6. “John Boyd, Maj. Gen. U.C.V,” 121.
7. Lexington Herald, April 15, 1918.
8. Confederate Veteran Association of Kentucky, “Constitution,” Special Collections, Kentucky History Center, Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort (hereafter KyHS).
9. Lexington Leader, March 20, 1892.
10. For brief histories of the founding of the United Confederate Veterans and its grassroots origins, see Foster, Ghosts of the Confederacy, and W. W. White, The Confederate Veteran.
11. “United Confederate Veteran Camps,” ConVet 1, no. 3 (March 1893): 85; and “U.C.V. Camps,” ConVet 2, no. 3 (March 1894): 94.
12. For an early history of the Kentucky UCV, see “History of U.C.V. of Kentucky,” ConVet 1, no. 11 (November 1893): 340.
13. Lexington Leader, March 20, 1892.
14. Lexington Leader, June 1, 1893.
15. C-J, September 20, 1889.
16. Kinkead, A History of Kentucky; Deiss, “Thirteen Stars—Thirteen States,” 7.
17. Thirty years later Mrs. John B. Castleman still seethed as she recalled her treatment during wartime at a Federal checkpoint. Mrs. Castleman and her sister, both girls barely into their teens, were stopped while trying to return to their home on the outskirts of Louisville. The Union officer in charge of the checkpoint refused them passage and took the children into custody, where they were interrogated as possible spies. Only the intervention of a family friend prevented the frightened girls from being jailed and held for charges when they refused to take a Union loyalty oath. C-J, September 9, 1895.
18. From a speech by Louisville mayor Charles D. Jacob at an Orphan Brigade reunion, C-J, September 20, 1889.
19. “Our Dead at Lexington, Kentucky,” ConVet 4, no. 3 (March 1896): 89.
20. Ironically, a year later the Women's Auxiliary to the Confederate Veterans Association would threaten to boycott Confederate Decoration Day if Breckinridge were allowed to attend. The “silver-tongued orator” had been caught in a messy affair with a woman young enough to be his granddaughter. In the twelve months following his speech at the dedication, Breckinridge would lose a $15,000 breach-of-promise lawsuit, reelection to the House, and most of his reputation. Lexington Leader, May 23, 1894.
21. The memorial ritual remained the same, year after year. See Lexington Press, May 27, 1894, and Sunday Leader, June 6, 1897.
22. This treatment of battlefield dead was not unusual. See Faust, This Republic of Suffering.
23. Bennett Young tells the Dorothea Burton story in “Dedication of Zollicoffer Monument,” ConVet 18, no. 12 (December 1910).
24. Blair, Cities of the Dead, sees memorialization as an act of resistance against a Federal occupation. For a description of Decoration Day in Louisville, see “The Lesson of Decoration Day,” Southern Bivouac 1, no. 9-10 (May–June 1883): 390.
25. Cynthiana Democrat, May 28, 1929.
26. Peter, History of Fayette County, Kentucky, 616. Also, social club news and announcements in Lexington newspapers, 1885 to 1905, demonstrate the breadth of Adeline Graves's club activities.
27. “One Hundred Years Old,” ConVet 5, no. 6 (June 1897): 254-255.
28. “History of U.C.V. of Kentucky,” ConVet 1, no. 3 (November 1893): 340.
29. C-J, September 19, 1889.
30. On the organization of the UDC, see Poppenheim, History of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The quotations are from ibid., 4, 7.
31. Lexington Leader, March 23, 1896. Also “United Confederate Daughters,” ConVet 4, no. 1 (January 1896): 22; and Lexington Herald, April 15, 1918.
32. “Kentucky,” ConVet 4, no. 12 (December 1896): 408.
3. The Boat Captain and the Bank Robber
1. The account of the meeting between Daniel Parr and Bennett Young that opens and closes this chapter comes from C-J, April 19, 1901; “Home for Disabled Confederates,” The Lost Cause 4, no. 9 (April 1901): 131; and Mt. Sterling (Ky.) Advocate, April 30, 1901. Bennett Young is quoted extensively in the C-J account.
2. Duke, History of Morgan's Cavalry, and Young, Reminiscences of a Soldier of the Orphan Brigade.
3. Georgetown (Ky.) Weekly Times, July 13, 1881.
4. Georgetown (Ky.) Weekly Times, November 30, 1881.
5. “Taps,” Bivouac 1, no. 1 (September 1882): 36; and untitled article in Southern Historical Society Papers 11, no. 8-9 (August–September 1883): 432.
