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GRAND JUNCTION.
After three or four weeks rest and quiet at Jackson,
Tennessee, the regiment was ordered to Grand Junction, to hold
and repair the railroad, so that communication could be opened
up with Memphis and the interior of Mississippi. The position
was an important one, being the junction of important railroads
leading to the enemy's main lines of communication and assailable
positions. The place contained a few scattered houses, one small
church and a medium hotel. The country around is not surpassed
in Western Tennessee. it
is well cultivated and the plantations wealthy and well stocked
with the property of the peculiar institution. At Grand Junction
were machine shops of several roads, but these were destroyed
when Beauregard evacuated Corinth. Many of the inhabitants, especially
the more wealthy, had gone South in search of their rights. Here
we found some Union men who had been subjects of persecution in
consequence, and many who were so by profession, but were found
a few weeks afterwards among the enemy's cavalry and guerrillas.
We remained here one week, when we were ordered to march to Holly
Springs, Mississippi, about twenty-four miles farther south.
With this order we could not comply, in consequence of our transportation
not having yet reached us from Jackson, Tennessee. We were then
ordered to Lagrange to relieve General Hurlbut, who, with his
Division was ordered to Holly Springs in our stead. We remained
at Lagrange one week, Colonel Leggett in command of the post,
and Lieutenant W. W. McCarty, of Company E, Provost Marshal.
The town is one of considerable celebrity in the
South, both for commercial importance and educational facilities.
It has a population of nearly three thousand inhabitants, and
before the rebellion, was one of the most business and beautiful
towns in Western Tennessee. Here is located the Presbyterian
Synodical College. The building stands on elevated grounds, and
present
an imposing appearance from every view in the surrounding country.
It is now occupied as a hospital; the fate of nearly all educational
institutions in the Sonth.
It was used as such by the rebels and when they evacuated Corinth
and this country many sick were left here for our care and attention.
This institution, eminent in past history and long nursed by
the churches, is sharing alike the fearful consequences of rebellion
and secession, which soon dries up all fountains of learning;
which is but the type of what it would do, were they brought into
full realization, and the principle permitted to be introduced
into the political policy and economy of our national existence.
Dr. Waddell,
the President of the Institution, is the Secretary of the Southern
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. He is a preacher
of more than ordinary ability, and who has attained, both North
and South, considerable eminence for literary and other logical
ability and knowledge, but entered into secession with all the
earnestness of the demagogue. He had a large plantation and a
great number of slaves which gave to his principle, and believing
in the divinity of the institution of negro slavery, led him to
espouse the cause of secession and sacrifice all present facilities
and blessings in the interest of the slaveholders' Confederacy;
and to put forth every effort in its behalf. His sermons were
turned into political harangues, inciting the people to rebellion,
and cultivating a spirit of malignant hatred against the people
of the North. His prayer-meetings were turned into war-meetings,
stirring up the people to give their husbands and sons to be sacrifices
upon the demon's altar of rebellion. Through his influence all
the young men left the college and volunteered. All the young
men of the town were driven from their homes by the pressure of
public opinion to enter the ranks of the Southern army.
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