As I announced last week on the SCKY list, for a goodly time I will be running the biography of James Bosley Carter, written when he was age 76. I have decided to run it also on the KYBARREN list as I think the readers will find it extremely interesting. The story starts in Cumberland Co KY. This is courtesy of Margaret Gagliardi <megsgeneo@gmail.com> to whom I give much thanks. I hope you enjoy the series. Sandi ** James Bosley Carter writes: Please take the time to be thrilled with a heretofore unreleased record of one man's chronicle of his part in the American Civil War - don't let his Preface scare you off. This manuscript has been typed as close to the original handwritten text, as possible, with its author's colorful errors and "flexible spelling" intact. Some military and other period terms are defined at the end, to assist the reader. PREFACE To be born is a condition that has come to evry one that has been born into this life since the world began, and the onley differance that there is in the culmination of such an event is the conditions that may have surrounded each individual case. It has often occurred that the Prince of the relm, and the Pesant of the lowest order, have been born within the same hour, and so far as the physical fact was concerned, there was no difference, but the social conditions that have obtained in these cases, was notorious to the extent that in the former, the fact of the birth was heralded to evry part of the civilized world, over which the inhabitance were greatly rejoyced, and celebrated the occasion with lowd acclaim while in the latter incident little was known of the fact outside of the hovel in which it occurred, and instead of honor and goodwill to the little strainger, the question of food and raiment was seriously considered without reaching a satisfactory conclussion. Thus quietly, and meekly millions have come in it, and lived in it for a time and have gone out of it without either fact being known outsider of the circle of a very small number of friends whose friendship and kind offices was a matter of duty instead of pleasure. Some however, like the redeemer of the world, have been paupers as were at birth, have died kings, and princes of the relm, and for many years afterwards have been reveranced as great benefactors of the race. Thus the story of the cross will be told through out all ages till all the world shal hear the glad tidings, and the name of Lincolon will be reveranced, by all of the lowley, and downtroden, as the great emansipator. This preface is inteded to introduce to any member of my family who may take the trouble to read the following sketch of my life now being writen in the early daun of my 76 yeare. I am sorry that I havent a more startling aray of facts to present, but it is something to live so long in the world, and while it has not been my privilege to atchieve great, and notable things, I have performed my duty as I have seen it with energy, and absolute honesty. ooooooo OOOOOOO ooooooo CHAPTER I The reader of the prefface of to this beography will find nothing to indicate that I was born a prince: neither will he conclude that I was born a pauper; but it will not be out of place to say that while my parents were not rich, as the world looks at such acquirements; they were rich, in the qualities that are necessary to build up and establish an honorable manwhood, and a pure, and unassaleble womanhood; in principal they were arristocrate, and gloried in the honorable traditions of their families; but unfortunately for them and the subject of this sketch, they were seriously handicapped by the balefull influencies of human slavery; that in their day were injected into the social relations of life, by the use of the negro as such, as it existed in the south prior to the civil war; and this observation calls into the question the place of my nativity, which I am not asshamed to locate in the foothills of the cumberland mountains in Cumberland county Kentuckey. It is a matter of history that this part of the country was settled up by imigrants from Verginia, North carlina, and Tenn; all had working people, thoroughly honest in all of their business transactions, and profoundly religeous in their morral uprightness. These people all came from a mountaineous part of the country, and were well equipped for the hardships that were necessary to subdue the wilderness out of which they were to make new homes. Inspite of the hardships that they had to indure I believe that they got more satisfaction out of life, than people do now, with all of the modern opertunities for ease and social pleasures. While these people did not bring a great many slaves with them, they did bring much of the prejudice, that follow in the wake of slave conditions, and they could hardly get away from it, when it was preached to them from the pulpit evry sabath day. I remember that a very favorite test; "Servents obey your masters, for such is the will of God", and as the preachers depended upon the few slave owners for their saleries, they had little trouble in silencing any little prickings of their concience that might diturbe their equinimity that might trouble them, occassioaly. It looks strange, now that these liberty loving people should have been controled by the influencies that came over the mountains from the far south land, where slavery was paramount. My Father, Green Carter was born in Cumberland County KY, and his ancesters were Verginians, and of English decent; and thogh he was oppoesed to negro slavery, his predjudices against the abolitionists were so strong, that inspite of his moving around, very close to the notorious "Mason & Dixon line; he never ventured across it to live; in his religious views he was quite puretanical, and his observance of the sabath day was so streneous, that it was a torture to young people, who were full of life, and energy, at least that was the way that it appeared to me at the age of 7 & 8 years of age. While he was given to hard labor, as were all who were born in a mountaineous part of the country. They had no faculty for acquiring property