Slavery and Four Years of War Part 37

The affair itself was of but little consequence, as Colonel Scott was driven out of Athens the succeeding night, and the next day across the Tennessee, he only having captured Stanley's baggage, four wagons, and twenty men, having suffered in killed and wounded a greater loss than he had inflicted.

Out of this incident arose one of the most exceptional occurrences of the whole war.

Colonel John Basil Turchin, of the 19th Illinois, in command of a brigade in Mitchel's division, reached Athens, May 2d, and, it was said, in retaliation for the alleged bad conduct of its citizens the day preceding, he retired to his tent and gave the place up for two hours to be sacked by his command. It was a.s.serted that private houses were invaded during this time, money and valuables seized and carried off, and revolting outrages committed. Turchin was a Russian,(12) a soldier of experience, and a military man, educated in the best schools of Europe. He had served on the general staff of the Czar of Russia and in the Imperial Guard, rising to the rank of Colonel, and he had served his Czar also in the Hungarian War, 1848-49, and in the Crimean War of 1854-56.

It is more than possible that he had imbibed notions as to the manner and believed in methods of treating the enemy's property, including their slaves, and of dealing with captured towns and cities and their inhabitants, not in harmony with modern and more humane and civilized rules of war.

He did not believe war could be successfully waged by an invading army with its officers and soldiers acting as missionaries of mercy for and protectors and preservers of the property of hostile inhabitants. Later, and after General McCausland burned Chambersburg, Penna., less criticism fell on Turchin for his behavior at Athens.

His conduct and that of his command were doubtless exaggerated in many particulars, but enough was true to excite much comment and fierce denunciation and condemnation. The affair was especially unfortunate as to place, Athens being justly celebrated for the number of inhabitants who honestly adhered to the Union cause.

General Mitchel repaired to Athens on hearing it had been sacked, addressed the citizens, induced them to organize a committee to hear and report on all complaints; then ordered the brigade commander to cause every soldier under him to be searched, and every officer to state in writing, upon honor, that he had no pillaged property.

The committee subsequently reported, but no charge was made against any officer or soldiers by name. The bills of forty-five citizens, however, were presented by it, aggregating $54,689.80, for alleged depredations. The search was made without finding an article and the reports of officers showed that they had no stolen property.

Strict orders against pillaging and plundering were issued and thereafter enforced in Mitchel's division. The outrages upon women, if any occurred, were greatly magnified.(13)

Buell caused Turchin to be placed in arrest, and he was later tried, convicted, and sentenced to be dismissed the service of the United States, the court having found him guilty of "neglect of duty, to the prejudice of good order and military discipline," and of "disobedience of orders," and of certain specifications to the charges, among others one embodying the allegation that he did "on or about the 2d of May, 1862, march his brigade into the town of Athens, State of Alabama, and having had the arms of the regiments stacked in the streets, did allow his command to disperse, and in his presence, or with his knowledge and that of his officers, to plunder and pillage the inhabitants of said town and of the country adjacent thereto, without taking adequate steps to restrain them."

He pleaded guilty to one specification only, namely, that of permitting his _wife_ to be with him in Athens, and to accompany him while serving with troops in the field. This court-martial was ordered by Buell, July 5, 1862, and it met first at Athens and then at Huntsville, Alabama, July 20th.(14) General James A.

Garfield was its President, and Colonels John Beatty, Jacob Ammern, Curran Pope, J. G. Jones, Marc Mundy, and T. D. Sedgwick were the other members.

During the session of the court, General Garfield and Colonel Ammen were the guests of Colonel Beatty and myself at our camp near Huntsville. Though I had met Garfield, I had no previous acquaintance with either of them. They were even them remarkable men--both accomplished and highly educated, Ammen having previously had a military education. We were enabled to get intimately acquainted with them at our meals and during the long evenings spent in discussing the war and all manner of subjects. Both were fine talkers and enjoyed controversial conversation. Ammen, though not alone from vanity, was disposed to occupy the most of the time, and sometimes he would occupy an entire evening telling stories, narrating an event, or maintaining his own side of a controversy. He was the oldest of the party, and always interesting, so he was tolerated in this--_generally_. He was superst.i.tious, and believed in the supernatural to a certain extent, denying that such belief was a weakness, else "Napoleon and Sir Walter Scott were the weakest of men." General Beatty relates an incident of an evening's talk (July 24th) at our camp thus:

"We ate supper, and immediately adjourned to the adjoining tent.

