USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 64
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boats stood loafing about in clusters, looking at the still- rising river; but each seemed to be personally indifferent to the matter. When the house of an American is carried down the river, he builds himself another; as he would get himself a new coat when his old coat became unserviceable. But he never laments or moans for such a loss. Surely there is no other people so passive under personal misfortune!"
The amount of $24,883,332 was assessed on real estate this year; $425,420 on personal prop- erty; $4,629,600 on merchandise; $3,468,650 residuary ; $33,407,002 in the aggregate. Taxes per $100-city, $1.50; railroads, 25c; State, 20C.
1862.
This great battle-year is likewise filled for Louisville almost exclusively with the record of war.
January Ist the Bank of Kentucky and the Bank of Louisville are able to declare a semi- annual dividend of but two per cent. On the 3d of the same month the branch of the Com- mercial Bank of Kentucky was chartered.
January 5th an order is issued by General Buell placing the navigation of the Ohio below Louisville entirely under the supervision of the Government. Boats were to be allowed to land only at certain points specified; all passengers must hold papers from Federal authorities, and for all freight permits must be issued.
The great flood mentioned in the narrative of Mr. Trollope reached its culmination January 23d, when the Ohio was higher than it had been at any time for several years. Its height above the low-water at the head of the canal was thirty- three feet; below the canal, fifty-six.
June Ist, General Jerry T. Boyle was ap- pointed Military Commandant of Kentucky, with headquarters at Louisville, and inaugurated a system of military arrests and imprisonment in the military prisons at Louisville and elsewhere.
January 17th, gold was commanding seven to eight per cent. premium at the banks of Louis- ville. Forty days afterwards it has risen to a premium of nineteen to twenty per cent.
Extensive military hospitals had by this time been established in Louisville. A thousand Federal soldiers had died within them in little more than nine months after their opening Sep- tember 18, 1861.
In July General John H. Morgan, of the Confederate army, made his first raid into Ken-
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tucky with his partisan force. Great sensation and some fear were caused at Louisville by his movements, but he at no time approaches the city closely. The Frankfort banks removed their deposits to Louisville. On the 13th Gen- eral Boyle promulgated an order from Louisville that "every able-bodied man take arms to aid in repelling the marauders; every man who does not join will remain in his house forty-eight hours, and be shot down if he leaves it." On the 20th he issued another requiring secessionists and suspected persons to give up such arms as were in their possession.
June 22 the two leading denominational pa- pers published in the city-The True Presby- terian and The Baptist Recorder-were sup- pressed by the Federal commanders, and the Rev. Mr. Duncan, editor of the latter, was sent to the military prison. July 26 the Rev. Thomas A. Hoyt was similarly arrested in Cincinnati, and sent to the Newport Barracks. February .26, 1863, the Rev. Dr. Stuart Robinson was perz mitted to resume the publication of the Presby- terian. He was once arrested, but released, and, when again about to be arrested, went to Canada, and there remained till the struggle was over.
August 2 the steamer Commodore Perry burst a flue and was burned at Louisville. Three fire- men were killed by the explosion, and two other hands severely scalded.
August 10, Colonel Henry Dent, of Louisville, was appointed county provost-marshals were in- State, and the provost-marshal general for the structed to report to him.
September 1, martial law was proclaimed in Louisville, by reason of the presence of General Kirby Smith's Confederate army in the State. On the zd the Louisville dailies were instructed by General Boyle thereafter not to publish the names of those who were committed to the mili- tary prisons.
On the next day the Kentucky Legislature met in Louisville, having adjourned thither from Frankfort August 31, on account of the near ap- proach of a Confederate force. The offices and records of the State Government were also re- moved to Louisville. The same day that body resolved "that the invasion of the State by the rebels, now in progress, must be resisted and re- pelled by all the power of the State, by all her men, by all her means, and to every extremity of
honorable war; and that he who now seeks to save himself by deserting or holding back from the service of the Commonwealth, is unworthy the name of a Kentuckian." And, further, "that the Governor be and he is hereby charged with no other restrictions on his powers than what are imposed by the constitution-to take care of the Commonwealth." An act was passed on the 5th to authorize the formation of compa- nies of home guards, to be composed of free white male citizens of sixteen to sixty five years, and the Legislature adjourned to the 8th of Jan- uary following.
