USA > Kentucky > The Union regiments of Kentucky, Vol. I > Part 3
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On the 6th of May two full regiments of three months men were mustered into the service and designated as the Ist and 2d Kentucky, though a majority of the enlisted men were from Ohio. It may as well be mentioned here that, before leaving their camp, the colonels obtained permission to reorganize them as three years regiments. The men from Ohio, generally refused to re-enlist, and recruits to take their places were obtained from Ken- tueky, Col. Woodruff and his officers recruiting in Louis- ville, and Col. Guthrie in Covington and the country ad- jacent.
The two regiments were mustered in on the 9th and 10th of June, retaining the same designations.
Early in April, Lieut. Wm. Nelson, of the Navy, an ardent supporter of the government, had visited his home in Kentucky, to watch the progress of events. He had reported to the President that the arms of the state were under the control of the Secessionists, and that the Union mnen must be armed also, in order to maintain their posi- tion.
Mr. Lincoln placed at his disposal 10,000 muskets and money for their transportation. At a meeting in Frank- fort in April, Lieut. Nelson arranged for the reception and distribution of the arms.
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Union Regiments of Kentucky.
They were to be issued at the order of Joshua F. Speed, of Louisville; and Garret Davis attended to their distri- bution in the eastern part of the state. The Home Guard' companies, which by that time had been reorganized by both the legislature and the people as the Union organi- zation, were soon armed by these guns.
The following incident of the times is interesting: Early in the year Mr. Marshall, president of the Louis- ville and Portland canal around the Falls of the Ohio, was anxious about the safety of his locks, and induced J. M. Huston, a strong Union man, to organize a Home Guard company to protect them, promising to buy them arms. All available in a gun store in the city were selected, but the proprietor refused to let them go until a certain blacksmith whom he knew as a staunch Union man would vouch for the loyalty of Marshall and Hus- ton. Union men had no trouble in getting arms after Nelson's guns came.
Shortly after the adjournment of the legislature, Lovell H. Rousseau a member of the Senate, went to Washington and obtained authority to raise troops for the three years service. On the advice of prominent Union leaders, for fear of unfavorable effect on the pend- ing elections, he fixed his camp on the Indiana shore op- posite the falls. On the 1st of July, the first company .assembled in Louisville, marched to the ferry, and went into camp. It was speedily followed by others and, in ten days, a full regiment was in camp. On the second day, Capt. Trainor nailed to a tree at the entrance of the encampment a pine board, on which was written "Camp Jo. Holt," and that became its name. :
In the next few months there were gathered here the troops subsequently known as the Louisville Legion (5th Ky. Inf.), of which Rousseau was first colonel; the 6th Ky., Col. Walter C. Whittaker; the 2d Ky. Cay., Col. Buckner Board, and Stone's Battery.
After procuring the muskets for the Union men of Kentucky, Lieut. Nelson had obtained authority to move in support of the Union men of Tennessee. He was au- thorized to raise and arm five regiments of infantry and one of cavalry in East Tennessee, and a regiment of in- fantry in West Tennessee, and to support his movement three regiments of infantry and one of cavalry in South- eastern Kentucky. To avoid possibly injurious effects on the elections, he determined that there was to be no rendezvous till August. As before the settlement of Ken- tucky, it was the common hunting ground of the red men, on which no fribe was to make its permanent home, so
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Political Conditions.
the neutrality policy made the state the common recruit- ing ground for the Union and Confederate armies, with the tacit understanding that neither side was to estab- lish a camp on its soil.
A, curious state of things resulted. The Confederates from Kentucky established a camp near Clarksville, Ten- nessee, a few miles from the state line, called Camp Boone. Squads of recruits might be seen going down a street on one side, starting for Camp Boone, and, on the other side, a similar squad making their way to Camp Jo. Holt. In the interior, a squad for the Union camps were on a train and, at the next town, another for the Confederate camp, came aboard. The agents in charge made a treaty to confine their respective commands to separate cars. Con- sidering the excitement and the general arming, there was a remarkable immunity from affrays; there was, how- ever, a notable one in Louisville that had an influence which makes it deserving of mention.
