MAMMOTH CAVE DURING THE 1861-65 OWSLEY LEASE, ANDITS
WARTIME VISITORS

Marion O. Smith and Joseph C. Douglas

Mammoth Cave is North America’s second oldest commercial cave, starting about
1816 following publicity pertaining to the discovery of Indian “mummies.” Its dimensions
and length became legendary and by the middle years of the Nineteenth Century people
from every state or territory had seen some of its passages. Foreign visitors represented
England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Mexico, France, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy,
Australia, India, Peru, various German states, and the Azores. The cave’s literature was
already vast by 1860, with numerous reports by regular tourists or academics appearing
throughout the United States and Europe in letters, diaries, newspapers, travel books,
gazetteers, and scientific journals, touting its vastness, mysteries, pits, domes, and
mineralogy.!

Difficult of access until the Louisville and Nashville Railroad was completed in the
late 1850s, and even then a rough, multi-mile stage ride was necessary, traffic to the cave
grew slowly. Tourism was enhanced by the 1838-39 and 1839-49 owners, Franklin Gorin
and John Croghan, when they enlarged the hotel and built cottages. Annual visitation to
the cave in 1840 was estimated in the 500 to 800 range, while twenty years later it had
increased to several thousand. Most customers came during the summer “season.” In July
1860 the Cave Hotel took in around 987 guests. Although tourists hailed from all over,
Kentucky naturally contributed a large share of the visitors. Also, since Kentucky was
essentially a southern state, before the wa§ many planters from Tennessee, Alabama,
Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, the Carolinas, and even Florida were lured to
Mammoth Cave for “relief from summer’s heat.” But, no matter a visitor’s origin, a stomp
through the cave had the potential to inspire some with “a fuller spectrum of impressions
than several weeks of surface travel.’”

After his death in early 1849, John Croghan, a bachelor, willed the ownership of
the cave to his nieces and nephews, a legal instrument which remained in effect until well
into the Twentieth Century. Under its provisions, trustees working in behalf of the heirs
leased the hotel and cave for extended periods, usually five years. The lessee just prior to
the Civil War, 1856-60, was Larkin J. Procter (1822-1895). His 1857 advertisement
appealed to the romantically inclined that the cave “deserves the reverential devotion of
every true lover of the wonderful . . . . a world shrouded in darkness, yet eclipises the
brightest marvels beneath the sun.’ ,

Defacing cave walls and ceilings, whether by scratches, smoke, charcoal, or spray
paint, is now considered vandalism. That has not always been the prevailing ethic.
Numerous caves throughout America, and world in general, contain graffiti. This is
especially true for the earlier known caves, whether they remained private or were
developed for the public. George Washington in his youth autographed caves in what is
now Jefferson County, West Virginia, and Augusta County, Virginia, and his defacements
are now considered “historical.” Wall inscriptions can complement paper documents and

enhance knowledge about a cave’s human history. Most long-known caves in the United
States have old names, often layers of them. The signatures in the vast majority of caves
are local in origin, or at most regional. Mammoth Cave’s graffiti, however, is America’s
best example of being NATIONAL, and sometimes even international in scope, with many
of the signatories being prominent in their day.*

Inearly 2016 a permit was issued by Mammoth Cave National Park to the authors
and Kristen Bobo to search the old tourist trails for additional Civil War soldier inscriptions
beyond the twenty already known. That goal was amended to include pre and post war
names of individuals who had some association with the war, whether large or small. That
meant people who would either become or had been “somebody” in the conflict, had
kinship ties with a person of note, or just had an interesting story. Probably just about all
Americans who tromped through the avenues of Mammoth Cave during the 1850s, 60s,
and 70s knew or heard of someone in the war, was related to a participant, or took part
themselves. Thus, names scratched both decades before or after 1861-65 could represent
persons who played some role in the war.

Without a register to examine the guests of the Mammoth Cave Hotel for most of
the 1850s, only by studying the literature and graffiti can some of the cave visitors be
determined. 1850 tourist-inscribers included future brothers-in-law Henry M. Skillman
(1824-1902) and William T. Scott (1828-1875) of Lexington, who would respectively
become a contract surgeon and colonel of the 3™ Kentucky Infantry, USA; Basil W. Duke
(1838-1916), also of Lexington, who would become a Confederate brigadier general; and
Nicholas B. Pearce (1828-1894), who had just graduated from West Point, and would in
1861 be an Arkansas brigadier general. On September 1, 1852, Henry L. Douglass (1826-
1906), who would be colonel of the 9 Tennessee Infantry, CSA, at Shiloh, did the Long
Route and signed Franklin Avenue. In June 1854, Charles Sumner (1811-1874), the avid
anti-slavery U.S.senator from Massachusetts, paid his respect to the cave but left no known
scratchings. That same year, on October 22, Oliver W. Dodge (1830-1905), who in 1862
would become a New York cavalryman, autographed Franklin Avenue, and on an unknown
specific 1854 date Tallahassee, Florida, planters George T. Ward (1810-1862) and Robert
H. Gamble (1815-1887), who would be killed as a Southern colonel at Williamsburg,
Virginia, or raise a Confederate artillery battery, signed Gothic Avenue. In 1855 Robert J.
Wingate (1829-1893) of Kentucky, who would be a major on the staff of General Ambrose
P. Hill, CSA, left evidence of his visit in Jesup Avenue. The next year, in July, Andrew
Hickenlooper (1837-1904) of Cincinnati, who would be an artilleryman, staff officer to
Generals James B. McPherson and Francis P. Blair, Jr., USA, and a brevet brigadier
general, left his mark in an upper passage near Pensacola Avenue. Two years later, David
M. Whaley (1822-1862), who would die in Virginia as major of the 5" Texas Infantry,
scratched his name in El Ghor. Many other early to late 1850s cave tourist names have
been recorded from the walls, and undoubtably if all could be identified more with a war
record would be found.°

As the nation slowly drifted toward a break-up, one wonders how much discussion
about the situation took place at the hotel, its grounds, and in the cave. People were
generally there on holiday so did that curtail discussion of serious matters? Opinions almost
certainly were expressed by some guests.

The extent to which Mammoth Cave and its environs were contested ground is not
known. However, on July 4, 1860, many members of the National Blues of the
predominantly pro-Southern Kentucky State Guard, members of the Orpheus Society, and
others, totaling 164, entered the cave under the guidance of Mat Bransford. But due to the
scarcity of boats only ninety-six crossed Echo River. That night the cave was illuminated
as far as the Star Chamber and the Orpheus Society gave a concert. Surely, some people
there commented upon the country’s political situation. About a month later Dr. Erasmus
D. Fenner (1807-1866) of New Orleans, while on a tour at the Devil’s Pedestal, spoke in
favor of electing the Northern Democrat, Stephen Douglas, as president. It was claimed
that many southerners then at the cave advocated Fenner’s views. Early the next February,
after the first wave of secession had occurred, a report circulated that a flatboat on Green
River with “three field pieces” and a “quantity of muskets” concealed under hay landed for
a time near Mammoth Cave, enroute to Vicksburg for the state of Mississippi.°

