The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1903-11-06
BOOK REVIEW BY CAPT. J. R. ROGERS.

The eighteenth publication of the
Ellison Club, club established in
1884 for the purpose of collecting and
preserving the history of Kentucky,
the biography of her citizens and
the traditions of her pioneers, is
<'The Battle of the Thames" by
Colonel Bennett H. Young; John P.
Morton & Co., of Louisville, KY,
publishers.
Gleom, defeat, surrender and mas
sacre were the appalling concomi-
tants which marked the year 1912 in
the war with Great Britain on the
Canadian frontier. The Secretary of
War had called on Governor Scott
for 600 volunteers and they had gal
lantly responded in excess of that
number. The lofty, patriotic spirit
of Kentucky was aroused as never
before and the dauntless determine
tiGn to avenge the blood of kindred
fallen in disaster, but not in dishOnor,
prompted an enthusiastic response
in excess of every call made by the
Government, and to her everlasting
glory be it affirmed that in the cam
paign on the Canadian frontier she
furnished more troops than all the
States, all the Territories and the
United States army combined.
The brains and the Drawn, the
character and chivalry of the State,
under the leadership of brave Isaac
Shelby, then Governor of the State,
the hero of Kings Mountain. the first
overwhelming victory in the South
in Continental annals, assembled at
Newport, KY, and marching across
the State of Ohio, reported to General
Harrison on Portage river Leaving
their horses with the camp guard
excepting Col. r. M. Johnson's regi-
ment) the troops were transported
across Lake Erie and the effort be-
gan TO overtake Proctor and Tecum-
sch on Canadian soil. After forced
marched of an hundred miles the
fleeing British and Indians were
compelled to halt and assume posi-
tion of defense at a point possessing
great natural strength and strategic
advantage. Colonel Young's bril-
liant, eloquent, pathetic words aptly
describe the heroic mission of the
@'Forlorn Hope:"
"There twenty men with Colonel
r.. M. Johnson, under the pioneer,
William Whitley, at once ad-
vanced to the front. At the COM
mand Forward, march!' they
quickly aud calmly rode to death.
They were not unwilling victims to
wars savage sacrifices. They un-
derstood and realized the dangerous
and deadly mission upon which they
were bent. Six hundred comrades
rode behind, but were partially re-
moved from danger.
''Thls noble vanguard was the Gym
Osure of all eyes, and their fellows
watched with almost stilled hearts
to hear the signal guns, which meant
wounding and death to those twenty
men, who were daring so much and
who were ready to receive into their
own hearts and bodies the leaden
hail, which in an instant all knew
must be emitted from the ambush
into which, with open eyes, steady
minds and unblanched cheek, this
gallant band was now so bravely
pushing.
Fifteen hundred savages, with
cooked rifles at their shoulders and
fingers on the triggers, were waiting
and watching only few yards away
behind trees, fallen logs and thick
underbrush, with the silence of as
sassins, longing for the word which
should order them to pour Deaths
missiles into the chivalrous synadron
which, with absolute fearlessness,
was seeking them in their lair. Into
their minds came memories of those
they loved half a thousand miles
away in peaceful Kentucky homes.
Years these heroes lived in the few