William Crutchfield

In accordance with my previous post, I thought a few words about the ardent Unionist William Crutchfield were in order...

William "Bill" Crutchfield was born in Greenville, Tennessee, on November 16, 1824. His family moved to Chattanooga in the late 1830s, but William left home in 1840, moving first to McMinnville, Tennessee, then in 1844 to Jacksonville, Alabama, where he established a grain farm and became a captain in the local militia.

William's father, Thomas, a successful brick contractor and land speculator died in 1850, and William moved back to Chattanooga to help his younger brother, Thomas Jr., manage the estate and the large hotel their father had built, the Crutchfield House. Crutchfield was elected alderman in 1851 and again in 1854. He was instrumental in establishing the town's police and fire departments.

Although the family owned slaves, many of whom worked as cooks, housekeepers and laundry workers in the hotel, William Crutchfield, a Whig, became more and more outspoken in his opposition to secession as the war approached. Crutchfield gained regional fame and notoriety for his confrontation with Jefferson Davis as chronicled in my previous post.

Crutchfield was hardly alone in his Unionist leanings. East Tennessee was a bastion of Unionist sentiment (more on that in a later post); while most Chattanoogans leaned toward secession, Hamilton County was overwhelmingly Unionist. The attitude in the very early days of the war, especially before Tennessee finally seceded in June 1861, seemed to be live and let live. That all changed in November.

In connection with a planned Union attack from Kentucky through the Cumberland Gap into East Tennessee (which General William Tecumseh Sherman cancelled at the last minute), East Tennessee Unionists burned a series of railroad bridges throughout the region. Only five of nine targeted bridges were destroyed and they were quickly rebuilt, but the Confederate authorities came down hard on the region. Several bridge burners were executed, martial law was declared in some areas, and dozens of Unionists, including William Crutchfield, were arrested. The 7th Alabama Infantry Regiment, led by Colonel S. A. M. Wood, was sent to Chattanooga to keep the peace.

Crutchfield escaped his imprisonment and fled the area. Although he never joined the Union army he served as a scout and guide throughout the Chattanooga Campaign. In 1862, he led General James Negley to a spot opposite the town on the Tennessee River on Stringer's Ridge where he could shell the town. In 1863, he led Colonel John Wilder to the same spot. Wilder also shelled the town there, opening the Chattanooga Campaign. Crutchfield also fought at Chickamauga, assisted Generals William Hazen and John Turchin at the Battle of Brown's Ferry, and Ulysses S. Grant and George Thomas at the Battle of Missionary Ridge, and James Steedman in the post-campaign Union occupation of the town.

Phil Sheridan wrote in his memoirs that Crutchfield's "devotion to the Union cause knew no bounds." Oliver Perry Temple, in his Notable Men of Tennessee, described Crutchfield as "eccentric and peculiar beyond description. He was vehement in manner and impetuous in action. Yet, with all his violence of manner, his heart was as kind and true as ever beat in the human breast. And he was brave, too, to the verge of desperation."

In April 1864, Crutchfield was a part of Hamilton County's three-man delegation to the East Tennessee Convention in Knoxville. The convention was called to discuss Lincoln's ten percent plan in which states would be readmitted to the Union if ten percent of their prewar voting populations took the Oath of Allegiance and pledged to support emancipation. The convention quickly devolved into infighting and disbanded without accomplishing anything.

In October 1865, Crutchfield was elected alderman in Chattanooga's provisional civil government. In December, he was reelected for a full term.

In 1872, Crutchfield ran for the 3rd District seat in the U. S. House of Representatives. He edged his Democratic opponent, David Key, 10,041 to 8960. In Washington, he gained widespread attention for his eccentricities and manner of dress. A Washington Star correspondent noted that...

Since the days of Davy Crockett, Tennessee has always managed to have one mountaineer character in Congress, and Crutchfield, the latest, is said to resemble Crockett more in originality and style than any of the intervening line. He is a sunburnt, wiry little man, with foxy hair and whiskers, and though, by report, of considerable means, wears the cheapest of homespun suits, a good deal frayed at the edges, and with a pair of heavy, well-greased brogans that were the perpetual despair of the Pullman boot-blacks. He is not only a mighty hunter, like Crockett, but is moreover a shrewd business man.

That same correspondent, in the same article, used eye dialect to record a speech that Crutchfield gave, mocking his thick Southern accent.

While in Congress, Crutchfield managed to obtain a $600,000 appropriation to make improvements in the Tennessee River watercourse. He also obtained smaller amounts for the Little Tennessee and Hiwassee Rivers, but the money was never spent.

Crutchfield struck up a bit of controversy when he attached an amendment to a civil rights bill "that any white lady refusing the attention of a negro, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, shall be fined for each and every offense not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, and imprisoned not more than six months." He added, "Tack on this amendment and I'll vote for the whole thing."

