The Savannah morning news., 1900-06-22
THE ORPHAN BRIGADE.
ONE OF KENTUCRY's FAMOUS REGs-
MENTs-ITS FAMOUS RECORD.

Times of "a.
From the Louisville Post
Once in the dark days of 1864, when the
Confederacy was lettering to its fall, a
Southern soldier said:
However this war may terminate. If a
man can truthfully claim to have been a
worthy member of the Orphan Brigade he
will have a kind of tite of nobility"
The passage of time has shown that
speaker TO be no false prophet So long as
the people of the South remember the
deeds which were burned into the records
of American glory. in the fire of battle
just so long will the Orphan Brigade have
a place in the hearts and minds OF all
Dixie land. II has been said, and said,
too, by a Northern historian, that in all
the annals of civilized warfare no army.
for courage. for endurance or for deter
mination ever eXceled the Orphan Bri-
gade. Organized and enrolled into the
Confederacy under peculiar difficulties,
half equipped, half clothed and less than
half fed. the Orphans fought like til
gers, endured like Stoics and died like
Kentuckans.
On n Hundred Fields.
For four years the soil of seven South
ern States was Redeemed with their blood
Their rebel yell" was heard on a hun
dred bloody fields, and it never lost its
note of defiance. Sometimes the Orphans
were cavalrymen on foot Sometimes they
were infantrymen on horseback. Some
times their batteries had no guns and
sometimes their guns had no cattle to
haul them. But uever-tramping barefoot
over frozen roads, sleeping in mud, starry
ing in prison or leading fOrlorn hopes
against a gallant foe-dtd they WAIVER in
their allegiance to the cause of the South
or finch from the call of duty The Or
phan Brigade had many deaths. but few
daserters. 1t charged often, II fed rarely.
Its niche In history was carved with cold
steel and it's memory will endure while
Kentucky soil breeds brave men. And of
all the thousands of old soldiers who have
gathered here in Louisville from every
corner of the Southland for the Confed-
crate reunion none has better right to
wear the sword of true knighthood than
the few grizzled survivors who represent
what is left of the orphans"
Makeup of the Brigade.
The brigade, made up Of the Second
Fourth, Fifth Six h and Ninth Kentucky
Regiments of Infantry, ana Cobb's Bat
terry, Byne's Battery and Graves Bat
terry, was recruited from eghty-three
counties of this state Fully nine-tenths
of the members were native Kentuckians.
Such men as Breckenridge. Buckner,
Preston, Hanson. Helm and Lewis com
manded them and not alone in the staff
ana line, but throughout the rank and
file might be found bearers of the best
names and members of the oldest fami-
lies in this commonwealth. They were
born fighters, and the title to their birth
right has been undisputed for more than
a third of a century.
In the preface 10 his book, THE His
tory Of the Orphan Brigade" Col. Ed.
Porter Thompson writes as follows:
Tattered and Torn.
Coarse, ill-fitting and ragged clothes,
tattered shoes and battered hats; ugly
and cherries surroundings could not Sc
rlously depress and could not at all dis
guise The Intrepid spirits who were as
ready in the almost hopeless days of 1865
to spring to action at a word as they
we're in the first flush of their martial
experience when they had no thought but
that ba'tle meant victory and victory
meant the establishing Of a government
founded indeed and in truth upon the
consent of the governed"
Gen. Joseph f. Johnston once said
there was mo better infantry In the world
than the Kentucky Brigade" In the
winter of 1S63-'64, when Gen. Breckin-
ridge was ordered to Virginia, he applied
to Gen. Johnston for permission to carry
the brigade with him, under promise from
President Davis that a brigade of other
troops should be furnished as an equiv
alent. Johnston replied The President
has no equivalent for it. 1t is the best
brigade in the Confederate army"
Its Record.
tT,o
detail Of Hoods defense the Mobile Ad-
vertiser and Register said: Troops
should have been placed at that point of
whom not the slightest doubt existed. Had
the Kentucky Brigade been there all
would have been safe"
To review the history of the Orphan
Brigade would be to detail, in great part,
the Southeastern campaigns of the Civil
War. From Donelson and Shiloh to Cam
den and Jonesboro the story of the Or
phans is one long chapter of heroism and
bravery. To begin with, the brigade en-
tered service without uniforms or sufi
cient equipment. Not until after Shiloh
were the Kentucky troops fully armed.
When Gen. Breckinridge assumed com
mand the Second, Third and Fourth Reg
iments were partially supplied with Bel
gian rifles. Other regiments had only
small arms or shotguns. Flintlocks and
smooth-bore muskets were
numerous. Some could be fired only by
a match or a firebraud Squirrel rifles
were also abundant. As late as Jan. ,,
1862. complaint was made that the Ninth
only 2i6 serviceable guns be-
sides seventy old fntlockE.
All Sorts of Uniforms.
OF uniforms there was every imaginable
sort. Few were alike in cut or color and
by far the greater number of recruits wore
civilians garb. Falstaff's army was not
more strangely appareed than the host
Of young Southerners at Camp Boone.
But they were terribly in earnest. Sick
ness came TO the camp and hundreds died
Of measles. Exposure carried off many
others. but the survivors lost not a whit
Of their energy. OF such stuff was the
volunteer soldiery of the Confederacy
made, and none but over-powering odds
Of Americans could have whipped such
Americans as these.
In the preliminary skirmishes in South
ern Kentucky the Orphans had a hand.
but their first real baptism of fire came
at Donelson and Shiloh From that time
on the members of the five regiments and
the three batteries lived hard lives and
died glorious deaths
some of Their Battles.
At Shiloh the guns OF Cebbs battery
twice recaptured by the Confederates
George w. johnson, Kentucky's first Con-
ranks, and at Shiloh the raw recruits. the
farmer lads from the fields of Kentucky,
fought like veterans of ten campaigns.
In FOL tNo