment day 
 Under the laurel the Blue, 
 
 Under the willow the Gray. 
 
 From the silence of sorrowful hours 
 
 The desolate mourners go, 
 Lovingly laden with flowers 
 
 Alike for the friend and the foe. 
 Under the sod and the dew 
 
 Waiting the judgment day 
 Under the roses the Blue, 
 
 Under the lilies the Gray. 
 
 So with an equal splendor 
 The morning sun-rays fall, 
 
 With a touch impartially tender 
 On the blossoms blooming for all.
 
 TUPELO. 453 
 
 Under the sod and the dew 
 
 Waiting the judgment day 
 Broidered with gold the Blue, 
 
 Mellowed with gold the Gray. 
 
 So when the summer calleth 
 
 On forest and field of grain, 
 With an equal murmur falleth 
 
 The cooling drip of the rain. 
 Under the sod and the dew 
 
 Waiting the judgment day 
 Wet with the rain the Blue, 
 
 Wet with the rain the Gray. 
 
 Sadly, but not with upbraiding, 
 
 The generous deed was done ; 
 In the storm of the years that are fading 
 
 No braver battle was won. 
 Under the sod and the dew 
 
 Waiting the judgment day 
 Under the blossoms the Blue, 
 
 Under the garlands the Gray. 
 
 No more shall the war cry sever, 
 
 Or the winding rivers be red 
 They banish our anger forever 
 
 When they laurel the graves of our dead. 
 Under the sod and the dew 
 
 Waiting the judgment day 
 Love and tears for the Blue, 
 
 Tears and love for the Gray. 
 
 AN ANSWER TO THE "BLUE AND GRAY." 
 
 
 
 WRITTEN BY A LOYAL LADY. 
 
 The loyal Blue and the traitor Gray, 
 
 Alike in the grave are sleeping. 
 Lying side by side iu the sunlight's ray 
 
 Aud under the storm cloud's weeping.
 
 454 TUPELO. 
 
 'Tis well to forgive the past, 
 
 God giving us grace we may, 
 But never while life shall last 
 
 Can we honor or love the Gray. 
 
 Our boys in Blue were loyal and true, 
 
 For their God and their country dying; 
 With a grateful pride that ever is new 
 We garland their graves where they're lying. 
 They were murdered by rebel bands, 
 
 They fell in the fearful fray. 
 Guarding our flag from traitor's hands; 
 We do not love the Gray. 
 
 We would not hate them, our hearts would fain 
 
 Cast a vail o'er their shameful story 
 It will not bring back our loyal slain, 
 To recall their treason gory; 
 But barriers deep and wide, 
 
 Divide the false from the true; 
 Shall treason and honor stand side by side, 
 , Is the Gray the peer of the Blue? 
 
 Answers each loyal heart to-day, 
 
 They are peers and equals never; 
 No wreath on a traitor's grave we lay 
 Let shame be his weed forever. 
 Give love where love is due. 
 To the loyal all honor pay ; 
 Love and honor belong to the Blue, 
 But what do Ave owe the Gray? 
 
 e owe them, three hundred thousand graves, 
 Where the loved and lost are lying, 
 We owe them where'er our banner waves, 
 Homes filled with tears and sighing. 
 Do they think that we forgot our dead, 
 
 Our boys who wore the Blue 
 That because they sleep in the same cold bed 
 We know not the false from the true?
 
 TUPELO. 455 
 
 Believe it not; where our heroes lie 
 
 The very ground is holy; 
 His name who dared for the right to die 
 Is sacred, however lowly; 
 But honor the traitor Gray 
 
 Make it the peer of the Blue 
 One flower at the feet of treason lay ? 
 Never ! while God is true. 
 
 THE NATION'S DEAD. 
 Four hundred thousand men 
 
 The brave, the good, the true 
 In tangled wood, in mountain glen, 
 On battle plain, in prison pen, 
 
 Lie dead for me and you ! 
 Four hundred thousand of the brave 
 Have made our ransomed soil their grave 
 
 For me and you ! 
 Good friend, for me and you ! 
 
 In many a fevered swamp, 
 
 By many a black bayou, 
 In many a cold and frozen camp, 
 The weary sentinel ceased his tramp, 
 
 And died for me and you ! 
 From western plain to ocean tide 
 Are stretched the graves of those who died 
 
 For me and you ! 
 Good friend, for me and you ! 
 
 On many a bloody plain 
 
 Their ready swords they drew, 
 And poured their life-blood like the rain, 
 A home, a heritage to gain 
 
 To gain for me and you ! 
 Our brothers mustered by our side, 
 They marched, they fought, and bravely died 
 
 For me and you ! 
 Good friend, for me and you !
 
 456 TUPELO. 
 
 Up many a fortress wall 
 
 They charged those boys in blue; 
 'Mid surging smoke and volley'dball, 
 The bravest were the first to fall 
 
 To fall for me and you ! 
 The noble men the nation's pride 
 I Four hundred thousand men have died 
 
 For me and you ! 
 Good friend, for me and you ! 
 
 In treason's prison-hold 
 
 Their martyr spirits grew 
 To stature like the saints of old, 
 And 'mid dark agonies untold 
 
 They starved for me and you ! 
 The good, the patient, and the tried 
 Four hundred thousand men have died 
 
 For me and you ! 
 Good friend, for me and you ! 
 
 A debt we ne'er can pay 
 
 To them is justly due, 
 And to the nation's latest day 
 Our children's children still shall say, 
 
 " They died for me and you ! " 
 Four hundred thousand of the brave 
 Made this, our ransomed soil, their grave, 
 
 For me and you ! 
 Good friend, for me and you ! 
 
 SLEEP, COMRADES, SLEEP ! 
 
 I. 
 Sleep, comrades, sleep ! The clinging rust 
 
 Lies thick upon the blade, 
 And valor is obscured by lust 
 
 Of money and of trade ; 
 The fife is mute; no more the drum 
 
 The drowsy camp alarms;
 
 TUPELO. 457 
 
 The piping times of peace have come, 
 And Pleasure spreads her charms. 
 
 II. 
 
 Sleep, comrades, sleep ! The cannon's roar 
 
 No longer fills the air; 
 The rifle volley routs no more 
 
 The rebel from his lair. 
 Where once the beacon brightly shone, 
 
 The sentry walked his round, 
 The crumbling headstone marks alone 
 
 The consecrated ground. 
 
 ill. 
 
 Sleep, comrades, sleep ! The battle flag 
 
 Is rotting on the staff, 
 And soon, perchance, the tattered rag 
 
 Will waken but a laugh; 
 The peaceful plowshare cleaves the sod 
 
 Once wet with War's red stain, 
 And fields that mighty armies trod 
 
 Are starred with flowers again. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Sleep, comrades, sleep ! Though soon forgot 
 
 By some, while life endures, 
 Forget our loving hearts will not 
 
 To keep their tryst with yours; 
 The general muster of the dead, 
 
 Whate'er on earth betide, 
 Shall find us still by Glory led 
 
 And marching by your side.
 
 458 TUPELO. 
 
 THE VETERAN'S REQUEST. 
 
 BY BAYARD TAYLOK. 
 I. 
 
 An old and crippled veteran to the war department came, 
 He sought the Chief who led him, on many a field of fame, 
 The Chief who shouted "Forward ! " where'er his banner goes, 
 And bore its stars in triumph behind the flying foes. 
 
 II. 
 
 "Have you forgotten, General," the battered soldier cried, 
 " The day of eighteen hundred twelve, when I was at your 
 
 side? 
 
 "Have you forgotten Johnson, that fought at Lundy's Lane? 
 'Tis true I'm old and pensioned, but I want to fight again." 
 
 ill. 
 "Have I forgotten?" said the Chief; "my brave old soldier, 
 
 No! 
 
 And here's the hand I gave you then, and let it tell you so; 
 But you have done your share, my friend; you're crippled, old, 
 
 and gray, 
 And we have need of younger arms and fresher blood to-day." 
 
 IV. 
 
 " But, General," cried the veteran, a flush upon his brow, 
 "The very men who fought with us, they say, are traitors now; 
 They've torn the flag of Lundy's Lane, our old red, white, and 
 
 blue, 
 And while a drop of blood is left, I'll show that drop is true. 
 
 V. 
 
 "I'm not so weak but I can strike, and I've a good old gun, 
 To get the range of traitors' hearts, and pick them, one by one; 
 Your minie-rifles and such arms it ain't worth while to try, 
 I couldn't get the hang of them, but I'll keep my powder dry." 
 
 VI. 
 " God bless you, comrade ! " said the Chief " God bless your 
 
 loyal heart ! 
 But younger men are in the field, and claim to have their part.
 
 TUPELO. 459 
 
 They'll plant our sacred banner in each rebellious town, 
 And woe, henceforth, to any hand that dares to pull it down." 
 
 VII. 
 
