USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 53
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ride the whole length of the line. One would suppose that men who had ridden through the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, In- diana, Virginia and Georgia, and been in as many as twenty-five or thirty engagements in the space of three months, would be com- pletely worn out, discouraged and disheart- ened. Not so, however; the few left were willing and anxious to thoroughly do a sol- dier's duty."
There came an order to dismount the few
dents of the world lessons of which they had never dreamed, and established for the mounted American soldier a high standard which the cavalry of no other nation has ever attained.
These brave battalions of Morgan's men pa- tiently endured all privations, bravely met all dangers, while they patiently watched and waited for the return to them of their impris- oned leader. These battalions never doubting that he would come back to them, were at
BRED IN OLD KENTUCKY
men of Morgan's command ; the men who had written a new page into the history of cav- alry warfare; the men who had taught the world new lessons in the use of cavalry. Gen- eral Forrest fought against this order, and won his fight at the cost of his own cominand. He won for the Kentuckians, but lost for the Tennesseeans. His own splendid command was taken from him and he had afterward only conscripts and absentees from other com- mands, but he went forward with these and won battles in the future as he had won them in the past. In the western army, Morgan, Forrest and Wheeler taught the military stil-
length placed in a brigade of Kentucky cav- alry commanded by Col. J. Warren Grigsby in which were the Ninth and the First Kentucky cavalry.
Then came the long, cold nights of the dreary winter of 1863-4. The Kentucky cav- alry shivered through the dark dragging hours, half-clad, half-fed, but never relaxing for a moment their vigilant watch-guard over the sleeping army which on the heights of Mis- sionary Ridge encompassed General Grant and his army in Chattanooga. On the heights of Lookout Mountain, where the fabled "bat- tle above the clouds" was alleged to have been
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fought, and on Waldron's Ridge, blazed the signal lights of the Federal army.
Duke says in his history: "The Federal battalions poured one night across the river, the bright blaze and quick crash of rifles sud- denly breaking out along the picket line. Then followed hurried saddling and rapid reinforce- ment, but the steady Federal advance drove the cavalry back. Even amid the snarl of mus- ketry and roar of cannon, could be heard the plash of boats plying from shore to shore. Couriers were sent to army headquarters with the information, but losing their way in the pitch darkness did not report until daylight. "Next day came the grand Federal attack and the terrible and unaccountable 'stampede' of the entire Confederate army from Mission- ary Ridge-that army which a few weeks be- fore had won the great victory of Chica- mauga."
But was it unaccountable that the army was in retreat? General Bragg was in command, and that meant retreat. The wonder is that the gallant men whom he commanded should have retained their spirits and been always ready for battle when called upon. It is the highest tribute to the soldierly character of this army that it never lost its splendid morale and was always ready for action.
Bragg fell back upon Dalton, Georgia, his rear being covered in his retreat, as usual, by Kentuckians-the Orphan brigade, the rem- nants of Morgan's command and the First and Ninth Kentucky cavalry. The army withdrew in safety to Dalton. 'At Ringgold Gap, Osterhaus' Federal division pressed too closely on the retreating forces and received a salutary lesson. The First Kentucky cavalry was in the extreme rear of the Confederate forces and when Osterhaus attacked, it made a pretense at defense and then precipitately retreated through the gap, to draw the enemy forward. The Federals came forward in heavy columns, and as they approached the Gap were fired upon by concealed artillery
and infantry with distressing effect, hundreds of them falling at the first fire. The contest continued during the greater part of the day, but was always in favor of the Confederates. One regiment of the latter, having exhausted its ammunition, resisted a charge of the Fed- erals up Taylor's Ridge with stones thrown by hand and large rocks which were rolled down upon the assaulting columns, and which forced them to desist and withdraw from the attack. The Confederate army, without much interruption from the Federals, spent the dis- agreeable winter of 1863 and 1864 at or near Dalton, the cavalry alone assuming special activity. They, of course, never knew the meaning of winter quarters.
