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Chapter 3:


The first Kentuckians to leave the State for service in the Confederate army were two companies from Louisville, under command of Capts. Ben Anderson and Fred Van Osten. They embarked on a steamer for New Orleans, April 20, 1861. At Columbus they were joined by Capt. Jack Thompson's company, and became the Third Kentucky battalion, under command of Capt. Anderson, who was a graduate of West Point On the 25th of April a company under Capt. Joseph Desha, from Harrison county, and three companies from Louisville under Capts. John D. Pope, J. B. Harvey and M. Lapielle, left Louisville for Nashville. They numbered about three hundred men. At Nashville they were joined by two companies from southwest Kentucky under Captains Edward Crossland and Brownson, and [34] proceeded to Harper's Ferry. The companies of Captain Pope, who was a veteran of the Mexican war, and Captain Desha, were formed into a battalion of rifle-sharpshooters under Captain Pope, who was made major. The other companies constituted a battalion under Major Blanton Duncan, of Louisville, who had been active in assisting to raise those from that city. They were assigned to the brigade of General Bartow, of Georgia, who was killed at the battle of Bull Run. Pope's and Duncan's battalions are reported in the return of the army of the Shenandoah, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's division, June 30, 1861. A number of other companies were tendered, but owing to the lack of arms the Confederate government was compelled to decline for the time any more recruits.

It was therefore deemed best to establish a camp to which volunteers from Kentucky could be sent for organization and drill until such time as arms and equipment could be furnished. In deference to the neutrality then in operation a location was secured in Tennessee off the line of the Memphis branch of the Louisville and Nashville railroad, just south of the boundary line between Kentucky and Tennessee, and about eight miles from Guthrie, Ky. This recruiting station was named Camp Boone, and here was organized during the summer the nucleus of the famous brigade of infantry known during the war and still designated as ‘the Orphan Brigade.’ Col. Phil. Lee, Maj. J. W. Hewett, Col. Robert A. Johnson, Gen. Thomas H. Taylor and Col. William Preston Johnston were among the most active in recruiting companies in Louisville. The first three became officers of the Second regiment, while the last two were made respectively the colonel and lieutenant-colonel of the First regiment, formed of the companies referred to as having gone to Virginia in April, of which regiment Captain Crossland became major. This regiment was the first of any organized body of Kentuckians to see active service, participating in the affair at Dranesville and receiving [35] honorable mention from the commanding general. In the following spring it disbanded by expiration of the term of enlistment, whereupon the men joined Kentucky commands nearer home. The commands enumerated and those subsequently organized were raised by individual Kentuckians, who bore the expense, except as to arms, which were furnished by the Confederate government.

Great exaggeration has been indulged in by the charge that the Confederate recruits were composed largely of the organized companies of the Kentucky State Guard and that they took out with them the State's guns. While it may be true that of the large number of men who went South from Kentucky, no record of whom exists, there were many who had been members of the State Guard and a few instances in which a company in whole or part went out with their arms, the number was small and many times overbalanced by the number of Federal guns sent from Washington during the period of neutrality. It was at one time common to charge that Gen. S. B. Buckner who, in May, 1861, when the legislature resolved to put the State in an attitude of defense, had been appointed by the governor inspector-general, had used his official position to induce the State Guard to enter the Confederate service. This charge, however, was wholly false. General Buckner exerted all his energies in good faith to obey the will of the legislature and to preserve the peace and neutrality of the State. To his judicious action and his wise counsel Kentucky owed in great measure its temporary exemption from trouble. By conference with Gen. George B. McClellan, who commanded the department embracing Ohio and western Virginia, Buckner secured his co-operation in maintaining the observance of Kentucky's neutrality. In July he was sent by Governor Magoffin to confer with President Lincoln, and received what he thought ample assurance on the same subject; but later finding out that arms were being introduced and recruits raised within the State while [36] Kentucky was made impotent to enforce her neutrality, he resigned his position, and as a private citizen observed his obligations and duties as such. It was well known to his friends that overtures were made to him by Gen. Winfield Scott, commander-in-chief, to enter the Federal army with rank only second to himself. In the fourth volume of the Rebellion Records, page 255, will be found the following letter from President Lincoln, designed to tempt Buckner into Federal military service:

Executive Mansion, August 17, 1861.
Hon. Secretary of War:
My Dear Sir: Unless there be reason to the contrary not known to me, make out a commission for Simon B. Buckner, of Kentucky, as a brigadier-general of volunteers. It is to be put in the hands of General Anderson and delivered to General Buckner or not at the discretion of General Anderson. Of course this is to be made a secret unless and until the commission is delivered.

