USA > Kentucky > Trigg County > Counties of Christian and Trigg, Kentucky : historical and biographical > Part 18
USA > Kentucky > Christian County > Counties of Christian and Trigg, Kentucky : historical and biographical > Part 18
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Capt. William Gray was also an officer in the patriot army, lived for many years in the neighborhood of Mr. Lod Dulin, father of Rice Dulin, Esq., and was highly esteemed for his probity of character and general intelligence by all who knew him. But little is known of the part he took in the thrilling drama of those times, but that little is creditable alike to his courage and patriotism.
William Dupuy, familiarly known as "Uncle Billy," served through the war and came to this county at an early day. He died at his resi- dence near Hopkinsville September 11, 1851, at the ripe old age of eighty- six years. The Kentucky Rifle of September 13, 1851, says of him : " He was one of the oldest citizens of this county, and was universally respected as one of the last of those noble old patriots who fought over
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the cradle of the young Republic, dealing the stalwart blows of freemen to the minions of royalty. We loved to see him lingering here to enjoy the surprising contrast between those days and these, and to suggest to all who saw him moving about, like one whose whole being belonged to the past, instructive reflections of the times that saw the first faint hope that at last Liberty had determined to found an empire and consecrate a home. But he has been gathered to his fathers, and sleeps well beneath the soil which he loved with that warm and peculiar devotion which forms one of the most characteristic traits of the broad and manly nature of the early settler. He was buried with military honors under the direction of Maj .- Gen. Hays."
Pensions .- The following application for pension is found on the county records :
This day Robert Warner came into open court and made oath that he is one of the Revolutionary soldiers, that he is now in the sixty-third year of his age, that he entered into the Continental service as a militia man, or a soldier in the militia service, in the year -- in a company commanded by Capt. Robert Cravens, in a regiment commanded by Col. Benjamin Harrison, and that he served two tours of duty of three months each in said service, and was duly and regularly discharged, but he has lost his discharge papers, and that in the year 1778, as he believes, he enlisted in the Continental service under the command of Capt. Wallis, in a regiment commanded by Col. Richard Campbell, and in the Continental Army under the command of Gen. Nathaniel Greene, that he served from that time during the war, and that after the war he was duly and regularly discharged by Capt. Anderson, to whom he was transferred after the death of Capt. Wal- lis, who was killed at the battle of Guilford, and which said discharge he has lost. He states that he has never received anything, either land or money, from the United States of America for any of said services, and is now old, infirm and afflicted with palsy.
Signed and sealed the fifth day of March, 1822.
his
ROBERT x WARNER.
mark
John Knight was an old soldier ; fought through the entire war and drew a pension from the Government. He left a large family in the northern part of the county, and was much respected for his many kindly qualities of mind and heart, and his character as a good citizen.
Knight Knight was a most knightly knight from the Palmetto State. He enlisted in Capt. Buchanan's company, Sixth Regiment, Col. Hen- derson, and served two years. He was at the battles of Sullivan's Island, Savannah, Stono, and during the siege of Charleston was captured by the British, from whom he afterward escaped. He did not re-enter the army, but removed to Christian County, where afterward he appears on the records as an applicant for a pension.
Jerry "Duck " Brewer was also a veteran of the Continental Army, and settled in the eastern part of the county, where he reared a family, and left a large number of descendants.
The following application for pension, February 4, 1822, which ap-
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY.
pears in the County Court Record, is about all that is known of the war record of Samuel Johnson :
To the Honorable, the Secretary of the Department of War of the United States of America.
The declaration of the undersigned respectfully showeth that in the autumn of the year 1775, in the County of Greenbrier, State of Virginia, he enlisted as a private soldier, in the company of Capt. Mathew Arbuckle. That the company of Capt. Arbuckle belonged to the regiment of the Continental line, commanded by Col. John Neville, that he joined his company at Lewisburgh, in the month of March, 1776, and marched from thence to Fort Pitt; from thence he marched with the company of Capt. Arbuckle to the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and remained with his company at that place until about the month of October, 1778, at which time the station was abandoned and the troops stationed there discharged from the service of their country. That some few months after he entered the service, he became a sergeant, and for the last year of his continuance in service, he acted as Orderly Sergeant, and was discharged in good credit, that he now is a resident of the County of Christian, in the State of Kentucky, that he is now upwards of sixty-six years of age, and is by reason of his reduced circumstances in need of assistance from his country for support, he therefore prays that he may be placed on the pension list. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
STATE OF KENTUCKY, CHRISTIAN COUNTY COURT.
