USA > Kentucky > History of Kentucky, Volume II > Part 46
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Southwestern Kentucky suffered most from dishonest manipulations
86 Ibid., 145.
87 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 144; Acts of Kentucky, 1863, p. 11 for Bram- lette's message to the Legislature, January 4, 1865, containing his observations on the affair.
88 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 153.
88 Ibid., 144, 145.
90 Ibid., 145.
91 In message to Legislature, January 4, 1865, in Senate Journals, 1865, p. 12. 92 Ibid., II.
93 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 143.
94 Quoted in Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 156.
85 Bramlette wrote to Lincoln November 14, 1864: "I regret that General Burbridge is pursuing a course calculated to exasperate and infuriate, rather than pacify and conciliate." "This system inaugurated by him of trade permits, has been most shamefully carried out in some places. Although his published orders
seem fair enough, yet the manner of its execution revolts the public sense, * * * Many loyal men are driven out of business after having paid the tax and obtained
a license, and for no other reason than their political preferences." Ibid., 147. 98 Shaler, Kentucky, 353.
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of trade regulations. Toward the end of the war, when guerrillas infested the region, the military commander of the district decided to make the in- habitants responsible for the guerrilla depredations. He forbade anyone shipping cotton or tobacco out or bringing any supplies in, until the people of the district had driven out completely the guerrillas.97 In July of 1864, E. A. Paine was placed in command of this region, with head- quarters at Paducah. He succeeded in winning the bitterest ill-will of the Kentuckians, which lasted long in their memory. He announced that only loyal people would be allowed to trade, and decided he would carry it out by levying a tax of $10 on every hogshead of tobacco or bale of cotton, and a tax assessment of 25 per cent ad valorem on all cotton which had ever been the property of a disloyal person. And "heavy sums were paid for permits, which, if admissible, should have freely been granted, and, if improper, should have, of course, been refused." 98 Bank checks were not to pass and be paid unless approved by Paine or his agents, and for doing this a fee of 50 cents was collected on every check. A standing charge of 10 cents was made on all letters, newspapers, or packages that were allowed to leave Paducah. In some instances 50 cents was exacted from soldiers for the permission of sending letters to their families.99 Paine should not be condemned so much for making the life of the dis- loyal difficult, but rather for enriching himself at the expense of the loyal and disloyal alike, and completely upsetting the commercial relations of the region.
The successive military raids into the state had their reflection in the commercial organization of the people. The rivers of the state afforded important highways for many areas as well as important facilities for the Federal armies in transporting their provisions.100 The destruction of this trade attracted Confederate raiding parties, and raiders bent on other purposes always found time to disorganize as far as possible this traffic. The locks that made many of the rivers navigable were special objects for destruction.101 Steamers were easy prey.102 This practice became so uncomfortably common on the Lower Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers, that the Federal Government was forced to resort to a river patrol of gunboats.103 These boats generally were protected with iron plates. Forrest's raiders were particularly troublesome on the Mississippi River below Columbus (Kentucky).104 For a time steamers operated on the Tennessee under the convoy system.105 In 1863 Morgan's raid caused a suspension of river traffic between Louisville and Cincinnati, until spe- cial patrol service could be organized.106
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which had been of great value during the summer of 1861 to the Confederates, later became to them an object for destruction. Immediately after it had been closed by the Federal authorities at Louisville, Gen. Simon B. Buckner, in command of the Confederate forces around Bowling Green, seized eleven locomotives, ninety-four box cars, fifty-four flat cars, and vari- ous other kinds of railway equipment and supplies. The damage done
97 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 134.
96 Reports of legislative investigation committee in Senate Journals, 1865, pp. 26, 27. 99 Ibid., 28.
100 "Special Report of the Board of Internal Improvement to the General As- sembly of Kentucky" in Documents, 1864, No. 17, pp. 1-7.
101 "Special Report of Board of Internal Improvement to the General Assembly of Kentucky" in Documents, 1864, No. 17, pp. 10-15. Cincinnati Daily Commercial, Sept. 13, 1862.