Crutchfield said he was testing the devotion of Ben Butler and other Republicans to the social equality of the negro, and would have twenty of the choicest beaux from his plantation at each session of Congress so that those congressmen with daughters of marriageable age could take their pick.

He was bitterly denounced by his Republican colleagues, but he said he really didn't understand what they were so upset about. He was sure that Butler and his allies thought negroes were equal to themselves. "What's sauce for the goose isn't sauce for the gander. Civil rights are very fine for southern, but won't do for northern society."

His constituents back home in Tennessee were also outraged. He did not seek reelection in 1874.

After his time in Congress, he spent most of his time on his 500-acre fruit orchard south of Chattanooga in what is now Flintstone, Georgia. He died in Chattanooga on January 24, 1890 and is interred in Chattanooga's Citizens Cemetery. His epitaph reads, "The noblest work of God, an honest man."

William Lytle, U.S.A.

Although he is virtually unknown today, at the time of the battle William Lytle was one of the most famous men on the field at Chickamauga. A popular pastime was to hold piano recitals and poetry readings in parlors and drawing rooms. Lytle's "Antony and Cleopatra," released in 1857, was one of the most popular poems in the North and South before the war.

William Haines Lytle was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 2, 1826, the scion of one of the most prominent Cincinnati families. He graduated from Cincinnati College (now the University of Cincinnati) and passed the bar. He started a law firm, but soon enlisted in the 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, serving in the Mexican-American War, where he rose to the rank of captain.

After the war, he resumed his law practice and began a political career, winning election to the Ohio legislature as a Democrat. He ran for Lieutenant Governor in 1857, losing by just a few hundred votes. He also lost a race for his party's nomination for his district's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1860.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Lytle was serving as a major general in the Ohio state militia. Although he was a pro-states' rights Democrat, Lytle chose to defend his country and was sent to the newly-established Camp Harrison to train the Ohio volunteers who answered Lincoln's call for troops to put down the rebellion.

Through his military and political connections Lytle was commissioned as colonel of the 10th Ohio Infantry, and assigned to William Rosecrans's forces in western Virginia. He soon rose to command a brigade, but was severely wounded in the leg at the Battle of Carnifex Ferry on September 10, 1861.

After a convalescent period, Lytle briefly commanded a training camp at Bardstown, Kentucky, then was given command of a brigade in the Army of the Ohio, first under Ormsby Mitchel, then in Lovell Rousseau's division. Lytle was again severely wounded at the Battle of Perrysville on October 8, 1862, and left for dead. He did not die, but was captured by the Confederates. On November 29, 1862, while still in captivity, Lytle was promoted to brigadier general.

In February of 1863, Lytle was paroled and rejoined the army, now named the Army of the Cumberland under the command of William Rosecrans. He was given command of the 1st Brigade of the Third Division (Sheridan's) of XX Corps (McCook's).

Lytle's brigade did not reach the battlefield at Chickamauga until after dark on September 19, 1863, after marching for seventeen days straight with the corps's baggage. They were positioned near the Widow Glenn's. The next day he was ordered by Sheridan to march to the north to join George Thomas's position on the left side of the line. Lytle had barely begun the movement when Confederates broke through the Union line directly in front of him. Lytle quickly formed his men into battle lines, but they were quickly overwhelmed. Seeing that his situation was hopeless, Lytle ordered a counterattack in a vain attempt to slow the Confederate advance. To his regiment, Lytle said, "All right, men, we can die but once. This is the time and place. Let us charge." Lytle had barely begun his charge when a bullet struck him near the spine, but he stayed on his horse in the front of his men. Then, three bullets struck him almost at once. One, which struck him in the face, was mortal. He was 36.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

"Reaction to Lytle's death in Cincinnati was remarkable," Gampfer says. "It was the biggest military funeral procession in the history of the city." He is buried at Spring Grove Cemetery. Six weeks before his death, when presented (a) Maltese cross by members of his old regiment, Lytle ended a speech this way:

"That the day of ultimate triumph for the Union arms, sooner or later, will come, I do not doubt, for I have faith in the courage, the wisdom, and the justice of the people. It may not be for all of us here today to listen to the chants that greet the victor, nor to hear the brazen bells ring out the new nuptials of the States.

"But those who do survive can tell, at least, to the people, how their old comrades, whether in the skirmish or the charge ... died with their harness on, in the great war for Union and Liberty."

"Antony and Cleopatra"

I am Dying, Egypt, dying,
Ebbs the crimson life-tide fast,
And the dark Plutonian shadows
Gather on the evening blast;
Let thine arms, O Queen, enfold me,
Hush thy sobs and bow thine ear;
Listen to the great heart-secrets,
Thou, and thou alone, must hear.