The Union council had made an ordinance forbidding political outeries on the streets. The afternoon after the Confederate victory of Bull Run, which had elated the' local Secessionists greatly, one Tompkins, who had been clerk to the preceding council and was, at the time, en- gaged in reprinting Hardie's tactics, and sending them South in sheets folded as supplements to newspapers, came down Main street with several others, arm-in-arm, shouting for Jeff. Davis. Near the corner of Fourth street the party encountered Mr. Shanks-afterward a noted war correspondent for the New York Herald-then a re- porter for the Louisville Journal, a strong Union paper. Tompkins and his party, flourishing pistols, began abus- ing Shanks, who ran into a hardware store adjacent and came out armed with a hatchet, and a crowd gathered. Mr. A. Y. Johnson, chief of the Fire Department, hap- pened to ride by accompanied by Ben. Bache, one of his. subordinates, a great-nephew of Benj. Franklin, both strong Union men; they immediately sprang from their vehicle and warned Tompkins to desist, which he did and passed on, turning in Fourth street-apparently making his way toward the bookstore of James W. Clarke, then president of the Union club-continuing his shouts. As he reached Clarke's, he met C. A. Green, policeman, who notified him that his shouting was against the law and must be stopped. Tompkins defied his authority, drew his pistol, and Green fired, killing him. After this inci- dent there were few secession demonstrations in Louis- ville.
On the 15th of July, Nelson met a number of promi-
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Union Regiments of Kentucky.
nent Union men at Lancaster, in Garrard county, and selected and commissioned as colonels for the regiments "authorized for the Tennessee expedition," T. T. Garrard, S. S. Fry and T. E. Bramlette for infantry, and W. J. Landram for cavalry. Landram preferred infantry, and soon after began to recruit the 19th Ky., and Frank Wol- ford, the lieutenant-colonel, succeeded him.
Immediately after the August election, the recruits began to assemble at Hoskins' Cross Roads, in Garrard county -- a strong position between Dick's river and the Kentucky, on the turnpike leading from Lexington to Danville, where the Lancaster turnpike comes into it. The position covered the important turnpike bridge over the Kentucky, and was about 25 miles south of Lexing- ton, and 13 miles from the terminus at Nicholasville of the railroad to Cincinnati. In honor of the owner of the land, a staunch Union man, Richard M. Robinson, Nelson called his rendezvous Camp Dick Robinson. Within a few weeks the Kentucky regiments in camp were full, and they were soon joined by a thousand or more East Tennesseeans, gathered at Barboursville, Ky., by Lieut. Carter, of the Navy, an East Tennessee loyalist, working in conjunction with Nelson.
The East Tennesseeans, soon afterwards organized as - the 1st and 2d E. Tennessee, withdrawn to Camp Robin- son for convenience of supply, retired from the border with great regret. They had a premonition, only too soon verified, that their withdrawal meant delay or abandonment of the East Tennessee expedition.
About this time several other encampments were in existence in Kentucky, which have escaped the attention of chroniclers since, as they did that of Gov. Magoffin. During the summer, M. H. Cofer and Joseph H. Lewis, both a short time before officers in the State Guards, be- gan recruiting for the Confederacy; one having his camp near Elizabethtown and the other near Glasgow, further south. The two commands wore united subsequently and became the 6th Ky., C. S. A., and when Buckner entered the state joined his forces at Horse Cave.
Another and more important one was five miles north of Hopkinsville, at a place called Tempe Springs. Chris- tian county was large and populous and, with one ex- ception, the largest slaveholding county in the state; and the Union men were largely in the ascendant, while to the west of it Secessionism was supreme. The county bordered on Tennessee, its southwest corner was within 20 miles of Fort Donelson, Camp Boone was only a few miles from its southern border, while a rendezvous of
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Politicai Conditions.
Tennessee troops was but a little more remote. The Union men of the county first organized as Home Guards and armed with Nelson guns, but soon determined to enlist in the United States service. Without any deputed authority, ten full companies were promptly organized. J. F. Buckner, a wealthy lawyer and planter who had served frequently in the legislature, was elected colonel. J. M. Shackelford lieutenant-colonel, and Benjamin H. Bristow major.
About the same time, Hon. Humphrey Marshall, who had been a member of Congress and minister to China, established a recruiting camp for the Confederacy, in Owen county, about 30 miles from the state capital. On the 19th of August, Gov. Magoffin asked President Lincoln to order the troops at Camp Dick Robinson from the state. The President declined to do so, on the ground that they were Kentuckians who had assembled within their own state for the defense of their homes.
The new legislature, having a large Union majority, assembled, pursuant to the law passed at the called ses- sion in May, on the 2d of September. Ahnost simultan- eously, Gen. Polk, of the Confederate Army, on the plea of military necessity, occupied Columbus, Ky., and Gen. Zollicoffer took possession of Cumberland Gap. Gen. Grant, immediately afterward, occupied Paducah. On September 11th, the legislature passed a resolution in- structing the governor to order the Confederate troops to leave the state; and rejected a resolution calling on the United States troops to do so. Governor Magoffin vetoed the resolution, but it was passed over his veto, and he issued the proclamation.
