USA > Kentucky > Madison County > Glimpses of historic Madison County, Kentucky > Part 15
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"There was bitter skirmishing all through the area, and un- marked graves and rusty guns can still be found on occasion there.
"Fee's narrative does not make clear where Mrs. Fee spent the first night. Apparently it was in the region of Red Licks. She had a Union Flag on her carriage and her manner and sincerity enabled her to get a pass the next day to go through to Berea which was still in Federal hands. She got home that night, (apparently August 27), made a straw tick to sleep on, borrowed a blanket, and lay down for the night. The country was quiet in the hush that falls before a battle, with wild rumors of marching armies everywhere.
"The next morning the ridge had changed hands, and Confed- erates were swarming all around it. On the 27th or a day or two earlier Smith had advanced almost to Richmond, and demanded the surrender of the city, but Nelson had sent reinforcements of about 7,000 men under General M. D. Manson and Charles Cruft, Manson being in command, which arrived that same day, and Smith retired to Kingston and began digging the trenchworks which can still be seen in the creek there.
"Mrs. Fee hid the horse and the carriage in the woods, wrapped up her silver spoons in her Union flag, hid them under the eaves in the gutter, and went to a neighbor's to borrow cooking utensils.
"No sooner was she gone than a group of Confederates raided the house, taking the borrowed blanket, her best shoes (she had only two pairs) Burett's hat, and the harness for the horse. The taking of the blanket and the harness is easily understandable, but when some southern soldier turned up for inspection in Mrs. Fee's shoes and her little boy's hat, he must have created a minor sensation.
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Or, perhaps, he had a wife and little boy of his own at home.
"Rogers had gotten in at the same time as Mrs. Fee- August 27. He set about repairing the house in order to have it rcady for the return of his family. Thousands of Confederate soldiers were camped all around the Berea ridge, living partially on their own provisions and partly off the country.
"The first day after they arrived, Rogers was on the roof nailing down shingles when batteries of cannon opened up in the vicinity of Kingston, and heavy rifle fire followed. The first of the skirmishes of the Battle of Richmond had begun.
"On the day before, August 29, Smith had made another advance on Richmond. Manson placed Cruft in charge of the city, and moved his own contingent south and threw out pickets. When Smith moved forward Manson left Cruft to hold the rear and ad- vanced on Kingston, turning back the southerners and throwing out a battle line to either side of the old Richmond pike about two miles south of town. Smith made a minor attack that after- noon (presumably the firing Rogers heard) and was driven back with some few losses.
"Manson established Union headquarters at Rogersville, where the old railroad depot stands near the present Ordnance Depot, and that night ordered Cruft to move forward out of Richmond and join him in the lines.
"Fee had just gotten to Richmond with Howard. He hired a horse on the stipulation that he would not ride him into Con- federate lines, and started to Berea, getting about 7 miles of the way when he found that the Southern lines lay across his path. Unable to get through, and responsible for the horse, he went back to Richmond to wait the outcome of the military engagement.
"General Nelson was still in Lexington. The next morning, August 30, Smith threw his army in full force at Manson's left flank. Manson reinforced it but at the same time his right began to give way, and the Union officer was not able to hold off the Confederate attack. He attempted to re-form his troops on a road a mile to the rear, but the terrain was difficult for the purpose and ultimately the Union defense was laid out along the previous line of several days earlier at the highest mark of Smith's first advance against the city. It was during this phase of the battle that Mt. Zion church was a Federal military hospital, and
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that the cannon holes to be seen there were shot through.
"Against the last Union line Smith concentrated the full weight of his army, 16,000 Confederates against 7,000 Union men, many of them new recruits. On the rolling grounds which are now Rich- mond Cemetery and the land closely adjoining it the armies of the North and South met with a ferocity which came near to equalling the worst of Gettysburg and Chickamauga.
"Richmond was in chaos. It was dry and hot, and the units of cavalry, munitions wagons and ambulances, thundering hoofs and flying harness threw up choking clouds of dust. The air was heavy with the sound of gunfire to the south of the city. It was impossible for Fee to tell whether to retreat to Lexington or to stay in Richmond and hope for a turn in the fighting and a chance to go on home.
"General Nelson arrived and personally assumed command of the Union Army. His presence came too late. He was twice wounded; his army cut to pieces, and its scattered units fled to the north, headed for Lexington.
