USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 52
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Elsewhere in this history it has been stated that Gen. Ben Hardin Helm, who fell at Chickamauga, and President Lincoln were brothers-in-law, having each of them married a Miss Todd of Kentucky who were half-sis- ters. General Helm was a son of Gov. John L. Helm, one of Kentucky's foremost citizens both in politics and in business affairs. In the latter capacity, he was the first president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. At the time of his death, he was the governor of Kentucky, but never assumed the duties of that position, having taken the oath of office at his home in Hardin county in 1887 while lying on a bed of sickness and dying soon af- terwards. His eldest son, the grandson of the illustrious Ben Hardin, whose name he bore, was educated at West Point, and on his grad- uation from that institution became an officer of the regular army. After several years' ser- vice, he resigned, studied law and began the practice in Louisville with his brother-in-law, the Hon. Horatio W. Bruce, who was subse- quently to serve in the Confederate congress
as one of the representatives from Ken- tucky. At the inception of the war, Mr. Lin- coln invited General Helm to visit him in Washington, and while there the president of- fered him a commission as paymaster in the army, which was declined. Returning to Ken- tucky, he cast his fortunes with the south, and during the summer and early fall of 1861, or- ganized the First Kentucky cavalry, of which he was the first colonel. He was subsequently promoted to brigadier general and at the bat- tle of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, received such injuries through the fall of his horse, as in- capacitated him for active service. When his injuries permitted a return to duty, he was assigned to post duty at Chattanooga during the winter of 1862-3. Recovering, in part, from his serious injuries, he assumed command of the First Kentucky brigade of infantry and fell while gallantly lead- ing it to victory at Chickamauga. Twenty years later his remains were brought back to Kentucky and laid to their final rest, with his kindred gone before, in the family burial ground near Elizabethtown, a large delega- tion from the survivors of the First Kentucky cavalry. and of the Orphan Brigade he had so gallantly led at Chickamauga, being present.
Kentucky, as has always been the case when there was fighting to be done, was conspicu- ous in the tremendous conflict at Chicka- mauga. The Federal troops from Kentucky who participated in the battle were as follows : Fifteenth Kentucky, Col. Marion C. Taylor. which regiment had lost all of its field officers at Perryville, Kentucky, and many of its men ; Col. John T. Croxton, commander of the second brigade of General Brannan's divis- ion, wounded; Col. William H. Hays (wounded), who was, in later years, United States district judge for Kentucky; Lieuten- ant Colonel P. Burgess Hunt, of the Fourth Kentucky, who was wounded; Major Robert M. Killy of the same regiment; Major Ga- briel C. Wharton, later United States
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district attorney for Kentucky; Col. H. K. Milward of the Eighteenth Kentucky, wounded. Colonel Milward is now, and has long been, a respected citizen of Lexington and the affectionate regard in which he is held by those who formerly opposed him on the battle line, is shown by his being honored with complimentary membership in the Con- federate organization of "Morgan's Men." The escort of Gen. Alexander McDowell McCook, one of the seven fighting McCook brothers of Ohio, was from the Second Ken- tucky cavalry, commanded by Capt. George W. L. Bateman. Other Kentucky officers and commands at Chickamauga: Col. Wm. W. Berry, commanding the Fifth Kentucky in- fantry and Capt. John M. Huston; Brigadier General T. J. Wood, commanding the First Brigade of the Twenty-first Army corps un- der Major General Thomas L. Crittenden ; Col. Henry C. Dunlap, Third Kentucky ; Gen. John M. Palmer, second division of the Twen- ty-first army corps; Col. Thomas D. Sedge- wick, Second Kentucky infantry ; Col. George D. Shackelford of the Sixth Kentucky; Lieu- tenant Colonel Richard Rockingham (killed) ; Major Richard T. Whittaker, Lieutenant Col- onel James C. Fry, Col. George H. Cram, Ninth Kentucky; Col. Alexander M. Stout, Seventeenth Kentucky; Col. Sidney M. Barnes, commanding Third brigade; Briga- dier General Walter C. Whittaker; Col. Louis D. Watkins ; Col. Thomas P. Nichols, Second Kentucky Cavalry.
Total Union loss : Killed, 1,656; wounded, 9.749 ; captured or missing, 4.774; total, 16,- 179. Partly official reports and partly esti- mated by the reports in the "Century Maga- zine" ("Battles and Leaders of the Civil War") gives the total Federal forces as 56,- 965.