The survival of the Mammoth Cave Hotel register from July 1858 through 1860
makes it possible to recognize many men who would in some capacity, primarily military,
participate in the upcoming war: Simon B. Buckner (1823-1914), William B. Bate (1826-
1905), St. John R. Liddell (1815-1870), James T. Holtzclaw (1833-1893), George B.
Hodge (1828-1892), Harry T. Hays (1820-1876), and Henry W. Allen (1820-1866) all
became Confederate generals; Jefferson C. Davis (1828-1879), Robert Anderson (1805-
1871), Manning F. Force (1824-1899), and Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893), all became
Union generals, with Anderson commanding Fort Sumter, South Carolina, when the first
shots were fired, and Hayes serving as U.S. president, 1877-81; Edward F. Noyes (1832-
1890) of Ohio was a Union brevet brigadier general; C. Shaler Smith (1836-1886) became
the primary engineer and designer of the Confederate powder works at Augusta, Georgia;
John C. Wrenshall (1834-1926) became a Confederate engineer; William E. Colston (1839-
1864) of Baltimore would die as one of John S. Mosby’s Confederate partisan rangers;
Alexander H. Stephens (1811-1882), a Georgia congressman, became vice president of the
Confederacy; his half brother Linton A. Stephens (1823-1872), became a Confederate
lieutenant colonel; William C.P. Breckinridge (1837-1904) and Charles Wickliffe, Jr.
(1819-1862), of Kentucky became Confederate colonels, with Wyckliffe, a former USA
career soldier, receiving a mortal wound at Shiloh; Beriah Magoffin (1815-1885) who
became Kentucky’s governor during the first half of the war; Felix R.R. Smith (1838-
1920), Henry M. Doak (1841-1928), and Henry C. Yeatman (1831-1910), all of Tennessee,
who became Confederate staff officers; Alfred Pirtle (1837-1926) of Louisville and T.
Brent Swearingen (1834-1905) of Pittsburgh who became Union staff officers; Garrett J.
Pendergrast (1802-1862), a career naval officer who commanded the first Union
blockading ships; Lorenzo Sitgreaves (1810-1888), acareer army officer who as lieutenant

Elb6T
colonel served as a recruiter; West Point cadet Henry W. Kingsbury (1831-1862), who as
colonel of the 11" Connecticut Infantry, would die at Antietam; Robert C. Brinkley (1816-
1878) of Memphis, a wealthy railroad developer who in 1861-62 invested in mining
Arkansas saltpeter caves; Mark Latimer (1837-1905), who became a captain in the 15"
Georgia Infantry, CSA; and Kelion F. Peddicoud (1833-1905), an explorer of Hundred
Dome Cave who became a sergeant in Tom Quick’s Kentucky Confederate scouts. It is
likely that a further examination of the 1858-60 cave hotel guests would yield additional
war participants.’

Effective January 1, 1861, Edward K. Owsley with partners Samuel B. Thomas and
Robert H. Crittenden replaced Larkin J. Procter as the lessees of “Mammoth Cave and
Hotel,” with the intention of “making extensive and very important improvements.”
Thomas (1811-1874) was a contractor from Elizabethtown and Crittenden (1822-1898),
who visited the cave in April 1840, was a son of U.S. Senator John J. Crittenden and a
provision merchant in Louisville with his brother, Thomas L. Crittenden, a future Union
major general. Sometime that year Owsley “purchased the interest of his co lessees.’

Edward King Owsley (March 25, 1820-December 4, 1889), born in Cumberland
County, Kentucky, was a son of Dr. Joel Owsley (1790-1869) and Mary Ann Lewis (1795-
1869), and a nephew of William Owsley (1782-1862), who 1844-48 was the state’s
governor. Nothing is known about E.K.’s early years, but on June 8, 1842, he married
Frances C. Tribble (b.1824) and he fathered three boys between 1843 and 1855. In 1850
he lived in Christian County, but in the latter years of that decade, presumably afterFrances
died, he may have returned to his original home, or perhaps Ballard or Edmonson counties.
Sources are confusing. In 1856 he became a mail contractor between Glasgow and Albany.
He has not been found in the 1860 census, but on August 17 and September 26, while
staying at the Mammoth Cave Hotel, he claimed his residence was Louisville. On
December 3 that year he married Mary Alice Bagby (1841-1927) of Glasgow, daughter of
Albert K. Bagby (1814-1894), a carpenter and furniture maker. Bagby had some
fascination with the underground, visiting Hundred Dome Cave in late 1859, and his father,
Sylvanus M. (1787-1848) and brother, John Courts Bagby (1819-1896) many years earlier
had smoked their names in Mammoth’s Gothic Avenue.?

Owsley’s effortsand activities at the hotel and cave throughout his lease are largely
unknown. During 1861 some repairs were made to “old buildings” about the hotel but the
extent is amystery because the Confederates destroyed the records. Although Bell’s Tavern
at Glasgow Junction (now Park City) had burned on August 10, 1860, a year later stages
continued to run from its site to Mammoth and Diamond Caves, with visitors having the
choice of seeing “one or both caves for [the same] Stage Fare.” However, this route was
probably only available a few more months due to the arrival of the Southern army. The
primary departure point for Mammoth both during and immediately afterthe war was from
the Cave City Hotel kept by Joseph Quigley (c1816-/11870), a Maryland-born carpenter,
and successors next to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Stages were successively

available to the Mammoth Cave Hotel under the partnerships of Thomas and McCoy, Foot
and Walker, and mid-war H. M. Dolby, former guide at Diamond Cave. !9

July and August 1861 Louisville newspapers had advertisements for Mammoth
Cave and its hotel. Claims were asserted that “nothing will be wanting” on Owsley’s “part
to render the great Kentucky wonder even a more powerful attraction” than in the past; or
“that the accommodations are unequalled by any . . . summer resort.”!!

Owsley and his erstwhile partners took over Mammoth Cave amid the secession
crisis. South Carolina only days earlier had withdrawn from the union, and by February 1,
1861, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas had done the same.
Albert D. Richardson (1833-1869), a correspondent for the New York Tribune traveling
under cover to gauge the conditions and sentiments in the South, noted that on his February
26 train ride from Louisville to Cave City, passengers “were about equally divided into
enthusiastic Secessionists . .. and quasi Loyalists” with no one declaring “himself
unqualifiedly for the [U.S.] Government.” That night he spent “several” hours in White’s
Cave and the next day did a variation of the Short Route in Mammoth. On April 12 Fort
Sumter in Charleston harbor was fired on and during the next two months Virginia, North
Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee also seceded and joined the new Confederate States of
America. !?

The disturbed condition of the country caused a decrease in traffic to Mammoth
Cave. During 1861 Owsley reputedly did not make $1,500 “for exhibiting the cave,” the
amount under the lease he was entitled for lighting oil and guides. The summer season was
usually the busiest time, but the number of visitors to the cave and hotel are unknown for
any part of that year.}3

