Louisville in the Civil War

Louisville in the Civil War, 1861-1865 | A Visual History

lousville in the

civil war, 1861-1865

1865 map titled Louisville and Its Defenses (not in Harper’s)

Compiled by kraig mcnutt

[email protected]

The center for the study of

the American civil war


lousville in the civil war, 1861-1865

The weeklies

March 16, 1861.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

RAISING THE STARS AND STRIPES OVER THE COURT HOUSE,

LOUISIVILLE, KY., ON WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY, FEB. 22, 1861, BY

COL. J.H. HARNEY AND GEORGE D. PRENTICE, ESQ.

Tags: Louisville | Courthouse


October 12, 1861 - Harper’s weekly

Camp of general rosseau’s brigade, near muldraugh’s hill,

Kentucky, (sketch)

Tags: Gen Lovell H. Rousseau | Muldraugh’s Hill | Elizabethtown, KY | L&N Railroad

THE WAR IN KENTUCKY.

WE publish herewith, from a sketch by Mr. H. Mosler, a view of CAMP ROSSEAU, NEAR

MULDRAUGH'S HILL, Kentucky. This is a camp of Union troops, situated 31 miles north of

Louisville,

Kentucky, and 7 miles from Muldraugh's Hill, on the railroad to Nashville, Tennessee. Troops

from Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky are rapidly congregating here, and there is a strong prospect

of an early brush.


Kentucky encyclopedia, p. 660



William H. Hovey

ARRIVAL OF THE FORTY-NINTH OHIO REGIMENT AT LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.—DRAWN BY HENRY MOSLER.—[SEE PAGE 671.]

Tags: 49th Ohio Infantry | Col William H. Hovey | Louisville


WE continue our series of illustrations of the war in Kentucky with a picture of the ARRIVAL OF

THE FORTY-NINTH OHIO AT LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, on page 668 ; and another of GENERAL

SHERMAN'S HEAD-QUARTERS at Lebanon Junction, on the railroad south of Louisville, on page

667: both from sketches by our correspondent, Mr. Henry Mosier.

A correspondent of the Tribune thus writes of the camp:

The States of Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois have sent many regiments and parts of regiments to the

United States encampment south of this city, on the railroad. I have not been able to preserve


any regular estimate of the number, having been absent part of the time. But I can scarcely be

far wrong in saying that there are 12,000 to 15,000 men under command of General Sherman,

including Home Guards. The force may exceed my estimate.

The reception of the Forty-Ninth Ohio at Louisville is thus described in the Louisville Journal:

A detachment of Ohio troops, under the command of Colonel Gibson, passed through the city

this morning on their way to the seat of war on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. They

paraded our streets, and their appearance was warmly greeted by the Union men and women

of Louisville. They paid their compliments to General Anderson at the Louisville Hotel, who

appeared on the balcony, and, in a few feeling and eloquent remarks, thanked them for the

compliment and welcomed them to Kentucky. He told them that they had come at a time when

Kentucky needed their services, and that every true Kentuckian would properly and truly

appreciate their motives in coming among us.

The response of Colonel Gibson was most touching. He alluded to the gallant manner in which

Kentucky had come to the rescue of the frontiers of Ohio in former days, and said that Ohio

designs now to show that she had not forgotten those services, but was here with her blood to

protect the constitutional rights of her neighbors.

Both General Anderson and Colonel Gibson were warmly applauded at the conclusion of every

sentence. The detachment took up the line of march for the Nashville depot, from which point

they embarked for General Sherman’s head-quarters.

OUR MAP OF KENTUCKY

THE southwestern portion of Kentucky and the western portion of Tennessee (of which we

publish a Map on page 662) are mountainous; the middle regions are an elevated table-land,

through which the rivers run in deep channels, with high precipitous banks. In Kentucky this

table-land breaks abruptly at the head-waters of the Salt River and its tributary forks, which

drain the plain westward. To the Ohio River. The rise from this plain to the central table-land is

about 200 feet, where the Louisville and Nashville Railroad ascends Muldraugh Hill. At this point

is a railroad tunnel 1200 feet in length. The railroad bridge over Rolling Fork was burned by the

rebels. The Union forces, however, gained possession of the summit, and now hold this strong

natural position, which is the key to the fertile and wealthy region of Northern Kentucky.

The Union and Rebel camps are designated on the Map.


Tags: 49th Map | Kentucky


LEBANON JUNCTION, 29 MILES FROM LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, ON THE LOUISVILLE AND NASHVILLE RAILROAD,

PRESENT HEAD-QUARTERS OF GENERAL SHERMAN'S BRIGADE OF UNION TROOPS.—SKETCHED BY HENRY MOSLER.—

[SEE PAGE 671.]

Tags: Lebanon Junction, KY | L&N Railroad | Gen William T. Sherman


November 1861 - William T. Sherman, commander of

the military district of Kentucky,

June 4, 1864 Harper’s Weekly

On Aug. 3, 1861 he was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers, to date from May 17, and

on Oct. 7 relieved Maj.-Gen. Anderson in command of the Department of Kentucky. On Nov. 12,

however, he was in turn relieved by Gen. D. C. Buell, his estimate of the number of troops

required in his department, "sixty thousand men to drive the enemy out of Kentucky and

200,000 to finish the war in this section," being considered so wildly extravagant as to give rise

to doubts of his sanity. It was, however, justified by later events. During the remainder of the

winter he was in command of the camp of instruction at Benton barracks, near St. Louis, and

when Grant moved upon Donelson, was stationed at Paducah, where he rendered effective

service in forwarding supplies and reinforcements. – The Union Army Vol 8.

Tags: Gen William T. Sherman | Kentucky


January 11, 1862 - Harper’s weekly

LANDING OF OHIO TROOPS AT LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.—[SKETCHED BY MR. H. MOSLER.]

Tags: Louisville | Wharf | Ohio Union Troops


WE devote this and the following page to illustrations of the War in Kentucky.

We reproduce above a sketch by Mr. Henry Mosler, representing the ARRIVAL OF TROOPS AT

LOUISVILLE. Mr. Mosler writes that regiments past counting are arriving at Louisville, and

moving on no one knows where.

The picture below, also from a sketch by Mr. Mosier, represents GENERAL BUELL’S BODY-

GUARD. Mr. M. writes that these are the finest body of men he has ever seen, being in truth and

in fact the flower of the Pennsylvania troops. They are all from five feet ten inches to six feet in

height, and were picked one man from each county of Pennsylvania.

The large picture on the following page represents the recent BRILLIANT SKIRMISH between a

part of Colonel Willick’s Thirty-second Indiana Regiment and several rebel regiments—among

others the Texan Rangers, under Colonel Terry. The official report from General Buell to the

head-quarters at Washington, sent by telegraph, gives but few particulars of the brilliant


resistance made by four companies of the Thirty-second Indiana Volunteers against a vastly

superior rebel force under Colonel Terry. The rebel force consisted of one regiment of Texan

Rangers, two regiments of infantry, and one battery of six guns ; and that of the Unionists of but

four companies, who occupied a point in front of the railroad bridge across Green River, a short

distance south of Mumfordsville. The attack was made by the rebels at about two o’clock in the

afternoon of the 17th December ; and after a brief struggle, during which they lost Colonel Terry,

of the Rangers—he, with thirty-three others, being killed, and about fifty others wounded—they

ingloriously retreated. The Union loss was one lieutenant and eight enlisted men killed, and ten

wounded.

GENERAL BUELL’S BODY-GUARD.—[DRAWN BY MR. H. MOSLER.]

Tags: Louisville | General Don Carlos Buell | Munfordville


Harper's Weekly, April 12, 1862

GENERAL BUELL.

WE publish on page 225 a portrait of General D. C. BUELL, who has been created a Major-

General of Volunteers for his brilliant campaign

in Kentucky and Tennessee.

General Buell is a native of Ohio, in which State

he was born about the year 1818. He graduated

at the Military Academy at West Point in 1837,

and served as Second Lieutenant in the Third

Infantry. He obtained the rank of First

Lieutenant in June, 1846, and accompanied his

regiment to Mexico. In September of the same

year he was breveted Captain for gallant and

meritorious conduct at Monterey. He

accompanied General Scott's army, and again

distinguished himself at Cerro Gordo, Contreras,

and Churubusco; was severely wounded at the

latter fight, and breveted Major for gallantry

there. On his return home he was appointed

Assistant Adjutant-General, and served in that

capacity in various parts of the country. On the

outbreak of the war Major Buell was active in

organizing the army at Washington. On General

McClellan's appointment to the chief command

he placed General Buell in command of a

division, which soon became so perfect in discipline

and drill as to elicit general remark. Soon afterward it was deemed best to supersede General

Sherman in the command of the army in Kentucky, and General Buell was appointed in his

stead. His subsequent career is fresh in the memory of the public, and the triumphant success of

his plans without the shedding of blood, the expulsion of the enemy from Kentucky, and the

recovery of Tennessee, proclaim him a General of the first ability.

Tags: Gen. Don Carlos Buell | Louisville


January 25, 1862 - Harper’s weekly

Birds eye view of bowling green, Kentucky, and its

approaches (sketch)

REFERENCES: 1. General Critenden's Camp.-2. Bowling Green and defenses.-3. Big River Creek.-4. Smith Grove.-5. Rocky Hill.-6.

Green River Knob and batteries.-7. Preut's Knob.-9. Woodland.-10. Horse Well.-11. Summer Seat Knob.-12. Clear Point.-13. Peach-

tree Knob.-14. Bald Knob.-15. Cranmer.-16. Louisville and Nashville Turnpike.-17. Louisville and Nashville Railroad.-18. Green River

bridge, restored.-19. Green River.-20. Mumfordsville.-21. Gen. Buell's advance Brigades.-22. Bacon Creek.-23. Leesville.-24. Upton

Station.-25. Nolin.-26. Red Mills.-27. Nolin Creek.-28. Hodgensville.-29. Elizabethtown.-30. Rough Creek.-31. Litchfield.-32. Valley

Creek.-33. Pontoon bridge.

Tags: Map | Bowling Green, KY | Green River | Munfordville


BOWLING GREEN AND THE VICINITY.

ON page 61 we publish a birds-eye view of that part of Kentucky now occupied by our own and

the rebel forces, showing the course of the Green River, Munfordsville, Bowling Green, etc. A

correspondent of the Journal of Commerce writes as follows regarding this region of country:

The Federal forces advancing on Bowling Green are now detained at Green River for repairs of

the railroad bridge. This bridge was an iron one, and said to have been destroyed two or three

months ago, contrary to the instructions of General Buckner at the time. It is over 200 feet span.

The whole country west of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, for 50 or 60 miles to the Ohio

River, is rough, hilly, and broken, and literally without any thing that would be entitled to the

name of roads, and but sparsely inhabited. The distance from Green River to Bowling Green is

41 miles. There are no villages on the route of the turnpike or railroad. The largest place is at

Prent's Knob, with some dozen houses. There is a high range of hills on the west of the road,

extending from near Green River almost to Bowling Green.

Tags: Munfordville | Gen Buell | Green River



THE LOUISVILLE SCARE.

ON the preceding page we reproduce a picture of Mr. Mosler’s, representing the

PARTIAL EVACUATION OF LOUISVILLE by the

women and children, in consequence of the

approach of Bragg’s army. On the 22d

September General Nelson issued the

following order, accompanying the same with

a declaration that in all probability it would

become necessary to evacuate the city:

HEAD-QUARTERS, ARMY OF KENTUCKY,

LOUISVILLE, Sept. 22, 1862.

The women and children of this city will

prepare to leave the city without delay.

By order of

GENERAL NELSON. J. EDWARD STACEY, A.

A. A. G.

SPECIAL ORDERS—No. 22.

HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF KENTUCKY,

LOUISVILLE, Sept. 22, 1862.

1. The Jeffersonville Ferry will be used exclusively for military purposes.

Private vehicles will not be allowed to go aboard of the ferry-boats without

a special permit from these head-quarters. Persons on foot will pass as

usual. This order will go into effect at 12 M. today.

J. EDWARD STACEY, A. A. A. G.

The publication of these orders created a terrible flurry at Louisville, and

General Nelson has been much blamed for issuing them. But they may have

helped to convince Bragg of the hopelessness of his enterprise, for he would

not naturally care to cause the destruction of such a city as Louisville, and

the order showed him plainly that the place would not be evacuated. On

news being received of the retreat of the enemy business was resumed, and

the people of Louisville returned to their homes.

Tags: Gen Bull Nelson | Jeffersonville


Tags: Map | Louisville | Ferry dock

THE WHARF AT LOUISVILLE—THE INHABITANTS LEAVING THE CITY.—SKETCHED BY MR. H. MOSLER.—[SEE PAGE 654.]