Before Garfield was fairly seated on his camp stool, he began to talk with the easy and deliberate manner of a man who had much to say. He dwelt eloquently on the minutest details of his early life, as if they were matters of the utmost importance. Keifer was not only an attentive listener, but seemed wonderfully interested.

Uncle Jacob undertook to thrust in a word here and there, but Garfield was much too absorbed to notice him, and so pushed on steadily, warming up as he proceeded. Unfortunately for his scheme, however, before he had gone far he made a touching reference to his mother, when Uncle Jacob, gesticulating energetically, and with his forefinger levelled at the speaker, cried: 'Just a word--just one word right there,' and so persisted until Garfield was compelled either to yield or be absolutely discourteous. The General, therefore, got in his word; nay, he held the floor for the remainder of the evening. The conspirators made brave efforts to put him down and cut him off, but they were unsuccessful. At midnight, when Keifer and I had left, he was still talking; and after we had got into bed, he, with his suspenders dangling about his legs, thrust his head into our tent-door, and favored us with the few observations we had lost by reason of our hasty departure. Keifer turned his face to the wall and groaned. Poor man, he had been hoisted by his own petard. I think Uncle Jacob suspected that the young men had set up a job on him."(15)

The court having concluded the case, Buell, August 6, 1862, issued an order approving its proceedings and sentence of dismissal from the service, and declaring that Colonel Turchin ceased "to be in the service of the United States."(16)

Although the charges against him and his trial were notorious, and well known at the War Department and to the country, President Lincoln, the day preceding Buell's order of dismissal, appointed Colonel Turchin a Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and the Senate promptly confirmed the appointment, and thus he came out of his trial and condemnation with increased rank. He accepted the promotion, served in the field afterwards, was distinguished in many battles, and left the army October 4, 1864.

Turchin at the time he entered the Union Army was, and still is, a resident of Illinois.

There were many excellent men of foreign birth and residence who found places in the Union Army and filled them with credit.(17)

At Paint Rock, on the railroad east of Huntsville, the train on which the 3d Ohio was being transported from Stevenson (May 2d) was fired upon from ambush by guerillas, and six or eight men more or less seriously wounded.

Colonel Beatty stopped the train, and after giving the citizens notice that all such acts of bushwhacking would bring on them certain destruction of property, as it was known that professed peaceful citizens were often themselves the guilty parties or harbored the guilty ones, himself fired the town as an earnest of what a repet.i.tion of such deeds would bring.

Many fruitless small expeditions were undertaken to drive out the constant invasions made by Wheeler's, Morgan's, Adams', and Scott's cavalry north of the Tennessee and upon our lines of communication.

On May 18th, having become restless in camp, I volunteered as special aide to Colonel Wm. H. Lytle on an expedition to Winchester, Tennessee. We pa.s.sed through a region thickly infested with the most daring bands of guerillas, and at Winchester had an encounter with some of Adams' regular cavalry, who, after making a rash charge into the town while we occupied it and losing a few men, retreated eastward to the mountains.

On May 13th General James S. Negley led a force from Pulaski against Adams' cavalry at Rogersville, north of the Tennessee opposite the Muscle Shoals, and with slight loss drove it across the river.

Later there was a more determined effort by the Confederates to occupy, with considerable bodies of cavalry and light artillery, the country north of the Tennessee below Chattanooga, but June 4th, an expedition under Negley, composed of troops selected from Mitchel's command, surprised Adams with his princ.i.p.al force twelve miles northwest of Jasper, and routed him, killing about twenty of his men and wounding and capturing about one hundred more; also capturing arms, ammunition, commissary wagons, and supplies.(18) Negley pushed his command over the mountains up to the Tennessee, threatening to cross to the south side at Sh.e.l.lmound, and at other points, and finally took position opposite Chattanooga.

The expedition caused much consternation among the rebels, though little was actually accomplished. The attack made on Chattanooga, June 7th and 8th, failed, and Negley's command returned.(19) Colonel Joshua W. Sill, 33d Ohio, afterwards Brigadier-General, and killed at the battle of Stone's River, commanded a brigade under Mitchel and in the Chattanooga expedition. He was an accomplished, educated officer, modest almost to a fault, yet brave and capable of great deeds. His body is buried at Chillicothe, Ohio.

Mitchel's position in Northern Alabama was at all times precarious; he covered too much country; lacked concentration, and was constantly in danger of being a.s.sailed in detail; besides, his relations to Buell, his immediate commander, were not cordial. He complained frequently directly to the Secretary of War for want of support.