"This determined Fee's actions. It was obviously impossible to think of going on to Berea, and he and the boy went back to Lexington with the remnants of the Army and then on to Bracken County, where Howard was left at his grandfather's while Fee went on to Augusta.
"The Battle of Richmond cost the United States 2,825 men, killed, wounded, and captured. [See senior author's estimate of Union losses above] Kirby Smith for less than a third of that number lost had driven the Federal Flag from central Kentucky and for the time being had done well toward making good his bid to dominate the state .- By Warren Dean Lambert of Berea College.
THE 11TH KENTUCKY CAVALRY, C. S. A.
As might be expected under the circumstances many young men of Madison County, who, for one reason or another, had not yet entered the Confederate service before the Battle of Rich- mond, responded to General Kirby Smith's call for a regiment of cavalry to be recruited from Madison and adjoining counties. It appears that on Sunday, August 31, the day following the battle, the movement to recruit this regiment got under way. On
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that day certain influential men of Madison County recommended David Waller Chenault, a farmer who lived near Foxtown, as the most suitable person to organize this cavalry unit.
Ten days later (September 10) the regiment consisting of nine companies of some 800 men was organized at a sort of barbecue and picnic in a grove on the Big Hill pike near and beyond Woodlawn, the old home of Colonel William Rodes (built in 1822. See the county map). Because of the fine spring and other favorable conditions this location was suitable to army encamp- ments, and both Federals and Confederates took advantage of it.
In the final organization of the regiment (November 9, near Knoxville) David W. Chenault was elected Colonel; Joseph T. Tucker of Winchester, Lieutenant Colonel; and James B. McCreary of Madison County, Major. The regiment was soon (accepted on November 18) joined to General John H. Morgan's cavalry brigade. Chenault was killed while bravely fighting at Green River Bridge on July 4, 1863, and Tucker and McCreary were advanced to colonel and lieutenant colonel, respectively. Still later (July 19) at Buffington Ford in Ohio above the rapids at the mouth of the Kanawha about one-half of Morgan's command was captured and in a few days Morgan and others of his force surrendered.
Morgan and about sixty of his officers were placed in the penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio. The most of the soldiers were confined at Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio, and Camp Douglas, then in the environs of Chicago. For more than a year, therefore, many of the Boys in Gray from Madison County were confined as prisoners of war.
A MADISONIAN'S RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT
A True Kentuckian. The Provost Marshal of the Eighth District of Kentucky, having called upon those whom he had enrolled to show cause for exemption-if cause there were-was waited on by a large crowd, nearly all of whom were rebels, many of them having served several months in the rebel army, but considered themselves unfit for the hardships of the tented field. Hereupon, the Provost Marshal was favored with the following letter:
"Richmond, Ky., December 17, 1863 "Captain Robert Hays, Provost Marshal Eighth District, London, Kentucky:
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"Dear Sir: I have seen your advertisement giving the people desiring exemption from the coming draft an opportunity to lay in their complaints, &c. Now, sir, I have never had the honor of your acquaintance, but I can refer you, for the truth of what I am about to say, to my worthy friend, James D. Foster, surgeon [of Richmond], and a member of your honorable Board. My com- plaints are as follows, viz .:
"I have no broken limbs. I have no chronic diseases, such as inflammatory rheumatism, chronic inflammation of the stomach, phthisic, white swelling, &c. I am not blind in either eye. I am not knock-kneed. I am not bandy-shanked. I am not bowlegged. I have no bad teeth, and can bite of a cartridge. I stand straight on my pastern joints. I have never been drilled in the Southern army, and never been so fortunate as to belong to the sympathizing party in Madison. I have no impediment in my speech. I am neither near- sighted nor far-sighted. I can hear well; I can hear the ring of a musket as well as the ring of a silver dollar. In short, I am sound in wind and limb. I am about twenty-eight years old. I am a housekeeper, and have a wife (a good Union woman), and no children living. I am a citizen of Madison County, Kentucky, from which you want two hundred and thirty-nine soldiers. I am as brave as any man who is no braver than I am. One of my legs is as long as the other, and both are long enough to run well. I am for the 'last man and the last dollar,' 'nigger or no nigger'; especially the last man. If you have a good musket marked 'U.S.', send it down here, and I am ready to bear it in defence of the Union. I ạm no foreigner, and claim all the papers that entitle me to 'go in.'
