USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 18
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The Louisville company, then, being on the west side of the river, did not share in the glori- ous victory won that day on the other shore, in which many other Kentuckians had part.
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
The remainder of the service was uneventful. On the 13th of March news of the peace arrived, and about the 18th the army was disbanded. The company returned to Louisville, and was there mustered out May 10, 1815.
ROLL OF CAPTAIN JOYES'S COMPANY.
Muster roll of a company of infantry, under the command of Captain Thomas Joyes, in the Thirteenth regiment of Kentucky militia, com- manded by Lieutenant-Colonel Presley Gray, in the service of the United States, commandcd by Major-General John Thomas, from November 10, 1814:
COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.
Captain Thomas Joyes. Lieutenant Andrew Pottorff. Ensign Samuel Earickson.
NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.
Sergeant John Hadley, substitute for William W. Lawes. Sergeant James B. Finnell, substitute for John H. Voss. Sergeant John Booker.
Sergeant John Bainbridge.
Corporal John Ray.
Corporat William Sale, substitute for Samuel Boscourt. Corporal Alex. Calhoon, substitute for Jacob Smiser, Jr. Corporal William Duerson.
Musician Anson S. Hilliard, substitute for Courtney M. Tuley
Musician Peter Marlow, substitute for K. Campion.
PRIVATES.
Christopher Kelly, substitute for Lewis Pottorff.
Nathaniel Floyd, substitute for Jacob Hikes. Alex. Ralston, substitute for Michael Berry.
Westley Martin, substitute for Henry Martin. Adam Groshart.
Jacob Brinley.
Thomas Dunn.
John Little, Jr. Godfrey Meddis. Thomas Talbott, substitute for John Reed. Isaac Batman.
John Sebastian.
Cornelius Croxton, substitute for Thomas Long.
Joseph Tyler, killed 8th of January [ 1815 ] in battle. Mason Hill, substitute for George B. Didlick. William Littell, discharged by habeas corpus. Hugh Carson, substitute for H. W. Merriwether. David Turner, absentee, claimed not legally drafted. Samuel Vance, absentee.
Price Parish, substitute for William Anderson.
Jacob Hubbs, substitute for Alex. Pope.
John Grenawalt.
Abraham Balee, substitute for James Hughes.
James Stewart, substitute for William Ferguson ; wounded 8th January, 1815, in battle.
James Risley.
Gershom Rogers, failed to appear.
John Booty, substitute for Ebenezer Buckman. George R. C. Floyd, discharged by habeas corpus. John Miller, substitute for Solomon Neal.
John Merryfield, substitute for Thomas S. Baker. Levi Miller, substitute for Charles Stevens.
James Chinoweth, discharged by court of enquiry. William Johnston, substitute for James Johnston. James Glasgow.
John Jones, substitute for Robert McConnell. Patrick Stowers, substitute for Samuel Stowers. Philip Traceler, substitute for James Fontaine. William Myrtle.
Samuel Lashbrook, substitute for James A. Pearce. George Jackson, substitute for Daniel Carter. William Cardwell.
John Glasgow, substitute for Thomas Colscott.
Moses Williams, [substitute for ? ] John Yenawine, Sr.
Robert B. Ames, substitute for Charles Ray.
John Robbins.
Stephen Johnston, discharged by court of enquiry. John Fowler. Peter Omer.
Jacob Slaughter, substitute for William Hodgin.
James Woodward, substitute for George Markwell,
George Miller.
Moses Guthrie.
Samuel Holt, substitute for John Sousley.
Jesse Wheeler, substitute for Moses Williamson.
William Thickston.
Moses Welsh.
Squire Davis, substitute for Thomas McCauley.
William Newkirk.
William Junkins, absentee.
Isaac Mayfield, substitute for Jeremiah Starr.
Francis D. Carlton.
John Bagwell, substitute for Jacob Martin.
Charles Cosgrove, substitute for George Brown.
Philip Manville, absent.
Patrick Dougherty.
William Elms.
George R. Pearson, substitute for Thomas Pearson.
Absalom Brandenburgh, substitute for Joshua Heading- ton.
Chester Pierce, substitute for James Garrett.
William Steele, substitute for John Keesacker. John Morrow, substitute for John D. Colmesnil. John O'Hanlon.
Benjamin K. Beach, failed to appear; substitute for John M. Poagne.
