Jessamine-Mercer County KyArchives Biographies.....McAfee, Allen L. 1825 - 1888
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com August 6, 2007, 11:57 pm

Author: Bennett H. Young

Allen L. McAfee

Was long a prominent public man in Jessamine county. He died of cancer of the
throat March 16, 1888. He was the second son of Col. Robert McAfee, and was born
in McAfee, Mercer county, on the 15th of August, 1825. He was admitted to the
bar in Harrodsburg in 1845, and removed to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he
commenced the practice of his profession. About this time the war with Mexico
broke out, and he volunteered as a private in Captain Mean's company of cavalry,
which was one of the companies in the regiment of Col. Ambrose Yell, who was
killed at the battle of Buena Vista. In that battle Colonel McAfee bore a
prominent part in the charge of Humphrey Marshall and Colonel Yell against 6,000
lancers, led by General Mineon, who attempted to take the American batteries. In
the charge in which McKee, Clay and Willis were lost. Colonel McAfee saw a
Mexican lancer in the act of killing a wounded soldier. He instantly shot the
Mexican. He used what was in those days a celebrated gun known as the
Mississippi rifle.

   At the close of the Mexican war, Colonel McAfee moved to Nicholasville, and
married Miss Elizabeth Shely. In 1857 he was elected a member of the Kentucky
legislature. Early in 1861 Colonel McAfee was arrested as a Southern
sympathizer; he was taken from his home at 12 o'clock at night on the 21st of
June, and without warrant or charge was carried and lodged in prison in
Lexington. A writ of habeas corpus was taken out by Frank Hunt, Esq., and W. C.
P. Breckinridge, Esq., in order to get Colonel McAfee before the Federal Court,
then in session at Frankfort, but the Federal officers suspended the writ of
habeas corpus. On the way to Camp Chase, in Cincinnati, he escaped by walking
away from the guards, passed through Central Kentucky and reached the South. He
was commissioned lieutenant-colonel by James A. Seddon, Confederate Secretary of
War. In 1864 he raised a battalion of 300 mounted men, and was with General
Jones in Western Virginia, and helped to defeat General Averill's rail [sic] on
Harrodsburg in 1864. He was severely wounded in 1862 at Big Creek Gap. He was
captured in 1864, and remained in Camp Douglas until the close of the war. He
was a magnificent looking man in physical appearanice, and possessed a high
degree of courage.

   In 1866 he was elected State Senator, defeating Richard Spurr, of Fayette, by
over 500 votes.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A HISTORY OF JESSAMINE COUNTY, KENTUCKY,
FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO 1898.
By BENNETT H. YOUNG,
PRESIDENT POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY; MEMBER FILSON CLUB; MEMBER CONSTITUTIONAL
CONVENTION, 1890; AUTHOR HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF KENTUCKY, OF "BATTLE OF
BLUE LICKS, ETC, ETC.

S. M. DUNCAN, ASSOCIATE AUTHOR.

Every brave and good life out of the past is a treasure which cannot  be
measured in money, and should be preserved with faithfullest care.

LOUISVILLE, KY.: COURIER-JOURNAL JOB PRINTING CO., 1898.


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