Jessamine County, Kentucky
Civil War
At the commencement of the Civil War,
the people of Jessamine county were divided in sentiment, and many of
its citizens took up arms both
in the Federal and Confederate armies.
Company K, of the 20th Regiment, Kentucky Infantry, commanded by Col.
Sanders Bruce, was almost altogether composed of Jessamine county men, and they were in
the service three years.
Andrew McCampbell, captain, resigned June, 1862; Charles R. West was elected captain May 24, 1863,
served three years;George W.
Baker, first lieutenant, resigned in 1862; Ben Thornburg, Joseph Lewis, afterward William L.
Steele; Samuel M. Anderson was
made first lieutenant September 29, 1862; Allen A. Burton and S. T. Corn, now of
Corlinville, Ill., were first and second lieutenants; William Plumblee,
first sergeant; Levi Reynolds,
second sergeant; Oliver Davis, first corporal; Jonathan White, second corporal.
Names
of Men of the Company:
Albertson, Adam; Bailey. E. Hayden;
Bailey, Robt.; Baker,
Benedict: Barnes, David; Barnes. Geo. W.; Brennan, John; Bright, Benj.; Brown, S. S.; Brumfield,
James; Bruner, Tilford;
Bruner, M.; Burch, James; Burgess, Wm.; Coleman, Francis;
Courtney, Jno. F.; Crow, Zebedee;
Dean, Wm.; Dobson, Elias;
Dobson, Pleasant; Easley, Jno. T.; English, W. T.; Fain, Jno. K.; Foster, Frank; Foster, James; Gifford,
Jabez; Gilride, Thos.; Green,
Corydon B.; Henderson, S. M.; House, Benj.; Hockersmith, Edward; Howard, James W.; Hunter,
Jos. W.; Hersey, Jno.; Land,
James; Land, Robt.; Letcher, Alex.; McKane, James; McMurty, Robt. L.; Masters, Frank;
Masters, Henry W.; Murphy,
Chas.; Phillips, Dr. H. H.; Plumbly, Wiley; Preston, Alfred; Preston, Samuel; Ramsey,
Samuel; Ramsey, Jno. F.;
Reynolds, Henry; Reynolds, James; Reynolds, W. H.; Rhorer, Hardin; Riley, Henry; Sharp,
Thos.; Short, James M.;
Thornbro, Robt.; Tredway, David; Tredway, Wm.; Turpin, Jno.; Walters, Bluford; Walters, Geo.;
Woods, Jess.
The following is a list of the colored soldiers who served in the United States Army in Company L,
Fifth Cavalry, Capt. J. S.
Caldwell, Bowen's Regiment, J. S. Brisbin's Brigade: Allen, Dudley; Anderson, Jefferson;
Ballard, Wilson; Balard, Geo.;
Berry, Chas.; Bowen, James; Baggs, Geo.; Burley, Frank; Berry, Edmund; Bell, A. Travis;
Brown, Richard; Brown. David;
Brown, Sidney: Brown, Sandy; Bowles, Jack; Blackburn, Chas.; Bush, Jos.; Black,
Jacob; Brown, Perry; Bryant,
Green; Burnside, Jno.; Campbell, Alexander; Carter, Jos.; Carson, Wm.; Clay, Ambrose; Clay,
Henson; Coleman. Samuel;
Davis, David; Denny, Ben; Douglas, Ned.; Favors, Jos.: Fry, Louis; French, John ;
Gable, Green; Grodon, Marion;
Dr. Garnett; Gatewood, Thos.; George, Lewis; Garvin, Henry; Gess, Frank; Hamilton, Henry; Hamilton,
Perry; Hamilton, Sanford;
Hanson, Robt.; Howard, Adam, (died 1882, 99 years old); Hood, Daniel; Hunt, Jack; Jackson,
AleN.; King, Hiram; King,
Milo; Kyle, Orange; McConnell, Geo.; McDowell, Bacchus; Mason. Robt.; Massie, Jos.:
Martin, Edwrard; Moran,
Anderson; Oldham, Thos.: Ovcrstreet, Burd; Owsley, Branch; Peniston, James; Priest, Stephen ;
Ridgeley, Dick; Scott, Alfred;
Scott, Charles; Scott, King; Smith, Jos.; Smith, Wm.; Spillman, Alen.; Stout, Isaac; Stuart, John;
Thomas, James; Thompson,
Frank; Walker, Edmuiid; Walker,
Whitfield.
Confederate
Monument.
The handsomest public monument in
Jessamine county is that erected by the Jessamine Confederate Memorial
Association, to the
Confederates buried in Maple Grove cemetery, Nicholasville. This monument reflects great
credit on the Confederate
soldiers and friends who built it. The work was started in 1880; the monument was dedicated on
the 15th of June, 1896, and
stands in the court-house yard. The platform was erected in the court-house yard as the place for
the dedicatory ceremonies.
Special trains were run on all
the roads entering the city, and
the delegation from Louisville,
headed by Col. Bennett H. Young,
brought the largest number of
persons. The city of Nicholasville
royally entertained all those
who came to unite in the ceremonies.
