Greenfield Evening Republican, Greenfield, Hancock County, 23 March 1896 — Page 4

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CHAPTER I.

Of tho more than 50,000 Union men east Tennessee and the hill country of western North Carolina who suffered for their fidelity (hiring the war I know of no man who showed greater ability SOd heroism than David Fry. He was to toy mind an ideal mountaineer, framed like a Roman athlete, with those qualities for leadership that led Spartacus into revolt, and, withal, the heart of a tender woman and the guilelessness of «n unsophisticated boy.

It is not my purpose at this time to renew my sketches of "The Mountain Men of the South," though the subject la to me intensely fascinating and my XMterial abundant, but to illustrate by Hie experience of Captain Pry the diffi tmlfcy prisoners often had, particularly when held by the south, in proving that Htey were not spies.

The better to understand Captain fty's case it will be necessary to outline his exploits before his capture. If I lad space to give the details, the story «C this man

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jt-#ound more thrilling than the most jiansational work of fiction,and the reader mho perhaps hears his name for the first time would wonder why so remarkable man was destined to sink into the oblivion that is fast obscuring the splendid exploits of himself and his comrade heroes in that yaountain land.

When the Confederate conscripting officers camointo east Tennessee in September, 1801, David Fry was farming in one of those lovely little valleys that nestle in the foothills of the Great Smoky range to the northeast of Knoxville. At that lime he was about 32 years of age, with intensely black hair lUiA'beard and tho bravest and kindliest Irfnish gray ./e.s ever set in a man's face. He had received a fair education, considering the advantages afforded in thut land at that time, and he had just been tnanried. Like all the mountaineers, his IwMre was intensely religious, but unlike the great majority of his neighbors, lie as addicted to neither whisky nor profanity. He had no feud calling for vengeance, and, though known to be spirited and determined, Fry had never jfcad Quarrel nor struck a blow in an- I

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Its

ger till forced to take sides for or against the flag, wh'ch from his youth he had regarded with the idolatry which a pagan has for his fetich.

Although so strongly attached to the Union, it is doubtful if David Fry and so many of his friends would have gone so early to its defense had it not been for the harsh and impolitic methods of the Confederate conscripting officers. Indeed, these overzealous and arbitrary officers stung into revolt hundreds of young men who were wavering in their allegiance, and who might have been won to the south by a broader and more humane treatment. These mountaineers "would not submit to being treated like niggers," and so they swore, one to the other, to meet force with resistance, even to the death.

The coming of a strange flag to the mountains of east Tennessee found David Fry equal to the emergency. His correct life, his sense of fairness, his gentle courage, and his rude but stirring eloquence had already made him a leader in all things that worked for prosperity and peace in his own and the surrounding valleys. And so, when the gray coated and much bespangled officers appeared to enlist or conscript the men of the Great Smoky mountains, they eaid one to the other, "Let we uns go over and h'ar wat Dave Fry hez got to say about hit."

One night in mid-September, 1861, 43 men, varying in age from the fuzzy faced stripling to the gray haired veteran who "had fit with Old Hickory down New Orleans way," aasembled at the little log meeting house where David Fry often conducted services "when the reg'lar preacher didn't show up. Each man carried an old fashioned rifle and from his shcalders hung a powder horn and bullet pouch, while the broad belt of untanned deerskin held tho cap box and hunting knife. Many women, quite as earnest and intrepid as the men, accompanied their kinsmen to the meeting.

After pickets wore placed at the approaches to he valley to guard against surprise a great fire was started in front of the meeting house, and on this a hog was barbecued. When all the people had eaten, a number of men lighted torches and gathered about the steps on which David Fry stood. Obeying his example the people knelt down while he who was to lead them in battle led them in prayer. "I've heern many a man talk," said an east Tennesseean in describing this meeting to me, "but never a one ez spoke like Davy did thatpieht. Hit was

more stfrrin than a ca'mp meet in, and bit seemed powerful like bit, with the womej a-ruckin and a-wringin thar ban'siiud a-moanin and the men a-lean-in on thar rifles with thar hat^ pushed back and a-hollerin: 'Glory to God! Amen! Amen Amen Give the rebels hell, Davy, and don't never let up!'