6. A Boyd County newspaper editor grumbled about the state's refusal to provide financial support: “The sum required would not affect the taxpayers … any more than the weight of a feather would check the speed of a horse,” he wrote. Catlettsburg (Ky.) Democrat, quoted in Georgetown (Ky.) Weekly Times, November 30, 1881.
7. Georgetown (Ky.) Weekly Times, November 14, 1883.
8. The best study of the Confederate soldiers’ homes in the states of the Southern Confederacy (and the schemes that financed them) is Rosenburg, Living Monuments.
9. “The Blue and the Gray,” Southern Bivouac 2, no. 9 (May 1884): 431.
10. ConVet 6, no. 3 (March 1898): 156-157.
11. ConVet 30, no. 1 (January 1923): 48.
12. Plante, “National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers,” 57-59.
13. “Confederates in Kentucky,” ConVet 5, no. 5 (May 1897): 209.
14. During an oration entitled “Reconciliation,” Bennett Young would hold up to the crowd a bullet-ridden old gray jacket, which he would then slowly and reverently fold and put away as he recited a familiar Confederate poem: “Fold it up carefully, / Lay it aside; / Tenderly touch it, / Look on it with pride.” “Confederate Memorial, Columbus, O.,” ConVet 3, no. 9 (September 1897): 455-456.
15. C-J, January 12, 1898.
16. Bennett H. Young was an extraordinary part of Kentucky politics, commerce, jurisprudence, and popular culture during the twenty years either side of 1900, and it's surprising that he is largely forgotten today. The information here was drawn mainly from Kinchen, General Bennett H. Young, a hagiographic, but the only existing, book-length biography. He is, however, listed in many biographical compilations, and I have consulted Johnson, History of Kentucky; Johnston, Memorial History of Louisville; LaBree, Notable Men of Kentucky and Press Reference Book; H. Levin, Lawyers and Lawmakers; and Seekamp and Burlingame, Who's Who in Louisville. See also McAfee, Kentucky Politicians; and City of Louisville and a Glimpse of Kentucky. Young was a fascinating figure, and he deserves a full-length, critical biography.
17. Edward G. Longacre, “Terror Strikes the Northern Heartland,” Civil War Times 42, no. 3 (August 2003): 36.
18. My account of the St. Albans raid comes primarily from Wilson, “The Hit-and-Run Raid.” (Unfortunately, Wilson changes Young's middle name to “Hiram.”) For contrasts, see Harris, Assassination of Lincoln, which seethes with Union rage over the Vermont raid, and Headley, Confederate Operations in Canada and New York, which tries to justify it militarily. Kinchen's Daredevils of the Confederate Army is good for contemporary readers who wish to know more about the strategic and political contexts of the raid.
19. J. L. Driscol, “Capture of St. Albans, Vt.,” ConVet 5, no. 2 (February 1897): 74-75.
20. Kinchen, General Bennett H. Young, 79-80.
21. For more on Young, see Evans, Confederate Military History.
22. Untitled article, ConVet 2, no. 8 (August 1894): 251.
23. “The Sun Shines Bright,” ConVet 4, no. 10 (October 1896): 325-330; and “Delightful Reunion at Nashville,” ConVet 4, no. 11 (November 1896): 261-265.
24. For a description of Missouri's scheme, see “History of the Missouri Confederate Home,” ConVet 1, no. 5 (November 1893): 147; for Kentucky's emulation of the scheme, see Lexington Leader, October 17, 1901.
25. C-J, January 18, 1898, and “Confederate Home Wanted in Kentucky,” ConVet 6, no. 2 (February 1898): 38.
26. C-J, November 19, 1898; and “Daughters of the Confederacy in Kentucky,” ConVet 6, no. 12 (December 1898): 553.
27. “Louisville Wants Reunion Ne
xt Year,” ConVet 6, no. 4 (April 1898): 158.
28. The text of the speech is printed in “Reunion News,” ConVet 7, no. 6 (June 1899): 251. See also C-J, July 12, 1899.
29. “Reunion,” ConVet 18, no. 6 (June 1910): 259-261.
30. W. W. White, The Confederate Veteran, 64; and Bourbon News, February 9, 1900.
31. “The Louisville Reunion: Address by Col. B. H. Young, Chairman,” ConVet 8, no. 6 (June 1900): 244-247.
32. Kirwan, Johnny Green, 206-207.
33. This biographical information comes from Parr's expansive obituary in C-J, January 20, 1904. During the bitter probate litigation that followed his death, however, it was revealed that Parr was probably from an Italian-American family named “Parero.” He got his start as a riverbank barkeep and huckster before entering the shipping business. See Kentucky Irish American, April 9, 1904.
34. C-J, October 23, 1902.
35. Donation of the bells to Walnut Street Baptist Church: C-J, October 5, 1902. Endowment of Parr's Rest: Louisville Times, December 5, 1914.
