18
tional call, embracing all up to fifty-five years of age ; so you
see that all our population from eighteen years of age up to
fifty-five were called for by these several authorities. But
bark ! the drum and spirit-stirring fife are heard ; and the starry
banners, the gleaming bayonets, and federal blue uniforms of
Burnside's hosts are seen on the hills of the Cumberland as
they hasten to the redemption and relief of our suffering people.
The army of Gen. Bragg had been, just previously, compelled to
evacuate Chattanooga, and Gen. Rosecrans occupied that ex¬
tremity of the State ; our young men at once sprung from their
hiding places and their coverts in the mountains, and rallied to
the standard of their country, under the lead of the gallant
champions of the Union, and our mothers, sisters, wive3, and
old men, were left alone to occupy our homes. To-day, fellow-
citizens, more than 25,000 East Tennesseaus wear the uniform
and bear the arms of your country and my country. [Prolonged
and enthusiastic applause.] While I would not disparage any
other section of these United States in its patriotism, I must say
for my section, that in the midst of all their sufferings and
trials, privations and perils, they have furnished to the support
of our government more men, in proportion to their population
—more than two to one—•than any other section of the country.
[Applause.]
As Gen. Burnside, in September, marched with his conquer¬
ing hosts towards Upper East Tennessee, the rebel army
retreated before him ; but as they went, thinking, perhaps, that
they were seeing the last of East Tennessee, they seized upon
the property, the live stock, especially, of the Union farmers,
all over the country, where they could find it, and carried it off
with them. From that moment the work of devastation went
on with accelerated momentum. Many times have the Union
and rebel armies traversed the whole length of East Tennessee,
exhausting the country all around for current supplies, and, at
every moment, widening the track of ruin that they left behind
them. In the track of the armies came robbers, who found con¬
venient hiding-places and rallying points in the mountains that
skirt our valleys, and came down and claimed their share of the
property of our plundered people; and thus our barns and stables,
our cribs and dwellings, were entered and robbed, and our people
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