Union Women of Northeast Tennessee Exiled in the Civil War

EXILE OF MRS. WILLIAM BLOUNT CARTER
Confederate authorities provide escort for Mrs. William B. [Elizabeth] Carter to be exiled from Tennessee via Cumberland Gap. Her husband is the mastermind of the bridge burnings.

26 APRIL 1862
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL, Mrs. WILLIAM B. CARTER, Elizabethton.
MADAM: I am directed by Maj. Gen. E. Kirby Smith respectfully to require that you and your family pass beyond the C. S. line in thirty-six hours from the delivery of this note by way of Cumberland Gap. Passports and an escort will be furnished you for your protection to the enemy’s line.
Very respectfully,
W. M. CHURCHWELL.
OR, Ser. II, Vol. I, pp. 885-886.

Tennessee Women in the Civil War, Tennessee State Museum
tnmuseum.org/junior-curators/posts/tennessee-women-in-the-civil-war

28 APRIL 1862
JONESBOROUGH, TENN.
Col. W. M. CHURCHWELL, Provost-Marshal.
Mrs. Carter will go unhesitatingly but has a sick child just now but can go in a few days. She says she has not the funds. She is in bad health and must take a nurse with her, a slave. You will answer by 12 o’clock.
A. J. CAMPBELL.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 1, p. 887.

30 APRIL 1862
JONESBOROUGH,
Col. W. M. CHURCHWELL:
Mrs. Carter and her two children will leave to-morrow night for Norfolk. You will send passports, transportation for myself and everything else that is necessary. Send them by the conductor of the next train; if otherwise I will not get them in time. Also send me $50.
A. J. CAMPBELL.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 1, p. 887.

19 MAY 1862
OFFICE DEPUTY PROVOST-MARSHAL,
Elizabethton, Tenn.
Colonel W. M. CHURCHWELL, Provost-Marshal.
DEAR SIR: A few days since I communicated with Mrs. Carter in reference to her departure for the Federal lines. I called on Mrs. Carter a few moments since. Two of her children are a little sick now but will be well in a few days. She is anxious to go to her husband and if allowed to take a nurse she will go much more cheerfully. She says she won’t go a step till her children get well enough to travel and till she is allowed to carry a nurse to assist her with the children. She prefers going by Cumberland Gap.
Very respectfully,
W. M. STRINGFIELD,
Deputy Provost-Marshal.

EXILE OF MRS. HORACE MAYNARD
21 APRIL 1862 – 23 APRIL 1862:
Confederate authorities order Mrs. Horace Maynard to leave Northeast Tennessee.

21 APRIL 1862
Wife of U.S. Congressman Horace Maynard expelled from Northeast Tennessee.
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, OFFICE PROVOST MARSHAL.
Mrs. MAYNARD, Knoxville.
MADAM: By order of Maj. Gen. E. Kirby Smith I am directed respectfully to require that yourself and family pass beyond the C. S. line in thirty-six hours.
W. M. CHURCHWELL,
Col. and Provost-Marshal.

22 APRIL 1862
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, Knoxville, Tenn.,
Gen. S. COOPER, Richmond, Va.:
I have directed Maynard’s family to leave East Tennessee. I wish them to go via Norfolk. Can they pass that way?
E. KIRBY SMITH,
Maj.-Gen., Cmdg.

23 APRIL 1862
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, OFFICE PROVOST MARSHAL
Maj. H. L. CLAY, Assistant Adjutant-Gen.
SIR: This office has had no communicate with Mrs. Maynard since notifying her but understand she leaves this morning. No application has been made for passport. No officer has yet reported to go to Norfolk. Will be sent to Maj. Gen. E. Kirby Smith’s headquarters for instructions as soon as he reports here.
Respectfully,
W. M. CHURCHWELL,
Col. and Provost-Marshal.

23 APRIL 1862
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, Knoxville
Dr. F. A. RAMSEY, Surgeon.
DOCTOR: I am directed by the major-general commanding to inform you in response to your communication of this date that Mrs. Maynard will not be required to leave before the expiration of the time at which you state she will be able to bear the fatigue of travel.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. L. CLAY,
Assistant Adjutant-Gen.

24 APRIL 1862
Mrs. Horace Maynard seeks Confederate passports for slaves
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,
OFFICE PROVOST MARSHAL. M. T. HAYNES, Esq.
SIR: Mrs. Maynard applies for passports for two servants understood to be slaves. I am directed to ask your decision as to whether they are her property or not.
Respectfully,
W. M. CHURCHWELL.