On the 18th, the legislature passed a resolution asking Gen. Robert Anderson, who was in command at Cincin- nati, to move his headquarters to Louisville and take com- mand in Kentucky and call out a volunteer force; and the governor was asked to aid by calling out the State Guard, under command of Brig .- Gen. T. L. Crittenden, to expel the Confederate invaders. The governor vetoed this resolution also, and it was promptly passed over his veto, and he issued the proclamation required.
The call on the State Guard-which had been rapidly disintegrating-was ineffective. While the majority of that force sympathized with the Secession movement there was a strong minority which did not.
Early in the summer, Capt. (afterward Gen.) D. W. Lindsey-who commanded a company-withdrew it from a camp in Woodford on account of Secession manifesta- tions in the camp authorities; afterward, Maj. (subse-
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Union Regiments of Kentucky:
quently Gen.) E. H. Hobson resigned command of his battalion, rather than obey orders he thought meant to further the Secession cause; and many privates took ad- vantage of the legislative act requiring enlisted men to take the same oath as officers, to get out of companies under Secession control.
Maj. Tilghman, ordered to mobilize his battalion against Polk, resigned and entered the Confederate ser- vice, and Ins .- Gen. Buckner accepted a commission in the Confederate Army.
The call for a force from the State Guard under Gen. Crittenden was, as said above, ineffective. In the mean. time Gen. Buckner moved from Camp Boone and took possession of Bowling Green, and it was rumored that he was moving on Louisville. Gen. Anderson had his head- quarters in Louisville, but no troops, and he called on Gen. Hamilton Pope, commanding the Louisville Home Guards, for assistance. These organizations were not re- quired to leave the city, but under the call of Gen. Pope 1,500 of them assembled promptly at the L. & N. depot on a signal from the fire bells; and by 10 o'clock p. m. had started under immediate command of Col. A. Y. Johnson, and under the leadership of Brig .- Gen. W. T. Sherman, for Muldraugh's Hill.
The next train brought to their aid Col. Rousseau's troops-about equal in number-from Camp Jo. Holt; and they were next reinforced by Col. B. F. Scribner's 38th Ind., from New Albany, and then by other Indiana and Illinois regiments.
On the 25th of September the legislature passed an act calling for 40,000 troops to be enlisted for three years. The governor again interposed his veto, and the legis- lature promptly passed the act over his veto.
Enlistments began at once and, in a month, over 20, -. 000 men were enrolled and, long before the end of the year, the whole call had been met.
The legislature had grown very impatient with the governor. The Union members were in caucus every night, Hon. James Speed -- afterward Attorney-General in Mr. Lincoln's cabinet-being chairman. The caucus was in favor of taking a prompt stand for the government, but were urged, by some I'nion members whose homes were in the Confederate lines, to delay.
The Secession sympathies of the governor, his adju- tant-general and quartermaster-general were great ob- stacles in the way of the organization of troops, their pay, and equipment ; and there was a strong feeling in favor of impeaching the governor; but some of his personal
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Political Conditions.
friends urged that as he had expressed his purpose- which they believed sincere -- to recognize that the vote of the state had fairly and finally expressed the will and purpose of the people to adhere to the Union, and to re- spect that will, it would be better to hold on to the regular administration and prevent any chance of driving the governor to take refuge with the rebels and give them the claim of having the legal administration on their 'side; and that all they wanted would be accomplished by getting rid of the adjutant and quartermaster-general, and have those offices filled by loyal men.
It was finally determined that a committee, consisting of W. A. Dudley, of Lexington, a member of the Senate, and Jno. W. Finnell, of Covington, a representative, known to the governor as his personal friends and op- posed to his impeachment, should present to him the ultimatum of impeachment or the substitution of loyal men in the place of the obnoxious staff officers.
The committee left the caucus on the night of and proceeded to the executive mansion, where they found the governor in conversation with friends; asking the. company to leave, as they were bearers of an important message to the governor and desired privacy, they were soon left alone with him, and made known their mission.
The governor was, at first, very indignant-said those officers were his personal friends-his personal staff, and the only vestige of power left him; and swore he would not give them up.