36. For more about Virginia Marmaduke Parr Sale, see Seekamp and Burlingame, Who's Who in Louisville.
37. Indenture accompanying the deed transferring ownership of Parr's Chestnut property to the ex-Confederates. C-J, April 19, 1901.
4. The Auditor and the Stockman
1. Evans, Confederate Military History, 389-390.
2. For biographical information about Hewitt, see Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts History, www.auditor.ky.gov/Public/About_Us/APA_ History.asp; and “Gen. Fayette Hewitt,” ConVet 17, no. 4 (April 1909): 177. The stories of the embezzlement and Hewitt's resignation are told in Dallas (Tex.) News, March 23, 1888, and November 21, 1889.
3. Lexington Leader, February 5, 1896, and Lexington Herald, February 7, 1896.
4. Lexington Leader, May 23, 1901.
5. “Maj. Gen. J. M. Poyntz, Richmond, Ky.,” ConVet 7, no. 11 (November 1899): 493.
6. Crichton, America 1900, 53-57. For a wry take on Goebel, the assassination, and the aftermath by a reporter who covered the events, see Cobb, Exit Laughing, 242-261.
7. Kleber, Kentucky Encyclopedia.
8. C-J, October 22, 1901.
9. For a description of the meeting, including all the speeches quoted here (unless otherwise noted), see C-J, October 23, 1901.
10. Judge R. H. Cunningham's entire speech is reprinted in ConVet 8, no. 1 (January 1902).
11. Owingsville (Ky.) Outlook, March 19, 1903, and October 10, 1908; Lexington Leader, February 24, 1912.
12. Mt. Sterling (Ky.) Advocate, November 19, 1901.
13. For verbal pledges and optimistic estimates of financial support, see Lexington Leader, October 17, 1901, C-J, October 23, 1901, and Bourbon (Ky.) News, January 17, 1902.
14. Bourbon (Ky.) News, November 15, 1901.
15. “A Home in Kentucky,” Lost Cause 5, no. 5 (December 1901); and Minutes of the Sixth Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1902, KyHS.
16. There is little evidence that Union veterans provided large amounts of money, but Kentucky's ex-Confederate fundraisers delighted in showcasing contributions from their former foes as a way of emphasizing the nonpartisan nature of their effort. A dubious claim that the first subscription came from a Union veteran who lost his arm in battle against Kentuckians at Franklin, Tennessee, was dutifully reported in newspapers across the state. Bourbon (Ky.) News, December 6, 1901.
17. See Journals of the Kentucky House and Senate, 1902.
18. Hickman (Ky.) Courier, February 14, 1902.
19. Lexington Leader, January 19, 1902, and Richmond (Ky.) Climax, January 15, 1902.
20. The nay vote was cast by Republican Robert G. Hanna of Lewis County. Fleming's quote is from Lancaster (Ky.) Central Record, February 27, 1902.
21. Board of Trustees, Minutes, May 6, 1902, KyHS (hereafter, Minutes).
22. From an undated typewritten sheet, “Statement of Resources in Sight for Confederate Home,” KyHS. See also “Confederate Home in Kentucky,” Lost Cause 7, no. 2 (September 1902): 23.
23. Lexington Leader, February 26, 1902.
24. Minutes, July 2, 1902.
25. Lexington Leader, February 26, 1902.
26. C-J, May 19, 1902.
27. Subscription Ledger, May 31, 1902, KyHS.
28. Minutes, July 2, 1902.
29. Minutes, July 30, 1902.
30. Minutes, September 4, 1902.
31. C-J and Lexington Leader, September 5, 1902.
32. News of the protests, including all quotes by Pewee Valley residents, is in C-J, September 6, 1902.
33. Hickman (Ky.) Courier, September 12, 1902.
34. Letter from J. E. Vincent to Fayette Hewitt, September 13, 1902, KyHS.
35. Bourbon (Ky.) News, October 3, 1902.
36. Richmond (Ky.) Climax, September 25, 1902.
37. For more on the Dukes, see C-J, October 21, 1906; and L. McF. Blakemore, “Mrs. Basil W. Duke,” ConVet 17, no. 12 (December 1909): 610. See also Matthews, Basil Wilson Duke, and Duke, Reminiscences.
38. The minutes of the board from October 2 show that the trustees accepted and deposited the chapter's $1,000 (and even discussed scheduling the chapter's reception), but the minutes are equally clear that the money was returned. (See Minutes, October 2 and 24, 1902.) For the next twenty years, however, the Albert Sidney Johnston Chapter would contend that their last-minute donation of $1,000 “made the Confederate Home possible.” See C-J, March 30, 1919, and Charlotte Woodbury's letter to the editor, C-J, February 15, 1932.
