The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1893-07-19

But DeSlOeS thls sln1ultaneOUSUcSS VI %
ginning. my location during the war was pc.
culiarly adapted to teach me that impartial
ity Of judgment 80 necessary to the per-
formahce of the duties uf the present hour.
] was resident at that time OF the State OF
Kentucky, THE dark and bloody ground"
where patriotism and state pride held equal
sway in the breasts of her chi7alrous citi'
zers.
Kentucky. as you remember standing
between the contending powers announced
her armed neutrality. asserting her State
sovereignty, and warned the National Gov
eminent aud the Confederate forces alike
to keep off her sacred soil. IL Is true that
the Federal government gave no hees to
her manifesto but fortified her strongholds
| and even placed military governor. Gene:
raj Palmer. OF Illinois, in her gubernaturial
chair, while the Confederates invaded her
from the South and fed upon the richness
of her focks and herds, her hogs and hom.
my, her blue grass and Bourbon, her short
| horns and saddle horses.
But despite all this Kentucky maintained
her mpsrlality to the end She had at the
| same time Federal and Confederate gov.
| ernur. representatives in the Federal and
| the Confederate Congress; she sent about an
| equal number of SONS to conquer with the
| blue or die with the gray; and she gave TO
| the Confederacy Jefferson Days.its first and
| only president, while she gave to the Union
| the second father Of his country, the i'm
| mortal and martyrcd lincoln.
But my individual experience was not
| without preparatory efficiency. Personally
| | never seeded from Uncle Sam; though
twice the Southern Confederacy stopped
| over and took me into its loving embrace,
| each time recpding again and leaving me
| high and dry in the possession of the Union.
| Through ali these changes remained what
| was known "a a Southern sympathizer. |
| had been born in one of the cotton States,
where my people from the time Of the Rev
| olutionary War were born and had died,
| and | was prouder of being q Southerner
than was OF being an American. In fact,
we Of the south. being taught the divine or.
ign and rightful perpetutity of slavery by
| our churches, and looking on the slavery
| agitation not as the demand of the ndvanc.
ing civilization OF the age, but rs a sectional
and unconstitutional attack upon our pros.
pcrity end our guarar!eet rights, very
| NATURALLY VS. taiha TO love the State more
apd the Union less, till the mass Of the peo-
: pie were ready to be swept out OF the Union
| by the secession movement,
| / vas ther Southern sympathizer. With
all my heart and soul wanted the South to
succeed believed that she was right, that
| her cause was Just, that the God of battle
would hear her cry aud send to her tn, vic.
! tory. II Is scarcely necessary for me to add
| that since the war, like all other men in or
from the South, have changed my views
| consider that slavery was relic of bar
/
manry to u an hliehting curse to the
South and n disgrace TO the .ntire nation;
| while as heartily rejoice that the South
did not succeed in dsrupting the Union as
any man possibly can, not even excepting
those who donned the blue and shed their
| blood to prevent the catastrophe.
Three times did | see the blue and the
| gray in juxtaposition-at least there were
| three times that shall mention now In
the first instance. the blue led way and the
| gray followed hard after; in the second the
order was rcversed-the gray fled and the
blue hotly pursued them ] shall never
| forget either OF these instances.
The former was my first view Of a large
| number of soldiers. II was just after Gen.
eral Nelson's defeat at the battle Of Big Hill
near Richmond, Kentucky, by General
| Kirby Smith, and General Nelson's army
was in retreat upon Louisville. 1t was the
hottest aud dryest part of the year, and the
| men had retreated about eighty miles. n
large part of it on the double-quck. They
had become thoroughly denoralized and
could not be brought to stand. The officers
would rally them TO form line; but no
sooner did the enemy appear on some
distant hill, than they would rush pell mel
from their positions and start afresh
| upon their unreasoning flight. They had
| been chiefly raw recruits and this had been
| their first engagement. For five or six hours
they streamed through our little village in
teamsters, horses, wagons, pieces of artillery
all jumbled together and pressing forward
/ as though death were at their heels.
The turnpike was heated like an oven. The
limestone dust which their flight stirred up.
hung round them like pail in the motion
less air. The section OF country through
| which they were then passing was notorious
for its lack of water In the summer time
the farmers that season being compelled to
| drive their stock six or eight miles back
from the highway to get them water.
Such suffering as that OF the fleeing sold
iers from heat fatigue, thirst, hunger and
fear never saw before, and may God pre-
serve my sight from ever again beholding
Three men lay down in my yard and diec
| from exhaustion; while dozens OF them were
found by the roadside dead. the next day
and were buried by a detail sent out from
every morsel TO eat thar we had on the
place; we threshed bare a small apple or
chard around the house and gave them the
fruit They drank dry two csterns in the
yard. Some ofthem discovered and drank
the stagnant water that had accidentally ac
J cumulated in an old ash barrel on the
| premises; and one poor wretch, maddened
with thirst. when not another drop of liz
uid could be found, wished that might bs
thousand years in hell without one sup o
water to cool my tongue. Thank God, In
our eagerness to aid them and in our sym
|
to remember that they wore the blue while
we sympathized with the gray.
a few months afterward, when the
fall OF the year had come and the nights
were frosty and cold, General Buell. march
ed out from Louisville. and the Confederate
General Bragg retreated before him. As the
Southern soldiers fell back through ouI
town, concluded to fall back with them
having then been in Dixie's land abou
three months. In the hurry of the fight ]
neglected. to take either blankets or provis
ions, That night went supperless to BED
In corn shock, which found more cool
ing than com Portable In fact 1t was Sc
cooling that when / discovered that my
breakfast the next morning would be like
my supper had been, and my dinner would
be repetition of both, at once called q
council OF war with myself and It being
manifest that all my ardent desires to be Z
soldier had cooled away in ths corn-shock
Il was unanimously decided that had fal.
len back far enough. and thata movement
to the front was the next thing in order. Al
ksx.s