2 - April 18, 2013 Your Hometown Newspaper News Outlook
Heaven Is
A Lot Like
By Charles Mattox
"1 am now attempting
to write from this Look-
out Mountain, one of the
most picturesque as well
as interesting places on
the American continent.
Near by and round about
here some of the greatest
episodes in the world's his-
tory transpired near the
close of that eventful year,
1863.
Chickamauga, Lookout
Mountain, Missionary
Ridge, where the lives of
sixty-five thousand Ameri-
cans were either destroyed
or more or less wrecked.
A feeling of philosophy
and awe prompts me to
ask why all this great sac-
rifice of human life, mis-
ery and suffering?
Was the Great God that
made man now looking on
this awfulscene of carnage
and woe again repenting
that He had made wicked,
rebellious and murderous
man; or was it a part of
His omnipotent plan for
man's inherent folly and
wickedness driving him to
destroy his fellowman ?
Whatever it was it seems
to have been accomplished
here amid these towering
mountains.
But so it was and I, one
insignificant actor in the
grand drama, am stiU per-
mitred to live and recount
some of the thrilling scenes
as they were enacted."
Lot Dudley Young, on
his visit to Chickamauga
in May of 1912, as it ap-
pears in his book "Remi-
niscences of a soldier of
the Orphan Brigade."
I'he brigade was ac-
tively engaged with the
enemy when the sad news
was received on the 29th
day of April, 1865, near
Statesboro, S. C that
both Lee and Johnston had
surrendered, that the Con-
federate Government was
overthrown, and its flag,
embalmed in the tears of
the South, was furled for-
ever. Our brigade - that is,
what little of it was left -
was serving as mounted
infantry on the Santee
river in South Carolina
engaged in battle when
the order came from Gen.
Joseph E. Johnston, com-
manding the department,
putting an end to hostili-
ties. Immediately, a truce
was sounded, yet George
Doyle, a member of Com-
pany A, Ninth regiment,
heeded it not, but mounted
his horse, and rode down
single handed against the
Federal lines of infantry,
and perished. I think I am
therefore authorized in
stating that George Doyle
AN
was the last Confederate
soldier to lose his life on
the field of battle - at least
east of the Mississippi riv-
er- in our Civil war."
John S. Jackman, as he
is quoted in the 5 Sept.
1894 issue of the Lou-
isville Courier-Journal
newspaper, and miscel-
laneous clippings in Jack-
man's Journal, Library of
Congress.
I love reading and al-
ways have.
My book collection is
immense and the variety
of topics confined within
my bound volumes is var-
ied, though I do admit I
have a weakness for his-
tory books and anything
on archaeology. Those
are my favorite subjects.
Next to my work sta-
tion at home, I keep
myself surrounded by
books on archaeology
and Native American top-
ics. Next to my computer
is my King James Bible,
given to me by members
of the Mt. Carmel Bible
Bowl Team in 1980. My
desk at the Gazette office
typically holds 'Tne Life
of Daniel Boone," by Pro-
fessor Ted Franklin Be-
he and excerpted from
the Lyman Draper Man-
uscripts. Nearby I always
keep an original "Remi-
niscences of a Soldier
of the Orphan Brigade,"
By Lt. Lot D. Young. I re-
main in complete awe of
the actions of the soldiers
who were part of the Or-
phan Brigade.
NINA
Young was barely
20-year-old when the
American Civil war
erupted. He had been a
member of the militia of
Bourbon and Nicholas
County and his unit The
Flat Rock Grays, quickly
became Company H,
Fourth Battalion, First
Infantry DMsion, Ken-
tucky, Confederate States
of America.
The unit was approxi-
mately 4,500 men strong
when they went into bat-
fie for the first time on
April 6, 1862 at Shiloh.
In April three years later
when they surrendered,
a full three weeks after
General Robert E. Lee's
Army of Virginia surren-
dered, they numbered
scarcely 529, but were
acknowledged by both
armies as being among
the best disciplined and
ferocious to ever enter
battle.
I can still feel the ex-
citement of that first bat-
fie when I read Young's
words.
"We had hardly fired
the second volley, when
the sharp, shrill voice of
Major Monroe rang out
amid the roar and din of
Battle to 'Fix Bayonets'
and the command was
repeated by the company
commanders," Young
wrote about years later in
the book "Reminiscences
of a soldier of the Orphan
Brigade," while detailing
the glorious victory the
orphans enjoyed that first
day of battle at Shiloh.
Young and his fellow
.soldiers pushed back and
forth against the Union
Army of General Grant
until hostilities ended as
the first day of battle fad-
ed with the dusk.
Young, like the rest
of the Confederate sol-
diers waited for the final
charge, to overwhelm
the demoralized Union
Army, as the Confeder-
ates had routed their
foes in the waning hofirs
of the day, but the order
never came and the op-
portunity for total victory
was lost as 33,000 Union
soldiers reinforced the
Union Army that night.