On June 25, 1861, Jason A. Niles (1814-1894), a Vermont-born, Attala County,
Mississippi, lawyer, en route north, did a three hour Short Route jaunt through the cave
with a Frenchman, M. Barouche, two other tourists, and a guide, noting the saltpeter works,
Gothic Chapel, Star Chamber, and Bottomless Pit. Some other time, probably also during
the warm months, Rufus Waples (1825-1902), a Delaware-born New Orleans educatorand
lawyer, with two companions, possibly did the Long Route, since he “visited Echo and
Lethe rivers.” In July 1861 Michael H. Owsley (1834-1891), a younger brother of E.K.’s,
with C. [or G?] P. Bixby, both signed the walls in the Labyrinth and near the Valley Way
Side Cut area of Silliman Avenue. That very month, on the 25", M. H. Owsley, a lawyer
from Burkesville, became captain of Company I, 18' Kentucky Cavalry, USA, transferring
to the 5" Kentucky Cavalry the following October 1 as major. Owsley and Bixby were
probably in the cave with Eugene A. Bagby (1839-1912), E.K. Owsley’s brother-in-law,
who autographed the Labyrinth with his initials and surname with the date, “July 18”
1861.” E.K. Owsley’s father-in-law, A. K. Bagby, sometime that year signed the wall in
Riggs/Charlotte’s Dome with Samuel M. Merwin (1828-1897), a Louisville bookkeeper
and native of Connecticut. During August James C. Rupert (b. c1811), a wealthy Mobile
merchant, originally from Georgia, scratched his name in an obscure area near the start of
River Hall, with an incomplete “S Confed .. .” below on a broken edge, possibly at one

time reading “S Confederacy.” In Gratz Avenue a Southern sympathizer scribbled “Hurrah
for Jeff Davis June 1861,” with someone later scratching through it, and in El Ghor during
July Henry Shavil? signed a drawing of what appears to be Abraham Lincoln. That year in
the same passage “W. M Jones La” and “J H Barbour” signed the walls. Elsewhere, 1861
graffiti in Mammoth includes “Leslie” in the Main Passage a hundred feet before the turn
into Cyclops Gateway; “J W Martin” and illegible names with “June 20 1861” written
inside the first T.B. hut; and “Mollie Ketchum N Ketchum,” “J H SPEE,” and “J H
Simmons 7/26/61” in Gothic Avenue. !4

During May 1861 Kentucky’s legislature resolved that the state “should . .. occupy

. Strict neutrality.” For several months this position was loosely observed although

Kentuckians volunteered for both the Union and Confederate armies across the Ohio River
in Indiana and Ohio, and near Clarksville, Tennessee. In July Camp Dick Robinson was
established on a low profile basis for Federal recruits near Frankfort. For a while trains on
the Louisville and Nashville Railroad continued to move goods to Nashville, even though
the U.S. treasury department had decreed on May 2 that doing so was illegal. The railroad
president, James Guthrie, ignored the order and kept up the illicit trade because of the high
profits. But in July, Tennessee’s Governor Isham G. Harris seized his state’s portion of the
railroad .!>

Neutrality ended September 4, 1861, when rebel forces under General Leonidas
Polk occupied Columbus in western Kentucky, and Paducah was seized two days later by
Union troops under U. S. Grant. Then on September 17 Brigadier General Simon B.
Buckner moved from Camp Boone, Montgomery County, Tennessee, on the Memphis
branch of the L.&N. Railroad, and the next day took over Bowling Green with about 4,000
men. During the ensuing months additional soldiers were sent to both vicinities, with the
Southerners eventually numbering around 24,500 at and near Bowling Green, organized
into two divisions (William J. Hardee’s and Buckner’s) in what they called the Central
Army of Kentucky. Scouts and probes were sent in all directions except south, but there
was little actual fighting. The bulk of the Confederate concentration was at Bowling Green,
but at times Russellville, Hopkinsville, Cave City, and other places were within their
sphere. Hardee was at Cave City the last third of October before falling back. Then later,
by December 12, his division’s first brigade, headed by Brigadier General Thomas C.
Hindman, was stationed at the “advance position” at Cave City and Bell’s (Park City). !°

The arrival of the Confederate army near Mammoth Cave likely caused civilian
visitation to essentially stop. When the first Confederates got to the cave is not known. But
it could have been as early as October 1861. At the end of that month General Hindman,
then at Rocky Hill Station some six miles west of Bell’s (Park City), reported he had pickets
“thrown out to the distance of from 5 to 8 miles, in the direction of Brownsville, Mammoth
Cave, Cave City, and Glasgow” among other places. On the 27" “Lt J Cameron Arks,”
probably the same as John Frayser Cameron (1840-1882), a junior officer in the 18"
Arkansas (Marmaduke’s) Infantry, inscribed the ceiling along the Black Snake Passage.
Then at various times, especially December 4-7, 1861, and February 3-7, 1862, men from

the 8" (Terry’s) Texas Cavalry and “Morgan’s Squadron” (the first three companies of
what became the 2"¢ Kentucky Cavalry, CSA) visited the cave, leaving their names at/near
the Wooden Bowl Room, Cyclops Gateway, and Gothic Avenue. Reportedly, on December
13, two Alabama officers rode their horses to the cave and forced Owsley to guide them
through. After that Owsley and his family deemed it too dangerous to stay and refugeed to
Frankfort, arriving by the 16". Presumably before he left the Confederates threatened to
burn the hotel and notified Owsley to remove “valuable personal property” from it and the
“cabins.” Much of the property was stored in the cave, and the safe containing the register
and accounts was rolled into the yard. Soon, Southern troops “commenced depridations
upon the property,” destroying much of the furniture, broke open the safe and took the
papers, but did not burn the hotel and cottages.!7

On February 6, 1862, Union forces captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River.
The next day General Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederate commander of “Department
No. 2,” including the Central Army of Kentucky, ordered the evacuation of Bowling Green
and a retreat to Nashville. He also sent a portion of his men under Generals John B. Floyd
and S. B. Buckner to help defend Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in Tennessee.
Within two weeks south-central Kentucky was clear of Confederates. !8

Meanwhile, for five or more months, tens of thousands of Northern soldiers had
been gathering at Louisville and points south. Newly recruited regiments were slowly
organized into brigades and divisions and designated the Army of the Ohio under the
successive leadership of Generals Robert Anderson, William T. Sherman, and finally Don
Carlos Buell. Gradually, this multitude advanced via Elizabethtown, Nevin Creek, Bacon
Creek, and by December many were camped at and near Munfordville. Others were to the
east at Columbia and other locations. !?

Starting February 13, 1862, the Army of the Ohio crossed the Green River at
Munfordville and moved forward by divisions. Thus for the next month or so many
thousands of soldiers haltingly pushed to and past the Mammoth Cave region en route to
Bowling Green and Nashville. E. K. Owsley returned to the hotel February 19, about the
time Union troops were beginning to avail themselves of the opportunity to see the cave.
Two days later several groups toured portions of the cave, including supposedly Brigadier
General Alexander McD. McCook, commander of the Second Division, some of his staff
officers, and men from the 34" Illinois and 49" Ohio. Also that day Owsley himself
accompanied members of Battery D, 18‘ Ohio Light Artillery (Konkle’s Cleveland Battery)
through the cave. He vowed to “immediately .. . repair and refurnish the house [hotel] and
would be ready to receive guests in .. . two months.” Other soldiers, representing the 78"
Pennsylvania, 15 Ohio, 4 Ohio Cavalry, 39" Indiana, 26" Pennsylvania Battery, and
possibly the 13 Michigan, also visited the cave during February. Lieutenant Alanson J.
Stevens (c1837-1863) of the 26" Battery and nephew of Congressman Thaddeus Stevens,
merely reported that it was “a pretty large hole in the ground” and had been mined for
saltpeter. Probably that month, John Pearson (1836-1911), a private in Company D, 39%
Indiana, smoked his name in Gothic Avenue.?°

