Nashville

“ Rarely, indeed, have the magnificent landscapes which can be viewed on either side from the grand stand and its neighborhood, looked more lovely. Behind, looking, we see the Nashville railroad winding its way like a snake through green fields and woodlands until it is lost in the distance. In front to one side you see the curling smoke arising from the city, with a cloud of dust that indicates the road over which the vast crowd is coming, bent on pleasure. ”

“ Nashville is served by the Tennessee Central, the Louisville & Nashville, and the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis railways, and by several steamboat lines. The Cumberland river is crossed here by four foot-bridges. Nashville is situated on and between hills and bluffs in an undulating valley; its streets are paved with brick or granite blocks in the business section and macadamized or paved with asphalt in the residential sections. The city has fine public buildings, many handsome residences, and several beautiful parks. ”

“ Nashville had then a population of less than twenty thousand. (It had more than eighty thousand in 1890.) It was compactly and regularly built up over an undulating area, rising rather steeply at first and then more gradually from the river to a broken plateau. The lower streets, as in all river-towns the world over, were devoted to business, and the upper ones to residential purposes. ”

“ Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, is situated on the Cumberland River, two hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. It is the terminus of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and is also the centering point of numerous other Southern roads. It is sometimes known as the City of Rocks; being built on a high rocky elevation. The population is about twenty-five thousand, and it is a place of considerable trade. Most of the cotton, and other products of Middle Tennessee, here find a market. ”

“ CITY POINT, VA., December 2, 1864.—1.30 P.M. MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS,
Nashville, Tenn. With your citizen employees armed, you can move out of Nashville with all your army and force the enemy to retire or fight upon ground of your own choosing. After the repulse of Hood at Franklin, it looks to me that instead of falling back to Nashville we should have taken the offensive against the enemy where he was. At this distance, however, I may err as to the best method of dealing with the enemy. You will now suffer incalculable injury upon your railroads if Hood is not speedily disposed of. ”

“ In giving some interesting and striking illustrations by way of proof that he is no visionary, but a cool-headed, hard-working calculator who well knows that the capital he is working with will yield a high percentage, we may have to tell of what is in progress in Nashville itself. ”

“ He completed the railroad from Nashville to Tennessee river, and raised 25 regiments for service in the state. On December 8, 1862, he issued a proclamation ordering congressional elections, and on the 15th levied an assessment upon the richer southern sympathizers, “in behalf of the many helpless widows, wives, and children in the city of Nashville who have been reduced to poverty and wretchedness in consequence of their husbands, sons, and, fathers having been forced into the armies of this unholy and nefarious rebellion.” ”

“ Nashville is the seat of government, and the largest town. Knoxville, Murfreesborough and Memphis are growing settlements. The mountains are the Laurel, Stone, Yellow, Iron, Bald and Unaka, peaks of a continued chain; Welling’s and Copper Ridge, Church, Powell’s and Bay’s mountains are in the north-east. The Cumberland Ridge intersects the state, running from north-east to south-west. The rivers are the Tennessee, Cumberland, Obian, Forked Deer, Big Hatchee and Wolf. ”

“ Thomas Searcy, another of Jackson’s friends, received the appointment of clerk of the court.... Before the end of October, 1788, the long train of immigrants, among whom was Mr. Solicitor Jackson, reached Nashville, to the great joy of the settlers there.”
The distinguished historians are all in error in all of these statements. There was no Superior Court at Nashville at this date. The act of the general assembly of North Carolina, providing for or establishing a Superior Court of Law and Equity for the counties of Davidson, Sumner and Tennessee, was not passed until November, 1788. ”

