In the Shadow of
Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest:
Private John C.
Lilly—Part I
By
Ken Robison
For The River Press
July 25, 2012
This
continues a monthly series commemorating the 150th Anniversary of
the Civil War and the veterans that settled in Central Montana.
John C.
Lilly fought like a tiger for the Confederacy. He served in the Kentucky
Cavalry with Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest “the Wizard of the Saddle” in a
unit known as Forrest’s Old Regiment, and lived to tell about it. Addicted to
action, Lilly came to the wild upper Missouri frontier shortly after the war
and was never far from danger.
Born John
Carl Lillie in January 1844 in Hannover, Niedersachsen,
Prussia (now Germany), he immigrated to America in 1858 and settled into
farm life in Shelby County, in north central Kentucky. When the Civil War
began, Lilly joined with local boys to fight for the South.
John C.
Lilly left a hand written account of his service with the Confederacy and
portions of his personal experiences are provided in his own words in this
article. But Lilly’s account is larger than his own experience—through Private
Lilly’s eyes this is also the story of the remarkable exploits of his
regimental commander, Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest was a fierce and
dynamic Civil War officer, a brilliant cavalry officer who rose from private to
lieutenant general in the Confederate Army. He was a superb tactician, a
ferocious fighter, and a dynamic leader—he killed thirty opponents by his own
hand, had twenty-nine horses shot from under him, and was wounded on four
occasions.
Recruited by
Col. Forrest to join the Boone Rangers later known as the First Kentucky
Cavalry (Confederate)], a part of Forrest’s Old Regiment, Private John C. Lilly
rode beside Forrest for most of the war, sharing the thrill of victory, the
agony of defeat, and the ever-present danger. The stories of Col. Forrest,
Private Lilly, and their Forrest’s Old Regiment is testimony to the ferocity of
the Civil War in the West that took the lives of many good, brave men from both
the North and the South.
John Lilly began his account; “In 1861 I was living in
Shelby County Ky. about three miles from the town of Shelbyville on Clear Creek
working for Mr. Henry Harris on a Farm. I was then a boy of about 16 years old.
It was then when the whole country was making preparation for war. Kentucky was
divided. Some were for the South and some for the North. Especially in the
neighborhood where I was then [there was] a great . . . sympathy with the
South.” [Author’s comments are in brackets. Lilly’s creative spelling and
punctuation have been “normalized.”]
Young Lilly’s employer, planter Henry Harris, was
staunchly pro-Confederate, owning fourteen slaves, six adults and eight
children, in the 1860 U.S. Slave Census. Lilly and Harris’ son, Gamaliel, began
drilling with neighborhood boys, preparing to fight for the South. Lilly wrote,
“we commenced to drilling as Soldiers and I never shall forget what a good time
we had on the Bright moonlight nights especially in old Kentucky where the moon
shines bright up on the old Kentucky Shore. We boys were happy and gay. We had
then a different idea of the war than what it turned out to be after we got in
to it.”
Lilly continues, “We were progressing fine in our
drilling until some time the latter part of June [1861] when N. B. Forrest
[Nathan Bedford Forrest] came to Louisville and was making preparation and
arrangement to organize a Regiment of Kentucky Cavalry . . . He appropriated a
lot of saddles pistols and some guns. In the mean time while Col. Forrest
recruited in Louisville, [Union] General [Lovell H.] Rousseau was camping and
recruiting cross the Ohio River and of course he was posted and informed of every
thing that was going on in Kentucky especially in the surrounding county of
Louisville. Col. Forrest had no time to organize his Regiment of Kentucky
Cavalry but gathered up what few men there were in readiness to go and as he
had heard of our little party drilling in Shelby County he sent us word to meet
him at the Nolin Bridge in Hardin Co, Ky. where he then had a little over a
hundred men in Camp. I forget the date when we left Clear Creek but it was in
the night. We moved thru Shelbyville but we had to be very careful as the town
or the people in Shelbyville were strong Union men.”
Avoiding known Union men, the Shelbyville recruits
proceeded on their way, stopping only at homes of Confederate sympathizers
where they sought food and fodder for their horses. On the road, the recruits
stopped to talk with slaves going to work, and Lilly continues, “there came
along some nigros to go to work on the farm. One of our boys spoke up, ‘Say
Sam,’ to one of the nigros, ‘is there any Rebels in this country. Well young
master,’ he says, ‘I don’t knows [who] you might be.’ At that you must remember
where every masters were, the nigros were also generally speaking. So Sam told
us that his master was for the South and told us of all the people in the
neighborhood which were for the South and which were for the North. So we were
well posted in that vicinity.