SHELLING THE REBELS ON THE KENTUCKY BANKS OF THE OHIO RIVER.—SKETCHED BY MR. H. MOSLER.—

Tags: Ohio River | Confederate shelling

October 11, 1862 Harper's Weekly


ON page 652 we give a picture, from a sketch by our special artist in Kentucky, Mr. H. Mosler,

representing a GUN-BOAT IN THE OHIO on the look-out for rebels. Mr. Mosier writes:

"LOUISVILLE, September, 1862.

"Inclosed please find a sketch of the boats defending the Ohio River where possibly it might be

forded, or stationed at different points to prevent the erection of batteries on the Kentucky

shores. These boats are defended by bales of hay, and their pilot-houses made bullet-proof by

heavy oak planking. They occasionally reconnoitre up and down the river, shelling the woods, as

represented in my sketch."



GENERAL BUELL’S ARMY ENTERING LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.—DRAWN BY MR. H. MOSLER.—[SEE PAGE 663.]

Tags: Gen. Don Carlos Buell | Louisville | Green River | Munfordville


WE reproduce on page 660 a picture by our special artist, Mr. Mosier, representing THE ENTRY

OF BUELL’S ARMY INTO LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY; on page 661 another picture, also by Mr.

Mosler, showing the MOVEMENT OF VETERANS ON THE OHIO; and on the same page a sketch

by Mr. Hubner, representing SHELBYVILLE, the only Union town in Tennessee.

Buell entered Louisville on September 25. The Herald correspondent, writing on that day, said:

I have to announce the junction of the main portion of the United States forces under General

Buell, and the army under General Nelson, assembled for the immediate defense of this city.

The advance of General Buell reached the city today, and is going into temporary camp on the

eastern limits of the town. The advance consisted of General Crittenden’s division. It is followed

by those of McCook, Smith (formerly Ammen’s), and Wood. General Buell reached here during

last night, and will to-day assume the command of all the forces in the vicinity. A new

organization of the two armies into one will doubtless ensue.


Speaking of Buell’s rapid march from Green River, the same writer says:

The march from Green River has been made in the rear of Bragg, and battle has been several

times offered him, but we have had no response. The whole march has had the appearance of a

rapid retreat on the part of Bragg, but General Buell, as if designing to push him as far North as

possible, has pursued slowly. The theory of an officer on General Crittenden’s staff, with whom I

have conversed is, that Bragg has been retreating ever since he reached Glasgow and made an

attack on Munfordsville. Failing in his first attempt, the rebel moved up in force and took the

position to find that Buell was in line of battle in his rear on Thursday morning. Too late to fall

back to Glasgow, Bragg hastily moved forward to Elizabethtown, and, on Thursday night, made a

forced march, evacuating Munfordsville in such haste that he did not destroy the railroad bridge

at that point. General Buell did not discover this until next morning, when he immediately

moved forward. Thomas’s corps—Rousseau and Schoepff —by the Glasgow and Bardstown

road, and Wood, McCook, Crittenden, and Ammen (now Smith), by the road to Elizabethtown.

Colonel Edward McCook, Second Indiana cavalry, had the advance of the main column in Bragg’s

rear. He began to feel Bragg at Bacon Creek, and skirmished with him for three days. Major

William H. Polk, volunteer aid on General Crittenden’s staff, describes this skirmishing on the

part of Colonel McCook as exceedingly skillful and successful. He moved with rapidity, and was

every where at the same time. He boldly attacked the rebel flanks, and made gallant dashes and

charges upon the retreating column. Colonel McCook and his men were in the saddle night and

day, and harassed the enemy most terribly. He killed a large number, and has brought in over

seven hundred prisoners. He states that among the rebels killed in skirmishing with Bragg’s rear

were Colonel Forsyth, formerly editor of the Mobile Register, and on Bragg’s staff; Major Wicks,

of Hardee’s staff; Lieutenant-Colonel Brown, in command of Bragg’s rear-guard, and two

captains. Among the prisoners are several majors and two captains. The privates, do many

instances, were stragglers, but many were taken in actual skirmish. Colonel Edward McCook is a

member of the McCook family. It is not ridiculous or obscure language I use when I say he is a

son of old McCook, for the name is historical, and the old man and all his sons have made their

mark in this war.

The picture on page 661 needs no description. As soon as it was known that the rebel armies

were moving northward through Kentucky portions of our veterans were quietly sent north, on

transports up the Mississippi and the Ohio, and distributed among the new levies at Louisville

and Cincinnati. These are the troops who fought at Fort Donelson and Shiloh. Their arrival and

their thoroughly soldierly aspect gave heart and hope to the frightened denizens of those cities.


Don Carlos Buell

Buell, Don Carlos, major-general, was born near Marietta,

Ohio March 23, 1818. He was graduated at West Point in

1841, and assigned to the 3rd infantry, being raised to 1st

lieutenant June 18, 1846. He served in the war with

Mexico, being brevetted captain for gallant action at

Monterey, and major after Contreras and Churubusco,

having received a severe wound in the latter engagement

and was then, from 1848 to 1861, on duty as assistant

adjutant-general at Washington and at various department

headquarters. He received a staff appointment as

lieutenant-colonel, May 11, 1861, was commissioned

brigadier-general of volunteers on May 17, being employed

at first in organizing the troops at Washington, and in Aug.

1861, was given command of a division of the Army of the

Potomac. In Nov., 1861, he superseded Gen. W. T. Sherman

as commander of the Department of the Cumberland,

which was reorganized as the Department of the Ohio, and

the campaign in Kentucky was opened on Dec. 17, 1861,

when an attack was begun upon his pickets at Rowlett

station, near Munfordville. Gen Buell occupied Bowling

Green, Feb. 14, 1862, took possession with a small force of

Gallatin, Tenn., on the 23rd, and entered Nashville two days later. On March 21, 1862, he was made major-

general of volunteers, his department becoming a part of the Department of the Mississippi under Gen.

Halleck, and on the 6th of April following, his opportune arrival at Shiloh saved Gen. Grant from disastrous

defeat. On June 12, 1862, he took command of the Department of the Ohio, and, upon the advance of Bragg

into Kentucky he was forced to evacuate Central Tennessee, and make a rapid retreat to Louisville, in order to

save that city, and Cincinnati, which also was threatened by the Confederates. He arrived at Louisville at

midnight, Sept. 24, amid great excitement, as the inhabitants had feared that Bragg would get there first. Buell

was ordered to give over his command to Thomas, Sept. 30, but was reinstated the next day and began a

pursuit of the Confederates. After a week's chase, Bragg halted to give battle at Perryville, and there the two

armies fought an indecisive battle which lasted from early in the afternoon of Oct. 8, until dark, with great loss

on both sides. On the next day Bragg retired to Harrodsburg, and thence slowly to Cumberland gap. Buell's

management of this command has been pronounced masterful by military authorities, but he was censured by

the war department for not pursuing the Confederates swiftly enough to bring them into action again, and on

Oct. 24, 1862, was ordered to turn over his command to Gen. Rosecrans. A military committee made a report

which was never published. Gen. Buell was mustered out of the volunteer service, May 23, 1864, and resigned

his commission in the regular army June 1, 1864. After the war he became extensively engaged in the iron

business in Muhlenburg county, Ky., and in 1885 was appointed by President Cleveland pension agent in

Kentucky. He died near Rockport, Ky., Nov. 19, 1898.

Source: The Union Army, vol. 8

Major-General Don Carlos Buell


Tags: Gen Curtis | Louisville | The Louisville Hotel | General Braxton Bragg


THE MURDER OF GEN. NELSON.

ON page 669 we publish an illustration of the ASSASSINATION OF GENERAL NELSON BY

GENERAL J. C. DAVIS, which took place ten days since at Louisville. Our picture is from a sketch

by our artist, Mr. Mosler, who visited the spot

immediately after the affair. The Cincinnati Inquirer

gives the following particulars:

When the alarm was raised in Louisville that the

enemy were marching on that city, General Davis,

who could not reach his command under General

Buell, then at Bowling Green, went to General

Nelson and tendered his services. General Nelson

gave him the command of the city militia so soon as

they were organized. General Davis opened an

office and went to work in assisting the

organization. On Wednesday last General Davis

called upon General Nelson in his room at the Galt

House, in Louisville, when the following took place:

GEN. Davis. "I have the brigade, General, you

assigned me ready for service, and have called to

inquire if I can obtain arms for them."

GEN. NELSON. "How many men have you?"

DAVIS. "About twenty-five hundred men, General." NELSON (roughly and angrily). "About

twenty-five hundred! About twenty-five hundred! By G—d! you a regular officer, and come here

to me and report about the number of men in your command? G—d d—n you, don't you know,

Sir, you should furnish me the exact number?" DAVIS. "General, I didn't expect to get the guns

now, and only wanted to learn if I could get them, and where; and, having learned the exact

number needed, would then draw them."

NELSON (pacing the room in a rage). "About twenty-five hundred! By G—d I suspend you from

your command, and order you to report to General Wright; and I've a d—d mind to put you

under arrest. Leave my room, Sir!"

Davis. "I will not leave, General, until you give me an order."

NELSON. "The h—l you won't! By G—d I'll put you under arrest, and send you out of the city

under a provost guard! Leave my room, Sir!"

General Davis left the room, and, in order to avoid an arrest, crossed over the river to

Jeffersonville, where he remained until the next day, when he was joined by General Burbridge,

who had also been relieved by Nelson for a trivial cause. General Davis came to Cincinnati with


General Burbridge, and reported to General Wright, who ordered General Davis to return to

Louisville and report to General Buell, and General Burbridge to remain in Cincinnati. General

Davis returned on Friday evening and reported to General Buell. Nothing further occurred until

yesterday morning, when General Davis, seeing General Nelson in the main hall of the Galt

House, fronting the office, went up to Governor Morton and requested him to step up with him

to General Nelson and witness the conversation that might pass between Nelson and him. The

Governor consented, and the two walked up to General Nelson, when the following took place:

GEN. DAVIS. "Sir, you seemed to take advantage of your authority the other day."

GEN. NELSON (sneeringly, and placing his hand to his ear). "Speak louder, I don't hear very well."

DAVIS (in a louder tone). "You seemed to take advantage of your authority the other day."

NELSON (indignantly). "I don't know that I did, Sir." DAVIS. "You threatened to arrest and send

me out of the State under a provost guard."

NELSON (striking Davis with the back of his hand twice in the face). "There, d—n you, take that!"

DAVIS (retreating). "This is not the last of it; you will hear from me again."

General Nelsen then turned to Governor Morton, and said: "By G—d, did you come here also to

insult me?"

Gov. MORTON. "No, Sir; but I was requested to be present and listen to the conversation

between you and General Davis."

GEN. NELSON (violently to the by-standers). "Did you hear the d—d rascal insult me?" and then

walked into the ladies' parlor.

In three minutes General Davis returned, with a pistol he had borrowed of Captain Gibson, of

Louisville, and walking toward the door that Nelson had passed through, he saw Nelson walking

out of the parlor into the hall separating the main hall from the parlor. The two were face to

face, and about ten yards apart, when General Davis drew his pistol and fired, the ball entering

Nelson's heart, or in the immediate vicinity.

General Nelson threw up both hands and caught a gentleman near by around the neck, and

exclaimed, "I am shot!" He then walked up the flight of stairs toward General Buell's room, but

sank at the top of the stairs, and was unable to proceed further. He was then conveyed to his

room, and when laid on his bed requested that the Rev. Mr. Talbott, an Episcopal clergyman

stopping in the house, might be sent to him at once. The reverend gentleman arrived in about

five minutes.

Mr. Talbott found General Nelson extremely anxious as to his future welfare, and deeply

penitent about the many sins he had committed. He knew that he must die immediately, and

requested the ordinance of baptism might be administered, which was done. The General then


whispered, "It's all over," and died in fifteen minutes after he was conveyed to his room. His

death was easy, the passing away of his spirit as though the General had fallen into a quiet

sleep.

THE ASSASSINATION OF GENERAL NELSON BY GENERAL JEFFERSON C. DAVIS.—SKETCHED BY MR. H. MOSLER.—[SEE PAGE 671.]

Tags: General Bull Nelson | Gen Jefferson C. Davis | The Galt House


november 1, 1862 - Harper’s weekly

HARPER'S WEEKLY. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1862.

THE REBEL ENTERPRISE IN KENTUCKY. Tags: Bragg | Kentucky

THE smoke is clearing away from the scene of the campaign in Kentucky, and we are at length

beginning to understand the mysterious movements of Buell and Bragg.

When Mr. Lincoln called for a new levy of 600,000 men it was evident to the Southern leaders

that, unless they could achieve decisive successes before that new levy was brought into the

field armed and disciplined, their cause was gone. The fiat, therefore, went forth that the

defensive policy must be abandoned and the Northern States invaded. At that time General

Bragg was at Chattanooga, General Buell within 20 miles of him, each with an army of some

35,000 men. For some time past Buell's object had been to manoeuvre Bragg out of

Chattanooga, which then appeared to be, and will again become, the key to the situation in that

part of the country. In August last, to the astonishment of Buell, Bragg evacuated the place, and

moved rapidly northward in the direction of Nashville. Rapidly comprehending the movement,

Buell likewise abandoned the object for which he had so long contended, and marched

northward on a parallel line to Bragg. Being nearer to Nashville than his enemy, he arrived there

first, and the capital of Tennessee was saved. Bragg, perceiving that he was foiled, shifted his

line of march to the eastward, and entered Kentucky, where John Morgan and Kirby Smith, with

the armies of Eastern Tennessee, had been operating for some little time previous.

