USA > Kentucky > Historical sketches of Kentucky : embracing its history, antiquities, and natural curiosities, geographical, statistical, and geological descriptions with anecdotes of pioneer life, and more than one hundred biographical sketches of distinguished pioneers, soldiers, statesmen, jurists, lawyers, divines, etc. > Part 55
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The Virginia act of 1779, constituting the basis of the celebrated land laws of Kentucky, though originally drawn and reported to the legislature by George Mason, one of Virginia's most able statesmen. was so amended before its passage, as to destroy all system in the procuring of patents. and the consequence was much litigation in Kentucky, arising out of conflicting land claims. Many of our most eminent lawyers acquired great wealth by buying up contested claims, and from contingent fees. In these things, Mr. Rowan never indulged, conceiving them to be inimical to the high moral tone which should be preserved by the pro- fession, and tempting to oppression of the occupants of lands.
At an early age, he was called into public life, and was a member of the con- vention that formed the present constitution of Kentucky, in 1799. He was ap- pointed secretary of state in 1801. and in 1806 was elected to Congress from a district in which he did not reside. He took his seat in 1807, and served dur- ing the 11th Congress.
He was frequently a member of the State legislature, and in 1819, was ap- pointed a judge of the court of appeals. While on the bench, he delivered a learned and forcible opinion on the power of Congress to charter the bank of the United States in 1816. Not relishing the close confinement of the bench, in 1821 he resigned his seat. In 1823. he was appointed by the legislature, in con- junction with Henry Clay, a commissioner to defend what were called the oreu- pying claimant laws of the State, before the supreme court of the United States. The uncertainty of land titles under the Virginia laws before alluded to, had led to the enactment of laws by the Kentucky legislature, more favorable to the ur- cupant than the common law of England. These statutes were attacked before the supreme court. upon the ground that they violated the compart between Vir- ginia and Kentucky. The petition of the commissioners was drawn by Judge Rowan, and is dermed the ablest vindication of these laws ever published.
In 1824, he was elected to the senate of the United States, in which body he served for six years. On the 10th of April, 1896, be delivered a speech of great ability, on a bill further to amend the judiciary system of the United States, In 182%, he made a learned and powerful speech on the subject of imprisonment for debt. under process issned from the courts of the United States. It had been abolished in Kentucky in 1821, and yet he had seen it practiced by process from the federal courts in this State, in defiance of public sentiment
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The last public office Mr. Rowan filled was that of commissioner to adjust the claims of citizens of the United States against Mexico, under the convention of Washington of the lith of April, 1-39. In this office he labored with great as- siduity ; and when, upon an adjournment of the commission, he made a visit to his family in Kentucky, and from a temporary indisposition, was unable to return to Washington at the time appointed for the reassembling of the commissioners, he resigned his appointment. Upon the organization of the Kentucky Historical Society in 1838, he was elected president of that institution, and held the office until the period of his death. He died, after a short illness, at his residence in Louisville, on the 13th of July, 1813, in the seventieth year of his age.
Judge Rowan was a man devoted in his friendships and exceedingly urbane in his manners; kind and hospitable in all his relations. He possessed an impos- ing person and dignified bearing. His colloquial powers were of the highest or- der, and made him the life of every company in which he mingled.
Among the distinguished men, whom Jefferson county enrolls with her wor- thies, a prominent place belongs to Major General ZACHARY TAYLOR, of the Uni- ted States' ariny. Although not a Kentuckian by birth, he was brought by his parents to this State when only nine months old, and received his first impressions of the world amid the hardy hunters, the tall forests and romantic scenery of the dark and bloody ground.
His father, Colonel Richard Taylor, was a Virginian, and a distinguished sol- dier in the continental army during the war of the revolution. He received a commission in the first regiment of troops raised by the " Old Dominion," on the breking out of the war. He continued in the service until the army was dis- banded, and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was distinguished for his intrepid courage and imperturbable coolness in battle ; and possessed the faculty, so invaluable in a military leader, of inspiring his followers with the same dauntless spirit that animated his own terrible and resistless charge. After his removal to Kentucky, he was engaged in frequent contests with the Indians, until his name became a word of terror in every wig-wam from the Ohio to the Jakes.