To detail the outcome of this meeting would be to thrash old straw. By vote "the men agreed that they'd got to fight, fo' thar was no gittin outen hit: Thar wasn't no uster ask who we uns 'lowed to fight fo', and to fight agin. Davy's wife brought out a bit of a flag no bigger'n a child's bib, and she fastened hit to his rifle, and then one of the boys brought a torch nigh, and Davy lifted up the flag. Didn't we holler? Waal, I sw'ar to God we never hollered eo befo' and never agin fo' two year, and that was when Burnside cum down with lots of flags and planted 'em round Knoxville. "Hit brings the tears to my eyes jest to think of hit now, and I can see Davy a-standin thar in the light of the torches, with that gal beside him, and us strong men a-sobbin like the women at the sight of that bit of red, whitp and bine."

And so It came about, as it often does, that the peacemaker of the neighborhood became the leader when they had a com* mon cause to light for. Deliberation and careful preparation were out of the question in those stirring times. Before the men went back to their cabins in the mountains that night it was agreed that they should meet the following night prepared for their long march to the Ohio river, for no camps of refuge and instruction had then been established in neutral Kentucky, nor was there a blue clad soldier to be seen Ave miles south of the line, and this while Morgan with his armed Lexington rifles and hundreds of the young men of the blue grass country were marching under the Con* federate flag to join Albert Sidney Johnston at Bowling Green.

To the Union men of the south, as to the escaping prisoners from that region, the north star became an object of as much solicitude, if not of actual devotion, as the sun was to the Peruvian priests. With this for a guide, David Fry led his company over the mountains and along the tortuous valleys stretching north to the Ohio.

On this expedition he displayed those qualities of leadership that were yet to distinguish him in a wider field and which were to prove him one of tho ablest as well as one of the most patri-

Waal, I siv'ar we never hollered so hefo\" otic figures of the war. Without the loss of a man he reached Camp Dick Robinson, of the recent establishment of which he learned while making his way north.

As soon as he reached the protection of "the old flag," as the Union Tennesseeans delighted to call the stars and stripes, David Fry and his companions, now increased to more than 100 men, were mustered into the Second East Tennessee volunteers, and he was commissioned captain of Company F.

At this tijae General Mitchell, one of the ablest and most heroic generals on the side of tne Union, was in command at Cincinnati, his department extending into Kentucky. No man at that date had so clear a conception of the war, the resources of the enemy, or the best meansof crippling them as had General Mitchell. Ee was the first to see the vital importance of seizing or destroying the lines of transportation and communication that were so vital to the support of the Confederate armies. He pointed out what it took his successors two years to understand, and that was the necessity of occupying east Tennessee and so holding the railroad that afforded the shortest route between the Confederate armies east and west. "Seize and fortify Cumberland gap" was his oomraand. With this as our base the rest would have been easy. Although our own General Morgan ably carried out this advice of General Mitchell, the occupation was too long deferred to be effective or to prevent the subsequent raids of Kirby Smith and Ieadbetter.

At that time it was believed in our camps in Kentucky, nor was the belief confined to the enlisted refugees, that east Tennessee was an objective point, and that after we had brushed Zollicoffer aside, as we felt absolutely sure we should do when we met him, the next move would be through Cumberland gap. Had General Mitchell been in com mand with power to act after the battle of Mill Springs, east Tennessee would have been permanently wrested from the Confederacy before the spring of 1862, and so saved the subsequent destruction and des^ation that came upon it.

Soon after Davie) Fry and his comrades were mustered into the service General Carter, then colonel of the Second East Tennessee, had an interview with General Mitchell. At that time both of these officers felt absolute certainty that the army then assembling in central Kentucky would be pushed south to Cumberland gap as soon as it was in a condition to move. The facts I am about to submit will prove that General Carter, inspired by the veteran Mitchell, had no doubt of this.

On returning to his own headquarters General Carter sent for Captain Fry, and after making sure that they could lict be overheard.ho said:

"I suppose yon find it rather dull in (tamp, captain?" "The drillin's all necessary, I'll allow," replied Fry, "but I reckon the boys'd rather have a fight now and then. You see, sir, that's what they left home fo'." "If we can gain a point by stratagem, it is better than if we won it by fighting," suggested Carter. "I'll allow fo' myself, sir, that that's all so, but I must confess the boys is rather hungerin fo'a fight. Nothin'll satisfy 'em so much ez that, onless hit mout be a-orderin them to march with thar faces, praise the Lord, all turned to the homes in east Tennessee."