 " But, General ! " still persisting, the weeping veteran cried; 
 " I'm young enough to follow, so long as you're my guide; 
 And some, you know, must bite the dust, and that at least 
 
 can I; 
 So, give the young ones place to fight, but me a place to die ! 
 
 VIII. 
 
 " If they should fire on Pickens, let the colonel in command 
 Put me upon the rampart, with the flag-staff in my hand ; 
 No odds how hot the cannon smoke, or how hot the shells may 
 
 fly, 
 
 I'll hold the Stars and Stripes aloft, and hold them till I die. 
 
 IX. 
 
 " I'm ready, General, so you let a post to me be given, 
 Where Washington can see me, as he looks from highest 
 
 Heaven, 
 
 And say to Putnam at his side, or, may be, General Wayne, 
 ' There stands old Billy Johnson, that fought at Lundy's Lane.' 
 
 x. 
 
 " And when the fight is hottest, before the traitors fly, 
 When shell and ball are screeching, and bursting in the sky, 
 If any shot should hit me, and lay me on my face, 
 My soul would go to Washington's, and not to A mold's place." 
 
 THE SOLDIER'S REPRIEVE. 
 
 " My Fred! I can't understand it," 
 
 And his voice it quivered with pain, 
 While the tears kept slowly dropping 
 
 On his trembling hands like rain. 
 " For Fred was so brave and loj'al, 
 So true ; but my eyes are dim, 
 And I cannot read the letter, 
 The last I shall get from him.
 
 460 TUPELO. 
 
 Please read it, sir, while I listen 
 In fancy I see him dead ; 
 
 My boy, shot down like a traitor, 
 My noble, my brave boy, Fred !" 
 
 ' ' Dear father,' ' so ran the letter, 
 " To morrow when twilight creeps 
 Along the hill to the churchyard, 
 
 O'er the grave where mother sleeps, 
 When the dusky shadows gather, 
 
 They'll lay your boy in his grave, 
 For nearly betraying the country 
 
 He would give his life to save. 
 And, father, I tell you truly, 
 
 With almost my latest breath, 
 That your boy is not a traitor, 
 
 Though he dies a traitor's death. 
 
 " You remember Bennie Wilson? 
 
 He's suffered a deal of pain, 
 He was only that day ordered 
 
 Back into the ranks again. 
 I carried all of his luggage, 
 
 With mine on the march that day ; 
 I gave him my arm to lean on, 
 
 Else he had dropped by the way. 
 'Twas Bennie's turn to be sentry ; 
 
 But I took his place, and I 
 Father, I dropped asleep, and now 
 
 I must die as traitor's die. " 
 
 " The Colonel is kind and thoughtful, 
 
 He has done the best he can, 
 And they will not bind or blind me 
 
 I shall meet death like a man. 
 Kiss little Blossom ; but, father. 
 
 Need you tell her how I fall? " 
 A sob from the shadowed corner 
 
 Yes, Blossom had heard it all.
 
 TUPELO. 461 
 
 As she kissed the precious letter, 
 
 She said, with faltering breath : 
 Our Fred was never a traitor, 
 
 Though he dies a traitor's death." 
 
 And a little son-brown maiden, 
 
 In a shabby, time-worn dress, 
 Took her seat a half hour later 
 
 In the crowded night-express. 
 The conductor heard her story 
 
 As he held her dimpled hand, 
 And sighed for the sad hearts breaking 
 
 All over the troubled land, 
 He tenderly wiped the tear drops 
 
 From the blue eyes brimming o'er, 
 And guarded her footsteps safely 
 
 Till she reached the White House door. 
 
 The President sat at his writing; 
 
 But the eyes were kind and mild 
 That turned with a look of wonder 
 
 On the little shy faced child. 
 And he read Fred's farewell letter, 
 
 With a look of sad regret, 
 ' 'Tis a brave, young life," he murmured, 
 " And his country needs him yet, 
 From an honored place in battle 
 
 He shall bid the wot Id good-by, 
 If that brave young life is needed, 
 
 He shall die as heroes die." 
 
 [Rose Hartwick Thorpe, in the Detroit Free Press.
 
 462 TUPELO. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES IN 1984. 
 
 " This is a bad world/' President Dwight, of Yale, 
 used to say to his Senior class; "but, gentlemen, it 
 is a good world to do good in." 
 
 We were reminded of the president's remark on 
 reading the calculations of another clergyman, Mr. 
 F. B. Lincke, one of Queen Victoria's chaplains, who 
 has been ciphering out the destiny of the English- 
 speaking world. After doing a number of hard sums, 
 he comes to the conclusion that, one hundred years 
 from now, there will be nearly as many people speak- 
 ing the English language as there are now inhabitants 
 of the earth. 
 
 He figures it up thus : Great Britain and Ireland, 
 seventy millions ; South Africa, sixteen millions ; 
 Australia, forty-eight millions; Canada, sixty-four 
 millions ; the United States, eight hundred millions; 
 total, nine hundred and ninety-eight millions. 
 
 Having arrived at this enormous result, Mr. 
 Lincke enters upon conjectures as to the kind of peo- 
 ple those thousand millions are likely to be. -He 
 has remarked, in reading the history of the past, that 
 the dream of the philosopher comes true, and he thinks, 
 therefore, that what the best men and women are 
 now striving for with pen, tongue, and hand, will be 
 realized in and by that future multitude. 
 
 They will all be in some degree educated. There 
 will be no class deaf to the wisdom of the age, blind 
 to its art, insensible to its aspiration. There will be
 
 TUPELO. 463 
 
 no estates too large to be a good to the owners, and, 
 as a rule, the farmer will be the owner of the acres 
 he tills " Landlordism," so far as the naked land 
 is concerned, will not exist. The largest class will 
 be farmers, living on their own land, and holding no 
 more of it than they can utilize. 
 
 The nations will live in peace through free-trade 
 and courts of arbitration, knowing no rivalry apart 
 from the generous strife to excel in the arts and the 
 virtues. Instead of contending on the field of battle 
 for vulgar and odious mastery, the nations will, as 
 Victor Hugo has it, give one another rendezvous at 
 International Expositions the "true fields of battle" 
 for civilized men. 
 
 There will be, of course, no such thing as rank or 
 caste, but every honest man will stand in all com- 
 panies the equal brother of the rest, whether he be 
 scavenger or statesman. 
 
 Are these but the idle thoughts of an optimist? 
 That depends upon us, who have the honor to inhabit 
 the English-speaking world at the present time. It 
 depends much upon the youngest of us who will live 
 in the dawn of that greater day, and some of whom 
 will be known as all but contemporaries of the thou- 
 sand millions who will speak our language in 1984.
 
 464 TUPELO. 
 
 THE ENGLISH OR AMERICAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 [From the Grammatical Guide.] 
 
 The American language will be in the near future 
 the universal language. It is the commercial language 
 of the globe. It is the vernacular of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, and the United States, the two most enlight- 
 ened, powerful, and influential nations on the earth. 
 The infant Empires of Australia and New Zealand 
 speak it. The Republic of Liberia and the British 
 African Colonies will give the language to Africa. 
 Great Britain and her Colonial possessions comprise 
 one-fourth of the earth's inhabitants-; the language 
 of the mother country is rapidly becoming the lan- 
 guage of her Colonies. All the countries speaking 
 this language are radiating centers whence emanate 
 the beams of lingual light which will ere long illume 
 the whole planet. Every year half a million Ger- 
 mans and French are exchanging their language for 
 ours. Every idea that enters the mind, every shade 
 of meaning, every variety and contrariety of thought 
 and opinion, may be expressed with clearness, force, 
 and elegance in the language of America. 
 
 The poet, the statesman, the divine, cannot find 
 amid earth's clashing tongues a better vehicle of 
 thought. Poverty of expression results only from 
 jgnorance of the language, or from poverty of thought. 
 
