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Page 46
By the way, if the South could make good their present effort for an
independent national existence, they would immediately change that
provision by which they allow each State to withdraw at pleasure.
The impression among the thinking minds with them is already fixed,
that the principle is destructive of all permanent national
authority, and existence even. A practical and almost fatal
illustration of the principle of secession was given at Corinth just
after the battle of Shiloh.
The Arkansas authorities, fearing the power of the Federal forces,
required all the troops from their State to return home and protect
their own citizens. General Hindman, who commanded the Arkansas
troops, was in favor of returning to their own State; but
Beauregard, as commander-in-chief of the Western army, resisted the
demand. Excitement ran high, and mutiny was imminent for some days.
Nothing but the resolute bearing of General Beauregard, threatening
to shoot the first man who should attempt to leave, saved the Rebel
army from destruction; for if the troops of one State had been
allowed to withdraw on the plea of protecting their own borders, why
should not all? This was well-understood, and hence resisted
resolutely and successfully. At a later day, and as if in pursuance
of a general plan, the Arkansas troops did go home; and thus they
avoided a mutiny, which, had it been fully developed, would have
involved at least 10,000 men. So rigid is the surveillance of the
press, that no publication, so far as I know, was ever made of this
affair, which threatened the disintegration of the whole Rebel army.
To return, we made some thirty miles, and ascending the Cumberland
range in the evening, we again sought rest among the rocks. This we
judged safest, since we knew not who might have seen us during the
day, of an inquiring state of mind, as to our purpose and
destination.
On the morning of June 4th, by a _d�tour_ to conceal the course from
which we came, and a journey of a dozen of miles, we reached the
home of my wounded friend. I shall not attempt to describe his
tearful, joyful meeting with his mother and three sisters, and the
pride of the good old father as he folded his soldier-boy to his
heart. My own emotions fully occupied me while their greetings
lasted. I thought of my own fond mother, who had not heard from me
for more than a year, and was perhaps then mourning me as dead,
perchance had gone herself to the tomb in grief for the loss of her
first-born son; of my reverend father, whose wise counsel I had
often needed and longed for; of my sweet sisters and little brother,
who every day wondered if their big brother still lived and would
ever come home.
After a kindly greeting to the stranger who had brought home their
wounded son, for they never suspected either that he had deserted or
that I was escaping to the hated Yankees, they introduced me to all
the comforts of their pleasant dwelling; and for the first time for
many months I began to feel somewhat secure. Yet they were all
Secessionists, and talked constantly of the success of the cause,
and I must, of necessity, conceal my views and plans.
The day after our arrival, the wounded soldier took to his bed and
never rose again. The hardships he had endured in the journey home,
acting upon a system enfeebled by his wound, terminated in
inflammation of the lungs, which within a week ended his life. I
watched by his bed, nursed him carefully, and told him what little I
knew of the better world, trying to recall all the sweet words of
comfort I had heard pious people pour into the ears of dying ones in
my childhood, when my father, as pastor, was often called to such
scenes. I was not an experienced counselor, but I knew there was One
Name of sovereign power. That Name I told him of as best I could.
About the 12th of June he passed into the Dark Beyond.
After the funeral ceremonies wore over, a letter came from the other
brother, detailing the manner in which they had been compelled to
swear in for the war, and saying that he would soon be home. He had
not reached when I left there. I fear he failed in his attempt.
But one more step was needed to make me safe; that was, to get
within the Federal lines, take the oath of allegiance, and secure a
pass. But how could this be accomplished? Should the Federal
authorities suspect me of having been in the Rebel service, would
they allow me to take the oath and go my way? I knew not; but well I
knew the Confederate officers were never guilty of such an
absurdity. Judging others by themselves, they put little confidence
in the fact that A.B. has sworn to this or that; and hence they
watch him as carefully after as before. The North should know that
oaths taken by Southerners before provost-marshals, in recovered
cities such as Memphis, Nashville, &c, are not taken to be observed,
as a general rule. They are taken as a matter of necessity, and with
a mental reservation, that when the interests of their State
demands, they are freed from the obligation. That this is a
startling statement I admit, and if called on for the proof I might
find it difficult to produce it; and yet from what I saw and heard
scores of times, and in different parts of the South, I know it to
be indubitably true.
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