Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-05-18
AN ELOQUENT TRIBUTE TO GEN. MoPHER-
EMBARRASSING FACTS CONCERNING.
HIS DEATH.

AVN-lNlhhEoIlNd fACTb COhCEhNING
HIS DEATH
Senator Warner, of Alabama, served
with great distinction during the Atlanta
| campaign as Inspector General on Cen
eral Sherman's staff. In this position he
had peculiar advantages for forming just
estimate a Gen. Mcpherson, and of learn
ing the full circumstances connected with
his death.
In the Congressional Globe of the 5th
inst, in the report of the Senate proceed
ings, we find the following remarks, made
upon the joint resolution donating con-
demned cannon TO the Mcpherson Monu-
ment Association. After describing the
movements that brought about the great
battle of the 22d July, 1864, the Senator
gives few details of the battle and the
circumstances connected with McPher-
sons DEATH
' a few moments after dismountng at Gene
raj Sherman's headquarters the sharp rafting
Ere of musketry was heard in the direction OF
our left rear Sherman and Mcpherson listen
ed 80 il attentivey for few moments, both de-
tecting in il the decisive sound of coming battle
when MCPHERSON quickly mounted his horse
and rode rapidly toward it. In less than two
ON the porch of the Howard House.
" In riding from the right Of Gen, Dodge line
through the interval that separated it from the
left Of Leggetts division of the seventeenth
corps by blind road through the woods, at
tended only by an orderly, his staff having all
been sent away with orders for the conduct of
the battle, he was halted by a squad of rebel in
fantry and ordered to surrender Raising his
hat, as if in token of surrender, he essayed to
rein his horse quickly away and plunge into the
woods and escape. The rebels, instantly de-
tecting his purpose, fred volley, and the brave
and chiyalrous Mcpherson fell to rise no more
II can never forget the touching scene at the
Howard House as his body lay there still and
beautiful in death. Mcpherson was betrothed
to girl of rare beauty and worth in Baltimore,
and had the promise of O leave of absence in
married The exigencies of the military SER
vice, in connection with the grand movements
of the Atlanta and Wilderness campaigns,
which General Grant directed should be begun
simultaneously, compelled General Sherman
to the painful necessity of denying this leave.
He wrote a kind and touching letter TO the
girl, taking the whole responsibility, and beg
cling her to consider that General Mcpherson
had no option but obedience or soldierly dis
honor, and promising him leave the earliest
time the service would allow. As we looked
on his face, pale and cold in death, even the
remembrances of his virtues and his value to
the army and to the country were hushed in
the thought of the deep love which but few
hours before had lent such light to his eyes
and such geniality to his manners, and of the
irreparable sorrow soon to come to one from
whom death had SO cruelty snatched her beau
tiful hero. Sherman slowly paced the floor,
frequently stopping short to receive reports of
the progress of the fight, or to give orders for
its conduct, or to gaze into the lifeless face of
his beloved captain the tears meanwhile rapid
~ coursing down his war-worn face.
4" Mr.. President, the tears shed on the battle
field over his dead body by his great chief,
Tecumseh, and his brave men, would have
made his most fitting monument had the skill
of other than divine artist been equal to the
task of gathering them in the form in which
they fell, and of giving them the perpetuity, as
they had the radiance, of diamonds, of fashion,
ing them into form of beauty sparkling
in Code light while time shall last the story of
his virtues But earth caught them, mingled
with the blood of those who shed them, and her
flowers, nourished by them, will be natures
sympathetic testimony to his kindred beauty of
form and soul.
1.-THE high military renown of General Nc
Pherson, together with the possession by him
of those gentle qualities which won for him the
so6risuet of the beloved McPherson,' so pecu-
lisrly distinguished him as to warrant us in
making this contribution, to aid in raising a
monument which shall tell to all future ages of
his services and fame"