Yours truly,


Such commissions, as well as contracts for beef, mules and other army supplies, were successfully used about this time, but General Buckner was proof against such blandishments. He went to Richmond later, but declined a similar offer of rank pending the neutrality of Kentucky, and did not enter the Confederate service until all hope of staying the war in Kentucky had fled, and the State legislature had invited General Anderson to take command. He then followed the dictates of his conscience rather than interest. The initial operations in Kentucky center so much on General Buckner, and he was so conspicuous in the service during the war that it has been deemed proper for a better understanding of the situation pending hostilities, as well as for General Buckner's vindication, to give the details here narrated.

On the 10th day of September, Albert Sidney Johnston, who had in April preceding, upon hearing of the secession of Texas, resigned his commission in the old army and [37] the command of the department of the Pacific at San Francisco, to offer his sword to the State to which he felt he owed paramount duty—was assigned to command by the Confederate government. He had at the age of nearly sixty years crossed the desert on horseback, a journey of seventeen hundred miles to Austin, Tex., and from there had gone to Richmond. The following is the order of assignment:

Special orders, no. 149.

Adjutant and Inspector-General's Office, Richmond, Va., September 10, 1861.
14. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, C. S. Army, is assigned to the command of department No. 2, which will hereafter embrace the States of Tennessee, Arkansas and that part of the State of Mississippi west of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern and Central railroad; also the military operations in Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas and the Indian country immediately west of Missouri and Arkansas. He will repair to Memphis, Tenn., and assume command, fixing his headquarters at such point as in his judgment will best secure the purposes of the command.

By command of the Secretary of War.

John Withers, Asst Adj.-Gen.

At that date General Buckner was not in the service, but after the occupation of Columbus, Ky., by General Polk, he had visited that place and endeavored to secure the withdrawal of the Confederate troops. This General Polk declined, alleging numerous instances in which the Federals had violated the neutrality of Kentucky; but agreed to withdraw his forces provided the troops of the Federal government were simultaneously withdrawn, with a mutual guarantee that no part of Kentucky should be occupied in the future. His efforts were futile and events rapidly culminated.

On the 15th of September, General Johnston, having arrived in Nashville, which he had selected as his headquarters, assumed command of his department. On the same day he notified the President at Richmond that he [38] had appointed General Buckner a brigadier-general subject to approval. General Buckner was assigned to the command of the forces then organizing at Camp Trousdale and Camp Boone, and on the same day directed to concentrate his forces for the occupation of Bowling Green. Accordingly, on the 18th of September, General Buckner took possession of Bowling Green with 4,500 infantry, and sent forward an advance of 500 men to occupy Munfordville, the point at which the Louisville & Nashville railroad crosses Green river. General Zollicoffer having previously been ordered to Cumberland Gap, the line of defense was thus established, with Columbus as the left, Bowling Green the center and Cumberland Gap the right. This was a line which from the topography of the country presented many serious difficulties, there being no direct communication by rail between the center and either wing and no possibility of rapidly concentrating the forces. But in addition to these obstacles the actual number of troops was wholly inadequate. General Polk's command, numbering about 10,000, was confronted by General Grant at Paducah, Cairo, and on the east side of the Mississippi, with a large force, embraced in the Western department commanded by General Fremont; General Buckner, at Bowling Green, had less than 5,000 with a formidable force collecting in his front from Louisville; and General Zollicoffer, at or near Cumberland Gap, had about 5,000 of all arms in a country scant of supplies and with no railroad base nearer than Knoxville. Threatening him was Gen. Geo. H. Thomas with a much larger force, well equipped and composed in great part of men familiar with the country.