John Laville, absent.
Harvey Ronte, absent.
Reason Reagan, absent.
John McCord, absent.
Thomas Ross, substitute for Silas C. Condon ; captured
by the enemy 8th January, 1815.
Michael Stout, substitute for Arltun McCauley.
Abner C. Young. John Minter.
THE MEXICAN WAR.
No military movement calling for aid from Kentucky could have occurred since the white man first set the stakes of civilization at the Falls of the Ohio, without calling out as Jarge a pro- portion of the fighting men of this region as went from any other part of Kentucky, or of the Northwest. Every war from the beginning of
Zachary Taylor.
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
warfare in America, after the settlement of the Ohio valley began, had in it a large contingent from Louisville and Jefferson county. This was eminently the case when the Mexican war broke out, in which Kentucky volunteers bore so great and distinguished a part. May 13, 1846, the Congress of the United States made formal declaration that, "by the act of the Republic of Mexico [the invasion of the soil of Texas,] a state of war exists between that Government and the United States." A requisition was made upon Governor Owsley, of this State, by Major- General Gaines, of the United States army, for four regiments of volunteers. The Governor had already, before receiving this call, appealed to the citizens of Kentucky to organize into mil- itary companies. On the next day after his proclamation (dated Sunday, May 17th), the Louisville Legion, then stronger than now by half-in number of companies, which counted nine, commanded by Colonel Ormsby-offered its service for the war, which was accepted by the Governor. A subscription of $50,000 for extraordinary expenses ot the State was ob- tained in the city by Hon. William Preston, and placed in the Bank of Kentucky, ready for use. May 22d, the Governor issues his proclamation, in accordance with the call of the President upon the States, asking volunteers enough from Ken- tucky to fill two regiments of infantry and one regiment of cavalry. Four days thereafter he announces that the quota of the State is full. The Louisville Legion, forming bodily the First regiment of Kentucky volunteer infantry, is al- ready upon transports for the movement to Mex- ico. The Second regiment contains no entire company from Jefferson county, but some gallant officers and men, as Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Clay, Jr., who afterwards went down in the storm of battle at Buena Vista, have been recruited here. The cavalry regiment is commanded by a Louisville soldier, Colonel Humphrey Marshall, the well-known Confederate General of the late war, and has two Jefferson county companies, the first and second, commanded, respectively, by Captains W. J. Heady and A. Pennington. Seventy-five companies more than the call de- manded, or one hundred and five in all, were tendered to the Governor from different parts of the State. The martial spirit was rife among the people.
August 31, 1847, another requisition is made by the General Government upon Kentucky- this time for two regiments of infantry, which are speedily raised and sent to the theater of war. The Third regiment of Kentucky volunteer infantry contains no Jefferson county company ; but there is one in the Fourth-the fifth, num- bering sixty-eight men, commanded by Captain T. Keating, and among the field officers of the regiment is Lieutenant-Colonel William Preston, of Louisville. Three more companies from the city are recruited and offered to the Governor ; but too late, and they cannot be accepted.
THE UTAH WAR.
In February, 1858, it having been determined by the authorities at Washington to send an armed force to Utah, to bring the rebellious Mormons to terms, the Legislature of Kentucky authorized the Governor of the State to raise a regiment of volunteers to be offered in aid of the expedition. On the 6th of March Governor Morehead made proclamation accordingly, and within about a month twenty-one companies, or more than twice the number needed, were ten- dered to the State. Among them were three from Louisville, commanded by Captains Rogers, Wales, and Trimble, being one-seventh of the entire number reported from the State at large. The Governor was reduced to the necessity of making a selection by lot, which resulted in the choice, among others, ot the commands of the two captains first named, making one-fifth of the whole regiment.
THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
When the recruiting for the Utah regiment was going on in Louisville, it was little thought by most of those engaged in the patriotic work that soon a storm-cloud of infinitely greater depth and width and blackness would lower upon the land, whose fell influences should sep- arate husband and wife, brother from brother, father from son, friend from friend, and plunge the whole great country in grief. But already the cloud was gathering; the next year it lowered more closely; and when in 1860 the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency of the American Union aroused the South to a move- ment looking to separate existence, few were so blind as not to see that an imminent, deadly struggle between the States was impending.