This was the situation at the middle of September. That the object of Bragg was to capture

Louisville and Cincinnati there can be now no doubt whatever. Buell had to choose between

moving eastwardly upon Bragg—which would have brought on a battle, the result of which

would have insured the fall of Louisville, if our army had been beaten—and marching toward

Louisville on a parallel line to his enemy, with the advantage which he had previously enjoyed

on the march to Nashville, of being nearer the point they both wished to reach. He chose the

latter, with evident wisdom, and reached Louisville in time: Bragg's army being nearly two day's

march from the place when Buell's advance-guard entered it. Buell's entry into Louisville was

evidently the turning-point in the campaign. Foiled in both his objects, having taken neither

Nashville nor Louisville, Bragg had now no choice but to retreat back whence he came. Buell, on

the other hand, was free to pursue him with a largely increased army, freshly equipped and

supplied. He commenced the pursuit accordingly, dividing his army in such a way, and directing

them to march by such roads as, in the opinion of competent judges, rendered it likely that

Bragg might be surrounded.

This plan failed, owing, it is said, to the disobedience of a corps commander, who could not

resist the temptation of giving battle, at Perryville, with his single corps, to the whole rebel

army. The consequence was that Bragg made good his escape in the direction of Crab Orchard

and Richmond. Buell, at latest dates, was following him close—about one day's journey behind;


but the prospect was that, with the aid of Morgan's flying squadron, and other guerrilla bands,

Bragg would make good his escape to and beyond the Cumberland Mountains, with his artillery

and most of his stores.

Take it all in all, it must be admitted that the rebel enterprise in Kentucky has failed. Bragg has

not succeeded in the great objects he had in view—the capture of Nashville or Louisville. He has

not achieved the decisive success which the rebel leaders deemed it essential to achieve before

our new levies were in the field. He has not wrested from us and permanently held any single

point. He has overrun and plundered the finest region of Kentucky, but this will have no more

influence upon the result of the war than the raids of the pirate "290."

It is a little remarkable that, while a large number of journals and politicians at the North have

been reviling Buell for not fighting Bragg, the rebel papers are equally severe on Bragg for not

fighting Buell. The probability is that both Generals acted for the best. If Buell had fought Bragg

in Southern Tennessee, or again in Southern Kentucky, and had been defeated, Louisville and

Kentucky would inevitably have been lost. And the forces of the two Generals were so nearly

matched that no one can tell what might have been the issue of a battle. If Bragg had been

routed in Southern Tennessee nothing could have saved Chattanooga, Rome, and Knoxville to

the Confederacy.

The Richmond Examiner is especially severe on Bragg for being "too slow," and for allowing

Buell so constantly to "outstrip him in the race." We think this may be fairly set against the oft-

repeated complaints of our journals about Buell being "too slow." The fact is, that both Generals

marched very fast indeed, but Buell having the shorter distance to run, won the race. And the

practical result of the enterprise is, that the rebels have been, or are being, expelled from

Kentucky, where they have left a record which will make them execrated for generations.


November 7, 1863 - Harper’s weekly

A TROOP TRAIN IN THE BIG CUT IN THE ROCKS, ON THE NASHVILLE AND CHATTANOOGA RAILROAD.

Tags: Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad |33rd New Jersey Infantry


Mr. Davis writes:

"CHATTANOOGA, October 12.

"En route for the army, I found on reaching Louisville that no pass could be obtained to reach

this place; and had it not been for Colonel Thomas A. Scott, who has had charge of the late

transportation of troops, and who gave me a place upon a troop train, a rather lengthy stay at

Louisville would have been my lot.

"The scenery upon the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad is in many places grand. The sketch

will give some idea of the magnitude of some of the cuts through rock and mountain.

"One of the regiments on board the train (the Thirty-third New Jersey) seemed to be a

particularly jolly one, for as the train went slowly climbing among the mountains they sang,

hurrahed, and shouted. The favorite song seemed to be, 'Oh, Rosecrans, he is the man,' etc. I

think they sang it to nearly every picket on the road, the picket returning his thanks in a yell

peculiar to our Western soldiers, and one to which the ears of many a rebel has tingled."


May 3, 1861 - The Louisville Daily Journal

Tags: The Louisville Daily Courier | Louisville 1861 | Newspaper | Early War

Source: eBay, January 2011


May 15, 1861 - The Louisville Daily Journal

Source: eBay January 2011

Tags: The Louisville Daily Courier | Louisville 1861 | Newspaper | Slavery


September 24, 1862 – cincinnati daily gazette

Source: eBay January 2011

Tags: The Cincinnati Daily Courier | Louisville Sept 1862 | Newspaper


Henry Watterson, founded the Louisville courier

Journal

Henry Watterson (1840–1921) was a United States journalist who founded the Louisville Courier-Journal, served part of one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Watterson became a newspaper reporter before the Civil War.

He fought for the CSA under General Nathan B. Forrest, and was the editor a pro-Confederate newspaper, called The Chattanooga Rebel.

CDV is signed and dated 1910.

Source: Cowan’s Auction, online

Tags: The Louisville Courier-Journal | Louisville Journalist | Henry Watterson


Office of sanitary commission, Louisville, ky

Source: NYPL

Digital ID: 1150073. United States Sanitary Commission -- Creator Source: United States Sanitary Commission records, 1861-1872, bulk (1861-1865). / Photographs, prints and drawings / Photographs and drawings Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.

Tags: Louisville | U.S. Sanitary Commission


Soldiers home. Us sanitary commission. Louisville, ky

Source: NYPL

Digital ID: 1150072. United States Sanitary Commission -- Creator. 1861-1872 Source: United States Sanitary Commission records, 1861-1872, bulk (1861-1865). / Photographs, prints and drawings / Photographs and drawings Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.

Persistent URL: digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1150072 Rights Info: No known copyright restrictions; may be subject to third party rights

Tags: Louisville | U.S. Sanitary Commission | Soldier’s Home


Cave hill cemetery, Louisville, ky

Chartered by the General Assembly of Kentucky on February 5, 1848 for the purpose of

operating a rural cemetery. Cave Hill was dedicated in

July of that year and the transition of Cave Hill Farm

into a beautiful and historic cemetery began.

Early History

The city fathers did not have a cemetery in mind when they acquired part of the old farm that the Johnson family had called Cave Hill. The farm had a good spring emanating from a cave, but its stone quarries were of principal interest, particularly because the proposed Louisville and Frankfort Railroad was supposed to run through the property. As almost an afterthought, a few flat acres were to be surveyed off to balance the burying privileges at the west end of Jefferson Street.

Years went by and it became evident that the railroad would skirt the quarries. The fields were farmed by lessees and the old brick house built by the Johnstons became the City’s Pest House—an isolated home for patients displaced and suffering from eruptive, contagious diseases. Death was an all-too-frequent visitor to the Pest House. But this Death was in a different guise. It had not the finality and disgust the earlier Puritan concept had associated with it. Death was not to be abhorred and feared. It was full of promise, hope, and rejuvenation; and the sorrow associated with it was accompanied by joy and revelation. Death was merely a transition, and as such, a natural setting for burials became desirable. Asleep in nature elicited a much different feeling than being confined and neglected in shabby plots and yards that many times themselves spread diseases and compounded the problem. Their only saving grace was as sources of cadavers for medical schools.

When it came time in late 1846 to add the graveyard component to Cave Hill, the mayor and the city council apparently did not consciously set out to make a garden cemetery, which by then was a concept gaining popularity in the major cities of America. But, propitiously, they appointed a committee that selected a civil engineer who had firsthand experience of the emerging cemetery concept. Edmund Francis Lee (1811-1857) convinced the city fathers to utilize the natural features of Cave Hill which previously had been considered quite undesirable for burying purposes. To Lee, the old Cave Hill farm was perfectly suited for cemetery purposes. Its promontories would become the primary bury sites. The roads to these hilltop circles would curve gently following the natural contours. The intervening basins would become ponds or be planted with trees and maintained as reserves. The garden setting would be a natural backdrop for the lots and monuments and the cemetery would receive perpetual attention and could never be violated—stipulations never before provided. Here then was a place not to be


shunned, but a park to be sought out for its beauty and the spiritual elevation gained from contemplating the collective accomplishments of its inhabitants.

In the Victorian period, personal wealth increased, as did family aggrandizement. The garden cemetery became the repository of symbols of success in the form of truly monumental art. The landscape gardener embellished the natural setting with exotic trees and shrubs while the marble sculptors and granite fabricators erected elaborate memorials to individuals and families. Cave Hill has been blessed by a succession of competent and innovative landscape gardeners, and Louisville has been a regional center for monument makers. The result is a rural, or garden, cemetery which has always been considered a model to emulate. |

Source: The Cave Hill Cemetery web site

Tags: Louisville | Cave Hill Cemetery


Louisville citizen Guard

Lithograph drawings of the Louisville Citizen Guards on sheet music dated 1858, titled "Citizen Guards March to the Officers and Members of the Louisville Citizen Guards" by Carl O. Edelman.

According to Kentucky Illustrated (Schmidt): p. 129

"The period following the war with Mexico saw the formation of independent military companies in many parts of the nation. These units were often very popular and were, on occasion, the subject of musical compositions, as in the sheet music shown here. The Louisville Citizen Guards was formed in 1858, captained by Simon B. Buckner. Buckner subsequently served as a general in the Confederate army, was later a Louisville newspaper editor, and finally served as governor of Kentucky. With the coming of preparations for war, the Louisville Citizen Guards became part of the Second Regiment of the Kentucky State Guard."

Regarding Buckner:

"In the remaining years before the Civil War, he was adjutant general of the Illinois militia and directed the reorganization of the Kentucky State Guards. As the head of Kentucky's military forces, he attempted to preserve its precarious neutrality. In July 1861, the Unionist-controlled military board of the state ordered the State Guard, which they considered pro-secessionist, to turn in its arms. He supported Kentucky's neutrality, refusing a commission in the Union Army in 1861. Buckner resigned on July 20th, and 2 months later was named a Confederate Brigadier General, neutrality having come to an end. "

Tags: Louisville Citizen Guard | Sheet Music | Louisville Legion


Kentucky state Guard

The Kentucky Legislature created the State Guard in May 1860. This allowed volunteer militia

units to be organized in each county. This picture was taken at the first encampment at

Louisville, August 1860. In the center wearing the top hat is Governor Beriah Magoffin. The

Nelson Greys and Stone Riflemen were the Nelson County Units. Captain John Crepps Wickliffe

of Bardstown commanded the Greys, and W. Davis McKay commanded the Riflemen.

Image source: Nelson County: A Portrait of the Civil War, Hibbs, p. 2.

Tags: State Guard | Beriah Magoffin | Nelson Greys | Stone Riflemen


The Louisville legion - 5th

Kentucky infantry, csa

Lovell Rousseau formed the 5th Kentucky Infantry, or The Louisville Legion

Lovell H. Rosseau Tags: Lovell H. Rousseau | Louisville Legion

by C.C. Giers, Nashville. Source: Cowan’s Auction


Basil duke, succeeded morgan, settles in

louisville

History of Morgan's Cavalry. Cincinnati: Miami Printing and Publishing, 1867, 1st edition.

Duke (1838-1916) was a Kentucky native practicing law in St. Louis before the Civil War broke out. Involved in secessionist activities, he joined Morgan's company of Lexington rifles when the war finally erupted, and succeeded Morgan after his death. Two weeks later, Duke was commissioned Brig. Genl. When word reached him of Lee's surrender, he hastened to the aid of Johnston in North Carolina, and his unit formed part of Jefferson Davis' escort to Georgia. Duke's three years with Morgan in the thick of the war, and being Morgan's second in command, made him one of the premier biographers of the famous guerilla commander. Once the war ended, Duke settled in Louisville and worked as hard for swift reconciliation as he had for secession.


Tags: John Hunt Morgan | Basil Duke | Louisville | Book


General robert d. Anderson

Source: Online auction site

Tags: General Robert D. Anderson

Anderson, Robert, brigadier-general, was born near Louisville, Ky., at a place called "Soldier's Retreat," June 14, 1805. In 1825 he was graduated at West Point and received a commission as second lieutenant in the 3rd artillery. During the Black Hawk war, in 1832, he served as colonel of the Illinois volunteers, and after that, from 1835 to 1837, acted as instructor in artillery at West Point. He was brevetted captain for services in the Florida war then was for a time attached to the staff of Gen. Scott as assistant adjutant-general, and in 1841 was promoted to captain. He also served in the Mexican war, and was severely wounded in the battle of Molino del Rey. In 1857 he was appointed major of the 1st artillery, and in 1860 assumed command of the troops in Charleston harbor, with headquarters at Fort Moultrie. Owing to threatened assaults, Maj. Anderson withdrew his command, on the night of Dec. 26, 1860, to Fort Sumter, where he remained until forced to evacuate, on April 14, 1861, after a bombardment of thirty-six hours, to which he replied until forced by the disabling of his guns to yield.

