The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-09-29
THE TRAGEDY
OF BUCK ISLAND.
JNo. A. wYETH IN HARpER's WEEKLY.

In northern Alabama the Tennessee
river makes its great southern sweep.
On the map the outline of the pietur-
esque stream is not unlike grape
vine swing, with one end tangled
among the mountains of Virginia and
North Carolina and the other looped
over the Ohio at Paducah.
The seat of the swing is in Marshall
county; for here, after fretting its way
for hundreds of miles in and out among
the mountains of the Appalachian
range, tearing bold Lookout in twain
for daring to stretch his giant form
across its path, baffied at last in its wild
rush to the southern gulf, and SEEM
ingly broken in spirit, it turns with
slackened and reluctant flow back to
the north, where, with the Ohio, it
joins in common tribute to the Father
of Waters.
Just in this bend of the river is
group of islands varying in size from
one-half mile to as much as two miles
or more in length, and from one-quarter
to one-half of mile in breadth. They
are among the most fertile of all the
southern lands, receiving with each
annual inundation, when in early
spring the snow in the northern noun
tains melts, rich alluvial deposit CIV
ing year after year back to the soil the
elements which rank vegetation alb
stracts for its nutrition.
"Buck Islandn is one of this cluster,
and contains about eighty acres OF
ground. IL was named in honor of a
cunning old stag, which, in its dense
canebrakes in the early settlement Of
the country, long eluded death from
the huntsman's rifle and hounds. 1t is
now cleared and cultivated, paying rich
tribute in corn to the farmers indust-
nv. At the time of which / write,
however, it was almost wholly covered
with a heavy forest of tall oak, hickory
and gum trees, of which the leafy tops
shut out the rays of the summer sun,
while the soil from which they sprung
was hidden in a wilderness of cane
from ten to thirty feet high, and so
thick that in many places man could
not penetrate unless with axe or hunt
ing-knife he cut his way. In the early
days, when the frosts killed the grasses
on the uplands, the farmers drove their
cattle into these islands for winter pas
turage, where, upon the rich perennial
cane, they fattened until the freshets
of spring forced them again to the
higher ground for safety.
In 1868 the storm of war struck
North Alabama. 1t found it a para
disc of plenty, and left it wasted,
blackened, and desolate land. None
but those who knew the fertile and
beautiful VALLEY of the Tennessee" in
the days of the old regime, when its
prosperity was marvel, when its hill
sides were burdened with fruit and
foliage, and the vast plantations were
white with snowy cotton or yellow
with tasselling corn, and then revisit
ed it after Appomattox, can realize the
change which had transpired.
As | rode through the valley, early
in 1860, it seemed one vast burying-
ground of the hopes, the happiness,
and the wealth of a people once pros
porous. From a single elevation l
counted the chimneys of seven differ
ent plantation homes, standing like
eravestones over the ashes that were
heaped about them.
Now and then passed farmhouse
which had escaped the general ruin.
and more frequently a rude shanty but
recently adjusted to chimney several
sizes too tall for ii, or cabin construct
ed of small logs, and covered with split
boards held on the roof by weight-poles
in lieu OF nails. Fences and palings
were gone, and over fields and gardens
and wards stretched an almost broken
tangle of weeds and briers. Nor were
the towns exempt; within a radius of
thirty miles, Guntersville, Vienna,
Woodville, Camden, Larkinsville,
! Bellefonte, Stevenson, Scottsboro', and
Claysville, all thriving towns were
wiped out by fire. And, saddest of all
came untimely and undeseryed death
To many unarmed, helpless, and inno-
cent citizens; for the most cruel and
most uncivil of all things is civil war.
There were among the poorest and
most ilIiterate class in Northern Ala
bauIa 4 goodIy number who, while not
caring particularly whether the Union
was 10 be maintained or not, were very
particular in keeping out of the Confed-
crate service. They held it was a slave
holders war, and as they never owned
and never expected TO own slave,
they did not see why they should do
, any of the lighting.
When the eonseription laws were en-
forced they lodged the enrolling offi-
GERS, and when pressed too closely they
left their homes and hid out in the
mountains and caves or in the cane
brakes in the valley. When the South
era forces were driven out of this sec
tion. and their cause was waning, these
f,,gitives came out of their hiding
places. took sides with the Federal
soldiers. went with them as scouts or
, vuisis-s. or on their own responsibility