The Kentucky Confederate troops in the battle were as follows, as stated by the same publication : Major General Jolin C. Breck- inridge, commanding division; Brigadier Gen-
eral Ben Hardin Helm, killed, Col. Joseph H. Lewis, succeeding to the command of the First Kentucky Brigade; Col. J. W. Hewitt, killed, Lieutenant Colonel J. W. Moss, suc- ceeding to the command of the Second Ken- tucky; Col. Joseph P. Nuckols, Fourth Ken- tucky, wounded, Major Thomas W. Thomp- son, succeeding ; Col. Joseph H. Lewis, Sixth Kentucky, Lieutenant Colonel Martin Hardin Cofer succeeding when the former took com- mand of the brigade; Col. John W. Caldwell, Ninth Kentucky, wounded, Lieutenant Col- onel John Crepps Wickliffe succeeding; Ma- jor Rice E. Graves, Kentucky artillery, killed ; Brigadier General Wm. Preston, commanding a division; Major General Simon B. Buckner, commanding a corps; and Col. Hiram Haw- kins, Fifth Kentucky. Cavalry commands : Lieutenant Col. Jacob W. Griffith, First Ken- tucky; a detachment of Gen. John H. Mor- gan's command, Lieutenant Colonel Robert M. Martin.
Total Confederate loss: killed, 2,389; wounded, 13,412; missing, 2,003; total, 17,- 804. The total of General Bragg's forces is stated by northern authorities to have been 71,551 men at this battle, but those who par- ticipated in the great struggle know this esti- mate to have been far above the actual figures. Bragg's force was much nearer 50,000 men than the estimate given by those who niet them on the opposing lines.
Whatever may be said of the strength of the opposing forces, it may be stated without contradiction, that General Bragg won a vic- tory at Chickamauga and did not know how to take advantage of it. It was a new sensa- tion for him and disarranged all his precon- ceived plans for the customary retreat. He might have left a sufficient force upon the field to entertain General Thomas on the follow- ing day, and, pushing forward upon the rear of Rosecran's demoralized army, could have driven it to surrender or into the Tennessee river. But being Bragg. he sat down upon
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the field, permitted Thomas to withdraw his forces to Chattanooga and two months later, had the humiliation of being driven from Mis- sionary Ridge by the troops whom he might have captured, had he had the spirit of initia- tive at Chickamauga, and pressed close upon the rear of the army his gallant soldiers had defeated. It is to the credit of the men whom General Bragg commanded that they never lost heart nor courage and were always ready for every duty, though they felt that their best endeavors were wasted so long as General Bragg was in supreme command. No general in the army could conduct so masterly a re- treat as he; no other general was so helpless in the presence of a victory. He meant well; was true to the cause for which he fought, but was utterly incompetent in the face of vic- tory.
It becomes necessary at this point to recur to an earlier period in the war in order to re- late circumstances connected with the opera- tions of the Federal and Confederate cavalry from Kentucky. When General Bragg con- ceived the idea of a withdrawal of his army from middle Tennessee to a point somewhere near Chattanooga, where he hoped to turn upon the enemy and administer a crushing blow, he recognized his peril with just appre- ciation. He knew the magnitude of the forces opposing him. He expected Rosecrans, who was in his immediate front, to press hard upon him. Burnside in east Tennessee was expected to move in force upon General Buck- ner, whose position would not allow him to weaken his force by sending reinforcements to Bragg. Judah, a sort of unknown quan- tity, it was supposed might interfere with the movements of Bragg's cavalry, and in certain contingencies might turn the right flank of the army, if it remained at Tullahoma, and by rapid marches through the fertile Sequachie Valley, appear before Chattanooga, far in the rear of the army.
It is difficult to understand how Judah could
have reached Chattanooga or a junction with Burnside, so long as Bragg had Morgan, Wheeler and Forrest at the head of his in- comparable cavalry. But out of abundant caution, he planned to prevent such a move- ment. General Duke, in the "History of Mor- gan's Cavalry," says: "General Bragg knew how to use and invariably used his cavalry to good purpose, and in this emergency, he re- solved to employ some of it to divert from his own hazardous movement, and fasten upon some other quarter, the attention of a portion of the opposing forces. He hoped not only to give them enough to do, to prevent them from annoying and endangering his re- treat, but also to draw off a part of their forces from the great battle which he expected to fight. He selected General Morgan as the officer who should accomplish this design.