25 APRIL 1862
Confederate escort to lead Mrs. Horace Maynard out of East Tennessee
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL, Knoxville, April 25, 1862.
The following-named persons are allowed in charge of Lieut. Joseph H. Speed to pass out of the Confederate States Government by way of Norfolk, Va.:
Mrs. Horace Maynard and three children.
W. M. CHURCHWELL,
Col. and Provost-Marshal.

EXILE OF MRS. ROBERT BYRD
14 MAY 1862
Confederate escort for the exile of Mrs. Robert K. Byrd, East Tennessee loyalist
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,
OFFICE PROVOST MARSHAL.
Mrs. ROBERT K. BYRD.
MADAM: Will it suit your convenience to visit Kentucky next week as formerly proposed by private conveyance to Cumberland Gap with proper escort? It is important to you as well as others. The colonel [her husband] has been quite sick, but I learn has recovered and joined his regiment now at Cumberland Ford.
Very respectfully,
W. M. CHURCHWELL, Col. and Provost-Marshal.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 1, p. 888.

MINI BIO: Robert King Byrd
Robert K. Byrd was a Union soldier and politician from Roane County, East Tennessee. He married Mary Lucinda Lea in 1861. Although he owned slaves, Byrd remained loyal to the Union. He was a delegate to the East Tennessee Convention in May and June 1861. At the June session in Greeneville, Byrd made a secret pact with several other delegates to begin raising and drilling military units to defend their homeland.
In August 1861, Byrd fled to Kentucky where he joined the Union Army as a colonel and was assigned to command the First Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, the first Union regiment composed primarily of refugees from East Tennessee. They took part in numerous skirmishes in and around Cumberland Gap and at the Battle of Mill Springs in January 1862.
Col. Byrd was not at home in May 1862 when Confederate authorities exiled his wife from Tennessee.
On 31 December 1862, Byrd led an attack that cleared the Confederates out of the woods near the front lines at the Battle of Stones River and received high praise from his brigade commander, Gen. James G. Spears. Col. Byrd’s unit was mounted in May 1863, and renamed the First Tennessee Mounted Infantry. A month later they joined in Col. William P. Sanders’ East Tennessee raid that destroyed railroad lines and bridges in the Knoxville area. Byrd’s knowledge of the area contributed to the raid’s success.
During the Knoxville Campaign in late 1863, Byrd and his unit were posted in his home town of Kingston. They took part in several skirmishes during the campaign, including one at Mossy Creek in Jefferson County in December 1863. In May 1864, Byrd’s troops were dismounted and sent to Georgia where they fought in various locations. In August 1864, the unit completed its three-year period of service. The First Tennessee Infantry Regiment were mustered out of the Union Army in Knoxville. They received high praise as the “first among the patriotic men from East Tennessee to take up arms in defense of the Union.”

Eliza O’Brien Brownlow, left
findagrave.com/memorial/32470223/eliza-ann-brownlow

EXILE OF MRS. ELIZA BROWNLOW
21 APRIL 1862
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL.
Mrs. Eliza Brownlow, Knoxville.
MADAM: By order of Maj. Gen. E. Kirby Smith I am directed respectfully to require that yourself and family pass beyond the C. S. line in thirty-six hours.
W. M. CHURCHWELL,
Col. and Provost-Marshal.

21 APRIL 1862
Col. W. M. CHURCHWELL, Provost-Marshal.
SIR: Your official note as provost-marshal for East Tennessee ordering myself and family to remove beyond the limits of the Confederate States within the next thirty-six hours is just received and I hasten to reply to it. My husband as you are aware is not here to afford me his protection and counsel; and being well nigh in the evening of life with a family of dependent children I have to request as a matter of indulgence that you extend the time for my exile a few days longer as to leave within the time prescribed by your mandate would result in the total sacrifice of my private interests. I have to request further information [as to] what guarantee of safety your passport will afford myself and family.
Yours, &c.,
ELIZA A. BROWNLOW.

21 APRIL 1862
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,
OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL,
Mrs. W. G. BROWNLOW, Knoxville.
MADAM: By Major General E. Kirby Smith
I am directed most respectfully to inform you that you and your children are not held as hostages for the good behavior of your husband as represented by him in a speech at Cincinnati recently, and that yourself and family will be required to pass beyond the C. S. line on thirty-six hours from this date. Passports will be granted you from this office.
Very respectfully,
W. M. CHURCHWELL,
Colonel and Provost-Marshal.

