Say What Saturday: The “Nashville Daily Union” hits ‘em with their best shots and fires away

DBF

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“It is a thousand pities that there is not a Shiloh or Fort Donelson Quickstep for them to sing.
But the fact is the rebels ran away so fast at these two places,
that no music can be composed, fast enough to do justice to their astonishing celerity.”

*

The Nashville Daily Union was a busy newspaper during the war years. The newspaper established on April 10, 1862, began as the Daily Nashville Patriot and changed its name on June 19th to the Nashville Daily Union. It was of course a pro-Union newspaper with the editor S.C. Mercer being recommended for the position by then Governor and future president Andrew Johnson. After a week, Johnson wrote to William H. Seward the Secretary of State requesting patronage for the paper:

"The Nashville Union, a decidedly loyal newspaper, and zealous in its labors for the restoration of the Union, has been established here within the past ten days. . . . A sound union paper at this point cannot fail to exert great influence for good in Tennessee and indeed states south of us.” {2}

It worked! By September of 1863 the Federal government had given more than eight hundred dollars for the printing of official business such as notices and advertisements.

The newspaper proved to be popular and its delivery was anticipated among the Union troops as this letter written on April 23, 1863 from Camp Drake near Murfreesboro, Tennessee and published on April 25, 1863 demonstrates. It was simply signed a written by “Young Soldier”.

“'Hurrah! There is joyous news: ‘Daily Papers’ - ‘Nashville Union’. All is now bustle and excitement, in camp, whenever the newsman arrives. The Union is a souvenir of pleasure - a mental feast of good things.” {3}

Let’s take a look at some of the delicacies the soldiers were feasting upon

The editors left little doubt that when they published their articles, certain women were in their sights. Within two days the newspaper managed to print two separate yet related articles when they wrote on April 20, 1862:

“We saw a young lady on the streets recently with a Confederate flag pinned across her bosom. We guess it was a rebel flag floating over cotton breastworks.”

and then on the 22nd this appeared:

“We have no sort of feeling for a man whose head is filled with cotton, or a woman whose bosom is ditto.”

Nothing was sacred in their description of Southern women they sought as targets as seen in their May 15, 1862 edition:

“'A rebel letter found at Shiloh, written from New Orleans some weeks ago, says that ‘one hundred and fifty able bodied women have formed themselves into a military company to fight the Yankees’. Just imagine a big edition of old Mrs. Caudle in her night-cap, broom in hand, striding forward, like Julius Caesar on the stage, and showing a pair of fat calves as thick as a brace of piano legs at each step, and then tell us if you don't think that the Rebels have got to a desperate shift in their warfare?”

“Fat calves as thick as a brace of piano legs at each step?”
No wonder the soldiers in the field could not wait for the next edition of the paper.

What would you expect from a newspaper that in its June 7, 1862 asked this question:

“How much better is a malignant she-rebel than a malignant he-rebel?
How much better would the Devil be if he began to tuck his tail inside of a petticoat?”


On April 17, 1862 they published this “pearl of wisdom”:

“Treason on the lips of a beautiful woman is as much out of place
as a snail on a lily, a hornet on a rose, or a toad on a bed of violets.”

Another favorite tactic employed by the Nashville Daily Union was publishing confiscated letters between the southern women to their soldiers. On May 11, 1862 they published a letter titled “A Beautiful Letter from a Nashville She-Rebel”:

“John, I want you write and tell me about the fight, and how many lincoln devels you killed. I would like to been there to see them lincon devils keel over. It would have done my soul good to have seen them fall by thousands. John, as you are a prisoner, and cannot have the pleasure of killing lincon hirlands, I believe I will take your place, and I tell you whot I will kill live yankies, I will do more for them than Morgan has done for them. I tell you Morgan is taring up the burg for them; he is doing the work for them. John, I wish I was a man, I would come there and I would soon let you out of that lincoln hold. I would tar there hearts out, and then cook them and make them eat them; but I will do all I can for you, and when they come in Shelby I will get some of their skelps and hang them up in my room for you to look at. I will be for Jeff davise till the tenisee river freezes over, and then be for him, and scratch on the ice—

Jeff Davis rides a white horse, Lincoln rides a mule,
Jeff Davis is a gentleman, And Lincoln is a ‘fule'.