 The genius of Shakespeare, the sublime imagina- 
 tion of Milton, the ennobling thoughts and grand 
 conceptions of the minor stars in the constellation of
 
 TUPELO. 465 
 
 English literature, all found the amplest expression 
 in the Anglo-Saxon tongue. Bryant, Longfellow, 
 Whittier, Prescott, Bancroft, Fenimore Cooper, and 
 all the bright luminaries which shine in the galaxy 
 of American literature, found the utmost felicity of 
 expression in their own vernacular. The power of 
 speech is a great blessing conferred upon the human 
 race. The ability to hold intercourse with each other 
 by means of a language so full, so expressive, and so 
 forcible, is one of the greatest temporal blessings 
 which God has bestowed upon the American speak- 
 ing nations. It is our bounden duty to guard our 
 language from everything that militates against its 
 purity, from provincialisms, vulgarisms, slang, and 
 flash phrases which are insidiously creeping into the 
 colloquial dialect of the people. Unless we do this 
 our language will soon undergo serious deterioration. 
 The pure in heart and life will sedulously cultivate 
 purity of speech. Nothing better indicates mental 
 and moral worth than a chaste and pure conversa- 
 tional style. In order to form this style, study dili- 
 gently the writings of our standard authors, whose 
 works have stood the test of time and are still popu- 
 lar. Make their style your own. Reject the ephem- 
 eral trash, the mushroom literature of the day, which 
 panders to a depraved taste. Read it, and it will 
 vitiate and enervate your style. In order to culti- 
 vate the greatest purity of expression and to form a 
 vigorous and chaste style, be a diligent student of the 
 Bible. Its sublime conceptions, its ennobling themes, 
 30
 
 466 TUPELO. 
 
 its pure morality, its simple, chaste, vigorous, and 
 classic style, its wide range of subjects, will bestow 
 upon those who study it diligently a liberal education, 
 even though not conversant with any other volume, 
 while he who is versed in all human lore, and is ig- 
 norant of the sacred Scriptures, cannot compete with 
 him who has made them a study. The greatest 
 statesmen and most distinguished authors, both Eng- 
 lish and American, read the Bible daily. One object 
 they had in view was to improve their style, to ac- 
 quire fluency and felicity of expression. Shakespeare 
 was a student of the Bible, as his writings prove. 
 Milton made it a daily study, John Quincy Adams, 
 "the old man eloquent," was well versed in its sub- 
 lime lore. Webster affirmed that he was more in- 
 debted for his style to the Bible than to any other 
 volume. Make the Bible a daily study ; become 
 familiar with its modes of thought and expression, 
 and your style will be free from redundancy, mere- 
 tricious adornment, slang, and vulgarity. It will be 
 correct, forcible, expressive^ 1 . Every section of our 
 country has localisms, provincialisms, and incongrui- 
 ties of speech peculiar to it. These should be care- 
 fully avoided. 
 
 DUTY OF CHRISTIAN MINISTERS AND PEOPLE. 
 
 The passage of Scripture " My kingdom is not 
 of this world" (John xviii. 36) is cited of late by 
 political speakers, and by religious and secular pa- 
 pers, to show that ministers must keep hands and
 
 TUPELO. 467 
 
 tongues off the politics of the day. There never 
 was a greater mistake and one leading to more disas- 
 trous results to this or any other nation. This 
 Scripture is Christ's answer to Pilate's question : 
 " Art thou the king of the Jews ?" " Art thou a 
 a king ?" " Thou sayest that I am a king." " To 
 this end was I born, and for this cause came I into 
 the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. 
 Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." 
 Thus Christ confesses that he is king, but not of the 
 order of Pilate or kings of this world. His king- 
 dom is spiritual and eternal and sways a sceptre of 
 universal dominion. "He does his pleasure in the 
 armies of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of this 
 world, there being none to stay his hand or say, 
 what doest thou ?" " My kingdom," says Christ, " is 
 not of this world." It is not of the same nature it 
 is spiritual, holy, just, good, and from heaven. The 
 kingdoms of this world are from below, "out of the 
 sea and of the earth." The kingdom of Christ is 
 " within men " in the kingdoms of this world, and 
 is the " salt of the earth," " the light of the world." 
 He came to bear witness to the truth, that is to 
 authoritatively declare and enjoin upon men the 
 will of God as the infallible rule of faith and prac- 
 tice, in the church and state. There is no power but 
 of him. ' " By me," he says, " kings rule and princes 
 decree justice. By me princes rule and nobles; yea, 
 all the judges of the earth." 
 
 It is impossible to separate religion and politics,
 
 468 TUPELO. 
 
 that is the morals of civil government. God has 
 married them, and " what God has joined together 
 let not man put asunder." Religion is the chief 
 corner-stone of this Republic. All our monuments, 
 histories, orators, and ministers bear witness to that. 
 Bishop Mcllvaine says : " The Christian religion is 
 recognized as the religion of this nation." Webster 
 says : " There is nothing we look for with more 
 certainty than this principle, that Christianity is a 
 part of the law of the land." Jesus Christ the great 
 King and Head of the church, and " commander and 
 leader of the nations " of the earth, is ascended to 
 heaven to intercede for men, but he has left behind 
 him the ministers of the gospel and people of God as 
 the spiritual leaders and commanders of the people. 
 This great king says to his ministers: "Ye shall be 
 witnesses of me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and 
 to the uttermost parts of the earth." Ministers 
 must in Christ's stead authoritatively declare his 
 will. When governments among men become un- 
 just and tyrannize over the people, or when they set 
 in motion for the sake of gain, or spoils of office, 
 some infernal machine that deprives the citizens of 
 his natural, inherent, God-given rights life, liberty, 
 and happiness then the ministers of the gospel as 
 "solemn legates of the skies," must "thunder and 
 lighten" every Sabbath, as John Adams says the 
 ministers of Philadelphia did in 1774, or Rev. 
 Jacob Trout on the eve of the battle of Brandy wine. 
 He cried " Soldiers, I look around upon your familiar
 
 TUPELO. 469 
 
 faces with strange interest. To-morrow morning we 
 go forth to battle. Need I tell you that your un- 
 worthy minister will march with you, invoking the 
 divine blessing of God's aid in the fight ? Need I 
 exhort you to fight the good fight to fight for your 
 homes, and your wives and your children ?" 
 
 Says Dr. Spring : " That great event in the his- 
 tory of the world, the American Revolution, never 
 would have been achieved without the influence of 
 the pulpit." " The Puritan preachers/' says Lossing, 
 " promulgated the doctrine of civil liberty. By de- 
 grees their pulpits became the tribune of the people, 
 and on all occasions the Puritan ministers were the 
 bold asserters of that freedom which the American 
 Revolution established." The ministers of the 
 Revolution were partisans, hateful partisans in the 
 parlance of to-day. Says Thatcher, in his Military 
 Journal, May, 1775 : " The clergymen of New 
 England are almost without exception advocates of 
 Whig principles ; there are few instances only of the 
 separation of a minister from his people in conse- 
 quence of a disagreement in political sentiment. The 
 Tories censure in a very illiberal manner the preacher 
 who speaks boldly for the liberties of the people," 
 etc. The tyranny of England was the overshadow- 
 ing curse of that day. 
 
 What is the duty of the hour ? Let the 3,575,000 
 Christian voters, headed by their ministers, look 
 out from among all the people the kind of men that 
 God wants to rule over men under him " Able men,
 
 470 TUPELO. 
 
 such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness"; 
 and walk up to the polls and elect them. The 
 Christian element in this land has the balance of 
 power, and woe unto them if they fail to use it 
 properly. Where are the great nations of antiquity ? 
 HT>V did they fall ? By their own hands as national 
 suicides. How shall we stay this nation on its course 
 to ruin ? Strike down the drink traffic, Sabbath- 
 breaking by great monopolies, and divide the public 
 lands among their rightful owners. 
 
 Miss SARAH HOSIER. 
 
 THE BURNING OF COLUMBIA, S. C., IX 1865. 
 
 Who burnt Columbia is a mooted question. Many 
 of the citizens of Columbia say that their city was 
 burnt by Gen. Sherman. Messrs. J. J. Knox and 
 Dr. Witherspoon, of Sumter, S. C., made this state- 
 ment to me: "AVade Hampton, when retreating be- 
 fore Gen. Sherman, fired the public property belong- 
 ing to the Confederacy, which he could not remove, 
 lest it should fall into the hands of the approaching 
 Federal army. The buildings in which this property 
 was stored, while burning, communicated the fire to 
 the city. Upon the arrival of Gen. Sherman and the 
 surrender of the city to him, he made almost super- 
 human efforts to save it from destruction, and all of 
 the city that escaped owed its preservation to his 
 clemency." 
 
