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Burning of the St Louis & Other War Activites on The Cumberland River
By Irene Griffey
"The St Louis painting
Contributed by Lynne Waters Griffey, artist
Click on Photo to see larger view
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"Tit for Tat, and you take that!" Sometimes war takes on the same attributes as a game between two adversaries. Retaliation is sure to follow a strike made by either side upon the other. Such was the experience of the U. S. Steamer St. Louis while on the Cumberland River around Clarksville. After the capture of Fort Donelson on February 16, 1862, Lt. Commander Leonard Paulding took the St. Louis, a flagship for the Union in that battle, exploring upstream. They had gone about ten miles when they came upon the Cumberland Iron Works on the south side of the river. Paulding could not resist dropping a shell from one of the boat's thirteen guns over the building, which sent the massive workforce scattering in all directions. The warship's first master, John V. Johnson, went ashore and ignoring the protests of manager George T. Lewis that he and his partner John Bell were Union men and that they had no control over who bought their products, Johnson satisfied himself that the mill was making gunboat iron plates, shots and shells for the Confederate Navy. Throughout the war, local citizens had a great terror of gunboats. One can understand why after the St. Louis burned the massive, thirty-three year old Cumberland Rolling Mills and took the manager with 240 slaves as prisoners. They gave Lewis a comfortable room aboard the St. Louis and held him only until February 25th when he gave his parole to General Cullum in Cairo, Illinois, and he was released. The St. Louis was a stern wheel casemate gunboat built in Carondelet, Missouri by James Buchanan Eads. It was launched on 12 October 1861 as one of the Union's first gunboats, and joined the United States Western Gunboat Fleet, sometimes called the Brown Water Navy, under LeRoy Fitch. With the fall of Fort Donelson and the occupation of Clarksville and neighboring towns, Union forces used the Cumberland River and nearby railroad to transport supplies to their main supply depot in Nashville. The only telegraph wire available followed the railroad. At Sailor's Rest, this unwittingly placed the three main targets for Confederate attack in one spot. Here the guerrillas could attack the boats, remove railroad tracks, or cut the telegraph wires and retreat quickly into their hiding places. Sometimes the guerrillas were local farmers who merely hid their weapons and returned to their work before the Yanks could catch them. The south side of the Cumberland River was a well-known, heavily infested rebel guerrilla hangout ranging as far south as the Duck River. From a high river-bluff in Palmyra, the guerrillas dropped shells on loaded Union transports and their gunboat guards beneath, as they traveled up and down the Cumberland. The steep Rebel position on the bluff prevented the gunboats from retaliating against them. Nearby the Yellow Creek Shoals at Sailor's Rest on the Cumberland River was another favorite spot for guerrilla attack. At low water mark, which was usually in the summer, the shoals provided an excellent place to ford the river and at the same time, lowered the speed of the boats maneuvering around the shoals to a crawl. Mounted guerrillas could strike and escape into the woods. The Union Army's suspicions of cooperation between residents and guerrillas were often more than just suspicion. Official records of the sinking of the U.S.S. St. Louis are scarce but Myron J. Smith, Jr. in his LeRoy Fitch, The Civil War Career of a Union River Gunboat Commander reports: "As Lt. Cmdr. Fitch was winding up business in Bridgeport and attempting to police the riverbanks within his district, new army quartermaster convoy concerns arose. Much of this came about because of a guerrilla success on July 18 [1864] when the St. Louis, a 350-ton stern-wheel steamer loaded with government supplies and headed to Nashville from Louisville, was captured and burned at Sailor's Rest, the Yellow Creek outlet, about 20 miles below Clarksville. Other attacks on river traffic also occurred, though none so blatant or terminal." And Richard P. Gildrie in Guerrilla Warfare in the Lower Cumberland River Valley, 1862-1865 writes: "Not surprisingly, the pace of attacks on Union targets picked up in July. There was heavy skirmishing around Fort Donelson in which one Rebel participant remembered the Confederates losing 15 or 20 men. The steamer St. Louis, bound for Nashville loaded with supplies, was captured, looted, and burned