102 Ibid., Aug. 28, 1861.
103 Ibid., Nov. 25, 1861.
104 Official Records, Series I, Vol. XXVI, Part I, p. 862.
105 See Ibid., Vol. XXXI, Part I, p. 798.
106 Cincinnati Daily Commercial, July 11, 1863.
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the railroad throughout the war amounted to over a quarter million dollars.107 This road was the object of successive raids throughout the war.108
In order to cope with these raids and other situations that arose, martial law was declared in July, 1863.109 This further disorganized the commercial affairs of the people. In order that raiding parties might not be attracted by large stores of provisions, the Federal Treas- ury agents gauged the amount of merchandise of all kinds that should be allowed to go to certain towns. Only $34,000 worth was permitted monthly for Lexington and Fayette county. No merchant was allowed to engage in the wholesale business or to have more than two months' supplies on liand at any time.110 During certain times of danger all Lexington business was ordered closed at four in the afternoon in order to give the citizens an opportunity for military training.111 Bragg's invasion of the state in 1862 had shown how easy it was for the Confederates to strip the country of provisions. An observer de- clared that two and a half days were required for his retiring army train to pass a given point.112
Boards of trade and their permits, Confederate raids, and the vari- ous machinations of provost marshals, all had their reflex in the com- mercial life of the people; but one of the best barometers of commer- cial conditions was Louisville, their chief city. Here the war was ush- ered in with a highly stimulated trade to the south. The vicissitudes of the city's commercial condition were in many respects those of the state at large. When the Federal trade restrictions had been drawn tighter about the city's trade going south, by sealing the Louisville and Nashville and requiring permits for steamers going down the Ohio, Louisville was faced with commercial depression if not disaster. One much interested in her trade said, "If travel on the Ohio river is to be stopped, or its navigation suspended, a few days' notice ought to be given, so we may have a little time to close up our business, fold our arms and die gracefully." 113 The river business was soon so crippled and disorganized that a river report could say in October of 1861, "Our wharf, in a business point of view, presents a very disconsolate appear- ance." 114
But the city did not fold its "arms and die gracefully." There was always a certain amount of traffic going south, which seemed very con- siderable to those who were trying to stop it.115 By the beginning of 1862 prosperity was returning to the city, as great as had ever been enjoyed before, but of a different kind. With the arrival of large Federal forces in Kentucky, Louisville came to be the most important army base in this region, where much material was disembarked and distributed. Her property was now bound up with military operations; her wharfs took on an animated appearance, groaning under Govern- ment business. Army wagons, horses, ambulances, and all sorts of munitions and equipment filled all available space.116 Steamers, idle since the beginning of the war, were now put into Government service,
107 Annual Report of the President and Directors of the Louisville and Nash- ville R. R. Company, commencing on the First of October, 1860, and ending on the Thirtieth of June, 1861 (Louisville, 1861), pp. 75-79.
108 Cincinnati Daily Commercial, Jan. 4, March 27, 1862.
109 Ibid., July 31, 1863. Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 124.
111 Cincinnati Daily Commercial, Aug. 27, 1862. Ibid., Nov. 8, 1862.
113 Cincinnati Daily Commercial, Nov. 16, 1861.
114 Ibid., Oct. 31, 1861.
115 Ibid., Nov. 9, 1861. General Anderson called a meeting of the merchants
at which it was resolved that this traffic ought to be stopped.