In 1785, he removed with his family to Kentucky, and settled near the Falls of the Ohio, His son Zachary was at that time 9 months old. He was brought up and educated in the neighborhood, and grew up to manhood with the yell of the savage and the crack of the ritle almost constantly ringing in his ears. General Zachary Taylor may be literally said to have been cradled in war, nor have the dieds of his subsequent life done diseredit to his early training. He is a true son of the " land of blood." and has proved, in many stricken fields of death, how pure are the ancestral currents that flow through his veins.
He manifested, at an early age, a decided predilection for the profession of arms, and in 1508 was appointed a first lieutenant in the 7th regiment of U. S. infantry. Not long after, he joined the army at New Orleans, then under the command of General Wilkinson. In 1810 he was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Smith. of Maryland, a lady in all respects worthy of his affections. In the following November, he was promoted to the rank of captain. In 1811, he was placed in command of Fort Knox on the Wabash, in the vicinity of Vin- cennes. From this station he was ordered to the east, a short time before the battle of Tippecanoe. In 1-12 he received orders to take command of Fort Harrison, a post situated on the Wabash, seventy-five miles above Vincennes, and fifty miles beyond the frontier settlements. This was a most important trust for one of his age. But subsequent events proved the sagacity of the appointment.
While in command of Fort Harrison. Captain Taylor became the hero of one of the most desperate conflicts fought during the war. This frontier post was noth- ing more than a slight stockade, which had been thrown up by General Harrison in 1811, while on his march to Tippecanoe. The defences were of the most sim- ple and primitive kind. The whole was built of unseasoned timber ; and was formed on three sides by single rows of pickets ; the fourth side consisting of a range of log huts, appropriated as barracks for the soldiers, and terminated at either extreme by a block house. When Captain Taylor assumed the command of this rude fortification, it was exceedingly ill provided either for comfort or defence, and was garrisoned by a single broken company of infantry.
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The situation of the fort was unhealthy, and the officers and men entfernt greatly from disease. On the Ist of September the number of men fit for dily did not exceed fifteen ; and several of these were greatly disabled from recent indisposition. Captain Taylor was the only officer in the fort, and he was slowly recovering from a severe attack of the fever.
The Indians, in their frequent visits to the fort, had learned its weakness : and from reliable information received from his spies, Captain Taylor was induced to expect an attack. The crisis was most momentous. The Indian force on the Wabash was strong and increasing ; and demonstrations were visible of a hostile disposition in the whole north-western tribes. The frontier posts of Detroit. Mich- illimacinac and Chicago had already yielded to the prowess of the combined arms of the British and Indians, and the destruction of Fort Harrison would have removed the only obstacle to havoc and desolation along the whole border of Indiana.
On the 3d of September, 1812, two men were murdered by the Indians within a few hundred yards of the fort. Late on the evening of the 4th. between thirty and forty Indians arrived from the Prophet's town, bearing a white dag. They were principally chiefs, and belonged to the various tribes that composed the Prophet's party. Captain Taylor was informed that the principal chief would make him a speech the next morning, and that the object of their visit was to get something to eat. The plot was well conceived, and boldly executed : but it was instantly detected by the eagle eye of the young commander. and he redoubled hig exertions to put the fort in a proper state defence. The arins were examined and found to be in good order, and each man was furnished with sixteen rounds of cartridges. The guard was strengthened, and a non-commissioned officer ordered to walk around the inside of the garden during the night. These precautions were not uncalled for; the extreme darkness of the night rendering it difficult to discover the approach of the foe.
