In recognition of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, "Civil War-Era
Memories" features excerpts from The Memphis Daily Appeal of 150 years
ago. The Appeal is publishing from Grenada, Miss.
August 6, 1862
About seven hundred refugees from Memphis are at Grenada, organizing
themselves into guerrilla parties. They are furnished with their
equipment by Mississippians. August 9, 1862
Memphis Items — The opening of the drinking saloons has increased the
amount of misdemeanors in the city, and we find in the Bulletin of the
7th more than the usual chapter of crime. The Merchants Exchange and a
shoe store on Poplar Street were both robbed in daylight; a shooting
affair occurred on Gayoso Street; a riot took place at Boettner's
Gardens at the head of Poplar in which the furniture of the
establishment was completely demolished; Messrs. John Erskine and John
Canovan were attacked and fired upon by a band of drunken soldiers on
Court Street, showing that the greatest demoralization exists in the
city.
A Rebel Operator Reads Gen. Halleck's Dispatches for Four Days (from a
Memphis correspondent for The New York Times) — The telegraph line
between Memphis and Corinth is exceedingly important. Little of the line
is guarded, but of late the rebels have refrained from cutting the
wires. Their unusual amiability is now explained; they found a better
use for it. For a week the operators had detected something wrong in the
working of the instruments, and surmised that someone was sharing their
telegraphic secrets. The rebel operator had cut the wire, inserted a
piece of his own, and by a pocket instrument had been reading our
official dispatches. One, from Gen. Hovey, commanding at this post, in
reply to a question from Gen. Halleck, stated the precise number of our
available men in Memphis and their exact location.
August 12, 1862
From the Memphis Bulletin we learn that by order of Gen. Sherman, the
Second Presbyterian Church has been turned over to Dr. Grundy, and the
pastor installed by the congregation ousted. The doctor is thus rewarded
for his treachery to his native South.
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