| From the Richmond Dispatch |
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| February 27, 1862 |
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| The Fort Donelson battle, statement of an eye-witness |
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| Augusta, Ga., Feb. 22, 1862 |
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| I have just obtained the following
particulars of the fight at Fort
Donelson
from an eye-witness and participant, which will doubtless be welcome
to the readers of the Dispatch, as the first news from a Southern
source. |
| ***** |
| The news of the surrender reached Nashville,
Tenn., by telegraph, on Sundaymorning about church time, while many of the
citizens were on their way to their accustomed places of worship.
Instantly, of course, every other consideration gave place to the
thought of personal safety. Every means of transportation at hand was
employed to remove furniture and valuables; the depots were thronged
with men, women and children, anxious to leave the city; train after
train was put in motion; Government stores were thrown open to all who
chose to carry them away, and negroes, Irish laborers, and even
genteel looking persons, could be seen "toting" off their
pile of hog, clothing, or other property belonging to the army,
though, by order of the military authorities, much of this was
recovered on the ensuing day. In a single word, the city was crazy
with a panic. Governor Harris is said to have rode through the
streets, at the top of his speed, on horseback, crying out that the
papers in the Capitol must be removed; and, subsequently, with the
Legislature, which had at once assembled, left the city in a special
train for Memphis. Still there were some in the city who manifested a determination to
make a stand and apply the torch to every house before it should be
surrendered. This state of affairs lasted, without much modification
until Mondayevening, when the excitement began to subside. All the rolling
stock of the railroads converging in
Nashville
was brought into requisition, and the machinery in the Armory, guns,
and much valuable provisions &c., were removed. Seven trains,
loaded with women and children inside and crowded with frightened men
on the top, left the city in one day. |
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