United States or Saint Barthélemy ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
We continued our march, and reached Blountsville about 10 o'clock in the morning. Many of our mules had given out, leaving their riders on foot, but there was very little straggling behind the rear guard. At Blountsville we found sufficient corn to feed our tired and hungry animals.
The column had not got fairly under motion before our pickets were driven in, and a sharp skirmish ensued between Forrest's advance and our rear guard, under Captain Smith, in the town of Blountsville.
He had set out at midnight of the 26th, in pouring rain and over muddy roads. At sunset of the next day he was thirty-eight miles from the starting-point. On the afternoon of the 28th the village of Moulton was reached without trace of an enemy in front or rear. The affair began to look promising. Next morning the mule brigade resumed its march, heading east towards Blountsville.
I also turned over all my hard bread, some ten thousand rations, and he left me at midnight on the 26th instant, with the intention of going through Russellville, Moulton, and Blountsville, to Gadsden, then divide, one force to strike Rome and the other Etowah Bridge.
We started from Moulton, in the direction of Blountsville, via Day's Gap, about midnight on April 28. The two previous days it had been raining most of the time, and the roads were terrible, though on the evening of the 28th it bid fair for dry weather, which gave us strong hopes of better times.
The writer is indebted to N. Gammon, Esq., formerly of Jonesboro, now a citizen of Knoxville, for the following inscription, still to be seen upon a beech tree, standing in sight and east of the present stage-road, leading from Jonesboro to Blountsville, and in the valley of Boon's Creek, a tributary of Watauga:" D. Boon CillED A. BAR On Tree in ThE yEAR 1760
In the end Colonel Streight was taught that he could not drive off his persistent foe, and took to the road again, but twice more during the night he was attacked, each time repelling his foes by an ambuscade. About ten o'clock the next morning Blountsville was reached. The Federals were now clear of the mountains and in an open and fertile country where food and horses were to be had.
Burnside's purpose had been, if he had not been interrupted, to have pressed the Confederates closely with a sufficient force in front to compel a retreat, whilst he intercepted them with the remainder of his army, moving by a shorter line from Blountsville.
"All the girls dips round here. But me and my sisters rather smoke than get in a habit of dipping." To the observation that Union seemed to be a dull place : "Well, there's gay times here in the winter dancing. Like to dance? Well, I should say! Last winter I went over to Blountsville to a dance in the court-house; there was a trial between Union and Blountsville for the best dancing.
"All the girls dips round here. But me and my sisters rather smoke than get in a habit of dipping." To the observation that Union seemed to be a dull place: "Well, there's gay times here in the winter dancing. Like to dance? Well, I should say! Last winter I went over to Blountsville to a dance in the court-house; there was a trial between Union and Blountsville for the best dancing.
Word Of The Day