Licking Valley courier. [volume] (West Liberty, Ky.) 19??-current, 1913-07-31
CELEBRATION
IN LOUISVILLE
KENTUCKY METROPOLIS WILL
coMMEM oRATE INCIDENTS
IN WAR OF 1912.
HUNDRED YEARS OF PEACE

IiONUIiiD ILHiIO Vi ] khUA
Battles Which Kentuckians Won ant
Massacres in Which They 3uffcre.
VIII BE Reproduced in Flrework'
and Shams on Land and Water.
A weeks celebration, which Louis
Williams declare will be the creates
and most spectacular in the histor.
Of celebrations in America, will b.
held in the Kentucky metropolis 70
seven days, commencing Septembe
20, and will be the climax of q Sc
ries Of celebrations held In a do2e!
lake cities, to commemorate the sui
ferings and victories of American
arms in the War of 1872 as well AZ
to focus attention on the achieve
ments Of a century Of peace. The
crucial and decisive engagement o.
the War of 1872 was the battle of the
Thames, fought and won on Canadian
soil October 8, 1918. The series oi
celebrations, which will be held in
America will closc in Louisville, Octo
Der. D, 1913, and just one hundred
years from the hour that Col. Richard
M. Johnston, afterward Vice President
Of the United States, slew the Indian
chief Tecumseh, President Woodrow
Wilson will probably be addressing a
crowd Of 100000 people in Louisville
the home of many of the troops who
fought in the battle of the Thames.
Kentucky was assigned the closing
and choice date of the celebration
because of the distinguished part
played by the Kentuckians in the War
of 1912. Kentucky began to play her
part in the generation before the war
opened, when she sent Gen. George
Rogers Clark and other Louisville
soldiers into the hostile wilderness
which they wrested from the French
and Indians and out of which was aft
erward carved the great States OF
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and
Michigan.
Kentucky was the last state which
could have benefited from the war, in,
asmuch as 1t was brought about chief.
ly by the British impressment oil
American seamen, none of whom
were Kentuckians, whereas should
war prevail the unfriendly Indians OH
! the frontier of the border states could
be expected to commit atrocities from
which Kentucky had already received
tie name Dark and Bloody Ground -
However, it was chiefly Henry Clay, in
the Kentucky Congressional Delega'
ton that forced President Madison to
declare the second war with Great
Britain, and Kentucky furnished for
ty per cent of hefsfighting population
to go into that war, and at the close
of the war of the listed dead more
than eighty per cent were the names
of Kentuckians. Kentucky troops tc
a man were massacred at the River
Raisin and again at the first attacR
on Fort Meigs.
When the time came to man Perry's
new-hewn ships, he selected Kentuck
ians unaccustomed TO the motion oil
the lakes to mount into the insecure
rigging and from that vantage. point
with their practiced eye and unerrins
aim, fred down upon the British and
won the battle of Lake Erie. Prac
tlcally every officer and soldier In the
battle of the Thames was a Kentucll
ian, excepting alone Gen. William
| IInWpfgnn hn h,1
his commission as Major-General from
the Kentucky legislature. The charge
Of the Forlorn Hope, about the brief
est, most terrible and most heroic at
tack narrated in the annals of war
fare. consisted exclusively of Ken
lucky soldiers when nineteen of then
and their twenty horses went dow
to certain death. 1t was the Ken
tucky sharpshooters who are credite,
with having won the battle of Ney
Orleans after the war had in realit
closed
Kentucky proposes to reproduc
, most Of these scenes of the war O
1912 In the Louisville celebration. Tn
battle of the Thames will be repro
duced on land in Cherokee Park, t
geographically situated similar to tn
land on which was fought the battl
OF the Thames, and every detail Q
the sham battle will be as nearl
historically correct as can be done
Louisville will take advantage of he
magnificent river frontage, in orde
to celebrate suitably the battle @
Lake Erie. The actual battle will b
depicted in gorgeous entertainment
of fireworks and all morning and a
afternoon preceding the engagement
there will be boat races, life savin
feats and aquatic sports. A historics
pageant, depicting various scenes c
y the war of 1912 will also include
magnificent floral parade, such a
made Louisville famous year az,
and will include civic and mllitar
parades many miles in length, Dill
- and exercises by 10000 costume
school children will be held in ii
First Regiment Armory; mammo,
2 reception will be given to the descen
ents of Kentucky soldiers and sailor
of the war of 1912, and series
costumed balls will he given in the
honor.
= Exceedingly low railroad rate
probably as low as one cent per mil
from a distance of several hundrt
miles of Louisville, will be granite
and efforts are being made to secuI
to other Kentucky points rates fro
Louisville for the week immediate
following the celebration, to enab
former Kentucklans who return hon
b to visit the celebration, to visit ali
their Old kentucky homes.