 Messrs. Witherspoon and Knox had no doubt that 
 after Gen. Sherman's arrival some of his troops aided
 
 TUPELO. 471 
 
 in promoting the conflagration, assisted by liberated 
 Unionist prisoners. In confirmation of their state- 
 ment they narrated this incident : 
 
 "In 1861, Mr. Lemuel Lorimer strongly animad- 
 verted upon the secession of South Carolina, and de- 
 clared himself to bean unconditional Unionist. Soon 
 a mob, led by Gen. Adams, ex-governor of S. C., and 
 other prominent citizens of Columbia, seized the 
 unfortunate Unionist, tied him to a post, and whipped 
 him severely, after which they put upon him a coat 
 of tar and feathers. Some one proposed to set him 
 on fire. This was opposed by some, as he might 
 rush into a store or some building and start a confla- 
 gration. At this moment a northern bound train 
 entered the depot. Gen. Adams suggested that it 
 \vould be well to send him North, among congenial 
 spirits, and thus have all their enemies in front. 
 This suggestion was approved by the majority. Mr. 
 Lorimer was unceremoniously hustled aboard the 
 train. Some now r proposed to shoot him, and drew 
 their revolvers for this purpose, since their victim 
 refused to recant. Fearing that the lives of others 
 might be endangered, they refrained from shooting. 
 They then ordered a negro to go to him and collect 
 the fare. Mr. Lorimer said, ' Put your hand in my 
 pocket and take the money, my hands are besmeared 
 and tied together, so that it is impossible for me to 
 comply with their demand.' The colored man, at the 
 instigation of the crowd, withdrew Mr. Lorimer's 
 pocket-book, took from it ten dollars, and returned
 
 472 TUPELO. 
 
 it. The train then started North, bearing this de- 
 fenseless victim of Confederate wrath, who was indeed 
 in a pitiable plight, but thankful to escape with life. 
 " When Gen. Sherman entered Columbia, Mr. Lori- 
 mer was an officer in his army. Mr. Lorimer's first 
 enquiry after entering this doomed city was for Gen. 
 Adams. He learned that he was not living. The 
 others who had maltreated hirn were all put to death 
 as soon as found. Not one was spared of those whom 
 he remembered as guilty of the flagrant outrage upon 
 his person. A life atoned for every lash he had re- 
 ceived. A number of Unionists were incarcerated in 
 prison in Columbia. They were under sentence of 
 death. These the Federal army released. In their 
 wrath they did not spare the burning city, but aided 
 in its destruction. Mr. Lorimer, after destroying 
 those who had so horribly abused him for his loyal 
 sentiments, burnt their dwellings, and this aided 
 materially in extending the conflagration." 
 
 CHARLESTON, S. C., 1865. 
 
 Thy sanctuaries are forsaken now, 
 Deep mold and moss cling to thy fretted towers, 
 Deep rents and seams where struggling lichens grow 
 And no sweet voice of prayer at vestal hour, 
 But voice of screaming shot and bursting shell, 
 Thy deep damnation and thy doom foretell. 
 The fire has left a pile of broken walls, 
 And night hags revel in thy ruined halls.
 
 TUPELO. 473 
 
 MEMORIAL DAY THE ADDRESS DELIVERED AT 
 
 CHARITOX, IOWA, BY REV. W. F. BARTHOLOMEW. 
 
 Soldiers and Fellow Citizens: 
 
 Toward the close of the war of the rebellion, the 
 graves of some soldiers were visited by a few patri- 
 otic Christian ladies, by whom they were strewed 
 with sweet spring flowers. It was a simple act, sug- 
 gested by a womanly impulse, and they little thought 
 they were doing a thing which would so soon become 
 a national observance. Within a few years the cus- 
 tom had become so widespread, that, in 1868, John 
 A. Logan issued an order from the head-quarters of 
 the Grand Army of the Republic, setting apart the 
 30th of May as a day to be thus observed through- 
 out the nation, in honor of its dead. The order was 
 soon ratified by many of the state legislatures, and 
 by congress for the District of Columbia, making 
 the day a legal holiday. In the spontaneous and 
 widespread popularity of this Memorial Day, I see 
 what is to me, full of hopefulness for the nation. I 
 see a necessity for the sentiments which these com- 
 memorations express, and which they tend to culti- 
 vate. I am aware that there are those among us who 
 affect contempt for what they choose to call "mere 
 sentiment." But I insist that sentiment, so far from 
 being a useless thing, is as important to us as rail- 
 roads, or mines, or arms. The enthusiasms of the 
 world are begotten, not by syllogisms, nor by statis- 
 tics, but by what these people call sentiment.
 
 474 TUPELO. 
 
 These sentiments are what make patriotism practical, 
 the raising of armies and navies possible. Without 
 them we should be but selfish individuals, and the 
 state would be impossible. Edward Everett, plead- 
 ing for the completion of Bunker Hill monument, 
 said, " I am asked, 'What good will this monument 
 do?' And I ask, What good does anything do? 
 What is good ? I say that generous and patriotic sen- 
 timents, sentiments which prepare us to serve our 
 country, are good good, humanly speaking, of the 
 highest order. It is good to have them, good to com- 
 memorate them, good to encourage them." A coun- 
 try that may one day need citizens who would die for 
 it, had better encourage the spirit of her who was 
 willing to break the precious alabaster box of spike- 
 nard, for the sake of a sentiment, than foster the 
 spirit of her practical-minded critic, who so soon sold 
 his Master for the price of a slave. The decoration 
 of these graves then, I understand to be not merely 
 a beautiful ceremony, but also an educator in the 
 truest elements of American citizenship. 
 
 The impulse that called forth this observance was 
 not a new impulse, nor one peculiar to the American 
 people, but an impulse as old as the heart of man. 
 All civilized nations have in their own ways done 
 honor to their illustrious dead. The early Egyptians 
 embalmed their bodies and entombed them in costly 
 sarcophagi, and with them the records of their glory. 
 The early Greeks, and other ancient peoples, exalted 
 their heroes, and worshiped them as gods. Many of
 
 TUPELO. 475 
 
 them they associated with the stars of night, where 
 some of the most brilliant constellations yet bear their 
 names. The Greeks and Romans raised monumental 
 pillars, and covered them with the names of those 
 who lost their lives in battle. One of these monu- 
 mental records has come down to our clay, containing 
 the names of the men who fell at Potidrea. We find 
 in ancient Athens memorial rites very, similar to our 
 own. They reach as far back as the battle of Marathon. 
 Their burial place was the Keramikus the most 
 charming suburb of Athens which stood on the in- 
 tersection of the great thoroughfares from east, south, 
 and west. Here they buried their soldiers who had 
 been brought home at the public expense ; and here 
 they met annually to do them honor with offerings 
 of flowers and orations of eulogy, much as we do to- 
 day. Two of these funeral orations have come down 
 to us one from Lysias, and one from Pericles. 
 That you may see how much the Greek heart and 
 thought was like our own, I wish to quote a few 
 sentences from the oration of Pericles. He says, 
 "Before I praise the dead, I should like to point out 
 by what principles of action we rose to power, and 
 under what institutions and through what manner of 
 life our nation became great." And in eulogy of the 
 dead, he says, " Their loftiest praise has been alreacly 
 spoken ; for in magnifying the city I have magnified 
 them, and men like them, whose virtues made her 
 glorious. They ran away from the world of dis- 
 honor; but on the battle field their feet stood fast.
 
 476 TUPELO. 
 
 And in an instant, at the height of their fortune, 
 they passed away from the scene, not of their fear, 
 but of their glory." These words are as fit to be 
 spoken here to-day, as in Athens twenty-five centuries 
 ago. 
 
 Of all peoples, we can least afford to be unmindful 
 of our nation's dead. It is therefore most fitting that 
 here, amid the vernal glories of the opening year, we 
 should turn aside from the rushing current of events, 
 and from the thronging cares which our prosperity 
 has brought upon us, and from our hearts do honor 
 to the men whose death made this prosperity possi- 
 ble. It is not enough that tkeir heroic deeds are 
 recorded in books of history. 
 
 " For though their names were graven on the sky, 
 To be forever read by every eye," 
 
 still the affection of a grateful, loving people would 
 seek in some such way as this to give suitable ex- 
 pression to the patriotic devotion it enkindles. No 
 words of mine can fitly speak the eulogy demanded 
 by this hour. And if eulogy were the whole duty 
 of this occasion, it would seem to me more fitting 
 that we should stand with bated breath and uncov- 
 ered heads, about these graves, which appeal to us 
 with a mute eloquence, more impressive far than 
 speech. 
 
 But the observance of this day is not for the good or 
 pleasure of those whose graves we have decorated with 
 flowers. They are careless of the offerings we bring. 
 They are heedless to the praises we utter above them.
 
 TUPELO. 477 
 
 These ceremonies are not for their sakes, but for our 
 own. The dead clamor not for our recognition, but 
 we cannot afford to withhold it. When a nation be- 
 comes negligent of its dead, that nation will soon be 
 neglected by its living. "When a people cease to 
 glory in their past, there will probably be little 
 worthy of glory in their future. 
 
 It is the purpose of this observance, not only to 
 express patriotic gratitude and devotion, but also to 
 quicken and intensify them. The palace walls at 
 Versailles are hung with paintings representing all 
 that is glorious and heroic in French history. One 
 has said of them, " If I were emperor of the French, 
 before I sent my soldiers to battle, I would march 
 them through these galleries, and I think I should 
 thus make them invincible." We stand in thought 
 to-day before the heroism of the war. Let me point 
 out some ways in which this occasion may be made to 
 quicken and strengthen the patriotic sentiments of 
 our people. 
 