22 APRIL 1862
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,
OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL,
Mrs. W. G. BROWNLOW.
MADAM: At your request the time for your leaving to join your husband is extended until Thursday morning next. The route will be via Kingston and Sparta. Your safety will be the soldiers sent along for your protection to the lines of the enemy.
Very respectfully,
W. M. CHURCHWELL,
Colonel and Provost-Marshal.

23 APRIL 1862
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL
Maj. H. L. CLAY, Assistant Adjutant-Gen.
SIR: Names of the following persons to go to Norfolk: Mrs. Eliza Brownlow and three children, Miss Mary Brownlow, Mrs. Sue C. Sawyers and child, John B. Brownlow.
Respectfully,
W. M. CHURCHWELL,
Col. and Provost-Marshal.

24 APRIL 1862
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, Knoxville.
Lieut. JOSEPH H. SPEED, Twentieth Regt. Alabama Volunteers.
SIR: The major-general commanding directs that you proceed from this place to-morrow morning in charge of the following-named persons: Mrs. Eliza Brownlow and three children, Miss Mary Brownlow, Mrs. Sue C. Sawyers and child, John B. Brownlow, Mrs. Maynard and three children, whom you will take to Norfolk, Va., to be transported thence to the enemy’s lines. You will show them all proper attention on the way thither and protect them against offensive intrusion.
After arriving at Norfolk you will report to the commanding officer and request that just prior to their embarkation a careful examination be made of their luggage and persons for letters or papers of a treasonable character. If any such should be discovered you will detain Mr. [Parson] Brownlow and bring him with you upon return to Knoxville when you will report to these headquarters.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. L. CLAY,
Assistant Adjutant-Gen.

25 APRIL 1862
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,
OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL, Knoxville.
The following-named persons are allowed (in charge of Lieutenant Joseph H. Speed) to pass out of the Confederate States Government by way of Norfolk, Va.:
Mrs. Eliza Brownlow and three children, Miss Mary Brownlow, Mrs. Sue C. Sawyers and child, John B. Brownlow.
W. M. CHURCHWELL,
Colonel and Provost-Marshal.

28 APRIL 1862
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NORFOLK,
Just received. The persons are here. Lieutenant Speed reports this order is from General Kirby Smith. I will detain the party here. Please telegraph me if I shall send them to Fort Monroe.
BENJAMIN HUGER,
Major-General.

28 APRIL 1862
RICHMOND.
Major General BENJAMIN HUGER, Norfolk, Va.:
The Brownlow family which has been sent to Norfolk by the commanding general of the Department of East Tennessee for the purpose of being transported to the enemy’s line will be sent by you to Fortress Monroe.
By order of the Secretary of War:
A. T. BLEDSOE, Assistant Secretary of War.

Eliza McCardle Johnson, Wife of Military Governor Andrew Johnson

EXILE OF ELIZA MCCARDLE JOHNSON
21 APRIL 1862.
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,
OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL,
Mrs. ANDREW JOHNSON.
MADAM: By Maj. Gen. E. Kirby Smith I am directed to respectfully require that you and your family pass beyond the C. S. line through Nashville if you please in thirty-six hours. Passports will be granted you at this office.
Very respectfully,
W. M. CHURCHWELL, Col. and Provost-Marshal.
OR, Ser. II, Vol. I, p. 884.

26 APRIL 1862 – Confederate authorities give Mrs. Andrew Johnson more time to prepare for exile
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL.
Mrs. ANDREW JOHNSON.
MADAM: Your note to Maj. Gen. E. Kirby Smith has been referred to this office and I am directed respectfully to reply in order to give you more time to make your arrangements for leaving. The time is extended thirty-six hours from the delivery of this second note when the major-general hopes you will be ready to comply with his request. You can go by way of Norfolk, Va., north, or by Kingston to Nashville. Passports and an escort will be furnished for your protection.
Very respectfully,
W. M. CHURCHWELL,
Col. and Provost-Marshal.
OR, Ser. II, Vol. I, p. 885.

28 APRIL 1862
A. J. Campbell’s failed mission to force Mrs. Andrew Johnson into exile
JONESBOROUGH, TENN., April 28, 1862. Col. W. M. CHURCHWELL, Provost-Marshal.
SIR: My mission to Mrs. Johnson was unsatisfactory. She said she would not go North but Judge Patterson and her son Charles have assured me that she would go. You will please state what goods and chattels she will be allowed to take with her; also how much money and if you are willing that her son Charles shall accompany her. He is a young unmarried gentleman and I think should go with his mamma.
A. J. CAMPBELL.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 1, p. 887.