The captain's mention of his home gave General Carter the clew he wanted, and so enabled him to state his purpose at once. "As soon as it is safe to move this army, captain," he said, "we will march into east Tennessee, and onoe there the rebels will not be able to get us out. I tell you in confidence that our plans are all ready. I have sent for you to tell you this and to speak with yon as to your knowledge of the country between Cumberland gap and Knoxville

and between the Cumberland and Smoky mountains." "Thar mout be men ez know,that country better'n me," said the captain modestly, "but I ain't never seen 'em." "Yon know all the railroad bridges between Knoxville and Bristol?" "As well, sir, ez if I'd built 'em." "And the long bridge at Strawberry Plains?" "Every stick of hit.M

As if thinking aloud, rather than speaking for the information of Captain Fry, General Carter stroked his head, looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling, and continued: "It is General Mitchell's opinion, and I agree with him, that if we could get some brave, trustworthy man 'to go a few weeks in advance of the army and destroy the bridges along the East Tennessee railroad, particularly the Strawberry Plains bridge, it would be of the greatest advantage to us. Now, captain, do you think this can be done?"

Without an instant's hesitation, Fry replied, "I know one man who'd bo willin to try hit." "Who?" "Myself."

General Carter seized the brave fellow's hands, and for some seconds the men sat looking into each other's eyes. Then he resumed I "I must tell you that this is a delicate and dangerous undertaking. I have no power to order you to go, for it may be that if you are caught we cannot help you. Do you clearly understand this, captain?" "I do. It means that if I'm caught they'll be mighty apt to treat me ez a spy. Ain't that hiti*' "That's it, captain." "But hit'll help the good cause to git. them thar bridges out of the way afo' our folks comes down?" "Yes, that's it." "Well, gen'ral, with the help of the good Lord, them bridges'll be burned, more particular the big one at Strawberry Plains. Now, when do you 'low fo' me to start?" "As soon as you can." "I am ready now. But fo' the sake of company, gen'ral, I'd like to take some one along." "You are free to select one or a dozen men from your own company, and if they are willing, well and good. Now go and make your preparations then come back to me for instructions," said

General Carter. There were many cool, gallant men in that army, any one of whom wou'd have esteemed it an honor to be selected for this hazardous work, but not one of whom was so well fitted for the undertaking as Captain Fry. As a proper preparation for this work the brave fellow sought a secluded place and prayed long and fervently for God to reach down his strong right hand and help him. Whatever he did after this he firmly believed was under the guidance of Providence, and even when he heard the death songs of hiscon#ianions near him as he lay in the shadow of the gallows his faith neither departed nor weakened.

After hours of deliberation he decided to take with him only one man, a youth named Robert McCoy. "We'll carry our arms, and we'll wear our uniforms under citizens' overcoats," he said that night to General Carter, and when asked if he would not want more assistance in this great work he added: "Thar's hundreds of men in the mountains a-hidin like hunted wolves and a-waitin fo' the comin of the old flag. When they know that I'm back to help the cause, and that the army is a-fullowin close on my heels, they'll fly down to the valleys a-yellin, and if you find any bridges when you come I'll give you leave to treat me ez if I was a spy."

That night, with young McCoy, Fry left camp and marched with the rising moon to his left and the north star behind him.

It should be said for General Carter that he firmly believed what he had told Fry about the immediate invasion of east Tennessee. He was sure that before a month passed General Mitchell, at the head of a well organized army, would be at or near Cumberland gap, the gateway to the rich valleys stretching south to Chattanooga. At this time the Confederate force in east Tennessee was insignificant,so that its conquest and occupancy presented no obstacles that a soldier would seriously consider. But before Fry had been gone a week, and when it was impossible to recall him, the plans of the Union generals, against the protests of Mitchell and Carter, were changed, and the brave fellow was left to his fate. For nearly two years more east Tennessee was destined to be the harvest land of the Confederacy.