110 Cincinnati Daily Commercial, Oct. 2, Nov. 9, 1861.
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and the river business again revived. Now an example of river news was, "The Ida May arrived at Nashville on Tuesday with Government stores and a barge of hay." 117 Prosperity trickled down to the lowest workman, and Louisville began to forget her former liking for South- ern markets. Of this sudden prosperity, a special correspondent of the Cincinnati Daily Commercial wrote, "The immense distribution of army stores gives employment to a very large number of men, and con- tributes much toward the relief of the poorer classes of our people. Many of our business men are also coining money by supplying the many necessaries of the large army now within the State." 118
With this rather sudden readjustment of her commercial life, Louis- ville began to take on some of the appearances of her antebellum days. To provision the large armies that had entered the state, an important trade grew up with the regions up the Ohio, and an intensified com- merce sprang up on the rivers of the state. Apparently the only limits set to this commerce was the scarcity of steamers. 119 Wheat, corn, fruits, oils, salt, and many other commodities were brought down to Louisville. And by the summer of 1862, when the regions far into Tennessee had been cleared of the Confederate armies, a great expan- sion of trade with the Tennessee regions took place.120 In fact the city came to do a very substantial part of her business in this region before the end of the war. A river report in May, 1862, said, "The limited wharf * *
* was completely blockaded with the tobacco, cotton, and corn brought up from below by the Henderson and Cumberland river boats." 121 A considerable amount of cotton came out of the South up through Tennessee and to Louisville. In passing out forty bales on a Louisville steamer, Grant admitted that he knew that seven- teen bales belonged to a secessionist, but excused his action on the ground that "There is no evidence * * of his having given aid and com- fort to the enemy * "122 Cotton was at this time 80 cents a pound in Louisville.123
The city received also large numbers of contracts awarded for the armies in the West.124 Even after the forces had advanced far beyond Kentucky, Louisville contractors continued to furnish provisions for the Federal troops. Grant's armies in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mis- sissippi, were furnished with 200 head of cattle daily through contracts let in Louisville.125 Pork packing was being carried on extensively, with a Government contract in 1864 of 100,000 hogs being filled.126 For her regular business she slaughtered over a thousand daily.127 Louisville was the center for the tobacco trade of all the states toward the westward and for much of Tennessee.128
There were, thus, two general aspects to Kentucky's commercial
117 Louisville Journal, April 3, 1862.
118 Dec. 23, 1861.
119 Cincinnati Daily Commercial, Oct. 16, 23, passim, 1861. A line of steamers was now being run to Pittsburg under an agreement with the Pennsylvania Rail- road Company. Ibid., Oct. 24, 1861. By the summer of 1862, the Government was beginning to release some of the privately-owned steamers, as indicated in the following news item in the Louisville Journal April 3, 1862, "The John Raine, Atlantic, and Switzerland have returned from the waters of Tennessee, having been discharged from the Government service."
120 Cincinnati Daily Commercial, Oct. 24, 31, Nov. 21, 1861.
121 Louisville Democrat, May 3, 1862; Cincinnati Daily Commercial, April 23, 1862.
122 Official Records, Series I, Vol. X, Part 2, p. 80.
123 History of the Ohio Folls Cities and Their Counties, I, 327.
124 Cincinnati Daily Commercial, Dec. 30, 1861; June 14, 1862.
125 Ibid., Nov. 5, 1862.
128 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 145.
127 Cincinnati Daily Commercial, 5, 8, 24, passim, 1862.
128 Ibid., Nov. 1, 1862; Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 145.
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relations during the war. There was the commerce within the state itself, and there was the growing market to the south as the armies opened up the way. On July 4, 1863, came the Federal victory at Vicksburg, which was much more significant to the whole Mississippi Valley for its commercial importance, than for any bearing that it had upon military affairs. When Port Hudson fell four days later, a tre- mendous change had been worked in the commercial situation of the valley. It meant that the Mississippi was now open from its source to the sea. With President Lincoln the whole valley could now rejoice that the "Father of Waters" rolled unvexed to the sea. Those who had been so agitated by the apprehended closure of the river in 1861, now saw the great highway again opened to their commerce.
