Potty talk: Hey, who leaked this messy Nashville story?

The two-story outhouse here during the war was not ideal.

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Sometimes history is, ah, a little weird. It's often quite messy, too. During the U.S. Army’s occupation of Nashville, the First Presbyterian Church (now Downtown Presbyterian Church) was used as a military hospital. Next to the church, the Federals built a two-story outhouse. It was suboptimal. 

During the Civil War, the U.S. Army
used Downtown Presbyterian Church
 as a military hospital.

According to James A. Hoobler’s Cities Under The Gun, Images of Occupied Nashville and Chattanooga: 

 “The two-story outhouse built by the Federal army was an attempt to solve the sanitary problem presented by a twenty-six-hole latrine in the side yard of the church. Although the latrine was closed in January of 1864, the solution was even worse. The two-story outhouse had four holes upstairs and four holes downstairs. The elbows in the drains were made of leather — and leaked. It did contain a stove for warmth, however.” 

Not sure who leaked this story. 👊 In any case, I chuckle every time I walk past this spot.

In a more serious vein, here's a post on my blog about a visit to the church by Union veterans in September 1895 and another on a gift given to an assistant surgeon who worked there in  Hospital No. 8 in 1865.

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-- Have something to add, correct? E-mail me at jbankstx@comcast.net

'Memories as sacred as heaven': Vets' visit to Nashville church

Main entrance to the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville. (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

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In mid-September 1895, nearly 150,000 Union veterans attended a Grand Army of the Republic encampment in Louisville -- the first such reunion held in the South. Afterward, hundreds of the old soldiers took a train south to Nashville, where they toured their wartime haunts.

At Fort Negley on St. Cloud Hill, many examined what remained of earthworks at the massive Federal fortification. Scores visited the fields and woodlots surrounding city, where the Battle of Nashville was fought Dec. 15-16, 1864, and the elegant, five-story Maxwell House Hotel, perhaps the grandest hotel in the South. During the war, the unfinished, vermin-infested building was used by the U.S. Army as a barracks, a depot and a prison for Confederate soldiers. "Zollicoffer's Barracks," the Yankees called it, after Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer, the Nashville citizen who was killed at the Battle of Mill Springs in January 1862.

Downtown Presbyterian Church at the corner 
of Fifth Avenue and Church Street.

"Everywhere the old soldiers were received by the utmost cordiality," the Tennessean reported, "and any assistance or information to be given them was cheerfully given."

Before they returned home, a large group of veterans attended Sunday service at the First Presbyterian Church, 25 yards or so from the Maxwell House Hotel. The Egyptian Revival-style building and Masonic Hall directly across the street were designated Hospital No. 8 during the war. The church, once the tallest building in the city, still stands at the corner of 5th Avenue and Church Street, overshadowed by three skyscrapers.

Near the end of his sermon, Pastor James Vance noticed a large number of Union veterans among the worshippers. They included men who were patients in Hospital No. 8; the officer who was in charge of the hospital during the war, and Robert C. Coyner, a 38th Indiana veteran who played the church organ three decades earlier to soothe the suffering of its soldier-patients.

In what must have been an emotional scene, Vance talked about the veterans and national reconciliation 30 years after the end of the Civil War:

"The auditorium that is this morning occupied by us as a place of worship was then filled with cots, and here the gentle ministries of devoted nurses cared for the sick and dying. From this room the martial spirits of brave soldiers went up to meet their God, and as the angels hovered just above, bringing with them the music of the heavenly world and waiting to receive the departing spirits of heroes, the old organ which still leads our service of holy song wafted out the melody of dear old hymns, until just there in the air above us the music of earth and heaven met and mingled and made immortal melody.

Pastor James Vance

"In the congregation this morning the faces of many of these old soldiers reappear. They have come to visit the place where years ago they lay with bodies wasted by disease and crippled by service. The tones of the old organ carry them back across the chasm of the years and awaken memories as sacred as heaven.

"For myself, the pastor of the church and for this great congregation to which I have the honor of ministering, I desire to extend to these veterans the warmest of warm Southern welcomes -- a welcome that comes with none heartier cordiality and brotherly regard than from the old Confederate soidiers present. What a long distance we have traveled from those years of strife and bloodshed! The animosities of sectionalism are passing and today we stand under our common flag and thank God for our common country, The wounds of battle have healed. God has led the nation by the hand, and if there is anything certain now, it is that we can safely leave the destiny of our country in the keeping of him who thus far has been her God."

Vance then encouraged all the worshippers to sing My Country Tis of Thee, which, according to the local newspaper, "was sung with a will by all present."

After the service, nearly every Union veteran shook the 32-year-old pastor's hand and thanked him for his words.