On the 17th of September the citizens of Louisville, expecting attack from the Confeder- ates, who had fallen back from the vicinity of Covington and were advancing on Louisville, were busily engaged in fortifying the city. The remains of the works then and subsequently thrown up are still to be seen in many places. On the 22d General William Nelson, a native Kentuckian now in command here, directs that the women and children be sent out of the city, in view of the approach of the Confederates and the likelihood of a battle.
On the 25th General Buell, who had been marching his army rapidly from Tennessee north- ward, in a race with General Bragg's Confederate force for the banks of the Ohio, reaches Louis- ville and encamps his army around it.
September 29th, General Nelson was shot and almost instantly killed, in the office of the Galt House, by General Jefferson C. Davis, one of his subordinate commanders, in a difficulty grow- . ing out of an inquiry by the former as to the strength of the latter's force. No notice of the affair is taken by either the civil or military authorities, until October 27th, when General Davis was indicted in a Louisville court for man- slaughter, but never tried.
By October Ist the Confederate pickets had approached to within six miles of the city, and occasional scouts were found even nearer. Skirmishing went on at times within hearing of the citizens of Louisville. The main body of the Confederate army, however, lay twenty-five to thirty miles away, and on this day General Buell marched his army out to pursue or attack them. The right wing, under command of G-n- eral Crittenden, moved on the Bardstown turn- pike, the left wing on the Taylorville road, and
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
the center column towards Shepherdsville. Gen- eral Rousseau's division, seven thousand strong, was with the left wing, or First Army Corps. General Buckner was commanding one of the divisions composing Bragg's army. The Federals encountered the Confederates October 7th at Chaplin Hills, near Perryville, where was fought the next day one of the most hardly contested and bloody battles of the entire war, for the numbers engaged. It was the only battle that came near to Louisville. The close of the long day's fight left the issue undecided; but, General Crittenden reinforcing the Union army with his corps during the night, General Bragg deemed it prudent to withdraw, leaving his dead unburied on the field. General Buell followed at an easy pace, but did not think it expedient to force an- other battle. The Confederate army made its way composedly out of the State, suffering much, however, from unusually early and heavy snows in late October.
November 8th, appeared to crowded houses at the Louisville Theatre the actor John Wilkes Booth, two and a half years thereafter to achieve a terrible celebrity by the murder of President Lincoln and his own tragic death.
November 25th, the property of the Louisville Courier was sold at auction, while its owner was within the lines of the Confederacy. It was bought by the proprietors of the Democrat for $6,150.
December 12th the newspapers of the city raised their subscription prices, on account of the increased cost of printing paper. The Journal added $2 to the price of the daily and fifty cents for the weekly.
Assessments: Real, $19,798,037; personal, $329,537; merchandise, $2.948,675; residuary, $1,905,030; total, $24,981,279-a marked falling off from last year. Taxes consequently higher- city, 1.53 per cent .; for railroads .25 per cent .; State, .30 per cent.
1863.
The bank of Louisville was rechartered for thirty years from January 1st.
In February it is remarked that a veteran of the Revolutionary war is still living, Richard Springer, one hundred and four years old. He
had fought at Brandywine and Germantown, and was wounded in the latter engagement.
February 18th gold commanded sixty-one per cent. premium in Louisville, and Kentucky bank rotes ten per cent. They were at five per cent. premium over United States currency in Cincin- nati, and brought a greater or less advance in many other places.
March 2d, the Hon. James Speed, State Sen- ator from Louisville, alone voted in the Senate against a resolution in a series of twelve adopted by the Legislature relating to national affairs -- this one refusing "to accept the President's prop- osition for emancipation, as contained in his proclamation of May 19, 1862." Hon. Perry S. Layton is the only member of the House of Representatives who declines to support this resolution.
March 6th, cotton brought eighty cents per pound in Louisville. It was only four bales, part of a small crop raised in Simpson county. Nine bales, grown in Warren county, were sold in Louisville December 24th, at sixty-nine cents a pound.
March 18th and 19th, the Union Democratic State Convention met in Louisville, with ninety- four, of one hundred and ten, counties repre- sented, and nominated Hon. Joshua F. Bell for Governor, and Richard T. Jacob for Lieutenant- Governor. A very stormy time was had for an hour or more over the attempt of James A. Cravens, a former member of Congress from In- diana, to address the Convention. Mr. Bell afterwards declined, and Thomas E. Bramlette was put on the ticket in his stead.