Samuel Younglove, Joseph Meacham and Joseph Casky (the orig- inal founder of Casky Precinct) were Revolutionary soldiers, and moved to the county at an early day. There were doubtless many others who came about the same time, but their names have not been obtained. Several families of Tories also came to the county, but did not meet with much sympathy or countenance from the citizens at large. Among the number was Nicholas Pyle, who was the son of Col. Pyle of the British Army. He was very much depressed by the unfriendliness of his neighbors, and lived a life of comparative retirement. On
the breaking out of the war of 1812 he was one of the first to volunteer in the defense of that country against which he had before fought. He was with Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, and deported himself so gallantly as to compel the admiration of all who knew him. Afterward his old neighbors took him into their favor, and were wont to say : "Nick Pyle is a gallant fellow, and has redeemed himself."
Dudley Redd was another Tory, but claimed to have been a soldier in the Continental Army. He had a deep scar on his forehead, which he claimed to have received in an encounter with the British. But an old negro man, the property of Lod Dulin, and who had formerly been a servant of Col. Hillion, of the British Army, said he knew Redd well when he was a soldier under his master. The negro's account, and which was probably true, was, that Redd was a Tory, and received the saber cut on his forehead at Kettle Creek, at the hands of a patriot soldier, who left him on the field for dead.
James Robinson, one of the earliest settlers of the county, served
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY.
through the entire struggle for liberty, and came to Christian County in 1786. He is extensively mentioned in Chapter II, of this volume, and anything here would be but repetition.
The War of 1812 .- Our second war with England (the war of 1812) began with a disgraceful surrender, but ended with a brilliant victory. The surrender of Hull and his army in Detroit at the very inception of the fight, with the attendant loss of the fair Territory of Michigan, was very discouraging, and cast a gloom over the whole country. The loss of Michigan entailed necessarily upon the country the loss of control of all the Northwestern tribes of Indians, and soon they poured down in great numbers upon our exposed frontiers. When the tocsin of war was sounded, Kentucky, with her sister States, sprang to the rescue with all the might and chivalry of her trained veterans. It is said that she and Virginia supplied more than twice as many volunteers as all the rest of the States. Christian County also, though comparatively a new county, supplied her full quota of men and material. When, after the disaster to Hull, the call was made for 1,500 men to join Gen. Hopkins at the ren- dezvous at Louisville, Capt. Allsbury promptly responded with a com- pany from Christian, and afterward followed the fortunes of that gallant officer in his campaign against the Indians. Others had previously joined the gallant Daviess, and were with him at Tippecanoe, while some had joined themselves to Gen. Harrison, then Governor of the Indiana Terri- tory. The names of these gallant heroes have long since faded from the memory of man, and the only definite chronicle of Christian County in this Northwestern campaign was some time after, when Perry with his little fleet engaged the enemy on Lake Erie. A call was made for 150 picked Kentucky volunteers to man the fleet. Among these were three men known to be from Christian, Ezra Younglove, John Anderson and Washington Dunkerson, who were assigned to the ship Niagara. It is related of one of them, perhaps Dunkerson, that in the hottest of the fight, and when the colors had been shot away, he climbed into the rig- ging and re-nailed them to the mast, in the face of a murderous fire from the enemy. Years afterward, and while Col. George Poindexter was a member, the Legislature of Kentucky voted a gold medal to each of these heroes. On the obverse of this medal was the name of one of the soldiers, and on the reverse the ship Niagara in action, and the date of the engage- ment.
This decisive victory, preceded as it had been by the successful defense of Fort Stephenson by Croghan, and followed by the crushing defeat of Proctor and his Indian allies at the battle of the Thames, virtually put an end to the campaign, if not the war. There was some desultory fighting
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY.
along the Eastern and Southern borders of the Union, but in these Ken- tucky was not a participant.