"WILLARD DAVIS."
-Moore, Frank: Anecdotes, Poetry, and Incidents of the War, p. 334: Verbatim from the Author's Old Cane Springs, etc., pp. 208-9
REMINISCENCES
In the Madison County Order Book M (1859-1864), page 427, in large bold script is the following entry: 'On Monday 1 day of September, 1862, there was no County Court held for the County Court of Madison, the State having been invaded by the rebels, and the town of Richmond having been invested by a portion of their forces under the rebel General E. Kirby Smith, after having defeated the Union forces under Gen. Wm. Nelson on the pre-
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ceding Saturday in the Great battle of Richmond.' The Courthouse was a hospital for a few days and court was not held until Sep- tember 13.
Mt. Zion Church on the Big Hill pike was struck by a cannon ball during the battle but it was not seriously damaged. The brick home of Thomas Palmer nearby, however, did not fare so well, for it was struck several times and needed considerable repairing after the battle. With a little effort this old home can be seen a few hundred yards back of the church. The forty or more soldiers who were buried in one grave near the church were soon rein- terred in the Richmond cemetery, but, as stated, what remained of their bodies in each instance was removed in 1868 to the national cemetery at Camp Nelson.
Mr. S. D. Parrish, an attorney of Richmond, stated that he and his mother rode one horse into town the next day after the battle. They passed into the cemetery as they came from their home on the Irvine pike and saw a number of dead men lying about. One handsome young fellow, whose gun appeared to have been made small to accommodate its owner, so impressed the little boy that he could still visualize the tragic scene of that warm August morning. Mr. Parrish also stated that his parents kept two wounded soldiers-a Federal and a Confederate-in their home until they were sufficiently recovered to go their respective ways. He saw the two men shake hands on the day of their departure and turn their steps, one toward the North and the other toward the Southland. Their parting words were not heard.
Mrs. Margaret Jane (R. C.) Boggs, whose maiden name was Turley, who lived on the eastern outskirts of Richmond, in 1862, and who was in 1936 nearly ninety-two years old, described to the author the horrors of this battle, especially the suffering of the wounded and dying. She visited the Madison Female Institute on one of the exceedingly warm days when the building was crowded with disabled soldiers, whose groans rent the air as their limbs were being amputated, and whose cries for water were pitiful to hear.
Mrs. Boggs also related having seen Confederates wearing the clothing of Union soldiers, whose dead bodies they had stripped. The garments had been turned inside out. She heard one Con- federate say, 'I'm Yank within but Reb without.' Evidently Smith's
Mt. Zion Church, built in 1852. Many Union soldiers were buried near it after the Battle of Richmond, August 30, 1862.
Madison Female Institute, 1857-1917. Used as a hospital for a time after the Battle of Richmond, August 30, 1862. Now the site of Madison High School.
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men were poorly clad and were also thinking of the winter months ahead of them. She further stated that her brother, Robert Turley, gave a Union soldier a suit of clothes in which to make his escape. The soldier's uniform then became a possession not to be coveted and was disposed of.
The home of Robert Cornelison which still stands, but re- modeled, on Big Hill Avenue near the pond of the Richmond Ice Company, was also used as a hospital for three weeks. Mrs. Mar- garet Ann Adams, a daughter of Mr. Cornelison, who was (1936) in her eight-fifth year, stated that her parents and their children lived with a bachelor uncle named William Boggs until their home was vacated. When they returned there remained only one pillow of all their bedding. Bandages for the wounded and shrouds for the dead had depleted the entire supply. Their carpets had to be burned and the place was greatly disordered.
Mr. Cornelison was a Union sympathizer, however, and took his loss as his contribution to the cause, never lodging a claim against the government for damages, as did the Madison Female Institute. He soon found it necessary after returning home to re- bury arms and legs which the dogs dug up near the fence around the place. It should be noted that the fine spring near Mr. Cornel- ison's home was a great boon to the soldiers on those warm Sep- tember days.
It is interesting to know that the Federals gave the name Camp Boggs to the grounds which they occupied near Richmond. The place was near Woodlawn and its fine spring on the Big Hill pike. This old E. C. Boggs farm is now the home of County Clerk J. B. Arnett. It was in its vicinity that the Eleventh Kentucky Cavalry (David W. Chenault's regiment) was temporarily organized on September 10, 1862-Verbatim from the author's Old Cane Springs, pp. 191-3.