The premeditated attack, so craftily arranged, was made as expected. About eleven o'clock, Captain Taylor was awakened by the firing of one of the senti- nels. He immediately ordered the men to their posts, and the firing became gen- eral on both sides. In the midst of the uproar, it was discovered that the Indiens had set fire to the lower block house. Without a moment's hesitation, Captain Taylor directed buckets to be brought, and the fire to be extinguished. But i: was much easier to give the order, than to have it executed. The men appeared to be paralyzed and stupified. The alarm of fire had thrown the garrison into the greatest confusion, in the midst of which all orders were unheard or disto- garded. Unfortunately, there was a quantity of whiskey among the contractor's stores deposited in the block house, which having caught fire, caused the flames to spread with great rapidity, and rage with irresistible fury. During this time the Indians were not idle, but kept up an incessant and rapid discharge of rifles against the picketing, accompanied by a concert of the most infernal vells thet ever issued from the throat of man, beast or devil. The fire soon ascended to the roof of the block house, and threatened to wrap the whole fort in a sheet of fame. The men gave themselves up for lost, and ceased to pay any attention to ti orders. Disorder was at its height, and the scene became terrific. The fire raged and surged, and roared-the Indians howled and yelled-dogs barked-the woun- ded groaned ; and high above all, arose the shriek of woman in her terror. sending its keen and thrilling accents through the mingled sounds of battle-the warres end- ing forest, bathed in bloody light, returned a fiery glare, yet more appalling from the intense darkness of the night; and all combined made up a time of awill terror, before which the stoutest heart quailed and quaked. In the midst ! this pandemonium stood the youthful hero, like a living rock. firm and collected, rapid and decisive, at a single glance intuitively determining the order of the define". animating his comrades to confidence and constancy, and by the irresistible free of example, imparted a spirit of determined and courageous perseverance even to the weaker sex. The roof of the block house was thrown off ; the other buildings were kept wet, and by the greatest exertions the flames kept under. The opening made in the line of the defences by the burning of the block honse, was supplied by a temporary breastwork ; and after keeping up a constant are umil about six o'clock in the morning, the Indians retired. The loss of the garrison, in this affair, was only one man killed, and two wounded. That of the Indians was very considerable.
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The brilliant and successful defence of Fort Harrison, made such an impres- sion on the spirits of the tribes, that it arrested the march of the Indian forces, and preserved the lives of hundreds of women and children. The demonstrations of joy in Kentucky, upon the receipt of the intelligence, were universal. Cap- tain Taylor, for this affair, was promoted to the rank of Major by brevet. It was the first brevet conferred during the war; and never was similar reward more justly merited.
Major 'Taylor continued actively engaged in various departments of service in the west, constantly extending the sphere of his reputation and influence, until 1814, when he was placed temporarily at the head of the troops in Missouri, until the arrival of General Howard, the commanding officer ; and was busily employed on that frontier till the month of August. The territory of Missouri, at that tine, had been almost entirely abandoned by the government, and was consequently peculiarly exposed to Indian depredations. This rendered the ser- vice in which Captain Taylor was engaged. one of peculiar hardship and hazard. The British having taken Fort Shelby, at Prairie du Chien, had concentrated on the Upper Mississippi a combined force of regulars and Indians, preparatory to a descent on the American settlements. To encounter this force and protect the extensive frontier of Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, and keep in order the wes- tern and north-western tribes, General Howard had only ten companies of ran- gers, badly organised, and one hundred and twenty efficient regular troops.
The crisis was important and the urgency pressing. No time was to be lost ; and on the 22d of August, Major Taylor was sent with a detachment of three hundred and twenty men and a few pieces of artillery to the Indian villages at the mouth of Rock river, with instructions to destroy the villages, cut up the corn, disperse the inhabitants, and erect a fort in a situation to command the Mis- sissippi. If he should find it impracticable to reach his point of destination, he had orders to take up a position at the junction of the Des Moines and Missis- sippi rivers, and there establish a fortification.
When Major Taylor arrived at the mouth of Rock river, after a difficult voy- age up the Mississippi against a strong and rapid current, and through a region swarming with hostile savages, he found a detachment of British troops, well supplied with artillery, and an immense body of Indians armed and equipped for war, ready to receive him. Unable to return the fire of the British artillery with effect, and finding it impossible to accomplish the main purpose of his expe- dition, the American commander, after skirmishing some time with the Indians, dropped his boats down to the rapids of the Des Moines, and there, in pursuance of his orders, proceeded to erect a fort on a seite to command the Mississippi and the mouth of the Des Moines. This was attended with peculiar hazard. and almost incredible privation and toil; but the resolution and skill of the comman- der surmounted every obstacle, and enabled him to complete the work. It received the name of Fort Johnson, and from its position in the heart of the Indian coun- try, hecame a post of great importance to the safety and tranquillity of the frontier.