The pressure brought to bear against the military authorities for opening at once this trade, was equally as vexatious to them, as was the cotton trade, which they had inveighed against so much. Before the fall of Vicksburg, the Mississippi had been used both above and below this fortress and the evils of this restricted trade had been seen in their worst aspects. Repeated efforts had been made to confine this trade within restricted channels, but with little success. Grant had prohibited "all trading and trafficking or landing of boats" south of Memphis, ex- cept at military posts.129 But under the guise of stopping at wood- yards to take on fuel, the steamers had engaged in illicit commerce in cotton and contraband with Confederates and guerrillas.130 The Fed- eral commander at Memphis charged that the bayous and creeks were ยท teeming with trading steamers, which "invites rebel officers and soldiers on board, and drink and hobnob together." 131
On September 3, 1863, the through commerce between New Orleans and the Upper Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers, was "declared free of any military restrictions whatever." 132 By July 22, through traffic had been permitted under restrictions.133 The Louisville Demo- crat on that date said, "With a warm glow of satisfaction we inform the public that a boat is loading for New Orleans. *
* * This day's dawn will break with additional splendor in the Valley of the Missis- sippi." On July 23, the first steamer arrived at Memphis, and soon many markets in the South were opened again.134 The New Orleans trade assumed its former characteristics for Louisville when the first cargo of sugar and molasses arrived at the Kentucky port on December 24.135
But the opening of the Mississippi did not mean the unrestricted trade with all the accessible regions of the South, at least so far as laws and regulations were concerned. The act of Congress of July 2, 1864, would grant permits to supply the necessities of loyal persons only. According to the regulations, * * No goods, wares, or merchan- dise shall be taken into a State declared in insurrection, or transported therein, except to and from such places and to such monthly amounts as shall have been previously agreed upon in writing by the commanding general of the department in which such places are situated, and an officer designed by the Secretary of the Treasury for that purpose." 136
With the final collapse of the Confederacy, by a series of executive orders and proclamations every vestige of rules and restrictions on trade was removed. On April 29, 1865, all restrictions on trade east of the
120 Official Records, Series I, Vol. XXIV, Part 3, p. 49.
130 Ibid., Vol. XXXI, Part 3, p. 361.
131 Ibid., Vol. XXXIX, Part 2, p. 27.
132 Official Records, Series I, Vol. XXIV, Part I, p. 715.
133 Cincinnati Daily Commercial, July 25, 1863.
134 Ibid., July 27, 1863.
135 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 129.
135 Official Records, Series III, Vol. IV, 721-723.
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Mississippi River were taken off except in contraband of war; and on June 24, this order was extended to the regions west of the Mississippi. On August 29, the last restriction was removed, and the country was now a unit again in all its trade relations with every section.137
Throughout this whole period Kentucky had occupied a rather anom- alous position. Her government did not secede from the Union, yet at no time was she free from friction with the Federal authorities. With a very considerable part of her population fighting for the Con- federacy or openly sympathetic to it, the state became badly torn within. And before the end of the struggle the forces of opposition to the Fed- eral authorities had gained the ascendency. The commercial treatment of the state played no small part in producing this result. Kentuckians saw their smallest details of life interfered with. Boards of trade as- sumed to regulate the minutest relations in the commercial transactions. Permits to trade were required from all, and were withheld from large numbers who refused to take an oath and prove their loyalty. Frauds and irregularities on the part of Federal officers served to further alien- ate the Kentuckians. An occupying army incurred all the odium that invariably falls to its lot. But the problems of the Federal authorities were by no means simple. They had to deal with a divided people, who were very sensitive to any move that bore the aspect of a viola- tion of their constitutional rights. The Federal officers could deal either cautiously, and, perhaps, imperil their armies to the southward, or they could proceed with a strong hand and arouse the united opposi- tion of the whole state. The general regulations set up for commercial intercourse with the conquered areas produced endless trouble and vexa- tion for the Federal commanders trying to carry out military opera- tions, without opening up any important markets in which Kentuckians might trade with any degree of freedom. Their southern market, as it existed before the war, could not be restored until the whole country was pacified. Any hopes that these regulations held out in that direc- tion were illusive. The end of the war found the state impoverished economically and commercially. A different South now sprang into being in which different methods had to be employed in reestablishing old trade connections.
137 Ibid., Series I, Vol. XLIII, Part 2, p. 860; Series III, Vol. V, 103-105
1115 IC LIBRARY
DON. CARLOS BUELL. BORN MARCH 13, 1818. DIED NOV. 19, 1898 (From Rothert's History of Muhlenberg County)
CHAPTER LXIII
CIVIL AND MILITARY AFFAIRS DURING THE WAR
Although neutrality had been a natural and logical product of the state's past, it soon developed into an armed peace between the Union and Confederate sympathizers. The Union leaders consented to it, be- cause they perceived the great mass of the people were not willing to make war on the South under conditions existing at that time and because they saw the strong Union element that was ready to follow President Lincoln in any action unarmed and powerless. To them neutrality was desirable because it gave time to arm themselves. The strong Southern sympathizers, having failed to take the state out of the Union, agreed to neutrality because it seemed better than open aid and support to the North. During this period they would also arm themselves and secure, if possible, a position of power in the state, through which they might drive the state to the South, or at least prevent it from aiding the North.
