Show THE KENTUCKY BROTHERS A Incident of the Civil aTe Type of Many The pleasant community about Hopkins Hp vile was all tore up as the people sd They really said toh up but this is a true sketch and not a dialect story Most of the people spoko of their state as Kaintucky and it was all tore up too Indeed deed Hopkinsville and vicinity was only a type of nearly all others in tho state for war had come almost with the suddenness lightning from a clear sky and the peoples sympathies sympa-thies were sadly divided Old residents of tho state can now afford to indulge a seat se-at recollection of the childlike confidence with which the people had gone through that dark and ominous winter they were with exceptions of course as positive that Critten den would get a compromise adopted and tho trouble pass without a fight as the average small boy is that his pap w fix things right S when the slow moving m of those days brought the news that Sumter had been captured and 75000 troops were called for there was a commotion such as that region had not known since the last Injuns were chased across the Tennessee As acid and alkali fall apart when tho chemical chemi-cal reagent is applied s tho people fell at once into hostile groups Thero was a brief attempt at-tempt at neutrality then a final division and oh how painful the son In the ranks of the Confederacy while the father adhered to the Union I the Barrett family thero was even moro than the usual painful commotion Jim tho big chivalrous older brother dashing chivaus sympathized pathized with the south the father trained in the school of Henry Clay and conservative by ago adhered to the old flag while the women grieving loving but ardent in their feelings tried to feel that the father was right but secretly all the warmth of their souls was excited for the one who went south Such family conflicts did not last long There was ono painful protracted interview in-terview after it a few exchanges of short sharp phrases ending with hot denunciation by the father and then Jim was gone and with him as many of tho irresolute neighbor boys as ho could influence A few days later ho and j squad were enrolled in the cavalry U uu v o Thank G Frank is too young to ba in it and it will all be over before ho i big enough said the fond mother But she knew Frank as little as the average mother usually knows a son who is away from home for a year at tho eventful ago of sixteen A student In the famed Asbury now Da Pauw university Frank had been absorbing all the atmosphere of his environment as Herbert Her-bert Spencer would say all the abolition pizon in Indiany some of his old neighbors would Tho events of say April and May ISC I set his soul on fire he was wildly enthusiastically en-thusiastically eager to fight for the Union Like many thousand boys of that age at that particular time ho was sorry it would all be sor E over before he was old enough to enlist They all had a chance most men had a chance before it ended though tho zeal of many was modified towards the last Frank reluctantly promised his mother to stay in college but in midsummer his home was in tho Confederate lines and all such promises wero held to b void Before frost fell he was with Shackelford and Bristow learning the duties of a private soldier in the grand army for the Union Three years and a half had passed since Jim Barrett made his choice and the dreadful dread-ful days of Franklin and Nashville had come The Confederacy was making its last advance ad-vance and a desperate ono it wa The sun was going down on the first of those murderous murder-ous battles in Hoods advance and the dispatch patch had already gone north The Union lines are broken I The sadly thinned ranks of Frank Barretts regiment were among the last to leave tho fielda little too lt as the Confederate cavalry came galloping over and through them Then for a brief minute or two it was man to m the pistol of the one was empty and so was the gun of the other g it was bayonet against saber ag V if r THE IIEETKG OF TH BEOTHEBS Frank was ridden down by a tall cavalryman cavalry-man in gray He jumped for his life to reach gy jump r the left of the riderthe sweep of the long old fashioned sword was not so apt to reach him there As he jumped be gavo the horse a sharp wound in the breast for that was half tho battle The frantic animal dreaded the bayonet more than his riders spur Off for an instant then goaded savagely he came on the saber was raised for a sweeping blow th bayonet for a parry thrust the last light of day flashed upon tho riders fa My God it i Jiml 1 And the bayonet was drawn bck But it was too kite for the rider to arrest his arm even had he known as hedid not tho boy of 16 changes much more rapidly in three years than the man of 2 Crasshl I The point of the heavy saber crushed through the infantry cap and into the skull At the same instant the bullet of another an-other Federal entered under the sword arm a and the brothers sank lifeless into a heap together gether soon to be drenched in common blood No not quite lifeless They lingered weary months in tho same hospital renewed tho feelings of happier days while languishing on adjacent cots and in early May 1S05 when all was over two war worn veterans together sought tho old Barrett farm house tho one to be richly paid handsomely pensioned and held in yearly increasing honor among the victors the other with only wounds and glory for h pay It is the old old story of the survivors of civil war In tho cemetery of the now flourishing city of Hopkinsvillo stands an Imposing marble shaft in honor of tho Confederate dead who lie there Federal and Confederate Confeder-ate soldiers joined In the dedication of it men of all political parties contributed tp its erection and ministers of all denominations blessed the workfor all tho bitterness of the past is gone and over all the land is a deep and abiding peace I tho old neighborhood neigh-borhood live two steady going farmers familiarly fa-miliarly known as tho Barretts who are Uncle Frank and Uncle James to two families of young people Little ones gather about them as they sit by the hearth on winter win-ter evenings and a them totoll a story about the war they and all their fellows talk of it with all the freedom that Englishmen English-men would use i speaking the Wars of the Roses and with not a thousandth part of the bitterness Irishmen feel over the rout at the Boyne |