“ Joe: Yes, Misteh Porteh.
Porter: Well, now, that’s a funny thing. I was reading the other day—here, I think I have it in these magazines—here’s a fellow who says you couldn’t tell an interesting story about Nashville, Tennessee!
Joe: What’s de matter wid Nashville?
Porter: He thinks it’s too slow, too old-fashioned. Here’s what he says. (reads) “Fancy a novel about Chicago or Buffalo, let us say, or Nashville, Tennessee! There are just three big cities in the United States that are ‘story cities’—New York, of course, New Orleans, and, best of the lot, San Francisco.” ”

“ Among the places of interest near Nashville are the Hermitage, the home of General Andrew Jackson, eleven miles to the east.
Nashville occupies a foremost place among the manufacturing centers of the country. It is the fifth boot and shoe market in the United States, the largest candy and cracker manufacturing city in the South, and does an enormous wholesale dry goods, grocery, and drug business. It carries on an extensive trade in cotton and tobacco; while its manufactures, which are rapidly extending, include cotton, flour, oil, paper, furniture, timber, leather, iron, and spirits. ”

“ A small part of their force can retire slowly toward Nashville, breaking up the railroad as they go, and keep Buell out of that city twenty days. Meantime, Nashville will be abundantly defended by forces from all south and perhaps from here at Manassas. Could not a cavalry force from General Thomas on the upper Cumberland dash across, almost unresisted, and cut the railroad at or near Knoxville, Tennessee? In the midst of a bombardment at Fort Donelson, why could not a gunboat run up and destroy the bridge at Clarksville? ”

“ All of which things were duly chronicled in the Northern newspapers, and read by all at home.
I got to Nashville. It had very recently been taken by the Federal forces under General Thomas, who had put it under charge of General Whipple, who was, in fact, the ruling or administrative man of the Southwest just then. I went to the hotel. Everything was dismal and dirty—nothing but soldiers and officers, with all the marks of the field and of warfare visible on them—citizens invisible—everything proclaiming a city camp in time of war—sixty thousand men in a city of twenty thousand, more or less. ”

“ When the fire occurred Andrew, junior, and his family went to live temporarily at the nearby Hunter’s Hill place, but later took a house in Nashville. In November, 1834, Mrs. Jackson and the children went to Washington to spend the winter in the White House, with interspersed trips to Philadelphia to visit her family and buy furniture for the Hermitage, but Andrew stayed in Nashville to look after the rebuilding work. He joined Sarah and the children for a vacation with the President at the Rip Raps in July and August, 1835, but he came back to Nashville in September. ”

“ NASHVILLE WAS NOT SURRENDERED.
“I was told a mighty good story,” said the President one day at a Cabinet meeting, “by Colonel Granville Moody, ‘the fighting Methodist parson,’ as they used to call him in Tennessee. I happened to meet Moody in Philadelphia, where he was attending a conference.
“The story was about ‘Andy’ Johnson and General Buell. Colonel Moody happened to be in Nashville the day it was reported that Buell had decided to evacuate the city. The rebels, strongly re-inforced, were said to be within two days’ march of the capital. Of course, the city was greatly excited. ”

“ We move to-morrow, at six o'clock in the morning, to Nashville.
9. Nashville. Every thing indicates an early movement. Whether a reconnoissance is intended or a permanent advance, I do not even undertake to guess. The capture of a brigade, at Hartsville, by John Morgan, has awakened the army into something like life; before it was idly awaiting the rise of the Cumberland, but this bold dash of the rebels has made it bristle up like an angry boar; and this morning, I am told, it starts out to show its tusks to the enemy. Our division has been ordered to be in readiness. ”

“ It looked, indeed, as if but two courses were open: one to starve, the other to surrender or be captured.
On the morning of the 20th of October I started, with my staff, and proceeded as far as Nashville. At that time it was not prudent to travel beyond that point by night, so I remained in Nashville until the next morning. Here I met for the first time Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of Tennessee. ”

“ When the Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston received news that Fort Henry had fallen, he held a council at Bowling Green with his subordinate generals Hardee and Beauregard, and seeing that the Union success would, if not immediately counteracted, render both Nashville and Columbus untenable, resolved, to use his own language, "To defend Nashville at Donelson." ”

