USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 38
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expended in the enlargement and improve- ment of the canal, or held to create a sinking fund to pay off the bonds issued to aid in en- largement. In 1866, this extension work stopped for want of funds, after $1,825,403 had been expended, making the total cost to February, 1868, $2,823,403. The cost of com- pleting the enlargement on the scale projected, was estimated by the engineer in charge, to be $1,178,000. The city of Louisville and the state, having declined to embark more funds in the enterprise, the ownership and control gradually fell to the general government, which from 1868 to 1872, appropriated $1,- 300,000 to the proposed completion. In 1874, it took final action toward assuming the pay- ment of $1,172,000 of bonds outstanding, an- other assumed possession of this great and important work, making it henceforth, a free canal excepting small charges to meet repairs and provide proper attention. In later years, the government has not only added to the ca- pacity of the canal, but has constructed dams across the river to the Indiana shore which have materially added to the advantages of the navigation of the Falls. A series of dams now in process of construction throughout the length of the river is expected to insure con- tinued navigation during all the year.
"The Falls of the Ohio around the canal have a length of about three miles, while the canal is about two miles long. The fall of water in this distance is twenty-five and a quarter feet, sufficient, if utilized, to run three hundred factories and mills and thus support fifty thousand people, and which, in a great manufacturing section, would doubtless have been utilized years ago and made a source of vast industry and wealth."
The first railroad constructed in the United States was the Baltimore and Ohio which was chartered in 1827. It was completed to Cumberland, Maryland, before 1848 and to the Ohio river by 1853. The first railroad built west of the Alleghany mountains was
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that from Lexington to Frankfort. In March, and rock." Of course, all this road-bed ma- 1830, Joseph Bruen exhibited in Lexington the model of a railroad steam engine and cars, declaring that they could be as readily pro- pelled by steam power as could boats upon the water. A route was surveyed from Lex- ington to Frankfort which showed the altitude of the former above the latter to be four hun- dred and thirty feet. October 22, 1831, the
chinery went to pieces before an experimen- tal trial could be effected. After persever- ing efforts for a few years, on the 25th of Jan- tary, 1835, the first locomotive and train of cars from Lexington arrived at the head of the inclined plane at Frankfort in two hours and twenty-nine minutes, amid the enthusiasm of the gratified populace. The railroads from
MASONIC TEMPLE, MAYSVILLE
first sill for the Lexington and Frankfort railroad was laid in the presence of a large concourse of people. From a publication of that period, the following description of the proposed road is given: "The model for this road was the result of an investigation by a committee appointed to travel east and ascer- tain the method of constructing a railroad. By their report, stone was quarried and dressed with one straight edge to be set up- ward and closely together forming exact par- allel double lines of curbing. On the face of this curbing the flat rails were laid horizon- tally and fastened down by spikes, driven through corresponding mortices in the rail
Louisville to Frankfort, from Lexington to Covington, from Maysville to Paris and from Louisville to Nashville followed in due se- quence, but not immediately after this initial experience. From such small beginning, has grown the great railroad network of lines which cover the state and the south today.
The initial railroad of the state, that from Lexington to Frankfort, first came down the hills surrounding the latter by a windlass power, though it was subsequently changed in its course and reached the capital city through the short tunnel along the bank of the Ken- tucky river which is now familiar to every traveler over that line which is popularly sup-
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posed to involve more extended curves than any other railroad in the country outside of the mountain districts. The object of the projectors of this line was to reach as many as possible of the county towns between Lex- ington and Louisville, and there seems no doubt that they succeeded. There is a tradi- tion that after the line between Lexington, via Frankfort. to Louisville had been surveyed. an engineer from the east was brought to Ken- tucky to examine the reports made by the local engineers. The story goes, and is a very probable one, that after he had gone over the proposed route and had examined the profile reports of the engineers, he reported that he had carefully observed the line marked out by the engineers and that he had found no place where he could put in another curve. On this report, the constructors proceeded to their work. As indicative of railroad construc- tion at that early day, it may be stated that on the line between Frankfort and Lexington there is a residence through which, via the rear door, one looks through the central hall to the front thereof, and subsequently, from the same train, through the front door to the rear thereof. In other words, one goes from the north, by way of the west, to the south of this residence and almost to the east. This is noted to illustrate the idea which obtained in the early construction of railroads that curves in the lines were necessary to prevent the engines and trains from leaving the track. How little truth there was in this contention has been many times illustrated since that time. The writer of this has traveled from Wilmington, Delaware, to Cape Charles, Vir- ginia, at the rate of sixty miles an hour on a track which, to the natural eye, showed no deviation from a direct line.
