and New Jersey, and at the last session of the Federal Con gress had distinguished himself by his extreme views of the subjugation of the South, and its reduction to a "territorial” condition. He was a man of many accomplishments, of more than ordinary gifts of eloquence, and, outside of his political associations, was respected for his bravery, chivalry, and address.

Our loss in the action of Leesburg, out of a force of 1,709 men, was 153 in killed and wounded. The loss of the enemy was 1,300 killed, wounded, and drowned; 710 prisoners captured, among them twenty-two commissioned officers; besides 1,500 stand of arms and three pieces of cannon taken. This brilliant victory was achieved on our side by the musket alone, over an enemy who never ventured to emerge from the cover, or to expose himself to an artillery fire.

The battle of Leesburg was followed by no important consequences on the Potomac. It was a brilliant and dramatic incident; it adorned our arms; and it showed a valor, a demonstration of which, on a grander scale and in larger numbers, might easily have re-enacted on a new field the scenes of Manassas. But, like the Manassas victory, that of Leesburg bore no fruits but those of a confidence on the part of the South, which was pernicious, because it was overweening and inactive, and a contempt for its enemy, which was injurious, in proportion as it exceeded the limits of truth and justice, and reflected the self-conceits of fortune.

CHAPTER VII.

The Position and Policy of Kentucky in the War.-Kentucky Chivalry.-Reminiscences of the "Dark and Bloody Ground."-Protection of the Northwest by Kentucky. How the Debt of Gratitude has been repaid.-A Glance at the Hartford Convention.-The Gubernatorial Canvass of 1859 in Kentucky.-Division of Parties.Other Causes for the Disloyalty of Kentucky.-The "Pro-Slavery and Union" Resolutions. The "State Guard."-General Buckner.-The Pretext of "Neutrality," and what it meant.-The Kentucky Refugees.-A Reign of Terror.-Judge Monroe in Nashville.—Ģeneral Breckinridge.-Occupation of Columbus by General Polk.—The Neutrality of Kentucky first broken by the North.-General Buckner at Bowling Green.-Camp "Dick Robinson."-The "Home Guard.”—The Occupation of Columbus by the Confederates explained.—Cumberland Gap.-General Zollicoffer's Proclamation. The Affair of Barboursville.-"The Wild-Cat Stampede."-The Virginia and Kentucky Border.-The Affair of Piketon.-Suffering of our Troops at Pound Gap. The "Union Party" in East Tennessee.-Keelan, the Hero of Strawberry Plains.-The Situation on the Waters of the Ohio and Tennessee.--THE BATTLE OF BELMONT.-Weakness of our Forces in Kentucky.--General Albert Sidney Johnston.Inadequacy of his Forces at Bowling Green.-Neglect and Indifference of the Confederate Authorities.-A Crisis imminent.-Admission of Kentucky into the Southern Confederacy.

IF, a few months back, any one had predicted that in an armed contest between the North and the South, the State of Kentucky would be found acting with the former, and abetting and assisting a war upon States united with her by community of institutions, of interests, and of blood, he would, most probably, in any Southern company in which such a speech was adventured, have been hooted at as a fool, or chastised as a slanderer. The name of Kentucky had been synonymous with the highest types of Southern chivalry; her historical record was adorned by the knightly deeds, the hardy adventures, the romantic courage of her sons; and Virginia had seen the State which she had peopled with the flower of her youth grow up, not only to the full measure of filial virtue, but with the ornament, it was thought, of even a prouder and bolder spirit than flowed in the blood of the Old Dominion.

War discovers truths in the condition of society which would never otherwise have been known. It often shows a spirit of devotion where it has been least expected; it decides the claims

of superior patriotism and superior courage often in favor of communities which have laid less claim to these qualities than others; and it not infrequently exposes disloyalty, rottenness, or apathy on the part of those who had formerly superior reputation for attachment to the cause which they are found to desert or to assail.

It is not to be supposed for a moment, that while the posi tion of Kentucky, like that of Maryland, was one of reproach, it is to mar the credit due to that portion of the people of each, who, in the face of instant difficulties, and at the expense of extraordinary sacrifices, repudiated the decision of their States to remain under the Federal government, and expatriated themselves, that they might espouse the cause of liberty in the South. The honor due such men is in fact increased by the consideration that their States remained in the Union, and compelled them to fly their homes, that they might testify their devotion to the South and her cause of independence. Still, the justice of history must be maintained. The demonstrations of sympathy with the South on the part of the States referred to-Maryland and Kentucky-considered either in proportion to what was offered the Lincoln government by these States, or with respect to the numbers of their population, were sparing and exceptional; and although these demonstrations on the part of Kentucky, from the great and brilliant names associated with them, were perhaps even more honorable and more useful than the examples of Southern spirit offered by Maryland, it is unquestionably, though painfully true, that the great body of the people of Kentucky were the active allies of Lincoln, and the unnatural enemies of those united to them by lineage, blood, and common institutions.

