Building the Cracker Line: A New Yorker in eastern Tennessee

     In the autumn of 1863, Major Lewis D. Warner of the 154th New York arrived in Tennessee as part of the movement of the 11th and 12th Army Corps from the Army of the Potomac to reinforce the Army of the Cumberland. "The corps which could steal mit Blenker, fight mit Sigel, and run mit Howard, can dig like 'ter tyvel' as the Dutchmen say," and soon were given the chance to do just that. By early November, his regiment was firmly in place in the Lookout Valley building a corduroy road over which supplies for the army would flow into Chattanooga. During this period of road construction, Major Warner took the opportunity to study the civilian inhabitants of the region and recorded, with dismay, their wretched living conditions.

“In personal appearance, there is the same sallow complexion, the same expressionless countenance, the same evidence of the most abject poverty, and of an aimless life, with no aspiration above the mere qualification of physical desires, and the supplying of animal wants. There is little or no education or anything like refinement, to be met with,” he noted. “Their dress is as uniform as the expression of their countenance. The men are dressed in a butternut-colored home manufacture, and the women in a coarse, cotton fabric, of a dirty yellow. The children, of which there are no lack, are dressed in a similar fabric, according to sex. These have generally blue eyes, and universally, light hair, which has much the appearance of a mass of uncombed flax. These unfortunates, the victims of the peculiar institution, which, in their blind delusion, they are fighting to perpetuate, are now truly to be pitied. Stripped of everything they did possess, cows, hogs and corn, how they are to get through the coming winter, God only knows.”

Major Warner’s letter, originally published in an unknown New York newspaper, appears on the blog from the files of the New York State Military Museum and Veterans’ Research Center.

 

This image of Whitesides Valley, Tennessee from 1864 gives an impression of the rough ground over which the 11th and 12th Corps operating in the early stages of the Chattanooga campaign. "Their dwellings are almost universally of the most ancient style of backwoods architectures with this exception, they have not ambition enough to chink between the logs. There are several inhabited dwellings in this vicinity, in which the logs are on an average three inches apart without any filling whatever," Warner noted. 

Lookout Valley, near Chattanooga, Tennessee

November 9, 1863

 FRIEND FAY:

The smoke of our late skirmishes having cleared away, and the earth continuing to revolve as of old, nowise disturbed by the clash of arms, our little army (the 11th and 12th Corps) has subsided into their usual quiet routine of camp, picket and fatigue duties. By fatigue, I mean fortifying and road building. Of the latter we are just now engaged on quite an extensive job, being nothing less than the building of a double track of corduroy the distance of six miles from Kelley's Ferry, the present head of steamboat navigation on the Tennessee, to the place of our present encampment. The whole supplies for the Army of the Cumberland have to be hauled over this road. The supplies come to Bridgeport by rail, and are there transferred to barges, which are towed up to Kelley's Landing by steamboat.

Supplies are now being brought forward faster than they are consumed, and if no interruption occurs, the army will soon be in a condition to warrant a forward move, provided Bragg can be moved out of the way. The Rebels still hold their position on Lookout Mountain and have a small infantry force on the side of and at the base fronting Lookout Valley. The 11th Corps holds the valley, and our pickets are along the bank of the creek, which flows close to the base of the mountain. Their pickets are on the opposite bank, and so close that considerable conversation is carried on across the narrow stream. The rough handling the Rebels received at the hands of our boys on the day and night of our arrival here, has had the effect of imbuing them with great respect for the fighting qualities of our boys. They don't seem clearly to understand how it was done. Those who have been taken prisoners, as well as those who have voluntarily come within our lines, have generally asked to be shown the boys who pitched into them in so unusual a manner.

The Rebel batteries on the mountain still continue to salute us whenever they see a train of wagons, or a body of men passing through the valley. We have been here 12 days and they have probably sent us on an average 50 of their best compliments daily. Although within easy range of their guns, the whole number of casualties to this time does not exceed four or five. So much for this terrible position on Lookout. So harmless are they that even the mules, usually very susceptible of impressions of this sort, hardly deign to prick up their ears while passing under the range of their fire. The fact is the knoll is decidedly too high for successful cannonading. They cannot safely depress their guns sufficiently to bear directly upon our positions and must depend upon their shells bursting over the right spot, which very few are accommodating enough to do. Many burst almost as soon as they leave the mouth of the gun, and many do not burst at all.

