History of Kentucky 1 CHAPTER XLVI THE KENTUCKY CHARACTER AND THE WAR * * Peace was thus secured between Americans and British; but an incident at the battle of New Orleans produced a war of words that embittered those who deserved a better fate than to nurse grievances and misunderstandings over so glorious a victory. The unfortunate flight of the troops on the right bank of the Mississippi was participated in by the 500 Louisiana troops as well as by the 170 ill-armed Kentuckians, but the latter alone received the blame for the defeat. Commodore Patterson, who commanded a battery on the Mississippi, declared that the Kentuckians began the flight and that this disgraceful example "was soon followed by the whole of General Morgan's command, notwithstanding that every exertion was made by him, his staff and several officers of the city militia, to keep them to their post.* * * This flight of the Kentuckians perilized their exertions and produced a retreat which could not be checked. * * *" He furthermore stated that, "General Morgan's right wing, composed * of the Kentucky militia, commanded by Major Davis, abandoned their breast works, flying in a most shameful and dastardly manner, almost without a shot." In his official report dated the day following the battle and made from information conveyed by the officers who commanded on the right bank, General Jackson declared of these Kentuckians: "What is strange and difficult to account for, at the very moment when the entire discomfiture of the enemy was doked for with a confidence amounting to certainty, the Kentucky re-enforcements, in whom so much reliance had been placed, ingloriously fled, drawing after thern, by their example, the remainder of the forces, and this yielding to the enemy that most formidable position." 2 In an address he bitterly arraigned them to their faces: "To what cause, was the abandonment of your lines owing? To fear? No! You are the countrymen, the friends, the brothers of those who have secured to themselves by their courage the gratitude of their country, who have been prodigal of its blood in its defence, and who are strangers to any other fear than that of disgrace. To disaffection. to our glorious cause? No! my countrymen; your general does justice. to the pure sentiment by which you are inspired. How then could brave men, firm in the cause in which they are enrolled, neglect their first duty, and abandon the post committed to their care?" He answered that the reasons must be attributed "to the want of discipline, disregard to obedience, and a spirit of insubordination, not less destructive than cowardice itself." 3 Of all human frailties, cowardice on the battlefield was the one among Kentuckians most detested and despised. They prided them1 Quoted in McElroy, Kentucky in the Nation's History, 356, 370. 2 Gayarré, History of Louisiana, IV, 486. 8 Gayarré, History of Louisiana, IV, 490. Vol. II-1 |