“ [444] they were shaved and their hair cut very close by a negro convict. They were then marched to the bath room, and scrubbed, and from there to their cells where they were locked up. The Federal papers published, with great delight, a minute account of the whole proceedings. Seven days afterwards, forty-two more of Gen. Morgan's officers were conveyed from Johnson's Island to the penitentiary, and subjected to the same indignities.”
But these hardships and outrages did not break the spirit of these brave men. The very officer who made the memorandum quoted above, dared to write in his jail-journal this sentiment of defiance: “There are a hundred thousand men in the South who feel as I do, that they would rather an earthquake should swallow the whole country then yield to our oppressors-men who will retire to the mountains and live on acorns, and crawl on their bellies to shoot an invader wherever they can see one.”
Surrender of Cumberland Gap.
In the month of September occurred the surrender of Cumberland Gap --a misfortune which President Davis declared “laid open Eastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia to hostile operations, and broke the line of communication between the seat of Government and Middle Tennessee” --and an event which some of the Richmond papers characterized as “one of the most disgraceful of the war.” These serious charges demand a close investigation of the subject; and it will be seen that Cumberland Gap is but another instance in which such charges, on a detail of facts, recoil upon the Richmond Administration itself.About the last of August, 1863, the Federal forces under Gen. Burnside, entered Tennessee, and occupied Knoxville on the 2d September. A large part of these forces passed through the Cumberland Mountains from Kentucky into Tennessee at Big Creek Gap, forty miles south of Cumberland Gap, which latter position was held by Gen. Frazier for the Confederates. On the 21st August, Gen. Buckner, who was in command of the Confederate forces in East Tennessee, ordered Gen. Frazier to hold “the Gap,” which was an important protection to that country and to Southwestern Virginia; stating, moreover, that if the enemy broke through between this post and Big Creek Gap — the left and rear of Gen. Frazier-he (Buckner)would check them. This despatch left Gen. Frazier under the impression that he would be protected in his rear. But on the 30th August Gen. Buckner again despatched to Frazier to evacuate the Gap with all speed, to burn and destroy everything that could not be transported, and to report to Gen. S. Jones at Abingdon, Virginia, one hundred and twenty-five miles distant.