Just before the final battle at New Orleans in 1814, Col. Posey, who is supposed to have been an officer in the regular army, camped with his command on Judge Ben Shackelford's place, near the town of Hopkins- ville. While here he was joined by Maj. Reuben Harrison, with perhaps a battalion of Christian County troops. Among these was a company commanded by an eccentric old Dutchman named Chrisman, who lived close by the camp, and when the orders came to move was at home with his family and in bed. Not being able to read the language of his adopted country, or perhaps any other, when the note was received he jumped out of bed, and, not waiting to dress himself, rushed over to his nearest neigh- bor, Malcolm McNeil, in his shirt and drawers. Learning its import, he rushed back home in breathless haste, and when within hailing distance began calling out in broken English : " Vife ! vife ! Pe quig ! pe quig ! vy don't you ? Maig haste ! maig haste, und maig some piskit mit a haf pushel ! Der Kurnel zends vord mit dem ledder vat I shall pe in New Orleans py taylite mit my gumperny ! Maig haste, Katrina ! vy don't you maig haste ?" The bellicose old Teuton led his command to New Orleans under Maj. Harrison, not " py taylite," however, and there, with his "gumperny " contributed much to the success of the battle.
While camped on Judge Shackelford's place, two of Col. Posey's men died with the measles and were buried near by. Among others who were at the battle. of New Orleans may be mentioned Dr. John McCarroll, grandfather of Judge Joe McCarroll, who was a surgeon on the staff of Gen. Jackson and had been with him through most of his Indian cam- paigns, and Roger Thompson, father-in-law to Mr. George O. Thompson of Hopkinsville. There were doubtless many others, but their names have not been obtained, and no mention of them is to be found in the official records.
Thus, as we have said, the war that opened with the disgrace of Hull's surrender closed in a blaze of glory at New Orleans under Gen. Jackson. It is not known just how many men went from Christian County, but it is pleasant to think that she was fully and ably represented upon almost every field, from the beginning of hostilities to the conclusion of peace.
Kentucky as a State was well represented in the Black Hawk war, but we have heard of but one man from Christian County who partici- pated in it, and he fell a victim to the fortunes of war. Green Robinson, the youngest son of James Robinson, the old Revolutionary soldier, was killed in this war. The event is mentioned in a preceding chapter of this work.
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY.
The War with Mexico .- This war began in May, 1846, and ended in 1848, with the almost total annihilation of the Mexican armies and the capture of their capital. The quota assigned to Kentucky, so Collins says, was less than five thousand, while so hearty was the popular re- sponse that more than thirteen thousand seven hundred volunteered their services. Among those who so offered themselves, but were rejected on account of the quota being full, was a company from Christian, under the command of Dr. A. S. Young, Captain, and Charles A. McCarroll, First Lieutenant, and Walter E. Warfield, Second Lieutenant. Every effort was made to have them accepted by the authorities at Frankfort, but all in vain, and the company was finally disbanded.
The War between the Sections .- Less than a decade and a half after the close of the Mexican war, the great civil war between the States broke out. Hitherto our wars had been waged against savages or foreign foes, but this was an internecine strife, wherein the "brother betrays the brother to death, and the father the son, and children rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death." It was without a parallel in the history of nations and dwarfs into utter insignificance the mightiest struggles of the past. It is not the purpose of this history to enter upon a discussion of the issues that led up to the war, nor to paint the horrors of its shifting scenes, but simply to give the humble part the people of this community took on either side. A late writer has truthfully said : " All the evils of war, and all the horrors of civil war were crowded into those four dreadful years, 1861-65, and all the refined cruelties known to the science and civilization of the enlightened age in which we live were practiced by the opposing parties. But after four years of strife and bloodshed the olive branch of peace again waved over us, and now frater- nal love and prosperity smile upon the land from one end of the nation to the other. As we become naturalized and 'reconstructed' to the new order of things, we find it a source of sincere congratulation that the ob- ject of strife between the sections is forever removed, and will never cause another war on American soil. In the final union of 'the Roses,' Eng- land found the germ of her future greatness and glory, and in the har- monious blending of ' the Blue' and ' the Gray,' who shall limit our own greatness and glory ? "
As Christian did not lie along the immediate track of either army and was altogether unimportant from a strategic point of view, it was not made the theatre of any important military operation during the war. Only a few slight skirmishes occurred between the outstanding videttes of the armies, who from time to time occupied or passed through the various parts of the county. The most important of these occurred near the Western Lunatic Asylum, some time in December, 1864. A small de-
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY.
tachment of Confederates, about 200 or 300, under Col. Chenoweth, of Gen. Lyon's command, were in Hopkinsville at a ball given at the Phoenix Hotel, and learning that the forces of Gen. McCook were coming in on them by the way of the asylum, went out to meet them. They encoun- tered them this side of the asylum, near the " Battle House," so named from the occurrence, and finding they were largely outnumbered, after a few rounds retreated in the direction of Trenton. In the encounter two or three on either side were killed and wounded. Gen. McCook came on and occupied the town and sent a company of about 100 men in pursuit. They encountered Col. Sypert near Bainbridge, who charging drove them back on the main force.