19 MAY 1862
Mrs. Andrew Johnson delays her exile from East Tennessee
OFFICE DEPUTY PROVOST-MARSHAL, Elizabethton, Tenn., May 19, 1862.
Col. W. M. CHURCHWELL, Provost-Marshal.
DEAR SIR: A few days since I communicated with Mrs. Johnson in reference to her departure for the Federal lines. Col. Dan. Stover called on me yesterday and stated that Mrs. Johnson’s health was still very poor with no prospect of improvement shortly if ever. I have consulted with several physicians who state that Mrs. Johnson is consumptive and to remove her will probably cause her death. She is very anxious to remain here with her children and is not at all desirous to go the bosom of “Andy.”
I think Mrs. Johnson’s health is not likely to improve; so if she has to go, now is as good a time as any. These people are very quiet now. A great many gladly circulate false rumors in relation to Federal victories but I can’t find out the originators of such stories.
Very respectfully,
W. M. STRINGFIELD,
Deputy Provost-Marshal. OR, Ser. II, Vol. 1, pp. 888-889.

12 OCTOBER – 13 OCTOBER 1862
Charles Johnson to his father Military Governor Andrew Johnson concerning reception given to family in Confederate Murfreesborough
We reached this place Friday evening at nine o’clock in a cold rain—got out of the cars-found no hotel in the place-and nearly all the private houses full-no place to put baggage, no hacks, no servants. . . We wandered about the town for an hour or two and finally succeeded after pleading, entreating, begging in getting a house to sleep on the floor without any fire.
At six o’clock Saturday morning [October 13] General [Nathan Bedford] Forrest sent a deputation of soldiers for us to appear before him immediately. We appeared before him. He. . . informed us that Jesus Christ could not cross his lines and that we should immediately return [to East Tennessee] by the seven o’clock train-that the War Department had no control of his lines. . .
We were now known in the town and not a soul would let us in his house. We were annoyed by taunts and jeers of a rabble soldiery. . . Finally we got a room in a vacant house. . . We put the women and children in this room where they stayed all night, we men laying in the cars by courtesy of the baggage master …
~ Papers of Andrew Johnson, Vol. 6, p. 23.

First home of Andrew and Eliza Johnson in Greeneville, Tennessee
http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=18

Eliza Johnson’s Health Issues
In 1852, at age 43, Eliza gave birth to their last child – a son, Andrew Jr. (called Frank). About this time she contracted ‘consumption’ (tuberculosis). Within a year, the disease was limiting her physical activity and prevented her from traveling with Andrew to Nashville when he was sworn in as the new Governor of Tennessee (1853–1857). Trapped in Greeneville, Tennessee, Eliza engaged in social welfare work for the Methodist Church. Four of her five children soon left home, and Eliza was content to manage the family businesses, raise Frank, coordinate the family’s nine slaves, and maintain the household.

Life as Civil War Refugees
In fear for his life, Andrew Johnson escaped to Union lines and traveled to Washington DC where he remained, cut-off from his family. Confederate troops occupied East Tennessee on 26 July 1861, and Eliza and her family were singled out as “Unionists,” and placed on the watch list.
In April 1862, Confederate authorities ordered Eliza Johnson and her family to leave Northeast Tennessee. Eliza’s fragile health prevented her from doing so, and they were granted her a temporary reprieve. Five months later, after their property was confiscated, Eliza was given papers to travel through Confederate lines to Nashville, where her husband was serving as military governor of Tennessee (1862-1865) in Union-held Middle Tennessee. Eliza and her family then became refugees. In September 1862, the family were detained in Confederate-occupied Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where they had to go door-to-door asking for shelter and food. Confederate sympathizers harassed and threatened them, but they eventually made their way to Nashville.
A Nashville diarist wrote: “The great joy at the reunion of this long and sorrowfully separated family may be imagined. … Even the Governor’s Roman firmness was overcome, and he wept tears of thankfulness at this merciful deliverance of his beloved ones from the hands of their unpitying persecutors.”

Johnson Family Civil War Tragedies
There would be little time to enjoy her new home and family. She soon received news that her son Robert—an officer in the Union Army was severely ill in Cincinnati due to his alcoholism. Eliza traveled there to assist and comfort him.

Robert Johnson

21 NOVEMBER 1863
Andrew Johnson letter to son Robert
Nashville, Nov 21st 1863
My dear Son,
Your note of the 17th is now before me. My sources of grief and care have been enough without your adding to them at this time. I have been determined that no act of mine should be an excuse for your recent course of Conduct and do not now intend to depart from it. You tender your resignation, predicated upon my wish for you to do so, and as I obtained the Commission … to require you to resign and therefore you do resign.

