Stampede among the Tories.
Our town has been under martial law and our streets thronged with soldiers for nearly two weeks past, which has had quite a salutary influence on the Lincolnites in the upper end of this county. Col. Clift, the Tory leader of Soddy, who had marshaled his motley clan to the fine of some five or six hundred ragamuffins and outlaws, with the avowed purpose of joining Dan. Trewhitt and his East Tennessee renegades at Jamestown, and marching from thence upon Chattanooga, after covering himself with glory in many prospective battles, upon hearing of the near approach of a detachment of an Alabama regiment, thought it prudent to disband his gallant followers and go home. The pugnacious Colonel and his motley crew all reached their homes in safety, save about fifteen of the less fortunate, whom our boys picked up and brought into camp at Chattanooga. Some of them have been discharged upon taking the oath and giving bond and security for their good behavior in the future, while others of a more suspicious character still remain in camps, awaiting their trial.Several arrests have been made from this and adjoining counties, numbering in all from one hundred to one hundred and twenty. Six or eight arrests have been made in Chattanooga, but all having been soundly converted (?) are now enjoying their liberty. A general stampede is said to have taken place among the Lincolnites at Harrison upon learning the fate of the Soddy army. Harrison is a little town in the upper end of this county, the home of the traitor Trewhitt, and a place somewhat distinguished for the intelligence and morality of its inhabitants, as well as for one of the strongholds of Lincolnism ! We saw a respectable and intelligent gentleman from that place on Saturday last, who stated that the poor deluded wretches were running to and fro, and almost imploring the very rocks and mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the wrath of General Carroll's brigade, which they had learned were in camps at this place for their special benefit.
The morning after the news of the bridge burning reached this place, these cowardly traitors boasted that the time had then come when Union men could talk and act, and that they intended to do both. It is now difficult, we are told, to find a Union man anywhere in the neighborhood of Harrison ! We had suspected for some time that this ‘"Union"’ or rebellion sentiment, which held out so persistently after the June election, had its origin in cowardice and villainy, and if any further proof is wanting to establish the truth of our conjectures, the conduct of these pusillanimous outlaws, since the late outbreak in East Tennessee, and the arrival of Southern troops in Chattanooga, furnishes it in profuse abundance. There is no fight in them; it is not their trade. They would doubtless be more successful at robbing hen-roosts and meat-houses; and will, in all probability, try their hands at that game next ! Indeed many of them have a successful experience to begin with.--Chattanooga Gaz. and Adv., 23d inst.
