USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 49
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"One of the most flagrant cases of interfer- ence with purely political action, but only one of very many, was that which took place in Frankfort. A convention of the Democratic party, composed of two hundred delegates from one-third of the counties, met to nomi- nate a state ticket. They represented that por- tion of the people who were mostly in sympa- thy with the rebellion, though they honestly denied all thought of secession. They were re- ยท fused the use of the legislative halls for their meetings by the Union legislature, and were denounced by the Union papers as secession- ists. Acting upon this public opinion. Colonel Gilbert (of the Federal army) proceeded to break up the convention by military force, or- dering the delegates to leave the city and to
refrain from all 'seditious and noisy conversa- tion.' This high-handed outrage had a great effect upon public opinion in Kentucky. The senate passed a series of resolutions, on mo- tion of Hon. Charles T. Worthington, to the effect that such interference was not desired by the Union men and that it was 'dangerous in its tendencies and should not pass unre- buked.'
"In the August election there was the same interference on the part of the military with the election. This last outrage had not even the palliation of effectiveness. Only a few polling places were under the control of the troops. It exasperated the Union men with- out restraining the Confederate sympathizers. Thousands of Union men, who had given their property and their blood to the cause of the constitution, lost heart and their interest in the struggle. They had supposed that they were fighting, not for the domination of armies, but for the maintenance of law; for the wel- fare of the country, and not for the suprem- acy of a political party that appeared willing to destroy the constitution if it stood in the way of its purpose. So far from condemning this defection of spirit which came upon the people from the overthrow of their laws and subordination of their courts to the military arm, we should rather praise the independence of mind of men who, in the midst of battle, could keep in their hearts this reverence for the foundation of their political life."
The number of those living in the times re- ferred to by Professor Shaler, is, at this day, comparatively small. To those who have come after them and who know not of the era of which he writes, save by hearsay, from the few survivors, and from the story as told on the printed page, it may be said that he was one of the brave defenders of the Union cause; not afraid to risk his life in defense of his principles, and too high-minded to tell aught than a true story of the times of which he was the historian.
CHAPTER L.
GOVERNOR MAGOFFIN SUCCEEDED BY ROBINSON-BOYLE AND HIS TRIALS-FIGHTING ON KEN- TUCKY SOIL-SURRENDER OF COLONEL WILDER-THE MUNFORDSVILLE SURRENDER-CON- FEDERATES EVACUATE FRANKFORT-BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE-BRAGG NOT A KENTUCKY FAVORITE-ORPHAN BRIGADE AT MURFREESBORO-MORGAN'S "CHRISTMAS RAID"-CAV- ALRY "PIROOTING."
On the day following the conclusion of the battle of Shiloh, the Confederate army began a retreat upon Corinth, Mississippi, General Breckinridge and his Kentuckians having the honorable and always dangerous duty of cov- ering the retreat as the rear guard. Thus early in their career as soldiers, did the Kentuckians impress themselves tipon those in command as worthy of the highest and most dangerous sta- tions. And they proved their worth in every instance.
Recurring now to the civil history of the state, it may be stated that Governor Magof- fin, since his refusal to comply with the requi- sition of the Federal government to furnish troops to be used against the south, had found himself so out of accord with those in author- ity in the general government as to render his further continuance at the head of the gov- ernment of Kentucky, intolerable. On August 10, 1862, the governor sent to the general as- sembly a message tendering his resignation, to take effect on the succeeding 18th of Ati- gust. In this message the governor said :
"At any time within the last eighteen months, I have been willing to resign my office, could I have done so consistently with my self-respect. But the storms of undeserved abuse which have been heaped upon me, and the threats of impeachment, arrest and even assassination, repeatedly made against me, have compelled me to continue in the quiet discharge of my duties. As yet no one has dared, before any tribunal of authority, to prefer charges against me. Vol. I-22.