In recognition of his services at Fort Sumter he was appointed by President Lincoln brigadier-general in the U. S. army, and was assigned to command the Department of Kentucky, being subsequently transferred to that of the Cumberland. On account of failing health he was relieved from duty in Oct., 1861, and was retired from active service on Oct. 27, 1863.

On Feb. 3, 1865, he was brevetted major-general, U. S. A. In 1869 he sailed for Europe in search of health, and died there, at Nice, France, Oct. 27, 1871. He was the translator from the French of "Instructions for Field Artillery, Horse and Foot", and "Evolutions of Field Batteries." To his personal efforts credit is due for the original steps in the organization of the Soldiers, home in Washington, which has since then sheltered many thousands of Civil war veterans.



General Lovell H. Rousseau

Source: Online auction

Tags: General Lovell H. Rousseau | Louisville Legion

Rousseau, Lovell H., major-general, was born in Stanford, Lincoln county, Ky., Aug. 4, 1818, his father having emigrated from Virginia. He received the ordinary school advantages afforded the pioneer settlers of that early period and then devoted his attention to the study of law. Subsequently he removed to Bloomfield, Ind., and was admitted to the bar of that state in 1841. He became an active political leader at once, and was elected to the state assembly in 1844 and to the state senate in 1847. He took part in the Mexican war as captain of the 2nd Ind. regiment of volunteers, and received special mention for his gallantry at Buena Vista, Feb. 22-23, In 1849 he made Louisville, Ky., his home and there opened a law office, where he soon attained prominence as a criminal lawyer. He was elected to the Kentucky state senate in 1860, being the choice of both parties. On the outbreak of the Civil war in 1861,

he used his earnest efforts to restrain Kentucky from joining the Confederacy, and was especially active in recruiting troops and providing for their proper drill and equipment. He resigned from the legislature to serve better the Federal cause, and to this end he proposed and established Camp Joe Holt, near Louisville, which became a prominent rendezvous for troops. He raised the 5th regiment, Ky. volunteers, and was made colonel in Sept., 1861, becoming brigadier-general on Oct. 6, following. He led the 4th brigade of the 2nd division, Army of the Ohio, at the second day's battle of Shiloh, and greatly distinguished himself by retaking the headquarters abandoned by Gen. McClernand the day before and otherwise contributing to the success of the Federal army on that day. He again distinguished himself at the battle of Perryville, Ky., on Oct. 8, and that day gained his promotion to major-general of volunteers. He was next in the field at Stone's river on Dec. 31, and from Nov., 1863, to the close of the war, was in command of the districts of Tennessee. He led an important and successful raid into the heart of Alabama in 1864 and defended Fort Rosecrans during the siege of Nashville. He resigned from the army on Nov. 30, 1865, and four days later took his seat in the Thirty-ninth Congress, to which he had been elected as a


Republican representative from Kentucky. In June, 1866, Gen. Rousseau made a personal assault on J. B. Grinnell of Iowa, for words spoken in debate, and was, by resolution of the committee appointed to investigate, recommended to be expelled. The house, however, adopted the minority report to reprimand him, whereupon he resigned his seat. He was re-elected during the subsequent recess to the same Congress and served on the same committees as in the first session. He was appointed on March 28, 1867, by President Johnson, a brigadier-general in the regular army, being given on the same date the brevet rank of major-general U. S. A., and he was assigned to duty in the new territory of Alaska to receive that domain from the Russian government and assume control of the territory. He succeeded Gen. Sheridan in command of the Department of the Gulf, and continued in that command with his headquarters at New Orleans up to the time of his death, which occurred Jan. 7, 1869.



General Jefferson C. davis

Source: online auction

Tags: General Jefferson C. Davis | Jeffersonville | Bull Nelson

Davis, Jefferson C., brigadier-general, was born in Clark county, Ind., March 2, 1828, was educated at the county academy, and, at the age of eighteen, enlisted for service in the Mexican war. For bravery at Buena Vista he won a commission as 2nd lieutenant in the 1st artillery. In 1852 he was promoted 1st lieutenant. In 1858 he was placed in charge of the garrison at Fort Sumter, and, as an officer under Maj. Anderson, took part in the occupation and defense of that fort. In recognition of his bravery on this occasion, he was promoted captain and given leave of absence to recruit the 22nd Ind. volunteers, of which regiment he became colonel. Being assigned as acting brigadier-general to the Department of the Missouri, he distinguished himself by bravery at Milford, Mo., and won promotion to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers. He commanded a division at the battle of Pea ridge, March 8, 1862, and took part in the battle of Shiloh, April 6 and 7, and the siege of Corinth, and after the evacuation of that place by the Confederates, May 29, he was assigned to the Army of the Tennessee. On Sept. 29, 1862, he chanced to meet in Louisville Gen. William Nelson, his superior officer, from whom he claimed to have had harsh treatment, and, in a quarrel which ensued he shot and instantly killed Nelson. Gen. Davis was arrested, but was not tried, and was soon afterwards assigned to duty in Covington, Ky. He commanded a division forming a part of McCook's right wing at the battle of Stone's river, Dec. 31, 1862, where he so distinguished himself that Gen. Rosecrans recommended him for promotion to major-general. In 1864 he commanded the 14th corps of Sherman's army in the Atlanta campaign and in the march through Georgia, and on March 13, 1865, he was brevetted major-general U. S. A. for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of Jonesboro, Ga. He was promoted colonel of the 23d U. S. infantry, July 23, 1866, and served on the Pacific coast, in Alaska, and, after the murder of Gen. Canby by the Modoc Indians, in 1873, succeeded to the


command of the department and forced the tribe to surrender. Gen. Davis died in Chicago, Ill., Nov. 30, 1879.

Buried at Crown Hill Cemetery, Hamilton County, IN Section 29, lot 1

Source: The Union Army, vol. 8 & Research by Mark Davis


General don carlos buell

Source: online auction

Tags: General Don Carlos Buell


Confederate monument, park place

Source: The Center for the Study of the American Civil War Collection

Tags: Louisville | Confederate Monument


Confederate monument, park place


Tags: Union Monument | 32nd Indiana Infantry

The nation's oldest existing Civil War memorial arrived at its new home Wednesday, the Frazier International History Museum. Known as the "Bloedner Monument," the 3,500-pound limestone memorial is of exceptional national and historical significance, especially as the country approaches the Civil War's 150th anniversary in 2011.

The Bloedner Monument, whose official name is the 32nd Indiana Infantry Monument, was carved in the weeks following the 1861 Battle of Rowlett's Station near Munfordville, Ky., and recently was conserved following decades of exposure at Cave Hill National Cemetery where it had been since 1867. It now is on display in the Frazier Museum's lobby, where visitors can see it for free.

Text source: gotoLouisville.com


Louisville a common stop for many Union soldiers

Joseph Husman enlisted on 7/23/1862 as private in Co. D, 31st Iowa Infantry.

He was from La Porte City, Iowa.

Husman saw action with his unit at Vicksburg, the Chattanooga and the Atlanta Campaigns.

He served throughout entire war and mustered out on 6/27/1865 at Louisville, KY


Tags: 31st

Iowa Infantry | Joseph Husman


At typical regimental history of a Western theater

regiment:

38th Ohio Infantry

Organized in September, 1861, under Colonel Bradley, it went to Kentucky, and after the campaign of Mill Springs to Louisville, thence to Nashville, and that summer operated about Huntsville and Winchester, Tenn. The fall found it again at Louisville. In December it marched to Nashville and took part in the Tullahoma campaign in June 1863. After the battle of Mission Ridge it veteranized, and returned to take part in the Atlanta campaign, following from that time the fortunes of Sherman's army through to Savannah and thence northward. It was finally mustered out at Louisville, in July, 1865.

Tags: 38th Ohio Infantry

120th

Indiana soldier’s unit stops at Louisville and heads

for the South

The first week of January 1864 we got our war equipment and our guns and started for the South. Went to Louisville, Ky was there only for a short time, then we marched to Nashville, TN.

- Thomas Jefferson Williams, 120th Indiana

This regiment was organized in the winter of 1863 at Columbus, and was mustered in March 1, 1864. It left the state March 20, proceeding to Louisville, Ky., where it was assigned to a brigade with Hovey’s division.

Tags: 120th Indiana Infantry | Thomas Jefferson Williams



42nd

OVI soldiers spent time in Louisville during Bragg’s

invasion of Kentucky


Tags: 42nd Ohio Infantry


Confederate spy serves time in Louisville military prison

Tags: 10th Kentucky Cav, CSA | George Woolfolk | Partisan Rangers | Deserter 10th Kentucky Cavalry (Partisan Rangers), with extensive documentation revealing a fantastic history. A small but interesting group comprised of Woolfolk's identified Colt M1849 Pocket pistol and unmarked cdv with an important original letter dated March 3, 1899 attesting to George Woolfolk's prior ownership and relating his unusual experience of having been tried and convicted of spying by a Union court marshal and sentenced to death by firing squad in 1863. Woolfolk would be pardoned by President Lincoln. A number of partisan companies composed of western Kentucky men (from 14 different counties) were active as early as July 1862, notably at Newburgh, Indiana, but they were not formally organized as the 10th Kentucky Cavalry until August 13, 1862 at Nebo, Hopkins County, Kentucky. George Woolfolk (Union County) is listed as a private in Captain Clay Merriwether's Company H. on one roster dating to August 1862 but is entirely absent from a slightly later roster from September. At muster-in there were apparently two companies designated as H. and the weaker one was consolidated. During the summer the various companies loosely affiliated with the 10th Kentucky Cavalry engaged in active skirmishing and shortly after entering Confederate service, captured the town of Clarksville, Tennessee from Federal forces on August 18th.

Despite the intention of the Colonel Adam R. Johnson (later brigadier general) to have his regiment serve as independent partisan rangers, the 10th Kentucky was co-opted by General


Bragg and ordered to report to Murfreesboro where it was assigned to John Hunt Morgan's cavalry division. With Morgan, the regiment participated in the Christmas raid into Kentucky and the capture of Mt. Sterling. The 10th Kentucky accompanied Morgan on his famous July 1863 raid into Indiana and Ohio and was captured at Buffington Island on July 19th. Over two hundred enlisted prisoners from the regiment were later sent to Camp Douglas in Chicago (including Wes Cowan's great-great grandfather, Sergt. Samuel B. Withers of Union County) and the command never reformed. George Woolfolk did not participate in Morgan's Raid having previously been captured behind the lines in Lyon County, Kentucky on April 18, 1863 and held at Louisville Military Prison, later transferring to Camp Chase in Ohio. Woolfolk was charged as a guerilla, "Being secretly within the lines of the United States forces, at the same time belonging to the so-called Confederate Army" in violation of General Order No. 38. The specification presumed that he [was] by his presence, able to obtain information and communicate the same to the enemy. In practical terms Woolfolk was charged with being a spy. The Military Commission convened at Henderson, Kentucky on June 10, 1863, heard testimony, and found him "guilty" of both charge and specification. On June 15 he was sentenced to be shot unto death, as such a time and place as the Commanding General may direct... In examining the transcripts of the proceedings it is clear that George Woolfolk was a Confederate Army deserter who was attempting to return to his home when captured. The transcript also states that when taken into custody he had a revolver, and was in possession of a horse that "belonged to some Iowa Cavalry."Woolfolk freely admitted to being a Confederate soldier but said that he "had been on the dodge since our troops came to Madisonville, Kentucky" (August 25, 1862) having received a slight wound there. Two witnesses who knew Woolfolk testified that as early as September 1861 they had seen the accused in the company of armed Rebels engaging in acts of intimidation and hostility, suggesting banditry as a motive.

Source of text and image: Cowan’s Auction


34th

Kentucky Soldier served in Louisville as provost

guard

David W .Roach enlisted in Company I., 34th Kentucky Infantry during September 1862 and was discharged for disability several months later in February1863. During Roach’s brief service the regiment acted as Provost Guard in Louisville before taking the field in May 1863

Source: Cowan’s Auction

Tags: David W. Roach | 34th Kentucky Infantry, U.S. | Provost Guard


107th

USCT regiment was raised at Louisville

9th

Plate Tintype of c. miller, co e, 107th

usct

an unmarked civilian tintype of a black soldier ostensibly C. Miller with his identification badge pinned to the pillow having period inscription that reads, C. Miller/Co. E./107/USCT. On judgment the white metal badge (German silver?) measuring 1" across x 1.75" tall appears to be handmade and of wartime construction, the thick stick pin being firmly soldered to the back of the hand-cut star. There were no white officers named C. Miller in the 107th USCT nor could we locate a black private so-named on the Company E rosters. The only C. Miller in the regiment was "Creed Miller" who served in Company C, enlisting at Lebanon, Ky., in July 1864. Creed Miller later died in service, date not stated. The 107th USCT was organized at Louisville during the summer of 1864 and was assigned to the 18th Corps, Army of the James in October. It transferred to the 25th Corps, Department of North Carolina and saw action during the expeditions against Fort Fisher and the capture of Wilmington. The 107th also participated in the Carolinas campaign and the occupation of Raleigh. The regiment did not muster out until November 1866.