I wish I could send them lincon devels some pies, they would never want any more to eat in this world. May Jeff ever be with you. This is from a good southern rights girl—from your cousin. Mariann.

*

On April 24, 1862, it printed this lesson from Reverend Dr. McFerrin’s Confederate Primer titled “Biographical Questions and Answers for little children.

Q.—Who was the first man?
A.—Gen. Pillow—because he was the first man to run off from Fort Donelson.
Q.—Who is the strongest man?
A.—Gen. Price—for you can smell him a mile.
Q.—Who is the wisest man?
A.—Gov. Wise; for he has that discretion which is "the better part of valor."
Q.—Who is the most patient man?
A.—Gustavus A. Henry; for he waited more than sixty years for an office, and at last was sent to Richmond.
[Since the 1850’s he had tried unsuccessfully to be elected into political office and he succeeded in 1862 when he served as a Confederate States Senator from Tennessee until war’s end.]
Q.—Who are the most merciful men?
A.—The Nashville Vigilance Committee; for they saved their victims the suspense of a trial.
Q.—Who are the most liberal men?

A.—Those who subscribed to the fund for the relief of the families of rebel soldiers in Nashville. [Perhaps this last question is why they printed this on May 6, 1862] “Will the officers of the different ‘Confederate soldiers relief societies’ of Nashville and vicinity, furnish the editor of this paper with a list of the subscriptions remaining unpaid? The wives and children of the Confederate soldiers are now needing the fund, and we will see if we can't institute such means as will compel the payment of all arrears.”

*
It printed several soldiers tale’s the first when one officer discovered he’d use his charm to trifle with a Southern lady - - -

“A good story had found its way into our lines from a Federal officer. He was commenting upon the fact that all Southern women were intense rebels—with one exception. He had been with others marching down a wooded lane which ended in a sharp curve. As they rounded it, they suddenly came upon a house, before which was a woman picking up chips. As she had evidently not seen them, the officer tiptoed up to her, put his arm around her waist, and kissed her—and stepped back to avoid the box on the ear he knew he deserved. The woman, however, straightened herself, looked at him seriously for a moment, and said slowly, ‘You'll find me right here every mornin' a-pickin' up chips’.”

This humorous anecdote was printed in the Nashville Daily Union in May of 1862:

“What abominable lies we have been told!’ exclaimed an uncombed, unwashed and uncomely Newbern damsel of forty-five summers, as Burnside's gallant boys were filing past. ‘Why, they said the Yankees were after 'beauty and booty,' but they haven't touched me yet’! And she lifted up her voice and wept that she had been so deceived.”

*

And then there was this​

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In May of 1865 the paper merged with the Nashville Daily Press and was then known as Nashville Daily Press and Times. It limped on until their final issue on June 17, 1866 with their last words borrowed from Daniel Webster:​

"Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.” {2}



* * * * *



Sources
1. https://scholarworks.uttyler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1091&context=cw_newstitleshttps://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025718/
2, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025718/
3. (Link)
All Quotes from source #1 unless otherwise noted
All Photos - Public Domain
 
“A rebel letter found at Shiloh, written from New Orleans some weeks ago, says that ‘one hundred and fifty able bodied women have formed themselves into a military company to fight the Yankees’. Just imagine a big edition of old Mrs. Caudle in her night-cap, broom in hand, striding forward, like Julius Caesar on the stage, and showing a pair of fat calves as thick as a brace of piano legs at each step, and then tell us if you don't think that the Rebels have got to a desperate shift in their warfare?”

Nashville Union throwing some serious shade lol! Thanks for sharing.
 
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