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
On the ISth of December of this year, Senator John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, who stood by President Buchanan's message denying the right of secession to a State, offered his celebrated compromise in the Senate. It leading provis- sions have been summarized as follow: To renew the Missouri line 36° 30'; prohibit slavery north and permit it south of that line; admit new States with or without slavery, as their con- stitutions may provide ; prohibit Congress from abolishing slavery in the States and in the Dis- trict of Columbia, so long as it exists in Virginia or Maryland ; permit free transmission of slaves by land or water, in any State ; pay for fugitive slaves rescued after arrest ; repeal the inequality of commissioners' fees in the fugitive slave act ; and to ask the repeal of personal liberty bills in the Northern States. These concessions to be submitted to the people as amendments to the United States Constitution, and if adopted never to be changed. Mr. Crittenden, the same day, made one of the greatest intellectual efforts of his life in support of his measure. But all was of no avail. Four days thereafter his proposi- tions were negatived by the Senate committee of thirteen.
These facts are restated here, in order to ex- plain the action of the two State conventions which assembled in Louisville on the 8th of January (Battle of New Orleans day), 1861-the Constitutional Union, or Bell and Everett con- vention, and the Democratic Union, or Douglas convention. Each was presided over by a former Governor of the State-the one by ex-Governor John L. Helm, the other by ex-Governor Charles A. Wickliffe. They appointed a joint conference committee, by which a brief series of resolutions were agreed upon, submitted to the respective conventions, and by each adopted without a dis- senting voice. They read as follows:
Resolved, That we recommend the adoption of the propo- sitions of our distinguished Senator, John J. Crittenden, as a fair and honorabie adjustment of the difficulties which divide and distract the people of our beloved country.
Resolved, That we recommend to the Legislature of the State to put the amendments of Senator Crittenden in form, and submit them to the other States; and that, if the disor- ganization of the present Union is not arrested, the States agreeing to these amendments of the Federal constitution shall form a separate confederacy, with power to admit new States under our glorious constitution thus amended.
Resolved, That we deplore the existence of a Union to be held together by the sword, with laws to be enforced by
standing armies: it is not such a Union as our fathers intended, and not worth preserving.
These resolutions probably expressed accurately the sentiments of the vast majority of the people of Louisville, and indeed of the entire State, who were not already committed to the cause of secession. A Union State central committee was appointed, consisting, it will be observed, almost solely of citizens of Louisville, viz: Messrs. John H. Harney, William F. Bullock, George D. Prentice, James Speed, Charles Rip- ley, William P. Boone, Phil. Tompert, Hamilton Pope, Nat. Wolfe, and Lewis E. Harvie. On the 18th of April, following, after the fall of Sumter, the call of the Secretary of War upon Governor Magoffin for four regiments of Ken- tucky troops, his refusal, and the great speech of Senator Crittenden at Lexington, urging the neutrality of Kentucky in the coming struggle, the committee issued an address to the people of the Commonwealth reading as follows:
Kentucky, through her executive, has responded to this appeal [of the President for militia, to suppress what he de- scribes as "combinations too powerful to be suppressed in the ordinary way," etc.]. She has refused to comply with it. And in this refusal she has acted as became her. We ap- prove the response of the Executive of the Commonwealth. One other appcal now demands a response from Kentucky. The Government of the Union has appealed to her to furnish men to suppress the revolutionary combinations in the cotton States. She has refused. She has most wisely and justly refused. Seditious leaders in the midst of us now appeal to her to furnish men to uphold those combinations against the Government of the Union. Will she comply with this ap- peal? Ought she to comply with it? We answer, with emphasis, NO !..... She ought clearly to comply with neither the one appeal or the other. And, if she be not smitten with judicial blindness, she will not. The present duty of Ken- tucky is to maintain her present independent position-tak- ing sides not with the Government and not with the seceding States, but with the Union against them both; declaring her soil to be sacred from the hostile tread of either, and, if necessary, making the declaration good with her strong right arm. And-to the end that she may be fully prepared for this last contingency and all other possible contingencies- we would have her arm herself thoroughly at the earliest prac- ticable moment.