I have not indicated to you by work or deed any desire or wish on my part, that you Should resign your Commission as Col of the regiment; but on the contrary have expressed myself in the most emphatic terms, that I would rather See you once more yourself again and at the head of your Regiment, going to your own native home, than be possessed by the highest honors which Could be conferred upon me. In this so far, I have been doomed to deep disappointment.

I have said and now repeat that I feared you would be dismissed from the Army unless you reformed and took Command of your Regiment and give Some evidence of determination to Serve the country as a sober, upright, and honorable man. I have also said further, that your own reputation and that of an exiled family, required one of two things, reformation in your habits and attention to business, or to withdraw from the Army. One or the other is due yourself, the Regiment, and the Government.

This is what I have Said, it is what I now feel and think. Though, my son, I feel that I am but discharging the duty of a father who has devoted his whole life to the elevation of those he expects to leave behind him. In your letter you Say my will is the law with you, in reference to the resignation. I do most sincerely wish that my will was the law in regard to your future Course. I would be willing this night [to] resign my existence into the hands of him who gave it.
Your devoted father,
Andrew Johnson
Papers of Andrew Johnson, Vol. 6, p. 485.

After his resignation from the First Tennessee Union Cavalry, Robert Johnson served as his father’s private secretary. Unable to overcome a lifelong battle with alcoholism, Robert would commit suicide on 22 April 1869 at age 35.

Martha Johnson Patterson
Martha’s husband, Judge David Patterson, was arrested in November 1861, and was to be sent to jail at Tuscaloosa, AL, as a prisoner of war. The next news I find of him mentions that he has been elected president of the Nashville Refugee Aid Society.
18 March 1864.
Nashville Dispatch:
“… Assembled at the office of the Secretary of State at ten o’clock yesterday morning, and organized by the election of Hon. David T. Patterson, President, [who] announced the object of the meeting to be, to devise some means for the relief of those families who have been driven from their homes by the devastations of the war, and are temporarily residing in this division of the State.”
Apparently, Patterson has been released from his arrest and has joined his wife and family at Nashville.
19 May 1864
Relief for East Tennessee
Nashville Dispatch:
“This noble work is still progressing [relief work]. There has been received in this city about 400 tons of supplies, consisting principally of flour, corn, and bacon. Another cargo of 150 tons is expected this week. They are being forwarded at the rate of one car load per day. It is to be regretted that the agencies of the army for the past two months have prevented their speedier shipment, but even at this rate, all has been forwarded except about 70 tons. Accounts from all parts of East Tennessee represent the people in great destitution, and agents sent from particular localities for provisions bring with them most undoubted evidence that unless relief can be procured within ten days, the people of those localities will be compelled to leave the country to save themselves from starvation. Every effort will be made to supply these districts first.”

Charles Johnson
In April 1863, Eliza’s oldest son Charles—an assistant surgeon in the Union Army—was thrown from a horse and killed instantly. Eliza never fully recovered from his sudden death. He was 33 years old.

Andrew Johnson Jr. – “Frank”
The youngest Johnson son, Andrew Jr., [called Frank] was the only son to marry, but had no children. Like his mother, he suffered from tuberculosis; he also drank to excess. Frank liked to write. He tried his hand at journalism after the war, founding the Greeneville Intelligencer; the paper failed after two years. Andrew Johnson, Jr. died on March 12, 1879 at age 26.

Mary Johnson Stover, widow of Daniel Stover
Eliza’s son-in-law, Daniel Stover—husband of her daughter Mary—had been in charge of burning the bridge at the town of Zollicoffer on 8 November 1861. During the Unionist uprising that followed the ET&VA bridge burnings, he and his men were routed from their camp at Doe River Cove in Carter County, Northeast Tennessee.
Daniel hid out in the cold and damp winter in the mountains, which ruined his health. Due to his weakened condition, he also contracted ‘consumption’ [tuberculosis]. Daniel joined the Union Army and tried bravely to serve in his regiment, but his disease would not allow it. Col. Daniel Stover died on 18 December 1864 at age 38.

Eliza Johnson’s health remained poor for the remainder of her life. She passed on 15 January 1876 at age 65.

millercenter.org/president/johnson/family-life
nps.gov/anjo/andrew-johnson-s-family.htm
nps.gov/anjo/learn/historyculture/eliza-johnson-later-years.htm

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