Writer tracked soldiers' moves

A news story from the Oct. 11, 1863 edition of the New York Herald has conflicting reports of the sacking and burning of Shelbyville. (T-G Photo by Brian Mosely) [Click to enlarge]

Among the long series of dispatches from the Bedford County front in the July 1, 1863, edition of the New York Herald were the letters of Mr. W.F.G. Shanks.

William Franklin Gore Shanks was born in 1837 in another Shelbyville, the one in Kentucky, and had an active career as a playwright, editor, war correspondent and publisher, according to a New York Times obituary dated Feb. 24, 1905.

In 1863, Shanks served as a volunteer aide on the staff of Gen. Lovell H. Rosseau and later moved to New York and became editor of Harper's Magazine. He was also Washington correspondent for The New York Times and a foreign editor of the New York Tribune.

Shanks' letters begin in Murfreesboro at midnight, June 23, when orders were given to Union troops "to hold themselves in readiness to move at short notice."

"This order created no unusual excitement. We had similar orders several times, but the inactivity had not been broken. Subsequently orders were promulgated requiring the inspectors to see that each regiment was supplied with intrenching [sic] tools and the quartermasters and commissaries to draw ten days' rations."

The plans for the maneuvers were obviously kept secret, because Shanks wrote that he had "been able to find no one who knows anything of the programme of projected operations," instead spending the next two paragraphs describing which Union corps were moving where. The only thing left to the writer was speculation.

"It will be seen that until we reach the first positions of the enemy (Guy's and Hoover's gaps forming their right and left, with the centre a little retired to Bell Buckle Gap and Fosterville) the lines of operation are divergent. Thence they are convergent only upon Shelbyville."

Shanks appears to attempt to guess what the Confederate commander would do, based on the movements of Union soldiers, writing that Bragg "will know before to-morrow exactly the roads upon which we are marching, his cavalry being strongly posted and engaged in watching us."

"I venture to say that if the army take the three roads, Manchester, Wartrace and Shelbyville -- and I have very little doubt they will -- next Friday or Saturday will witness a dreadful struggle within a few miles of Shelbyville. It is not generally believed that Bragg will retire without a struggle."

Executions and rumors

Shanks then took time to report about the fate of a Union solider:

"A few minutes since orders were issued from General Rosecrans' headquarters to shoot John C. Kerr, a private of the Sixteenth United States infantry, for desertion. The execution is to take place between the hours of eight and twelve o'clock A.M. to-morrow," Shanks penned.

"General Rosecrans marches at seven, hence the execution will have to take place on the march. Kerr is a splendid looking, muscular man, of fine talents, somewhat cultivated, and looks 'every inch a man,' whom it is a great pity to shoot."

The next letter is dated June 24, 1863 from Murfreesboro, with Shanks reporting that the entire army, except for one division, began moving on the Manchester and Shelbyville roads at four that morning.

"There is a rumor that Bragg has evacuated Shelbyville, returned to Decatur, and is now marching on Memphis," he wrote. "There is little to no reliability in the rumor, and I give it as one of the explanations given for the present movement."

Shanks also writes about "a story afloat" that Union cavalry went "twenty-two mile toward Shelbyville yesterday and found no enemy." At the end of the letter, Shanks wrote that Rosecrans would make his "headquarters at Millersburg to-night," which he describes as 11 miles "from this point, on the Wartrace road."

"General Rousseau made earnest application to General Rosecrans to-day for the reprieve of private Kerr, condemned to be shot for desertion. It is believed that he will be reprieved," Shanks finally wrote. However, readers of the Herald would not know Kerr's fate in that edition, as Shanks' letter ended at this point.

The report about the Battles of Liberty and Hoover's Gap ends with "Rebel Accounts," taken from the pages of The Chattanooga Rebel, with a dateline of June 28 in Manchester, reporting that train passengers say "seven brigades of the army of General Rosecrans attacked the brigades of General Bates and Liddell, holding Hoover's and Liberty Gaps."

"Our men fought the enemy until their ammunition was exhausted, when they fell back. Movements indicate a general advance of the enemy forces, which may result in a pitched battle. We regret to learn that among those killed in Bate's brigade was Major Claybrook, and that General Liddell lost some estimable officers."

The report also mentions a proclamation from Isham G. Harris, governor of Tennessee, calling for 6,000 troops, "under the provisions of the act of the rebel Congress to provide for local and special services, the force to be composed of men of over forty years of age, or such as are not liable to conscription."

Burned?

Bragg's army then moved to Chattanooga, but action in Bedford County was far from over. Another 1863 edition has conflicting reports about the sacking and burning of Shelbyville.

On the front page of the Oct. 11 issue of the New York Herald are the headlines "The Reported Destruction of Shelbyville Untrue" and "Fight and Rout of the Rebel Cavalry Near Shelbyville."

A dispatch from Louisville dated Oct. 9, reads "Our Nashville correspondent says that but three buildings were burning by the rebels at Shelbyville -- the Court House and two other houses.

"The town was plundered throughout, and some fifteen hundred persons are reported captured, which is very doubtful."

An entry dated Oct. 10 from Washington is said to be from "despatches [sic] dated Chattanooga, October 9, and from officers on duty at Rosecrans' headquarters, also official despatches [sic] from Nashville, all containing reports most encouraging for the national cause."

"The forces under General Mitchell overtook the rebel cavalry on the 6th inst., below Shelbyville, and a battle immediately ensued, resulting in a complete rout of the enemy, who did not stop for their wounded," the report reads. "Over one hundred of the rebels were left dead on the field, and also a large number of wounded."

The paper said that Mitchell "sent a force after the flying rebels, who fled panic-stricken."

"The sacking of Shelbyville was a cowardly and disgraceful to the rebel arms as was that of Lawrence. We had neither forces nor stores there. The inhabitants, many of them secessionists, were robbed and had their houses burned. They are without protection. Hence the disgrace to the cowards who made such an unmilitary assault upon them."