At the municipal election this spring, two Union candidates ran for Mayor, William Kaye and Thomas H. Crawford. The former was sup- ported by the Democrat, and was elected April 5th, by 710 majority ; the latter was backed by the Journal.
April 17th the tobacco manufactories of the city closed their doors, throwing 3,000 employes out of work. May 27th, $1,600, offered for premiums on tobacco, were awarded at the Ken- tucky State Exhibition of Tobacco in Louisville.
May 15th, two car-loads of General Buckner's furniture are discovered at Elizabethtown, and confiscated by the Federal authorities.
June 20th, a published call is made upon ex- Governor Charles A. Wickliffe by Judge William
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
F. Bullock, John H. Harney, Nathaniel Wolfe, William Kaye, William A. Dudley, Joshua F. Bullitt, and other prominent citizens, to become a candidate for Governor. He accepts the call.
In early July, General Morgan began his fa- mous raid through Kentucky and Southern Indi- ana into Ohio, which is fully described in the second volume of this History. His approach to the Ohio created much alarm in Louisville, and the council ordered the enrollment of all male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years in military companies for defense, under penalty of being sent North in case of re- fusal. About 5,000 citizens reported for duty, and were drilled and otherwise prepared as rapidly as possible for service. Morgan did not touch Louisville, however, but crossed the river at Brandenburg, many miles below. During the raid, July 18th, while still in Indiana, about one hundred of Morgan's men made an attempt to cross the river at Twelve-mile Island, above Louisville, on a wood-boat, but were prevented by the gunboat Moose, and many of them were taken by a Federal force under General Manson.
July 12th, Northern Bank shares brought par value, and Bank of Louisville and Bank of Ken- tucky stock ninety-six dollars per share, in sales at home.
August 3d, at the election for State officers, Mr. Bramlette received 67,586 votes, against 17,344 for ex-Governor Charles A. Wickliffe. Only about 85,000 out of 145,000 votes in the State were polled.
August 5th, Judge Ballard, of the United States District Court, in session here, sentenced Thomas C. Shacklett, who had been convicted of treason, to be imprisoned in the jail at Louis- ville ten years, to pay a fine of $10,000, and to suffer the emancipation of his slaves.
October 16th, the guage of the Louisville & Lexington railroad was widened, by order of the Federal authorities, from four feet eight and one half inches to five feet, in order to unify it with the guage of other Southern roads, and thus facilitate the movement of troops and supplies in case of need.
December 2d, four days after the escape of General Morgan and six of his officers from the Ohio penitentiary, two of them, Captains Taylor and Sheldon, were retaken six miles south of Louisville, and returned to Columbus. Morgan
and the rest make their escape good, and rejoin the Confederates.
December 30th, one of the last sales of slaves was held at Louisville. One man, aged twenty- eight, brought $500; two women, aged, respec- tively, eighteen and nineteen, brought $430 and $380, and a boy of eleven sold for $350.
The valuation of the year was $22,725, 126 on real estate; $281,454 personalty; $3,560,000 merchandise; and $3,303,790 residuary. Taxes per $100: City, $1.50; railroads, thirty-five cents; State, thirty cents.
1864. -
This eventful year was ushered in with "the cold New Year's," which is still bitterly remem- bered by the inhabitants of the Ohio Valley, as well as by the people of nearly the whole coun- try. Mr. Collins says of it :
The Ist day of January, 1864, made its appearance under conditions identical with those of Cold Friday. The mer- cury, on the afternoon of the last day of December, 1863, stood at 45°. A drenching shower of rain fell at Lonisville, lasting only a few minutes, followed about nightfall by an almost blinding snowstorm and deep snow ; the storm grad- ually subsided as the cold wind increased, blowing a hurri- cane from the west, and, on the morning of the Ist of Janu- ary, the volume of cold wafted in the winds had sent the mercury in the open air from 45° above zero to more .han 20° below.
The Louisville banks, in general, declare a semi-annual dividend of three per cent., free of Government tax.
January 18th, a number of saloons were closed by the order of Colonel Bruce, provost marshal, for the offense of selling liquor to soldiers.
February 7th, the new notes issued under the act of Congress providing for National banks make their appearance in Louisville. They are at first received only at a discount of one to two per cent., and are not bankable at all.