On the night of September 17th, the day before General Buckner occupied Bowling Green, General Rousseau had with 2,000 men crossed from Indiana to Louisville, and the next day he moved in the direction of Bowling Green with an equal number of home guards; which body was soon reinforced by other troops, thus increasing the number [39] of Federal arms to a force largely in excess of the Confederate forces and rendering the latter's advance north of Green river wholly impracticable. On the night of September 19th, Colonel Bramlette, with a regiment from Camp Dick Robinson, had as heretofore stated occupied Lexington, while from Cincinnati Federal troops were thrown forward in the same direction and the occupation of Kentucky by the contending armies became complete along the lines indicated.

On the night of the 20th Capt. John H. Morgan, of Lexington, evaded the vigilance of the Federal forces and left that place for the South, with a small body of mounted men which became the nucleus of his celebrated command. He had served in the Mexican war when barely of age, in General Marshall's cavalry regiment, and had come out of it a lieutenant. When the present crisis came, he was quietly engaged as a manufacturer of hemp. For several years previous he had been captain of the Lexington Rifles, an organization which he made conspicuous for fine discipline and drill. He had remained at home trusting to the assurance of peace and exemption from molestation, until the military arrests, of which mention has been made, when he determined to seek security in the Confederate camp at Bowling Green. From the inception of his march his force increased until on his arrival at his place of destination he found himself at the head of nearly two hundred men, most of whom were going there to join other organizations. At first his command was known as Morgan's squadron, but as in course of time it increased in numbers by the accession of daring spirits who were attracted by the novelty of the service, it was in succession the squadron, the regiment, the brigade, and the division. Morgan's arrival at Bowling Green made a valuable accession to the Confederate force assembled there, and from the very start he proved himself of invaluable service in scouting [40] to the front, cutting off detachments and harassing the enemy's lines of communication.

For nearly a month after the occupation of Bowling Green there was but little change in the attitude of the opposing forces, the commanders of each army being busy organizing their forces, increasing their numbers and strengthening their positions. While these operations in their detail belong more properly to the general history of the war, it will be well for a better understanding of after events to glance briefly at some of the leading features which marked this period. General Johnston had been suddenly placed in a command involving great responsibilities and with means altogether inadequate for the service expected of him. His raw troops were ill equipped, while his commissariat and other departments, as ordnance and transportation, had to be organized in the very face of a largely superior enemy. Comprehending fully the difficult problem before him, he addressed himself at once vigorously toward the work, and lost no opportunity to impress upon the authorities at Richmond the critical position he occupied and the necessity of a larger and better equipped force. Availing himself of the power conferred on him, he sent appeal after appeal to the governors of the States within his department, urging them to send reinforcements, arms and other equipments; but already there had been heavy drafts upon the same sources for the defense of Richmond and other exposed points, and this, together with an exaggerated statement of the forces under his command, resulted in comparatively small accessions. To his other expedients he added the construction of fortifications at Bowling Green, Cumberland Gap and at Forts Donelson and Henry—the latter respectively on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, to guard against invasion by water. In the light of the facts disclosed later, it seems strange that he should have remained so long unmolested at Bowling Green when the Federal numbers and resources were so largely [41] in excess of his. But the same exaggerated reports of his strength which lulled the people in his rear into a sense of security had a corresponding effect upon the apprehensions of the Federal authorities, and they became cautious in their movements and were determined to take no risks.

