CHAPTER XVI

Emerson Ethridge.

1.  Among those who had been chosen from the tribe of Tennessee, as wise men to the great Sanhedrim at Washington, was Emerson, surnamed the eloquent.

2.  He dwelt in the town of Dresden, in West Tennessee, to the north of the Obian river

3.  Now Emerson was a mighty man.  His speech was not as the words of man, but as of an angel.  His words were sweeter than the honey and the honey comb.

4.  The people loved Emerson, and when he went forth, they spread flowers in his path, and knelt down in his presence.

5.  Now it came to pass that Emerson was at the great city of Washington and saw Abraham;

6.  And Abraham knew Emerson; and he knew that he was mighty and eloquent; and Abraham lifted up his voice and said,

7.  "Emerson!"  And Emerson said, speak Lord, for thy servant heareth

8.  And Abraham said, "Lo, the people of the South do rebel, even they constituents: and they are this day preparing for war.

9.  I have thought of thee, O Emerson.  I have seen thee in visions of the night, and in the day have I meditated upon thee.

10.  Now thou mayest be of great use unto me, O Emerson, and if thou wilt do as I bid thee, behold I will clothe thee in purple, and give thee much gold, and when peace is made, I will reward thee with a great Federal office."

11.  And Emerson opened his mouth and said unto Abraham: Behold they servant is before thee, my Lord, thou hast but to command, and he will do whatsoever thou sayest.

12.  And Abraham said, Then, if I have found favor in thine eyes, do thou go into the Sanhedrim, and make a speech against Secession, and cause it to be printed, and send it in all West Tennessee;

13.  And I will speak to Andrew, and ask him to make a speech, and to send it to East Tennessee, per-adventure, that Tennessee will hearken unto you and unto Andrew, and flee from the wrath to come.

14.  Then went Emerson to the great Sanhedrim, and he stood up in the midst of the elders, and made a speech against Secession.

15.  And he caused it to be printed, and sent thousands of copies to Tennessee.

16.  But when it was come to Tennessee, an the people read it, then was their wrath kindled against Emerson.

17.  And they said one to another, Emerson hath betrayed us.  He is not our friend, but our enemy; even now he taketh part with the Black Republicans.

18.  And they sent a message unto him, saying, Come thou not near us; for thou art a traitor, and if thou come unto us, we will hang thee, as thou deservest.

19.  Then was Emerson sore afraid, and he went unto Abraham, and laid the matter before him, and concealed nothing.

20.  And Abraham spake kindly unto him, and bade him remain in his house.

21.  And Emerson abode with him many days.

CHAPTER XVII

Battle of Belmont

1.  At the beginning of this War, Abraham had stationed troops at Cairo, and Ulysses, whose surname is Grant, had command of them.

2.  Now, Leonida, whose surname is Polk, who was in times past, Bishop of Louisiana, was stationed at Columbus, at the distance of eight leagues from Cairo.

3.  And Leonidas had fortified Columbus by building a great wall, and digging a deep ditch, and he had placed upon the wall, many great guns and engines of the war.

4.  And Ulysses was greatly desirous of seizing Columbus, and taking Leonidas and all his men captives;

5.  So he took a strong force, and embarked in boats, and descended the river until Columbus was in sight.

6.  Then he caused the boats to stop, and his men went out upon the dry land, on the west side of the river, even upon the Missouri shore, and marched down upon the brink of the river.

7.  But Leonidas was a cunning man' for he had sent spies to bring him word of the movements of Ulysses, and he had sent one legion across the river to meet Ulysses.

8.  And when it was told him, that Ulysses was coming with a great force, he sent a great army over to meet him;

9.  And the two armies met, and a great battle was fought, and the ground was covered with dead men.

10.  And the blood flowed in streams, for the carnage was very great.

11.  Many were the widows and orphans that were made that day.  Many brave men went forth into that deadly contest, to return no more.

12.  They sleep in silence upon the battle-marked plains of Belmont, and dream of war no more.

13.  When Ulysses saw that Leonidas had so many men, and had so strongly fortified the town, he called off his men, and they returned to Cairo.