During March passing soldiers from the 7 and 9" Pennsylvania Cavalry, the 9®
and 35 Indiana Infantry, and the 3™ Ohio Cavalry visited the cave. Lieutenant Frank P.
Gross (1834-1904) of the 9" Indiana and James M. Burg (c1835/41-1877), Rose J. Parks
(1838-1922), John Lindsey (1839-1864), Charles S. Kelsey (c1828-1898), and Howard H.
Coates (b. c1838), all enlisted men of the 3 Cavalry, scratched their names in Gothic
Avenue and at the start of Gratz Avenue. The management wanted to furnish a guide to the
3'4 Cavalry boys and charge them one dollar each. But they provided their own candles and
went in without paying. Officers of the 35" Indiana, protesting the promotion of Major
John E. Balfe (c1832-1891), charged that he “took a large number” of that unit’s
commissioned personnel, including the “officer of the guard at the bridge over Green river
—a most responsible post — and the band of the regiment, on an excursion to Mammoth
Cave, all without leave of absence.” That month one officer each from the 38 Indiana and
9th Pennsylvania Cavalry and two officers and two enlisted soldiers from the 11" Michigan
Infantry registered at the hotel and paid to see the cave. One of the latter, Orin J. Ford
(1837-1928), left his initials and surname in Main Cave well beyond the T.B. huts. The 9
Cavalry was moving through the area and the 11" was scattered about, guarding the L.&N.
Railroad. Also in March, Owsley’s father-in-law, A. K. Bagby was back in the cave,
signing the Labyrinth. On March 17 and 18 Owsley re-hired Samuel L. “Sank” Meredith
(1824-1910), a local farmer, as a guide, and Richard Holden/Holton for unspecified work.
On March 25-26, around April 10, 12, and 14-15, E.K. Owsley made sojourns to Bowling
Green, Mt. Sterling, and Cave City, the purposes of which are unknown.?!

On March 27 former U.S. Senator, Joseph R. Underwood (1791-1876), a lawyer
and trustee of the owners of Mammoth Cave, visited its hotel and grounds. Six days later
he made his report of Owsley’s “affairs” for 1861. As already noted there “no profits” and
the losses caused by the Confederates were “very heavy” although Owsley did recover “a
large number of bed steads & wash stands,” as well as the damaged piano. Owsley believed
it was “out of his power to comply with his contract” and wanted the “cestulque trusts”
(those named in the will of former John Croghan) to “consent to some modification for his
relief.” Underwood was sympathetic to such, but it is not known if Owsley’s agreement
was altered in any way.??

From April to July 1862 most of the military guests and cave visitors were from the
11 Michigan, still guarding the railroad, and the 60“ Indiana, part of the Munfordville
garrison. A smathering of soldiers from the 4% Kentucky Cavalry, 9 Pennsylvania
Cavalry, 28" Kentucky, E.K.’s brother, John Q., from the 5" Kentucky Cavalry, Assistant
Surgeon Benjamin Howard (1836-1900), and two soldiers from Louisville named Smith
made up the rest. Doctor Howard left his mark on the wall of the Main Passage. Civilian
traffic during these months was about 217, making the total near 256, not quite one seventh
of the 1860 visitation. A Louisville paper on May 15 announced that the senior class of
Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, with Professor of Natural Sciences, Ormond Beatty
(1815-1890), and a few citizens planned to leave on June 9 to visit the cave. Their departure

was moved up and May 23-24 some thirty of this group arrived at the hotel, with most
actually taking the cave tour.??

The war again came close to Mammoth Cave in May and July due to raids by the
Kentucky Confederate partisan, John Hunt Morgan. On May 11, with a small party, he
captured and burned a train at Cave City and captured a second train, but allowed it to
return to Louisville. The following July 4, Morgan led a larger force into Kentucky,
captured Major Thomas J. Jordan and thirty men of the 9" Pennsylvania Cavalry at
Tompkinsville, and at Glasgow burned commissary and medical supplies and captured a
couple hundred guns. From there he moved on to Horse Cave, Lebanon, Georgetown,
Cynthiana, and back south, creating mischief along the way, and returned to Tennessee on
the 29%++

Between Morgan’s raids, on June 12, 1862, Sir Thomas Tobin (1807-1881), a
prominent Cork, Ireland, businessman, and a “young companion,” Charles Cleburne,
formerly also of Cork but then from Newport, Kentucky, arrived at the hotel. Owsley met
and conducted them “to spacious rooms kept scrupulously clean, well ventilated and lofty,
the table most abundantly served .. . , with every thing the most fastidious could desire,
and attended by a most obliging, civil, clean and attentive waiter, ‘James.’” The same day
they were guided through the Short Route by Sank Meredith, represented as an eight year
veteran at the cave. At Sidesaddleand Bottomless Pits, estimated at eighty and one hundred
twenty feet, Meredith threw lighted pieces of paper for illumination. Gothic Avenue was
“reached by ascending some frail but perfectly safe wooden steps.”?°

Hostilities once more occurred nearby on August 17, when portions of five Union
home guard units “overtook a company of guerrillas two and a half miles from the
Mammoth Cave,” near John Demonbreun’s place. One or two rebels were killed, a few
wounded, and most of the others captured, variously estimated from fifty-eight to seventy-
seven. The home guards were joined by “F. M. Kelly from Mammoth Cave, who... .
rendered efficient service, he being the only man . . . from the Cave.”2°®

During September, October, and early November major military movements by
both the Confederate and Union armies took place not far from the cave, no doubt affecting
tourism. General Braxton Bragg’s Southern Army of Mississippi (later designated
Tennessee) invaded Kentucky and passed to the east of the Mammoth Cave region,
temporarily occupying Glasgow and Cave City. There was fighting at Munford ville where
4,000 Union soldiers under Colonel John T. Wilder surrendered on September 17. The
Army of the Ohio under Buell came up from Tennessee and both armies marched toward
Louisville. Bragg turned east toward Bardstown and the last of Buell’s men got to
Louisville by the 29". Buell then moved southeast and the major battle of the campaign
occurred October 8 at Perryville. Technically, it was a drawn fight, but Bragg immediately
began leaving the state, eventually going out by way of Cumberland Gap. The Union army
broke off its pursuit near London on the 16", and worked its way west, generally toward
the line of the L.&N. Railroad. Once more huge numbers of soldiers passed near Mammoth
Cave, and many officers and men availed themselves of the opportunity for a visit.27

Between October 24 and November 3 men from the 4" Michigan Cavalry, Battery
D of the 18 Michigan Light Artillery, 15 Pennsylvania Cavalry, 17, 318t, 38%, 5224, 7314,
and 79 Ohio Infantry, 15, 74", 82°4, and 87" Indiana Infantry, 36", 74%, 86", and 1024
Illinois Infantry, plus “a party of the signal and cavalry escort” toured the cave. On October
30 Frank B. James (1842-1916) of the 52"4 Ohio traversed portions of the commercial trails
“under the direction” of Adjutant Charles H. Blackburn, and left his name near Bottomless
Pit. The same evening the 36" Illinois party ate at the hotel, and “under the guidance” of
Mat Bransford entered Mammoth “about 5 p.m. and kept up a pretty steady gait until
between 12 and 1 at night.” They declared the cave to be “a big side show to the Army of
the Ohio . . . worth a dozen Niagaras to look at.” A military group of thirty-two on
November 2 included Colonels John M. Connell (1829-1882) and Morton C. Hunter (1825-
1896) of the 17" Ohio and 82"4 Indiana, and Lieutenant Colonel Frederick W. Lister (1825-
1900) of the 31°' Ohio. Six from this entourage autographed the cave, Lister near the
Wooden Bowl Room, and Lewis T. Swezy (1840-1912) from the 74" Illinois, Alexander
T. Lick (1836-1864), Samuel J. Moore (1832-1898), William W. Hays (1820-1900), and
George W. Brower (b.c1832) of the 82"4 Indiana, all near the beginning of Gothic Avenue.
The “Signal and cavalry escort” men “went to the farthest extremity of the cave,” and in
Washington Hall they “erected a monument to Generals [James S.] Jackson, [William R.]
Terrell [Terrill], and [William] Nelson, all Kentucky heroes,” recently killed at Perryville
or in a personal altercation.®

The bulk of the Army of the Ohio (soon to be renamed Cumberland) was south of
the Mammoth Cave area by the first week of November. From the 8" of that month until
the end of the year the hotel register shows about thirty-seven military guests. It appears
that a minority were personnel heading south to Tennessee, such as Ambrose G. Bierce
(1842-c1914) of the 9™ Indiana Infantry, a future famous journalist and writer, and the
majority, like those from the 23' Michigan, were assigned to various positions in
Kentucky. However, two far-flung soldiers, Silas R. Wilson (1829-1863) of the 108®
Illinois on November 10, and John B. Coon (1834-1906) of the 105" Pennsylvania about
December 19, signed the walls in Cleaveland and Silliman Avenues.??