AN AFTERMATH
The Court House and its yard at Richmond have witnessed many unpleasant scenes in its more than 100 years of existence. During and after the Battle of Richmond, many wounded were cared for within the building and prisoners from the Federal army were con- fined within the iron fence about the courtyard. This same fence today graces the Main Street side of the Richmond cemetery.
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Perhaps the most desperate of all post war events took place on January 13, 1866, when two factors faced each other for the first time after the war.
In the November election of 1865, George W. Ballow, Sr., Re- publican, was declared elected to the Legislature over A. J. Mer- shan, a Democrat. The election was contested and a new election was held at the Court House. The two factions, the Kavanaughs and the Parrishes, met there on that day and 75 to 100 shots were fired in which four men, Henry Parrish, Amas Worlds, A. Doty, and Arch Maupin were killed outright and several others wounded. Humphrey Kavanaugh was removed to the home of a friend on the Irving pike where he was recovering, but was killed one week later by a shot fired through the window. Years later one of the Parrish women confessed on her death bed that it was she who had killed him. One year later Ed Parrish was killed as an aftermath of the courthouse fight.
The above tragedy was a culmination of the horrors experienced during the war. The Kavanaughs had fought in the Confederate army while the Parrishes had served in the Federal army. The house of Charles Kavanaugh had been repeatedly searched by the Parrishes whom the older Kavanaugh had greatly befriended at an early time, and on their last visit the old gentleman had been struck by one of the Parrishes. The Kavanaugh sons and Doty grandsons sought retaliation at this their first meeting after the war .- The French Tipton Papers.
HUMANITY APPRECIATED AND ACKNOWLEDGED
The French Tipton Papers, which have contributed much to this volume, contain the following clipping from the Richmond Climax: The resolutions mentioned have not been found. Judge Robb's letter is most likely among the hundreds of letters in the Tipton Papers.
"Judge J. M. Robb, of Williamsport, Indiana, a private in the 71st Indiana Regiment, engaged in the battle of Richmond, Ky., 30 August 1862, now Judge of the Williamsport Circuit Court, writing to French Tipton concerning the Union killed, closes his letter with the subjoined evidence of appreciation.
"And I can say that a great many more would have died from the same cause (wounds received in the battle) had it not been
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for the humane and generous action of the noble hearted people of Richmond and Madison county, who took our sick and wounded boys into their houses and nursed many of them back to life and health.
"At the last meeting of our Regimental Association, this matter was called up and resolutions passed expressive of our appreciation of this generous treatment of our comrades by the people of your city and county; and a copy of the resolutions ordered transmitted to the Mayor of Richmond with a request for its publication in the papers of the city. I hope our Secretary has not neglected to attend to it.
"There are many painful memories connected with the battle of Richmond for all of us of the 71st Indiana, but the treatment our wounded received after the battle was over is a bright spot in the dark picture."
THE ROMANCE OF A KEEPSAKE ALBUM
After the Battle of Richmond a paroled Union soldier, Robert Thrall of the 95th Ohio (Kirksville, Ohio), strolled through the Madison courthouse. In one of the offices he picked up a keepsake album belonging to Miss Clara B. Wherritt, whose home was on the site of the post office and federal court building. The book was a beautiful work of its kind with many illustrations and nearly full of expressions of affection for Miss Wherritt, written often in excellent penmanship. The first entries were in 1857.
Like soldiers of all wars, Robert Thrall, evidently, was seeking trophies to take to his home. The young man found the precious sentimental item of a young woman's fancy an interesting "keep- sake" himself, and he surely exhibited it many times, until it came into the possession of his brother-in-law, L. A. Austin. This man decided, in 1886, that he would return it to its rightful owner. Accordingly he wrote to the postmaster at Richmond inquiring about Miss Wherritt. The postmaster informed Austin that the lady had married F. W. Olds and lived in Lancaster, the county seat of the adjoining County of Gerrard.
When Mrs. Olds received a letter from Austin, who offered to return the album, she wrote the gentleman a very warm letter, dated April 14, 1886: "Your letter," she said "has afforded me ... the most pleasant surprise of my life. In [your] telling me of my
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album [you seemed to be an] old friend heard from. I had won- dered so often and so vaguely what had become of it. I treasured it very highly, ... and at the time of the Battle of Richmond a friend had it at the Court House, where it was lost. I shall be sorry to deprive yourself and family of it, .. . , but I am so anxious to see it again and treasure it for the sake of 'ye olden time' [that] I can scarcely wait to see it. I married in 1862 and have an only daughter, now almost grown; she would value it greatly . .. for the won- derful way in which it has been restored."
