The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1871-11-11
Graphic Account Of the Explosion
of the Nashville Magazine.

| '
WAR "REMINISCENCES - DARING
CONDUCT OF THE LATE MAI.
| .., W T. r.. HOTCHKISS.
(From "On Dts" Chattanooga Daily Rebel,
January 18th, 1861
Mai. Hotchkiss. Chief Of Ord
nance to the Division of Gen.
Cleburne, and in the late en-
gagement,* acting as Chief of
Artillery-in which position he
received two wounds of pain
full, though happily not a dan
gerous character-was conveyed
through Chattanooga q few days
ago, en- route for Catoosa Springs,
where it is to be hoped sincerely
his health of limb and body will
be speedily restored. II
This personal announcement
suggests to my mind an event,
or train of events, in which my
self was a partial observer and
Mai. Hotchkiss the hero, during
the dismal period succeeding the
fall of Nashville. Il
I was in Murfreesboro', sadly
disconsolate and very dirty I
had lain in camps a week amid a
flood tide of winter rain, and
(worse luck to them y disaftec-
ton and gloom. I resolved to
shake off the terrible mallady jOf
depression, which was beginning
to amount to a disease, aud bold
ly to resist the blue devils that
beset me. With this intent on
Sunday morning, February the
23rd, I mounted a superb cavalry
horse, and set out with a party of
brother officers (for know gentle
reader the grapevine then sport
ed as many brass buttons as q
Brigadier General and. swore as
soundly as a hospital surgeon)
bent upon driving in the enemy's
pickets, entering Nashville, TAX
ing a last fond look of their
sweethearts, a last embrace, and
thence, returning, like the cava-'
liers of old, to the mournful duty
of running away from Middle
Tennessee to the tune of "Susan-
nah don't you cry"
We set out at daybreak, and
reached the little village of
Lavergne before the sun had
veered far round toward noon.
Here we met Col. (since Gen.
Forrest. He halted us, and the
following dialogue ensued:-
"Where the hell are you fol.
lows going p
"On Il bust says one of us.
"On Il bust the devil. The
Yankees I'll get You before you
bat your eyes. You must turn
back"
"Why so 20 "..
because I have orders to send
all officers and privates into
camp, meet. The Yankees have
arrived at Nashville and taken
possession. You'll he captured,
sure as you try to get in. only
misscd' en- myself by a hairs
BREADTH
After some further colloquy we
promised to return and Col.
Forrest passed on. We then
held a council of war, resolved to
cut across the country to the
Nolensville pike, take the out
skirts of the city by dusk, and
enter at dark. We did so. About
five O'Clock we reached a gentle
elevation from which the spires
of Nashville glittered in the
waning sunlight. 1t was balm,
clear evening, with only a fresh
and breezy GOODNESS in the air.
We met many persons from the
heart of town, all of whom as
sured us that we would be as
suredly killed or captured if we
ventured farther. But two Or
three canteens-frlll had made us,
like Adhem Of the rhyme, tex
ceedingly bold" and we rode for
ward; singing a jolly refrain and
making some jests, more marked
for impudencc, than wit.
We still saw no Yankees. The
twilight grew around us; the
squalid tenements of the sub
burbs gradually fell behind us;
the church-yard vaguely rose to
our right; the stars glimmered,
and away before us, like the
light in the cave Of Sinbad the
Sailor, we began to perceive the
lamps of the city. Dear life |!
how our hearts throbbed,, how
our eyes filed, how. our cavalry
trappings clattered! No time
now to pause; no time to repent.
The grim walls of the old town