What the future duty of Kentucky may be, we, of course, cannot with certainty foresee; but if the enterprise announced in the proclamation of the President should at any time here- after assume the aspect of a war for the overrunning and subjugation of the seceding States-through the full asser- tion therein of the national jurisdiction by a standing military force-we do not hesitate to say that Kentucky should promptly unsheath her sword in behalf of what will then have become the common cause. Such an event, if it should oc_ cur-of which, we confess, there does not appear to us to be a rational probability-could have but one meaning, a mean- ing which a people jealous of their liberty would be keen to detect, and which a people worthy of liberty would be
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
prompt and fearless to resist. When Kentucky detects this meaning in the action of the Government, she ought-with- out counting the cost-to take up arms at once against the Governnient. Until she does detect this meaning, she ought to hold herself independent of both sides, and compel both sides to respect the inviolability of her soil.
The same day an important Union meeting was held in Louisville, which was addressed by the Hon. James Guthrie, who had similarly spoken to a large assembly in the city March 16th, and by Judge William F. Bullock, Archi- bald Dixon, and John Young Dixon. It did not advocate armed resistance to secession, however, but fell in with the prevailing current in behalf of neutrality, and opposing coercion by the North, as well as secession by the South. It was declared by this meeting that Kentucky would be loyal until the Federal Government became the aggressor upon her rights. The City Coun- cil, on the 23d of the same month, appropriated $50,000 to arm and defend the city, and pres- ently increased the sum to $250,000, provided the people should sustain the measure by a ma- jority vote. The Bank of Louisville and the Commercial Bank agreed to make temporary loans of $10,000 each for arming the State, in response to the request of the Governor ; but the Bank of Kentucky declined to furnish any money for the purpose, except under the express stipulation that it should be used exclusively "for arming the State for self-defense and protec tion, to prevent aggression or invasion from either the North or the South, and to protect the present status of Kentucky in the Union."
By this time (the last week in April) the situa- tion was beginning to excite grave apprehension and not a little vivid indignation in Kentucky- particularly at Louisville, whose commercial in- terests were seriously threatened by certain of the demonstrations there. This part of the story may best be told in the words of Mr. Whitelaw Reid, now editor of the New York Tribune, and former compiler of the great work in two vol- umes, known as Ohio in the War. In his de- scription of the sentiment and scenes in Cincin- nati at the outbreak of the war, Mr. Reid says:
The first note of war from the East threw Cincinnati into a spasm of alarm. Her great warehouses, her foundries and machine shops, her rich moneyed institutions, were all a tempting prize to the Confederates, to whom Kentucky was believed to be drifting. Should Kentucky go, only the Ohio river would remain between the great city and the needy enemy, and there were absolutely no provisions for defense.
The first alarm expended itself, as we have already seen,
in the purchase of huge columbiads, with which it was prob- ably intended that Walnut Hills should be fortified. There next sprang up a feverish spirit of active patriotism that soon led to complications. For the citizens, not being accustomed to draw nice distinctions or in a temper to permit anything whereby their danger might be increased, could see little dif- ference between the neutral treason of Kentucky to the Gov- ernment and the more open treason of the seceded States. They accordingly insisted that shipments of produce, and especially shipments of arms, ammunition, or other articles contraband of war, to Kentucky should instantly cease.
The citizens of Louisville, taking alarm at this threatened blow at their very existence, sent up a large delegation to protest against the stoppage of shipments from Ohio. They were received in the council chamber of the city hall, on the morning of April 23d. The city Mayor, Mr. Hatch, an- nounced the object of their meeting, and called upon Mr. Rufus King to state the position of the city and State au- thorities. Mr. King dwelt upon the friendshlp of Ohio to Kentucky in the old strain, and closed by reading a letter which the mayor had procured from Governor Dennison, of which the essential part was as follows :
" My views of the subject suggested in your message are these : So long as any State remains in the Union, with pro- fessions of attachment to it, we cannot discriminate between that State and our own. In the contest we must beclearly in the right in every act, and I think it better that we should risk something than that we should, in the slightest degree, be chargeable with anything tending to create a rupture with any State which has not declared itself already out of the Union. To seize arms going to a State which has not actu- ally seceded, could give a pretext for the assertion that we had inaugurated hostile conduct, and might be used to create a popular feeling of favor of secession where it would not ex- ist, and end in border warfare, which all good citizens must deprecate. Until there is such circumstantial evidence as to create a moral certainty of an immediate intention to use arms against us, I would not be willing to order their seizure; much less would I be willing to interfere with the transporta- tion of provisions."
