Co. Aytch - Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment | Page 2

PALMETTO
JEFF DAVIS MAKES A SPEECH ARMISTICE ONLY IN NAME A
SCOUT WHAT IS THIS REBEL DOING HERE? LOOK OUT,
BOYS AM CAPTURED
CHAPTER XV
--ADVANCE INTO TENNESSEE GEN. HOOD MAKES A FLANK
MOVEMENT WE CAPTURE DALTON A MAN IN THE WELL

TUSCUMBIA EN ROUTE FOR COLUMBIA
CHAPTER XVI
--BATTLES IN TENNESSEE COLUMBIA A FIASCO FRANKLIN
NASHVILLE
CHAPTER XVII
--THE SURRENDER THE LAST ACT OF THE DRAMA ADIEU
CHAPTER I
RETROSPECTIVE
"WE ARE ONE AND UNDIVIDED"
About twenty years ago, I think it was--I won't be certain, though-- a
man whose name, if I remember correctly, was Wm. L. Yancy--I write
only from memory, and this was a long time ago--took a strange and
peculiar notion that the sun rose in the east and set in the west, and that
the compass pointed north and south. Now, everybody knew at the time
that it was but the idiosyncrasy of an unbalanced mind, and that the
United States of America had no north, no south, no east, no west. Well,
he began to preach the strange doctrine of there being such a thing. He
began to have followers. As you know, it matters not how absurd,
ridiculous and preposterous doctrines may be preached, there will be
some followers. Well, one man by the name of (I think it was) Rhett,
said it out loud. He was told to "s-h-e-e." Then another fellow by the
name (I remember this one because it sounded like a graveyard)
Toombs said so, and he was told to "sh-sh-ee-ee." Then after a while
whole heaps of people began to say that they thought that there was a
north and a south; and after a while hundreds and thousands and
millions said that there was a south. But they were the persons who
lived in the direction that the water courses run. Now, the people who
lived where the water courses started from came down to see about it,
and they said, "Gents, you are very much mistaken. We came over in

the Mayflower, and we used to burn witches for saying that the sun
rose in the east and set in the west, because the sun neither rises nor
sets, the earth simply turns on its axis, and we know, because we are
Pure(i)tans." The spokesman of the party was named (I think I
remember his name because it always gave me the blues when I heard
it) Horrors Greeley; and another person by the name of Charles Sumner,
said there ain't any north or south, east or west, and you shan't say so,
either. Now, the other people who lived in the direction that the water
courses run, just raised their bristles and continued saying that there is a
north and there is a south. When those at the head of the water courses
come out furiously mad, to coerce those in the direction that water
courses run, and to make them take it back. Well, they went to gouging
and biting, to pulling and scratching at a furious rate. One side elected a
captain by the name of Jeff Davis, and known as one-eyed Jeff, and a
first lieutenant by the name of Aleck Stephens, commonly styled Smart
Aleck. The other side selected as captain a son of Nancy Hanks, of
Bowling Green, and a son of old Bob Lincoln, the rail-splitter, and
whose name was Abe. Well, after he was elected captain, they elected
as first lieutenant an individual of doubtful blood by the name of
Hannibal Hamlin, being a descendant of the generation of Ham, the bad
son of old Noah, who meant to curse him blue, but overdid the thing,
and cursed him black.
Well, as I said before, they went to fighting, but old Abe's side got the
best of the argument. But in getting the best of the argument they called
in all the people and wise men of other nations of the earth, and they,
too, said that America had no cardinal points, and that the sun did not
rise in the east and set in the west, and that the compass did not point
either north or south.
Well, then, Captain Jeff Davis' side gave it up and quit, and they, too,
went to saying that there is no north, no south, no east, no west. Well,
"us boys" all took a small part in the fracas, and Shep, the prophet,
remarked that the day would come when those who once believed that
the American continent had cardinal points would be ashamed to own it.
That day has arrived. America has no north, no south, no east, no west;
the sun rises over the hills and sets over the mountains, the compass

just points up and down, and we can laugh now at the absurd notion of
there being a