Civilian visitation during the last two months of the year was very light, perhaps
only some three dozen. Non-military 1862 Mammoth Cave graffiti, other than Owsley’s
in-laws, A.K. and E.A. Bagby, includes “John Rule” during May and “A J Whipps EH
Whipps” plus “V Black Fannie Black,” all on “June 17".” Rule (1837-1925), with the
Centre College group, became a Presbyterian minister. Andrew J. Whipps (1815-1891), a
trader, and his wife, Elizabeth H. Adamson (1819-1911) were from Maysville, while
Villie (1834-1879) and Fannie Worthington Black (1845-1899), honeymooners, were
residents of Flemingsburg later moving to Cincinnati, where Villie was a tobacconist.?°

Although less than the ante bellum years, tourism at Mammoth Cave improved
during 1863. The hotel register reveals about 625 patrons who probably were civilians.
Most of the paying military customers were from units belonging to the Department of the
Ohio posted at various Kentucky locales, such as Henderson, Green River, Munford ville,

Glasgow, and Bowling Green. In this category were men from the 9" and 12 Kentucky,
5 Indiana, and 14" Illinois Cavalry, Henshaw’s Illinois, 24 Indiana and 6 Michigan
Batteries, and the 13, 16", and 27 Kentucky, 80" and 915‘ Indiana, 25 Michigan, 107%
Illinois, and 111" Ohio Infantry. Other uniformed travelers were of course from outfits
going to or from active operations in Tennessee and points South. 1863 army cave visitors
included Colonels James Monroe (1832-1863), 123'4Illinois, who would be killed October
7 at Farmington, Tennessee, January 3; Isaac P. Gray (1828-1895), 4" Indiana Cavalry,
1880s governor of Indianaand 1890s minister to Mexico, January 11; John H. Ward (1835-
1908), 27" Kentucky, August 6; Daniel Leasure (1819-1866), a brigade leader in the 9%
Army Corps, September 9; and James McMannomy (1824-1906), 634 Indiana, around
October 29; Lieutenant Colonel David P. Jenkins (1823-1915), 14" Illinois Cavalry, June
4; and Second Lieutenant James R. Hindman (1839-1912), 13" Kentucky, 1883-87
lieutenant governor, about July 21. Lieutenants John S. Steen and John F(S). Anderson
(1833-1891) of the 14" Illinois Cavalry left their names in Silliman Avenue May 31 and
about June 25; First Lieutenant John W. “Wad” Wallace (1846-1878), 16" Kentucky, aide-
de-camp to Brigadier General Mahlon D. Manson, smoked his presence in Main Cave and
Cleaveland Avenue about June 1; Quartermaster Francis W. Crosby (1823-1909), 10%
Iowa Infantry, from General William T. Sherman’s reinforcements to Chattanooga,
scratched his identifying data in Croghan Hall near the Maelstrom November 13; and
Captain Benjamin V. Banks (c1833-1868) and Lieutenant Nathan G. Butler, both from the
13 Kentucky, carved their name or initials on an overhang in Gothic Avenue on or about
July 21.7!

Brothers from the 25" Michigan, Second Lieutenant Asa W. (1832-1907) and
Corporal Chester M. Slayton (1834-1916), were stationed at Munfordville building
fortifications. On January 6, 1863, they and Privates Luke A. Long of the 1018 Ohio and
John Garrison of the 123" Illinois were guided by Nick Bransford through both the long
and short routes of the cave, which Asa later reported to the Grand Rapids Weekly Eagle.
Asa sought a return trip, writing E.K. Owsley on February 4 wanting to know if the river
in the cave could “be crossed by the last of next week.” Owsley replied the next day that
the river was high and recent “heavy rains” had saturated the ground to the extent that the
Long Route would not be open until Spring. Slayton wanted Nick to collect for him more
blind fish, but Owsley pointed out that the river was “unfavorable it being too muddy.”
Asa Slayton probably did not return to the cave that winter or spring. He did stay at the
hotel November 6, 1863, but it is not known if he made another entry into the cave.>2

Collecting blind fish was an activity carried on at Mammoth Cave long before the
war, with the guides often pocketing pay for catching them. About May 23, 1863, David
Nelson Wheeler (1830-1881), then “the Eastern agent of the Chicago and Galena Union
Railroad,” visited the cave and “procured for the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, a
finely preserved specimen.”

Not all soldiers who wanted to see the cave got there. At Munfordville on July 4,
1863, “Willie” of the 27" Kentucky noted that “about eight or nine o’clock” that morning

“a number of ‘shoulder straps’ and some others of subordinate rank began to apply to the
Colonel . .. for permission to go to the Mammoth Cave,” which was granted. ““They waited
at the depot . . . for the cars, but they didn’t come.” Instead, it was learned that John H.
Morgan with his raiders, this time en route for the Ohio River, were nearby fighting at
Tebb’s Bend on the Green River. The men were ordered back to camp and sent to the
fortifications, thus ending their “July spree” before it got started. The next fall, when
headed south to reinforce the beleaguered Federal army at Chattanooga, the train carrying
Lieutenant Robert Cruikshank of Company H, 123™ New York Infantry, briefly stopped at
Cave City. The lieutenant considered staying overnight and visiting the cave, but fearing
he might be captured by guerrillas he “decided to go on.” During March 1864, Private
Frank W. Draper, Company D, 35" Massachusetts, journeyed from eastern Kentucky to
tour the cave. But at Cave City he was held in arrest “several hours” because he did not
have a proper pass, and returned to his duty station without accomplishing his objective.34

Mammoth Cave’s attributes seem to have been more advertised in 1863 than the
year before, especially in the Louisville and Nashville papers. In early June the cave was
announced ready “for... visitors,” with the “Long Route. .. open, and likely to remain so
during the summer.” E. K. Owsley kept “good hotel accommodations,” and the season
promised “to be a brilliant one.” Near the end of July the Long Route was still open and it
was claimed that the cave was “again attracting the attention of the people,” with “a large
number of visitors in . . . attendance.” Owsley had “attached to the hotel a large garden
from which he daily draws fresh vegetables.” “Now is the time to visit” the cave one ad
read .3>

On July 24, 1863, twelve days after resigning as major of the 5 Kentucky Cavalry,
John Quincy Owsley signed in at the Cave Hotel. By early the next year he became a
partner with his brother E. K. Owsley in the lease of Mammoth Cave and hotel.?°