"Now," said Mr. King, " this is a text to which every citi- zen of Ohio must subscribe, coming as it does from the head of the State. I do not feel the least hesitation in saying that it expresses the feeling of the people of Chio."
But the people of Ohio did not subscribe to it. Even in the meeting Judge Bellamy Storer, though very guarded in his expressions, intimated, in the course of his stirring speech, the dissatisfaction with the attitude of Kentucky. " This is no time," he said, "for soft words. We feel, as you have a right to feel, that you have a Governor who can- not be depended upon in this crisis. But it is on the men of Kentucky that werely. All we want to know is whether you are for the Union, without reservation. Brethren of Ken- tucky, the men of the North have been your friends, and they still desire to be. But I will speak plainly. There have been idle taunts thrown out that they are cowardly and timid. The North submits; the North obeys; but beware! There is a point which cannot be passed. While we rejoice in your friendship, while we glory in your bravery, we would have you understand that we are your equals as well as your friends."
To all this the only response of the Kentuckians, through their spokesman, Judge Bullock, was "that Kentucky wished to take no part in the unhappy struggle ; that she wished to be a mediator, and meant to retain friendly relations with all
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
her sister States. But he was greatly gratified with Governor Dennison's letter."
The citizens of Cincinnati were not. Four days later, when their indignation had come to take shape, they held a large meeting, whereat excited speeches were made and reso- lutions passed deprecating the letter, calling upon the Gover- nor to retract it, declaring that it was too late to draw nice distinctions between open rebellion and armed neutrality against the Union, and that armed neutrality was rebellion to the Government. At the close an additional resolution was offered, which passed amid a whirlwind of applause :
" Resolved, That any men, or set of men, in Cincinnati or elsewhere, who knowingly ship one ounce of flour or pound of provisions, or any arms or articles which are contraband of war, to any person or any State which has not declared its firm determination to sustain the Government in its present crisis, is a traitor, and deserves the doom of a traitor."
So clear and unshrinking was the first voice from the great conservative city of the Southern border, whose prosperity was supposed to depend on the Southern trade. They had reckoned idly, it seemed, who had counted on hesitation here. From the first day that the war was opened, the people of Cincinnati were as vehement in their determination that it should be relentlessly prosecuted to victory, as the people of Boston.
They immediately began the organization of home guards, armed and drilled vigorously, took oaths to serve the Gov- ernment when they were called upon, and devoted themselves to the suppression of any contraband trade with the South- ern States. The steamboats were watched; the railroad depots were searched ; and, wherever a suspicious box or bale was discovered, it was ordered back to the warehouses.
After a time the General Government undertook to prevent any shipments into Kentucky, save such as should be re- quired by the normal demands of her own population. A system of shipment permits was established under the super- vision of the Collector of the Port, and passengers on the ferry-boats into Covington were even searched to see if they were carrying over pistols or other articles contraband of war; but, in spite of all efforts, Kentucky long continued to be the convenient source and medium for supplies to the Southwestern seceded States,
The day after the Cincinnati meeting denouncing his course relative to Kentucky, Governor Dennison, stimulated perhaps by this censure, but in accordance with a policy already formed, issued orders to the presidents of all rail- roads in Ohio to have everything passing over their roads in the direction of Virginia, or any other seceded State, whether as ordinary freight or express matter, examined, and if con- traband of war, immediately stopped and reported to him. The order may not have had legal sanction, but in the excited state of the public mind it was accepted by all concerned as ample authority. The next day similar instructions were sent to all express companies.
The leading incidents of the war, so far as Louisville or this county had part in them, will be related in our annals of the city; we have designed to furnish simply enough by way of in- troduction to the large roster of the Jefferson county contingent in the war. Recruiting for either army was not long delayed by Kentucky's neutrality. The Louisville Legion now, as when the war with Mexico broke out, was again early
in the field with its offer of service, and the ma- jority of its members formed the nucleus of the Fifth Kentucky volunteer infantry, which, under the lead of Lovell H. Rousseau, was rendez- voused and drilled on Indiana soil, at Camp Joe Holt, Jeffersonville, in deference to the sentiment at home against encampment on Kentucky ter- ritory. When neutrality was finally and forever broken by both sides in the conflict, recruiting thenceforth went on rapidly, and Camps Sigel and others were in due time formed in Jeffer- son county, where many other regiments or parts of regiments were assembled and equipped.
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