Cowan’s

Tags: 107th USCT | C. Miller | African-American | Tintype


A. Sidney Smith, Union, Fifth Kentucky Infantry, "The

Louisville Legion."

A. Sidney Smith, Union, Fifth Kentucky Infantry, "The Louisville Legion." Promoted First Lieutenant after serving as Sergeant Major.

A. Sidney Smith was born in Missouri. He enlisted on March 1, 1863 at Murfreesboro, TN as a Private. On April 3, 1863 he mustered into "I" Co. KY 5th Infantry. During the war he was promoted from private to sergeant, to 2nd Lt. on August 18, 1862, and 1st Lt. on March 1, 1863. He resigned on March 25, 1864. He subsequently served in the US Army from June 18, 1867 until Jan. 31, 1871.

eBay auction, January 2011

Tags: A. Sidney Smith | 5th Kentucky Infantry, U.S. | Louisville Legion


dr. mary edwards walker practiced medicine at

Louisville female prison

Tags:

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker | Female | Medal of Honor Winner | Physician | Louisville Female Prison

Entered service at Louisville too

Rank and organization: Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon (civilian), U. S. Army. Places and dates: Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861; Patent Office Hospital, Washington, D.C., October 1861; Chattanooga, Tenn., following Battle of Chickamauga, September 1863; Prisoner of War, April 10, 1864_August 12, 1864, Richmond, Va.; Battle of Atlanta, September 1864. Entered service at: Louisville, Ky. Born: 26 November 1832, Oswego County, N.Y.

Her Medal of Honor citation reads:

Whereas it appears from official reports that Dr. Mary E. Walker, a graduate of medicine, "has rendered valuable service to the Government. and her efforts have been earnest and _____ in a variety of ways," and that she was assigned to duty and served as an assistant surgeon in charge of female prisoners at Louisville, Ky., upon the recommendation of Major Generals Sherman and Thomas, and faithfully served as contract surgeon in the service of the United States, and has devoted herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded soldiers, both in the field and hospitals, to the detriment of her own health, and has also endured hardships as a prisoner of war four months in a Southern prison while acting as contract surgeon; and

Whereas by reason of her not being a commissioned officer in the military service, a brevet or honorary rank cannot, under existing laws, be conferred upon her; and


Whereas in the opinion of the President an honorable recognition of her services and sufferings should be made:

It is ordered, That a testimonial thereof shall be hereby made and given to the said Dr. Mary E. Walker, and that the usual medal of honor for meritorious services be given her.

Given under my hand in the city of Washington, D.C., this 11th day of November, A.D. 1865.

(Medal rescinded 1917 along with 910 others, restored by President Carter 10 June 1977.)


Louisvillian sculpture ed Hamilton designs the ‘spirit of

freedom’

Tags: Ed Hamilton | Sculpture | African-American Monument | Louisville

The first national memorial to black Civil War veterans. Erected in 1998 in Washington, D.C.


Washington DC - Shaw - U Street Corridor: African-American Civil War Memorial

Spirit of Freedom, the African American Civil War Memorial, located at the eastern entrance of

the U St/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo Metro station at U Street and Vermont

Avenue, NW, was dedicated on July 18, 1998. Designed by sculptor Ed Hamilton and architect

Marc Doswell, under the commission of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the

memorial honors the contributions of of black soldiers and sailors to the Union cause during the

Civil War.

The memorial features a 9’1/2" bronze sculpture with a front high-base relief of three infantry

soldiers and a sailor, and a backside low relief of a family group as the soldier, a son, leaves for

the war. The sculpture sits on a two foot tall, granite-clad base. Five surrounding granite

walls contain 166 burnished stainless steel plaques listing the names of 208,943 soldiers and

sailors who served in the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War. The plaques are arranged by

regiment. Included among the names are 7,000 white officers who served with the troops.

The memorial was initially proposed in a resolution by the Washington, D.C. City Council in

1991. In 1992, Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton presented Resolution 320 to the House of

Representatives, and it was signed into law four months later. A nonprofit organization, The

African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation, was formed to build the monument.

Much of the $2.6 million in funding came from from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit

Authority, as compensation for the disruption caused by subway construction. The land was

donated by the U.S. National Park Service. The plaza was dedicated on Sept. 12, 1996. The

monument was not completed at the time of its unveiling on July 18, 1998 because of

construction delays. The complex was transferred to the National Park Service on October 27,

2004 and is managed by the National Mall and Memorial Parks of the NPS.

The greater U Street Historic District, roughly bounded by New Hampshire Avenue, Florida

Avenue, 6th Street, R Street and 16th Street, in the Shaw neighborhood of northwestern

Washington DC, is largely a Victorian-era neighborhood, made up of row houses constructed in

response to the city's high demand for housing following the Civil War and the growth of the

federal government in the late 19th century. The area was predominately white and middle

class until 1900, but as Washington became progressively more segregated, the U Street

Corridor emerged as the city's most important concentration of businesses and entertainment

facilities owned and operated by blacks, becoming known as "Black Broadway" in its cultural

heyday. The late 1960's saw the neighborhood begin a fall into decline, marred by violence and

drug tacking, that would last well into the revitalization and gentrification of the 1990's.

Greater U Street Historic District National Register #98001557 (1998)


GAR Louisville Canteen

Tin with original polychrome painted stenciled decoration/inscription We Drank From The Same Canteen arched above a U.S. shield breasted spread winged eagle with E Pluribus Unum ribbon banner in beak, arrows & laurel branches in talons and straight-line inscription Louisville/1861-1865 at bottom, with original cork stopper and two small rings at sides for hanging; 5" diameter.

Cowan

Tags: GAR | Canteen


tin with original polychrome stenciled decoration/inscription "We Drank From The Same Canteen" arched above a U.S. shield breasted spread winged eagle with ribbon banner in beak and arrows & laurel branches in talons and straight-line inscription below "Louisville/1861-1865". Original cork stopper with wire ring top, 2 small holes at sides for hanging, 5" diameter. Cowan’s

Tags: GAR | Canteen


GAR Souvenir Badges

Tags: GAR | GAR Badges

Louisville 1896 encampment – Cowan’s


Figural bell metal pin-back with figural Lincoln log cabin below from the 29th Nat. Encampment, Louisville, 1895;

Cowan’s



1895 Louisville Keystone-shaped GAR Badge


Cowan’s


UNITED CONFEDERATE VETERANS RIBBON AND CELLO BADGE

lot of 2, includes a chromolithographed shield-shaped cello badge with uniformed shoulder-length

portrait of Gen. Lee with CSA canteen and stars-and-bars shield with palm leaf surround text

above Reunion U.C.V. and below Louisville./May, 1900, marked The Whitehead & Hoag Co.,

Newark, N.J. with red silk ribbon hanger, 2.5" x 3", AND a white silk ribbon with metal braids and

tassels with gold printed text United/Confederate/Veterans/Reunion/July 18 19 1898/Atlanta/Ga.,

3.5" x 7.75".

Cowans

Tags: UCV | UCV Badge


UCV Badges

UCV 1905 souvenir badge for Louisville convention, and fine cello R.E. Lee badge with red and white ribbon streamers probably sold at same time.

Cowan’s

Tags: UCV | UCV Badge


Louisville and Nashville Railroad Broadside

6.75" x 14" blue on white headed South By The Louisville & Nashville and Memphis & Louisville Railroad Line with extensive text below listing points farther south and west, dated June 1868, with reverse having railroad timetable. Chartered by the state of Kentucky in 1850, generally known as the L&N, it became one of the greatest of the American Railroad companies. Operating under the same name for 132 years, it survived the Civil War, the Great Depression and several waves of social and technological change. It was America's premier Southern railroad, and extended its reach far beyond the South, ultimately building nearly 7,000 miles of track.

Cowan’s Auction, online

Tags: Louisville & Nashville Railroad | Broadside


Circa 1860s steamboat, ‘louisville’

7.5" x 9" albumen print mounted on larger stock in a period 12.75" x 14.7" frame. Image is of the Louisville, a small stern-wheel steamboat owned by the K & S Company. Imprint on verso for Geo. Gesell, Alma, Wis.

Cowan’s

Tags: Steamer | Steamer ‘Louisville’


Steamer Maurice was built in Louisville, 1858

St. Maurice at anchor, by McPherson & Oliver, Baton Rouge.

The river steamer St. Maurice was built in Louisville in 1858 and ran the New Orleans-Bayou Lafourche-Donaldsonville route on Mississippi. She was requisitioned for military service but disappears after 1863.

Source: Cowan’s

Tags: Steamer | Steamer ‘St. Maurice’


Steamboat ‘Jacob Strader’ – U.S. mail packet, also used to

ferry soldiers around Louisville

Jacob Strader, Esq. (1795-1860) was a steamboat owner, banker (Cist names him as President and solicitor of the Commercial Bank in 1851), lawyer and President of the Little Miami Railroad. He sat on the Board of Trustees of the Cincinnati Medical College. The steamboat "Jacob Strader," was launched in Cincinnati in 1853 and named for this prominent citizen. Built for the U.S. Mail Line, the sidewheeler ran a regular Cincinnati to Louisville packet route. During the Civil War, she carried supplies to Union troops for the U.S. Sanitary Commission, as well as carrying wounded and sick soldiers.

Source: Text – Cowan’s | Image – Flickr

Tags: Steamer | Steamer \Jacob Strader’ | US Mail Packet


Ohio River Steamboat broadside for ‘thomas sherlock’

A remarkable broadside advertising the following: Cincinnati & New Orleans Packet. / For Cairo, Evansville, Louisville and Cincinnati! / The Large and Elegant Passenger Steamer / Thos. Sherlock, with H.U. Hart, Master and M.L. Virden, Clerk, featuring a detailed illustration of the Thomas Sherlock, published by Journal Co., Steamboat and Railroad Printers and Binders, Evansville, IN. The Thomas Sherlock was a side-wheel packet steamer with a wood hull built in Cincinnati, OH in 1873 for Henry U. Hart, the captain mentioned on the broadside, as well as Henry A. Jones, Thomas Sherlock, James Mack, and Charles G. Pearce. The steamer ran from Cincinnati to New Orleans, and back. In February of 1891, the Sherlock was loaded out at Cincinnati and bound down river for New Orleans when she collided with a pier of the C. & O. Bridge and was wrecked [Way, 1983, 451-452]. Cowan’s

Tags: Steamer | Steamer ‘Thomas Sherlock’ | Cincinnati | New Orleans


Printers and publishers in Louisville during the civil war

Hanna & Co. Printers

An Appeal to the People of the North, fifth edition, written by A Voice from Kentucky, Louisville, Ky., January, 1861 and published by Hanna & Co. Printers, Louisville.

Source: Cowan’s

Tags: Printer | Hanna & Co. | Book Publisher

Louisville Citizen Guards, published by D.P.

Faulds & Co., Louisville, Ky, n.d.,

Source: Cowan’s

Tags: Printer | D.P. Fauld’s & Co. | Sheet Music


Tripp & Cragg

Stonewall Jackson's Way by Jules Desrivuk, published by Tripp & Cragg, Louisville, Ky.

Source: Cowan’s.

Tags: Printer | Tripp & Cragg | Sheet Music

Bonnie Blue Flag Brilliant Variations by Charles Weiss, 1863, published by Tripp & Cragg, Louisville, Ky.,

Source: Cowan’s

Tags: Printer | Tripp & Cragg | Sheet Music


McCarrell & Meininger

"Stonewall" Jackson's Last Words by J.C. Meininger, published by McCarrell & Meininger, Louisville. Source: Cowan’s

Tags: McCarrell & Meininger | Sheet Music


Weapons Manufacturers in Louisville

M. Dickson & Gilmore

Percussion Half-Stock Rifle, Cowan’s

Tags: Weapons Manufacturer | Rifles | M. Dickson & Gilmore


Joseph Griffith, Louisville | lock maker

Springfield, Ohio Full Stock Squirrel Rifle, Cowan’s

Tags: Weapons Manufacturer | Rifle Parts | Joseph Griffith

with 35.5" octagonal barrel marked Springfield, O. with brass standing front sight and notched steel rear; approx. 40caliber; lock marked Joseph Griffith/Louisville, Ky.; full maple stock with traces of pyro curly decoration, all brass mounts, as found with nice old patina; total length 50.5".