“Sam’s master was a Mr. Stone, the first house we would
come to, and I must say right here that Mr. Stone was Southern from the Crown
of his head to the Sole of his feet. Here our horses were fed and a special
breakfast gotten for us. I often think about that breakfast how we devoured
that meal. We were never better treated in our life as we were by Mr. Stone and
his family. They were happy to see a lot of Boys go to the Southern Army.
Anything we wanted, there was nothing too good for us. I had a poor saddle,
which was hurting my horse’s back. Well, Mr. Stone gave me his saddle almost
new and he took mine in place. While we were eating and resting, Mr. Stone gave
us all the instruction where to stop on our whole route and told [us where] we
would catch up with N. B. Forrest.
“Of course we did the most of our travel in the night. We
stayed put one more night at a Farm House on a very good large plantation . . .
It was after 10 o’clock when we rode up, all of us close to the house, and
said, ‘hello’ when the gentlemen came on the porch. ‘Is there any chance for us
to get supper,’ was the question. The gentleman did not know what to make of us
for it was hard to tell who we might be . . .. but by a little inquiry and
telling him whom it was that told us where to stop for our supper. He said,
‘boys it is alright. Get down.’ In the mean time, he called up a half dozen
nigros to take care of our horses . . . In a short time we were called to
supper which was as fine a meal as any one wants to set down to. Our intention
was to go on right after supper but after supper there was nothing to do but
what we must come in the parlor and hear the girls sing and play on the piano and
of course that was delightful for us boys. We forgot all about the war . . . we
were insured by our Landlord that there was no danger of us being trapped or
attacked in the night. He made us stop all night, and I believe that himself
and a few of his trustworthy slaves stood guard the balance of the night.
Anyway we were not disturbed and had a good night’s rest in a fine room and a
fine bed.
“After breakfast and a good one at that we were again
invited in the parlor and had more music and songs. Of course they were all
Southern songs. When our horses were brought to the porch by the negros, there
were ‘Three Cheers for Dixie’ and
the young ladies started ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me,’ and then we once more
started on the road to Moline Bridge for Camp Forrest.
“When we arrived we rode into Camp some time about 10 or
11 o’clock [p.m.]. We were halted for the first time by the pickets but as the
pickets were aware that we were coming there was no trouble for us to go right
into camp. That was our first night in a Soldiers Camp. There were about one
hundred & fifty men in Camp. Some were sleeping, some were eating and some
were setting by the fire smoking. N. B. Forrest was there among the boys
laughing and talking. He made us acquainted with some of the boys. We fed our
horses, and then we tried to broil, putting it on a stick and holding it over
the fire. Everything was plenty, ham & bacon and good strong coffee. There
was not much sleep that night . . . The next morning we were given a new saddle
and a Colt’s Revolver with ammunition, and then, we for the first time since we
left Shelby County, were prepared to defend ourselves from our enemies.
The Shelbyville boys boarded trains and passed through
Bowling Green, Ky. where General Sidney Johnston was organizing the Confederate
Army. They then rode on to Memphis, camping at the Memphis Race Track and
commencing drilling in earnest. Lilly continues, “In about two weeks our horses
arrived in Memphis [after having been left at Camp Forrest]. We were moved to a
nice grove about three or four miles from Memphis and commenced drilling on
horseback that suited us to perfection. Then we were sworn in to the
Confederated Service for 12 months and our Company was Co A of Forrest Regiment
of Cavalry and called ourselves the Boone Rangers. Our officers Capt. Overton 1st
Lieut. John Crother 2nd Lieut Wm Wade 3rd. N. B. Forrest
was Col. of the Regiment. Our Company was about 120 men strong. The next
company was from Tennessee Company B Capt. May. Lieutenants Jess & Wm Forrest,
brothers of Col. Forrest. The next was a Texas Company commanded by Captain
Geighl.”
In September 1861, Lilly’s Company A was transferred by a
steamboat called the Hill to Columbus
Ky. Lilly wrote, “We had a very nice trip with the exception that the boat run
in to a snag somewhere near Island No. 10, which made quite an excitement among
the boys thinking that the boat would sink. It happened in the night, and the
boat struck so hard that it rolled some of the boys out of their beds. But it
was found that there was no danger of Sinking and we landed at Columbus.