Mrs. Olds closed her message by asking Mr. Austin and his wife to write something appropriate in the Album before returning it. At Granville, Ohio on April 23, 1886, Mrs. Austin wrote: "This little book came to be one of our household treasures over twenty years ago .... It has even found a place on our parlor table, witness- ing many sad events as well as happy ones. ... It came to be one of my household treasures. It came as an old and valued friend. We return it to you cheerfully and wish it might tell its own story of its travels in the rebellion and of its sojourn in the North. May the return to its owner bring her much pleasure is the wish of her friend. Hattie Thrall Austin."
Three days later Mr. Austin wrote more briefly: "Little Book, you are going home where kind and loving friends will greet you. May you take peace and happiness into that home. And may your former owner enjoy many happy hours in perusing your pages filled with so much true love and friendship."
What a romance this "Keepsake Album" suggests!
Some twenty years ago Mrs. Old's daughter, Mrs. Storms of Lancaster told the story of the Album to the author and gave him the treasure to be preserved in the College Museum. There it re- mains with many other trophies of the War between the States. A clipping, apparently from a Granville, Ohio, newspaper, pasted in the album also tells the book's story.
CHAPTER XIII
Songs of Freedom
THE CHANGING WORLD
In 1849, two of the leading citizens of Madison County were Squire Turner and Cassius M. Clay. Turner was in favor of retaining slavery in the State; Clay desired the emancipation of the slaves, and opposed the election of Turner as delegate to a convention to make a new constitution for Kentucky. Clay mortally wounded Cyrus Turner, son of Squire, during a speaking at Foxtown during the campaign. Turner was elected and led the convention in making a constitution that saddled slavery more firmly on the State. Kentucky entered the 1850's, therefore, after a struggle over slavery in the Commonwealth.
The Compromises on slavery of 1850 excited Kentuckians still further, and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill before Congress in 1853-54, repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which denied slavery north of 36° 30' kept the pot boiling. The civil war in Kansas follow- ing the legislation of 1854 added fuel to the flame. The Republican Party began to organize, in 1854-55, to oppose the expansion of slavery in the territories. Out of all these controversies grew the movement resulting in the founding of the village of Berea and the school that became Berea College.
The owners of slaves believed as squire Turner stated in the con- stitutional convention of 1849, that the social and economic welfare of the County and State depended on defeating the opponents of slavery. Even some Negroes apparently thought their hap- piness depended on their masters' planning for them. Yet there were instances when masters freed their slaves and other in- stances when slaves saved their meager earnings in money and bought their freedom.
Some Negroes evidently believed their lot was better in bondage than in freedom. In the senior author's Old Cane Springs (p. 9) "Aunt Millie" describes the plight of free Negroes to a youth who apparently believed in emancipation. In her characteristic dia- lect she says: "'I tells you, honey-chile, a free nigger ain't no good, an' dem white folks dat am cuttin' up 'bout it'll find it out
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w'en dey come down heah. A free nigger gits so he don't love nobody an' nobody loves a free nigger. De good Lawd nevah 'tended it dat way. A nigger can't t'ink 'bout layin' up. He can work good, but de t'inkin' an' de plannin' an' de layin' up fur winter an' a rainy day must be done by old marse. Ef all de niggers wuz set free-you's young an' you'll see dat it's wuss fur de nigger.'"
Moreover, the Negro slave preacher Jake in his sermon (Old Cane Springs, pp. 95-97) at the funeral of "Aunt Creech Sally" took his text from the sixth chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians: " Servants be obedient to them who are your masters according to the flesh. " In his admonitions to both masters and slaves in his audience he expounds the virtues of slavery and finally concludes with these words: "'I know that neither master nor servant in this community wants any change in the present state of affairs. It may be, however, that the Great Ruler of the Universe has a hand in it all and may bring about a change, as some believe will happen; but we all agree, both masters and servants, that all this effort to bring about discontentment and strife among us is the work of the evil one. May the Lord bring his efforts to confusion and naught, and may we live in peace until it pleases Him to give us a better dwelling place, eternal in the heavens!'"
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