Louisville in the civil war

lithographers and photographers

j.c. elrod, photographer

This soldier probably paid $1.00 to sit for his picture taken by Louisville photographer, J.C. Elrod.

“Sincerely Yours Augustus A. Neal 1st Lt. Co. H. 63 O.V.V.I. ” and “P.O. Dayton, Ohio” on verso.

One printing company in Louisville was known as Stuber.

This Civil War era image shows Anson Mills as a first Lieutenant in the 18th U.S. infantry. Prior to his Civil War service he served as a surveyor in West Texas and New Mexico, laying out the towns of El Paso and Pino Altos. After the war he transferred to the 3rd Cavalry, and later the 4th and 10th, retiring as a Brigadier General in 1897. During his western frontier career, he established Fort Reno, A.T., played an active part in the Powder River campaign against the Cheyenne, was with Crook at the Battle of the Rosebud, and received a brevet for his field command at the Battle of Slim Buttes, and served with the 10th in campaign against Geronimo.

Cowan’s


j.c. elrod

CDV of General Mc Pherson, backmark of J.C. Elrod, Louisville, KY.

ProxiBid.com


Webster brothers, photographers

General Bull Nelson General Alex McCook

Cowan’s


Webster brothers, photographers

General Absalom Baird

Cowan’s


Webster & brothers

Unknown union officer,

1865


Webster’s card photographs

475 Main Street, Louisville, ky


Klauber of Louisville, photographer

CDV of LT. Gen. A.P. Hill Source: Cowan’s

Brig-Gen Joseph F. Knipe

Wearing a formidable 12th Corps star on his slouch hat, Knipe joined, as colonel of the 46th Pennsylvania in August 1861 and was wounded at Cedar Mountain in August 1862. He led a brigade at Antietam but was not active at Gettysburg due to his earlier wound. He transferred west with the 12/20th Corps and briefly commanded an infantry division. During the battle of Nashville, Knipe took charge of a cavalry division in pursuit of the vanquished Hood and captured 6,000 Confederate prisoners. He mustered out in August 1865 without a brevet promotion. Knipe became a lifelong bureaucrat after the war.

Klauber & Campbell of Louisville

Source: Cowan’s Auction


e. klauber, photographer

81st

Indiana soldier

in dress blues with imprint of E. Klauber, Louisville, Ky. with presentation inscription in his hand Yours Truly/E.G. Mathey/W.S.A. Mathey began his military career in the 17th Indiana Vol. Infantry in 1861 as a Sergeant, rising to the rank of Lt. Col. of Volunteers with the 81st Ind. Vol. Infantry. After the war he joined the regular Army as a 2nd Lt. with the 7th Cavalry and retired with the rank of Major in 1896. Mathey was a 1st Lt. with the pack train detachment during the Battle of Little Big Horn.

Cowan’s


Alcan & Gorbutt, photographers

Alcan & Gorbutt, Louisville, Ky. with blue-green two-cent revenue stamp and contemporary notation reading,

Unknown staff view-probably 32nd Iowa Inf. or 9th Iowa Cav. or USCT unit drinking whisky or beer. The Major or Lt. Colonel seated right is unknown to us but is the key to identifying this jovial group.

Cowan’s.


Campbell and ecker, photographers

Indiana Cavalry Surgeons

with double imprint of Campbell & Ecker, Louisville dating to after November 1864. Carte

identified in period pencil on verso as Geo. H. Russell, Ast Surgeon/J. M. Wishard, Surgeon/C. C.

Hiatt, 1st Ast Surgeon in three lines written horizontally. Geo. H. Russell joined Company B, 5th

Indiana Cavalry as commissary sergeant in August 1862 becoming assistant surgeon in

November 1864 and mustering out in June 1865. His partner Joseph M. Wishard was surgeon of

the 5th Indiana Cavalry from October 1863. The third doctor is Christopher C. Hiatt who entered

service as assistant surgeon of the 6th Indiana Cavalry in March 1864, discharged in September

1865. The hard riding 5th and 6th Indiana Cavalry saw extensive service in the western theater,

particularly during the Atlanta campaign where the 5th participated in Stoneman's Raid and was

captured en masse. Cowan’s.


union soldier, D.B. thompsey

Campbell and Ecker, Louisville KY image of officer in studio pose, named on back to D B Thompson .

WorthPoint, 2008


Cooper’s gallery, photographer

Civil War CDV of an older soldier,

identified on the back in pencil as "H.B.

Nolan."

Backmark reads, "Cooper's Gallery, No.

85 Fourth Street, Louisville, KY."

LiveAuctioneers.com


Heineman & Flexner, Photographers, Bee Hive Gallery

CIVIL WAR SOLDIER TAKEN AT LOUISVILLE. Seated view wearing ribbon bow tie and jacket. Not

real happy looking, but a clue on the the reverse makes me wonder why. Back mark of

Heineman & Flexner, Photographers, Bee Hive Gallery, 309 Main Street, Louisville, KY.

eBay, January 2011


Redin artist & photography, louisville

eBay, February 2011

Photographer needs to be confirmed as being in existence in 1860s


other Louisville photographers or lithographers

(but no images)

Henry Drew


Postal and correspondence

Louisville in the civil war

September 18, 1862 - Louisville postal envelope


Union Lexington Letter sent to Louisville

Flag has text below that says, “Long may it wave.” | Man is strangling the Secession Snake.

Source: eBay, February 2011

November 6, 1862 - Louisville postal envelope

Dated November 6, 1862 from Illinois and addressed to Lieutenant Colonel (Thomas) Hamer in Louisville, KY. Thomas Hamer was attached to the 84th Regiment IL Volunteers - 10 Brigade - 4 Division. He was from Vermont, Illinois when he enlisted 9/1/62 as a Lieut Col. He resigned for the cause of disability on 7/24/63 having been wounded at Stone’s River.



Louisville & Kentucky postal envelope



January 3, 1862 – 13th

Ohio soldier writes of

louisville

. . . we hurryed down to Cincinati and just as we got down the boat that contained the whole regiment were just moving out of sight it was just dusk so we got on the ferry and crost the river with the determination to have at least 2 days of a furlough of our own making and to injoy ourselfs as best we could. I had had no whiskey for some time but I got some this night or as least brandy, we stade in Cincinati 4 days and then we joined our regiment near Louisville…we injoyed ourselfs highly…before Christmas we got two more months pay…we so well entertained and injoyed ourselfs so well that we did not get to camp untill the day after Chrismas…It is expected that before long we are going to have a desperate fight but how long it will be time will tell…



December 29, 1862 – 19th

illinois soldier writes of

raider hunt destroying l&N railroad track

Edward Ervin of the 19th Illinois Infantry, Company B writes about Morgan tearing up railroad track between Nashville and Louisville.

… there is nearly a hundred of our regiment here. the railroad was again torn up by John Morgan between us and Louisville… Source: eBay, February 2011


Letters from henry baker, 74th

indiana

Henry Baker, 74th

Indiana letter, Louisville,

September 30, 1862



Henry Baker, 74th

Indiana letter ‚We got to Louisville . . . ‚



Henry Baker, 74th

Indiana letter


1859 LOUISVILLE SLAVE BILL OF SALE FOR $1,500 in full

Know all men by these presents, that I, Garland of the City of Louisville, State of Kentucky have this day sold to A. Throckmorton my servant man Frank, for the sum on One thousand dollars - five hundred dollars CASH in hand, & the remainder in six months from date. I warrant Frank to be sound and healthy at this time, and also that he is a slave for life. I further covenant and agree with said Throckmorton to defend the title to Frank against the claims of all persons whatsoever.

Witnessed my hand this 11th day of August 1859 E. Garland.

This Bill of Sale is in fine condition and it is the only one we have ever seen from Louisville Kentucky.

Source: online dealer | http://www.roi.us/bhistory11.htm

http://www.roi.us/bhistory11.htm


John R. Miller, 123rd

Indiana Letter

Camp Taylor John R. Miller letter, 123rd Indiana Louisville, KY March 22nd, 1864

Dear Father,

Since I last wrote to you, we have, as you will perceive from the date of my letter, changed our quarters.

We left Greensburg last Friday evening for Lawrenceburg where we arrived about sundown and immediately took the boat for Louisville where we arrive about noon Saturday, and immediately marched out to the camp where we are at present quartered. I do not like our present quarters very well. Our whole regt is quartered in one barrack we number one thousand.

We have probably one of the best Colonels in the service, McChriston is his name. Our Lieutenant Colonel Collen seems to be a first rate man also. We have as yet no Major, though it is very likely that Cowgill will obtain that position, I hope he will at any rate.

We were reviewed yesterday by General Hovey, he announced our Company the best in the whole Brigade. There were three regts on review, the 130th, our own (the 123rd) and the 124th. They made a fine appearance. There are quite a number of Indiana regt including the 120th, 123rd, 124th, 129th and 130th.

Louisville is rather a rusty looking place, I have no desire to remain here very long and I don't think we will. There is bound to be very hard fighting during the coming campaign and I think we'll have our share of the hard knocks. I want to see some of the war business at any rate. I think it very probable that we will go to Nashville or Chattanooga before long.

You need not look for me home very soon, furloughs are "played out" but I am very well contented. I am in fine health, I get stouter every day, the army seems to agree with me. If I improve as I have been doing I will look somewhat like a man by the time I come home again.

I have been interrupted twice since I commenced this letter, once to go on battalion drill and the second time to go on dress parade. I guess I will get to close it now. We have not been payed yet except 13 dollars that we were payed while at Greensburg. We will hardly be payed of monthly wages for a month yet. I have never had my photograph taken yet to send home, but I will as soon as I get the money. Well I must close, give my love to all the family. Tell Pres to write to me, write soon.

Your affectionate son, John R. Miller (to his father)

P.S. Address John R. Miller Company "F" 123rd regt Ind Vols Camp Taylor, Louisville

Source: http://www.civilwararchive.com/LETTERS/miller.htm

http://www.civilwararchive.com/LETTERS/miller.htm


U.S. Grant about importance of getting needed supplies

from Louisville to Nashville

Nashville 28 February 1864,

Grant writes to logistical mastermind General Robert Allen in Louisville regarding supplies requested by Allen.

It will be impossible probably to supply the number of Artillery & Cavalry horses called for within this Military Division but I would suggest that now all on hand be forwarded as rapidly as possible to this place and others be procured and forwarded as fast as they can be purchased. I will order this distribution from here.

U.S. Grant / Maj. Gen.

Source: http://www.natedsanders.com/ItemInfo.asp?ItemID=32021


Letters from 4th Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry, U. S.

The following letters were discovered in the Louisville Anzeiger, a German American newspaper, and translated into English by Joseph R. Reinhart.

Louisville Anzeiger May 27, 1862

The readers will learn with regret, that Col. Ruckstuhl of the 4th Kentucky Cav. Regt. because of the breaking open of an old wound, which he received in the Mexican war, [vor die Hande] is unfit for duty. We hope that he recuperates soon, and might help vanquish the Rebels.

LOUISVILLE ANZEIGER JUNE 12, 1862

From the 4th Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, Lt. O. Bes from the 1st squadron of that regiment writes from Murfreesboro under date of 8 June.

When yesterday morning about 6 o’clock Capt. T. L. Unthank with 80 men – detachments from the 1st squadron and from the 7th Penn. Reg. – were returning from their patrol with 10 to 12 prisoners, they were attacked and taken prisoner near Readyville about 12 miles from here. John Collins and Essic of Company A were killed, the same with Mr. Johnican, a Tennessean, who only recently enlisted. Joseph Kipp was wounded in both legs. He belonged to Company C. There are perhaps still more dead or wounded. The following named [men] from Company C were missing: Sgt. S. S. Robards, Albert Nietebock, and Wm. J. Killmore, Cpl. Wilh. Stützel, (who earlier worked at the Anzeiger’s printery), Monic *Morris+ Power, Thomas Fowler and John Greaney, the privates Jesse Traylor, Joseph Ricketts, Geo. St. John, John S. Scheen, John Rink, John Sullivan, Thomas Sullivan, Johnson McConkney, Patrick Kennedy, and Daniel Heaver. I do not know the names of the other company missing. Starnes retreated through McMinnville with the prisoners.

The Nashville Union reported that all the prisoners taken on Sunday by Col. Starnes were released on parole were released on parole.

LOUISVILLE ANZEIGER June 17, 1862

Lt. Hooker of the company of the 4th Kentucky Cav. Reg. to which the deceased John Collins from here belonged, writes in reference to his death.

The young Collins received permission to set out with a detachment of 40 men on a patrol. It went to McMinnville, where they took 8 to 10 persons prisoner. On their return they pitched camp around 11 o’clock at night and stayed in it until breakfast. While they ate, a superior number of Rebels approached and asked them to surrender; Collins did not want to surrender, pulled his revolver and fired six shots, after he saw all was in vain, he threw his weapon down and asked for pardon; the answer was a deadly shot from a cavalryman, who rode within ten


paces of him. Lt. Hooker remarks that only two men from the company were killed and not eight, as reported.