by guerrillas at Sailor's Rest, the outlet of Yellow Creek. This and similar incidents led General Sherman to request more frequent gunboat patrols below Harpeth Shoals." When the war broke out, the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad was completed only from Nashville to Kingston Springs. The Union recognized immediately the advantages of extending the railroad to the Tennessee River. Free blacks, as well as former slaves, were impressed into service by federal forces to construct the railroad from Kingston Springs to Johnsonville on the Tennessee River. When the railroad was completed, the black laborers were inducted into official Union military units. The 12th and 14th U.S. Colored Infantry, consisting of about 1200 men, guarded the railroad, now a part of an important Union supply route up the river, onto the rails at Johnsonville, and into Nashville. The valuable supplies accumulating at Johnsonville drew the Confederates' attention, and they sent General Nathan Bedford Forrest to attack the depot. Sometimes unsuspected sources reveal, in minute detail, facts unavailable elsewhere. On November 30, 1864, General Thomas, concentrating his forces at Nashville to meet General John B. Hood's invasion, ordered Lieutenant Colonel William R. Sellon in command of the 12th U. S. Colored Regiment, to wait until the last train from Johnsonville had passed, and follow the tracks to Nashville. From Kingston Springs on December 1, 1864, Lt. Col. W. R. Sellon responded: "Dispatch received. There was no communication either way last night and the trains due were so far behind that I thought them captured. Concentrated my regiment this morning at this point. One train is here now; the other will probably be here soon. The One hundredth [U.S. Colored] left Sneedsville, as per order, this a.m., after trains passed." Henry V. Freeman, Captain of Company D of the 12th United States Colored Troops, on March 8, 1888, read a paper before the Commandery of the State of Illinois, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He related the incident so well, it was decided to use the eyewitness' own words verbatim. "Early on the morning of December 1, the expected orders were received to hold the post until the last train from Johnsonville should pass. About noon, this train came along and sped away into Nashville, arriving just in time to escape capture by Hood's army, which was then taking position to invest [invade ?] the city. Then the stores that could not be taken were destroyed, and the troops proceeded to the place before appointed for rendezvous. Six companies assembled that afternoon, - I think about three hundred and fifty men. Nashville was only about twelve miles distant. All knew that a large Rebel force was in close proximity, but how near was uncomfortably uncertain. "That night the weather, which had been mild and pleasant during the day, became colder, and it began to rain heavily. Without tents or fires, the troops bivouacked in a cornfield. About midnight, the writer was aroused from an exceedingly uncomfortable couch by an orderly. He found the officers assembling around a smouldering (sic) fire of corn-stalks, which gave just light sufficient to dimly see one another's faces. Beside it stood a man in civilian dress, who proved to be a scout, with a despatch (sic) from General Thomas. He had left Nashville after dark, and reported that he had passed through the Rebel lines, and that ten thousand of Forrest's men were already between us and the rest of the army, only about twelve miles away. He brought orders to move directly to Nashville, if it could be reached before morning; otherwise, to march to Clarksville, cross the river there, and proceed to Nashville on the north side of the Cumberland. "A force of about three hundred and fifty men could scarcely expect to pass through a Rebel force of about ten thousand. It would be fortunate to get safely away in the other direction. The remaining companies of the regiment were not far off, and the rest of the brigade was on the march; but this large Rebel force was considerably nearer. While still gathered around the smouldering (sic) fire, the camp was startled by the sound of rapid firing from the picket reserve on the turnpike leading to Nashville. It was soon over, but gave the by no means pleasing intimation that a Rebel scouting party had already found the detachment, and that a larger force might reasonably be expected, at least early in the morning. All day, in rain and mud, and far into the night, the troops pushed forward before venturing to bivouac. "The next day but one, the Twelfth Infantry had the rear. Shortly after noon, the column was within