At one o'clock they began.
Dr. Charles Mann, president of
the association, presided.
Capt. John H. Leathers and
Col. Hennett H. Young, of Louisville,
were the orators of the day.
The monument was unvailed by Miss
Josephine Mann and Master
Lawson ONley, of Cynthiana, son of
Jefferson ONley. the first
president of the association. The
eNercises were opened with
prayer by Rev. F. W. Noland, a member
of the Eighth Kentucky
Confederate Cavalry, and the
Confederate Glee Club of Louisville, sang a beautiful and appropriate
selection ; the closing song,
"Tread Lightly, Ye Comrades,"
produced a profound impression upon the audience. The history of the
work of the association, in connection with the monument, was read by
Prof. A. N. Gordon, its secretary and treasurer.
In 1862, Dr. Charles Mann, then a
surgeon in the Confederate
Army, was ordered by Gen. Kirby
Smith, to gather and care for
the sick and wounded who had been
left about Camp Dick Robinson.
About eighty of these, he
brought in private conveyances
to Nicholasville, where they
were nursed and cared for by
the ladies of the community; those
who died there were buried in
the Nicholasville cemetery. After the
war. Dr. Mann, with the aid of
James S. McKenzie and Charles
Oldham, gathered other
Confederate dead, including those who
had been buried in the Federal
cemetery at Camp Nelson, and
brought them to the cemetery
at Nicholasville. where a
lot had been generously donated
by the Cemetery Company for
that purpose.......
The original headboards, having
rotted down, were replaced by
Col. Bennett H. Young, and these,
in turn, by beautiful granite
tablets, which now mark them.......
Jefferson ONley, long a leading
merchant in Nicholasville, and
as true, brave and chivalrous a
soldier as ever wore the gray,
did as much as. if not more than, any
one man to secure the funds
necessary to construct the
monument. He died when success was in sight, but before he saw the work
accomplished. His comrades,
and those whose dead the
monument commemorates, will
long keep green his memory.
Dr. Chas. Mann, the president, was the surgeon of the Fifth Kentucky Confederate Infantry, and
rendered distinguished services
in the Army of Tennessee. He was frequently detailed to important positions, and returned
from the war with highest commendations
of his skill and efficiency as a surgeon and man. since which time he has practiced his
profession in Jessamine county.
Prof. A. N. Gordon, a moving spirit
in the erection of the
monument, was a brave and gallant
soldier in the Confederacy,
for many years the brilliant leader
of educational work in the
county, as principal of Bethel
Academy, and now principal of
Allegan Academy for Boys, near
Lellington.
The following is a list of the
Confederate dead buried in the
cemetery, in whose honor the monument
was erected:
John Martin, 30th Alabama; A. L.
Hale, 39th North Carolina;
Henry Rice, 426 Georgia; W. H.
Wallace, 6th Florida; J. E. D.
Morris. 6th Florida; W. J. Hale, 40th
Georgia; W. B. Carter, 9th
Georgia; Peter Guin, C. S. A.; W. L.
Cooley. 2d Kentucky; B. F.
Kernan, 6th Kentucky; Eugene
Dickson, d2d Georgia; Capt.
Samuel Scott, Louisiana; C R.
Richardson, C. S. A.; W. H.
Yarbrough, 1st Alabama; J. W. Washam,
17th Mississippi; W. E.
Copeland, 3rd Alabama; John A.
Bass, C. S. A.; S. M. Wilson,
53d Georgia; D. Campbell, 63d
Virginia; J. R. CoN, 59th
Georgia; J. Brock, 18th Georgia; W.
M. Boge, 16th Georgia; O. W.
White, 41st Alabama; L. Johnson.
6th Georgia; J. A. Bowles,
59th Georgia; J. B. Hale. 2d Georgia;
E. Willoughby, 1st Georgia;
Geo. W. Trabue. C. S. A.; H.
Owenby, 39th North Carolina.
The peroration of Colonel Young's
dedicatory address, was as
follows:
"Nor can I close
this address without
some reference to the women of
Jessamine county, who, with
such patience, such industry,
such zeal and such
unselfishness, have labored so long to erect this monument to our beloved
dead. Many who helped at the
inception of the undertaking
have been denied the happiness
of seeing its fulfillment, but
we feel the sweet presence of
their spirits, though they passed
over the river before success had crowned the labors of the
association. If they are not here, we shall, at least, in love and
gratitude, remember them and their work for this cause, and their
absence alone mars the completeness
of this occasion. The noblest
and highest of the war's demands
was to be worthy of the faith
and trust of the Southern
women, and it mitigated the anguish
and bitterness of defeat to be
able through manly tears to look down
into the tear-dimmed eyes of
the women of the South and
tell them that in the sufferings,
sacrifices and privations of
all that weary struggle, there had been nothing done or left undone
which rendered the men of the
Confederacy unworthy of what was
required by its women, and
now, after the lapse of long years,
we find the same gentle, loving,
beautiful, brave, and unselfish
women, with all the enthusiasm of their nobler nature, rearing these
memorials to those of our comrades
who went down amid the storms
of war, and thus keeping the
record of those heroes who gave
their blood as a seal of their
loyalty to the land of their love and
of their troth. We utter
benediction for such women. May the
angels of blessing and peace
hover over and around them in
this life and at its end bring
them peacefully to that place where
there will be no wars, where
monuments are not required, where
death and sorrow never come.