Though my scarr'd and veteran legions
Bear their eagles high no more,
And my wreck'd and scatter'd galleys
Strew dark Actuim's fatal shore,
Though no glittering guards surround me,
Prompt to do their master's will,
I must perish like a Roman,
Die the great Triumvir still.

Let not Caesar's servile minions
Mock the lion thus laid low;
'Twas no foeman's arm that fell'd him,
'Twas his own that struck the blow;
His who, pillow'd on thy bosom,
Turn'd aside from glory's ray,
His who, drunk with thy caresses,
Madly threw a world away.

Should the base plebeian rabble
Dare assail my name at Rome,
Where my noble spouse, Octavia,
Weeps within her widow'd home,
Seek her; say the gods bear witness -
Altars, augurs, circling wings -
That her blood, with mine commingled,
Yet shall mount the throne of kings.

As for thee, star-eyed Egyptian,
Glorious sorceress of the Nile,
Light the path to Stygian horrors
With the splendors of thy smile.
Give the Caesar crowns and arches,
Let his brow the laurel twine;
I can scorn the Senate's triumphs,
Triumphing in love like thine.

I am dying, Egypt, dying;
Hark! the insulting foeman's cry.
They are coming! quick, my falchion,
Let me front them ere I die.
Ah! no more amid the battle
Shall my heart exulting swell;
Isis and Osiris guard thee!
Cleopatra, Rome, farewell!

At the Chickamauga battlefield, the spots where high-ranking officers died are marked by pyramids of cannonballs. Over the years, cannonballs were removed from Lytle's pyramid to replace those that were damaged by vandalism in more visible parts of the park. Lytle's pyramid was eventually reconfigured to be just a simple triangle marking the spot on what is now Lytle Hill where he died. After a fundraising campaign, Lytle's pyramid was restored and re-dedicated on the 150th anniversary of his death, September 20, 2013.

Patrick Cleburne, C.S.A.

Long, long ago, in a blog far, far away, I had every intention of doing a series of posts on the notable people involved in Chattanooga's Civil War history. I got as far as this post on Confederate General Patrick Cleburne, reposted here for your enjoyment...

"The Stonewall of the West," Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, was born on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1828 in Oven, County Cork, Ireland. His mother died when he was eighteen months old and he was an orphan at age 15 when his father, Dr. Joseph Cleburne, died of typhus contracted from a patient. He was expected to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue a career in medicine. To that end, he apprenticed with a nearby pharmacist, but twice failed the entrance exams for Trinity College of Medicine. Humiliated, he enlisted in the 41st Regiment of Foot of the British Army, expecting to be sent to India. Instead, the regiment was sent to Ireland to put down civil unrest due to the Potato Famine.

After serving three years and achieving a promotion to corporal, Cleburne purchased his discharge and emigrated to America, eventually settling in Helena, Arkansas, where he operated a drugstore and began studying law. By the start of the Civil War, he was the senior partner in the law firm of Cleburne, Scaife and Magnum and a naturalized citizen. He developed a close friendship with Thomas Hindman, a fellow lawyer and Democratic politician (and another future Confederate general.) That friendship involved Cleburne in a feud with local members of the Know-Nothing Party which culminated in a shootout in downtown Helena. Cleburne was shot in the back and the Memphis Daily Appeal reported that he had died.

As war became imminent, Cleburne sided with the South...

"I am with the South in death, in victory or defeat...I never owned a Negro and care nothing for them, but these people have been my friends and have stood up to me on all occasions. In addition to this, I believe the North is about to wage a brutal and unholy war on a people who have done them no wrong, in violation of the constitution and the fundamental principles of the government. They no longer acknowledge that all government derives its validity from the consent of the governed."

Cleburne joined a local militia company, the Yell Rifles, named in honor of General Archibald Yell, a former governor of Arkansas who died in the Mexican War. Cleburne was soon elected captain and led the company in the seizure of the U.S. Arsenal in Little Rock. After Arkansas seceded, the Yell Rifles became part of the 1st Arkansas Infantry Regiment (later the 15th Arkansas). Cleburne was elected colonel. The regiment, a part of Major General William Hardee's command, spent the fall and winter of 1861-62 near Bowling Green, Kentucky. Cleburne was given temporary command of a brigade. The post became permanent in March 1862 when he received his brigadier's commission.

Despite his British Army experience, Cleburne's first taste of combat came in April of 1862 at Shiloh. On April 6, on the far left of the Confederate line, Cleburne's brigade (along with the rest of Hardee's corps) shoved the Federals under William Sherman back to the Tennessee River. When the tide of the battle turned on the second day, Cleburne fought rearguard action while the rest of the Confederate army retreated. He was rewarded with praise and increased responsibility.

