We found the diary of Miss Josephine H. Hooke while searching for reference material relating to the members of the Lookout Artillery, which is better known as Barry’s Battery. Ms. Hooks’ father, Judge Robert M. Hooke, was a strong supporter of the Battery, and another young man named James H. Hooke, a relative of Judge Hook was a member of the unit. After reading the diary, however, we felt that the document is so interesting and unique that it should have a separate treatment. The account of how a young woman with her family and friends spent months living on the railroad in train cars as refugees from the Federal Army gives a perspective of the war that can not be found in official military documents.
Few were the local families unaffected by the occupation of Chattanooga by Federal forces. David Scott’s own great-great grandmother and her only son (David’s great grandfather) wound up as refugees. Her-mother-in-law died soon after and surely she didn’t feel safe, with her husband serving in the Confederate Army. Her plight mirrored that of Miss Hooke though I doubt she or any others had the luxury of atheir own box cars. Certainly all shared the uncertainties: their fears for their loved ones, for their homes, and for their own futures. Nancy Roberts only got to Resaca. For many others, they drifted further, just ahead of the Federal juggernaut.
The Hooke family left Chattanooga as a result of the second bombardment of the city, carried out by the artillery of Colonel John T. Wilder in August, 1863. The local area had experienced a taste of what heavy artillery could to a civilian town the previous year when General Negley’s Federal command shelled Cameron Hill. Both of these attacks are described in detail in the opening section of this book.
Judge Hooke, in addition to being one of the most wealthy men in Chattanooga, was also a leading investor in the railroad. This being the case, he had little difficulty in obtaining railroad cars in which his family loaded their furniture, clothing, and personal belongs and set out to the south, looking for a safer place.
In September, when Confederate General Braxton Bragg abandoned Chattanooga, and took his army south into Walker County Georgia, he strongly advised the civilian population of Chattanooga to seek refugee further south because a large Federal army was coming. So many of them took his advise that when the Federal Army under the command of General Rosecrans arrived they found Chattanooga largely abandoned.
Following an account of the bombardments of Chattanooga, you will find a description of how the diary was found and preserved during the depression as a part of the Federal Writers Project of the WPA. This was largely through the efforts of Penelope Johnson Allen, who was State Supervisor of the Historic Records Project for the Tennessee W. P. A. Ms. Allen was the granddaughter of a woman whose brother was the husband of Miss Josephine H. Hooke’ older sister. This diary was secured for copying by the WPA Project in Chattanooga by Miss Mary Rowles, a niece of Miss Josephine Hooke, the author.
This is followed by a transcription of the actual diary that is illustrated with available wartime photographs of places described in the account as well as modern photographs showing many of the landmarks the refugees saw on their way south from Chattanooga. There is an index at the end of the diary, compiled by Miss Mary Rowles that helps provide identification for the people mentioned in it.
The diary is followed with an Afterward section in which additional historic material and photographs are provided to place the diary in context of the times and to explain what happened to many of the people after the war.
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