Gen. Robert Anderson, having served the purpose for which he was ordered to Kentucky, in the expectation that being a native he would add strength to the cause, was retained in Federal command but a few weeks, and was superseded by Gen. W. T. Sherman October 8, 1861. There was impatience in the North for an aggressive movement, and the cry of ‘on to Richmond’ was repeated as to Bowling Green, spurring the authorities at Washington and causing already complaints of dilatoriness in Kentucky. But General Sherman, although placed in command in expectation of a more aggressive policy, was at once impressed with the magnitude of the undertaking. He had for some time been on the ground with General Anderson at Louisville, but nominally without command, and was thoroughly informed of the situation. On the very day on which he announced his assumption of command, in response to a letter from Garrett Davis, requesting that troops be sent to a certain locality, he said, with an ominous testiness: ‘I am forced into the command of this department against my will, and it would take 300,000 men to fill half the calls for troops.’ (Rebellion Records, Vol. IV, page 297.) He had lived in the South, having but lately resigned as superintendent of the Louisiana State military institute, and knew the spirit of the Southern people and the difficulty of the proposition to invade and hold their territory. He differed from the politicians who thought they could secure Kentucky with government contracts and commissions and that the war would be of short duration. Alarmed at his extravagant expressions on this score Simon Cameron, secretary of war, and Lorenzo Thomas, [42] adjutant-general of the United States, came to Louisville on the 16th of October on a tour of inquiry and inspection. Cameron's first telegram to President Lincoln was as follows: ‘Matters are in much worse condition than I expected to find them. A large number of troops needed here immediately.’ There were at that time, as shown by General Thomas' report on page 315 of the volume cited above, thirteen regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry and one battery, with another of six pieces expected in two or three days, in camp at Nolin river on the Louisville & Nashville railroad north of Green river; fourteen regiments of infantry and three batteries of artillery at Camp Dick Robinson or acting in conjunction with General Thomas' command, and one Indiana and three or four incomplete Kentucky regiments at Owensboro under Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden. This was exclusive of General Grant's force at and in the vicinity of Paducah.

Adjutant-General Thomas' report of October 21, 1861 (Rebellion Records, Vol. IV, page 313) says:

Left Indianapolis October 16th, for Louisville, Ky., where we arrived at 12:30 p. m. and had an interview with General Sherman, commanding the department of the Cumberland. He gave a gloomy picture of affairs in Kentucky, stating that the young men were generally secessionists and had joined the Confederates, while the Union men, the aged and conservatives, would not enroll themselves to engage in conflict with their relations on the other side. But few regiments could be raised. He said that Buckner was in advance of Green river with a heavy force on the road to Louisville, and an attack might be daily expected, which with his then force he would not be able to resist, but that he would fight them. He, as well as citizens of the State, said that the border States of Kentucky must furnish the troops to drive the rebels from the State. On being asked the question what force he deemed necessary, he promptly replied 200,000 men. This conversation [43] occurred in the presence of Mr. Guthrie and General Wood. The secretary replied that he supposed that the Kentuckians would not in any number take up arms to operate against the rebels, but that he thought that General Sherman overestimated the number and power of the rebel forces; that the government would furnish troops to Kentucky to accomplish the work; that he, the secretary, was tired of this defensive war, and that the troops must assume the offensive and carry the war to the firesides of the enemy; that the season for operations in western Virginia was about over, and that he would take the troops from there and send them to Kentucky; that he begged of General Sherman to assume the offensive and to keep the rebels hereafter on the defensive. The secretary desired that the Cumberland Ford and Gap should be seized and the East Tennessee and Virginia railroad be taken possession of, and the artery that supplied the rebellion cut. Complaint was made of the want of arms, and on the question being asked, “ What became of the arms we sent to Kentucky,” we were informed by General Sherman that they had passed into the hands of the home guards and could not be recovered; that many were already in the hands of the rebels and others refused to surrender those in their possession, alleging the desire to use them in defense of their individual homes if invaded. In the hands of individuals and scattered over the State these arms are lost to the army in Kentucky. Having ascertained that 6,200 arms had arrived from Europe at Philadelphia, 3,000 were ordered to Governor Morton [of Indiana], who promised to place them immediately in the hands of troops for Kentucky; the remaining 3,200 were sent to General Sherman at Louisville. Negley's brigade at Pittsburg, 2,500 strong, two companies of the Nineteenth [regulars] infantry, the Eighth Wisconsin at St. Louis, the Second regiment of Minnesota volunteers at Pittsburg, and two regiments from Wisconsin were then ordered to Kentucky, making in all a [44] reinforcement of about 10,000 men. We left Louisville at 3 o'clock p. m., for Lexington, accompanied by General Sherman and Mr. Guthrie, remained there a few hours and proceeded to Cincinnati, arriving at 8 o'clock p. m. At Lexington also we found that the opinion existed that the young men of Kentucky had joined the rebels; that no large bodies of troops could be raised in Kentucky and that the defense of the State must necessarily devolve upon the free States of the West and Northwest.