In October, Major Taylor was recalled to St. Louis by the sudden death of General Howard ; and in November, accompanied Colonel Russell several bun- dred miles up the Missouri, to relieve a small settlement much exposed to Indian depredations. In December he was transferred to Vincennes, and assumed the command of the troops in Indiana, where he remained until the termination of the war. A short time before the conclusion of peace, he had been promoted to a majority in the 26th regiment of infantry, and ordered to join the regiment at Plattsburg: but when the ariny was disbanded, he was retained on the ppare es- tahlishment with only the rank of captain. Declining to come into this arrange- ment, he resigned his commission, and retired to his farm near Louisville.
In 1916, he was reinstated in the army with his original rank, and placed in command of Fort Crawford, at the month of Fox river. which empties in Green Bay. He continued in the command of various posts in the west until the breaking ont of the Black Hawk war in 1832, when he was again called into ac- tive service. In 1932 he was promoted to the rank of colonel, and served under General Atkinson in his various campaigns against the Indians. It is scarcely necessary to say that, in this service, he fully sustained his high military reputa- tion. He commanded the regulars in the bloody and decisive battle of the Wis-
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consin, which resulted in the capture of Black Hawk and the Prophet, and termi- nated the war.
In 1836, Colonel Taylor was ordered to Florida, at that time the scene of a bloody war between the United States and the Seminole and other tribes of south- ern Indians. This war, perhaps, was the most extraordinary in which the United States was ever engaged. It had been protracted from year to year at an immense expense of blood and treasure, unsignalized by any decided advantage; and when Colonel Taylor was transferred to that theatre, there appeared no better . prospect of its termination than at its first commencement. Our best and bravest officers had sunk under the hardships of a service in which no glory was to be won, and which presented no inducement to skill and courage, but patriotism. In this vexatious and exhausting service, Colonel Taylor soon became distin- guished for zeal, energy, activity and indomitable hardihocd. The uniform poli- cy of the Indians had been to avoid battle ; directing their operations against small detachments and isolated individuals, thus destroying our force in detail, without incurring the hazard of a defeat. This plan of carrying on the war. Col- onel Taylor resolved to terminate, and bring the Indians to a battle at all hazards.
On the 19th of December, 1836, he learned that the savages under the noted chiefs Alligator and Sam Jones, had selected a situation deemed impregnable, where they had determined to await an attack. Upon the receipt of this intelli- gence, he struck into the wilderness, with about a thousand men, and twelve days' rations, with the intention of assailing the enemy in their strong hold. On the 25th of December, he arrived at the place where the Indians were posted, on the lake Okeechobee. The Indian line was formed in a dense hammock, the only approach to which was by a swamp three-quarters of a mile wide, covered with a growth of grass five feet high. and knee deep in mud and water. Undisinaved by the obstacles which opposed his advance. Colonel Taylor resolved to make the attack without delay. The boldness and hardihood of the man, were never more signally displayed than on this occasion. The advantages were all against him ; and any man of less nerve would have hesitated long before ordering an attack on such a position under such circumstances. But it is one of the peculiar characteristics of this officer never to yield to difficulties, however formidable. He had marched his troops for five days through an almost impassable wilder- ness, and encountered incredible privation and toil, to bring his enemy to battle ; and now that he had found him, he was not the man to abandon the design of his expedition. A large portion of his troops were raw volunteers. untried in battle, and upon whom he could place only a precarious dependence. But he had with him a body of five hundred regulars, with whom he was well acquainted, and upon whom he knew he could rely.
