Stories of Old Kentucky Part 14

He served with marked success in the United States Senate; his great genius, his high patriotism, his boundless energy, and fiery eloquence so swayed the people that more than once civil war for a time was averted, sections were reconciled, and he won the t.i.tle of the "Great Pacificator."

Convinced of his duty, Henry Clay was conscientious in discharging it, and when he thus lost the highest office in the gift of the nation he uttered the memorable words, "I would rather be right than be President."

He did not need this office to confer honor on him; he would have conferred honor on the office.

His fame was world-wide. His service as a statesman, his power as an orator, his courage as an antagonist, his cogency of reasoning, his untiring efforts as a peacemaker, spread from ocean to ocean and even beyond the seas. When he was laid to rest at his beloved Ashland, high potentates, distinguished persons, and the great common people alike bowed their heads.

KENTUCKY IN THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES

From Kentucky cabin homes came the two men who were destined to be the political leaders in the greatest conflict that ever shook our continent.

In 1808, Jefferson Davis, who became the President and idol of the Confederacy, first saw the light in that part of Christian County that was afterwards erected into Todd.

In 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the war President of the United States, was born in that part of Hardin County that afterwards became Larue.

The gifted Kentuckian, Henry Clay, had by his pacific measures postponed war, but it was not to be averted. When it came, our governor, Beriah Magoffin, attempted neutrality, and refused to raise troops for either army. From many homes, however, went soldiers to each side; friend was arrayed against friend, brother against brother, and father against son.

The hour of patriotism, danger, and privation had come. When the first gun in the war was fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, a native Kentuckian, Major Robert Anderson of the United States army, commanded the garrison.

On our soil both Confederate and Federal forces were raised. Various towns were occupied and fortified by soldiers, at some places under the Stars and Bars, at other places under the Stars and Stripes.

The boys that wore the gray entered Kentucky and fortified themselves at Columbus and Hickman under Major General Leonidas Polk, and at c.u.mberland Gap under General Zollicoffer. The boys in blue, acting under orders from Brigadier General U.S. Grant, invaded the state at Paducah.

General Albert Sidney Johnston of Kentucky took command of the Confederate "Central Army of Kentucky," and under his orders General Simon B. Buckner fortified Bowling Green.

At Wildcat Mountain, near London, a b.l.o.o.d.y conflict took place, General Zollicoffer leading the Confederates, and Colonel T.T. Garrard and General Schoepff the Federals. The Confederates, being outnumbered, withdrew, after a loss to each side.

At Sacramento, Colonel Forrest defeated a company of Federals two days after Christmas, 1861.

Early the next year General Zollicoffer and General George B.

Crittenden encountered General Thomas at Mill Springs; reenforcements came to the Federals, the gallant Zollicoffer fell, and the Confederates were forced to retreat.

At Big Hill, in Rockcastle County, the Federals were defeated; at Richmond the Confederates were again victorious, while at Munfordville they were repulsed.

At Augusta a b.l.o.o.d.y battle between Colonel Basil Duke's men and the home guards under Dr. Joshua T. Bradford resulted in another victory for the Confederates.

In the severe battle of Perryville, where 25,000 Federals, under General A. McCook, met 16,000 Confederates under General William J. Hardee, the Federal loss was more than four thousand and the Confederate, one thousand less. This was one of the most desperately contested battles of the war.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Gen. John H. Morgan.]

That daring Confederate cavalryman, General John H. Morgan, the "Francis Marion" of the Confederacy, captured Glasgow, Elizabethtown, and the blockhouses at Muldraugh's Hill, where he tore up the railroad track.

Colonel Cluke defeated the Federals at Mount Sterling, destroyed railway trains, and captured supplies.

At Bardstown, Maysville, Tompkinsville, Cynthiana, and Paducah, the two sides met in deadly conflict. At the latter place the daring Confederate cavalryman, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, entered with his troops.

Here also General A.P. Thompson, while gallantly leading his troops in a charge on Fort Anderson, fell pierced by a cannon ball.

At Murfreesboro, Missionary Ridge, Chickamauga, Vicksburg, Donelson, s.h.i.+loh, Baton Rouge, Stone River, indeed, on almost every battlefield, Kentucky courage was tested and never found wanting.

At the close of the crucial conflict more than thirty thousand of the flower of our Kentucky manhood had fallen, and thousands more were crippled.

More than forty thousand Kentuckians followed the fortunes of the Confederacy. Among them were: General Albert Sidney Johnston; Lieutenant Generals Simon B. Buckner and John B. Hood; Major Generals John C.

Breckinridge, William Preston, and George B. Crittenden; Brigadier Generals John Hunt Morgan, Humphrey Marshall, Ben Hardin Helm, Basil W.

Duke, Roger W. Hanson, Lloyd Tilghman, John S. Williams, George B.

Hodge, Thomas H. Taylor, Henry B. Lyon, Adam R. Johnson, and Richard S.

Gano.