The Federal troops from Kentucky who participated in the battle of Missionary Ridge were: Gen. W. C. Whittaker; Eighth Ken- tucky infantry, Col. Sidney M. Barnes; Third Kentucky infantry, Col. Henry C. Dunlap ; Fifteenth Kentucky infantry, Col. Wm. W. Berry, wounded; Lieutenant Col. John L. Treanor; Sixth Kentucky infantry, Major Richard T. Whittaker; Twenty-third Ken- tucky infantry, Lieutenant Colonel James C. Fox; Ninth Kentucky infantry, Col. George H. Cram; Seventeenth Kentucky infantry, Col. Alexander M. Stout; Twenty-first Ken- tucky infantry, Col. Samuel W. Price; Fourth Kentucky infantry, Major Robert M. Kelley; Tenth Kentucky infantry, Col. William Hays, Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel C. Wharton.
The Confederate troops engaged who were Kentuckians, were as follows: Major Gen- eral John C. Breckinridge; Brigadier General Joseph H. Lewis; Second Kentucky infantry, Col. James W. Moss; Fourth Kentucky in- fantry, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas W. Thompson; Fifth Kentucky infantry, Col. Hi- ram Hawkins; Sixth Kentucky infantry, Lieu- tenant Colonel William L. Clark; Ninth Ken- tucky infantry, Lieutenant Colonel John Crepps Wickliffe; Cobbs' Kentucky battery, Lieutenant Frank P. Gracie; First Kentucky
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cavalry, Lieutenant Colonel Jacob W. Grif- loss: killed, 752; wounded, 4,713; captured fith.
According to the reports in the "Century Magazine" articles referring to the war, the Federal losses were as follows: Total Union
or missing, 350; total, 5,815.
Confederate loss: killed, 361; wounded, 2,180; captured or missing, 4,146; total, 6,687.
CHAPTER LII.
ENROLLMENT OF COLORED TROOPS-REBEL AND UNION GUERRILLAS-BURBRIDGE, KENTUCKY'S DISHONORED SON-FEDERAL INTERFERENCE AND OFFICAL OUTRAGES-LAST OF BUR- BRIDGE AND HIS RULE-THE END OF THE WAR.
In January, 1864, Gen. Jere T. Boyle, very much to the regret of all Kentuckians who wished that the horrors of warfare should, as far as possible, be mitigated, resigned from the army and was succeeded in command of the district of Kentucky by General Ammen. On February Ist of this year, President Lin- coln ordered a draft for the purpose of rais- ing an additional force of half a million men. The one-time popular song "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more" had lost its rhythm; the country had sent many thousand of its young men to the front and those remaining at home showed little disposition to offer themselves as "food for powder." The young emigrants from Ire- land and Germany, who were tempted by bounties and good pay, were not coming over as rapidly as had been the case before, and it was necessary to recruit the army by enforced enlistments. Hence the order for a draft.
At the time when this draft was ordered, the report of Adjutant General John W. Fin- nell showed that Kentucky had sent to the Federal army, 35,760 infantry ; 15,362 cavalry and 823 artillerymen, besides 2,957 sixty-days men ; a total of 54,902.
On February 29th, the enrollment without delay, of colored troops, was ordered by Gen. James B. Fry, provost marshal general. "Smith's History," treating of this troubled period, says: "The enrollment of colored troops was denounced by some of the most active and leading Federal officers in Ken- G. Burbridge, a native of Kentucky and of un-
tucky, among whom were Colonels Frank Wolford and Richard T. Jacob, the latter be- ing at that time lieutenant governor of the state. For language used in condemnation of this policy, Colonel Wolford was arrested and afterwards dishonorably dismissed from the army of the United States 'for speaking dis- respectfully of the president of the United States' and for alleged disloyalty." In June of the same year, Governor Bramlette, a for- mer colonel in the Federal army and a good man, commissioned Colonel Wolford to raise a regiment of men for service in the Union army. Colonel Wolford was a diamond in the rough ; a man who appeared to love fighting for fighting's sake and who never concealed his- opinions whatever they might be. Reference has been made elsewhere in this work to the general activity of the colonel's imaginations, stories about which can scarcely find a place in the serious pages of a history of his day and time. He was the idol of his men and of his party and after the war was ended repre- sented his district in congress for several terms, being, perhaps the only Democrat who could have been elected to that honor in his- district.