John Breathitt was elected governor of Kentucky and James T. Moorehead. lieuten- ant governor in 1832. James Saunders was appointed secretary of state. This has been called by one of the historians of Kentucky.
"a Jacksonian administration," though it is doubted if one in ten of those who made the administration possible, knew precisely what a Jacksonian administration meant. Had these voters been asked, they could readily have re- plied that they were prejudiced in favor of a Jacksonian ticket, whatever it may have meant. It was this same year that General Jackson defeated Mr. Clay for the presidency. The issties were a national bank, a tariff for pro- tection. "the American principle," as Mr. Clay's followers termed it, and the policy of internal improvement. Mr. Clay, though en- tirely innocent of any wrong-doing, had to meet the charge of corruption in the election of Mr. Adams by the House in 1828. Ken- tucky refused to believe that her greatest statesman had done aught that he should not have done in that contest, and gave to Mr. Clay, as it should have done, a majority of over seven thousand. It is not improbable that many Kentuckians remembered at the polls the slanderous report that General Jackson had made as to the conduct of the unpro- tected, half-armed Kentucky troops at New Orleans and cast their ballots for Mr. Clay. The latter was probably the only man living who could have secured the vote of Ken- tucky against General Jackson, in this contest. The people of the United States have from the very beginning of the re- public. given their suffrages to military heroes and to Jackson who had shown great military capacity, they were especially favorable. General Jackson was an especial favorite in those days, as he is today. Men form themselves into political marching clubs today using the name of Jackson as their own, who could not, for their lives, tell when he was president or what he did while holding that high office. "Jeffersonian Democrats" proudly flaunt their banners in political p:1- rades who cannot recite the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence of which Jefferson was the author, nor tell the years
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when he was the president of the United States. There is a deal of humbuggery in politics today as there was in the older days.
In 1836, James Clark was elected governor of Kentucky and Charles A. Wickliffe, lieu- tenant governor. James Bullock was ap- pointed secretary of state. In 1839 Gover- nor Clark died, and Wickliffe succeeded him. This latter gentleman seemed to have been born under a gubernatorial star. His son, Robert Wickliffe, became governor of Louis- iana and his grandson, J. Crepps Wickliffe Beckham, governor of Kentucky.
During the gubernatorial term of Governor Clark, the speculative bubble burst. It had attracted the people of Kentucky until they were heavily involved. When in 1840 and 1841, Robert P. Letcher and Manlius V. Thompson were governor and lieutenant gov- ernor, the storm burst upon the people. Natlı- aniel P. Shaler, a noted Harvard professor and a native Kentuckian, says of the collapse of the financial bubble: "This episode closed the remarkable events in the history of the financial development of the state. From this time on, the Commonwealth banks were sin- gularly sound and efficient institutions. They were commonly domestic in their system; they trusted for their strength to a mixture of con- trol exercised by the state through its owner- ship of stock and the citizen stockholders. They gave to the people a better currency than existed in any other state west of the mountains. Even in the trial of the Civil war, they stood, as they still stand, unbroken. Their strength is so great that although their currency has been destroyed by the laws of the United States, they remain the main- stays of the business of the Kentucky people, outside one or two of the larger cities."
In 1840 Kentucky found itself in the throes of another heated national campaign and with memories of the days when her sons had followed William Henry Harrison to vic- tory against the English and their Indian al- Vol. 1-17.
lies, the state cast for him 58,489 votes and for his opponent, Martin Van Buren, 32,616. This heavy vote for Harrison was cast upon a military sentiment, notwithstanding that an able and gallant Kentucky soldier, Richard M. Johnson, was the candidate for vice-presi- dent upon the Van Buren ticket which fact probably reduced the Whig vote.