More than one hundred thousand of the white men of our state and eleven thousand negroes enlisted in the Federal cause. Among the former were numbered: Major Generals Thomas L. Crittenden, Ca.s.sius M. Clay, Don Carlos Buell, William Nelson, Lovell H. Rousseau, and Thomas J. Wood; Brigadier and Brevet Major Generals Robert Anderson, Richard W. Johnson, Stephen G. Burbridge, W.T. Ward, Walter C. Whittaker, John T. Croxton, and Eli Long; Brigadier Generals James M. Shackelford, James S. Jackson, Green Clay Smith, Speed S. Fry, Jerry T. Boyle, Edward H. Hobson, T.T.

Garrard, L.P. Watkins, and W.P. Sanders.

Of the Kentuckians engaged we can truly say no braver men were found on either side; no better citizens have helped to develop our state since the conflict closed. Now only a few veterans are left on either side.

Most of them are

"Under the sod and the dew Waiting the judgment day;"

so let all unite in

"Love and tears for the blue Tears and love for the gray."

WHY SOME CITIES WERE SO NAMED

When a baby is christened we at once wonder why it was so named, especially if the name be a new or odd one. When we hear a new name for an invention we begin to look up the etymology of the word to see why it is so called. So it is with places, for there is a reason for their names being what they are. Take the beautiful capital of the blue-gra.s.s section of our state, and we find an interesting romance concerning its origin. In the year 1775, when

"The first oath of Freedom's gun Came on the blast from Lexington,"

a party of hunters, while in camp on one of the branches of the Elkhorn, learned that the first battle between the British and Americans had taken place. To commemorate the important event they called the place of their encampment Lexington. William McConnell, Francis McConnell, Alex McClelland, John McClelland, David Perry, and Charles Lecompt came down the Ohio in a large canoe as far as the mouth of the Kentucky, thence up that stream to the Elkhorn region, where they explored and made some improvements, between April and June of 1775.

Another party--Joseph Lindsay, William Lindsay, Patrick Jordan, Garret Jordan, and John Vance--explored the country and made some improvements in the vicinity of the present site of Lexington, and Joseph Lindsay, here, at the spring, built an "improver's cabin" and raised the first corn and beans in that country.

Lexington was not permanently settled until a few years later, by Colonel Robert Patterson and others.

In the summer of 1773 two parties from Virginia came down the Ohio River to explore the rich lands of Kentucky. One of these made the first survey and settlement at what is now the metropolis of our state. In August, Captain Thomas Bullitt laid off a town at this site, which was occasionally visited by different persons. No permanent settlement was made until in the spring of 1778, when General George Rogers Clark brought a few families and left them on an island near the Kentucky sh.o.r.e, which was called Corn Island from the circ.u.mstance that the settlers raised their first Indian corn there. In the fall of the same year, after Clark had captured the British posts that had served as the fountain head for the Indian incursions, the settlers felt more secure and removed from the island to the mainland. In 1780 the legislature of Virginia pa.s.sed an act to establish the town of Louisville at the Falls of the Ohio, naming it in honor of Louis XVI of France, whose troops were at that time aiding the Americans in their fight for liberty.

In 1780, on the Kentucky River, where our capital now stands, a party, among whom was Stephen Frank, on their way from Bryan's Station to the fort at Lexington to secure salt, encamped and were attacked by the Indians. Two were wounded, and Frank instantly killed. In memory of Frank the place was ever after called Frankfort.

Covington was named in honor of General Leonard Covington, who distinguished himself at Fort Recovery, 1749. The name of Colonel Richard Henderson, the head of the Transylvania Company, is perpetuated in Henderson, or, as it was formerly known, Hendersonville. Bowling Green, denoting a plat for bowling, probably came from the name found in Yorks.h.i.+re, England.

Hopkinsville perpetuates the name of the Revolutionary hero, General Samuel Hopkins. Owensboro was named in honor of Colonel Abraham Owen, who fell at Tippecanoe. Ashland gained its name from the vast amount of ash timber in that region. Maysville bears the name of its founder, John May. Georgetown and Was.h.i.+ngton both took their names from our first President.

The first part of Mount Sterling was named from the many mounds in the vicinity, the latter from a city in Scotland. Richmond was named for a city in Virginia, and Shelbyville for our first governor. Smithland was named for Captain James Smith, the first white man to explore that region. Catlettsburg and Danville were called respectively from their founders, Horatio Catlett and Walker Daniel. Lebanon, with its abundance of cedar trees, was named for the mountain in Palestine, where such trees abound.

Paris, from the city in France, Versailles, from the royal palace in that city, and Glasgow, from a city in Scotland, bear transatlantic names. Eminence from its elevated position, and Eddyville from the eddies in the c.u.mberland River near there, bear names descriptive of the places. Kuttawa, or Cuttawa, the red man's first name for the Kentucky River, is the only town in the state, besides Paducah, bearing an Indian name. Carrollton, from Charles Carroll, Franklin, from the great philosopher, Ludlow, from Israel Ludlow, and Princeton, from William Prince, its first settler, perpetuate names noted in history, science, and frontier days.