My political friends-and by this term, I mean the Southern Rights party, a great many of whom are not and have never been, secessionists-have been subjected to what seems to me, in modern times, an unexampled persecution. It became impossible for me to relieve them, and yet I could not appear to desert them in their need. Could I be assured that my successor would be a conservative, just man, of high position and character, and that his policy would be conciliatory and impartial towards all law- abiding citizens, however they may differ in opinion; that the constitutional rights of the people would be regarded and the subordination of the military to the civil power be insisted on and maintained, I would not hesitate to put aside the cares of office and to tender my best wishes to such an executive. With- out a satisfactory assurance to that effect you must admit that, in justice to my friends, I cannot and ought not to resign."
This message from Governor Magoffin brought a new alignment in the senate. Lieu- tenant Governor Linn Boyd, the president of the senate, chosen at the time of the election of Governor Magoffin, had died and had been succeeded in the presidency of the senate by Senator John F. Fisk. This gentleman, though possessed of many high qualities, was objectionable to many as the successor of Governor Magoffin, should the resignation of the latter be accepted as there was no doubt that it would be. By concert of action be- tween the friends of the governor and those representing opposing opinions Mr. Fisk re- signed as president of the senate and was
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succeeded by Senator James F. Robinson, an excellent and able man.
Governor Magoffin retired as governor and, under the operation of law, Senator Robinson succeeded him. Governor Robinson was in full accord with the Federal government in relation to the war, but he was "a conserva- tive and just man, of high position and char- acter," such as Governor Magoffin had de- scribed in his letter of resignation. Though it cannot be stated as a positive historical fact, there is little doubt that the gubernatorial suc- cession had been arranged previous to the writing of Governor Magoffin's resignation and that he, and the principal members of those representing opposing political opin- ions, had an understanding as to the succes- sion before his letter was written.
Gen. Jere T. Boyle, a Kentuckian of the highest character and an able man, was at this time in command of the military district of Kentucky. Under his control of military af- fairs, the pressure upon those who sympa- thized with the south had been severe, but not marked with the brutal cruelty which was later to be inflicted upon them by another who was also a Kentuckian, but of a far different type. Many men had been arrested and im- prisoned upon bare suspicion. It was these men to whom Governor Magoffin referred in his letter as having been "subjected to unex- ampled persecution." It is believed, at this day, that these arrests had for their object the forcing of the governor's resignation and that he correctly concluded that with him out of the executive chair and its new occupant a sympathizer with the Federal authorities. these persecutions would cease in large meas- ure. That his conclusions were largely cor- rect was shown by an order, issued on the date of Governor Robinson's assumption of his new duties, by Col. Henry Dent, the pro- vost marshal at Louisville, who directed that no further arrests for political reasons should be made except for causes contained in Gen-
eral Boyle's Order No. 4, and then the causes for an arrest should be set forth specifically and supported by the affidavits of one or more responsible persons. Hitherto, a bare suspi- cion of alleged disloyalty had been sufficient to cause the arrest and imprisonment of many of the foremost citizens of the state. Provost marshals had often acted upon their own re- sponsibility in making arrests and it seems, also, for their own financial advantage, as is shown by General Boyle's order directing that provost marshals, who, directly or indirectly, took money from persons arrested, in the shape of fees for oaths, bonds or otherwise, should be arrested and brought to his head- quarters. There was an immediate relaxa- tion of the rigors of the situation, under these orders, and men felt free to breathe once more without incurring the danger of arrest by men clothed with a little brief authority. In the stress of those days of warfare, there were many who imputed improper motives to Gen- eral Boyle, but the facts do not bear out the imputation. War is a peril to soldier and cit- izen alike, though in different degrees, and it is not to be wondered at that the people of Kentucky, accustomed to a peaceful pastoral life, felt very keenly the difference between the quietude of peace and the stress of war, and were prone to ascribe the evils that befell them to the commander and his soldiers who enforced strange, new regulations upon them. and enforced them at the bayonet's point and within prison cells.