The next month, August 19-21, the mulatto, Mat Bransford (c1818/21-c1886),
Mammoth Cave guide since 1839, was allowed to visit Louisville, and while there had his
photograph taken at “Brown’s daguerrean saloon.” He was a son of Thomas Bard
Bransford (1767-1853) by a slave woman. After his father’s death he was owned by his
half-brother, Thomas L. Bransford (1804-1865), a native of Virginia, and successively a
resident of Barren County, Kentucky, Jackson County, Tennessee, Barren County again,
and Edgefield, Davidson County, Tennessee. He was a merchant and in 1839-41 was a
Tennessee state representative. In 1860 he was listed as having real estate worth $104,000
and personal property, including slaves, worth $60,000. At the time of Mat’s trip to
Louisville, Thomas L. was characterized as “a seeker of his ‘rights’ in the South,” meaning
he was a refugee. He died at Union Springs, Alabama, February 26, 1865.77

Also during August, Frederick James Stevenson (1835-1926), an English engineer,
traveler, and member of the Royal Geographical Society, was at the cave making
explorations. He wrote decades later that the Cave Hotel “had been pretty well deserted
since the war began” and “all the time” he “was there almost the only visitors were
soldiers.” He recalled that when he arrived, three Kentuckians and Owsley with his wife

and family were the only ones present, besides the hotel personnel and guides. His
impression of the eatables served was none too high. One meal would “suffice for all, for
there was never any variation . .. , whether at breakfast, dinner or supper. The food
invariably consisted of chickens, ham, corn bread, tomatoes, honey and blackberries; and
the drinks were always weak tea (even at dinner), cold water and milk.” The waiters were
believed to be Owsley’s chattels, George, Jim, and Jeff, along with two young black girls
“with brushes of pea-hens feathers” who had the duty of shooing “the flies off the table
and guests.” Chickens “ran about the premises by hundreds,” and “before each meal,” four
black children, “the progeny of ... George,” chased them, “knocking them over with sticks
and stones.”38

During Stevenson’s stay, Nick Bransford in multiple entries, led him “to every part
of the Cave usually visited by tourists,” as well as Roaring River, Mammoth Dome, and to
“other parts not .. . accessible to any but the Cave guides.” Owsley (presumably E. K.)
suggested that he go downthe Maelstrom Pit to check the high “avenue” off the side which
William C. Prentice had seen during the first descent in 1858. Owsley supplied anew rope
and a group of about twenty made their way there, including Nick Bransford, Frank M.
DeMonbreun (1829-1877), two retired white guides, five of Owsley’s “colored people,”
including George, a man from Boston, three girls, some officers and soldiers from the hotel,
and others. Stevenson, Frank, and Nick were lowered down the drop. Part way up the ninety
or so foot shaft they managed to get into a short alcove but that was all, leaving “FJS
ENGLAND 1863 Louisa Stevenson 1863 JS,” “FJS ENG,” and “FMD NICK B” scratched
on the walls. Why Louisa’s name is there is unexplained. No woman is supposed to have
descended. On another day Stevenson claimed to have lowered a boat built by one of
Owsley’s workers down a pit near and below Gorin’s Dome and explored a long distance,
partly with Nick, along what he called the Lost River.>?

On September 2, 1863, “L,” a correspondent at the cave, noted that it had been
“isolated from the world of travelers” who “once” visited in sizeable numbers, and for “two
years” had been “abandoned to . . . solitude with but occasional interruptions from
unexpected visitors.” But that “monotony has been broken” because “Several large parties”
during the past month have “shared the princely hospitality of our old friend Owsley.”
Included were “a newly-married couple and their happy retinue, embracing half a dozen
ladies and their escorts from Christian and Trigg counties [Kentucky].” Tourists could
“now visit this . . . resort with ease and perfect safety.”’4°

From at least September 23 until October 25, 1863, the Nashville Daily Union ran
an ad touting Mammoth Cave as “the Greatest Curiosity in the World.” Directions were
given, via the L.&N. Railroad to Cave City and Quigley’s hotel, and from thére on “M. H.
Dolby’s new and elegant line of coaches.” At the Cave Hotel “every arrangement has been
made to exhibit” the cave “during the Fall and Winter of 1863-64.” Citizens and soldiers
were encouraged to “visit the ‘Cave,’ and also ‘Osceola [Indian] Cave’ directly on the road
to the hotel.””4!

The effectiveness of the advertising is questionable. That fall a writer for the
Springfield (Illinois) Republican also observed that before the war Mammoth “was resorted
to by thousands yearly, but now few find their way. .. . Yet Mr. Owsley, .. . proprietor . .
., and a staunch Union man bides his time and waits in patience for the day when his house

. . Shall again be filled.” To drum up business, in late October Owsley advertised that
starting “November 3, and continuing several days,” there would be a “Big Deer Hunt” or
“Drive” near Mammoth Cave. The success of this event was likely minimal, if it even took
place, given the paucity of visitors at the hotel during that time.‘

On October 28, 1863, Minot J. Savage (1841-1918) of Maine and several fellow
employees of the U.S. Christian Commission plus officers of the 63" Indiana arrived at the
Cave Hotel about 10 A.M. Although the place was “out of regular hours,” Savage made
arrangements to see the cave. He too reported that the “war [had] caused much
interruption,” but thought “visitors are now increasing.” Savage and Edward Hawes (1835-
1911), also of Maine, and probably others, toured the cave from “three & a half o clock
P.M. and came out at a quarter past one the next morning,” indicating that they did the
Long Route. Savage made no effort to describe the cave and soon he and the other U.S.C.C.
workers resumed their journey northward .**

Between November 5 and December 29, 1863, a minimum of fifteen soldiers,
predominantly officers, representing the 2" Ohio Heavy Artillery, 18 and 25 Michigan,
18 Wisconsin, 35" Kentucky, and 10 Iowa Infantry regiments, and the 8 Iowa Cavalry
stayed at the Cave Hotel. Included were Captain Madison M. Walden (1836-1891),
Company H, 8" Iowa Cavalry, future Iowa legislator, lieutenant governor (1870-71) and
U.S congressman (1871-73), and Captain Myron W. Reed (1836-1899), 18" Michigan,
later a Congregationalist minister and first president of Charity Organizations Society in
Denver (1887), now the United Way. In addition, sixty-five enlisted men of the 8%
Michigan Infantry were present November 12, presumably to see the cave. That day too
another member of the U.S. Christian Commission, this time from St. Louis, was there.44

Civilians who signed the walls of the cave in 1863 include “W.S. Ragland & wife
June 17” at Great Relief; “C. H. Law CIN Ohio June,” and “George Evans Columbus” in
Pensacola Avenue, “John Lilianthal,” “Mary Adams,” and “J. B. Tyler’ in Silliman
Avenue and “J. C. Smith” in Croghan Hall. William Stump Ragland (1835-1909) and
Susan Elizabeth Devin (1840-1919) were Bowling Green residents. Georgia native Charles
Henry Law (1845-1904) was a bank teller. More than one George Evans lived in
Columbus, Ohio, but the one (1829-1905) who probably toured the cave around September
12 was twice married, to Abbie and then Sarah Elizabeth. Mary Leland Adams (1844-
1893) and John B. Tyler (1834-1905) were likely on the same trip about July 27, which
included Mary’s future husband, John J. Hilburn. Tyler, a pre-war farmer from Butler
County, was between enlistments. On June 19, because of a leg wound received at Stones
River, he resigned as captain, Company C, 11 Kentucky Mounted Infantry. Later, he
became major in the 52"? Kentucky Mounted Infantry. John C. Smith (1843-1929) of
Newark, New Jersey, during late May inscribed his name and former military unit,

