THE AMERICAN FLAG IN NASHVILLE.–

11. August 2009 by admin.

The following letter, on the joy of seeing the American flag in Nashville, was written by a young lady:

“Rejoice with me, dear grandma! The glorious Star-spangled Banner of the United States is again floating above us! O, how we have hoped for, longed for, prayed for this joyous day! I am wild, crazed almost, with delight. I am still fearful that I shall awake and find our deliverance, our freedom, is all a dream. I cannot believe that it is a positive fact, it has come upon us so unexpectedly, this successful move of the Union army. Grandma, I cannot write connectedly at all. Forgive me all faults of composition, for I can see the Stars and Stripes of my ever-loved floating from the State House–the first time my eyes have been gladdened by such a sight for nearly a year. So great is my ecstasy, I cannot sit still–I cannot keep my eyes on the paper–indeed, I cannot do anything but sing, whistle, or hum ‘Yankee Doodle,’ ‘Hail Columbia,’ ‘The Star-spangled Banner,’ and feast my eyes on those victorious colors.

“O grandma! you cannot imagine our happiness at this sudden change in the aspect of public affairs. The morning that Fort Donelson surrendered, there seemed to be such an intense feeling of bitterness here against the Union men! The papers (how little did they imagine that that would be their last issue!) came out on that Sunday morning with maledictions and threats the most inhuman against them, saying that if such a fiendish villain remained in our midst, he must and should be dealt with instantly as a traitor of the deepest dye.

“We have had so much to bear since I wrote you! My father and brother have been taunted, sneered and hissed at, threatened by every one, until endurance was becoming impossible. But nothing (I am so proud to say it, and thank God for it), nothing could make them play the hypocrite. They believed the Federal cause was just and right, and they would, in spite of our prayers and tears, express their opinions openly, and denounce secession boldly. We have been warned since Zollicoffer’s death, that there was imminent danger here for them; and the hatred towards Union men was becoming so intense that both ma and I have been in an agony of suspense. We could not leave home, as we never did, without being insulted. I have had to sit quietly by, as I hear my father and brother denounced as traitors. My temper is quick, and the curb that I have been obliged to keep upon it has been a galling one–indeed, sometimes I have thought all that was gentle and womanly in me was turned into bitterness and hate.

“For my idolized brother I have felt more keenly than for anything else. He is naturally sensitive, and on such delicacy of feeling that he has suffered deeply. Being drafted, he procured a substitute; and, though displaying so much moral courage, he has been hissed at as a coward ever since, until he would vow to escape and join the Federal army, and several times endeavored to do so; but pa, discovering his plans, prevented him from it, by showing him the ruin he would bring upon us all by such a step. The cloud was lowering over us, growing darker and darker day by day, and I thought the silver lining never would appear; but it is here!–even now beaming upon us so brightly that we can scarcely credit the reality.

“Can you wonder that, in the state of feeling I was in that Sunday morning, dear grandma, when Tom knocked at the door, and called out to me that Fort Donelson was surrendered, and the Federal army would soon be in Nashville, I became perfectly frantic with joy?

“I ran screaming over the house, knocking down chairs and tables, clapping my hands, and shouting for the ‘Union,’ until the children were terrified, and ma and pa thought I was delirious! I rushed into the parlor and thundered ‘Yankee Doodle’ on the piano in such a manner as I ad never done before I caught little Johnny up in my arms, and held him over the porch railing up stairs until he hurrahed for the Star-spangled Banner, Seward, Lincoln, and McClellan! The little fellow thought his sister was going to kill him, she looked so wild, and would not come near me again for several days.

“Just in the midst of these rejoicings, intelligence came that Johnston’s army from Bowling Green had evacuated the place, and was even then passing on the turnpike to Nashville. Could it be possible? Yes, indeed! There they were retreating most valiantly. Grandma, you never saw such a frightened set of men! They could not get over the river fast enough! I never bade the Southern army ‘God-speed’ but that once, and then I did it with my whole heart. May their present advance be successful even to the Gulf of Mexico itself!

“If you could have seen Breckinridge! the meanest, the most downfallen looking specimen of humanity imaginable. The army did not stop in Nashville one day, but went on as swiftly as possible. The citizens here were mortified and exasperated to the quick by this surrender. Floyd remained in Nashville a few days after his brave escape from Fort Donelson. After the army had gone, and the city had sent commissioners to surrender, he had both bridges destroyed, though he could give no reason for it, and though it was against the prayers and protestations of the citizens. He is a wicked wretch. Is it wrong to wish that he may soon meet the fate he deserves?

“It was not until a week after Donelson’s fall that the Federals came in. We, whose all depended upon their speedy arrival, had begun to think that they were not coming after all, and our freedom was not yet at hand; but on a Sunday afternoon, my brother came in, the picture of happiness, with the intelligence that Buell would be here in a few days; that he had ridden up and met his advanced guard, and that now at last we could rejoice. Buell came in at night. The troops were in perfect discipline, and completely amazed the poor duped people here by their orderly behavior. For the people believed that the soldiers would not stop till they had murdered the women and eaten the children; but when it was seen that they took nothing without pay, the people were rejoiced to sell, for money of any kind has long been a marvellous sight here.

“But O, grandma, I have not told you what did me more good than anything else–the panic here on the 16th. Away flew the citizens without stopping for anything! The brave city regiments who on the 15th took their stand on the square with Andrew Ewing at their head, and vowed to die there, fighting even against myriads of the ‘barbarians,’ should they ever reach Nashville, heard at twelve o’clock on the 16th of the surrender of Donelson, and at eight o’clock in the evening of that same day, not one of the gallant determined braves was to be found within miles of Nashville. Didn’t I clap my hands and shriek for joy when it was told on Monday that not one editor remained in our city! That their wicked threats had been published for the last time here?

“The town is almost deserted, so many families have left their homes, and fled, panic-stricken, away. It is so distressing to think of the sufferings they have brought upon themselves so needlessly. The Federals have interfered with on one whatever, and have behaved much better than the rebel army. The Governor and Legislature left the very day Donelson surrendered. May they never return!

“Grandma, you will think me a heartless girl to write thus, and I know it is wrong, but you would excuse me if you knew what we had to contend with. I speak the truth when I say that, notwithstanding our former social position and popularity here, there is not now one family of all our friends who would cross our threshold, or bit us welcome to theirs. My noble uncle is always an exception. He and pa have stood firmly together, enduring the tempest, and nothing now should ever divide us. Mr._____, too, has never faltered in his allegiance. When the death of his only son was told him, his exclamation was, ‘Would to God he had died in a nobler cause!’

“But I tremble when I think of the possibility of a reverse–that the Confederates should ever get back here. Then our doom is spoken–either flight–beggary–or regaining death.

“O that the United States troops would push onward rapidly and make an end to the rebgellion while the Confederates are quaking with fear and dismay. Give them no time to rally.

“Now that the railroad and telegraph will soon be opened, we will be again in a civilized country; and surely we have cause to rejoice, for we have been living in utter darkness a long, weary time. If you could see my father it would do you good. He looks happy again! The gloomy, sad brow of two weeks ago is once more smoothed with content! Three cheers for the sight of the old banner!”

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