Faithful to his pledge and all unconscious of the cruel change that left him to his fate, Captain David Fry and his companion made their way into east Tennessee and back to the old home. During this journey lie avoided the Confederate guards and pickets and was

1

never once called on to practice a deception, though he would not have hesitated to do so had thesucceseof his mission or his own safety required it.

As General Carter foresaw, east Tennessee was vir ually unoccupied by the Confederates, the handful of troops there at the time being employed in collecting supplies for the quartermaster and commissary depots at Knoxville and Bristol. Captain Fry was now his own master, but this fact intensified his sense of duty and magnified to him the importance of speedily accomplishing the work for which he had been sent south.

The Union men, who had kept in hiding in the hills, soon learned of their old neighbor's return, and by night they gathered to see him. As he needed the help of these men and nothing could be gained by holding back his purpose, he told them why he had come and cheered their hearts With the assurance that within a month General Mitchell would be leading an irresistible army into east Tennessee. a

These men, many of them North Carolinians, announced themselves as ready to further the captain's designs. Without due form, perhaps, but nevertheless with all honesty of purpose, he swore 00 men into the service of the United States within six days after his arrival. The fact that he could not uniform these men did not trouble him, or if he gave it a thought it was to oonflrm his belief that Union soldiers had quite as much right to wear their homespun butternut clothing ae had the Confederates. One thing is oertain—that neither these men nor the many whom Pry subsequently recruited and swore into the service ever doubted the legality of their enlistment

The quality of magnetic leadership in actual oonfliet is far from rare, nor, though desirable, is it requisite for the highest generalship. But the ability to organize a mob into an army and to turn to his own advantage the adverse forces that threaten destruction, as did Captain David Fry, implies a genius of a higher order than that required of the mere fighter. The little military knowledge the captain had gained during his stay in Kentucky he now used to the

greatest advantage. He appointed subordinate officers, the corporal feeling his honors quite as much as the lieutenant, and neither able to tell which was the more important position. He attempted no drill—flint would have been a waste of time—but he insisted on obedience to orders and impressed his followers with the importance of promptness.

Fry's plan was to destroy every bridge I of importance between Knoxville and Bristol on one night, and, as a preliminary to this work, to destroy the telegraph lines. To accomplish this, Fry divided his men into four bands. Fireballs of cotton wick and turpentine were prepared and loaded on pack horses.

After deciding nGtonly on the night, but the hour, when the work was to begin and a point for rendezvous afterward, tho men separated, the captain reserving to himself the destruction of the most northern bridge at Strawberry Plains.

In February, 1862, when the north was thrilling with the news of the decisive victory at Mill Springs, Ky., the southern leaders at Richmond were startled, if not horrified, to learn that the Yankees were in force in east Tennessee, and had cut off telegraphic communication by way of Knoxville and destroyed the railroad between that point and Bristol. Captain Fry had carried out his instructions to the letter not only this, but he had destroyed a number of trains, after he had helped himself from one with arms, ammunition, food and other supplies enough to maintain a regiment in the field for some time. The other bands had been equally successful, and when the work was done, as silent as the shadows about them, they fell back to their rendezvous in the mountains.

According to the promise made in good faith by General Carter, the Union advance should have been by this time south of the gap. The captain waited for a week, his scouts in the meantime being sent forward to the Kentucky line with orders to report back by signal fires along the mountain peaks when the old flag and the blue uniforms came to view.

One night while the captain was holding a prayer meeting in the heart of the mountain to relieve the increasing nervousness and impatience of his men a member of Company of the Second East Tennessee, whom he had parted with in Kentucky, came into camp in a state of great, exhaustion. This young man was Andy Hall, a mountaineer. He had been south as a "scout" to recall Captain Fry and to freight his brave heart with the crushing news that the invasion of east Tennessee had been abandoned for the present by the Federal leaders.

It would have been a comparatively easy matter at this time for Captain Fry to have made his way with a few companions back to l'is old command, but to carry through the 100 mountaineers who were now with him, and whose safety was more to him than his own, was an entirely different matter. His return to the mountains had become known to the southern sympathizers as well as to the Union men, and the destruction of the bridges and tolegraph lines was charged against him. He was branded as an outlaw and a price put on his head, and aroused to the necessity for protecting the east Tennessee communications the Confederate authorities embraced the opportunity rejected by the Federals, and under General Kirby Smith a large force seized every vantage point from Cumberland gap to Knoxville.