There was much opposition in Kentucky to the enlistment of negroes in the army, and Governor Bramlette, always a man of peace, issited a proclamation in which he recom- mended that the people submit quietly to the enrollment of the negro troops. Gen. Stephen
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savory memory, had succeeded General Am- men in command, and he now issued a general order for the enlistment of negro troops, but, out of abundant caution, he specified that they should be sent to camps of instruction and drill outside the state.
The legislature, with an almost unanimous Union strength, adopted a resolution of pro- test against the enlistment of negroes and re- quested the president to remove the camps of such soldiers beyond the state. "These were but the expressions of a sentiment," says Smith, "the instinctive outgrowth of the rela- tion of the negro in slavery, of the property rights in him and of the prejudices against his uses in any position of equality with the white race. But this opposition of a preju- diced sentiment gradually gave way with the familiarity of the practice of such enlistments and the people became reconciled, or passively submissive, to this expediency of the govern- ment; and other circumstances made this us- age more tolerable to the people of Kentucky. The increased demands and calls of the Fed- eral government for new levies of troops to recruit and strengthen the armies in the field had exhausted the ardor and resources of the volunteer element, and compelled the govern- ment to the alternative of decimating drafts. As, by lot, many white citizens of means were among the drafted who were unwilling or unprepared to enter upon a soldier's life, great demand sprang up for substitutes, which were allowed and accepted by the government. These substitutes came now in great demand at an appreciable market value, in every part of the state. From $700 to $1,500 were of- fered and paid by citizens upon whom the lot of draft had fallen, according to the supply and demand of the community. Quite a brok- erage speculation sprang up among the horde of mercenary men who swarmed out of the ranks of citizenship and of official and mili- tary ranks to seize upon the thousand opportu- nities that a civil war affords of speculative
gains. This dealing in substitutes, a sudden source of profit, was largely carried on by provost marshals or some favored second, who could control this singular traffic in human bodies. At this time, the negro was still the slave property of his master in Kentucky, as the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to this state. As the destruction of the insti- tution seemed inevitable and near at hand, and as the slaves were unmerchantable otherwise, many owners seized upon the opportunity to convert this species of property into money, and bargained with the recruitng authorities, conceding a good percentage of the sale money. But few masters were instinctively inclined to thus dispose of their slaves, for whom they entertained humane and kindly feelings of attachment; but the new policy of enlisting negroes, so captivating to the Afri- can, a lifetime in bondage, was rapidly sweep- ing from the country the negro males capable of military services. The owners felt that such slaves would soon desert them under the- irresistible influences of the recruiting agen- cies, who would transfer them to the ranks of the Union army."
During 1864, there came upon Kentucky the scourge of guerrilla warfare, that constant accompaniment of war in all civilized lands. These bands of marauders wore today the uni- form of the southern soldiers ; tomorrow, that of the Union forces. They belonged to nei- ther army and brought reproach upon both. Made up in most cases of deserters from either army, they recognized no flag as their own and plundered alike the friends of the Union and of the south. Candor compels the state- ment that many of these marauders claimed some sort of allegiance to the south upon which they brought reproach. Smith, who was at home in Kentucky while these desper- adoes were operating, says of them: "Appar- ently reckless of all responsibility to the laws of God or man, they gave themselves to an unrestrained license of revengeful murder, of
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bold and daring robbery, and of deeds of vio- lence and outrage which were without the pale of civilized warfare. * * * These bands were made up of a strange medley of char- acters. Here, one had become a desperado, devoting his life to revenge for an outrage by some military enemy upon mother, or wife, or sister. Another, in fierce wrath, had "de- clared undying war for the wanton murder, by armed violence, of a father or brother. Yet another, because his house and property had vanished in smoke and ashes in the track of an opposing army, had sworn to reimburse or revenge himself on guilty or innocent. These cruel wrongs are but the incidents of war which even the best men in authority are unable to avert; so this outgrowth of desper- ate character is the exceptional growth of war, which good men and good government cannot repress nor be responsible for."
These irregular forces included in their ranks yet others than those named above. These were the young men of Kentucky who desired to enlist in the Confederate army and found no opportunity to do so until these ir- regular bands came within their reach. Be- lieving them to be regular Confederate cavalry- men, these young men had no hesitancy in joining their ranks, hoping thus to be enabled to pass through the all-encompassing Federal lines and join the commands of Morgan, Wheeler or Forrest. These were not bad young men ; to the contrary, they were of that character which won the high praise borne by the regular Confederate troops who claimed Kentucky as their birthplace. They were sim- ply and innocently in "bad company," for the time being, and they got out of that company as soon as opportunity presented.