“ Polk lived a great many years in this Nashville home, receiving here the homage of all distinguished visitors to the capital of Tennessee. The legislature of that state called upon her in a body every New Year's Day when they were in session. During the confederate days of Nashville, Mrs. Polk received the most distinguished consideration, all general officers, both Confederate and Union, paying their respects to her by calling in person. ”

“ The surrounding country is beautiful, cotton plantations lining the banks of the river, and extending in every direction hither. The wealthier inhabitants generally retire during the summer months, from the stifling heats prevailing on the barren rocks upon which Nashville stands. Knoxville in east Tennessee, with 400 houses and 2,500 inhabitants, is of less importance; it is the seat of the supreme district court for east Tennessee, and has a bank, a college, and two churches. The country about Knoxville is far inferior to that round Nashville. ”

“ A wide diversity of opinion has always existed among military men in respect to the battle of Nashville, ranging all the way from the view taken in historical accounts heretofore published to the opinion expressed by General Sherman, in language intended of course to be hyperbolical, namely that "the battle of Nashville was fought at Franklin." ”

“ In Richmond a man who was then editing a very creditable colored newspaper gave me a great deal of his time and made my stay there of three or four days very pleasant. In Nashville I spent a whole day at Fisk University, the home of the "Jubilee Singers," and was more than repaid for my time. Among my letters of introduction was one to a very prosperous physician. He drove me about the city and introduced me to a number of people. From Nashville I went to Atlanta, where I stayed long enough to gratify an old desire to see Atlanta University again. ”

“ Nashville is the leading industrial city in the State, its manufactures, according to the census of 1900, having an aggregate capital of $13,173,000, and a production valued at $18,470,000. First in importance is the manufacture of flour and grist-mill products, the city being the chief centre of this industry in Tennessee. ”

“ Education is well attended to, and the people, who are chiefly Friends or Quakers, are generally moral and industrious. Population, nine thousand five hundred and twelve.
Nashville, capital of Davidson county, and seat of government of Tennessee, is regularly built, pleasantly situated on the south side of Cumberland river, and is much the largest town in the state. It is a rich and flourishing place. Steamboats from New Orleans ascend the river to this point. The state penitentiary, a fine stone building, is here erected. ”

“ After crossing the mountain chain through Cumberland Gap, the party followed Boone's road—the Warriors' Path—for some distance and then made their own trail southwestward through the wilderness to the bluffs on the Cumberland, where they built cabins to house them against one of the coldest winters ever experienced in that county. So were laid the first foundations of the present city of Nashville, at first named Nashborough by Robertson. ”

“ Nashville, Smithton, Rectorsville, and numerous other towns of similar character and name, containing from one to half a dozen houses each, are to be met with in a few miles above the Little Manito rocks. Almost every settler, who has established himself on the Missouri, is confidently expecting that his farm is, in a few years, to become the seat of wealth and business, and the mart for an extensive district. ”

“ The leading people lived well and possessed much cultivation. Louisville and Nashville were each about half its size. In Nashville, of the one hundred and twenty houses but eight were of brick, and most of them were mere log huts. Cincinnati was a poor little village. Cleveland consisted of but two or three log cabins, at a time when there were already a thousand settlers in its neighborhood on the Connecticut Reserve, scattered out on their farms. [Footnote: "Historical Collections of Ohio," p. 120.] Natchez was a very important town, nearly as large as Lexington. ”

“ There was a generation of this down-stream transportation, and it built up the first splendid, aggressive population of the West—a population that continued to edge farther outward and farther down-stream. The settlement at Nashville, the settlements of Kentucky, were at touch with the Ohio River, the broad highway that led easily down to the yet broader highway of the Mississippi, that great, mysterious stream so intimately connected with American history and American progress. It was easy to get to New Orleans, but hard to get back over the Alleghanies. ”