The Maggie Nichol Vaulx Civil War Journal By ROSS E. HUDGINS It was 26 April, 1861, when Margaret Nichol Vaulx, a 16 year old Nashville, Tennessee, resident sat down to commence her journal. As a reason for writing, Margaret would record “May this be the means in bringing me nearer to my Saviour and make me delight to do his holy will.” The first ten months of the journal indicated that it would be a religionist’s diary. The war was mentioned only four times as she recorded events which pertained to her brother, Captain Joseph Vaulx, Jr. Margaret recorded on 12 July 1861 the following; “Went to the city today and on arriving there found the 1st Tenn. Regiment was ordered off the day before. My brother is the Captain of A company, and was of course among those who went to fight the enemies of the South. Oh! How sad I felt when I found he had gone, without my bidding him perhaps a last goodbye! Save and deliver him O’ Lord from the hands of our enemies that he being armed with thy defence may be preserved evermore from all perils to glorify thee who art the only giver of victory through thy Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen!” Margaret began her journals two weeks after the onset of hostilities with the confederate shelling of Ft. Sumter. She would continue to write well beyond the surrender at Appomattox. She considered the journals her duty and would often use the past recorded mistakes as a means of correction. Margaret, hereafter known as Maggie, was the eldest living daughter of Nashville businessman Joseph Vaulx, Sr. Her mother was the daughter of General Robert Armstrong, a close friend of President Andrew Jackson. As a young artillery officer, Armstrong had served under the General at the Battle of New Orleans. The family resided at Mount Alban, the family farm, which was located about 4 miles from Nashville on the Franklin Pike. Joseph Vaulx knew the importance of education and would provide his children with the best schooling available. She attended the South Side Institute, a young girls’ school in Nashville. She loved to read nonfiction and once referred to fiction as “frivolous.” In addition to her studies of history, science, English, French, Latin, philosophy and chemistry, she took lessons in piano and voice. Maggie would record on 27 January, 1862, “Tomorrow I start school after an absence of two weeks with the full determination of improving myself in all my studies so that I may be in after years an ornament to society and the delight of my dear parents.” It has been said that one day can change a person’s life. This seems to be true with Maggie. The February 1862 events surrounding the four day Battle of Fort Donelson seemed to be far from her mind. On Saturday the 15th, she was making plans for Monday but little did she know that the fort which protected the waterway to Nashville would soon be gone. With the surrender of Fort Donelson during the early morning hours of the 16th, the city was open for gunboats to sail up river and shell the city. The fear was that Nashville, the first seceding capitol to fall into Federal hands would be made an example. This fear would set off the period of time in Nashville’s history known as the Great Panic, an unprecedented time when citizens would flee their homes due to the fear of an invading army. Maggie along with her sisters and other family members were forced to flee their homes for the safe confines of Williamson County, Tennessee. She recorded on 16 February, 1862, the following journal entry, “O! What a miserable wrenched unhappy day I have spent! This night our city will be surrendered to the Yankees and how many peaceful and happy homes will be made desolate. We will have to leave ours and fly to some place of safety.” She would be so distressed she would later describe 1862 as the “The most miserable year of my life!” After the days of the Great Panic, Maggie would be denied the means of returning home. In her absence, the Union cavalry had set up a “perfect encampment” at Mount Alban. The “insolent conduct” of the Yankee soldiers had her father not wanting his teenage daughters in their presence. It would be one year, one month and 26 days before Maggie and sister Kate returned home. Those days were described by Maggie as being in “exile.” On 12 April, 1863, Maggie wrote one simple sentence, “Ma came today and took me home!” Upon returning home, she found change in her peaceful neighborhood. Four days later she recorded, “the whole country around my home is entirely changed; fences burnt, trees cut down and devastation is everywhere visible.” During the next eighteen months, Maggie’s days would be occupied with school and home. Often she would record events and rumors about the war and the Federal occupation of Nashville. Rumors were an important means of communication during those days of turmoil. After the fall of Atlanta in September, 1864, Union General William Sherman began making plans for his infamous March to the Sea. He detached General John Schofield’s Army of the Ohio westward to join up with General George Thomas in Nashville. Meanwhile, Confederate General John Bell Hood also moved his Army of Tennessee west. In November, 1864, the two armies clashed at the bloody Battle of Franklin and then two weeks later Hood’s army was devastated during the Battle of Nashville. The remnants of Hood’s army escaped east to join up with General Joseph Johnston for the final Carolinas Campaign. Maggie continued faithful to her journal duty. For example, as the Battle of Nashville raged about her, she with family hunkered down in the house. Even during this time of danger, she found time to record, “December 16, 1864 Friday. Oh, what a day this has been! Most terrific firing all day and many think our noble army is retreating. About 5 o’clock we witnessed the remnants of Cheatham’s division passed by, hotly pursuit by the vile Yankees. One confederate was wounded; while we were all collected in one room, and the bullets were flying around, he came to our door and asked so piteously to be let in. Of course we were compelled to refuse his urgent request, as the Yankee cavalry was all around the house plundering the smoke house. Oh! I shall never forget this night! Every horse, chicken was swept away like magic; and had it not been for Generals Knight and Hammond, the house would have been burnt.” The battle left Mount Alban very heavily damaged; the family would not be able to live in the home for several years. The 1865 New Year found the Vaulx family living in Nashville. True to her custom, Maggie continued her journal duty. If she read, heard or witnessed something, she would write it down. In reference to the occupying Union officials, she wrote, “they are all rascals, from the highest to the lowest!” She would continue to be concerned about the well-being of Brother Joe. He had participated in the Battles and Franklin and Nashville and had escaped to join up with General Johnston. As the closing days of the war came, Maggie recorded information of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. On April 10, 1865, she wrote, “The news is all confirmed. General Lee and the remnant of his gallant army have surrendered on the following terms. The officers and men are to be paroled, (the former retaining their side-arms) and allowed to return home until exchanged. There is a rumor that the same terms have been offered to General Jos. E. Johnston by Sherman, and I trust that they will be accepted as further resistance is useless. Too much precious blood has been shed and I want to see my relatives and friends return and make an attempt to get the reins of power out of the hands of these Northern fanatics.” Concerning President Abraham Lincoln, Maggie recorded, “This has indeed been an eventful day. About 9 AM, a telegraphic dispatch reached this place containing the startling intelligence of the assassination of President Lincoln and Secretary Seward! Everything pertaining to the military was in readiness for a grand celebration, but it soon gave place to gloom. All flags were at half mast and heavily draped. Minute guns were fired all day. It must have been a horrible affair. The deed was done by Booth, the tragedian, at Ford’s Theater on Friday night.” With the war over, Maggie wrote of the joyous return of relatives and friends. Meanwhile, the family anxiously waited for Brother Joe’s arrival. On 2 June, 1865, she wrote, “Brother Joe returned today!” Maggie would live into her fiftieth year. Death came to her in Nashville, Tennessee, October, 1895.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 00:20:07 +0000