The above extract has been given at greater length than it otherwise would for the reason that it is a more graphic picture of the condition of affairs in Kentucky at that time than any pen of to-day can draw. The reader, of whatever sympathies as regards the late war, cannot but wonder what must have been the feelings of Mr. Guthrie and men of his position, who at the beginning declared that they would resist a war of invasion, when within a few months they heard Secretary Cameron declare that they must ‘carry the war to the firesides of the enemy.’

The first engagement which took place in Kentucky, barring a few skirmishes between small bodies of cavalry, occurred on the 21st of October, 1861, when General Zollicoffer attacked the Federals at Camp Wild Cat in the Rockcastle Hills, a strong position, where he lost eleven killed and forty-two wounded. He fell back, but simultaneously the large Federal force retreated in a panic to Lancaster, abandoning much property and spreading dismay throughout central Kentucky. On the 24th of October, Burbridge advanced from Owensboro with a cavalry force to Morgantown and Woodbury, and had a skirmish with a detachment of Col. Wirt Adams' Mississippi cavalry, but fell back promptly. On the 7th of November occurred the battle of Belmont, in Missouri, opposite Columbus, Ky. Early on that day General Grant left Cairo with 3,000 men under convoy of gunboats and landed on the Kentucky side as if about to move on Columbus, but suddenly crossed to the Missouri side and [45] attacked Col. J. C. Tappan, at Belmont. General Polk discovered his movements in time to send reinforcements, and a heavy engagement ensued, with a loss of several hundred on each side. General Grant then withdrew, each side claiming a victory. The Confederate Congress passed resolutions of thanks to Generals Polk, Pillow and Cheatham. In eastern Kentucky, Col. John S. Williams, with a Confederate force consisting of his regiment, the Fifth Kentucky infantry, Shawhan's battalion and other commands in process of organization, amounting to eleven hundred men, was engaged in covering the approach to Virginia then threatened by Federal troops under General Nelson. On the 8th of November, while Colonel Williams was at Piketon, General Nelson advanced, when after a skirmish of his advance guard Williams occupied a mountain defile at Ivy Creek, fifteen miles in advance of Piketon. Next day the enemy advanced in heavy force and dislodged Capt. A. J. May, who with several hundred men, attempted to hold the pass. Colonel Williams in his report gives his casualties as 10 killed and 15 wounded and the enemy's loss at over 300, while General Nelson gives the Confederate loss as 32 killed and his own as 6 killed and 24 wounded. Colonel Williams in his report to General Humphrey Marshall, who on the 1st of November had been assigned to the command of that district, with headquarters at Abingdon, Va., reporting to Gen. A. S. Johnston, speaks of his command as ‘an unorganized and half armed, barefooted squad.’

The Fifth Kentucky infantry was recruited by Colonel afterward Gen. John S. Williams, of Clark county, and organized in October, 1861, with the following officers: John S. Williams, colonel; A. J. May, of Morgan county, lieutenant-colonel; Hiram Hawkins, of Bath, major; William S. Rogers, A. Q. M.; J. H. Bums, A. C. S.; H. Rutherford, surgeon; Basil Duke, assistant surgeon. Its company organization for the first year was very incomplete until [46] upon General Bragg's campaign into Kentucky, when it was recruited to its full strength and reorganized with Hawkins as colonel, Geo. W. Conner, lieutenant-colonel; and Wm. Mynheir, major. Its company commanders were A. G. Roberts, E. C. Sturz, Thomas J. Henry, A. C. Cope, John C. Calvert, James M. White, Joseph Desha, and W. D. Acton. The regiment served at first in Virginia. In the Chickamauga campaign it was part of the Third brigade of Preston's division and soon after was permanently attached to the ‘Orphan brigade.’

Such was the situation in Kentucky when on the 15th of November, 1861 Gen. D. C. Buell relieved General Sherman of his command. He had been assigned by orders dated November 9, 1861, to the department of the Ohio, consisting of the States of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and that portion of Kentucky east of the Cumberland and Tennessee. General Sherman was relieved at his own request, having by his failure to advance and his extravagant estimate of the troops needed brought down upon himself an avalanche of abuse, including the charge of insanity preferred by the Cincinnati Commercial. He had his inning later. Just-before being relieved he was actively preparing for the defense of Lexington from an attack which he conceived imminent from General Johnston's forces at Bowling Green. An abstract from the consolidated report of General Sherman's force on November 10, 1861, gives an aggregate present and absent of 49,586. (Rebellion Records, Vol. IV, page 349.)