In 1844 came the final vote which deter- mined that Mr. Clay, notwithstanding his great ability and popularity, would never be the president of the United States. He car- ried Kentucky by the meager majority of nine thousand, though Harrison, on the same ticket, four years previously, had carried the state by a majority of 25,873. There was a strong sentiment in favor of the annexation of Texas by the United States. The Demo- cratic party, sympathizing with the struggle the Texans had made and were still making to gain their independence from Mexico, fa- vored annexation. More than one of the prominent leaders of the Texan struggle was a Kentuckian, notable among these being Al- bert Sidney Johnston, who, before many more years, was to become a national character, known wherever gallant soldierly conduct was recognized. Mr. Clay was earnestly opposed to the extension of slavery, and probably be- cause of this he opposed the annexation of Texas, which he knew. if it came into the Union at all, would come as a slave state. It was this position which brought about his de- feat by Mr. Polk of Tennessee, the nominee of the Democratic party, who, by some ill- informed writers, desirous of adding force to the downfall of the Kentucky statesman, has been described as an unknown man of small force of character. Mr. Polk had held a high place in the hearts and minds of those who knew him best; had had long service in con- gress and had been speaker of the national house. Of course, defeat was bitter to Mr. Clay, who was now an old man and who rec- ognized that but few, if any opportunities,
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were left him to reach the goal of his ambi- tion, but it is not true that his mind was em- bittered by the reflection that his defeat had been at the hands of a man of no importance.
The struggle in Texas continued with re- newed force after the election of Mr. Polk. and in 1845 congress passed the enabling act which admitted the new state to the Union.
CHAPTER XLIII.
NATURAL SYMPATHY WITHI TEXAS-OPPOSITION TO TEXAS-TAYLOR OPENS MEXICAN WAR -KENTUCKY'S MEXICAN WAR SOLDIERS-CAPTURE OF MONTEREY-AWAITING SANTA ANNA AT BUENA VISTA-THREE KENTUCKY REGIMENTS PRESENT-KENTUCKIANS AT BUENA VISTA-HONORS TO BRAVE KENTUCKIANS-"CERRO GORDO" WILLIAMS-TRI- UMPHANT AMERICAN MILITIAMEN-REIMBURSING THE VANQUISHED-FIELD OFFICERS OF THIRD AND FOURTH KENTUCKY.
When on April 21, 1836, General Sam Houston, in command of the troops of the re- public of Texas, defeated the Mexican forces on the Jacinto and captured Gen. Santa Anna. there was born an imperial state, soon to be- come an integral part of the United States. Gen. Santa Anna, overwhelmed by the magni- tude of the losses which his army had sus- tained, proposed to his captors to recognize the independence of Texas and thus end the war between Mexico and the new republic. But the civil authorities of Mexico refused to agree to the proposed recogition, declaring that they would not consent to the recognition of the independence of Texas. Relations be- tween the Mexicans and Texans remained bel- ligerent and there were frequent collisions be- tween the armed forces of the two countries. Texas, growing weary of a guerrilla warfare, turned naturally toward the United States and asked admission to the Union. Their plea was one difficult to resist.
The white residents of Texas came princi- pally from this country, most of them from the southern states. Gen. Sam Houston was a distinguished Tennesseean, as was the ec- centric Davy Crockett who fell at the Alamo.
Of the many Kentuckians who had aided the Texans, none perhaps, was more able, from a military standpoint, than Albert Sid-
ney Johnston who, in later years, was to meet a soldier's honored death at the head of the Confederate army at Shiloh, in 1862. The sympathies of the people of this country were naturally with the struggling Texans, as was evidenced in the presidential election of 1844 in which Mr. Polk had defeated Mr. Clay, the issue of the admission of Texas being largely considered. In 1845, recognizing the man- date of the people, congress passed a bill ad- mitting the vast territory of Texas to the Un- ion of states. There could be but one result following this action and that was war.