"In the conference between them, General Morgan expressed a perfect confidence in his ability to effect all that was desired of hin, but dissented from General Bragg in one im- portant particular. The latter wished him to confine himself to Kentucky-giving him carte blanche to go wherever he pleased in that state and urging him to attempt the capture of Louisville. General Morgan declared that while he could by a dash into Kentucky and a march through that state, protect General Bragg's withdrawal from the position his army then held, he could not thus accomplish the other equally important feature of the plan, and draw off troops which would other- wise strengthen Rosecrans for the decisive battle.
"A raid into Kentucky would keep Judah busy and hold Burnside fast until it was de- cided, but, he contended, it would be decided very soon and he would be driven out or cut to pieces in a few days, leaving the Federal forces so disposed that they could readily com- mence their previously determined operations. A raid into Indiana and Ohio, on the con- trary, he contended, would draw all the troops
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in Kentucky after him and keep them em- the latter should still be in Pennsylvania. ployed for weeks. Although there might be * * * He did not disguise from himself the great dangers he encountered, but was sanguine of success. As it turned out, only the unprecedented rise in the Ohio river caused his capture-he had avoided or cut his way through all other dangers. * * sound military reasons why Judah and Burn- side should not follow him, but should stick to what the Confederate officers deemed the original programme of Rosecrans, General Morgan urged that the scare and the clamor in the states he proposed to invade, would he so great that the military leaders and the ad- ministration would be compelled to furnish the troops that would be called for. He thought that, even if he lost his command, he could greatly benefit General Bragg by cross- ing the Ohio river and only in that way.
"General Bragg refused him permission to make the raid, as he desired to make it and ordered him to confine himself to Ken- tucky. I was not present at the interview between them, but General Morgan told me that General Bragg had ordered him to operate in Kentucky and further stated that he intended, notwithstanding his orders, to cross the Ohio. I do not mean to justify his disobedience of orders, but simply to narrate the facts as I learned them, and to explain General Morgan's ideas regarding the move- ment, which were definite and fixed. This ex- pedition into the northwestern states had long been a favorite idea with him and was but the practical development of his theory of the proper way to make war, to-wit-by going deep into the country of the enemy. He had for several weeks, seen the necessity of some such diversion on General Bragg's behalf, and believed that the period for the accomplish- ment of his great desire was at hand.
"He had ordered me, three weeks previ- ously, to send intelligent men to examine the fords of the upper Ohio-that at Buffington Island among them-and it is a fact, of which others are cognizant, as well as myself, long before he crossed the Ohio, to make no effort to recross it except at some of these fords unless he found it more expedient, when he reached that region, to join General Lee, if
* At Green River Bridge, General Morgan en- countered a force of very persistent Federals, under command of Colonel Moore of a Michi- gan regiment. This officer was a very patri- otic man and in reply to General Morgan's demand for a surrender, made on the 4th of July, replied that 'it is a bad day for surren- ders and I would rather not.' This officer evidently enjoyed a 'scrapping match' and he had it before the day was over. In the at- tack which followed, Colonel Chenault and Major Brent, two very excellent officers, were killed as were a number of their men. Gen- eral Morgan, finding that he had stirred up a hornet's nest and that his men were fast be- ing killed and wounded, withdrew from the attack and proceeded on his march, the wounded of his command being left in charge of his surgeons and chaplains, and it is to the credit of the gallant Colonel Moore, who did not like to surrender on the Fourth of July, that in caring for the wounded he proved him- self as humane, as he was gallant and skill- ful."
On the night of July 4th, the division was within five miles of Lebanon where there was a force of the Federals. On the following morning, these were attacked and after a spir- ited engagement, the Federals surrendered, their commander being Col. Charles S. Han- son, brother of the lamented Col. Roger W. Hanson of the Second Kentucky Confederate regiment, who had fallen at the battle of Mur- freesboro. "At the last moment of this fight," says General Duke, " a sad loss befell us. Lieu- tenant Thomas Morgan, younger brother of the general, was killed just before the enemy surrendered. He was the first lieutenant of
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Company I, of the Second Kentucky, but was serving at the time of his death on my staff. He had frequently been remonstrated with on that day regarding the reckless exposure of his person and General Morgan had once ordered him to leave the front. He was stricken by the fate which his friends feared for him. When the Second Kentucky advanced, he rushed in front of it, and while firing his pis- tol at the windows of the depot, was shot through the heart. He exclaimed to his brother Calvin that he was killed, and fell a corpse into the latter's arms. He was but nineteen when killed, but was a veteran in service and experience. The first of six broth- ers to join the Confederate army, he had dis- played his devotion to the cause he had espoused in the field and in the prison. I have never known a boy of so much genius and of so bright and winning a temper. His hand- some, joyous face and gallant, courteous bear- ing made him very popular. He was the pet and idol of the Second Kentucky. General Morgan, whose love for the members of his family was of the most devoted character, was compelled to forego the indtilgence of his own grief to restrain the Second Kentucky, furi- ous at the death of their favorite. When his death became generally known, there was not a dry eye in the command."