But the relief afforded by General Boyle's orders was but temporary. After a short pe- riod, now to be referred to, the burden was again to be borne by those Kentuckians who sympathized with the southern cause. In the latter part of the summer of 1862, Gen. Kirby Smith led his command of 15.000 Confeder- ates into Kentucky through Big Creek Gap in the Cumberland mountains, his objective point being the Blue Grass region of the state. General Bragg lay at Chattanooga with 30,000
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Confederates; General Stevenson, with 5,000 troops, was south of Cumberland Gap and General Humphrey Marshall, with 3,000 men, was along the Virginia line near by. With his cavalry and detached bodies of troops, Gen- eral Bragg had perhaps 50,000 men under his command when he. undertook his movement upon Kentucky. General Buell, who was to oppose him, had 40,000 troops under his com- mand in middle Tennessee; General George W. Morgan was in Cumberland Gap with 8,000 men, and there were 20,000 available Federal troops in Kentucky. The state was about to learn the full value of neutrality when it ran counter to the march of hostile armies.
Morgan and his cavalry were in the rear of the Federal army, skirmishing daily and sometimes engaging in some real fighting. Gen. R. W. Johnson, a Kentucky officer in the Federal army, was sent out to capture Mor- gan and destroy his command. He made the effort but failed, losing nearly two hundred of his men killed and wounded and being made a prisoner himself. This was a very gallant struggle upon the part of the two con- testants, but the audacity of Morgan. Duke and their gallant followers, was too much for the brave Johnson and his men who had come out so confident of victory, only to return de- feated. Morgan captured a train of cars, set it on fire and ran it into a tunnel near Gal- latin, Tennessee, causing such damage to the tunnel as could not be repaired for many weeks. It was conduct like this that made Morgan and his men so unpopular on the Federal side of the lines.
Col. John Scott, of the First Louisiana cavalry, commanding a brigade of cavalry, formed the advance guard of the little army under Gen. Kirby Smith which was moving through the mountain region of Kentucky to- ward the rich Blue Glass section. He was met and attacked by Col. Leonidas Metcalfe, commanding a regiment of Kentucky Federal cavalry, whom he defeated, the latter losing
fifty men killed and wounded. General Smith, detaching certain forces as precautionary measures, pressed rapidly forward toward Richmond, Kentucky. The detached forces left him but 7,000 men, but these were veter- ans upon whom he had every reason to de- pend. At Big Hill, in Madison county, on August 29th, he was met by a Federal force of 8,000 men, under command of General Manson of Indiana. Heavy skirmishing en- sued during the day without any particular advantage to either force. On the following morning, General Manson very gallantly marched out his entire command and attacked General Smith. The attack and resistance were alike spirited, resulting in severe losses on each side. Three times were the Federals driven back, and twice they were rallied and renewed the attack. The third time they broke in confusion and a disastrous retreat followed, from which it was impossible to rally them. Gen. William Nelson, who within a month was to lose his life at the hands of one of his own officers, is said to have ridden fifty miles on relays of horses, to reach the battlefield, arriving in the midst of the total rout of his troops. One who was a partici- pant in the Federal army in this battle, de- scribed the action of General Nelson on this occasion as that of a man wholly beside him- self. Roaring like a bull of Bashan, as he de- scribed him, he rode among the fleeing troops belaboring them over their heads with the flat of his sword and vainly ordering them again into line. Nelson was desperately wounded while endeavoring to rally his men and, says Smith in his "History of Kentucky," "only escaped with his life by the discreet bravery of Gen. Green Clay Smith (a Kentuckian) who safely bore him from the field and dan- ger." The same authority states that "the Federal loss was over eleven hundred killed and wounded and fortv-five hundred prison- ers; that of the Confederates, eight hundred and fifty in killed and wounded."
The utter defeat and rout of these Federal
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soldiers was to have been expected and should bring no reproach upon them. They were raw levies, hastily recruited in Indiana, and rushed to the front without knowing more than the rudiments of drill and discipline. Officers and men alike, were ignorant of the actual duties of a soldier. They met General Smith's veteran Confederates who had seen long ser- vice, who knew what a battle meant from actual experience, and they very naturally de- feated the raw recruits. Yet these untrained Indiana boys rallied twice after being forced back and it was not until they had been a third time driven from their position that they broke in confusion and could not again be rallied. They were brave fellows and no doubt did valiant service later in the war, when rough experience had given them con- fidence in themselves and the knowledge that not all the bullets from the opposing side find their man. But their retreat upon Louisville more than one hundred miles distant was dis- astrous and almost amusing to the veteran Confederates who followed them.