 This memorial service revives memories of the 
 war. Twenty-three years have passed since the close 
 of the war ; so it has almost become an event of a 
 past generation. These years have been too full of 
 exciting events to allow men to live much in the 
 past. A look backward to the close of the war 
 reveals to us the wonderful progress this nation has 
 made in a quarter of a century. It would not be in 
 place here to dwell upon the details of this progress; 
 but these have been years of activity, and not of re-
 
 478 TUPELO. 
 
 flection on the past. Besides, those reminders of the 
 war, at first so numerous, the maimed and crippled 
 soldiers upon our streets, have become less and less 
 frequent, as these enfeebled veterans have dropped 
 into their graves before their time. The parents who 
 sent sons to the war, are dead, or decrepit with age. 
 The girls whose hearts went to the front with the 
 " brave boys," are elderly matrons now, and the sol- 
 dier's baby now has children of his own. A few 
 among us to-day will cross these years by one leap 
 of thought, and, neglectful of all the years have been, 
 or brought to them, will live over again the days 
 from '61 to '65 the enlistment, the drill, the excite- 
 ment of battle, the monotony of camp, and all the 
 experiences of war which none can picture but he who 
 has had them. These will come back to the soldier- 
 to-day as he stands by the graves of his comrades. 
 Others will remember the loneliness when the boys 
 had gone, the waiting for news, the suspense after 
 battle, the reading long lists of names of killed and 
 wounded, in search of one name, the anxiety for the 
 boys in the hospital, or worse, in some southern 
 prison. How these memories rush in upon us to-day 
 the waiting for news, the ebb and flow of feeling 
 they brought, the peril of the situation, and the fears 
 as to the outcome. Let us open wide the windows 
 of our souls, and give these memories free play; and 
 we shall be all the better for them. 
 
 But this observance is not only fruitful in tender 
 memories, but is potent also as an instructor. A new
 
 TUPELO. 479 
 
 generation has come to manhood and citizenship since 
 the Avar. A large majority of our people have no 
 personal knowledge or recollection of its events. 
 Among these are not less than two million voters. 
 Very soon all the men who defended the nation, in 
 its years of peril, will have dropped out of public 
 life. Already the places of trust and power are 
 passing into the hands of men who have paid no 
 price for the nation's life. It has been thought that 
 frequent times of peril are necessary to prevent the 
 decay of patriotism. Rather let us keep our people 
 so familiar with our past perils, that patriotism shall 
 not die. A written history has never been found 
 sufficient for any people. The Hebrews were re- 
 quired, at each returning season, with sprinkled blood, 
 and staff in hand, to* eat the hasty meal of bitter 
 herbs, and unleavened bread, thus re-enacting the 
 scenes of that historic night when their fathers es- 
 caped from Egyptian bondage. Jesus provided for the 
 writing of the Gospels, yet at the last hour he insti- 
 tuted a simple feast, saying, "Do this in remembrance 
 of me." So the church and the state have found a 
 necessity for these memorial occasions in the fact that 
 most people learn history in no other way. When 
 Israel was commanded to keep the Passover, this was 
 assigned as one of its uses: " When your children 
 shall say unto you, 'what mean ye by this service?' 
 then ye shall say, ' It is the sacrifice of the Lord's 
 Passover, who passed over the houses of the children 
 of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the first-born and
 
 480 TUPELO. 
 
 delivered our houses.' '' Men are ever debtors to the 
 past, for those inspirations which make great futures. 
 As the eager Elisha, gazing after the receding chariot, 
 caught the mantle of the ascending prophet ; so by 
 studiously regarding the past, we become heir to its 
 spirit, and emulous of its achievement. Alexander 
 the Great was fascinated by Homer's Iliad. When a 
 boy, he slept with it under his pillow. When a 
 young man he crossed the ^Egean, and kneeling at 
 the shrine of his illustrious ancestor, Achilles, he 
 there gathered, we are told, his inspiration for his 
 tour of Eastern conquest. So let America, year by 
 year, gather her young men about the graves of her 
 heroic dead, and there teach them the virtues that 
 inspired their fathers in her time of peril. Tell them 
 that 500,000 lives laid down, a'nd as many more cut 
 short by wounds and ill health, was the price paid 
 for their peace and prosperity. Tell them of Shiloh 
 and Vicksburg, of Gettysburg and the Wilderness, 
 of Libby and Andersonville. If you would have 
 men willing to die for their country in the future, 
 you must let them see that the nation appreciates and 
 honors those who have died for her in the past. 
 
 Let us learn here in the presence of these graves, 
 how closely, and how necessarily, death and life are 
 bound up together. There is no life that springs not 
 forth from the darkness of death. Even these flowers, 
 with which, as emblems of immortality, we have 
 decorated these graves, were gathered from the sepul- 
 cher of last year's glory this is the law of nature.
 
 TUPELO. 481 
 
 The chariot, wheels of civilization have ever been 
 lubricated with human blood; and gory battle fields 
 have ever been the way marks of human progress 
 this is the law of civilization. Enter a yet higher 
 realm. You hear him who is above all, say, " The 
 hour is come that the Son of man shall be glorified." 
 But how is he to be glorified ? " Except a corn of 
 wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone ; 
 but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit." No truth 
 is more historic than that of vicarious sacrifice of 
 some suffering, and dying, that others may live and 
 be happy. " Xo man liveth unto himself, and no 
 man dieth unto himself." 
 
 Let us learn, then, as another lesson of this hour, 
 that unselfishness, and generous public spirit are the 
 conditions and measure of our usefulness that, be- 
 ing such debtors to the past, we have no right to live 
 selfish lives that he who does not contribute to the 
 common weal, as he has received from it, goes to his 
 grave a defaulter in trusts more sacred than funds 
 and stocks. The debt we owe to the past, we are to 
 pay to the future. Already, hands are stretched out 
 to us, authorized to receive God's per cent on the 
 blessings we enjoy. 
 
 " Not to ourselves are we living; 
 
 Not to ourselves do we die. 
 Freely receiving and giving, 
 
 Soul after soul marches by. 
 Parts of one mighty procession, 
 
 Stretching from Eden's first dawn, 
 
 31
 
 482 TUPELO. 
 
 On through long curves of progression, 
 
 'Til in the future 'tis gone 
 Gone from earth's ken, past heart-beat and breath 
 
 Into the life that is miscalled death." 
 
 No memorial service for the dead can be sincerely 
 observed which does not more deeply impress us with 
 the sacredness of the trusts they have left to our 
 keeping. True honor to the dead soldier is closely 
 bound up with conscientious fidelity to his surviving 
 comrades. They are among us, maimed, crippled, 
 sightless, bearing all sorts of disabilities as the result 
 of their service in the war. As they drop into their 
 graves from these disabilities, we deem them worthy 
 of like honor to those who died in battle. Far more 
 pleasing to them shall be the tokens of recognition 
 and reward that are ministered to them while they are 
 living, than honors when they are dead. It has 
 been said that "Westminster Abbey and monumental 
 Greenwood are the world's atttempt to atone by 
 honors to the dead, for wrongs to the living." Let 
 not Decoration Day come into this condemnation. 
 There are those participating in these ceremonies who 
 will live into a generation which shall regard with 
 peculiar reverence the surviving soldier of the war 
 of the rebellion. Are they worthy of less honor be- 
 cause not now objects of curiosity? All honor then 
 to these brave veterans who are still among us, as 
 connecting links between the present and the past; 
 and as one by one they go to join their comrades in 
 the "silent land," may men arise to take their places,
 
 TUPELO. 483 
 
 who will be as brave and true to the future as they 
 have been to the past. 
 
 But our heroic dead have bequeathed to us a trust 
 more sacred still more sacred to us than their mem- 
 ories or their comrades, as it was more sacred to them 
 than their lives. If these dead soldiers could speak 
 to us from their graves, I think they would say, 
 " We are not so careful that you should perpetuate our 
 names, as that you shall guard the nation's honor 
 for which we fought. We are not so much concerned 
 that you should cherish our memories, as that you 
 shall cherish the principles for which we laid down 
 our lives." There is cause for rejoicing in that the 
 bitterness and animosity engendered by the war is so 
 rapidly disappearing, and that we seem to be ap- 
 proaching a national unity, never yet realized in the 
 history of this country. Yet this very fact imperils 
 the principles M'hich were at issue during the war. 
 I honor the bravery of the men who fought against 
 us. I believe most of them were honest in their 
 convictions. Yet we must remember that neither 
 honesty in embracing convictions, nor bravery in de- 
 fending them, can make men's convictions right, or 
 their principles true. Passions cool, prejudices 
 change with situation, men die, and are forgotten ; 
 but truths and principles are apart from all these, 
 .and do not die or change. A man's honesty may be 
 sufficient apology for his espousal of a cause, but it 
 does not make that cause right or excusable. 
 
 The American people need to remember that the
 
 484 TUPELO. 
 
 Trojans resisted a siege of ten years, and then fell 
 before the stratagem of the wooden horse. It has 
 been said that " Peace hath its victories, not less re- 
 nowned than war." It has also its emergencies not 
 less perilous, and its defeats not less disastrous. Let 
 us beware, lest the scheming politician, in his selfish 
 lust for place and gain, shall deceive us into a sur- 
 render of that which an armed host was unable to 
 wrest from us. A nation, so valiant upon the battle 
 field should stand invincible against every foe upon 
 the moral and political field as well as on the fields 
 of war. 
 