At the Battle of Richmond, during Major General E. Kirby Smith's 1862 invasion of Kentucky, Cleburne led two brigades. On August 30, while preparing for the second day's fighting, Cleburne was shot in the face. The ball entered through his open mouth and exited out his left cheek, taking several teeth with it. Unable to speak, he relinquished command to Preston Smith. Cleburne's skillful handling of his troops and the timely arrival of reinforcements were among the factors that gave Smith one of the most complete victories of the war.

At Chickamauga, Cleburne's division was called upon to attempt an attack at dusk against Richard Johnson's and Absalom Baird's divisions around Winfrey Field. In the gathering darkness the attack turned into one of the most confused incidents of the entire battle with "friendly fire" casualties outnumbering the intentional kind. The Federals eventually withdrew, leaving Cleburne in possession of the field, but the attack accomplished little except to add to the casualty lists and to leave Cleburne's division too battered to accomplish much in more important attacks the next day.

As the Battles of Chattanooga were starting, Cleburne's division was on its way toward Knoxville to join Longstreet's men there. The division was hastily recalled and posted on Bragg's far right on the north end of Missionary Ridge, the prime focus of General Ulysses S. Grant's efforts against the Confederates. Grant put William T. Sherman in charge of the operation. Sherman moved slowly to cross the Tennessee River and get in position only to realize he had taken the wrong hill. He was on Billy Goat Hill, a small hill separated from the main ridge. Although outnumbered 10 to 1, Cleburne was able to hold off Sherman's advances throughout the remainder of the Battle of Missionary Ridge, withdrawing only when Union troops climbed the ridge and broke the Confederate defenses farther south. The Union victory was total and the Confederates fled, leaving Cleburne's division to fight a rearguard action on a small ridge just east of Missionary Ridge.

After the rout, the Confederates were still in danger. They were disorganized and strung out over many miles with Joseph Hooker's army in hot pursuit. Bragg called upon Cleburne to save the army one more time while he tried to regroup in Dalton, Georgia. At Ringgold, Georgia, there was a gap in the mountains where the Western and Atlantic Railroad ran toward Atlanta. Using the Ringgold Depot as an anchor, Cleburne concealed his men and two cannon there and waited until Hooker's men entered the gap before opening fire. Hooker halted and sent troops to test Cleburne's flanks. Cleburne anticipated the move. Immediately after the initial volley, he moved men away from his center toward the flanks. When he repulsed the attacks on his flanks, Hooker withdrew to await his cannons which were a day behind. With just over 4000 men, Cleburne had stymied Hooker's 12,000.

In late December 1863, recognizing the South's dwindling manpower, Cleburne came up with a unorthodox solution. He called together the leadership of the Army of Tennessee and proposed using slaves as combat troops with the promise of emancipation upon enlistment. His proposal was met with much skepticism and, when it was finally presented to the Confederate Cabinet, they almost unanimously rejected it, but Cleburne's steady rise in the Confederate army came to a halt. He was never promoted to lieutenant general or given command of a corps.

In January 1864, General William Hardee married Mary Lewis Foreman in Demopolis, Alabama. Patrick Cleburne was his best man. There at the wedding, he met 24-year-old Susan Tarleton of Mobile. Shortly after the wedding, he called on Miss Tarleton in Mobile and asked her to marry him. He returned to the army, then arranged for a leave in late February. “I took advantage of the lull after the little storm at Dalton to come down and learn my fate from Miss Sue,” Cleburne wrote. “After keeping me in cruel suspense for six weeks she has at length consented to be mine and we are engaged.” But the war interfered with their plans and, when Cleburne left in early March, they never saw each other again.

From "Cleburne's Banner" by John Trotwood Moore...

Folded now is Cleburne's banner,
But one day it gleamed along
When the war-drum's stern hosanna
Echoed in a nation's song!
Shiloh saw it sweep from under
Like a tempest in its wrath;
Chickamauga heard its thunder,
Felt the lightning of its path.

Ringgold Gap, New Hope, and Dalton,
Peachtree Creek---Atlanta, too---
Till it kissed the bloody Harpeth,
Where it broke the ranks of blue---
Till it kissed the bloody Harpeth,
And its blue was turned to red,
When it floated from the breastworks
Over gallant Cleburne---dead!

The Harpeth River, a tributary of the Cumberland, ran through the sleepy little town of Franklin, Tennessee. On November 30, 1864, General John Bell Hood, now commanding the Confederate Army of Tennessee, launched a suicidal frontal assault across nearly two miles of open ground against John Schofield's entrenched Federals. Patrick Cleburne was killed, shot in the chest. He was 36. Cleburne was laid to rest at St. John's Church near Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee. After six years, he was disinterred and returned to Helena, Arkansas, where he was buried in Maple Hill Cemetery.

Lieutenant General William J. Hardee -- "Where this division defended, no odds broke its line; where it attacked, no numbers resisted its onslaught, save only once; and there is the grave of Cleburne."

For more information, see also:

Cleburne -- The Graphic Novel
Patrick Cleburne YouTube videos