Gen. Basil Duke, a Kentuckian proud of his state, of its splendid military record, and of its sons who have shed luster upon it, regard- less of the uniform which they wore, says of this period: "Imagine the situation in which the Confederate soldier was placed. Almost
destitute of hope that the cause for which he fought would triumph and fighting on from instinctive and obstinate pride, no longer re- ceiving from the people the sympathy, hospi- tality and hearty encouragement once ac- corded to him; almost compelled for comfort, if not for existence, to practice oppression and wrong upon his own countrymen-is it sur- prising that he became wild and lawless; that he adopted a rude creed in which strict con- formity to military regulations and a nice obe- dience to general orders held not very promi- nent places? This condition obtained in a far greater degree with the cavalry employed in the 'outpost' departments than with the in- fantry or the soldiery of the large armies. There is little temptation and no necessity or excuse for it among troops that are well fed, regularly paid in good money, and provided with comfortable blankets and shoes in the cold winter weather; but troops whose ra- tions are few and scanty, who flutter with rags and wear ventilating shoes which suck in the cold air, who sleep at night under a blanket which kept the saddle from a sore-backed horse in the daytime, who are paid-if paid at all-with waste paper, who have become hard- ened to the licentious practices of a cruel warfare-such troops will be frequently tempted to violate the moral code. Many Confederate cavalrymen, so situated, left their commands altogether and became guer- rillas, salving their consciences with the thought that the desertion was not to the en- emy. These men, leading a comparatively luxurious life and receiving from some peo- ple a mistaken and foolish admiration, at- tracted to the same career young men who would never have quitted their colors and their duties."
This quotation from General Duke's writing is true as far as it goes, but it does not cover the entire field. He refers alone to Confeder- ates. There were men of like character in -
the Federal army, who, oppressed by the
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strictness of military control, cut loose from the army and conducted their semi-military movements at their own will. Prominent among these was a man known as Captain Terrell, whose career was filled with deeds that made life a burden, at that portion of Kentucky in which he operated. The present writer has no intent to excuse the alleged Con- federate guerrillas-he knows some of them to have been deserters from his own command -but, for the truth of history, he wants it known that some of the men who masqueraded as friends of the Union were no less than robber bands who disgraced the uniforms they had no right to wear.
Gen. Stephen G. Burbridge had now come to the command of the district of Kentucky. Of him, it is enough to say that today no Ken- tuckian ever utters his name or hears it ut- tered, without heaping execrations upon him ; yet Burbridge was a Kentuckian.
A Confederate soldier is probably not the proper person to pass upon the actions of Burbridge. He was so bitter in his treatment of Confederates; so forgetful of every prin- ciple of right and justice and decency, that those who felt the weight of his hand, may, perhaps, be pardoned, if they leave to others the delineation of his career.
Professor Nat T. Shaler, of Harvard Uni- versity, who has more than once been referred to in this history as a Kentuckian who bravely wore the uniform of an officer in the Union army during the war, says of this period :
"The desperation to which the people were brought by the system of guerrilla raids can hardly be described. In the year 1864, there was not a county in the state that was exempt from their ravages. The condition of the commonwealth reminds the historical student of that which came with the Thirty Years war in Germany, and with the latter stages of the war between king and parliament in England. It is the normal condition when a country is harried by the discords of a civil war, and especially when there are no longer large armies in the field.
"On the 4th of January, 1864, Governor Bramlette, late a Federal officer, who at the outset of his polit- Vol. I-24.
ical life was opposed to such summary and unwar- ranted action, took the singular responsibility of or- dering the arrest of the Confederate sympathizers, to be held as hostages for the return of all persons captured and detained by guerrillas. Great as was the need of protection from these freebooters, this proclamation was a serious transgression of the laws which the governor was sworn to maintain and, as such, met the condemnation of a great part of the Union men. Afterward, the legislature endeavored to secure the suppression of this evil by providing more numerous and more effective troops to be used for state defense. This legislature voted the large sum of five million dollars for the purpose of paying for the adequate internal defense of the state.