Company C, 7" New Jersey Infantry, but he had been discharged for disability the previous
September. Later, he became a lieutenant in the 33™ New Jersey.*>

The number of soldiers who registered at the Mammoth Cave Hotel in 1864 was
lower than the year before. The ones who did more often than not were from units stationed
in Kentucky, such as the 18‘ Kentucky and 12 Ohio Cavalry. 35" Kentucky and 139%
Indiana Infantry, and 2°4 Ohio Heavy Artillery, or Tennessee, including the 15t Ohio Heavy
Artillery, Battery D of the 18‘ Michigan Light Artillery, and 4" U.S. Artillery, as well as
the 16" Iowa and 18" Michigan Infantry. Further, an unknown progression of other troops
passed the area and some of them visited the cave without staying at the hotel.*®

By March 30 E. K. and J. Q. Owsley were definitely partners. They were then “fully
prepared for the visiting season.” The hotel and Mammoth Cave were to be under the
“immediate supervision” of J. Q. and the hotel at Cave City, presumably the one formerly
operated by Quigley, would be kept by E. K. How long this arrangement was in force is
not known.*7

Several visits to Mammoth Cave by army personnel, sometimes accompanied by
their wives, took place in April 1864. A soldier identifying himself only as Winfield” on
the 26 wrote home that his Iowa unit left Vicksburg on the 8 and moved by boat north
on the Mississippi River to Illinois and then by rail via Louisville and Nashville, arriving
at Huntsville, Alabama, on the 19". Enroute at midnight on the 14", the train stopped at
Cave City, and the next day “Winfield” made a “hasty visit” to the cave. He procured a
guide but did “not have time to explore” as he “wished,” and “only went as far as the

‘Bottomless Pit,’” where he “hurled a stone.’’4°

Sometime between April 17 and 27, probably about mid-way, the 17" Indiana
Mounted Infantry of Colonel John T. Wilder’s Lightning Brigade, on horseback en route
to Columbia, Tennessee, from leave in Indiana, reached the vicinity of the cave. Assistant
Surgeon of the regiment, General William Harrison Kemper (1839-1927) and others took
the opportunity to do the Short Route:

We came near Mammoth Cave and I rode by with several others to visit that
great natural curiosity. We had but a short time to stay and were in the cave
only three hours. We visited several avenues and altogether traveled six miles.
I was well repaid for my extra trouble in going to see it. We were furnished
with lamps and conducted by a guide who showed and explained each local
object of interest to us. We saw the “Church” soon after entering, where in
olden times the word of God was preached to the early settlers, also “Gorin’s
Dome,” “Star Chamber,” “Giant’s Coffin,” “Bottomless Pit” “Old arm chair”
and many other curious objects. The last one was named “Lover’s Leap,”
which is a long narrow pointed rock overhanging a considerable abyss. .. . I
broke off several stalactites and brought them away with me.*?

On April 24 William H. Greenwood (1832-1880), captain of Company H, 51*
Illinois and aide-de-camp and topographical engineer on the staff of Major General David
S. Stanley in Tennessee, and his wife, Eveline Duncan Knight (1834-1912) were hotel
patrons who did the Short Route. Three days later, Brigadier General Hugh B. Ewing
(1826-1905), brother-in-law of General William T. Sherman, and his lady, Henrietta
Elizabeth Young (1834-1927), several staff members with the spouses of three, Captain
Hendrick D. Baker (c1845-1897) and Lieutenant Ranson C. Hazelip (1838-1898) of
Company B, 35" Kentucky, plus Harry W. Harvey and eighteen of his 2"4 Ohio Heavy
Artillery band toured the cave.°°

Also on April 27, 1864, two Providence, Rhode Island, residents, John Talbot
Pitman (c1813-1892), an officer, up to colonel, in three of his state’s units, and William
W. Brown (1806-1877), a pre-war colonel and major general of militia, and in 1861 briefly
a captain in the 1° Rhode Island Infantry, also got to the cave. They were headed north
from a paymaster assignment at Chattanooga and vicinity. That morning they boarded a
train at Nashville and reached Cave City about 1 P.M. What happened next Pitman reported
days later in St. Louis:

We... the Col. [Brown] three ladies & a little boy of one of them & self
took stage for Mammoth Cave and arriving there about 4 found the Hotel
occupied by Gen Ewing Commandant of the West Divn of Ky & a large party
consisting of a company each of Infantry & Cavalry a band of music some
ten ladies & five or six of his staff—They had entered the cave about 8 in the
morming & were expected out about 8 in the evening undertaking what is
called the long route. . .. We entered the cave at 7 and after walking about 7
miles (the Short route) came out abt 11 — on the way in met Gen Ewing’s
party and the Band stopped and played three or four tunes. . . . The next
morning [28] took stage back to Cave City & then train to Louisville. . . .°!

On April 28 Ruth Anne Browne Dodge (1833-1916), wife of Major General
Grenville M. Dodge, and their daughters Lettie (1855-1935) and Eleanor “Ellie” (1858-
1931) did the Short Route. Belle Zilfa (1840-1867), spouse of Colonel George E. Spencer,
chief of staff for General Dodge; First Lieutenant George M. Bailey (1843-1909) of the 1*
Alabama Cavalry, USA, and Marina “Minnie” P. Howard (1833-1870), whose husband,
Colonel Moses M. Bane, commanded one of General Dodge’s brigades, all took the Long
Route.°

Only three soldiers stayed at the hotel during June: Italian-born Lieutenant Louis
Baer (1838-1913) of Company K, 2°4 Ohio Heavy Artillery, Brigadier General John
McArthur (1828-1906) of Chicago, and his assistant adjutant general William M. F.
Randall (1834-1891) of Shelbyville, Indiana. Baer, part of the garrison at Munfordville,
scribbled his name in El Ghor on the 6". McArthur had recently commanded the post of
Vicksburg, Mississippi.>>

In mid-July 1864 Lieutenant Colonel, later brevet Brigadier General, James F.
Rusling (1834-1918), a New Jersey native and chief assistant quartermaster of the
Department of the Cumberland at Nashville, visited Mammoth Cave and the following fall
published a thirty-nine page booklet about the trip. He was “one of a large party,” including
Captains John C. Crane (1832-1883) and Charles S. Newlin (1839-1876), which went via
the “Northern train” to Cave City and then by stage to the hotel. There, they ate breakfast
and about 10 A.M. were ready for the cave, with the entourage “increased by . . . a few
others” from the hotel, boosting the number to about twenty-five, including three women.
Mat Bransford led them on the Long Route, starting “with a lamp in one hand, a cane in
the other, a basket of provisions on his right arm, and a can of oil slung over his shoulder,”
with the rear being “brought up by another colored individual, bearing another basket of
provisions and other necessary ‘refreshments.’” En route, at Echo River, they “made the
old cave ring . .. with patriotic songs” and “’Auld Lang Syne.’” In El Ghor Rusling and
two other men “strayed far ahead of the main party” and came upon a number of stone
monuments. He observed that the cave had monuments in various places, dedicated to
persons living and dead, including Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Stephen A. Douglas,
and Lincoln, plus Union generals Grant, Sherman, Thomas, and Hooker. While waiting,
Rusling and his companions built their own monument, in honor of Lieutenant Colonel
James L. Donaldson, Rusling’s superior in Nashville. At Washington Hall an elderly
woman and a young Boston man waited, while the others pushed on. In Cleaveland Avenue
they saw “a monument to the Goddess of Liberty . . . crowned ... with a. . . American
flag,” inspiring them to sing the war-song, “Battle-cry of Freedom.” Near the Maelstrom
Pit some of the group “gathered a few... . crystals and stalactites,” and before leaving they
tried to sing again but were too tired. They made it back to the entrance “soon” after 9 P.M.
and were served a very poor supper at the hotel. The next day, minus the senior lady and
young Bostonian, they did the three hour short tour, and that evening Rusling started back
to Nashville.*4

