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 Atlanta. Perspective from our staff is in italics. Nov. 11. 1863 From the Army of Tennessee (near Chattanooga) -- The army at present is in a mountain region — the rainy season prevailing, with seven clear days in the past thirty — the limestone mud deep and sticky — mules and horses starving ... We visited the 16th regiment ... and we have only to say that there are one hundred and fifty men in it destitute of blankets; two-thirds of the regiment are without tents. There are many barefooted men. Nov. 12, 1863 The Field After the Fight — It is five weeks after the battle ... The entire battlefield is yet encumbered with heaps of dead and unburied Yankees ... In most cases the flesh had fallen from the bones, and the mere skeleton remains ... Years hence, children, now unborn, in their sports upon this field will find a skull, or a bone, of these poor victims, and wonder and ask what it is. And then some grandfather will tell them of the great battle of Chickamauga ... Our own dead are buried upon the very spot where they fell. In most cases their names, company and regiment are written in pencil upon a headboard. Nov. 16, 1863 Col. Forrest Not Dead — We are greatly gratified to learn that Col. Jeff Forrest, (a younger brother of Nathan Bedford), whose death we announced last week, is not dead, but still lives. The Register says he was shot through the hips, and is at the house of Capt. Steele, a mile and a half from Tuscumbia, and is doing well. On the first day of his series of fights he had with him five men, and Forrest, pursued by a large number, took refuge in an inaccessible cave. He and his comrades killed twenty-eight of the enemy, among them a colonel, a major and two captains. |