 I do not forget that the spirit and sentiments for 
 which I am now pleading are so well guarded and 
 emphasized by the two distinguished societies under 
 whose auspices we have met to-day the Grand Army 
 of the Republic and the Woman's Relief Corps. 
 The honorable place which public opinion has ac- 
 corded these societies shows how widely the popular 
 heart responds to these sentiments. I only ask the 
 perpetuity of these conditions, and we shall thus ren- 
 der permanent the fruits of the war. 
 
 At the close of the war, when the armies of the 
 rebellion had surrendered, it was well known that 
 the surrender did not carry with it the feeling of dis- 
 loyalty among the southern people. At that moment 
 a vexing problem presented itself to thoughtful men 
 how can a people so divided in their convictions, 
 convictions intensified by the sacrifices of war, ever 
 again become so united in heart as to be in fact one
 
 TUPELO. 485 
 
 people? We now stand far enough from the war to 
 foresee the solution of this problem. One evening, 
 while the two armies were facing each other across 
 the Rappahannock, the military bands on each side 
 of the river were rendering their favorite national 
 airs. When the Confederate bands played "Dixie," 
 the southern soldiers cheered. Then the Union 
 bands played "Hail Columbia," and the Union army 
 cheered. After the bands had thus answered each 
 other back and forth, some band began playing 
 " Home Sweet Home." As soon as the tune was 
 detected, all the bauds joined, and when it was fin- 
 ished both armies together set up a shout that made 
 the valleys ring. This is a picture of the way in 
 which this problem is being solved. Not by accusa- 
 tion, reply, and rejoinder, but by the timely on-com- 
 ing of issues and enterprises, apart from the matters 
 in dispute, and of common interest to both sections 
 of the country. With the return of peace came a 
 time of unparalleled activity. 
 
 Vast and fertile domains invited settlement ; great 
 commercial and manufacturing enterprises sprang 
 into existence; marvelous inventions with surprising 
 rapidity revolutionized the mechanical agencies of 
 the country. A new generation has come to the 
 .front identified with these new conditions, rather 
 than with the old. In this I find both explanation 
 and prophecy ot the fast approaching unification of 
 the two, once hostile sections of this country. You 
 have but to recur to history, to be reminded how
 
 486 TUPELO. 
 
 differently other conditions might have affected us. 
 You know how strifes of far less moment have pro- 
 tracted their bitterness through centuries. You 
 know how the petty feuds between the Scottish clans 
 were passed as cherished heirlooms from one gener- 
 ation to another. When I consider the character of 
 the issues which divided the North and South, and 
 produced the war, the long period through which 
 they were matured and strengthened, and the tenacity 
 with which they were fought over, it is not so surpris- 
 ing to me that there have been some displays of the 
 old-time bitterness, since the war, as that there have 
 been so few of them. I find cause for rejoicing and 
 confidence in the fact that twenty-three years have 
 done so much to cool the passions and unite the hearts 
 of the old combatants. 
 
 If we turn away from this observance with a 
 higher appreciation of what this nation has cost, and 
 hence, of what it is worth, with a deeper sense of our 
 indebtedness to the past, and so of our responsibility 
 to the future, and with a truer purpose to act well 
 our part, this day will not have been spent in vain. 
 
 There is a land of every land the pride. 
 Beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside, 
 Where brighter suns dispense serener light, 
 And milder nioons imparadise the night. 
 Oh, thou shalt find howe'er thy footsteps roam 
 That land thy country, and that land thy home.
 
 TUPELO. 487 
 
 MEMORIAL SERMON. 
 
 The following memorial sermon was delivered by 
 Rev. W. F. Slocuru, pastor of the Bethany Baptist 
 church, of Wooster, on Sunday morning, May 30, 
 1886, on which occasion Given Post, No. 133, G. A. 
 R., and Hancock Camp, Xo. 100, Sons of Veterans, 
 were present in a body : 
 
 Luke xvi. 7: " And how much o\vest thou?" 
 
 THE DEBT OF THE LIVING TO THE DEAD. 
 
 For the most part I shall confine my remarks to 
 that subject made so significant by the return of this 
 season of the year, viz. " The debt we owe to the 
 departed heroes of our country." 
 
 The relation of the living to the dead is one of 
 large and various meaning. AVe are the heirs of all 
 the generations gone. We inherit their works, their 
 examples, as we do their names and dwelling- 
 places. We are their successors. We are here 
 to reap that which we have not sown ; other men 
 have had conflicts and labors and we are entered 
 into their labors. They prepared for us largely 
 the conditions and pursuits of the lives we are 
 enjoying to-day. AVe are their pupils. They teach 
 us grand lessons of both humility and of cour- 
 age ; for we learn of them both how small and how 
 great we are. Lying in the dust with which our 
 own is soon to be mingled, they rebuke our pride; 
 yet they save us from a feeling of nothingness and
 
 488 TUPELO. 
 
 from brutish views of life by reminding us of the 
 dignity, the indestructible worth, and the undying 
 power of every good and earnest deed. From the 
 heavenly heights they send us down sweet messages 
 of cheer, as we toil along the journey of our brief 
 day. 
 
 " Mortal," they softly say, " peace to thy heart ! 
 We, too, yes, mortal, have been as thou art ; 
 Hope-lifted, doubt-depressed, seeing in part. 
 Tried, troubled, tempted, sustained as thou art." 
 
 This relation signifies obligation to them. We 
 are their debtors ; and that not only in an account 
 that cannot be paid, but also in duties that we can 
 render. It is to perform one of these duties that 
 you are now gathered here, and will visit the silent 
 city of the dead to-morrow. 
 
 Our obligations to those whose graves we shall to- 
 morrow visit and crown with garlands of honor is 
 peculiar. It arises from the fact that they volun- 
 tarily laid down their lives in the public cause. It 
 appeals to us all as citizens and as patriots. They 
 died for us, and their dying was the cost of benefits 
 Ave live to partake. It requires us to guard their 
 names from oblivion, and to make the story of 
 their sacrifice, as a power in the world, perpetual. 
 And while the whole nation is sacredly bound to do 
 this, it is especially fitting that you, their comrades, 
 should be foremost in the work. For in an especial 
 manner you were in fellowship with these heroes ; 
 yes, and are in fellowship with them still. To you
 
 TUPELO. 489 
 
 they will always be what they cannot be to any who 
 were not permitted to share with them, as you did, 
 the days, and scenes and experiences that made you 
 comrades. You feel that the glorious fraternity of 
 the camp, the march, the battle, the trenches, the 
 vigils that wearied out the stars, is not one that can 
 be dissolved by death, and that those of your own 
 companions in war who have halted and lain down 
 in the bivouac no earthly trumpet can disturb, are 
 yet of you, and so forevermore will be ! 
 
 But appropriate as is the tribute of tender and 
 sacred recollections, which we are to pay their mem- 
 ory now, it is by no means the only tribute they 
 claim at our hearts and hands as the most precious. 
 It does not discharge our full obligations. There is 
 something far more binding upon us than this or any 
 similar act of fidelity. If we would truly honor 
 these illustrious dead we must gird up our loins in a 
 strong purpose to see to it that their work for the 
 world and humanity does follow them ; else we are 
 not worthy to call them our saviours, still less to 
 survive them. Though year after year, for all the 
 future, we strew their graves with flowers ; though 
 we carve their names in the imperishable stone; 
 though immortal words embalm their deeds, all will 
 
 ~ t 
 
 be hollow and empty and insufficient unless we take 
 up their fallen mantle to wear it sacredly a high 
 and solemn trust till we, too, go the way of all the 
 earth. The tremendous facts that surround every 
 life are enough to make it earnest, but here an
 
 490 TUPELO. 
 
 especial inspiration, one of the strongest that can be 
 sent upon man, is given to stir us to noble intensity 
 in action. It is the inspiration which comes from 
 the thought that these men and comrades the most 
 beloved sons of a great republic poured their blood 
 on liberty's altar as an atonement for transgressions 
 against humanity, and that a nation might be saved. 
 The Spartan band of Leonidas at the Pass of Ther- 
 mopylae were not more heroic and self-sacrificing ; 
 Curtius, who leaped into the yawning gulf to sas r e 
 with his own life his nation's life, was not more 
 daring. Do \ve not owe them, therefore, the hom- 
 age "we so willingly render to-day, and much more 
 beside. They were not only patriotic and brave and 
 daring, but they were martyrs also. The support- 
 ers of a religion gave their lives for a principle. 
 These martyrs of patriotism gave their lives for an 
 idea. It was the grand idea of American nation- 
 ality that inspired them to sacrifice, and transformed 
 them from peaceful citizens into patriotic heroes. 
 Their language to us to-day is, " Hear us, ye living 
 comrades, who so lately pressed our hands ! and you 
 neighbors, friends, and citizens of this great Repub- 
 lic ! We died while the blood was leaping in the 
 pulses of our prime. It is due us that in you our hope 
 shall be fulfilled. We suffered ; let your steps never 
 falter in the face of trial. We laid our young heads 
 down ; we gave " our lives ; give yours freely, 
 wholly, purely, to the defence of that which is noble, 
 worthy, and right. You owe it to us and also to
 
 TUPELO. 491 
 
 yourselves, and to your God, to complete the work 
 which we have begun. Bending from the heavens 
 above as they plead with us to-day to be faithful and 
 good citizens, to be just, yet merciful ; to put aside 
 all hatred and uncharitableness, to guard our liber- 
 ties with holy zeal, and always to remember at how 
 great a cost the nation kept its liberty. 
 