CHAPTER XVIII

Boss Hale

1.  Now it came to pass during the days of the Rebellion, when Tennessee had seeded, and united herself with Jefferson and the Southern Confederacy,

2.  That there dwelt in the Western part thereof, even in the county of Gibson, and on the bank of the Forked Deer river, a certain widow, and her name was Jurene, but her surname was Hale.

3.  And her house was in the midst of a great plain, and about two leagues from the city of Humboldt.

4.  And Jurene had a large plantation, and orchards that were fruitful, and meadows that brought forth clover, and fields of corn and wheat, and oats and barley.

5.  Moreover, she had patches of rye, and onions, and turnips.

6.  And Jurene had man-servants and maid-servants, and cows and oxen, and mules and asses and she-asses, and goats and many sheep.

7.  And Jurene sold much of the produce of her farm at Humboldt and at Memphis, and made great gain.

8.  And she was a good woman, for she fed the poor, and visited the sick, and gave aid to the orphan.

9.  And she feared God and paid the preachers, and often invited them home to dine at her house.

10.  And all that knew Jurene loved her.

11.  And Jurene had several sons, and they had grown to be young men, and they were sprightly and active in business, and lived with ther mother, and cultivated her grounds.

12.  And it came to pass when the Rebellion came, Jurene was trouble in mind, for she was opposed to war and loved peace.

13.  And when Jefferson called upon the young men of the South, to join the Confederate army, Jurene's eldest son and the second eldest, joined the Southern army.

14.  Then was Jurene vexed in spirit, for she said, if they slay my sons what good will my life do me?

15.  And her third son was named Boss, and he was a mere lad, not having attained the stature of a man.

16.  And Boss was fair and comely to look upon, and his eyes were blue, and his hair hung down upon his shoulders, in black and waving ringlets.

17.  And Boss had been to school, and had learned to read and write; moreover, he had learned English Grammar and Robinson's Arithmetic, and Algebra as far as Equations of the second degree.

18.  And the neighbors all loved Boss, for he was kindly disposed and moral, and they always bade him welcome in their houses.

19.  And the maidens loved Boss because he was handsome and young, and moral and industrious, and seemed likely at no distant day, to make some one of them intensely happy.

20.  And when James and Nathaniel, his two elder brothers, joined the army, they left Boss at home, that he might see to his mother's affairs.

21.  Now it came to pass that the army was at a place called Union City in West Tennessee, and Frank, whose surname was Cheatham, was in command thereof.

22.  And Frank was willing to do the people a pleasure, so he commanded those having charge of the cars to give a grand excursion to the people on a certain day, that they might come and see him review the Tennessee Militia, at Union City.

23.  And thousands of the people both men and women, went on the cars, and saw the great review.

24.  And the soldiers gave a great party, and they spread wheat bran upon the ground, and they danced with the maidens that came to see them.

25.  And the people brought them many delicacies from home, such as honey, parched corn, died beef, roast turkey and fresh butter.

26.  And when the time had come to go on this great excursion to see the soldiers, Jurene arose, and took Boss with her, and went to see her two sons.

27.  And when Boss had seen the army, and the uniform of the officers, and the evolutions of the soldiers, he greatly desired to become a soldier.

28.  And he communed with his brothers, and expressed his desire to them;

29.  But they said unto him, "Go away home with our mother, and stay with her and feed her flocks, and water her mules, for thou art but a lad, and not a man of war."

30.  Then was the young lad vexed, and his soul was stirred within him, for he longed to be a Confederate soldier.

31.  And he ceased not day and night to importune his mother.

32.  And when she could no longer pacify him, she promised that he might go when the corn was gathered into barns.

33.  Then was Boss glad, and he fell to and wrought with great zeal until the last nubbin was cribbed.

34.  Then he arose and went to Columbus, and joined the rebels under Gen. Polk.

35.  And it came to pass on the next day, General Grant came with a great army, and Gen. Polk went out to meet him, and the battle of Belmont was fought;

36.  And Boss fell down upon the battle field and lay among the dead;

37.  An at night he was carried to the camp, wrapped in his blanket, but he was cold and dead.

38.  And on the third day, they laid his dead body on the cars, and he was taken home to his mother.

39.  When the youths and maidens came together to see poor Boss, and they fell upon his pale face and wept, and they refused to be comforted.