Many in the northern and eastern states bitterly opposed the action of congress and the war which followed. They would have been equally in opposition had Mexico willingly consented to the acquisition of Texas by the United States. They had ever before them the specter of negro slavery, and were unal- terably opposed to the acquisition of addi- tional territory which would add to the po- litical power of the south where slavery pre- vailed. They were of those who are always most unreasonable and at times the most dan- gerous-the people of but one idea. Such people, be they right or be they wrong, are always fanatical and beyond the power of calm reason. They bitterly opposed the in- crease of southern territory, and, with equal
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bitterness, opposed the war with Mexico which speedily followed. Their day of tri- umph was in the near future, all unknown to them, yet they awaited its coming with but little of patience and less of judgment.
In 1846, the expected war cloud burst upon the country. Gen. Zachary Taylor, a Ken- tuckian, under orders from the war depart- ment, concentrated the American troops at Corpus Christi, Texas, on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and held them ready for de- fense or aggression as circumstances might demand.
Col. Wm. Preston Johnston, in his "Life of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston," who was his father, says of this period: "On the 8th of March, 1846, General Taylor made a forward movement to Point Isabel, which commanded the mouth of the Rio Grande. In spite of a protest and some acts of hostility committed by the Mexicans, a fortification was erected opposite Matamoras, Mexico, afterwards known as Fort Brown. On the 12th of April, General Ampudia addressed a letter to Gen- eral Taylor, requiring him to withdraw to the left bank of the Nueces, or 'that arms alone must decide the question.' A little later, the Mexicans captured Captain Thornton and sixty men and committed other overt acts of war, and finally threatened General Taylor's communications with Point Isabel, the base of supplies. To re-establish his communica- tions and secure his base, General Taylor marched, with his army, to Point Isabel, leav- ing a small but sufficient garrison in the fort. The Mexicans opened upon the fort with a heavy bombardment by which the comman- dant, Major Brown, was killed, but the garri- son held out until relieved by the successes of the American troops.
"General Taylor started on his return from Point Isabel on May 7th, with 2,300 soldiers, and on the next day at noon, found the Mexi- can army, under General Ampudia, drawn up on the plain of Palo Alto to dispute his ad-
vance. An engagement ensued in which the artillery acted a conspicuous part, ending in the retreat of the Mexican army with a loss of 6co men. The American loss was nine killed and fourteen wounded.
"On the next day, the American army again encountered the Mexicans strongly posted in a shallow ravine called Resaca de la Palma. It was a hotly contested fight with 6,000 Mex- icans who showed a stout courage, but they were driven from the field with a loss of 1,000 men. The American loss was 100. The war had begun.
"Volunteers were called for and came pour- ing in from all quarters. The martial enthu- siasm of the people of the United States was only equalled by the imbecility of the govern- ment in its preparation for the conflict. It was a political regime merely, and in nowise adapted to organize or carry on a successful war; but the ability of the commanders and the splendid valor of the troops supplied all defects and made the Mexican war an heroic episode in our annals. General Taylor, having initiated the struggle by two brilliant victo- ries, was condemned to idleness until Septem- ber by the Carthaginian policy of the govern- ment which failed to supply stores, equipment and transportation."
It may be a matter of interest to know that Fort Brown, built by General Taylor on the Rio Grande opposite Matamoras, Mexico, was. in recent years, the post at which were stationed the negro troops who made a de- scent upon and "shot up" the town of Browns- ville, Texas; an incident which caused wide- spread excitement throughout the country. President Roosevelt ordered the dismissal from the army of the troops believed to be guilty, and for several years his energetic and very proper action, gave opportunity for bit- ter attacks upon him by certain enemies in his own party.
When the president issued his call for vol- unteers, Kentucky's quota was fixed at twen-
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GEN. ZACHARY TAYLOR
From His Portrait in the Hall of Fame in the Kentucky State Historical Society
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ty-four hundred men. Her gallant sons re- Louisville Legion are not available, but those sponded to the number of ten thousand men. Of course, not all of these could be accepted and there was a struggle for precedence. On the day following the call for volunteers, Col. Stephen Ormsby, of Jefferson county, ten- dered the services of the nine companies of the Louisville Legion, which he commanded. Nine days later, the regiment was en route to the front. The Second Kentucky Regiment of Infantry, commanded by Col. W. R. Mc- Kee, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Clay (the splendid son of a great father), and Major Cary H. Fry, was accepted by the governor and speedily followed the First Regiment, the Louisville Legions, to the front. The First Regiment of Kentucky Cavalry was the third of the successful regiments to be ac- cepted, and ordered to proceed at once to the seat of war. This regiment had for its field officers Colonel Humphrey Marshall; lieuten- ant colonel, E. H. Field, and major, John P. Gaines.