 Ignoble, thrice ignoble, shall we be if we are found 
 to care for ease, fearful of hardship. We shall dis- 
 honor their memories if we prove faithless to their 
 example. Let us then dedicate ourselves to the un- 
 finished work they have thus far so nobly carried 
 on. Let us honor their memories by an increased 
 devotion to the cause for which they gave the last 
 full measure of devotion. Let us highly resolve 
 that the dead shall not have died in vain. 
 
 And know this, that if the spirit which moves us 
 to strew the hero's grave with floral offerings is as 
 perishable as the flowers themselves, the offerings 
 will prove of little permanent value to the living or 
 the dead. The memorial service of any year will be a 
 most shameless, wanton mockery, if our souls are not 
 filled with that high and holy resolve which in- 
 spired them. The dead, with stout hearts, fought 
 with patriotic zeal W 7 hile in life against their coun- 
 try's foes against the enemies of liberty and hu- 
 manity. 
 
 I repeat, we shall dishonor their memories if we 
 prove faithless to their example. 
 
 While their lives ebbed out on the bloodv field of
 
 492 TUPELO. 
 
 battle, or they died more slowly of wounds, want, or 
 disease in hospital or prison, their country remained 
 a great beacon light of liberty the last hope of free- 
 dom to the oppressed. 
 
 We chant the story of their greatness by singing 
 to the world of the deeds accomplished, successes 
 gained, and the results obtained through their per- 
 sonal sacrifices. 
 
 But for the uncounted number of the dead and 
 their living comrades, the government of the people, 
 by the people, and for the people, would have per- 
 ished from the earth. The great Webster said : " No 
 age will come in which the American Revolution will 
 appear less than it is one of the greatest events in 
 human history." The second war for freedom when 
 measured by the principles at issue, the numbers en- 
 gaged, the battles fought, the blood spilled, the lives 
 lost, the supreme moral grandeur of the final tri- 
 umph, and the glory incident to the results attained, 
 strips all semblance of prophecy from the statement 
 that no age will come in which the recent great Amer- 
 ican Rebellion will appear less than it is the great 
 event in human history. 
 
 There are before me men (and women, too) who 
 have seen rebellion face to face have seen it in 
 its power and might ; have witnessed it in its first 
 blush of defiance and hope ; have seen it in exulta- 
 tion of temporary success and joy ; have seen its sul- 
 len perseverance and strength; have seen it in 
 desperation and despair; have seen it in its final
 
 TUPELO. 493 
 
 overthrow and destruction. Yea, they have beheld 
 more they have seen the black national crime of 
 human slavery, the prime cause of the rebellion, 
 wiped out forever and rendered no longer possible 
 under the mantle of our free constitutional govern- 
 ment. They have witnessed both civilization and 
 Christianity move forward and ascend higher. The 
 rebellion was not all an evil if we garner well and 
 preserve the good fruits born of the victories won 
 both on the field of battle and in the forum of leg- 
 islation. 
 
 But for the Rebellion and its defeats we should still 
 have a country, one-half of which would be teeming 
 with millions of God's people wearing the yoke and 
 galling fetters of slavery under the name of consti- 
 tutional liberty. But for the Rebellion, liberty to 
 these millions would still be a lying mockery. 
 
 But for the Rebellion, there would have been a 
 dominant part of the citizens of our Republic who 
 would have continued to disobey the divine com- 
 mand : " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
 bread ; " and they would be yet engaged in eating 
 bread earned by the sweat of the face of their unfor- 
 tunate and still untutored black brethren. 
 
 But for the Rebellion, civilization and Christianity 
 would have stood still in at least one-half of the 
 territory of this Union. But for the complete over- 
 throw of the Rebellion, two flags would have floated 
 over the inhabitants of a divided country, and at 
 least one new nation would have been in being, hav-
 
 491 TUPELO. 
 
 ing for its primal object the preservation and perpet- 
 uation of human slavery. 
 Truly may it be said : 
 
 " O, not in vain our martyrs sighed 
 And not in vain our heroes died." 
 
 Keeping in view the importance and sublimity of 
 the recent great struggle, as viewed in the light of 
 the present, let us assume to plant ourselves in the 
 afternoon of the next century, and observe, not so 
 much the events as the results of the Avar. In doing 
 this we must assume that reasonable progress in re- 
 finement, the arts, and Christian civilization will 
 continue. 
 
 The historian of that day, in the light of such 
 progress, will accurately measure the effect of the 
 triumphs, and justly judge of the deeds done and the 
 men who participated in them. 
 
 Then the true distinction between patriotism and 
 disloyalty will be made; then those who have believed 
 or now believe in or excuse human slavery will be 
 properly classified ; then those who fought against 
 slavery and for universal constitutional liberty will 
 be awarded the true patriot's place. 
 
 While it may be for this generation to forgive 
 those who assailed the free institution of a govern- 
 ment of the people, it will be for him to portray the 
 truth of history and honor those who unfurled their 
 banners in the cause of liberty. 
 
 Then will the Union dead be honored as those 
 who fought and died to preserve their country a
 
 TUPELO. 495 
 
 " beacon of liberty " to all mankind. Then lisp- 
 ing infants will be taught to chant the story of their 
 fame. Then will be depicted in glowing colors the 
 long suffering, lofty purposes, heroic bearing, and 
 noble spirit of those who fell doing battle in freedom's 
 cause. 
 
 " That cause in which we waved the sword on high, 
 And swore with her to live, for her to die. " 
 
 This is not a fitting occasion to utter words of re- 
 proach of the living or the dead; nor is it proper to 
 ignore the broad distinction between the patriot and 
 traitor. The misguided dead who then fell fighting 
 for disunion and slavery may be spoken of tenderly ; 
 also the living who fought in the same cause, who 
 when Appomattox came, in good faith accepted the 
 verdict rendered. Mercy and charity demand this 
 much but no more. A tribute to bravery alone is idle 
 and empty. Heroic deeds of bravery and daring, to 
 be commended, must be coupled with patriotism, love 
 of country, or some achievements in the interest of 
 humanity. Men who merit honor and commemora- 
 tion when dead, achieve success and perform deeds 
 of valor and renown in a good and holy cause. 
 
 Devotion to sound principle and good works in 
 peace or war commands the approbation of the wise 
 and good. Those who fought and fell for national 
 integrity and freedom and equality of all men before 
 the law will be loved and adored through all time. 
 
 Had the French Marshal Moreau fallen at Ho- 
 henlinden at the head of a French army, and not at
 
 496 TUPELO. 
 
 Dresden, fighting with the combined despotisms of 
 his country's enemies against France and for her dis- 
 memberment, he would have had a nation of people 
 to honor and adore his name and perpetuate his fame. 
 Had Arnold fallen at Saratoga and been spared his 
 fall at West Point, his bravery and renown would 
 have been placed alongside of Warren and other 
 distinguished patriot dead of the war of the Revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 Had Jefferson Davis fallen at Buena Vista he 
 would have been spared a traitor's fame and the 
 humiliation of Irwinsville, and his name would have 
 been registered among the lovers of his country. 
 Had Robert E. Lee paid the penalty of devotion to 
 his country at Mexico's capital he would have been 
 remembered in future years as one who never deserted 
 his country's flag in the hours of her greatest peril." 
 
 In our late war there was a distinction between 
 the living who fought for and those who fought 
 against the Union, and death does not obliterate it. 
 He who sought the Nation's ruin is not equal in our 
 hearts with him who staked all in her defense. 
 
 We have spoken thus of the dead, their achieve- 
 ments, their honor, their true glory, and rendered to 
 them a full meed of praise, in order that with gar- 
 lands of love and devotion we may crown their labors 
 and draw new inspiration from their life and heroic 
 death. 
 
 The history of all nations teaches us that frequent 
 recurrence to the principles which animated their
 
 TUPELO. 497 
 
 patriots in times of peril is essential to the preserva- 
 tion and perpetuation of the results of their grand 
 achievements. We, the living, are called upon by the 
 same high obligation to preserve and perpetuate the 
 results of these achievements as were the dead in their 
 time called upon for their accomplishment. 
 
 When danger threatens we should imitate their 
 high example. 
 
