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Page 8
As the St. Francis touched the wharf on the morning of the 19th of
April, the very day that the blood of the Massachusetts sixth
regiment dyed the streets of Baltimore, shed by her murderous
rebels, I stepped upon the landing; meaning to look over the state
of things in the city, and see if I could get out of it in the
direction of Nashville, where I had friends who, I thought, would
aid me homeward.
But I had not left the wharf, when a "blue jacket," the sobriquet of
the military policemen that then guarded the city, stepped up and
said, "I see you are a stranger." "Yes, sir." "I have some business
with you. You will please walk with me, sir." To my expression of
astonishment, which was real, he replied, "You answer the
description very well, sir. The Committee of Public Safety wish to
see you, come along." As it was useless to parley, I walked with
him, and was soon ushered into the presence of that body, a much
more intelligent and no less intensely Southern organization, than
I had found in the grocery of Jeffersonville.
They questioned me as to my home, political opinions, and
destination, and received such answers as I thought it wise to give.
Whereupon they confronted me, to my amazement, with a member of the
Vigilance Committee which had tried me at Jeffersonville, one
hundred and twenty miles distant, thirty hours before. I was amazed,
because I did not imagine that any one of their number could have
reached Memphis before me. He had ridden after me the night of my
escape, and when I stopped for breakfast, he had passed on to
Helena, and taking an earlier up-river boat, had reached Memphis
some hours in advance of the St. Francis; long enough before me to
post the Committee of Public Safety as to my person and story when
before his committee. Even with this swift witness against me, they
were unable to establish any crime, and after consultation, they
told me I could retire. I was immediately followed by the policeman,
who handed me a letter written by the chairman, suggesting that I
would do well to go directly to a certain recruiting office, where
young men were enlisting under the Provisional Government of
Tennessee, and where I would find it to my interest to _volunteer_,
adding, substantially, as follows: "Several members of the committee
think if you do not see fit to follow this advice, you will probably
stretch hemp instead of leaving Memphis; as they can not be
responsible for the acts of an infuriate mob, who _may_ hear that
you came from the North." I was allowed no time for reflection, as
the policeman stood waiting, he said, "to show me the way." I now
saw at a glance, that the military power of the city had resolved to
_compel_ me to _volunteer_, and in my friendlessness I could think
of no way to escape the cruel and dread necessity.
Still the hope remained that perhaps I might make a partial promise,
and ask time, and yet elude the vigilance of the authorities. As the
M.P. grew impatient, and at length imperious, showing that he well
knew that he had me in his power, I walked on to avoid the crowd
which was beginning to gather, and soon reached the recruiting
station. I saw, the moment I was inside, that the only door was
guarded by bayonets, crossed in the hands of determined men. The
Blue Jacket, in a private conversation with the recruiting officer,
soon gave him my _status_; when, turning to me, the officer said,
with the air of a man who expects to carry his point, "Well, young
man, I learn you have come to volunteer; glad to see you--good
company," &c.
To which I replied, "I was advised to call and look at the matter,
and will take some time to consider, if you please."
"No need of time, sir--no time to be lost; here is the roll--enter
your name, put on the uniform, and then you can pass out," with a
glance of his eye at the policeman and the crossed bayonets, which
meant plainly enough, "_You do not go out before._"
To my suggestion that I had a horse on the boat which I must see
about, he replied very promptly, "_That could all be done when this
business was through._"
The meshes of their cursed net were around me, and there was no
release; and with as good a grace as I could assume, I wrote my
name, and thus I _volunteered_!
Does any reader say, "You did wrong--you had better have died than
have given your name to such an infamous and causeless rebellion?" I
can only answer: It is far easier to say what a homeless youth,
hunted for his life for two nights and a day, until exhausted,
faint, and friendless, in the midst of an excited and armed
populace, _should do_, than it was in the circumstances to do what
will stand the test of a high, calm, and _safe_ patriotism. Let none
condemn until he can lay his hand upon his heart and say, "No
conceivable pressure could overcome me."
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