A man less heroic than Captain Fry and less fertile in resources would have been appalled by the'ever increasing dangers that now gathered thick and fast about him, but the high quality of leadership asserted itself, and he rose equal to the occasion. When he had learned the worst, he drew apart from the men, and, as was his habit when he had occasion for rejoicing or was perplexed in the shadows, he knelt down and prayed, and this childlike faith in divine guidance was not the least remarkable trait of this man's character

Ho rose from his knees, and coinings

J. E. MACK

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back to the fire, about which the men were talking in eager whispers, he said: "Boys, the old flag ain't a-comia back ez soon es we expected,, but she's a-oomin, praise the Lord, and he's a-leadin her as did the cloud of smoke by day and the pillar of fire by night, when the ohildren had crossed the Bed sea and was havin a doggone hard time of hit in the wilderness. I've asked the great Master to help us this night, and he's put hit into my heart to come baok here and tell you that our friends may be a bit late, but they're a-comin. and they'll come to stay. Along the Great Smoky and ovah No'th Caliny way thar's hundreds of Union men anxious to jine us. Let us send them word that we're a-waitin. They'll come, and when they do, we'll be strong enough to go down and look fo' them ribils ez hez sot a price on the head of Davy Fry."

The men cheered this declaration, and the battle light glowed in their faces and flashed from their eyes as they swore to fight under Davy "for the Union and in the shadow of their own liount-ains."

Within two weeks after Cantain Fry

£ad learned that he was abandoned he bad enlisted 672 men. As txiis force could not be kept intact and fed in the mountains, it was necessary to go down to the rich valley of the Holston, and to do this meant battle. But neither the gallant mountaineer nor his followers hesitated for a moment.

[CONTINUED.]

THE BODY AND THE MIND.

Br. Parkhnrst on the Great Value of Physical Development.

In his article on "The Best Thing In the World," Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, D. D., in The Ladies' Home Journal, discusses with forceful emphasis physical development, and lends point to his argument by scintillating epigrams, some of which are here given: "Asceticism and debauchery are companion branches sprung from one stalk. "Fidelity to physical conditions is the first thing for a man to think of who has any ambition to be a personal success, and not only the first thing for him to think of, but the thing for him to seriously continue thinking of. "Those various anomalies of intellect classed under the general term of insanity have their grounds in some abnormal condition of the physical organism. "Climb high as we like our ladder will still require to rest on the ground, and it is probable that the keenest intellectual intuition, and the most delicate throb of passion would, if analysis could be carried so far, be discovered to have its connection with the rather material affair that we know as the body. "It is an interesting fact that all of those to whom Christ made his revelations were out of door men—men therefore presumably whose anatomy and physiology were not of a kind to interfere confusingly or becloudingly with their apprehension of the realities tendered to them. "Temperament is almost as important a factor in opinion as is the mind itself, and temperament is an affair of the body."

Ways of the Moo**.

Ambrose seemed to know a great deal about moose, after all. He told the boys how, back from the narrow valley and the swift, winding stream, the country was all a wilderness, hillsides clad with birches, maples and evergreens, and resting at their feet little lakes, so numerous that no man kuew how many there were. Often, where these lakes were shallow, the yellow pond lily with its oval leaves crowded the surface. At other seasons the tender bark of mountain ashes and moosewoods are the favorite food of the moose, but now there is nothing he likes so well as the long tubular roots of the lily. In tho very early mornings, and in the evenings, about the time of the harvest moon—• the full moon nearest Sept. 21—a hollow sound, not unlike the sound of distant chopping, may be heard. It is the sound of moose calling to their mates or the angry challenge of fierce rivals It is this sound which the hunter imitat.es to attract the moose. But there are only a few places whore the moose will answer, shallow spots in certain well known lakes, and it is said to be nearly useless to call anywhere else.— Tappan Adney in St. Nicholas.

In Palestine and Persia the "sorrowful mycanthus" droops in theday, being apparently about to die, but revives as evening comes on.

The average whale is from 50 to 65 feet in length and from 83 to 38 feet in diameter.