Following his success at Richmond, General Smith advanced into central Kentucky, occu- pying Lexington on September 2d, sending forward a small force to Frankfort and Gen- eral Heth with a division, towards Covington to menace Cincinnati and prevent the sending of reinforcements from that city to Buell who was threatened by Bragg. The people of Cincinnati were in favor of a strenuous pros- ecution of the war, so long as it was confined to the southern states, but when brought to their own doors, they experienced a change of heart, and, with unanimity, agreed that something should be done to stop the fratri- cidal strife. The greatest excitement pre- vailed in that city, which was not allayed by reports that the army under General Bragg was rapidly advancing upon Kentucky with the probable result that the theater of war would be transferred to their very doors and that their own city might be attacked and
taken by the invading forces. Viewing war- fare from a safe distance is not to be com- pared to looking upon it from one's own door- step, a fact forcibly brought to the minds of the valiant non-combatants of the Ohio city at this time, and a year later, when General Morgan and his cavalrymen swept through the state and approached so near Cincinnati as to cause the utmost solicitude upon the part of those citizens who were warlike only in their conversation and at a. respectful distance.
General Bragg had anticipated uniting his forces immediately with those of General Smith on the arrival of the latter in Ken- tucky, but was delayed by the non-arrival of trains and difficulty in .crossing to the north bank of the Tennessee river. On August 28th his line of march was taken up and the real advance upon Kentucky was begun. Before him lay Walden's Ridge, a semi-mountainous range presenting many difficulties to the ad- vance of an army, but after tedious delays, these obstacles were overcome, and by Sep- tember 1Ith the army was in the prosperous valley of Sequatchie, north of Walden's Ridge. Bragg, covering his, flanks with the cavalry under Wheeler and Forrest, flanked McMinnville where lay a portion of Buell's forces, and moved rapidly forward to Sparta, thus threatening Nashville and Buell's north- ern communications. At first disposed to press forward into Kentucky for an immedi- ate junction with Kirby Smith, he later changed his plans and concluded to maneuver Buell out of Nashville. With this in view his right wing crossed the Tennessee river at Gainesboro-his left, at Carthage; each wing moving upon Glasgow, Kentucky, at which point they arrived respectively on the 12th and 13th of September, where the army remained until the 15th, for the resting of the troops and the procuring of forage and rations which were easily supplied in that vicinage, as no considerable body of troops had ever occupied the adjacent territory. On his arrival at Glas-
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gow, Bragg sent forward to Cave City the brigades of Generals Chalmers and Duncan, who took possession of that place, thus sever- ing the north and south connection of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad upon which Buell relied for supplies and sustenance of his troops.
Bragg, by this movement, had drawn Buell out of Nashville and the latter had brought forward his forces to Bowling Green, thirty miles from Glasgow where Bragg lay. Gen- eral Chalmers, probably upon his own initia- tive, concluded that he would reduce the works at Munfordsville and capture the garri- son, which he had been led to believe was only a small one. With his brigade and that of General Duncan, he made an attack upon the works which, without his knowledge, had been heavily reinforced, and which were defended by eight or ten pieces of artillery. The result of this attack, on the 14th, was that the Con- federates were repulsed with a heavy loss.
Bragg, to retrieve the prestige thus lost to his army moved his forces on the 15th against Munfordsville, taking such positions with his artillery and infantry both front and rear, as to render the further holding of the works un- tenable, with the result that the Federal com- mander, Col. J. T. Wilder, came out under a flag of truce and, being satisfied that further resistance was useless, surrendered his com- mand. Under the terms of the surrender, the Federals marched out of their works on the morning of the 17th, at the early hour of 3 o'clock, and Colonel Wilder delivered his sword to Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, a na- tive of Hart county, at a point almost in sight of the ancestral home of the latter, which, at this writing, is still occupied by that distin- guished soldier and statesman son of Ken- tucky. The garrison numbering nearly four thousand men, was paroled. The other re- sults of the surrender were ten pieces of ar- tillery with necessary ammunition, and a large number of horses, mules and military stores.