A brief review of some of the most remarkable circumstances in the history of Kentucky is not inappropriate to the subject of the existing war.

Kentucky has been denominated "the Dark and Bloody Ground" of the savage aborigines. It never was the habitation of any nation or tribe of Indians; but from the period of the earliest aboriginal traditions to the appearance of the whit man on its soil, Kentucky was the field of deadly conflict between the Northern and Southern warriors of the forest.

When, shortly after the secession of the American colonies

from the British empire, this contested land was penetrated by the bold adventurous white men of Carolina and Virginia, who constituted the third party for dominion, its title of the "Dark and Bloody Ground" was appropriately continued. And when, after the declaration of American independence, Great Brit ain, with a view to the subjugation of the United States, formed an alliance with the Indian savages, and assigned to them the conduct of the war upon all our western frontier, the territory of Kentucky became still more emphatically the Dark and Bloody Ground. Nor did the final treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States bring peace to Kentucky. The government of Great Britain failed to fulfil its obligations to surrender the western posts from which their savage allies had been supplied with the munitions of war, but still held them, and still supplied the Indians with arms and ammunition, inciting them to their murderous depredations upon the western border.

This hostile condition continued in Kentucky until the celebrated treaty of Jay, and the final victory over the savage enemy achieved by General Wayne, and the consequent treaty of peace which he concluded with them in 1795. By this treaty of peace, the temple of Janus was closed in Kentucky for the first time in all her history and tradition.

The battles in these wars with the savage enemy were not all in Kentucky, nor were they for the defence of the territory of her people only, but chiefly for the defence of the inhabitants of Ohio, who were unable to protect themselves against their barbarous foes. How this debt has been paid by the descendants of these Ohio people, the ravages of the existing war sufficiently demonstrate.

Peace was continued in Kentucky for about twenty years. There were commotions and grand enterprises which we cannot even mention here. But they were all terminated by the purchase of Louisiana by Mr. Jefferson in 1803. The ratification of the treaty by which this vast southern and western dominion was acquired at the price of fifteen millions of dollars, was opposed by the Northern politicians, whose descendants now seek to subjugate the people of the South, at the cost of a thousand millions of dollars, and of a monstrous, unnatural, and terrible expenditure of blood.

In the war of 1812 with Great Britain, the surrender of Hull having exposed the Michigan Territory and all the northern border of Ohio to the invasion of the British and the savages, who were now again the allies of that government, Kentucky sent forth her volunteers for the defence of her assailed Northern neighbors; and when so many of her gallant sons were sacrificed upon the bloody plains of Raisin, the Legislature of Kentucky requested the governor of the State to take the field, and at the head of his volunteer army to go forth and drive back the enemy. The request was promptly complied with. It was the army of Kentucky that expelled the savages from all Ohio and Michigan, and pursuing them into Canada, achieved over them and the British upon the Thames a victory more important than had been yet won upon land in that war, thus giving peace and security to Ohio and all the northwestern territory, whose people were confessedly powerless for their own defence.

In

It is these people, protected by the arms and early chivalry of Kentucky, who have now made her soil the Dark and Bloody Ground of an iniquitous civil war, waged not only upon a people bearing the common name of American citizens, but upon the eternal and sacred principles of liberty itself. these references to the early history of Kentucky we must be brief. In indicating, however, the lessons of rebuke they give to the North with respect to the existing war, we must not omit to mention that in the war of 1812, in which Kentucky covered herself with such well-deserved and lasting glory, the New England States stood with the enemy, and the body of their politicians had resolved upon negotiation with Great Britain for a separate peace, and had, in fact, appointed a Convention to be assembled at Hartford, to carry into effect what would have been virtually a secession from the United States, and the assumption of neutrality between the belligerents, if not an alliance with the public enemy. These facts are not fully recorded in history, but they might be well collected from the public documents and journals of the day. Indeed, they are well known to men yet living in our land. The schemes of the New England traitors were defeated only by the battle of Orleans, and the consequent treaty of peace. Upon the happening of these events, the conspirators abandoned their