Circa-1860s image of Nashville's Downtown Presbyterian Church, used as a Union hospital during the war.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

                        GOOGLE STREET VIEW: Fifth Avenue and Church Street.

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-- Have something to add, correct? E-mail me at jbankstx@comcast.net

SOURCE: 

-- The Tennessean, Sept. 16, 1895

A 'humble instrument': Echoes of Nashville's Hospital No. 8

Circa-1860s image of Nashville's Downtown Presbyterian Church, used as a Union hospital during the war. (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

A present-day image of  Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville.

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At the corner of Fifth Avenue and Church Street in downtown Nashville, two blocks from the honky-tonks of Broadway, a tour bus creeps through busy traffic. On the steamy Saturday morning, diners sip coffee at outdoor tables while three young men jostle for a spot on a bench next to the Downtown Presbyterian Church. A large sign on the front of the unusual Egyptian Revival–style building notes its use as a Federal hospital during the Civil War, but few seem to notice it. 

A large sign on the church notes its use as a
Federal hospital during the Civil War.

During the war, life-and-death decisions played out inside the church, one of at least 25 Nashville structures commandeered by the U.S. government for use as hospitals. Pews were removed from the sanctuary to make room for 206 beds for sick and wounded soldiers, and the Union army used the basement as a stable for horses. 

The Presbyterian church, along with the four-story Masonic Hall across the street, was designated Hospital No. 8. Near the end of the war, a “very pleasant affair” — a small slice of humanity — took place in Ward 5 at Hospital No. 8, either inside the church or at the now-demolished Masonic Hall. 

Acting assistant surgeon George Duzan, a 23-year-old from Indiana in charge of the ward, was presented on behalf of the attendants and patients with a “beautiful” inscribed silver watch, chain and key that cost $75 (nearly $1,500 today). The hospital chaplain said the gift recognized Duzan’s “kind attention and skillful treatment” and his “gentlemanly deportment” during his service.

Duzan, who served with the 52nd Indiana, became emotional during the presentation, according to an account published in the Nashville Daily Union on March 28, 1865:

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COMPLIMENTARY TO A SURGEON

Post-war image of George Duzan,
Federal surgeon during the Civil War.

U.S. General Hospital No. 8, Nashville, Tenn., March 25, 1865 -- A very pleasant affair came off this afternoon in ward 5 of our hospital, showing the feeling existing between Dr. Duzan, A. A. Surgeon, U. S. A., in charge of the ward, and attendants and patients he daily comes in contact with. At  4 o'clock all were assembled, when Chaplain Goodfellow presented the Doctor with a beautiful American Silver watch, chain and key, costing 75 dollars with the following inscription engraved upon it:

"Presented to G. U. Duzan, A. A. Surgeon, U. S. A, by attendants and patients of ward 5, Hospital No. 8, Nashville, Tenn., March 25th, 1865."

In the following words:

Dr. Duzan: "It is my pleasant duty to present you this watch and chain in the name, and in behalf of the ward-master attendants, and patients of ward 5, as a testimonial of their respect, for your kind attention and skillful treatment, as well as your gentlemanly deportment, since you have been on duty among them. May you when you look on the figures indicating the hours of the day, and the minutes comprising those hours, remember that one represents your days and the other the hours of those days and may you be thereby taught a profitable lesson. And when these brave but afflicted donors have separated, this ward broken up, and this cruel rebellion crushed -- may you look upon this gift with as a kind remembrance of these men, as is now felt by them, in presenting it."

Duzan may have received
a pocket watch similar
 to this one.

The Doctor with emotion responded in the following words:

Attendants and patients: Your afflictions, the result of privations endured for our country's good have caused our association. You as patients, the suffering subject of disease, I as an humble instrument, employed to alleviate your sufferings and to minister to your physical wants. That our association with each other has been an agreeable one, this gift will testify. I accept it as testimonial of your appreciation of my services; as such it will be preserved and cherished with feelings of gratitude and pride."

POSTSCRIPT: After the Civil War, Duzan continued to practice medicine and surgery in Zionsville, Ind. A "man of pleasant address and commanding appearance," he died Nov. 6, 1893. "His death was sudden," the Indianapolis News wrote about the 51-year-old doctor. "He rose in fright from his bed, and was caught by his friends and returned to the bed -- dead." The primary cause of death was heart disease.

The whereabouts of the precious watch he received during the Civil War are unknown.

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— Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

SOURCES:

• Indianapolis News, Nov. 6, 1893
• Nashville Daily Union, March 28, 1865
• National Historic Landmark nomination form, Old First Presbyterian Church, National Park Service. Accessed July 14, 2018