"On July 16th General Burbridge, under order of General Sherman, commanding the department, issued a sanguinary order of reprisals, requiring that when- ever a citizen was killed by guerrillas, four prisoners chosen from this class of marauders were to be taken to the place where the deed was done and in retalia- tion shot to death. The difficulty was that it was im- possible to determine among a lot of prisoners, who belonged to a properly commissioned command and who were simply brigands. Under the order many executions took place, some of men who probably were to be classed as Confederate soldiers. The brutal violence of this plan made it extremely dis- tasteful to all fair-minded people. It was carried out without even the semblance of law given by the proceedings of a court-martial. Nor had it the sorry merit of success. It merely gave an additional bit- terness to a contest that was becoming a reproach to the name of the race."
The bloody record of the butcher Burbridge can never be given in full. When his spirit moved him to murder, he simply ordered out for execution any one of the unfortunates who happened to be within his control regardless of whether they were or were not Confederate soldiers.
Smith in his "History of Kentucky," has given the names of some of these victims of Burbridge's animosity. Mr. Smith is so gentle a man that he did not permit himself to prop- erly characterize the murder of these unfortu- nate men. He says :
"Our space permits but a brief mention of a few of the bloody executions and incidents which fol- lowed the issuance of Gen. Burbridge's order.
"In July two Confederate prisoners were taken
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from Louisville to Henderson and shot to death in retaliation for the wounding of a Mr. Rankin. Eight- een thousand dollars were collected from his south- ern neighbors for indemnity, not a dollar of which would Mr. Rankin receive.
"Two other prisoners were similarly sent to Rus- sellville, to be shot on the spot where a Mr. Porter died from wounds received in defending himself from guerrillas on July 28th. (A third Confederate sol- dier, not a guerrilla, was sent from the prison at Louisville to also be shot on this occasion, but was saved from execution by the interposition of his brother Royal Arch Masons.)
"William Long, William Tythe, William Darbro and R. W. Yates, four prisoners, were brought from Lexington to Pleasureville in Henry County, and shot to death in retaliation for the alleged killing of colored men in another part of the county. The bodies of the prisoners shot were left unburied for a day, when they were taken by neighbors and interred in the cemetery at Eminence.
"On the 15th, George Wainscott and William and John Lingenfelter, were shot at Williamstown, on account of the killing of Joel Skirvin and Andrew Simpson by guerrillas.
"Richmond Berry and May Hamilton were simi- larly executed at Bloomfield, in retaliation for the killing of J. R. Jones.
"J. Bloom and W. B. McClassoan were taken from Louisville and shot at Franklin on the 20th, in retaliation for some killing done by guerrillas.
"In retaliation for the shooting by Capt. Sue Mun- day's guerrillas of a Federal soldier near Jefferson- town, Kentucky, W. Lilly, S. Hattey, M. Briscoe and Captain L. D. Buckner were ordered to be taken by Captain Hackett of the Twenty-sixth Kentucky and shot to death on the spot.
"Cheny and Jones were taken from the military prison at Louisville and shot to death at Munfords- ville, Kentucky, in retaliation for the killing, by guerrillas, of J. M. Morry of the Thirtieth Ken- tucky Infantry.
"James Hopkins, J. W. Sipple and Samuel Stog- dale were similarly shot to death near Bloomfield, for the killing of two negroes by Sue Munday's men, with which these victims had nothing whatever to do.
"McGee and Walter Ferguson were taken out of the military prison at Lexington and hung by order of Burbridge.
"W. C. Martin, W. B. Dunn, J. Edmondson, J. M. Jones, W. L. Robinson, J. Tomlinson, A. V. Tudor and S. Turley were taken from the military prison at Louisville and shot to death at Munfordsville.
"Six Confederates, names unknown, were shot to
death, hy order of Burbridge, at Osceola, Green county, in retaliation for the killing by others of two Union men.
"On the 4th of September, Frank M. Holmes and three other prisoners were shot to death at Branden- burgh for the killing of a Mr. Henry near that place, with which they had nothing whatever to do.
"Four prisoners were shot to death at Frankfort; four at Midway, and others elsewhere for similar reasons."
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