On the 28th of October, 1861, General Johnston moved his headquarters from Nashville to Bowling Green, and assumed immediate command of what was styled the army corps of Central Kentucky. The organization of his forces then was as follows:

First division, Major-General W. J. Hardee.

Cavalry: Wirt Adams' regiment and Phifer's battalion.

Artillery: Swett's, Trigg's, Hubbard's and Byrne's batteries. [47]

First brigade, infantry, Brig.-Gen. T. C. Hindman: Second Arkansas regiment, Lieut.-Col. Bocage; Sixth Arkansas regiment, Col. A. T. Hawthorn; Arkansas battalion, Lieut.-Col. John S. Marmaduke.

Second brigade, infantry, Col. P. R. Cleburne: First Arkansas regiment, Colonel Cleburne; Fifth Arkansas regiment, Col. D. C. Cross; Seventh Mississippi regiment, Col. J. J. Thornton; Tennessee Mountain Rifles, Col. B. J. Hill.

Third brigade, infantry, Col. R. G. Shaver: Seventh Arkansas regiment, Colonel Shaver; Eighth Arkansas regiment, Col. W. R. Patterson; Twenty-fourth Tennessee regiment, Col. R. D. Allison; Ninth Arkansas regiment, Lieut.-Col. S. J. Mason.

Second division, Brig.-Gen. S. B. Buckner.

Cavalry: First Kentucky regiment, Col. Ben Hardin Helm; Tennessee regiment, Maj. J. J. Cox.

Artillery: Lyon's and Porter's batteries.

First brigade, infantry, Col. Roger W. Hanson: Hanson's, Thompson's, Trabue's, Hunt's, Lewis' and Cofer's Kentucky regiments.

Second brigade, infantry, Col. W. E. Baldwin: Fourteenth Mississippi regiment, Colonel Baldwin; Twenty-sixth Tennessee regiment, Colonel Lillard.

Third brigade, infantry, Col. John C. Brown: Third Tennessee regiment, Colonel Brown; Twenty-third Tennessee regiment, Colonel Martin; Eighteenth Tennessee regiment, Colonel Palmer.

Reserve

Texas regiment cavalry, Col. B. F. Terry; Harper's and Spencer's batteries, artillery; Tennessee regiment, infantry, Colonel Stanton.


The Kentucky brigade is given above as announced in General Johnston's order upon assuming command. At that time the regimental organizations had not been fully completed and numbered as they were later. For the better identification of these commands, of which in [48] the course of this history frequent mention will be made, a brief summary of their organization will be given.

Hanson's regiment, the Second Kentucky, was organized at Camp Boone, July 21, 1861, with J. Morrison Hawes as colonel, a graduate of West Point, who was promoted brigadier-general before active operations began, and was succeeded by Col. Roger W. Hanson, with Robert A. Johnson, of Louisville, as lieutenant-colonel, and James W. Hewett, of the same place, major. Samuel K. Hayes, of Covington, was quartermaster and R. C. Wintersmith, of Elizabethtown, commissary, Dr. B. M. Wible, surgeon, and Rev. Joseph Desha Pickett, chaplain. The captains were, in alphabetical order of companies, James W. Moss, Robert J. Breckinridge, Phil. Lee, L. S. Slayden, Stephen E. Chipley, Hervey McDowell, John S. Hope, Anson Madeira, Gustavus Dedman, and John W. Owings.

The Third regiment, Thompson's, was also organized at Camp Boone shortly after the Second, with the following officers composing the field and staff: Lloyd Tilghman, of Paducah, a graduate of West Point, colonel; Albert P. Thompson, lieutenant-colonel; Ben Anderson, major; Capt. Alfred Boyd, A. Q. M.; Capt. J. Stoddard Byers, A. C. S.; Dr. J. W. Thompson, surgeon. Col. Lloyd Tilghman was appointed brigadier-general before active service began, and Colonel Thompson succeeded to the command of the regiment. We have no list of the company organizations.