The latter element held the advantage at the outset of controlling the executive department and the military forces of the state. Governor Magoffin was strong in his sympathy for the South, though not to the point of forcing the state out of the Union without legal formalities. Simon B. Buckner, inspector general of the militia, passionately hoped to make Kentucky a member of the Southern Confederacy. His position and power were so great as to give him reasonable grounds for believing he might realize this hope. The militia laws of the state had been com- pletely rewritten in 1860, largely through his inspiration, and on his ap- pointment to the head of the system as inspector general, he had set about welding the people of the state into a strong military force.1 By the beginning of 1861 he had sixty-one companies organized. His well- known views of the questions of the day and his ability as a military leader and organizer made him an object of fear and dread to the Union leaders.
The rising power of the Unionists soon made it possible for them to wrest control of the military forces from the governor and to enter on a program of mobilization of Union troops and munitions of war. On May 10 a conference was held among the different party leaders, re- sulting in an agreement which was incorporated in a law on May 24. By this act a Military Board of five persons was set up and the members designated, of whom the governor was one. This board was given the power to borrow over $1,000,000 with which to arm the state. It was also provided that troops might be organized for home defense, known as Home Guards, but not in the actual military service. These guards were to be given one-half of all arms bought by the state. These were an anomalous sort of semi-military organization, the members of which were not to be excused from duty in the militia if called upon.2 .The direct reason for the organization of the Home Guards was to provide a Union military force to offset the State Guards, who were under the influence of Buckner and therefore, for the most part, Southern sym- pathizers.
1 Acts of Kentucky, 1859, chapter 1332; Documents, 1861, II, 9-12.
2 Acts of Kentucky, Special Session May 6-24, 1861, p. 5, 6.
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The Union leaders now began to work with great vigor to build up a strong force in the state, with the Home Guards as nuclei. If arms could be had in sufficient quantities, it was their belief that a Union force could be built up which could soon defy all Southern sympathizers and forcibly line the state up with the Federal Union. William Nelson, a lieutenant in the navy, conceived the plan of shipping arms in to the Union men, had an interview with the President in May, and was prom- ised 5,000 muskets with bayonets and ammunition. These arms were sent to Cincinnati, from whence they were distributed to numerous coun- ties. The central Blue Grass counties were supplied through shipments down the Kentucky Central Railroad; the counties to the west by con- signments to Louisville; and the counties in the east were armed by ship- ments to Maysville. By the first part of June all tliese muskets had been delivered, and another 5,000 were secured and were in the process of being delivered.3 These muskets were given only to "true, faithful and reliable Union men." The partisan nature of these operations caused
BIRTHPLACE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS, NEAR HOPKINSVILLE
many people to feel that neutrality was being sadly abused, and open clashes in making the delivery of these so-called "Lincoln Guns" was narrowly averted.
The arming of these troops was only a part of the plan to hold Kentucky true to the Union. Camps must be established and training given them. In fulfillment of this need, Camp Dick Robinson was set up on the edge of the eastern mountains in Madison County directly after the August election. Immediately recruits began to pour in from all directions. Many came in from the mountains of the eastern part of the state and from Tennessee.+ Long before the opening of Camp Dick Robinson, recruiting for the Federal service had been opened on .the borders of the state, but not within, due to Lincoln's fear of exciting the Kentuckians. Maj. Robert Anderson, of Fort Sumter fame, began recruiting in Cincinnati; another station was established opposite Louis- ville and called Camp Jo Holt. It was very evident that the Union lead- ers were carrying forward their work actively and successfully. Gov-
3 Daniel Stevenson, "The Lincoln Guns" in Magazine of American History, X, 1883, pp. 115-138.
+ Cincinnati Daily Commercial, September 3, 1861.
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ernor Magoffin and many others believed that neutrality was becoming a farce under such circumstances. The governor sent a commission to Washington to demand the removal of Camp Dick Robinson, but was told by President Lincoln that the force there was made up of Kentuckians and was organized at the extreme solicitation of Kentuckians and that he could not consent to its removal.
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