Kentucky's promptness in filling to over- flowing the quota of volunteers called for by the president, did not escape attention at Washington. Gen. Zachary Taylor was pro- moted to a major general in the regular army ; Gen. Wm. O. Butler was made major general of volunteers and Thomas Marshall, a briga- dier general of volunteers. These were all Kentuckians. Capt. John S. Williams had organized a company immediately after the call was made, but through some error, this company was not accepted as a part of any of the three regiments ordered to the front. The war department specially accepted this com- pany which went to the front at once and afterwards rendered a good account of itself, especially at Cerro Gordo where Captain Will- iams by his spirited conduct, in the presence of the enemy, won the soubriquet of "Cerro Gordo Williams," by which he was ever after- wards known.
The names of the company officers of the
of the Second Regiment of Infantry and the First Cavalry, are of interest as more than one of those who bore them, afterwards played prominent parts in the state. The cap- tains of the Second Regiment were Wm. H. Maxey, Franklin Chambers, Philip B. Thomp- son, Speed Smith Fry, George W. Cutter, William T. Willis, William Dougherty, Will- iam M. Joyner, Wilkerson Turpin, and George W. Kavanaugh. The captains of the First Cavalry were Wmn. J. Heady, Aaron Pennington, Cassius M. Clay, Thomas F. Marshall, J. C. Stone, J. Price, G. L. Postle- thwaite, J. S. Lillard, John Shawhan and B. C. Milam.
Of these men several afterwards came into wide prominence in the state. Philip B. Thompson of Mercer, was long considered among the first lawyers of Kentucky and was especially noted for his knowledge of the criminal laws and practice. Speed S. Fry was a brigadier general of United States volun- teers in the War Between the States and was credited with having fired the shot which killed the Confederate General, Felix K. Zol- licoffer. at the battle of Mill Springs, Ken- tucky, in 1862. Cassius M. Clay, as has been already stated, became the apostle of emanci- pation in the state, a major general in the Un- ion army and minister to Russia. Thomas F. Marshall was long notable as the most bril- liant orator in a state noted for its oratory.
Soon after the Louisville Legion had joined the army under General Taylor. an advance was made upon Monterey, which was de- fended by about ten thousand of the enemy who were well protected by natural obstacles. Against this force the American army could present but about 6,500 men. But there was no hesitation upon the part of General Taylor, whose men, following the habit of American soldiers to bestow additional names upon their commanders, had affectionately named "Old Rough and Ready." Whatever one may
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think of the appropriateness of the first part of this name, there was never a doubt that the gallant old soldier was ever ready when there was fighting to be done. At Monterey, he sent Generl Worth to gain the heights in the enemy's rear and from the point of van- tage thus gained, attack the works protecting the city. General Taylor, to cover the move- ments of Worth, proposed to attack the enemy in his front. September 20th, Worth moved his forces in obedience to the orders of Gen- eral Taylor and succeeded in securing a posi- tion in the rear commanding the palace of the bishop of Monterey. Moving forward, he came upon a large force of the enemy whom he attacked with such vigor as to soon dis- lodge them, driving them before him and in- flicting heavy losses upon them. From the positions he thus gained he turned his artil- lery upon the palace.
General Taylor, at the same time, began a vigorous attack upon the town from points below those occupied by General Worth and the battle became general and very severe to each side. A portion of the advanced works of the enemy was carried by the Americans at the point of the bayonet and a foothold ob- tained in the town. This was the third day after the beginning of the movement, and on the following day the forces under General Worth occupied the palace, while those under General Taylor occupied the lower part of the city from which the enemy had fled on the previous night. On the following day, Gen- eral Taylor pressed his troops forward, but advance was slow owing to the gallant resist- ance of the enemy. Step by step, however, he drove the Mexicans back until within near reach of the Plaza, or public square, which is found in every considerable town or city of Mexico. While General Taylor was fighting his way against stubborn resistance, General Worth was also advancing upon the enemy. The partial success attending the movements of each wing of the American army induced
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