The Fourth regiment, Trabue's, was recruited by Col. Robert P. Trabue at Camp Burnett, near Camp Boone, and organized in September with the following officers: Robert P. Trabue, colonel; Andrew R. Hynes, lieutenant-colonel; Thomas B. Monroe, Jr., major; G. P. Theobald, A. Q. M.; Geo. T. Shaw, A. C. S.; and Dr. B. T. Marshall, surgeon. The captains were Joseph P. Nichols, James Ingram, J. M. Fitzhenry, Willis S. Roberts, Benjamin [49] J. Monroe, John A. Adair, John L. Trice, W. P. Bramlette, Thomas W. Thompson.

Hunt's regiment was at first known as the Fifth, but it having been found that Col. John S. Williams had first appropriated that number, it was changed to the Ninth. It was recruited by Col. Thomas H. Hunt, of Louisville, after the occupation of Louisville by the Federals, and went into service with a temporary organization, which was not completed until some time afterward. Its officers became Thomas H. Hunt, colonel; J. W. Caldwell, lieutenant-colonel; J. C. Wickliffe, major; Henry W. Gray, A. Q. M. The captains were, John W. Caldwell, J. C. Wickliffe, William Mitchell, Ben Desha, Geo. A. King, James T. Morehead, Chris Bosche and J. R. Bright.

The Sixth, Lewis' regiment, was raised by Col. Jos. H. Lewis, of Glasgow, Ky., under similar circumstances to the foregoing, at Cave City, and organized as follows: Joseph H. Lewis, colonel; Martin H. Cofer, of Elizabethtown, lieutenant-colonel; Thomas H. Hays, of Hardin county, major; David C. Walker, A. Q. M.; John F. Davis, A. C. S.; R. S. Stevenson, surgeon, and H. H. Kavanagh, Jr., chaplain. The captains were, C. B. McClaskey, Geo. B. Maxson, Isaac Smith, D. E. Mc-Kendree, D. P. Barclay, W. W. Bagby, Granville Utterback, W. Lee Harned, Samuel B. Crewdson, John G. Jones.

The command designated as Cofer's regiment in the organization of Hanson's brigade was afterward consolidated with Lewis' regiment, and formed the Sixth regiment, of which Col. M. H. Cofer became second in command.

Lyon's battery, then commanded by Capt. (afterward Gen.) H. B. Lyon, was raised by H. B. Lyon and became Cobb's Kentucky battery. Byrne's battery was recruited by Capt. Ed. P. Byrne, a Kentuckian living in Greenville, Miss., who immediately after the falling of Fort Sumter began its organization. The guns, four 6- [50] pounders and two 12-pounder howitzers, were contributed by citizens of Washington county, Miss., and made in Memphis. Citizens of Louisville aided in the further equipment of the battery, and in July it rendezvoused at Camp Boone and was always known as Byrne's Kentucky battery. Its organization was as follows: Edward P. Byrne, captain; Guignard Scott, first lieutenant; Thomas Hinds, first lieutenant; Bayless P. Shelby, second lieu-tenant; John Joyes, Jr., second lieutenant; Elias D. Lawrence, first sergeant; Frank Peak, second sergeant. After the battle of Shiloh, where the battery did conspicuous service, Captain Byrne, promoted to major, commanded a battalion of horse artillery with Gen. John H. Morgan. Capt. Robert Cobb, who succeeded to the command of Lyon's battery, was from Lyon county, Ky., and the battery, known afterward by his name, was in constant service to the close of the war. Its officers were Frank P. Gracey, first lieutenant; Barclay A. James, second lieutenant; I. R. Dudley, first sergeant, and W. E. Etheridge, second sergeant. Spencer's battery of the reserve, in December strengthened by recruits from the five Kentucky regiments, became Graves' battery, under command of Capt. Rice E. Graves, a West Point cadet from Kentucky, who distinguished himself and fell on the second day at Murfreesboro. To the commands enumerated above must be added Morgan's cavalry squadron, and the Eighth Kentucky infantry, commanded by Col. H. B. Lyon, which completes the list of Kentucky organ-izations then in the field. [51]

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