The Daily Dispatch: December 13, 1861., [Electronic resource]

The Troubles in East Tennessee

‘ A terrible state of affairs exists in the border counties of Tennessee. A fight occurred last week at Parrottsville, Cooke county, about fifty miles from this place, in which Captain Gorman and two privates of the Confederate cavalry were killed. A messenger reached this place day before yesterday from the commanding officer at Greenville, Tenn., urgently requesting that a force be immediately dispatched to the adjoining county of Madison to intercept some two or three hundred Tennessee and North Carolina tories who had fled before the Southern troops and taken refuge in the mountains of Madison county

A bout one thousand tories, the messenger informed us, were at Newport, in Cooke county, armed and organized. Col. R B. Vance's regiment had been ordered to disperse them, and would, it was supposed, reach Newport last Tuesday. Nothing definite has been heard since, but it is presumed a collision has taken place before now.

We learn that a great many arrests have been made, and no little old-fashioned hanging has been done at Greeneville. The authorities having exhausted all mild remedies, are determined to crush the rebellion by force, and teach the traitors that the Southern Confederacy is a Government with ample power to enforce obedience to the laws.

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