The committee represented that he knew they were his personal friends, and urged on him that he should not, in the face of his declared purpose to respect the will of the people, persist in holding on to men who rendered that will nugatory; that he should not ruin himself by courting impeachment on a more sentiment. After a long argument-interrupted by a message from Mr. Speed, that the caucus was impatient-the governor vielded, and said he would send in to the Senate the next day the names of men for the two places. Ile was urged -as he was going to do the thing-to do it gracefully and name only qualified men, and men thoroughly ac- ceptable to the loyal sentiment. He replied that he would send in satisfactory names, but refused to indicate who they were.
The committee reported to the caucuses; the next day he sent in the names of Finnell for adjutant-general, and W. A. Dudley, for quartermaster-general, and they were immediately confirmed by the Senate.
At first both refused to serve, considering that the
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Union Regiments of Kentucky.
governor had put them in a false position, but finally agreed to do so on conditions to be stated to the gov- ernor, whom they immediately went to see.
The conditions-as stated by Gen. Finnell-were that, as adjutant-general, he should have absolute con- trol of the organization of troops and the issuing of com- missions, and the power to issue all orders in the name of the governor, without consulting him. The governor demurred at first, but learning that the condition was absolute, consented to it. He adhered faithfully; and once, when a nephew wished an appointment as lieuten- ant, in order to take a staff position, and he was consulted by Finnell, refused to say anything, further than that he would like to see the young man gratified.
In the course of the next year Gov. Magoffin resigned, and Hon. James F'. Robinson, an eminent lawyer of Scott county, who had in the meantime been elected president of the Senate, became governor; and the authorities of the state, in all its departments were thenceforward in full accord with the national administration in its efforts to restore 'and maintain the authority of the Union. Other calls for troops were subsequently made and promptly met; and the total enlistments in Kentucky Union regiments amounted to 78,000. These soldiers took an honorable part in all the great operations of the nation's armies.
Those who are wise after the event have criticised the position of neutrality assumed by Kentucky during the first months of our Civil War; but the facts herein stated fully explain the course of her Union citizens; and the events of the war justify their reluctance to rush into the strife as long as it seemed possible to avoid the neces- sity.
The following resolution, adopted by the legislature on the 21st of September, 1861, explains what the Union men of the state intended by their policy of Kentucky:
Resolred, That when we assumed neutrality we intended it merely as an abevance.of our constitutional duty by the sufferance, not inde- pendence. of the general government, nor for the selfish purpose alone of preserving our pracy, but for the far nobler and holier purpose of . refraining from the combat, so that we could appeal both to the North and South to stay the fratricidal and unnatural combat, and to offer our services as mediator to adjust the difficulties that had unhappily arisen and restore the work of our fathers.
Kentucky was a border state, and her citizens knew that in the event of war her territory would be overrun by hostile armies. The President called first for troops to serve only three months; and the Secretary of State,
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Wm. H. Seward, expressed the belief that the war would be over in sixty days. The general hope and expectation that peace would soon be restored made it wise and nat- ural that Kentuckians try to keep out of it or arrest it.
It must be remembered, too, that while holding the position. of neutrality, Kentucky served as a bulwark between the great states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and any foes; and left the authorities of those states free to raise and equip troops and send them east or west, as required.
About the middle of September, 1861, Gen. Nelson was relieved of the command at Camp Dick Robinson, Gen. Thomas taking his place. Nelson then began the work of recruiting and organized near Maysville, where he was ably assisted by Col. Charles S. Marshall and others. In that vicinity were gathered the troops which confronted the first Confederate movements in Eastern Kentucky. The other points of early activity were Camp Dick Robinson, Greensburg, Louisville, Owensboro, Cal- houn. The Kentucky officers who may be mentioned as leaders in these first steps for the protection of the state were Anderson, Nelson, Rousseau, Crittenden, Fry, Boyle, Jackson, Ward, Marshall, Wolford, Bramlette, Moore, Mundy, Dudley, Price, Garrard, Gallup, Lindsey, Bruce, Croxton, Landram, Hobson, Shackelford, Mc- Henry, Bristow, Maltby, Metcalfe, Boone, Burbridge, Maxwell, Hawkins, Board. These and their associates were rapidly followed by others, under whose call the Kentucky troops were put promptly and effectively into the field.
The social and political disorders, inseparable from a state of war in a region overrun by hostile armies, caused much annoyance and suffering to the people of Kentucky. It has never been the policy of writers on the Union side to perpetuate and dwell on the records of the bad con- duct of the Confederates during that distressful time; while their writers have not been sparing in denuncia- tion of every fault they could ascribe to the Union side .*
Bad conduct, . crimes and disorders are inseparable from war, and severe treatment of offenders is necessary.
