Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-03-23

civil war brought these brothers face
4 to face in the great Indiana Ohio raid,
/ the greatest ride ever taken since horses
were first broken to bit and rein, and
when Morgan was captured the Confed-
crate Dickinson surrendered to his I'm
ion brother
In Missouri Thomas Hart Benton,
"the great senator, a North Carolinian
| by birth and a Tennesseean by train
| ing, lost his cnrnle chair in 1851 on the
slavery question, and so long as be
lived his vast influence was for the Tn
ion, and it was his political pupil,
Frank F. Blair, Kentnekian and
| STAKEHOLDER, who more than any other
held Missouri to the Union, while his
cousin, General Jo Shelby, was the
/ lean sabreur of the transmississippi
Confederates
To the same class belonged James o.
Broadhead, John B. Henderson, Edward
Bates, Hamilton r. Gamble, Willard
P. Hall, John D. Stevenson, Thomas G.
| Fletcher, Thomas T. Crittenden, Sam
uel T. Glover, John r Phillips, B
Gratz Brown. John d. S. Dryden,
James $. Rollins the most brilliant
orator and one Of the largest slave own
ers in the state and a large minority,
if not positive majority, of the lead
ing Unionists Of Missouri
So far as | know only one Virginian
of the first rank fought for the Union
General George Fl. Thomas but he
was host within himself, the greatest
soldier on the Federal side; for that
viii be the verdict Of posferity after the
sleight of hand performers have done
Juggling the facts of history for politi-
cal effect.
Indeed it is safe to say that had none
of the aristocratic families wrongfully
so called none of the great families,
none of the Shareholders, stood for the
Union, Kentucky. Missouri and Mary
land would have seeded, and If they
had gone with tue south unanimously
the Confederacy would have achieved
| its independence, but if those states had
been solidly for the Union, if the house
had not been hopelessly divided against
itself in all that region, the war would
not have lasted half 50 long and Will
liam H. Seward optimistic prophecy
of a '.90 days picnic would have been
| fulfilled.
Two Great states In War.
This brings me to the central idea of
this speech the main fact-of which
never think without anger and resent
ment. for believe that justice should
be done even in writing history though
the heavens fall. and it is this
Population considered. Kentucky and
Missouri sent more soldiers to the civil
war than any other state and receive
less credit for it.
They were splendid soldiers too. Theo-
dore Roosevelt says that by actual
measurement the Kentucky Union sol
diers We're the finest specimens of phys
ical manhood who were in the Federal
armies, and when jefferson Davis, him
self renowned soldier, reviewed the
army at Corinth he declared Cockrell's
Missouri brigade to be the most mag
niEcept soldiers his trained military
/ eye had ever gazed upon.
| Nevertheless il is difficult to induce
extreme southerners to admit that the
Kentucky and Missouri Confederates
were good Confederates though the
Kentuckians and Missourians made
four years war possible. It is even
more difficult to induce extreme north
erners, whose skins and homes and
property were all safe during the war,
to admit that the Unionists of Ken
tucky and Missouri deserve any credit,
when as a matter of fact they prevent
ed secession from succeeding.
II Lowell Fl. Rousseau had never re-
eruited his Louisville legion; if old
Frank Wolford and Thomas E. Bram-
lette had never established Camp Dick
Robinson, Kentucky would have seced-
ed and the Ohio river would have been
an impossible barrier to the invading
armies.
If Frank Blair had never captured
Camp Jackson-for it was Blair who
conceived and carried out that great
strategic movement and not General
Nathaniel Lyon of New England, as
the northern war books say-Missouri
would have joined the Confederacy nm
der the lead of Governor Claiborne f.
jackson and General Stirling Price, the
peerless soldier, and, with her vast re-
sources to command, Lees soldiers
would not have been starved and frozen
into surrender.
Heroes Of Kentucky and Missouri.
If the government built monuments
to soldiers in proportion to what they
really accomplish for the Union cause,
Frank Blairs would tower proudly
among the leftiest Camp jackson is
slurred over with an occasional para
graph in the history books. but it was
the turning point in the war west Of
the Mississippi, and it was the work of
Frank Blair, the Kentuckian, the Mis-
sourian, the slave owner, the patrician.
the leonine soldier, the patriotic states
man.
Some day Tacitus, Sismondi or Ma
caulay win write truthful history of
our civil war-the bloodiest chapter in
the book of time and when il is writ
ten the Kentucky and Missouri heroes,
both Unicn and Confederate, will be
enrobed in immortal glory.
1t is said that figures will not lie,
and here they are: To the Union armies
Missouri contributed 1903, III soldiers;
Kentucky, IS, 100; Maryland, As. 63S;
Tennessee, 81. .092 and West Virginia,
80, 06s-making grand total of 294,
669.
Now, suppose a case. Suppose that as
the sun was setting on the CORY field of
Shiloh, when Albert Sidney Johnston
died, all the Kentuckians, Missourians
and Tennesseeans had been suddenly
subtracted from the Union army and
transferred TO the Confederate side. Can
any sane man doubt what would have
happened As certain as fate Ulysses
Simpson Grant and the remnants OF his
army would have been captured or
driven into the Tennessee and Beaure-
gard would have fattened his famished
soldiers on the fertile prairies of Illinois
and Indiana All the Buells and Nell
sons in Christendom could not have
saved the silent soldier had it not been
for the Kentuckians, Missourians and
Tennesseeans fighting for their country
there. and without Grants i bulldog te-
nacity the history of yicksburg, Mis-.
sionary Ridge, Cold Harbor. the viii
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