At half past twelve o'clock the troops were formed in order of battle and ad- vanced to the attack. To the volunteers, at their own request, the post of honor was assigned in front. Before the men could close with the enemy, they had to pass the swamp spoken of above. and struggle through the thingled morass, within point blank shot of seven hundred concealed and practiced Indian marksmen. Upon receiving the fire of the Indians, the volunteers broke their line and fled with precipitation. Opening their ranks to let the retreating soldiers pass through, the regulars immediately closed up, and pressed forward firnily in the face of the tempest of balls which hailed from the thicket in front. and cheered on by their officers, faltered not until they had passed the swamp, and drove the Indians trom their coverts at the point of the bayonet. The savages fought with despension. and contested every inch of ground with a cool, determined bravery, worthy of trained soldiers. Slowly and sullenly they retired, step by step. before the steady and overwhelming charge of the regulars, and when their live was broken and the battle lost, they still continued to pour upon the advancing troops, from every bush and thicket and covert, a shower of balls which loaded the earth with heaps of dead. The struggle lasted from half past twelve o'clock until three, P. M .. and was terribly severe throughout the whole time. The slaughter among the officers was immense. Colonel Taylor himself was constantly exposed to the most mani- nent danger; but refusing to dismount from his horse, which rendered him a con- spicuous mark for the enemy's ritles, he continued to ride through that tornado of balls, which hurtled in the air like hail stones, as calmly as if on parade. This battle was the most successful of the war. The victory was complete, and con-
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tributed more than any other event, to subdue the spirit of the tribes and dispose them for peace. The Indian force in this engagement was seven hundred strong, while the detachment commanded by Colonel Taylor numbered only about five hundred effective men. The loss was very severe; more than one-fourth of the whole number engaged being killed and wounded.
For this affair. Colonel Taylor was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General by brevet, and made his head quarters at Tampa Bay. The Indians were so much broken in spirit by their defeat, that they did not afford him another opportunity of meeting them in a general battle. and the residue of his time in Florida passed without his being engaged in any affair of striking interest.
In Ioil, General Taylor was transferred to the command of the second depart- ment on the Arkansas. where he remained until the difficulties with Mexico pre- sented a new and broader field for the display of those powers which had been developed by a long career of arduous and devoted service, and were now matured. The battles of Pal. Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey and Buena Vista. fought since the commencement of this war, while they have given new lustre to the American arms, have made General Taylor known to the civilized world as one of the first commanders of the age.
Government having determined to establish an army of observation on the south- western frontier, General Taylor was selected for that command. He was directed to take a position between the Nueces and the Rio Grande ; and in August, 1545, established his eamp at Corpus Christi. Here he remained until the 11th of March. Isto, when he was instructed to march his force to the east bank of the Rio Grande. At the Rio Colorado, he was encountered by the Mexican authorities, and tatorined that an attempt to cross that river would be followed by actual hos- wittes. He crossed. nevertheless; and leaving his army on its march, advanced with a body of dragoons to Point Isabel. near the mouth of the Rio Grande, where he established a camp, and received supplies for his army. Having rejoined the main body of his armny, General Taylor proceeded to take up a position on the eastern bar' of the Rio Grande, opposite Matamoras, which he fortified. This post subsequently received the name of Fort Brown.
The communication between Fort Brown and Point Isabel, having been inter- rupted by the interposition of large forces of Mexicans between those points, Gen- eral Taylor, on the Ist of May, leaving a small but determined force in possession of Fort Brown, marched the main body of his army to Point Isabel, determined to open the communication. On the 3d of May. he reached Point Isabel without interruption : and on the 7th of the same month started again for Fort Brown. He had with him a force of less than 2,300 men ; two eighteen pounders. drawn by oxen: and Ringgold's and Duncan's batteries of light artillery.
At a place called Palo Alto, about twelve miles from Pout Isabel. he encoun- tered. on the Ath of Mav. a force of 6000 Mexican regulars, provided with ten pieces of arullery. and supported by a considerable body of rancheros.
The Mexicans were drawn up in a line of battle, extending a mile and a half across the plain, and outflanking the American ariny at either extremne. The lan- cers were posted in advance on the lett. their arms glittering in the meridian sun, and presenting a most brilliant and martial appearance. The rest of the line was formed by the infintry and artillery.
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