* One of the most distinguished men in Kentucky has remarked that the manner in which the Kentucky I'nionists relegated the war into the past. immediately upon its close, is nothing less than a phenomenon. Nothing like it can be found in any history. When the great fact that the I'nion was preserved became a certainty, all the Union element in Kentucky, which preponderated throughout the conflict-controlling the state and serving magnificently in the field-at once ceased to talk or think of the war, and became from that time on voiceless. They have not only refrained from heralding their own services, but have also refrained from censure of those who antagonized them.
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Union Regiments of Kentucky.
On the whole, and to the credit of the American people, it can be said that there never has been a war in which there was less inhumanity and cruelty than in our great struggle.
As this volume contains the history of the services of the Union regiments of Kentucky, and the names of the officers and soldiers, it is proper that it should also con- tain some mention, at least by name, of some of the prom- inent civilians, under whose advice and counsel these soldiers enlisted in the Union cause. It would make a list entirely too long to name all the leaders of Union sentiment in the state; only a few of the most eminent can be named:
Senator John J. Crittenden, Frankfort; Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge, Danville; Hon. Joshua F. Bell, Danville; Hon. Charles A. Wickliffe. Bardstown; Hon. James Speed, Louisville; Hon. George D. Prentice, Louisville; Hon. A. G. Hodges, Frankfort; Hon. John B. Temple, Frank- fort; Hon. Francis M. Bristow, Elkton; Hon. James Guthrie, Louisville; Judge Henry Pirtle, Louisville; Gov. James F. Robinson, Georgetown; Hon. Harry I. Todd, Frankfort; Hon. James Harlan, Frankfort; Hon. George T. Wood, Munfordville; Hon. John McHenry, Owensboro; Hon. Charles S. Todd, Owensboro; Hon. Robert Cochran, Shelbyville; Hon. Wm. P. Thomasson, Louisville; Capt. Thos. W. Gibson, Louisville; Hon. Thos. H. Clay, Lexington; Hon. Aaron Harding; Hon. Phil. Swigert, Frankfort; Hon. J. W. Kincheloe, Brandenburg; Hon. Geo. W. Williams, Paris; Hon. J. B. Kinkead, Louisville; W. B. Belknap, Louisville; John Kemp Goodloe, Louisville; Judge W. D. Goodloe, Lexington; Richard M. Robinson, Garrard: Hon. Green Adams, Barboursville; Hon. Robert Boyd, London; John B. Bruner, Hardinsburg; Col. Wm. W. Berry, Harrison; Chas. A. Marshall, Mason; Martin P. Marshall, Fleming; Thomas Smith, Flemingsburg; R. J. Browne. Springfield; G. M. Adams, Lexington; Hon. L. W. Andrews, Flemingsburg; Maj. Sudduth, Bath; Judge M. M. Benton. Covington; Hon. Alf. Athen, Hardinsburg; Hon. Madison C. Johnson, Lexington; Hon. A. H. Ward, Cynthiana; George M. Thomas, Vance- burg; Hon. Joshua F. Speed, Louisville; Hon. John H. Harney, Louisville; Hon. John R. Huston, Lexington; Hon. Garrett Davis, Paris; Hon. Wil- liam H. Wadsworth. Maysville; Hon. James Weir, Owensboro; Judge S. S. Nicholas, Louisville: Judge Bland Ballard, Louisville; Hon. A. J. Ballard, Louisville; Capt. Z. M. Sherley. Louisville: Rev. E. P. Humphrey. Danville: Hon. George HI. Yeaman, Owensboro; Hon. Curtis F. Burnam, Richmond; Hon. David R. Murray, Cloverport; Judge John F. Newman, Bardstown; Hon. Hamilton Pope, Louisville; Judge P. B. Muir, Louis- ville; Dr. T. S. Bell, Louisville; Hon. Nat. Wolfe, Louisville; Capt. Silas F. Miller, Louisville; Hon. A. G. Talbott, Danville; Judge Wm. V. Lov- ing. Bowling Green; Capt. Sam Gill, Louisville; Judge Wat. Andrews, Flemingsburg; Hon. Joseph Underwood, Bowling Green: Hon. Arch Dixon. Henderson; Judge Rufus K. Williams, Paducah; Hon. Lucien Anderson. Mayfield; Hon. Algernon S. Thurston, Owensboro: B. F. Avery. Louisville.
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