Three notable conventions met in Louisville this year-the Border State Freedom convention, attended, by about one hundred delegates, from Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri, presided over by Hon. William P. Thompson; May 25, the Union Democratic convention, which is addressed by Colonel Frank Wolford, Lieutenant Governor Richard T. Jacob, Rich- ard H. Hanson, and John B. Huston, and in- structs its delegates to the National Democratic convention at Chicago to vote for General Mc-
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
Clellan as a nominee for President, and Gov- ernor Bramlette for the Vice-Presidency ; and the same day, an "Unconditional Union" State con- vention, addressed by Rev. Dr. R. J. Brecken- ridge, Judge Rufus K. Williams, Colonel B. H. Bristow, Curtis F. Burnam, and Lucien Ander- son, and unanimously declaring for the renomi- nation of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency.
February 25th, Major-general Thomas L. Crit- tenden, son of the late Hon. John J. Crittenden, whose conduct in the war has been the object of investigation by a court of inquiry, is honorably acquitted of all charges and specifications alleged against him.
June 2d, another State tobacco fair is held in Louisville. The sales of tobacco this day at Spratt's warehouse are $82,474. One premium hogshead is sold for $4,630, at the rate of $4.90 per pound, and others at $1.50 to $2 a pound.
July Ist, a disastrous fire occurs on Main, be- tween Eighth and Ninth streets, destroying $80,- ooo worth of Government stores, and nearly as much other property.
During the preceding month 2,151 Confeder- ate prisoners were transferred from the military prisons at Louisville to similar places of confine- ment in the Northern States.
In July, at Washington City, died another of the famous Louisville family of Taylors-Briga- dier-General James P. Taylor, Commissary- General of Subsistence, and brother of the late President Taylor.
July 16th, after considerable trouble concerning the enlistment of colored men in Kentucky for the United States army, two regiments of negroes are organized in Louisville, and several more are organizing at Camp Nelson, in Jessamine county. It is estimated that by this time twelve thousand negroes have been induced to leave the State and enlist elsewhere.
On the 26th of July, the Hon. Gibson Mal- lory, State Senator from this county, is killed by a Federal soldier late in the evening, five miles from Louisville. The slayer was arrested, but released without further punishment.
The latter part of July and early part of Au- gust, a large number of citizens of Kentucky are arrested by the Federal officers. Mr. Collins gives the following as of Louisville or other parts of the county : Joshua F. Bullitt, Chief Justice of the State, Dr. Henry F. Kalfus (ex-Major
Fifteenth Kentucky infantry), W. K. Thomas, Alfred Harris, G. W. G. Payne, Joseph R. Bu- chanan, Thomas Jeffries, M. J. Paul, John Hines, John Colgan, Henry Stickrod, Michael Carroll, William Fitzhenry, Erwin Bell, A. J. Brannon, Thomas Miller, A. J. Mitchell, John Rudd, Charles J. Clarke, B. C. Redford, John H. Tal- bott, W. G. Gray.
August 16th the police of the city seize all the male negroes attending a colored fair and carry them off to the military prison. Some of them, according to Mr. Collins, are afterwards compelled to enlist ; others are put at work upon the fortifications, and still others are discharged.
August 25th, a telegraphic order from General Burbridge relieves the restrictions hitherto exist- ing in regard to trade, so far as they affect ordi- nary marketing.
September 12th, the United States Marshal for this State seizes for confiscation the property and credits of J. C. Johnston, Robert Ford, and others, who are in the Confederate service.
December 11th, the same officer seizes for the same purpose the library and household effects of the Rev. Dr. John H. Rice, pastor of a Pres- byterian church in Louisville in 1861, but now a chaplain in the Confederate army.
October 19th, a Federal soldier having been killed by Sue Munday's guerrillas near Jefferson- town, in this county, four Confederate prisoners, one of them a captain, are taken from Louisville to the spot, and there executed by shooting.
The next month many of the political prison- ers are released at Louisville, upon taking the oath of allegiance, giving bonds, in sums from $1,000 to $10,000, that they will go North and remain during the rest of the war.
Late in the fall, much excitement and some inconvenience are caused by certain orders of the United States authorities in regard to Ken- tucky hogs. For a time Mr. Vene P. Armstrong was the only person in Jefferson and Bullitt counties authorized to buy hogs in large lots. November 7th it was announced that the only pork-packing of the season about the Falls, ex- cept a little in New Albany, would be on Gov- ernment account; but so much trouble was made about Federal interference in the business, that just twenty days afterwards an order from General Burbridge revoked all previous orders limiting or affecting the hog trade in the State. -
42
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
November Ist, it was ascertained that 63,323 hogsheads of tobacco had been sold within the previous year-an increase of 26,610 hogsheads above the sales of the year before.