40.  And on the morrow they buried Boss, and they have planted willows upon his grave and taught them to weep.

41.  Oh! that men would cease to love war, and that they would learn to swell in peace.

CHAPTER XIX

General M'clellan

1.  When Winfield, the great chief, saw that he had not won the the victory at Manassas, he was sore vexed, and he communed with Abraham;

2.  And he said unto Abraham, Lo!  I am an old man, and have fought many battles, and never lost one before.  And he wept bitterly.

3.  But Abraham comforted him, and spake kindly to him, and gave him a tast of champaigne, and a little honey, and his soul revived.

4.  And he lifted up his voice and said, "Abraham."

5.  And Abraham said unto him, speak on.

6.  And Winfield told Abraham that he was too old and infirm to undergo the fatigues of a campaign, or to command so great an army.

7.  And he expressed a desire to resign the chief command of the army, that Abraham might appoint another, younger and more able to perform the service demanded.

8.  And Abraham chose George, whose surname is McClellan, but in the fashionable lingo of the day, he is styled "The young Napoleon."

9.  And George became the Commander-in-Chief of all the United States forces.

10.  And George was a man skilled in war, and valiant.  He had been to Europe, and learned many things that were useful to him as a great General.

11.  And all the people loved George, and the soldiers had great confidence in him.

12.  But the time would fail us to speak of all the exploits and battles of George.

13.  For he fought many great battles with Lee, the Confederate General, and sought to circumvent him;

14.  But Gen. Lee is a cunning man, and no man has ever circumvented him, and Gen. McClellan failed to take Richmond.

15.  And behold! after many months Richmond was not still take, but remained the capital of the Confederacy;

16.  And the thing vexed Abraham; and he swore in his wrath, that George should be no longer Commander-in-Chief;

17.  And he took away his command, and gave it to Gen. Halleck, who became Commander of all the armies of the United States.

18.  And the people wondered why Abraham did this thing, for as to George, they could find no fault in him.

19.  And there were many other Generals, whom the time will not permit us to dwell upon.

20.  Such was Gen. Pope, and Gen. Sickles, and Gen. Fremont, and Gen. Meade; and besides, and infinite number of Colonels and Majors.

CHAPTER XX

Fort Henry

1.  Now it is known to all the dwellers in the land, that there are two rivers that flow through Tennessee, toward the West;

2.  The name of the first river is Tennessee, and the name of the second, is the Cumberland.

3.  And these rivers flow through Kentucky, and empty their waters into the Ohio river above Cairo.

4.  And behold the Confederates had built forts on these rivers, to keep the Federals from ascending.

5.  The fort that the Confederates did build on the Cumberland, was called Fort Donelson, and it was eight furlongs from the city of Dover.

6.  And the fort that was built on the Tennessee river, was called Fort Henry.

7.  And Lloyd, whose surname is Tighlman, was made Commander of that Fort, and he was a brave man, and skilled in building railroads.

8.  And Lloyd collected many men in the fort, with provisions to last them many days, for he had heard that Ulysses was coming against him with a great army.

9.  And there were in the fort very many spearmen, and a great number of archers and slingers, and of horsemen not a few.

10.  And there were spies that went out by day, and others that went out by night, to see if Ulysses and his army were approaching.

11.  And it came to pass that the spies looked down the river, and they beheld the  gunboats, and they ran and told Lloyd, behold the Federals are approaching.

12.  Then Lloyd commanded to blow the trumpet, and to assemble all his spearmen, and archers, and slingers, and mighty captains, and to prepare for battle.

13.  And when the gunboats came near, the two armies joined battle, and they fought valiantly.

14.  And the battle continued many days, and many were slain, and hundreds were covered with wounds.

15.  Then Lloyd summoned his men of war, and took council of them.  And Lloyd said, why should all these men be slain?  Behold they are our friends and kindred, and we cannot fight longer against Ulysses, for he has more men than we.

16.  And his majors, and captains, and lieutenants, counselled him to surrender, that his men might be saved alive.

17.  And Lloyd surrendered, and he and all his men became prisoners of war, and were carried away to the North.

18.  Then the gunboats kept on up the Tennessee River until they passed through the State of  Tennessee, and came into Florence, which lies within the province of Alabama.