Some time afterward, in the same year perhaps, Col. Thomas Wood- ward, then under suspension from his command, somewhere down South, for insubordination, with a small, irregular force approached the town from the south, and ordered his men to charge on the Federals then oc- cupying it. The men refusing to make the attack, and Woodward being under the influence of liquor, he put spurs to his horse and dashed in by himself. When near the corner of Main and Nashville streets, he reined in and sat looking about him, and while so engaged, was suddenly shot from an upper window of the two-story brick on the southwest corner, and instantly killed. His body was taken to Mrs. N. E. Gray's, a relative near by, and afterward interred in the Hopkinsville Cemetery by his friends .* Thus perished in the flower of his manhood, one of the bravest and most erratic of all the brave men who ever figured upon the soil of Christian County. Though not a native of the county, nor even of the State, he was largely identified with the interests of the community, hav- ing under him, from time to time, many of those who had gone from the county to follow the varying fortunes of the "lost cause."
Col. Thomas Woodward was a New Englander by birth, a West Pointer, and came to the county somewhere about the year 1847-48. He was a very accomplished scholar, and during the interim between his re- moval to the county and his joining the Southern army taught school at various points in the country. When the war broke out in 1861 he was among the first to respond and tender his services to the Confederacy, and remained actively engaged till his death, as above described. That he was both a cunning strategist as well as a cool, deliberate, hard fighter, is well attested by the following anecdote : Some time in the summer of 1862 Woodward with his command, then numbering some 200 or 300 men, dashed into Clarksville, Tenn., and surrounded the college building, where Col. Mason was encamped with a much larger command, and so
* It may be remarked, by way of coincidence, that Paul Fuller, policeman, who is said to have killed Woodward, was afterward himself killed on almost the same spot, by one Parker, who was subse- quently tried and acquitted.
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disposing of his forces as to impress the enemy with an exaggerated no- tion of his numbers, and planting a battery of mock pieces (logs painted and mounted upon wheels), which could not be distinguished in the early gray of the morning, sent in a demand for unconditional surrender. After some parleying Mason consented to the terms of capitulation, and turned over his command as prisoners of war. Learning the ruse that had been practiced upon him, but too late, he asked to be conducted into the pres- ence of his redoubtable captor. Imagine his surprise and chagrin when first confronted with the petit and almost insignificant figure of his antag- onist. A perfect Simon Tappertit in stature if not in legs, his long, flowing, unkempt locks of auburn hair, drooping mustache, and face and hands as black as a stevedore's, presented a picture at the same time " wild, weird and picturesque," if not ridiculous. His tout ensemble was further made up with a belted arsenal about his waist, a long, dangling saber, and an exaggerated pair of boots that seemed determined to swal- low him to the very chin. So absurd and uncouth was Woodward's ap- pearance at the time that, for the moment, the gallant but unfortunate Mason lost sight of his annoyance and mortification in the keener sense of the ludicrous that seized upon him. Approaching Woodward in a laughing way, he challenged him to go across the street to a gallery and have his photograph taken just as he was. Woodward acceded, had his picture taken, and generously presented his prisoner with a copy. Col. Mason on receiving it laughingly remarked: "I want to send it up North to my friends, to let them see to what a d-d insignificant little cuss I surrendered."
Confederates .- As this portion of the State was first occupied by the forces under Gen. S. B. Buckner, and the Confederates were probably the first to organize, it is only proper that they should have precedence of mention in this chapter.