Former Confederate soldiers, especially those who served in the cavalry arm of the service will well remember the active and en- ergetic command later known as "Wilder's Mounted Infantry," and will be interested in knowing that its commander was the same Wilder who surrendered his sword at Mun- fordsville to General Buckner. After the war had ended, he made his home at Chattanooga among the southern people against whom he had so bravely struggled. At a later period, he was appointed postmaster at Chattanooga, and at the time of this writing, though well advanced in years, is pension agent at Knox- ville. He was, to use one of Kipling's ex- pressions, "a first-class fighting man" and had, always, the respect of those who met him in battle, notwithstanding his propensity for early rising and calling upon the Confederate cavalry before they had breakfasted. So far as is known, he has not yet apologized for these early and unconventional calls.
It is not proposed to enter into a discus- sion of purely military questions. The ob -. ject of this work is to relate what occurred in Kentucky and not to take up the discussion of questions of an academic character. It has been contended by some that, after the surrender of Munfordsville, Bragg should have turned upon Buell at Bowling Green and given him battle. Others, with much force, have endeavored to show that this would have been suicidal. Let the military pundits settle this contention among themselves. It is enough to say here, that Bragg did not turn upon Buell and offer battle. Colonel J. Stod- dard Johnston, a nephew of the lamented Gen- eral Albert Sidney Johnston, and himself a trained and accomplished soldier, who was for a time a member of the staff of General Bragg, says in "Confederate Military His- tory :" "A' study of the map will show to the military student. judging by abstract rules, and not by the light of after events, that his (Bragg's) movement to Bardstown, where he
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could obtain supplies, be in position to effect early junction with Kirby Smith for advance upon Louisville, and to connect himself with his new line of communication south, via Cum- berland Gap, was the best alternative. He had been delayed by the Munfordsville affair nearly a week in his direct movement toward Lexington, and had to make his plans con- form to his necessities. That the morale of the army was, notwithstanding the capture of Munfordsville, affected by this movement. which had some of the features of retreat, cannot be doubted; for there were besides other reasons of disappointment." What these other reasons were, Colonel Johnston does not state.
On September 18th, General Bragg sent Colonel Johnston of his staff, to General Smith at Lexington "informing him of his pur- pose to move to Bardstown and directing him to send there a train of supplies, and while keeping an eye on the Federal general, George WV. Morgan, in Cumberland Gap, to dispose his forces with a view to early concentration at Bardstown for a movement on Louisville. The messages were delivered within forty- eight hours and immediate steps were taken accordingly. General Bragg, having attempt- ed and failed to draw General Buell to an at- tack and knowing that he could reach the Ohio river by a practical route farther west, began his movement to Bardstown on the 20th and reached there on the 23d of September. Af- ter a few days spent there, leaving General Polk in command of the army, he made a tour of inspection through Danville, via Spring- field and Perryville, to Lexington and thence to Frankfort, where, on October 4th, Hon. Richard Hawes, who had been chosen by the Confederate council provisional governor of Kentucky, to succeed the late Governor Geo. W. Johnson (killed at Shiloh), was inaugu- rated in due form. The greater part of Gen- eral Smith's army was then in the vicinity of Frankfort."
The above quoted statement is from the pen of Colonel J. Stoddard Johnston and written for "Confederate Military History." That careful and entirely responsible writer, how- ever, omits to state that the inauguration of Governor Hawes "in due form" was inter- rupted by shots from the Federals outside the town and that the new governor's "inaugural ball" came from the mouthis of hostile artil- lery. The town of Frankfort was hastily evacuated and was never again occupied by the Confederates for any considerable time, though there were many to welcome them there whenever they might come.
While these movements were going on, General Buell had marched unopposed to Louisville where his army was fully equipped and heavily reinforced for an offensive move- ment against Bragg. On October Ist. his columns moved on five roads, towards Shel- byville, Taylorsville, Bardstown, Lebanon and Shepherdsville. General Polk learning of this advance from the cavalry outposts on each of these roads, in accordance with in- structions, withdrew from Bardstown in the direction of Danville with a view to covering the vast quantity of stores that had been accu- mulated at Camp Dick Robinson, which had been rechristened Camp Breckinridge by the Confederates.
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