five or six miles of Clarksville. All felt safe from pursuit, and were perhaps a little careless. The rear company was in charge of a number of mules and horses picked up on the march, some of the men had mounted without bridles or saddles. The rear-guard, a couple of mounted companies of the regiment, was at the time about a mile behind. The last three companies had just passed a cross-road which came through some timber nearby, and the head of the regiment had disappeared around a strip of woods filled with underbrush. Suddenly, without any warning, came the rattle of carbines, the zip of bullets, and a squadron of Rebel cavalry charging down this cross-road upon the left. It was a complete surprise. Company B, with its frightened mules, dashed down the road, getting out of the way as rapidly as possible. But the other two companies stood their ground to a man. Not a sign of panic was visible. A rail fence happened to lie at right angles with the road. The two companies in question, Companies D [Freeman, the eyewitness, was Captain of Company D] and K, led by their captains, filed left and right on either side behind this fence, and opened fire on the Confederates, who were about to charge down the main road. The first volley of Company D brought down two horses, and emptied two Rebel saddles. "The enemy seemed to think they had made a mistake. The fire was returned, but without much effect. The place had become too hot for them, and they speedily withdrew down the cross-road by which they came. On our side one man only was wounded, owing doubtless to the fact that the enemy fired from moving horses. The whole affair was over before the rest of the regiment could more than form in line; but it furnished valuable evidence of reliability and coolness on the part of the men. "There being reason to suppose that the owner of a house on the cross-road near-by had given the Rebels information and assistance in this attack, the rear-guard, when it came up, set fire to his house. The building was soon thoroughly ablaze, and the troops marched away, leaving the owner and his family standing by the roadside gazing at the destruction of their home. It was hard treatment, but war is all cruelty; and in that part of the country, where the citizens not in the army were usually Rebel sympathizers, and often bushwhackers, it is to be feared that the quality of mercy was sometimes severely strained. "At Clarksville, gunboats lay in the river -- a welcome sight." After the war, if a citizen's loyalty to the United States government throughout the war could be proven, and if during the war the military forces of the United States, by proper authority, burned and destroyed property belonging to that individual, then reimbursement was made by the Southern Claims Commission. On April 30, 1915 -- fifty years after the Civil War -- Walter and Henry Martin, administrators of the estate of John R. Martin, petitioned the United States Court of Claims, for reimbursement for the destruction of property belonging to a loyal citizen. They claimed the United States troops under the command and by order of Lieut. Col. W[illiam] R. Sellen (sic) of the 12th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry, burned Martin's property near Clarksville, Tennessee, in December1864. Martin lived at Sailor's Rest at the mouth of Yellow Creek. Reimbursement was made for: 1 dwelling house; 1shoe shop, furniture, clothing, tools, and stock used in shoe shop; 1 smokehouse with 400 pounds of meat; 525 pounds of salt; 200 bushels of corn; 1 corncrib; 1 granary; 500 gallons of molasses; large stable and sheds; buggy and harness; wheat from 10 acres of ground; fruit trees and ornamental trees and shrubbery about the house; oak plank fence surrounding the house; sugar mill; and a library belonging to John R. Martin, deceased. The paper read on March 8, 1888, by eyewitness Captain Henry V. Freeman of Company D of the 12th United States Colored Troops, proves that it was the regiment's Lt. Col. William R. Sellon, who ordered the property of John R. Martin at Sailor's Rest on Yellow Creek burned in December 1864, as they passed through in route to Nashville. The railroad tracks ran along the Cumberland River between the river and Martin's house. Neither record, alone, means very much. But, when placed together, they prove the what, when, where and why of that one incident of the Civil War in the Clarksville area. Did Lt. Col. Sellon order the property destroyed because he suspected Martin had given the enemy information about his regiment's movement then, or did he suspect their involvement in the burning of the St. Louis at that spot just five months earlier on July 18, 1864?
