The Shasta courier., 1864-05-14
East Tennessee.

At a meeting in New York on the evening
Of the 10Th ultimo, of Unionists who propose
to render material aid to the suffering loyal
lists of East Tennessee, n. G. Taylor said:
East Tennessee, despite of armed mobs
and military pressure, voted for Union uoy-
ernor and for members fer the Union Con
gress. But conscription came, including all
between eighteen and thirty five. Then the
exodus commenced among the young men,
who swore that if ever they lifted an arm in
this war it must be under the flag oftheir ia
Tiers. Applause. And when conscripted
they bade farewell to parents and friends,
and under the darkness of the night, climb
ed the trackless mountains to their summit.
Amid winter snow and ice, making tracks in
blood. they went forth, seeking the flag of
their fathers, that they might fight under it,
as their fathers, had done before them.
Applause. Rebel tloops were scattered
over the country to carry out the Copserip-
ton law. The people had all been disarmed
by the rowing troops, and the homes of the
people which should be held sacred were
thrown open 10 the depredations of the myr-
midons of a reasonable power. All llmemen
toes OF the past-the bowie knife of the pio-
neer, the rifle of the hunter, and the musket
of the soldier of the Revolution and cf the
war 1912, were ruthlessly taken away. They
looked for relief, but found it not, and they
were left to that hope which deferred max
eth the heart sick The men at home-the
Union men-were dragged to Dungeons where
they fingered from month to year, till many
died from disease or despair. These are
truths whereof know. Five thousand peo-
pie of East Tennessee have thus been carried
away-hundreds to the prisons of the far
South, and hundreds have paid the penalty
of love to the Union with their lives. One of
these was Pckens, sixty years of age, who
died in the prison of Tuscaloosa. And why
did they take him? His county gave, out of
her whole population, one vote for secession.
This was the crime of patriotic Pickens. An
other Union man, Monts omery Thornburg,
was confined in the dungeons of the South,
in the most unhealthy and fetid prisons for
his devotion to the Union. But it was not
Pickens and Thornburg, but thousands suf-
fered without a cause. Thus terror shook
her black banner over the land, and if this
was not enough. the d4sky savage was brought
into the State and put upon the track of the
young men whose oaly crime was that they
were flying to the succor of the old flag. Talk
of negro soldiers after thatl But let it be
spoken to the honor of the Cherokee Indians,
they were far more merciful than the white
man and the Union people at last came to
prefer the Indians to company of rebel s,-
diers. Then was the conscription extended
from sixteen to fort fve But Just then
came the tramping of Burnside's hosts great
applause across the mountains, and he en-
tered our valleys to redeem the people from
rebel rule The young men sprung from
their hiding places and joined the Union
troops, and to day twenty five thousand young
Tennesseeans are in the Union army More
than two to one over the proportion, accor
ding to the population ofapy State in the I'm
ion. Applause Four ffths of the arms
bearing population of East Tennessee are to.
day in the army of the Union. Burnside was
suddenly called to the aid of Rosecrans be
turned and left the country. upon which the
rebels followed, robbed the Union people.
As Burnside had been compelled to treat the
rebels in the same way that the rebels had
before treated the Union, SO the Who'll coun-
try was pillaged. farIas were destroyed, hous-
es burned aud cattle stolen. Nothing was
left. All the industrial resources Of the coun-
try were DESTROYED. East Tennessee has
drunk the full cup of bitterness, and nothing
is left her but to drink the dregs. She has
lost all but loyalty and honor and now des-
titution is entering the doors of the people
and taking Its seat at their boards. But.
thank God, she has been faithful through all
her prosecutions. The clash of arms, with
all the horrors of internecine war, has never
corrupted her loyalty or driven her away
from the Government of her fathers