With reverent homage we stand
by these graves of our heroes.
They are hallowed in our
hearts and souls, and we will
honor and adore them forever. These
are the men who fought with
the Johnstons. Lee, Jackson,
Breckinridge, Morgan and Polk,
and Bragg and Hardee and Hood,
and Forrest and Hill, and
Cheatham and Cleburne, and hosts of
immortal heroes. These are the
partakers of the sublime
glory of the Confederate armies,
and we come in tenderness and
devotion and affection to mark,
beautify and bless the soil that
garners their dust, and to declare by this monument, which we trust will
remain forever, that the
memories of the virtues, of the
courage, of the chivalry, and of the bravery, of the sacrifices, of the
sufferings, of the renown of our
departed comrades shall be as
deathless, as their deeds were illustrious.
"By
fairy hands their knell is
rung.....
By forms unseen their dirge is sung.
Here honor comes—a pilgrim gray—
To bless the turf that wraps their
clay.
And Freedom doth a while repair,
To dwell, a weeping hermit, there."
Capt. James White, a son of Elder
William White, in 1862, when
General Bragg invaded Kentucky,
recruited a company of
infantry, which was in the Fifth
Kentucky Regiment Confederate
Infantry, commanded by Col. Hiram
Hawkins. Part of the men in
this company were recruited from
Grant county and were in all
the great battles of the Atlanta
campaign, and surrendered at
Greensborough, N. C, in 1865. The
following is a list of the
members from Jessamine county, in
Captain White's company, and
in Company B, Capt. Wm. Lewis,
Eighth Kentucky Cavalry,
commanded by Col. Roy S. Cluke:
Adams, Thos.; Arnspiger, Geo.;
Blackford. Benj.; Bowman,
Sanford; Bowman, Robt.; Bowen,
Harrison; Brower, Edw. A.;
Brown, Samuel M.; Burch, Courtney L.;
Campbell. Fernando Wood;
Campbell, Peter; Campbell,
Richard; Campbell. Stephen;
Chrisman, Benj.; Cleveland. John;
Cogar. John; Cook. John W.;
Cook, T. B.; Cooley, W. L.; Corman,
Geo.; Corman, Grattan; Daniel,
W. H.; Davis, James; Davis,
John P.; Davis, William;
Deboe, Wesley; Drake. John; Elgin,
Jno. S.; Elmore. Fletcher;
Foster. Dr. T. W.; Funk. Henry,
killed at Chickamauga; Gooch,
James; Gordon, Prof. A. N.; Gregg, S.
S.; Gwuyn, Edw.; Hanly,
Samuel; Harris, J. W.; Hawkins. Jno.
T.; Hayden, W. A.; Holloway.
Dr. Jno.; Hollway. Wm.; Jones.
Jonathan, at that time 62,
died in '91: Jones, A. D.; Jones.
James B.; Jones. O. A.; Knight,
Campbell; Lampkins. Jno. B.; Lear.
John T.; Lear. Jos. R.; Lear,
Wm.; Lee, Melvin; Livingston, James:
Lindsey. Jos.; Lowry, David;
Lowry, Samuel; McAfee, Maj.
Allin L.; McAfee. Capt. Jno.
J.; McBrayer. Frank; MeDavitt.
Chas.; McKinzie. Edw. O.:
McKenzie. James; McKenzie. Jno. IL;
Mann. Dr. Chas.; Metcalf. Geo.
W.; Musselman, Henry;
Myers, W. E.; Nave, Samuel;
Nave. Tilford; Noe, James; Nolan.
Rev. Wm.; Patten. Wm.; Phelps.
Edw.; Price. Louis S.;
Reynolds, Geo.; Robinson. Jacob
Creath ; Roberts. Rankin ; Roberts.
Jas. A.; Rowland, G. T.; Rue,
Allen; Rue. Frank: Sandusky. Jacob:
Sandusky, L. E.; Scott, Robt..
killed at Strawberry Plains;
Scott. Samuel: Sparks, Moreau;
Stine, Jno. G.: Soper. David;
Spears, Christopher, died from
wounds in Camp Douglas; Steele,
Atlas; Vantries, Emanuel,
killed at Chickamauga; Walls, Newbold
C; Walls, Benj. J.; Warner.
Wm.; Welch, James M.; Woods,
Thos. J.; Young. Bennett H.
Source: A History of Jassamine County, Kentucky from its earliest
Settlements to 1898 by Bennett H. Young
Transcribed and contributed by Barb Z.
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