LOUISVILLE ANZEIGER JUNE 24, 1862

We extract from a letter to us from Capt. Henry A. Schaeffer from the 4th Kentucky Cavalry regiment dated Camp Wardrace [Wartrace], June 20, that the detachment now under his command is stationed in Jasper, Tennessee, 200 miles from Camp Wardrace [Wartrace], under the command of Capt. Blume, until he returns again. The men are well and in good spirits. Their patrol that was supposed to last 10 days has lasted three weeks. They went through a lot of severe strain, and officers like the soldiers made their camp in the open without shelter, because they were in a hurry and could not take their tents with them. The saddle blankets were their beds and their saddles were their pillows. The rumor of their being captured or slaughtered is entirely without basis, because they also have not been in danger once, with the exception of one time on the way to Chattanooga, where they had to travel narrow paths. Capt. Schaeffer spoke gloriously about Lt. Henry Walter, who in command of the advance guard captured a number of Rebel cavalry between Jasper and Chattanooga; as well, he expressed praise over the fitness for duty of Capt. Blume. Further, he confirmed the death of the soldier Henry Burg from Louisville [and] from the Hecker Regiment. He was killed by the explosion of a bomb during the bombardment of Chattanooga, as the regiment left the skirmish field, also five others were wounded at some time or other.

Louisville Anzeiger July 16, 1862

Camp Mihalotzy, near Battle Creek, Tenn., 7 July 1862

Dear Worthy Editor:

Because I assume that you as journalists like news about military movements, and accept and are especially interested in Kentucky troops, allow me to inform you in this regard, and especially the German squadron of the 4th Cavalry Regiment stationed here. I am especially sorry that the subject today is in no way pleasant and will cause many hearts severe pain.

On Sunday morning about 8 o’clock a patrol left, consisting of 6 privates and a corporal from Company E, Capt. Schäfer; seven privates and a sergeant from Company E, Capt Blum; and five privates from Company F, Capt. Church; under command of Second Lieutenant Church; the camp with the order to carry out a reconnaissance toward Jasper (our earlier camp) and about seven miles from here. The way followed was the incomplete railroad leading to Jasper, which for most of the way led through woods and thick undergrowth and from eight to ten feet above the usual surface, As is customary with all reconnaissances, and especially here because the closeness of the enemy, who lay just opposite us and are separated from us by just the Tennessee River. Lt. Churc sent an advance guard of three men, including Sergeant Philipp Altenburger of Company G, about fifty yards in advance while the rear guard followed slowly


with rifles and carbines ready to fire. Not quite four miles from here beams (cross ties) are thrown all over for perhaps a stretch of 100 feet, so it’s totally blocked, and is difficult and most dangerous for horses and riders,

LOUISVILLE ANZEIGER JULY 22, 1862

An officer of the 4th Ky. Cav. Reg. writes [that] the news that they had been in the fight at Murfreesboro is based on an error. The First squadron itself, Companies A and C departed for Lebanon on Friday morning before the battle, and on Sunday around midnight all troops located at Lebanon departed for Nashville. Companies of the 7th Penns. Cav. Reg. stay in Murfreesboro.

LOUISVILLE ANZEIGER OCTOBER 25, 1862

Capt. Ruckstuhl received a large part of the horses for his squadron yesterday. Mr. Ruckstuhl still needs a few men for his second company, and young people who prefer the cavalry service to the others, refer to his notice.

Letters from 22nd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment U. S.

LOUISVILLE ANZEIGER December 30, 1863

From the 22nd Kentucky Regiment

Plaquemine, La., 10 Dec. [1863]

Worthy Anzeiger:

I should have written you long ago, however, what restrained me from it, was that we were separated a long time from our main army. I was not able to write something of interest and now I know very little that could interest you.

However, I wanted to let you know that we presently lay here as garrison and prepare fortifications because in a few days we expect the enemy here under Gen. Green with about 6,000 conscripted men, whom he is busy catching in the neighborhood.

We are presently busy here distributing a newspaper under the name “Picket Post” published by Cap. Jack Hughes; Chas. G. Shanks, editor, earlier reporter for the “Louisville Journal.” The compositors consist of Thomas J. Collins, earlier of the “Democrat,” E. Napier, earlier of the journal, and my humble self.

Because this newspaper will first make its appearance in a few days, I will send off a sample to you.


J. R.

LOUISVILLE ANZEIGER March 15, 1864

Baton Rouge, La., 28 Feb.

Friend Doern:

On Wednesday the 17th I arrived here and enjoyed finding the regiment as healthy and cheerful as ever. The 22nd and 7th Kentucky and two New York regiments, as well as several batteries are stationed here. You noted several weeks ago, that the 22nd Regiment had mustered in again [veteranized] and will soon come to Louisville on 30 days leave. We do not know anything here about this.

Baton Rouge is a rather lively place, a pretty state house is located here – the inside has been burned out, one has the idea that it will be rebuilt again. The institution for the blind is being used as a hospital. Also I must tell you that in the state election that took place on February 22nd, a German by the name of Michael Hahn was elected as governor.

Charles Gütig

Source: http://kygermanscw.yolasite.com/letters.php


Civil War letters of John Shuman. 88th Indiana

Volunteers

Sept. 25, 1862. Louisville, Kentucky

Dear father, I once more take my pen in hand to let you know that I am well and hope that these few lines will find you all the same. I will let you know that the rest of the boys is all well and in good spirits. I will let you know we had another march. We left our camp and went about ten miles and there we was one day and a night and then we were called back to Louisville. They are expecting a fight hear [i.e. here] before long. The soldiers is coming in here every day. They say Buels [Don Carlos Buell?] army is coming in here today. Buel [Buell] is in town now but his army is coming in here today. They got som [i.e. some] entrenchments dug around Louisville and the other day we was called out in our entrenchment and we was their [i.s. there] till three o clock and then we was called out on picket guard and we came in here last night and then our reg was called out on picket guard except our company, and they havt came back yet. We are in camp right by our entrenchment, about three rods from them. You ought to see the corn wasted. We help tramp down about 10 akers [i.s. acres] in five mimits [i.e. minutes] the other day and some of best kind of corn we have got. Lots of sweat [i.e. sweet] potato hear - the largest kind. That is all they rais in this country. That and corn. I havt seen no wheat since I left Indiana. I think that their is not much danger of a fight hear. Their is to [i.e. too] many troops coming in here. One of thr artiley is out drilling this morning. It looks nice to see them drill. They have got all brass pieces, they kept bright - as they can keep them. I would like to hear wither they are drafting their or not. I got a letter from Bill Culver last night ... [various names, letter-writing, etc] ... we may leave here , no telling when we will leave ... John Shuman


Sept. 30, 1862. Louisville, Kentucky. Dear Father and the rest of the family,

I in form you that I am still well and feal [i.e. feel] well and I hope these few lines will find you all the same, except Aron - I understud he died the twenty third and got buried the twenty fifth. I was very sorry to hear such newes for when I left I did not think I would hear such newes as that is. But it is no more than we have to meat with some time our selfe. I heard that Jacob was sick. I would like to hear from their [him?] as soon as possible and I hope these few lines will find you all well. I suppose Mary Ett? was very sick yet. I would like to hear from her as soon as I can. The rest of the boys is all well and in good spirit. ... [talks about various people, writing, names, letters, etc.] ... General Nelson got shot yesterday in Louisville by General Davis from Indiania. It was about eight

o clock in the morning. We are in general Reussau

Brigade [General Lovell Rousseau]. Now came in his brigade yesterday and I am glad that we did. I will let you further know that I see. Most of the boyes that is in the forty fourth except bass? Shoup? and James Tuck and John Heller and Lou Bats [or Bots / Butts?]. I hant [havt - [aint]] see them yet but they are all well, so the rest of the boyes said. I dont think that their is any danger of having a fight hear for their is to maney troops hear now. For their is some two hundred thousand hear so they say and some says their is more than that. But I know their is a heavy forse hear now. ... Old Goviner [Governor] Morton [Oliver P. Morton] from Indiana was in Louisville yesterday and general Boiels(?) was their and they had a fist fight. Goviner Morton blacked general Boiel(?) eyes for marching his men around for nothing, and when we got the newes we give three loud cheers for Goviner Morton. We only marches threw town ten times since we are hear and hant done any good yet. But I think that has come to an end now. William Culver wrote to me. He would like to know who was the ones that had give out on that march were we had that day. Charles Roadman [or Rodman?] was one, that was all that I know out of our company. Their was some more out of our company but I cant tell their names. ... Their was thirteen died out of our brigade on that march. Charles Roadman hant got over it yet and he wont for a while. He is in camp now but he looks poorly now. They cant tire me out so quick as that comes to. But it was


awful hot that day and in the middle of town it was as hot as a bake oven and it was so dusty, what made it worse and no ere stering? what ever. ... [talks about getting a newspaper, etc.] ... We are camp near the river now. I would like to go and see the forty-fourth when I get time. ... Dear Father and Mother, you dont need to troble you selfe a bout me for I am well and I like soldier life very well as long as I keep well. But it is miserble plase for sick folks. ... John Shuman

Source: eBay auction February 2011


Camp Joe Holt, Joe Holt Hospital in Jeffersonville,

Indiana (circa 1862)

In a letter from a 36th Illinois soldier – Franklin A. Whitney – wrote his mother Nov 17, 1864 from Jefferson General Hospital, otherwise known as Joe Holt Hospital in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Nov 17, 1864 - 36th Illinois soldier writes mother in Newark (ILL) from Jefferson General Hospital in Jeffersonville, Indiana - Source: The Center for the Study of the American Civil War Collection

The Indiana Historical Society provides the following information about Camp Joe Holt and Joe Holt Hospital in Jeffersonville, Indiana (c. 1862).Jeffersonville is across from Louisville, Kentucky on the Ohio River.

The first military occupation at Jeffersonville, Indiana was in 1862 when two area regiments established a camp on a farm owned by Blanton Duncan. Lovell Rousseau, the organizer of the regiments, christened the camp “Camp Joe Holt.” The name was retained when it ceased to be a camp and became a hospital, called throughout the war “Joe Holt Hospital.” During the war, besides the hospital, the government also erected warehouses, shops, barracks, stables, blacksmith shops, a laundry, and a bakery.

Jefferson General Hospital “Joe Holt Hospital” opened 21 February 1864 and closed in December 1866. Located about one-half-mile west of Jeffersonville on land obtained from U.S. Senator Jesse D. Bright, the acreage reached down to the Ohio River, facilitating patient transfer from riverboats to the hospital. The health facility had 24 wards each radiating out like spokes on a wheel and all connected by a corridor one-half mile in circumference. Each ward was 150 feet long and 22 feet wide, and could accommodate 60 patients. Female nurses and matrons were quartered separately from the men. The third largest hospital in the country and a showpiece for the Union army, Jefferson General reputedly was one of the finest in the United States for the care of wounded and sick servicemen. During the almost three years that the hospital was in existence the institution cared for more than 16,000 patients and served more than 2,500,000 meals.

First person accounts of life at the Jefferson General Hospital can be found in two separate diaries at the Indiana Historical Society Library. One is the published book, Hospital Pencillings by Elvira J. Powers. A

http://www.indianahistory.org/library/manuscripts/collection_guides/P0300.html

http://civilwargazette.wordpress.com/2007/11/17/nov-17-1864-36th-illinois-soldier-writes-mother-in-newark-from-jefferson-general-hospital-in-jeffersonville-indiana/


volunteer and employee at the hospital, she wrote of the conditions at the hospital and her experiences there. The second is the collection SC2742, Louis C. Webber’s Diary, 1864–1866, a soldier who was wounded three times and was a patient there for a while.

Sources:

Baird, Lewis C., Baird’s History of Clark County, Indiana. Evansville, Ind.: Unigraphic, 1972.

Eckerman, Nancy Pippen. Indiana in the Civil War: Doctors, Hospitals, and Medical Care. Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2001.

History of the Ohio Falls Cities and Their Counties. Evansville, Ind.: Unigraphic, 1968.