The Oak Grove Rangers were organized and mustered into service June 25, 1861, near Camp Boone, Montgomery Co., Tenn., for a period of twelve months. They were officered as follows: Thomas G. Wood- ward, Captain; Darwin Bell, First Lieutenant ; Frank Campbell, Second Lieutenant, and J. M. Jones, Brevet Second Lieutenant. They numbered at the time about 130 of the very flower of the youth of Christian Coun- ty, who had been thoroughly armed and equipped at the expense of the citizens about Oak Grove. Among them were Austin Peay, present State Senator from this district; Frank Buckner, William McGuire; William A. Elliott, afterward Captain of Company A., Second Regiment ; B. F. and Henry Clardy, - Radford, Bob and Nat Owens, John Blankenship, William and Sim Nichols, William Blakemore, Robert Kelly, W. L. and B. S. Leavell, Thomas Smith, W. F. Gray, Robert Searcy, A. Lyle,
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George and Alex Bacon, Milton Seward, Tim Morton, - Hardin, Creed Hood, - Blanks, Frank Rogers, John Richie. - Kidd, Haz- ard Baker, afterward Brevet Second Lieutenant Company B; Bob Baker, Minus Parsley and Harvey Saunders.
Thus organized they moved in September, 1861. into Kentucky, in advance of Gen. Buckner's command from Camp Boone, Tennessee. At Bowling Green they went into camp with the rest of the army, and were at once assigned to duty as Companies A and B, First Regiment of Ken- tucky Cavalry, under Col. Ben Hardin Helm. Company B numbered about one hundred men at the time, and was officered as follows: Cap- tain, J. W. Caldwell ; First Lieutenant, W. A. Elliott ; Second Lieuten- ant, William Campbell ; Brevet Second Lieutenant, Hazard Baker. Shortly afterward Capt. H. C. Leavell arrived with another company of Christian County troops, numbering about one hundred men rank and file, and was assigned to duty as Company H in the same regiment. It was officered as follows : Captain, H. C. Leavell ; First Lieutenant, T. M. Bar- ker ; Second Lieutenant, W. T. Radford; Brevet Second Lieutenant, W. M. Bronaugh. Among the names of the privates are recalled : H. B. Garner, James Bronaugh, L. D. Watson, Mack and West Brame, John Brame, D. A. and W. T. Tandy, Warfield and Virgil Garnett, Sanford Brooks, William Jesup ; R. M. Dillard, now District Judge of Santa Bar- bara, California ; Marcellus Turnley, John H. Massie, W. G. Wheeler, D. A. Bronaugh, L. A. Watson; W. P. Winfree, present County Judge of Christian ; W. T. Williams, Marion Lane, Mack Carroll, M. Cavenaugh, Peyton Venable, Garland Quisenberry, R. Barnett, J. Vinson, J. C. Marquess, J. Wiltshire, Dell Rawlins, Dell Tandy, A. McRae, John Bar- ker, B. D. Lacky and A. O. Lackey.
After the evacuation of Kentucky by the Confederates, and while the troops were at Nashville, Capt. Joseph M. Williams joined Col. Helm's regiment with a company of about one hundred men, that had been re- cruited by Capt. Chas. E. Merriwether who had been killed in the fight at Sacramento, Ky,, between Forrest and Col. Eli H. Murray, and the command had devolved upon Williams. This company had also been in the fight at Fort Donelson, where, under the command of Forrest, it had borne a gallant part in that action, and afterward made its escape pending the capitulation.
The regiment followed the retreat to Alabama, and all the time were actively employed as scouts on the flanks and in the rear of Johnston's army. After the battle of Shiloh and while at Atlanta, Ga., Companies A and B, their time having expired, were disbanded and most of the men returned home for a season. While here two other companies were re- cruited for a period of twelve months, and the whole passed under the
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command of Col. Thomas G. Woodward. Though having but a small force under him, he did not remain idle, but in company with Col. Adam Johnson attacked and captured Clarksville, Tenn., as already stated, gar- risoned by Col. Mason. Shortly after, in September, he attacked the garrison at Fort Donelson under Major Hart, but was repulsed, and the next day was attacked in turn by Col. Lowe from Fort Henry with a largely superior force at the rolling-mills on Cumberland River. The mills had been burned to the ground by the Federals some time before, and Woodward, disposing of his small force, with one piece of artillery, under Capt. Garth, behind the debris, succeeded in repulsing him with the loss of twenty-nine killed and others wounded. The casualties on the Confeder- ate side are not remembered, but were comparatively slight.
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