Major Lewis D. Warner, 154th N.Y.

Under the circumstances, I think they evince a commendable degree of perseverance, they still give us their daily attentions, and the puffs of smoke from the mountain's top and from the bursting shell followed in due time by the double reports, is evidence that they still are there. We have several large guns in position on a hill on the opposite side of the river, which occasionally reply to the enemy, throwing their shells over the crest of the mountain, but with what effect is of course only known to the Rebs, unless indeed the man in the moon occasionally looks down from his elevated position, and takes a survey of the enemy's camp, but even if this is so, he is not supposed to be acquainted with our signal telegraphing, and so his knowledge is useless to us.

With the exception of the sparring that is going on between Lookout Mountain and our batteries on the miniature at its foot, all seems to be quiet along the Tennessee. The Rebs are daily coming into our lines, sometimes single, sometimes in squads of tens and twenties. They report their army in great destitution, both as regards clothing and provisions, and their haggard and ragged appearance, as living evidence that in this respect they do not misrepresent the state of affairs. The people in this vicinity, as well as between Bridgeport and this place, are certainly the most forlorn set of beings I ever met with. I had read descriptions and looked upon drawings, of the poor whites of the South, but if this region is peopled by fair representations of the race, the most highly colored picture extant falls far below the reality. And a description of one person or one family will apply equally to all.

In personal appearance, there is the same sallow complexion, the same expressionless countenance, the same evidence of the most abject poverty, and of an aimless life, with no aspiration above the mere qualification of physical desires, and the supplying of animal wants. There is little or no education or anything like refinement, to be met with. Their dwellings are almost universally of the most ancient style of backwoods architectures with this exception, they have not ambition enough to chink between the logs. There are several inhabited dwellings in this vicinity, in which the logs are on an average three inches apart without any filling whatever. Of course windows are an unnecessary appendage and are dispensed with entirely.

Of their public buildings, the church of "John the Baptist," standing near the camp, is, I suppose, a fair specimen. The building is of logs, flatted on two sides, covered with the split oak shingle, the only kind I have seen in this country. There is one place of entrance, and here let me remark with regard to their liberality; that their church door or pulpit evidently never was closed against those who differed from them in some technical point, simply because there were neither to close! At each end there was left an aperture which one would suppose was intended for a window, did not a closer inspection reveal the fact that a window never was there. The warming of the edifice certainly shows an originality on the part of the designer, not often surpassed. In front of each aperture spoken of as left for windows, a square pile of stone is built up some six inches above the floor on which the fires were evidently built, the smoke escaping through the aforesaid apertures, or through the crevices in the roof. The seats are split-oak slabs, with legs inserted by the aid of an augur; these are also from an original design, but poorly designed to enjoy the luxury of sleeping through a long sermon. Surely, those who listened to the divine command, "Servants, obey your Masters," as it fell from the lips of some eloquent disciple of the meek and lowly, attended from purely devotional motives. So much for their churches. Of schoolhouses, there are none.

Their dress is as uniform as the expression of their countenance. The men are dressed in a butternut-colored home manufacture, and the women in a coarse, cotton fabric, of a dirty yellow. The children, of which there are no lack, are dressed in a similar fabric, according to sex. These have generally blue eyes, and universally, light hair, which has much the appearance of a mass of uncombed flax. These unfortunates, the victims of the peculiar institution, which, in their blind delusion, they are fighting to perpetuate, are now truly to be pitied. Stripped of everything they did possess, cows, hogs and corn, how they are to get through the coming winter, God only knows. Utterly spiritless, they have neither the means or the ambition to get away and remain, eking out a scanty supply of corn meal, which, mixed with water, and baked without salt, is their sole living. Once seen, and the wonder ceases, that they are the dupes and willing tools of the Southern chivalry, who, with the facility and ease with which the potter works his clay, shapes and  molds them, and excites their passions to the working out of their base designs, and to the ultimate ruin of these, their willing instruments. God hasten the day when their eyes shall be opened to their own best interests, and they redeemed from the worse than African bondage, which has so long crushed them beneath the wheel of this worse than Pagan car. Then, and not till then will their temporal condition be improved, and their intellects be aroused from the death-like torpor in which they have lain so long.

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