Letters from Triune: Tennessean grapples with 'monster Secesh'

Photo illustration of newspaper clippings of accounts from wartime Triune.

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Second in an occasional series.

My recent visits to Triune — a network of redoubts, earthworks and rifle pits 20 minutes east of Franklin, Tenn. — inspired this "Letters From Triune" series. 

The writer, an East Tennessee private who signed the letter “S.K.H.,” had to scout for months just to reach Federal lines. Writing as a common soldier, he believed a man risking his life for a pittance deserved as much respect as any general.

From Triune, his thoughts turned home. Loyal East Tennessee families, he wrote, were trapped behind Confederate lines, facing violence or slow starvation as rebels seized corn, wheat and bacon to feed their own ranks first. 

The letter, published in The Nashville Daily Union on April 26, 1863, closes with loyalty tempered by frustration and a clear sense of what mattered to him. Above all, he supported preserving the Union — even if that meant slavery remained. 

“We say give us the Government of our fathers and let the negro slide,” "S.K.H." wrote.

Earthworks at Triune, a Union Army complex near Franklin, Tennessee.

TRIUNE, April 21, 1863 | Mr. EDITOR: Dear Sir,

Allow me to write a short article for your most excellent paper, which has more, character in our camps than any other sheet. I claim no position in the army higher than a private, yet I know what East Tennesseans have suffered; having had to scout for four months before I could reach the Federal army. And I think a private soldier, if he demeans himself aright, deserves as much respect as a Major General. The one exposes his life for big pay, the other for a mere pitance; at least the private can claim as much unbought patriotism as the officer, and that is all that should command respect in a war like the present one. 

We, as East Tennesseans, are peculiarly situated. Our homes are in the hands of a bloody and cruel enemy. We know not how soon the fiends incarnate may murder our fathers, and brothers, and even our mothers and sisters, that we have left behind us. They have murdered the kind mother while attempting to save her beloved son, and why will they not do the same thing again? Let man commit murder once, and he can commit the same crime a second time with more ease. But if they do not abuse the persons of our friends, they will take their corn, wheat, and bacon, those things they must have, or perish, and leave them in a state of complete destitution--a condition more deplorable than death itself. 

Remains of Union earthworks at Triune

This is no overstrained picture, for the rebels are now in a starving condition, and every man of sense knows they will let their enemies suffer before they will suffer themselves. How much the poor soldier, cut off from all communication with his home, fears that his wife and little ones will suffer for the want of food, and how it gladens his heart to hear, through some poor refugee who may have made his escape, his friends still live, and have the common comforts of life. 

Our only hope is that the Government will immediately relieve our portion of the State. Oh! what hours of anxiety to the poor refugee soldier. We are all waiting to see if the authorities intend to send us back in the direction of our homes. If those who command us only knew how it would gladen our hearts, they would say, Go, join Gen. BURNSIDE, penetrate East Tennessee, whip the rebels, and liberate your homes.

I sometimes think that we as soldiers have been treated badly, yet I am not disposed to complain. When this rebellion first broke out, every public journal praised the noble hearted East Tennesseans, who, in spite of all opposition, held The Star-Spangled Banner aloft, and claimed that they were loyal. And those in power told us to hold out for a short time, and we will come, to your relief, if we have to come through a wall of living fire.

A road leading to one of the three redoubts at Triune

But how is it today? Two long years have passed away — and our people are still pressed beneath a despotism more cruel than that of Austria or Turkey. Rebel Middle and West Tennessce have been redeemed, at least to a great measure. The Government has spread the broad wing protection over the disloyal portion of the State; yet our people, who have ever been loyal, are left to grapple with the monster Secesh. 

We don't like to grim fight over Middle Tennessee soil, while the rebels are insulting friends and insulting our people. All we ask is, let us try our sabres with the traitors about Greenville, Knoxville and Chattanooga. If we fall in the contest, history's page will give us a spot upon which we will live, and in the agonies of death we will have this consolation, that we died trying to do our duty. 

But, on the other band, if we should be successful, no pen can tell the joy we will bring to our friends at home. And none can paint the visions of horror that will flit across the minds of the secesh that are there. They will have to cry out, let rocks and| mountains fall on us, and hide us from the wrath of the coming Yankees. We are for supporting the Administration at all hazards, as the only chance to save the Government; and if we have to give up the Union, or the institution of slavery, we say give us the Government of our fathers and let the negro slide.

No more at present, but remain yours, truly, S.K.H.