 Imbued with their patriotism, their love of consti- 
 tutional liberty and the spirit of nationality, let us 
 transmit these qualities to our posterity. 
 
 Memory with averted face turns sadly back to a 
 hundred battle fields, and as I recall (as best one can 
 who .took no active part therein) how the dead came 
 trooping back with gory locks and faces marble white, 
 to reinspire our hearts with courage for the doing of 
 the right. How the curtains of their low green tents 
 open outward, heedless of "Whittier's sweet verse, 
 and surrender up their precious charge ! I see them 
 now, their immortal raiment on, and mingling in our 
 prayers and tears; they bid you keep alive in your 
 hearts no malice and hatred toward the erring, but 
 unfailing faith in the power of truth to prevail. As 
 they were true and faithful in the days of sacrifice, 
 they bid you to be true and faithful in the day of a 
 new consecration. As they died, so they ask us to 
 live, that the continent may bloom with an ampler 
 freedom, and the age unfold a higher civilization. 
 
 Let us one and all heed the voices that speak to us 
 to-day from more than human lips ! Soon tlie flow- 
 32
 
 498 TUPELO. 
 
 ers that you will scatter on the hero-brother's grave 
 will fade and mingle with the sod they cover, their 
 beauty and fragrance lost to sight and sense. Soon 
 the' sun will gild new scenes, another "Decoration 
 Day" with all its sweet recollections will have gone. 
 Its story told, and its sacred page securely clasped 
 forever. 
 
 As the work of love and devotion closes with the 
 morrow's sun, and we turn again for another year to 
 the common duties of life with renewed pledges and 
 devotion to our country filling our hearts, let us re- 
 member that our Nation, though proud and mighty 
 among the nations of the world, is the only truly free 
 Republic to which the oppressed of all lands turn their 
 eyes, and also to remember that to perpetuate this 
 love and devotion to freedom is our great calling. 
 
 In the discharge of this duty you will be called 
 upon to enter other battle fields than those where duty 
 called in 1861. Fields where new dangers are to be 
 faced and few worldly inspirations to urge you to 
 victory. Battle fields where the soldier fights single- 
 handed, alone, in the dark, with an invisible enemy, 
 an enemy whose strength he has not measured, but fears 
 it may be greater than his own. Such battles are 
 most dreadful. 
 
 Battles where blood is shed are but comparatively 
 rare occurrences in the world's history, but these 
 bloodless battles, in which hearts struggle and break, 
 or else, sustained by an unfaltering trust in the 
 Great Commander, gain victories, are a continuous
 
 TUPELO. 499 
 
 succession. Every day sees such battles. Never a 
 night falls in which myriads are not drawn out in 
 contest. AVithout are fightings, within are fears. 
 
 The character of the enemies to be met on these 
 new battle fields is known to you all. The world, 
 the flesh, and the devil, the fascinations and allurements 
 that lie about us, float in the atmosphere, lurk in the 
 darkness, gleam in the sunshine, "the world"; the 
 impulses, passions, and habits that dwell in the flesh; 
 the wicked thoughts', the false reasoning, the empty 
 hopes that are put into the mind by the father of lies 
 and of devils these are the desperate enemies which 
 one has to meet. 
 
 There is no such thing as going on toward heaven and 
 God without meeting them. Diabolians, they watch 
 the entrances to the King's highway. They clog the 
 steps of the King's servants. They shoot their arrows, 
 sometimes at random, sometimes well aimed, at those 
 who are struggling upward. 
 
 Face to face here to-day I know that every earnest 
 soul wants to learn how to conquer these enemies, 
 and you ask me, if I know anything about it, to tell 
 you; for you have had your struggles, and are still 
 having them. 
 
 AVhere is the armory in which I can find the 
 weapons to overcome these giants? 
 
 When David was going out to meet Goliath of 
 Gath, Saul, the king, put on him his own helmet and 
 coat of mail and girded his great sword upon the 
 boy's thigh, but the shepherd lad "said, " I cannot go
 
 500 TUPELO. 
 
 with these." He went without them, saying to the 
 boastful giant, "I come to thee in the name of the 
 Lord of Hosts, this clay will the Lord deliver thee 
 into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine 
 head from thee." And he did it. 
 
 Victor Hugo, after describing the battle of Water- 
 loo, makes this comment upon Wellington's victpry : 
 "Was it possible that Napoleon should win this 
 battle? We answer no? Why? Because of Wel- 
 lington? Bluchcr? No! Because of God Napo- 
 leon had been impeached before the Infinite and his fall 
 was decreed. He vexed God." This the reply of 
 faith to that sneer of self-confidence, "God favors the 
 heaviest battalion," and it is more than that. Itis Paul's 
 declaration over again, "Thanks be unto God which 
 giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 In this thrilling sentence \ve find the answer to 
 your soul's anxious question. God can give, and has 
 given, the victory to those who give themselves to 
 Him and who put their trust in him. Believe it 
 and take therefrom the comfort and encouragement 
 you need ! 
 
 The graves of our dead heroes remind us that there 
 is an end to our mortal life. Then are we summoned 
 to bring the treasures we have harvested and lay them 
 at the Great Commander's feet. Every talent must 
 be surrendered up, and the increase we have made, 
 and out of the ground of sloth and sin must we dig 
 every napkin wherein we have foolishly hid away 
 any gift. With saddened countenance the dissipated
 
 TUPELO. 50 1 
 
 prodigal will wander back from his husks and swine, 
 and from his plenteous acres the faithful husbandman 
 will go laden with bountiful sheaves. 
 
 Xo one will then sorrow that he manfully walked 
 the path of duty, though he trod with torn and bloody 
 feet. 
 
 Be ours the way, thorny as it may be, that leads 
 us to an immortal crown. Be ours the way, though 
 it leads straight through Gethsemane's garden, and 
 past Calvary's Cross, that gives us the Great Com- 
 mander's plaudit " Well done !" To-day, men and 
 women who seek the Eternal City, behold a lofty 
 pile, which covers many a rod of earth, and lifts its 
 lofty dome high in air, beneath whose glittering cross 
 worshipers reverently bow their heads and offer up 
 their silent prayers of old; mighty genius, gathering 
 the stone from the quarry, and fitting them into form, 
 wrought out its beauteous proportions, and treading 
 the city's busy streets he caught the models where- 
 with to fresco the fabric's towering walls. Changing 
 the beggar into a giant, and the flower-girl into an 
 angel, his brush fastened them forever on dome and 
 ceiling ; and there they stand, their radiant beauty 
 grateful to eyes that wander from every quarter of 
 the habitable earth. And there that venerable pile, 
 caught up from neighboring fields, will remain, to 
 astonish and delight as generations come and go. But 
 above and about us towers a national character (a 
 nobler Vatican or St. Peter's than Raphael's brush 
 could paint or Angelo's genius plan), lifting high its
 
 502 TUPELO. 
 
 
 
 mighty dome and spreading wide its arches, the crea- 
 tures of no one time or age. In the building of this 
 we each have a part, a duty to perform. Out of the 
 common events of our common lives, out of the con- 
 flicting passions and emotions God puts into human 
 hearts, out of the thoughts and desires He puts in 
 human brains, what pictures niay we not paint, 
 beautiful evermore in the sight of man, and grateful 
 to the eye of Him who paints the meadow with its 
 loveliness, and inspires the genius who uses the brush 
 and the chisel ? 
 
 Long centuries ago in that city made holy by the 
 feet of Him who brought glad tidings, there arose, as 
 if by magic, the temple built by the Danite widow's 
 skillful son. Away off on Lebanon's shaded sides 
 the rough woodman swung his ax. Along Joppa's 
 wild castles the raftsman plied his heavy oar. In 
 deep caverns the mystic craftsman squared his huge 
 blocks of stone, and up the rugged pathway sweating 
 oxen bore the trophies of the Hebrew Mecca. So in 
 solemn silence the temple daily grew until the fame 
 thereof spread around the world. In this way goes 
 on the Nation's life. Your character and mine, the 
 work we do in our several places, the lives we live in 
 lofty mountain air or by lowly river, the characters 
 we form out of the wood or stone, are all but parts 
 in the great mosaic of our country's templo wall. 
 Oh, let us then seek to build into that structure 
 the material that shall outlast the ages, knowing 
 that this is the debt we owe those who purchased
 
 TUPELO. 
 
 503 
 
 with their lives the blessings we as citizens to-day 
 enjoy. 
 
 ' ' When the long years have rolled slowly away, 
 E'en to the dawn of earth's funeral day, 
 When at the Archangel's trumpet and tread, 
 Rise up the faces and forms of the dead ; 
 When the great world its last judgment awaits, 
 When the blue sky shall swing open the gates, 
 And our long columns march silently through, 
 Past the great Captain for final review, 
 Then from the blood that has flowed for the right 
 Crowns shall spring upward, untarnished and bright. 
 Then the glad ears of each war martyred son 
 Proudly shall hear the glad tidings" Well done."
 
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