The second day of
battle, just beyond the
Shiloh Church, would be
disastrous for the Con-
federates. Young and the
4th would face their fel-
low Kentuckians and the
rest of the Union Army.
It would be the men of
the First Kentucky Infan-
try Brigade; The Orphan
Brigade, who would hold
the line as the rest of the
Confederate Army re--
treated into the neighbor-
ing town of Corinth.
The Orphans lost near-
ly half of their men on
that second day, and the
exultation felt by them af-
ter the first day of victory
was crushed with sorrow
after the second day's
defeat. The survivors
limped into Corinth late
that night, and over the
next 48 hours as torrents
of rain fell.
Lott Young, like many
lying around him who
crawled into Corinth that
first night, dosed his
eyes and hoped for awea-
ry sleep that still merci-
lessly did not come; the
horrid images and pitiful
sounds of the wounded
could never be erased
from his mind.
"Yep, we sure went
to church this past Sun-
day didn't we boys?" Ed
Thompson asked quietly
with a tone of solemn and
wise sorrow they had all
shared, to which many
sinaply grumbled "Shiloh
Church" in understand-
hag.
And then another
among them piped in
saying, 'q rell, II! not be
going to that church no
more, boys. I'm not sure
I like the sermons they
preach. It was as if Satan
himself was doing the
preaching to us."
"Amen to that, broth-
er," Lott Young grunted
under his breath, as did
many that lay amid the
cries of the wounded.
Young imagined this yeas
surely to be the worst lay
of the war, a war that he
believed would be over
in a matter of a few more
months.
He was wrong about
that of course, dear read-
er
The war would seem-
ingly last forever And
the worst was still to
come for Lt. Young and
the Orphans.
By Cecil Lawson
Those who cannot
remember the past are
condemned to repeat it
George Santayana,
American philosopher
No man is rich enough
to buy back his past.
- Oscar Wilde
When the past no lon-
ger illuminates the fu,
ture, the spirit walks in
darkness.
Alexis de Toe-
queville, Democracy in
America (1840)
Our history is slip-
ping through our fin-
gers like sand.
It never ceases to
amaze me that, for
people who pride them-
selves on their roots,
we don't do much to
preserve our local his-
tory.
While historic Main
Street in Owingsville
may prove me wrong,
I'm not thinking of that.
In my countryside
walks over the past four
decades, I've watched
as many abandoned
homes, barns and
buildings tucked away
in the woods, in the
bottoms, and along the
river have crumbled
through the ravages of
time.
There are a string of
several older homes
along the river in
Moores Ferry that I've
watch collapse. Drive
through White Oak
Road some time and
see the same thing.
I've seen older homes
leveled through "devel-
opment" and "econom-
ic progress."
Several weeks ago
I went looking for the
older Bath County
Alms House. A num-
ber of people, includ-
ing my father, remem-
ber its foundations in
TH BOAT OF HISTORY, THE SEA OF TIME
the woods as well as I
a stoned-in well. The I
Bath County Poor I
House Farm still exists, [
formerly known as the [
estate Myrtle Hill,r but
it too is mosfly:crurn:
bling on its lonely hill-
top in Ke/idall Si/rings. '
The same can be
said for any number of
homesteads across the
county, across the re-
gion, across the state.
On Tuesday after-
noon I took a walk along
Slate Creek and located
the old bridge abut-
ments belonging to the
Owingsville and Olym-
pia railroad. The O &
O is what enthusiasts
call a "ghost railroad,"
of which a few traces
are left that still haunt
the landscape. The line
ran for less than a year
between 1915 and 1916.
There are those of us
who like local history
and study it as a hobby,
but the majority of peo-
ple think of it only in
passing. The younger
generations tend to not
focus as much on local
history.
I'm not sure there is
a remedy for this. It is
very difficult to incul-
cate or educate a true
love of history, of heri-
tage. History is one
of those subjects that
we either love or tend
to snooze to when we
hear it.
Histor can be an an-
Here for all your catering needs!
Your special occasion Is our Sl~clalty
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Companies * Family Gatherings
Small Parties * Banquets
Big Parties Weddings
Home Cooked Food
Call for quot~l We ,we vary profimlonal
and have 16 years of experlencel
photo by Cecil Lawson
Each day pieces of the past that are not remembered and preserved, waste away under the
ravages of time.
chor around our necks.
There are people for
whom history is a bur-
den, whose traditions
unnecessarily weigh
them down.
Or, as with the world
today, the lack of his-
tory leaves us float-
ing adrift in the grand
ocean of time, making
us subject to the swells
and horse latitudes and
never knowing where
we are headed.
History should be
a ballast, keeping us
afloat, level, and able to
maneuver.
When all traces of
k
history are wiped away,
when memories fade,
when anything not
scanned onto a comput-
er and preserved online
is not saved, then we
lose our ballast, and we
are set adrift.
Let's not let our com-
munity fall adrift in
time to the ravages of
the present. Let's have
something we can truly
stand on.
e
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