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In late September 1863, just a week or so after the Federal defeat at Chickamauga, Montgomery C. Meigs, the Quartermaster General of the Union Army, arrived in Chattanooga and reported "the rugged nature of this region, I had no conception when I left Washington." Of immediate concern was meeting the needs of the men and beasts of the federal army of the Cumberland for about 350,000 pounds of food and forage a day at full rations. With the railroad into town blocked by the Confederates, the army's supplies from Nashville had to travel over the same rugged region and bad roads that amazed Meigs.
In Hamilton County, the Confederates controlled the area south and east of the Tennessee River, leaving just the areas extending into the north end of Hamilton County as possible ones from which to draw supplies. Meigs noted that wagon trains went "considerable distances" for forage, but that corn was in the field, ripe, and "furnishes food for man and beast."
Post-war claim files in the National Archives reveal a great deal about the efforts to feed the Federal army and its impact on the local population. Here is a sampling of their stories.
Allen Varner of Soddy owned two farms, one on the mountain, where he lived, and one in the valley. In early 1862, Varner journeyed to southern Kentucky to join the Union army. The rigors of camp life were too much, and he never mustered into Federal service. After he returned to Soddy, local Rebel authorities threatened to arrest him. He hid out in the Soddy Creek gulf until Federal troops arrived in late summer of 1863.
Varner's loyalty to the Union did not insulate him from having his property taken by the Federal army. A cavalry unit camped on his mountain farm at the end of September. Varner was forced to relinquish a supply of corn and hay to feed the men and animals. To add insult to injury, he lost a fine 4-year-old mare.
Benjamin McDonald of Sale Creek lost corn, wheat, oats and fence rails with a total value of $864. Alexander Jones, also of Sale Creek, lost corn, hogs, cattle and sheep. Filed after the War, his claim was disallowed by Federal commissioners because he lacked definite proof of loyalty to the Union and witness confirmation. Samuel Mysinger of Soddy had corn, fodder, cattle and potatoes taken. His claim filed later was denied because he admitted being forced to take a loyalty oath to the Confederacy.
Gideon Lovelady of Soddy testified that a "large forage train from Chattanooga" loaded up 32 acres of his corn, 9,000 pounds of hay, and 900 bundles of fodder. His son Lewis talked to soldiers involved who said "the Union Army at Chattanooga was out of supplies and had to get them from the country." Lovelady observed that they "took all the supplies in my neighborhood and for a great many miles up the river."
Robert Clift, the son of ardent Unionist Col. William Clift, lost 750 bushels of corn to a large wagon train of 200-300 wagons, noting it was "useless to complain." One of his family's tenants, Jemima Weese, kept a farm while her husband and stepson served in the Union Army (they both would later die in Rebel captivity) and was accordingly threatened by Confederate soldiers. Nonetheless, Union soldiers took a supply of corn taken from a field that she and her minor children themselves raised. She pleaded in vain with the sergeant in charge, saying "I had raised the corn for my children and it was all the corn that I had." She had "raised the corn to keep my family from starving. Those times women had to farm for themselves...".
Each of these claims was denied at some point in the 1870s. The farmers had either received a modicum of past payment, or more importantly, as in the case of Jones and Mysinger, displayed dubious confirmation or loyalties. Nonetheless, these (mostly) loyal Unionists of north Hamilton County did their part to keep the Army of the Cumberland fed until the opening of the Cracker Line of supplies a month later.
Sam D. Elliott, a local attorney with Gearhiser, Peters, Elliott and Cannon, is chairman of the Tennessee Historical Commission and the author or editor of several books and essays on the Civil War. For more information, visit Chattahistoricalassoc.org or call LaVonne Jolley at 423-886-2090.