Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-04-04
kENTuckrs BORDER WAR.
From the RecoIlections Of q Twelve-Year
Old of 1869.

1
My native town of Hartford, KY, and
the surrounding county were as badly
divided as any section of any border
state, and raids and reprisals were
frequent and often very bloody. Mat
tiers became 80 unsettled that it was
no uncommon sight to see men carry
their guns to church and to funerals
have seen country church congregation
where, on the "men's side," as it is called,
bayonets stood against the wall or leaned
up over mems shoulders while they lis
tened to the discourse. Sentinels were
on such occasions placed on duty and all
hands were in readiness at any moment
to see a gang of guerrillas dash down
upon the "hitching poles" where the
horses of the congregation were tied.
These scenes were not without their hu-
morous features. One old gentleman,
bearing the suggestive name of "Aunt
Billy" who had never fired gun in his
life, joined in one OF the home guardraids.
He created much molrinent when he
discovered th't the trigger of his musket
was loose, lie said he "moight as well
go home as his gun was broke and would
not shoot"
This same man asked which side of the
army General Items" belonged to. He
saw his name mentioned in every paper,
and had never heard which army he
was in.
A company of home guards were
summoned to meet for the drill. One
old farmer thought he would distinguish
himself for proficiency, so he braced him
self up and put his heels together and
extended his toes at a proper angle, and
called out: Fix the balance, capting,
I'm in line"
One of my neighbors was a southern
sympathizer, and he had two grown sons
who got themselves into trouble by their
patriotic display. Orders had been issued
| by the department commander to arrest
anybody known to shout the familiar
"Hurrah for jeff Davis and the South
ern Confederacy."
These boys had been reported to the
post commander as having offended in
this way, and they were arrested and put
in the county Jail. They said they would
rot in prison before they would take the
oath of allegiance to "Lincoln's hire
| lings," but they reconsidered this resolu-
tion and were released on bail. Not
many weeks passed before the eldest
y ent to a country church one Sunday,
| and during the services in the church he
selected a fine horse owned in the neigh
| borhood and mounted and rode away
| The next heard of him was an account
of his capture in an engagement between
| Federal soldiers and band of guerrillas,
near Paducah. He was taken to Louis
vile, KY, where it was learned that he
was bail jumper. At this time the
| government was practicing retaliation.
A band of guerrillas had few days be-
| fore taken two citizens of village in
Green county into the street and shot
them down. The commander of the
forces at Louisville condemned five guer-
rilla prisoners to be sent down to the
same spot and executed in retaliation.
Morgan was among the number. An
| escort of soldiers took the five doomed
men, with colfins for each, and went by
rail to Mumfordsville and thence by
wagon to the scene of the recent MUIR
| ders. Here the men were blindfolded,
their hands pinioned at their backs and
the cofiins arranged in row, and each
man stood up in front of his coffin.
The guns were loaded by the officers
| and handed to the soldiers to fire. One
blank load and one ball was to be fired
at each victim, but the men who did the
firing did not know who had the blank
cartridge. At the command to fire the
hills re-echoed the familiar sound of the
volley of musketry, and the smoke
lifted, revealing five PROSTATE forms.
AS an officer approached he observed
that Morgan was breathing. He was
lying across his coffin, with his head at
one side and his feet at the other. The
officer fired pistol ball into his body,
when the muscular action caused the
body to bound several feet into the air.
lie sank back dead, not having spoken
since the first volley was fired He had
not been hit by the volley, but fell with
his fellow victims, and no doubt thought
himself dead, so great was the effect of
the terrible expectation The five men
were buried in one grave This practice
of retaliation seemed at the time, and
does yet, to be one of the most terrible
| aspects of war; yet it materially lessened
| the number of victims to the rapidly in
creasing bands who owed allegiance to
no higher court than their own selfish
and demoralized natures. G.
Benton.