MILITARY: Dedication of a Tombstone for Henry MaGruder, Bullitt Co., KY ********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net Transcribed by: twotrees@hal-pc.org Date: Jan 2001 ********************************************************************** (DEDICATION OF A TOMBSTONE FOR HENRY MAGRUDER, A CIVIL WAR SOLDIER) WHO ARE WE TO JUDGE ...the soldier represented here by this tombstone? I visited this graveyard some seventy years ago and was shown a spot where I was told Henry Magruder (a guerrilla) was buried. I grew up with the notion that all guerrillas were bad. I heard John Britton Wells give a talk maybe ten years ago in which he said there were guerrillas on the side of the North, guerrillas on the side of the South, good guerrillas and bad guerrillas. I won't try to judge this guerrilla who joined the regular Confederate army at Camp Charity near Bardstown, Ky. This guerrilla, a few months over the age of 19 confessed that he was at first undecided about which side to join, but he said those who would not join were called cowards. Let me digress a little and say that I was born and reared about one quarter mile south of here. About one mile due south a man by the name of James Cook, who had lived in this country only three months, joined the Confederacy. Records show that a James Cook became one of Gen. Buckner's Guards. James Cook after the war married Nancy Johnson, my cousin. History says that Henry C. Magruder was quite talented and became one of Buckner's Guards. It is said that he could pick up a dollar from the ground while racing his horse across a field without slowing the horse. Also, that he could dismount from a galloping horse, hit the ground, and then bounce right back onto the horse. He performed before Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston and the General was so impressed that he took him for one of his personal guards. After Gen. Johnston was killed, Magruder became associated with John Hunt Morgan. Many soldiers, I feel certain, would have felt honored to have served in the capacity just mentioned. What about some of his other neighbors here that went off to war? About two miles south lived four brothers. Family tradition says that they blew up the railroad bridge just about one mile west of here. Guerrillas, I guess because they were not official soldiers. But the Union got so hot on their trail that they ran off to Bowling Green and joined Co. H, 6th Kentucky Infantry. Three of these brothers were killed during the war. One, my grandfather Henry Sprigg Harned, survived. Just about a mile west of here lived Wilford Lee Harned who became Captain of Co. H of the 6th Kentucky Infantry. It is said that he was related to Gen. Robert E. Lee. Capt. Harned was wounded at Shiloh and died at Burnsville, Mississippi on April 15, 1862. He served in the Kentucky legislature before the war. Wilford Lee Harned had a brother Atkinson Lee Harned of Boston, Kentucky, about two miles south of here. He lost an arm at Baton Rouge. He served in the Ky. Legislature after the war. My grandfather's brother Franklin attended college in Danville, Kentucky before the war and made the best grade in every class in which he participated. He started a debating society in Boston, Ky. about two years before the war. He wrote the constitution for the debating society in very beautiful handwriting. Just prior to Lincoln's first election he proposed for debate: Resolved that it is the opinion of this house that the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the United States would be sufficient cause for the South to secede from the North, prior to his committing an overt act (probably November 1860). So what about these guerrillas around Boston. Ky? Now I want to confess to you that as best as I can tell, I may have had some kinfolk who rode with Magruder. There were two Fromans, Ben and David, from Anderson County. History says they were highly respected in their own community. I feel certain they had an ancestor, Jacob Froman, who helped form the Kentucky Constitution. He was a relative of mine. There were two Johnsons who rode with Magruder. My grandfather had a first cousin by the name of Richard Johnson. All I know about him is that it is said that he was a guerrilla and was baptized in a horse watering trough. My relative by the name of William Johnson V who went to join the Confederacy. When he got to Murfreesboro, they were in the pitch of battle. He didn't have a gun or any ammunition, but he soon got both from an unfortunate fellow from the North. He joined in the battle but soon caught shrapnel about his knee, which broke his leg. He was knocked out of further fighting. His son Ben Johnson, who was highway commissioner in Kentucky under four different governors, said his father fought in the war but was never inducted or discharged. So I guess he was a guerrilla. He became Lt. Governor Of Kentucky after the war. Also from what I understand, there was a John Porter and a Henry Porter that rode with Magruder. John Porter married a Merryman. There also was a Merryman who rode with Magruder. Merrymans still live about one mile north of here. My great grandfather Reuben Porter had a brother John who had a son Henry Porter, so I assume these were my relatives. A few years ago, I made a big mistake when I said in the presence of a Methodist minister and well-known TV personality that there was no way to fight a decent war. He fired right back and said, "You mean the Geneva Convention doesn't mean anything?" Since the Geneva Convention got its main start in Geneva in 1863, I doubt that many Civil War soldiers knew about it. From reading Henry C. Magruder's confession it seems that he and his men were always battling against Union soldiers, many of whom committed the same kind of offenses that Henry C. Magruder is alleged to have done. I believe I have heard it said that "All is fair in love and war." You be the judge. Donated by: PORTER HARNED, Treasurer Orphan Brigade Kinfolk 1012 King Arthur Lane Louisville, KY 40222-4413 (transcribed by Walter E. Welsh)