Shortly after Buell's arrival from Corinth, the last of June, Mitchel tendered his resignation and asked to be granted immediate leave of absence, but the next day (July 2d) he was, by the Secretary of War, ordered to repair to Was.h.i.+ngton,(20) and General Lovell H.

Rousseau, a Kentuckian, who also believed in a vigorous prosecution of the war, succeeded him. General Mitchel on reaching Was.h.i.+ngton was selected by President Lincoln for command of an expedition on the Mississippi, but Halleck opposed his suggestion and failed to give the necessary orders for the contemplated movement, consequently Mitchel remained inactive until September, when he was a.s.signed the command of the Department of the South, headquarters Hilton Head. He was stricken with yellow fever and died at Beaufort, South Carolina, October 30, 1862. He is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, N. Y.

( 1) Pittenger, _Capturing a Locomotive_, pp. 26, 40.

( 2) _Capturing a Locomotive_, pp. 66-8.

( 3) _Capturing a Locomotive_, pp. 204-5, 182, 224, 353.

( 4) _War Records_, vol. x., Part I., p. 641; Part II., p. 104.

( 5) _Ante_, p. 5.

( 6) _War Records_, vol. x., Part II., pp. 115, 162-5, 195.

( 7) Quoted in Lincoln's 22d of September, 1862, proclamation.

( 8) McPherson, _History of Reconstruction_, p. 293.

( 9) _War Records_, vol. x., Part I., p. 657.

(10) Leadbetter's report, _War Records_, vol. x., Part I., p. 658.

(11) _War Records_, vol. x., Part I., p. 878.

(12) Russian name--Ivan Vasilevitch Turchinoff. Turchin, _Battle of Chickamauga_, pp. 5, 6.

(13) _War Records_, vol. x., Part II., pp. 204, 212, 290, 294-5.

(14) _War Records_, vol. xvi., Part II., pp. 99, 273.

(15) _Citizen Soldier_, p. 159.

(16) _War Records_, vol. xvi., p. 277.

(17) My last letter from Gen. Robert C. Schenck speaks of meeting, while Minister in England, a former Ohio soldier. I give his letter, omitting unimportant parts.

"Marshall House, York Harbor, Maine, July 10, 1889.

"My Dear General Keifer,--Your letter came to me just as I was leaving Was.h.i.+ngton... . I keep fairly well and vigorous for an old fellow so near to the octogenarian line. Accept my thanks for your kind remembrance and good wishes. You want to know about Colonel John DeCourcey, who commanded the [16th] regiment of Ohio Infantry for some time during our late war. I have not much to tell you of him, except that I made his acquaintance afterwards as a British n.o.bleman. He was appointed a Union officer, I believe, by Governor Dennison, and had had, as I understand, some previous military experience and training.

"One night, in a party at the house of a friend in London, about 1872, I was told that Lord Kinsale desired especially to be presented to me. I said of course it would be agreeable. On being introduced he explained that, besides a general desire to pay his respects to the American Minister, he took an interest in me as being from Ohio. I was a little surprised to find an English gentleman having any particular knowledge about Ohio. He went on to tell me he had not been in London for some time, and had been ill, or he would have called on me before that time, for that he had served as commander of an Ohio regiment during our late war. This surprised me, but he explained that he was not then Lord Kinsale, else the fact might have attracted some attention, but only John DeCourcey, having succeeded rather unexpectedly to the t.i.tle. I think he said on the death of a cousin, and perhaps the end of two or three other lives intervening. He was himself then an invalid, apparently, and has since died. I found him an agreeable gentleman.

"The Barony of Kinsale is an old t.i.tle. I believe this Lord Kinsale was the 31st or 32d Baron. His ancestor, Earl of Ulster, for defending King John, in single combat, with a champion provided by Philip Augustus of France, was granted the privilege for himself and heirs, _forever to go with covered head in the presence of Royalty_. This, my dear general, must be about all that I told you of John DeCourcey, or could remember when I met you on the occasion you mention, at Springfield. Hope you are in good heart and health, I am

"Very sincerely yours, "Robt. C. Schenck."

(18) _War Records_, vol. x., Part I., pp. 904, 919-920.

(19) _War Records_, vol. x., Part I., pp, 904, 919-920.

(20) _Battles and Leaders_, etc., vol. ii., pp. 706-7; _War Records_, vol. xvi., Part II., p. 92.