The command reached Brandenburg on the 8th, where it found Captains Sam Taylor and Clay Meriwether, who had been sent for- ward to arrange means of crossing the Ohio into Indiana. They had captured two fine steamers and held them in readiness for Gen- eral Morgan's use. Here, too, was found Capt. Thomas H. Hines who had preceded the main body of the command. He had been ordered to scout "north of the Cumberland river" and had interpreted his orders so liter- ally as to cross the Ohio river and stir up the folks over there. General Duke says of him and his performance: "He had crossed into Indiana, made his presence known to the peo-
ple of the state in various ways, and pene- trated as far into the interior of the state as Seymour, at the junction of the Ohio and Mis- sissippi and Cincinnati and Indianapolis rail- ways. He here effected a junction with a greatly more numerous body of militia, which induced him to retrace his steps rapidly to the Ohio which he recrossed and arrived at Brandenburg on the very day that we got there. We found him leaning against the side of the wharfboat with sleepy, melan- choly look, apparently the most listless inof- fensive youth that was ever imposed upon." Of course Captain Hines explained to General Morgan that the state of Indiana was "north of the Cumberland" and that his orders justi- fied his movements. General Morgan had reason later for having this melancholy young captain with him.
After the war had ended, Captain Hines was a prominent member of the bar at Bowl- ing Green, was a member of the court of ap- peals of the state, and subsequently served in the latest constitutional convention as the del- egate from Franklin county, dying not long after this latest service to the state.
General Morgan crossed his forces into In- diana without losses and began the march which was to cause the greatest excitement in that state and Ohio and culminate in the cap- ture of himself and most of his command. It is not the purpose of this work to detail the events of this famous raid. It is enough to say that the entire north was aroused and that hard upon the rear of Morgan and his gallant troopers rode Federal cavalry, anxious to have the honor of his capture. Among these were General Hobson, Col. Frank Wolford, and Col. Richard T. Jacob, Kentuckians all, who followed fast upon the rear of the raiding col- umns. After many vicissitudes, some full of danger, others full of grim humor, General Morgan and the greater portion of his com- mand surrendered. The Ohio river had risen to prevent fording; Federal gunboats were at
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the points where General Morgan had hoped to cross; his men and horses were worn out and there was nothing left but a surrender. General Morgan and most of his chief officers were taken to Columbus, Ohio, and confined in the state prison, a disagreeable tribute to them on the part of the Federal authorities who knew that no ordinary military prison would long restrain the liberty of Morgan and his men. After being confined for some months in the Ohio prison, the Federals were convinced that not even the stone walls of a modern Bastile could confine Morgan and his men. General Morgan, Captains Thomas H. Hines, Ralph Sheldon,, Sam Taylor, Jacob Bennett, James Hockersmith and Gustavus McGee, made their escape and returned to the south in safety. Their comrades passed through many vicissitudes of prison life, but finally concluded that they could endure them since they could not help themselves, hoping always to find an opportunity for escape. Few of them ever realized this hope, and remained in the toils of the enemy for many weary months.
Some of Morgan's men escaped capture at Buffington Island and "marched many a weary mile through the mountains of Virginia. At last, worn down and half-famished, they gained the Confederate lines and first found rest at the beautiful village of Wytheville, in southwestern Virginia." The last statement is quoted from General Duke as is the fol- lowing: "The scattered remnants of General Morgan's command, under command of Col. Adam R. Johnson, were ordered to rendez- vous under command of the latter who re- ported to Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner. These orders were published in the Knoxville pa- pers, and when it was known that every man who had been left behind when Morgan be- gan his raid upon Ohio, could rejoin his com- mand, those who came within the provisions of the call came forward hurriedly. They did not stay behind because they wished to but
because they had to do so." From Wytheville they passed leisurely down the fair valley not then scarred by the cruel ravages of war, to the vicinity of Knoxville. Col. Adam R. John- son then endeavored to collect and organize them all. In August, 1863, Colonel Johnson issued orders, under Gen. S. B. Buckner, for all men belonging to General Morgan's com- mand to report to him at Morristown, east Tennessee. These orders being made known, all of Morgan's men so specified, pressed for- ward to the point designated. These men were organized into two battalions-one com- manded by Captain Kirkpatrick and the other by Captain Dortch.
