Falmouth Outlook Friday 31 August 1923 Vol. 17 No. 13 Pg. 4 Col. 4 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CO. D. 4TH REGIMENT, OF THE CONFEDERATE ARMY Leland L. Barton, Prominent Lawyer of Washington, D. C. Writes interesting sketch of Company in which many soldiers from this county were enlisted. Leland L. Barton, formerly of this county, and many years ago editor of a paper published here, and also principal in the public schools of Falmouth, has written a most interesting historical account of Company D. Fourth Regiment Kentucky Cavalry, Confederate Army, and the Outlook is exceedingly fortunate in having the opportunity to publish it. The article follows: In writing a personal letter to an old friend in Falmouth, I concluded to surprise him with a historical list of names of the members of Company D Fourth Regiment, Kentucky Cavalry of the Confederate Army, which list names in the history of Pendleton County; and the names were of people from all parts of the county. The fact caused me to think that it might be an acceptable contribution as news, yet history, for all the people of the county. The enlistment date was September 5, 1862, so in a few days that historical event could be celebrated as the sixty-first anniversary. One of the first stations of the Company was Saylersville, Magoffin County. The first service was around Cumberland Gap. They were in forty-three engagements with the enemy, besides skirmishes. The Regiment was in the siege of Knoxville, Tenn. The tragic death of the great cavalry raider, General John H. Morgan, occurred at Greenville, Tenn., November 1864. The Fourth Regiment Kentucky Cavalry was gained such momentum in fighting that after General Lee had surrendered what was in effect the last sword of the rebellion to General Grant, at Appomattox, it fought the battle of Marion, VA. It surrendered at Mt. Sterling, KY on April 30, 1865, and the men were paroled and allowed to return home. The officers were allowed to retain their side arms. Later I shall endeavor to give you some account of the thrilling and historical episode in the history of our part of Kentucky, meeting the capture of Federal troops at Cynthiana, KY, in 1862; of the haste of General Morgan was in to get the benefit of his prisoners and at the same time get away from the troops coming hot from Cincinnati. He delivered certain officer prisoners at Falmouth, just after the battle. In spite of such modernities of moving pictures, flying machines, autos, wireless transmission, no sociological event in all the world so held the attention, the breath, the heart, the head, with the people of Pendleton County as the tragic, awful, heroic and thrilling events of the Civil War. It was impossible in the inner workings of one’s own mind, not to take sides. Brothers and sisters fought in fratricidal strife. With individuals as with the nation, issues were matters of life and death. If we wish to profit by the lessons of history, our reading should include some of the philosophy. The members of the company of brave men who fought and sacrificed in that heroic struggle, on the Confederate side, were household words in Pendleton County in the earlier times. Some may yet live, but most of their names are but memories. While they were but mere boys when they enlisted they, like the soldiers of all wars, became the leading citizens of their country. It would be hard to realize that there have been any campaigns in history that endured greater privations and sufferings than these troops in comparison to which the Spanish American War might be spoken of ironically, as that titanic struggle of 1898. The Pendleton County, Kentucky, boys rendezvoused on the upper waters of the Licking River, thence moved to southwest Virginia, and operated in the three states of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, and was under Col. Humphrey Marshall, and some aided the brilliant cavalry raider, General John H. Morgan. The colonel was Henry L. Gitner, of Carrollton, KY. Thomas E. Moore, Captain Robert Frank Gerrard, 1st Lieut. James W. Jenkins, 2nd Lieut. William M. Ewing, 2nd Lieut. John Makemson, 2nd Lieut. Benjamin F. Hume, 1st Sgt. William J. Turner, 1st Sgt. John D. Cason, 2d Sgt. J. E. Lightfoot, 2d. Sgt. William A. Moore, 3d. Sgt. E. J. Rawlings, 3d. Sgt. John W. Dance, 4th Sgt. A. J. Rawlings, 4th Sgt. Joseph Brown, 5th Sgt. William C. Barker, 5th Sgt. Joseph R. Ellis, 1st Corp. F. A. Boston, 2d. Corp. George T. Routt, 3rd Corp. John Howk, 4th Corp. Privates: Asbury, James S. Asbury, Samuel S. Asbury, Robert F. Adams, S. P. Bird, Columbus Burgess, Henry Bradshaw, Alexander Burgess, C. H. Beagle, S. H. Curry, Benjamin F. Carter, O. T. Corbin, William Francis (Shot May 15, 1863, on Johnson’s Island, court martial under Burnsides’ Order No. 38) Counth, Jonas Cahill, Thomas Caldwell, A. J. Caldwell, Alexander Colvin, Nimrod Colvin, Beverly M. Collier, L. F. Crawford, J. M. Colvin, Minor Dicken, Absalom C. Day, Louis Draper, Martin F. Dorman, James H. Dance, Thomas B. Darnell, John Ellis, James Ewing, John G. Ewing, Samuel T. Ewing, Joel Fogle, John C. Fogle, David K. Fogle, George W. Finn, Patrick Forsythe, James Furnish, J. T. Garrett, John B. Hume, Samuel F. Hill, Theodore M. Herrington, Philip Ingles, Tyre M. Justice, Isaac D. Kidwell, Isaac Kirkwood, Cash. Keith, William Kerns, Edward Lowe, Moses Lowe, Samuel Levingood, N. J. Levingood, Elkin D. McCandless, James M. McCann, Frank McKinney, William Morin, Frank S. Marshall, Robert F. Mann, Livingston McKinney, John T. McGraw, T. J. Martin, James Morin, Andrew Nelson, Thomas P. Orr, Morris Oldfield, Jesse S. Perry, Oliver Phillips, John C. Porter, Wesley Rule, George R. Robinson, John Robinson, Francis M. Riley, Alfred Riley, James Ravena, Jacob Rawlings, Perry Rice, Willis Routt, T. D. Sellers, James M. Storrs, David L. Shively, Andrew J. Shoemaker, Andrew J. Taylor, Jasper Taylor, Joseph F. Tomlin, Christian Tomlin, Henry E. Thompson, Joseph Thompson, John H. Taylor, Frank Victor, John W. Vance, James Vance, Peter Williams, John T. Williams, Pope Williams, William P. Williams, William Yelton, William H. Editor’s Note – The note in the above article in reference to William Frances Corbin was one of the outstanding events of the Civil War, although not many of our readers are aware of this fact. The Federal Army issued an order in 1862 forbidding recruiting Confederate Soldiers in all neutral territory. The order stated that all those found guilty would be considered as spies. In face of this order, William Francis Corbin, who had been promoted to a Lieutenant came back to Campbell (his native county) and Pendleton County to recruit soldiers for his company. Lieut. Corbin was arrested by Federal soldiers at Demossville in Pendleton County. He was tried by court martial and sentenced to be shot. Everything possible was done to save the life of Lieut. Corbin. His sister, Miss Corbin, as a last resort went to Washington and appealed to President Lincoln in person. This is possibly the only case where Lincoln ever turned down a woman's plea. He told Miss Cobin that if he reprieved her brother it would demoralize the morale of the army. Word was sent from Confederate Headquarters that if Lieut. Corbin was shot, retaliation would be resorted to and two Federal soldiers of like rank would be shot. Answer was given out that Gen. Fitzhue Lee, then a prisoner in Washington, would be shot. Thus ended what might have caused the bloodiest war of all time. ============================== Items of interest to: Doug Harper Biloxi, MS