Jefferson General Hospital or Joe Holt Hospital

Here is a map clip showing where the hospital was located:

Joe Holt Hospital, Jeffersonville

Map source: Defenses of Munfordville, Ky. Surveyed and drawn under authority of Maj. J.B. Simpson, Corps of Engineers, U.S.A. … by Corporal Chester M. Slayton … 1863. (with) Defenses of Camp Nelson, Ky., main line across neck of land from Kentucky River to Hickman Creek. Constructed under direction of … J.H. Simpson …, commenced by Capt. O.M. Poe … Finished by J.R. Gilliss … Surveyed and drawn by Geo. B. Nicholson. August, 1864. (with) Louisville and its defenses. Office U.S. Engineers, Cincinnati, O., June 1865. Official: J.H. Simpson … Julius Bien & Co., Lith., N.Y. (1891-1895)

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~26931~1100230:Defenses-of-Munfordville,-Ky---Surv

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~26931~1100230:Defenses-of-Munfordville,-Ky---Surv


Nov 17, 1864 – 36th Illinois soldier writes mother in

Newark (ILL) from Jefferson General Hospital in

Jeffersonville, Indiana

Letter on U.S. Christian Commission stationary

Camp Joe Holt Hospital


November 17, 1864

Dear Mother,

I set down this morning to let you know that I have been moved further north. I got here last night about 9 o’clock. I feel as though I had got into America again. The town and everything looks so much different from what they did in Dixie. Our hospital is situated on the banks of the Ohio River so I can set and watch the boats play up and down the river. Sometimes there is as many as twenty to be seen at a time. [end of page one]

Last night they looked very pretty with their lamps all lit up. I am in hopes that this letter will reach you before [Rable] starts from home for you wouldn’t like to send those Yankees to N*ewark+ While I am here at Jeffersonville. I don’t know but this letter will be rather late. You need’nt send that box until I write again for here we have to get the consent of the Doctor before we can get any which thing in here. Maybe we won’t need it here. I don’t know whether we get any sanataries here or not. I will wait and see before I write for them.

I suppose that Mrs Harriet has commenced her school and that Father


has got his [end of page two] corn picked by this time has he not, and you are trying to find something to do on Thanksgiving. Ain’t it most time for *initial indecipherable+ Tremain to get home. I think so if they don’t keep him over his time which they are very apt to do. I notice how are all the neighbors today and I get that letter that letter that I sent to him without the stamps on. I am most out of stamps. I expect I might have some if they would let me stay in one place long enough. I expect I will let me stay here now till they send me to the front and I don’t know for sure that will be. *end of page three+

Well I want this letter to go out in this mornings mail so I will stop writing. Give my love to all and write often.

From your boy Franklin

Jefferson U.S. General Hospital Ward 17


Franklin A. Whitney

Post-war photograph of Franklin A. Whitney, 36th Illinois Infantry. He was listed as from Mission, Illinois, when he enlisted as a Private on 2/29/64. He mustered into Company F, 36th Illinois infantry 3/19/64. Mustering out 10/8/65 in Washington, D.C.

http://civilwargazette.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/nov-13-1864-mother-of-36th-ill-soldier-whitney-writes-to-her-sick-son-in-nashville/


Thomas James account, African-american minister, cared

for black union soldier’s in Louisville

Thomas James was an African-American minister sent by the American Missionary Society to care for the families of black Union soldiers in Louisville. He gave this stirring account of the conditions for slaves and freedmen in Louisville during the Civil War.

I returned to Rochester in 1856, and took charge of the colored church in this city. In 1862 I received an appointment from the American Missionary Society to labor among the colored people of Tennessee and Louisiana, but I never reached either of these states. I left Rochester with my daughter, and reported at St. Louis, where I received orders to proceed to Louisville, Kentucky. On the train, between St. Louis and Louisville, a party of forty Missouri ruffians entered the car at an intermediate station, and threatened to throw me and my daughter off the train. They robbed me of my watch. The conductor undertook to protect us, but, finding it out of his power, brought a number of Government officers and passengers from the next car to our assistance. At Louisville the government took me out of the hands of the Missionary Society to take charge of freed and refugee blacks, to visit the prisons of that commonwealth, and to set free all colored persons found confined without charge of crime. I served first under the orders of General Burbage, and then under those of his successor, General Palmer. The homeless colored people, for whom I was to care, were gathered in a camp covering ten acres of ground on the outskirts of the city. They were housed in light buildings, and supplied with rations from the commissary stores. Nearly all the persons in the camp were women and children, for the colored men were sworn into the United States service as soldiers as fast as they came in.

My first duty, after arranging the affairs of the camp, was to visit the slave pens, of which there were five in the city. The largest, known as Garrison's, was located on Market Street, and to that I made my first visit. When I entered it, and was about to make a thorough inspection of it, Garrison stopped me with the insolent remark, "I guess no nigger will go over me in this pen." I showed him my orders, whereupon he asked time to consult the mayor. He started for the entrance, but was stopped by the guard I had stationed there. I told him he would not leave the pen until I had gone through every part of it. "So," said I, "throw open your doors, or I will put you under arrest." I found hidden away in that pen 260 colored persons, part of them in irons. I took them all to my camp, and they were free. I next called at Otterman's pen on Second Street, from which also I took a large number of slaves. A third large pen was named Clark's, and there were two smaller ones besides. I liberated the slaves in all of them. One morning it was reported to me that a slave trader had nine colored men locked in a room in the National hotel. A waiter from the hotel brought the information at daybreak. I took a squad of soldiers with me to the place, and demanded the surrender of the blacks. The clerk said there were none in the house. Their owners had gone off with "the boys" at daybreak. I answered that I could take no man's word in such a case, but must see for myself. When I was about to begin the search, a colored man secretly gave me the number of the room the men were in. The room was locked, and the porter refused to give up the keys. A threat to place him under arrest brought him to reason, and I found the colored men inside, as I had anticipated.

One of them, an old man, who sat with his face between his hands, said as I entered: "So'thin' tole me last night that so'thin' was a goin' to happen to me." That very day I mustered the nine men into the service of the government, and that made them free men.


So much anger was excited by these proceedings, that the mayor and common council of Louisville visited General Burbage at his headquarters, and warned him that if I was not sent away within forty-eight hours my life would pay the forfeit. The General sternly answered them: "If James is killed, I will hold responsible for the act every man who fills an office under your city government. I will hang them all higher than Haman was hung, and I have 15,000 troops behind me to carry out the order. Your only salvation lies in protecting this colored man's life."

During my first year and a half at Louisville, a guard was stationed at the door of my room every night, as a necessary precaution in view of the threats of violence of which I was the object. One night I received a suggestive hint of the treatment the rebel sympathizers had in store for me should I chance to fall into their hands. A party of them approached the house where I was lodged protected by a guard. The soldiers, who were new recruits, ran off in afright. I found escape by the street cut off, and as I ran for the rear alley I discovered that avenue also guarded by a squad of my enemies. As a last resort I jumped a side fence, and stole along until out of sight and hearing of the enemy. Making my way to the house of a colored man named White, I exchanged my uniform for an old suit of his, and then, sallying forth, mingled with the rebel party, to learn, if possible, the nature of their intentions. Not finding me, and not having noticed my escape, they concluded that they must have been misinformed as to my lodging place for that night. Leaving the locality they proceeded to the house of another friend of mine, named Bridle, whose home was on Tenth Street. After vainly searching every room in Bridle's house, they dispersed with the threat that if they got me I should hang to the nearest lamp-post. For a long time after I was placed in charge of the camp, I was forced to forbid the display of lights in any of the buildings at night, for fear of drawing the fire of rebel bushwhackers. All the fugitives in the camp made their beds on the floor, to escape danger from rifle balls fired through the thin siding of the frame structures.

I established a Sunday and a day school in my camp and held religious services twice a week as well as on Sundays. I was ordered by General Palmer to marry every colored woman that came into camp to a soldier unless she objected to such a proceeding. The ceremony was a mere form to secure the freedom of the female colored refugees; for Congress had passed a law giving freedom to the wives and children of all colored soldiers and sailors in the service of the government. The emancipation proclamation, applying as it did only to states in rebellion, failed to meet the case of slaves in Kentucky, and we were obliged to resort to this ruse to escape the necessity of giving up to their masters many of the runaway slave women and children who flocked to our camp.

I had a contest of this kind with a slave trader known as Bill Hurd. He demanded the surrender of a colored woman in my camp who claimed her freedom on the plea that her husband had enlisted in the federal army. She wished to go to Cincinnati, and General Palmer, giving me a railway pass for her, cautioned me to see her on board the cars for the North before I left her. At the levee I saw Hurd and a policeman, and suspecting that they intended a rescue, I left the girl with the guard at the river and returned to the general for a detail of one or more men.

During my absence Hurd claimed the woman from the guard and the latter brought all the parties to the provost marshal's headquarters, although I had directed him to report to General Palmer with the woman in case of trouble; for I feared that the provost marshal's sympathies were on the slave owner's side. I met Hurd, the policeman and the woman at the corner of Sixth and Green streets and halted them. Hurd said the provost marshal had decided that she was his


property. I answered -- what I had just learned that the provost marshal was not at his headquarters and that his subordinate had no authority to decide such a case. I said further that I had orders to take the party before General Palmer and proposed to do it. They saw it was not prudent to resist, as I had a guard to enforce the order.

When the parties were heard before the general, Hurd said the girl had obtained her freedom and a pass by false pretenses. She was his property; he had paid $500 for her; she was single when he bought her and she had not married since. Therefore she could claim no rights under the law giving freedom to the wives of colored soldiers. The general answered that the charge of false pretenses was a criminal one and the woman would be held for trial upon it. "But," said Hurd, "she is my property and I want her." "No," answered the general, "we keep our own prisoners." The general said to me privately, after Hurd was gone: "The woman has a husband in our service and I know it; but never mind that. We'll beat these rebels at their own game." Hurd hung about headquarters two or three days until General Palmer said finally: "I have no time to try this case; take it before the provost marshal." The latter, who had been given the hint, delayed action for several days more, and then turned over the case to General Dodge. After another delay, which still further tortured the slave trader, General Dodge said to me one day: "James, bring Mary to my headquarters, supply her with rations, have a guard ready, and call Hurd as a witness." When the slave trader had made his statement to the same effect as before, General Dodge delivered judgment in the following words: "Hurd, you are an honest man. It is a clear case. All I have to do, Mary, is to sentence you to keep away from this department during the remainder of the present war. James, take her across the river and see her on board the cars." "But, general," whined Hurd, "that won't do. I shall lose her services if you send her north." "You have nothing to do with it; you are only a witness in this case," answered the general. I carried out the order strictly, to remain with Mary until the cars started; and under the protection of a file of guards, she was soon placed on the train en route for Cincinnati.

Among the slaves I rescued and brought to the refugee camp was a girl named Laura, who had been locked up by her mistress in a cellar and left to remain there two days and as many nights without food or drink. Two refugee slave women were seen by their master making toward my camp, and calling upon a policeman he had then seized and taken to the house of his brother-in-law on Washington street. When the facts were reported to me, I took a squad of guards to the house and rescued them. As I came out of the house with the slave women, their master asked me: "What are you going to do with them?" I answered that they would probably take care of themselves. He protested that he had always used the runaway women well, and appealing to one of them, asked: "Have I not, Angelina?" I directed the woman to answer the question, saying that she had as good a right to speak as he had, and that I would protect her in that right. She then said: "He tied my dress over my head Sunday and whipped me for refusing to carry victuals to the bushwhackers and guerrillas in the woods." I brought the women to camp, and soon afterwards sent them north to find homes. I sent one girl rescued by me under somewhat similar circumstances as far as this city to find a home with Colonel Klinck's family.

Up to that time in my career I had never received serious injury at any man's hands. I was several times reviled and hustled by mobs in my first tour of the district about the city of Rochester, and once when I was lecturing in New Hampshire a reckless, half-drunken fellow in the lobby fired a pistol at me, the ball shattering the plaster a few feet from my head. But, as I said, I had never received serious injury. Now, however, I received a blow, the effects of which I shall carry to my grave. General Palmer sent me to the shop of a blacksmith who was suspected


of bushwhacking, with an order requiring the latter to report at headquarters. The rebel, who was a powerful man, raised a short iron bar as I entered and aimed a savage blow at my head. By an instinctive movement I saved my life, but the blow fell on my neck and shoulders, and I was for a long time afterwards disabled by the injury. My right hand remains partially paralyzed and almost wholly useless to this day.

Many a sad scene I witnessed at my camp of colored refugees in Louisville. There was the mother bereaved of her children, who had been sold and sent farther South lest they should escape in the general rush for the federal lines and freedom; children, orphaned in fact if not in name, for separation from parents among the colored people in those days left no hope of reunion this side the grave; wives forever parted from their husbands, and husbands who might never hope to catch again the brightening eye and the welcoming smile of the help-mates whose hearts God and nature had joined to theirs. Such recollections come fresh to me when with trembling voice I sing the old familiar song of anti-slavery days:

Oh deep was the anguish of the slave mother's heart

When called from her darling forever to part;

So grieved that lone mother, that broken-hearted mother

In sorrow and woe.

The child was borne off to a far-distant clime

While the mother was left in anguish to pine;

But reason departed, and she sank broken-hearted

In sorrow and woe.

I remained at Louisville a little over three years, staying for some months after the war closed in charge of the colored camp, the hospital, dispensary and government stores.

Wonderful Eventful Life of Rev. Thomas James, by himself Third Edition, Rochester, NY: Post-Express Printing Company, Mill Street. 1887.

Source: http://www.ket.org/civilwar/aamerican.html

Louisville in the Civil War

Documents

Transcript of Louisville in the Civil War