39. Letter from A. W. Bascom to Fayette Hewitt, September 22, 1902, KyHS.
5. The Governor and the Prisoner
1. The description of the opening of the Kentucky Confederate Home, including all speeches and quotations (except where noted) are from C-J, October 23-26, 1902; Louisville Commercial, October 24, 1902; “The Sun Shines Bright on the Old Kentucky Home,” Lost Cause 7, no. 3 (October 1902): 43-45; and “The Kentucky Confederate Home,” ConVet 8, no. 12 (December 1902): 558-560; and 9, no. 1 (January 1903): 15-16.
2. Other Confederate veterans’ homes weren't as ecumenical. The Louisiana soldier's home, known as Camp Nicholls, didn't allow a U.S. flag to fly overhead from the time the home opened in 1884 until 1912. See New York Times, July 6, 1912.
3. This and later quotations from Holloway in prison are from Ainsworth and Kirkley, The War of the Rebellion, 421.
4. For conditions at Fort Delaware, see Sturgis, Prisoners of War, 186–165, 275-276.
5. The New York Times, November 2, 1902, was skeptical about Beckham's chances for reelection; and the Lexington Leader, April 9, 1902, speculated that Young would run against Beckham in the primary.
6. The New York Times, September 14, 1903, notes that Beckham's reelection might be decided by the ex-Confederate vote.
7. Though the newspaper reporter says the veterans marched “under the Stars and Bars,” they more likely carried a version of the Confederate Battle Flag, the red flag with a diagonal cross of blue bars and white stars on the blue. The battle flag was adopted as a copyrighted emblem of the United Confederate Veterans. For clear illustrations of the different Confederate flags and their history, see Cannon, Flags of the Confederacy. For more about how the veterans viewed their flags, see Historical Sketch Explanatory of Memorial or Certificate of Membership in U.C.V's.
8. Letter from Mary Bascom to “Cousin Anna,” October 27, 1902, Filson.
9. H. Levin, Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, 54.
10. For information on Ellis, see Evans, Confederate Military History, and online at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (http://bioguide.congress.gov).
11. New York Times, June 12, 1902.
12. During the previous presidential campaign, candidate William Jennings Bryan made seventeen hour-long speeches in one day while traveling from Indianapolis to Louisville, addressing more than 100,000 people. See Bourbon (Ky.) News, October 10, 1900.
13. Clift, Governors of K
entucky.
6. The Druggist and the Sheriff
1. Handwritten petition to Capt. S. H. Ford, February 4, 1903, Filson.
2. Hay and Appleton, Roadside History, 126, 223, 75.
3. Vertical files at the KyHS Library include an unidentified, undated clipping of a bylined article by Louisville civic leader and columnist Adele Brandeis describing her family's summer vacation at Villa Ridge Inn.
4. Interestingly, Bennett H. Young knew something about operating a resort hotel. He and Walter N. Haldeman were active investors in the Crab Orchard Springs Resort in Lincoln County in the 1880s. See City of Louisville and a Glimpse of Kentucky, 146.
5. C-J, October 16, 1895.
6. C-J, September 6, 1902.
7. Biographical information on Salem H. Ford from “Maj. S. H. Ford, Maj. Gen. Pontz's Staff, Kentucky Division, M.C.V,” Lost Cause 4, no. 4 (November 1900): 21; History of Daviess County, 225, 364, 393, 403–405; Edwards, Shelby and His Men, 149–150; and Ford, “Reminiscences,” typewritten manuscript, Filson.
8. Ford's descriptions of the preparatory work are in C-J, September 11, 1902, and October 23, 1902.
9. An untitled ledger book in KyHS includes a list of gifts given to the Home during its first year of operation. On the hogshead of tobacco, see Bourbon (Ky.) News, January 9, 1903.
10. For the fern, see letter from Mary Bascom to “Cousin Anna,” October 27, 1902, Filson; the other gifts are described in C-J, October 23 and 24, 1902.
11. Letter from Commandant Coleman to the Tom Barrett Chapter, UDC, Ghent, August 18, 1903, Filson.
12. C-J, January 27, 1903.
13. Though the application form changed slightly over the years, the required information described in the text that follows remained consistent.
14. Quotations here and following are from the Home's application form, many of which are on file at KDLA.
15. Minutes, October 24, 1902. The quotation is from the standard form acceptance letter; thanks to Susan Reedy for showing me a copy of the acceptance letter received by her great-grandfather, John T. Jones.
16. Register of Inmates Received, KyHS.
My Old Confederate Home Page 30
