Fort Boonesborough

Various excerpts from The Kentuckians:


They have thought to pacify us by promising to move the land office to Harrodstown.  They know the reason we have been anxious to turn settlers our way, as who wouldn't.  It's but natural we'd ruther see ourselves grow as Boonesburg.  But makes no difference where they put their dratted land office!  The colonel give me his word they wouldn't go up on their prices, nor change any of the conditions they first stated.  And now they're doing it.  My men are riled up a heap over it, and ready to pull out.

I was fixing to leave the next morning when Abraham Hite rode in from Boonesburg with the news they'd had an Indian scare.  A fellow by the name of Campbell and two lads had crossed over the river to hunt and had been ambushed.  One of the lands was killed and the other one taken captive, but the Campbell fellow got away.

One killed, one wounded at Boonesburg.  Dannel [Boone] and five others hurt at Boonesburg.

Source

James Harrod Of Harrodstown

From The Kentuckians:

"I reckon you've heared George Rogers Clark is at Harrodstown.  ...I knowed him in Bouquet's campaign, Ben said.  He's a right good man.  Good soldier...but I'd say he's a mite ambitious."

"Him (Jim Harrod) and his brother had hunted over in the Illinois country for a time, out of Kaskaskia, and had roamed free amongst the Illinois Indians.  They'd trapped and hunted and shipped their furs down the river to the French, on account of the British not allowing any hunting and trapping west of the mountains."

Cahaba POWS Perished On The Sultana

Cahaba was a Prisoner of War camp where Union prisoners were held.  After being released, the POWs were heading home to the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia.  They boarded the Sultana to take them home; there were survivors, but many died when the Sultana exploded in the Mississippi River.

River at Cahaba, Alabama  

Cahaba Prison (Castle Morgan)

...the steamer "Sultana"...over 1,700 passengers [perished], mostly exchanged prisoners of war... . ...[there was] a terrific explosion (when the boiler burst)... .

Source (Sultana)

She [the Sultana] was a regular St. Louis and New Orleans packet, and left the latter port on her fatal trip April 21, 1865, arriving at Vicksburg, Miss., with about two hundred passengers and crew on board.

  ...on board [were] 1,965 federal soldiers and 35 officers just released from the rebel prisons at Cahaba, Ala., Macon and Andersonville, Ga.... . Besides these there were two companies of infantry under arms, making a grand total of 2,300 souls on board, besides a number of mules and horses, and over one hundred hogsheads of sugar, the latter being in the hold of the boat and serving as ballast. [Source]

First Impressions

From my blog post at the War of 1812 Chronicles:



In March I was contacted by the sponsoring editor of The Library of America's "THE WAR OF 1812: Writings from America's Second War of Independence" who indicated that a complimentary copy would be sent to me in exchange for a book review.

My first impression:

[To see the rest, follow the War of 1812 Chronicles link]

Thomas Brown In The Hornet's Nest

The Hornet's Nest, A novel of the Revolutionary War by Jimmy Carter, is concerned with the war "as it was fought in Georgia and the Carolinas...".

The character of particular interest is Thomas Brown, "organizer and leader of Florida Rangers," who is one of the characters "mentioned in history books, actions fictionalized."

Thomas Brown was Donald Cameron's father-in-law; Donald Cameron MIGHT be an ancestor through his first wife (the jury is still out on that one).

Chapter 21 is entitled, "Thomas Brown, British Spy."  Brown approached Orangeburg [South Carolina], which was sixty miles from his house.  The locals learned from a visitor from Augusta [Georgia] that Brown was "...the king's man... ."  "He's just a damned lieutenant in the British army, but they say he's the bastard son of Lord North....". [He wasn't, according to the novel]  "My cousin went to his house across the Savannah River...where [he's] been given five thousand acres of land...".  "Governor Wright made him a magistrate... ."

According to The Hornet's Nest, "Thomas Brown was actually a native of Yorkshire, born in 1750, and the eldest son of Jonas Brown, a prosperous shipowner."

From the website My Georgia History:

"Thomas Brown, the name can bring cold shivers.  Thomas Brown was born  May 27, 1750, in Whitley of Yorkshire.  His dad was Jonas Brown, and his mother, was Margaret Jackson Brown."

"In 1774, Thomas moved to Georgia and became the next door neighbor to Daniel Marshall, the great pioneer preacher of the “Separate Baptist Movement.”  Marshall had arrived in what is today called Appling [Columbia County, Georgia], then known as Brownsboro."

The King's Ranger: Thomas Brown and the American Revolution..., by Edward J. Cashin, added the following details:

--A member of the family that included Sir Anthony Browne, who was Master of the Horse for King Henry VIII

--Jonas's great-grandfather may have been disinherited because he was Protestant

--Jonas was a native of Whitby

--In 1739 Jonas married a widow, Margaret Jackson (nee Hustrodes?), who was 10 years older and was part of the Newton family

--Jane Browne Linskill was Jonas's aunt from whom he inherited a house

--Children of Jonas and Margaret Browne were Jane, Mary, Margaret, Jonas and Thomas


--Bagdale Hall, where Isaac Newton (a possible relative of Sir Isaac Newton), Thomas's great-grandfather had lived, along with Thomas's grandmother, Adeline (Adeline and Margaret, Thomas's mother, were dead by 1771)

--Jonas remarried

An article about Thomas Brown was published with information about his post-Revolutionary War life.