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Bowling Green, December 1861
Camp Near Bowling Green,
December 2, 1861.
Editors, Courier Journal:
Our Regiment (the 2d), together with the Third and Fourth Kentucky, the
First Kentucky Cavalry, and Lyon’s Artillery, under command of Brig.
Gen.
Breckinridge, left our camp at this place on Sunday, the 17th ult., for
the purpose of meeting the Yankees, who, it was reported, had crossed the
river at Rochester, Butler County, and was advancing on Russellville,
under the traitor Crittenden. In consequence of the roads being very bad,
almost impassable, we traveled quite slowly. The boys who had been penned
up here in camp for weeks past, were glad to again get out to the
country,
and joyous at the prospect of trying their trusty rifles upon the
scoundrels who would overrun and lay waste our country. As we passed
through Warren and Logan, we received the welcome shouts of the quiet
farmers, who still remained upon their farms, and the cheering smiles of
their fair daughters. The old farm houses looked cheerful, and nothing
was
wanting to fill up the picture of rural life. The frosty mornings, the
saddened tone of the wind, brought to mind memories and fond
recollections
of the past, and spoke of hopes and joyous anticipations, that like the
leaves had faded and fallen.
On Monday we passed through Shakertown, where live the 'gentlemen of
peace,' who, surrounded by every luxury of life, neither feel nor
understand the importance of the agitating movements that are daily
transpiring around them, but with the true spirit of their ancestors,
pursue daily avocations as if nothing had transpired, and all was yet
peace. These good people will neither sell or give to the soldiers, who
are protecting their homes, but claim to be perfectly neutral. As our
little army passed through their streets, both sexes gathered in squads,
and in their curious and peculiar way wished us success.
Wednesday we passed through Russellville, which, like Bowling Green, is
filled with refugees, who have been compelled to flee from their homes in
Northern Kentucky. After hard walking over a rough and muddy road, we
pitched our tents at Rochester, on Sunday evening, and found, as we might
have expected, that the Yankees had recrossed the river and fled,
fearing,
I suppose, that "Buckner's Indians" were after them, and that
they would
spring upon and scalp them ere they could fly the country.
Butler county is almost solely inhabited by Lincolnites, and indeed it
seems a fitting place for such creatures. Where you find an educated and
reading man, nine times out of ten he is Southern in sentiment, but dare
not express himself. One lady told us that her husband had been driven
from his home, and she and her daughters were daily insulted, and she
feared when we left her house would be burned over her head.
Finding it impossible to meet the Yankees, we broke up our camp at
Rochester on Tuesday, and took the road back toward Bowling Green, where
we arrived yesterday and pitched our tents, being out just two weeks. But
very few of our men fell back on account of sickness. The men stood up
well and are fresh and eager for another tramp.
The Lincolnites had plundered and robbed every house in and around
Rochester, paying no more respect to Union men than to Southern. They had
stolen everything that fell in their way.
Our regiment, numbering eight hundred and ninety fighting men,
deserves, as do all the others, the highest praise for the manner in
which
the officers and men conducted themselves during the entire march.
General
Breckinridge's brigade is one of the finest in the service, and the boys
but ask an opportunity to show themselves worthy of the cause in which
they are engaged.
J.L.W.
(from the Louisville Daily Courier, Dec. 6, 1861;
NOTES:
This letter was probably written by James L. White, 1st Sgt., Co. G
("Hamilton Guards"), 2nd Kentucky Infantry. It recounts one of
the first
"campaigns" of the Orphan Brigade.
Lyon’s Artillery was the First
Kentucky Artillery, later known as Cobb’s Battery. The abbreviation
"ult."
in the first paragraph stands for "ultimo," meaning
"last"; that is, the
17th last, or November 17th. The "traitor Crittenden" was Col.
Thomas L.
Crittenden, US Army (his brother George was a General in the Confederate
Army).
The Shakertown referred to was South Union, Kentucky -- an enclave
community for members of the United Society of Believers, or Shaker,
religion. Along with their brethren at Pleasant Hill (near Harrodsburg),
the pacifist Shakers maintained a precarious neutrality during the Civil
War, openly helping neither side except when forced to.
"Buckner’s Indians" was a sobriquet applied to Kentucky
Confederate units
by Unionist newspapers in the state. The Confederates turned the tables
and made maximum use of the name themselves. Some
of the Orphan Brigade
units reported after Shiloh that captured Federal soldiers were actually
convinced that the Kentuckians were real Indians, and would scalp them.
(see "Army Reminiscences," Jackman Journal, Library of
Congress, p. 198)
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