“The next day we were then about three miles from
Columbus on the Mobile & Ohio Rail Road. Columbus was well fortified. We
thought no boat could ever pass them big guns. I have here forgotten the date
when the battle across the Mississippi in Missouri was fought. We were ordered
to report to Head Quarters at Columbus to be ready for action. Then we got the
first smell of powder from the Big Guns but we were not brought in to action.
At night we were ordered back to our Camp and then we made our first Scout
towards Paducah, Ky. where we for the first saw a live Yankee. Two Yankee
soldiers that were captured by Jeff Thompson’s . . . Rangers . . . Thompson’
Rangers had already accomplished what we were sent for, and we returned to
Camp. Soon after that we were ordered to Fort Donaldson on the Cumberland River
where we were doing nothing but drilling every day.
“All this time we have not seen our Col. and the balance
of our Regiment. Sometime in November we were ordered to Hopkinsville Ky. where
we went into Camp for the winter, and Colonel Forrest organized the Regiment
which were two Kentucky companies, one Tennessee, one Texas, Three Alabama
companies, with Major Kelly of Huntsville Alabama as our Major of the Regiment.
We having a good time had good living, fast horses, little camp duty, little
scouting thru the surrounding country, and drilling on horseback. That was the
best time I have had thru my four years of soldering and every one of the boys
will agree with me that was camping at Hopkinsville. The People of Kentucky, at
that time, would do anything for a Confederate soldier, especially the Ladies
there was nothing too good for a Confederate soldier.”
After this lull in the action, Private Lilly resumes his
narrative, “But now the tug of war commences. The news was received by Col..
Forrest that there were some Union men on the Ohio River making trouble for the
Southern men. You must remember that the people of Kentucky were very near
evenly divided in their sentiment and also that Kentuckyans were hard fighters.
So Col. Forrest concluded to a make a raid in to that part of the country. He
took a detail with himself as leader, marched on thru Princeton, Ky. to the
Ohio River in to Maghlenburg.
“Coming at the head of our column was Col. Forrest and
Dr. Cowen our Surgeon, a young man of Charleston, S. C. A better man could not be found, I don’t
think, than Dr. Cowen. Our command was halted in a lane when Col. Forrest and
Doctor Cowen rode up to the house and called “hello.” When the answer was given
from within, it was with a Kentucky Rifle, and it struck the doctor right
between the eyes. He fell dead from his horse and before we could surround the
house the man came thru the back window and disappeared in the thick timber of
the bottom of the Ohio River and never was caught up with. I have forgotten the
man’s name. The Doctor was the first dead man of Forrest Old Regiment.”
“We camped on that place that night and of course
anything that was portable we took. Some of the boys was ready to set fire to
the place, but the Col. would not have it. The next morning we took a wagon and
the Dr. was put in to it, and we marched back towards Hopkinsville. Before we
had gone three or four miles on a different road going thru a lane Col. Forrest
at the head of the column.
“Coming to a double log house three shots from old
Kentucky Rifles rung out from the log house right into the head of our column.
One bullet went thru one [of] the horses neck and one thru the arm of one of
the boys. The other missed and went close to Col. Forrest’s head, but the three
fool hearty men that made such a foolish attack on a column of a hundred men
and not stayed in the house and kept up the fire. I should not call [them]
brave they were foolish for as soon as they had fired they broke and ran thru
timber pasture.
“The rear of our column never thought of laying down the
fence for we had good old Kentucky horses, and they were able to jump any
fence. Before the Father and his two sons . . . were a hundred yards from the
house, they were riddled with bullets and dead men and left where they fell.
Such was the case and times of Old Kentucky in the beginning of the war. After
that work which lasted only five minutes, it was forward march. We camped at
Princeton that night and got back to our winter quarters with a record of
killing three Unionists and our dead surgeon, one man wounded and a horse shot
thru [the] neck.
“All the men in camp felt very sorry for Doctor Cowen our
young surgeon He was liked by everyone, officers and privates. So Doctor Cowen was the first man killed of
Forrest’s Old Regiment. The reader must remember that there was a different
feeling in the men over dead men shot in the beginning of the war than there
was later on in the war.”
To be continued.
Photo: (1) John C. Lilly