in the direction of a perminent home, and if he had done so I am of the opinion that the church would have gotten most of it in one way or an other. During his whole life, from a young man to its close, he was an exorter, a local preacher, and a clas leader, in the methodist church, and spent much valuable time in looking after the churches affares. He was also given to a sperit of unrest, and moved around from place to place, rearly remaining in one place more than one year. Truly he was a rolling stone, "that gathers no moss". Inasmuch as other charactoristics will appears from time to time, in this narrative, further mention is not necessary here. My mother, Frances Hawkins was born in Verginia, but her father removed to Tenn while she was yet a babe, and shortly aftrwards to Cumberland county Kentuckey, where she grew up to wormanhood without acquiring an education, further than to read. She was a most loveable character, and if she could have acquired a liberal education, she would have taken high rank in the social affares of life. But as it was, she commanded the love and respect of all who ever made her acquaintence. I do not think that anyone who knew her ever spoke ill of her in anyway. Her religious convictions were most profound, and impressive, and so thuroghly unselfish, that one could be mistaken as to the purity of her motives. She was a member of the methodist church for more than fifty years, and inspite of many hardships, and privations, and serious physical disability she lived to be nearley 75 years of age. Shortly after my birth, which occurred on the 15 day of October 1836. My parents removed to Harden county KY, where we reamined some two years, when they again removed to Mead county KY. About this time some of our neighbors concluded to remove to southeastern Mo, where they had some relatives already located. I do not remember the county, but know that it was in the corner of the state, on the Miss river, about 18 miles above Newmadered, and my father, ever ready to rove, cought the fever, and joined them in this unfortunate venture, which resulted in his death some two years afterwards. At this time we were living about 25 miles from the Ohio river, with the great free north land just beyond, and yet my father faild, or refused to take advantage of the opertunity of his to forever get away from the balefull influence of negro slavery. Just across the border, great opertunities were available for his children to acquire an education, that would prepare them for the responsibilities of life, while on the otherside was enforced ignorance, and social ostracism. There were three families of us who proposed to go to what they termed a land of promise, and vigerous steps were taken at once to prepare for the removal. A flat boat was constructed, and launched in salt river, a short distance from the Ohio river, which was large enough to carry all of the families, their household plunder, their farming tools, their stock, in fact evrything that would be needed at their new homes. Thogh a small boy, many of the incidents of the journey are indelably fixed in my mind, and are now rememberd at my advanced age, as if occuring but yesterday. At that time, water transportation was the onley mode for heavy transportation, and the Ohio river teamed with mighty steamers that plowed up and down the rivers, and were in evidence, almost continualy, day and night. Having more space than we needed, we took on some freight, as a speculation, which consisted in part of a lot of barreled lime. We also had an extra passinger on board that engaged my boyish attention during the days, and part of the time at night. This passinger was a well developed member of the babroon family, this animal, thogh chained became a terror to the children both day and night, and finaly to the men, when they went out one morning and found that broone had tore some of the lime barrels into peices, and scattered the lime over the boat. Of course the lime had to be thrown overboard. I do not know what became of the perpetrator of all of this miscief, and loss, I onley know that he disapeared, to the great satisfaction of all on board the boat. In those days, steamboats were a terror to flatsboatmen. The officers of a steamer and steamers in general had very little regard for flatboatsmen, and rarely failed to show their contempt for them by running close enough to throw water over the gunwals of the boat. In cases where onley men were aboard these contemptable acts, created lttle excitement, other than aburst of profanity on the part of the "flatboatmen" but when there was a lot of women and children aboard, the lementations of these people, parralized the men into profound, silence. The steamboatmen generaly knew who they were fooling with. They did not trouble the boats of the heavy shippers, for each one had some peculararty in the construction of their boats, that was familiar to the officers of the steamboats. Of course there was a law governing transportation, as there is now, but boats owened by occassional shippers like ours, had very little remedy for annoyance, or damages agains these fellows, for the reason that if they even got into the courts with their cases they would have little show for justice against these corporations. So you see that monopolistic forces were in evidence, even in those earley days, and were quite as arrogant and hard to controll as they are at this time, the steamboat interests wanted to monopolize the freight transportation, and used every means in their power to drive the flatboatsman from the rivers. In those days the freight trafic from the Ohio, and Miss vallies were emense, and the heavy part of it found its way to Neworleans by water transportation. The law required each flatboat to display a signal, which was a flage of some kind in the daytime and a large torch light at night. to be continued. Sandi SCKY Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=south-central-kentucky Barren Co Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=kybarren GGP: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/