Paul R. Shipman, one of the editors of the Journal, was arrested this month ; also Colonel Richard T. Jacoh, Lieutenant-Governor of the State. The latter was brought to Louisville un- der guard, and sent at once to the South. Mr. Shipman was also on his way to the Confederate lines, by military order, when a counter-order from the Secretary of War returned him to Louis- ville.
November 22d, Chief Justice Bullitt and other citizens arrested in Angust and started for the Confederate lines, but detained at Memphis, re- turn to Louisville, by exchange for some citizens captured by the Confederate General Forrest.
November 24th, the extension on Main street, of the street railroad from Portland, is opened by the City Railway Company, of which General Boyle is President, from Twelfth to Wenzel streets.
November 28th, the True Presbyterian, still edited by Dr. Stuart Robinson, from his resi- dence in Canada, is again suppressed by military order.
On the same day Mr. Prentice, of the Journal, left Washington City on his way to Richmond, provided with papers from Federal and Confed- erate authorities, to intervene in behalf of his son, Clarence J. Prentice, of the Confederate service, who was under arrest for killing another, though in self defense. He returned January 2, having been successful in his mission.
Assessments of 1864: Real estate, $30,540,- 737; personal property, $368,575; merchandise, $5,381,225; residuary, $4,457,100; aggregating $40,747,637. Tax-city, 1.45 per cent .; State, . 3.
The Old Ladies' Home, at the southeast corner of Seventh and Kentucky streets, was founded this year. A legacy of $1,000 was left it by Mr. John Stirewalt, and contributions were made it by the Dickens Club during 1872, to the amount of $1,432. The next year, 1873, there were fifteen beneficiaries of the Home.
1865.
The Galt House was burned early on the
morning of January 11th, with great loss of prop- erty and some loss of life, two corpses being found among the ruins. Most of the guests lost their baggage, to the estimated amount of $231,- 000. The loss on building and furniture was $557,000, of which $231,000 was insured. The building of the present Galt House, at the north- east corner of Main and First, one square east of the old location, was shortly begun; but it was not completed and opened to the public until April 5, 1869. The hotel, ground, and entire furnishing cost $1, 100,000.
Later in the month, January 27th, the military prison here was similarly destroyed, with the loss of one prisoner burned and thirty others es- caped.
The Hon. James Guthrie, one of Louisville's favorite sons, was elected United States Senator January 11th, General Rousseau also receiving a very handsome vote.
A Confederate soldier from Carter county, condemned by a military commission as a guerrilla, was executed at Louisville January 20th.
February 7th the railroad from Louisville to Lexington was authorized to increase its tariff by ten per cent. Some additional regulations were prescribed for the sale of tobacco in the city.
The Jefferson county circuit court was estab- lished by law on the 24th of the same month. March I an act was passed giving justices of the peace in Jefferson county original common law jurisdiction to the amount of $100 and equity jurisdiction to $30.
On the day last given, a dash was made into a part of Louisville by a small party of guerrillas, who carried off two valuable horses owned by Captain Julius Fosses, assistant inspector-general of cavalry. It was the only time during the war that the enemy penetrated the corporate limits of the city.
March 6, Jefferson, with other counties, and the city of Louisville, were authorized by the Legislature to raise a fund for bounties in aid of enlistments and to procure substitutes.
A great freshet in the Ohio was at its height on the 8th, submerging the basements of all the stores along the river, from Third to Ninth street.
Marcus Jerome Clarke, otherwise Sue Mun- day, a young leader of a guerrilla band, was cap-
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
tured March 12, in Breckenridge county, brought to Louisville, tried and convicted as a guerrilla, and hanged here on the afternoon of the 15th.
A great public meeting was held in Louisville April 18th, four days after the murder of Presi- dent Lincoln, to express the sense of the city upon his death. Governor Bramlette presided, and, with Senator Guthrie, addressed the assem- bly. Resolutions in honor to the memory of the President were passed ; the next day was ob- served as one of sorrow, humiliation, and prayer ; and a funeral procession of three miles' length was formed and moved sadly through the prin- cipal streets.
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