The men of Morgan's command were in the battle of Missionary Ridge, though the in- fantry, every member of which wished that he was a cavalryman, objected to having "the cavalry placed in front of them in a fight." But the cavalry pressed forward and the in- fantry did not catch up with them during the fight. The cavalry was dismounted and, fighting on foot, was not to be distinguished from the infantry forces. As a matter of fact, the Confederate cavalry was armed with Enfield rifles and did its fighting on foot, only using its horses as a means of rapid transit from one point to another. They were as good soldiers as the infantry and did as good fighting whenever called upon. As a matter of historical fact, the remnant of Morgan's splendid command fired the first and the last shot at Chickamauga.
It has been many times stated that the In- dian word "Chickamauga" means "the river of blood," but it is impossible to verify this claim. Perhaps it is true; certainly it was a river of blood on that 20th of Septem- ber, 1863. Men fought across it from bank to bank; men fell into its waters stricken by the missiles of the opposing forces. The First Kentucky cavalry, in the Confederate forces, fought across this stream during the earlier hours of the contest. Late in the afternoon
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on the 20th of September, they charged the Federals at Lee and Gordon's mill and drove from the works the command of Gen. John M. Palmer, himself a native of Kentucky, but commanding a splendid body of Illinois in- fantry. Recognizing that the Confederates, pressing their advantage, gained at other points along the battle line, would soon move forward in their front, the Federals at Lee and Gordon's mill, cut the mill dam and let the confined waters flow downward without restraint. The First Kentucky came in a charge to the banks of the stream and finding the water unconfined, the men of that com- mand took off their cartridge boxes and hold- ing them and their guns high above their heads, plunged into the stream and made their way towards the side from which the Illinois troops were pouring into them, from behind log breastworks, a destructive fire. The at- tacking forces could not, of course, fire upon the Federals while crossing the stream, but like the Irish troops at Fontenoy, they went "ever right onward still," and drove General Palmer's brave fellows from their works. The writer may, perhaps, be pardoned for the statement that the company of which he was a member, led this advance and that he was at the head of the company by the side of the commanding officer. The pursuit of the re- treating Federals was kept up until dark in- tervened and among the captures made by this force was the field hospital of General Pal- mer's division which was not interfered with, as the surgeons, in their mission of mercy, had made no discrimination between Federals and Confederates. When the advancing force of the Confederates had approached this hos- pital, the wounded Confederates who were able to walk about, came out of the hospital tents and requested that the surgeons, who had been kind to them, should not be stopped in their mission of mercy. Nor were they. There was no Red Cross organization in those days, but the contending forces recognized
that the surgeon's mission was one of mercy and that the uniform worn by a stricken sol- dier played no part in the efforts to save the life of its wearer. No soldier of the Union or of the south in those dreadful days, but is willing to extend the fullest meed of praise to the medical men who looked after their wounds. Perhaps they were a little prone to amputations, but the medical faculty did not know as much in those days as they do now, and they probably did the best they knew how.
Going back now to the movements of the cavalry, after the battle of Chickamauga, General Duke's "History of Morgan's Com- mand," says: "General Forrest and Colonel Scott both complimented our little command more than once during the battle. Immedi- ately after the battle, the entire cavalry com- mand of the Army of Tennessee was actively employed. The two battalions of our com- mand were separated, Dortch going with For- rest up the Chattanooga and Knoxville rail- road; Kirkpatrick went with Wheeler on his raid through middle Tennessee. Dortch was in the fight against Wolford's Kentucky cav- alry at Philadelphia, Tennessee; in the skir- mishes at Loudon and Marysville and at the siege of Knoxville. Kirkpatrick's battalion was at the fights at McMinnville, Murfrees- boro, Shelbyville and Sugar Creek. In the latter fight. Wheeler's whole force fell back rapidly and Kirkpatrick was kept in the rear until we reached the Tennessee river. (The First Kentucky cavalry was also in the rear with Kirkpatrick's battalion and participated in all the fights made against the pursuing Federal forces.) When we returned to the army, Kirkpatrick's battalion was placed on severe picket duty, its line extending from the mouth of the Chickamauga up the Ten- nessee river some three miles, where it con- nected with the line of the First Kentucky cavalry. This. duty was exceedingly heavy. The pickets stood in squads of three, every four hundred yards, with mounted patrols to
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