During August only four or five soldiers registered at the hotel, but far more saw
the cave. On the 13 the 9® Pennsylvania Cavalry headed south from Louisville “on the
hoof” toward Tennessee mounted on freshly issued horses. Five days later the regiment
stopped at Mammoth Cave and its colonel, Thomas J. Jordan (1821-1895) and many of the
men made a quick romp through some of its many passages. Whether they had guides,
went in on their own, or both, is not known. Comelius Baker, Jr. (1840-1923), a private in
Company C, “was in the cave over a mile,” observing that “some went in 5 miles.” William
Thomas (1838-1896), a corporal in Company B, penetrated farther, traveling “3-3/4 Miles
and Saw 25 different Sights of note.” A number made it to Pensacola Avenue and near the
junction with Bunyans Way Colonel Jordan, Assistant Surgeon Sydenham C. Walker
(1826-1902), Second Lieutenant Isaac D. Landis (1841-1929) of Company H, and Thomas
J. Foose (1840-1867), sergeant of Company A and regimental commissary, autographed

the wall.>>

Four days later, August 22, another group, eighteen strong, with at least seven
women but with “most . . . being officers,” including Robert S. LaMotte (1825-1888),
Amos G. Stickney (1843-1924), Roswell M. Sawyer (1836-1866), and John H. Hammond
(1833-1890), departed Nashville by train for the cave. The chronicler of the party was
William G. Dickson (c1832/34-f11868), a native of Orange County, New York, and former
Savannah, Georgia, grocer, who was the major of the 18‘ Ohio Heavy Artillery on the staff
of Brigadier General William F. Barry. They got to their destination the next day and took
the Short Route. Dickson was “disappointed in the cave” and expressed more interest in
the “young ladies” and their “bloomer costumes of bright colors . .. , ‘little jaunty hats,’”
and especially their “pretty feet which were no longer hid beneath long-flowing skirts,”
plus the “charming young lady” under his charge. On the 24" they attempted the Long
Route. One woman, “Miss M,” was “unwell & tired when she went in.” The women were
“all... tired out” when they got to the river, and “some distance” beyond “Miss M. broke
down completely.” They ate lunch and started out, arriving at the entrance at 5 P.M. That
night there was “some dancing” and they “enjoyed ourselves very much.’>°®

September 9, 10 and 13 a total of five Union officers booked rooms at the hotel.
Two of them marked the cave: Captain Ethan O. Hurd (1840-1913) of the 39% Ohio
Infantry in an upper passage near Pensacola Avenue by scratching, and Captain Edwin C.
Lewis (1842-1883), formerly of the 6" Vermont and now possessing a commission to serve
in the 13" U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery, being raised in Kentucky by smoking the ceiling
in Gothic Avenue. One of the few civilian visitors that month was a Frenchman, Louis
Prosper Ernest Duvergier de Hauranne (1843-1877), a journalist, author, and later, 1871-
77, a deputy in the National Assembly. On the 18" he was the “only passenger” on the
stage from Cave City, and he surmised that people went to the cave “to enjoy the coolness
during the warm season: but by . . . September the hotel is nearly deserted.” The following
day he did the Short Route with a guide, and that night at the hotel conversed with a
Nashville family, “declared supporters of the South who have been ruined by the war and
driven from their homes,” present “in search of a little rest.” September 20 he and a guide
tried the long tour, but “theriver was high” and instead of continuing beyond, he was shown
the Mammoth Dome.>?’

On October 13, 1864, John Francis Campbell (1822-1885), a Scotsman in the midst
of a July 9-November 26 tour of North America, visited the cave. During his five hour trip
he walked six miles “by pedometer” and made barometric depth measurements at
Richardson’s Spring, Sidesaddle and Bottomless Pits, Great Relief, Lethe River, and other
points. On the return he was shown Star Chamber and Gothic Chapel. He once left his
guide and got “lost in ten minutes.” He too noted that tourist traffic at the cave had been
affected by the war. While he was at the hotel a dance was held. “The whole company
numbered eight... . [wo Britishers, the landlord and a Yankee, two ladies from Nashville,
and two from downstairs. . . . The music was a fiddle.” Campbell used the hotel as his zero
datum point, not the cave entrance, and claimed that Lethe River was 278 feet below the

mouth. Two weeks later two officers who had been at Rome, Georgia, were at the hotel
and opted for the Long Route.*®

On November 2 the 5 Iowa Mounted Infantry “drew 500 horses” at Louisville,
and the next day struck out for Nashville, where they had been previously stationed. Five
nights later they camped at Munfordville, and on the morning of the 8" they “started for
Bowling Green via Mammoth Cave,” getting to the latter “about 3 P.M.” Diarist and
Lieutenant John Quincy Adams Campbell (1838-1902) of Company B wrote about their

brief stopover:

Soon after our arrival, the polls were opened at the Hotel and our Regiment
proceeded to the ballot [to vote for Lincoln or George B. McClellan for U.S.
president]. I was appointed one of the Judges of Election. After the election,
the officers paid $2 apiece and procured a guide and lantern to go into the cave.
The men got in “scott free.” We went 3 miles into the cave in one direction and
travelled 10 miles in all. ... We came out about midnight. We visited Lake
Lethe, Bacon Chamber, Gothic Chamber, Star Chamber, and other notable

places.°?

Later in November or possibly early in December 1864, Robert Ferguson (1817-
1898), an English mill owner, author, and future member of the House of Commons (1874-
1898), after a “drive of two hours in a rickety coach” got to the Cave Hotel. “The only...

other visitors were two young English mechanics, who had been employed in a government
factory in Nashville” en route to find new jobs in Cincinnati. The next morning, with one
of the Bransfords as his guide, Ferguson apparently traversed the Short Route since he
mentioned seeing the T. B. huts, Star Chamber, Bottomless Pit, and Revellers’ Hall before
exiting “into the daylight.” They could not cross the river “for the boat lay flung up and
left by waters on a ledge of rock far above our heads.” Later, at dinner, he was the “only
stranger” at the hotel. The proprietor, presumably E. K. Owsley, was absent, “and the table
was presided over by his wife, a quiet, silent, care-taking little woman, with a subdued
look, as if she had seen trouble, and had no heart left for anything but her duties.” The only
others present “were the clerk . . . and the driver of the coach.”

1864 grafitti in Mammoth’s many tourist trails includes “W. Cornwall Jr.,” “S L
Beach,” “R. G. Page Mat Hagen July 20",” “Miss Maggie Drake,” and “Mollie McComb”
in Cleaveland Avenue; “Miss Lydia Doyle LH German JP Maher Millie Maher July
4th” in the Black Snake Passage; “W™ Sippy July 24,” “W M Bowles,” and “L McComb”
in Silliman Avenue; “T. C. Berry,” “Miss M Smith,” “J. C. Yates” and “W L? Hindman”
in Gothic Avenue; “R. H. Shade 7/28/64,” Clarksville Party,” and F. W. PIM” on either
the doorsill or walls of the first T.B. hut; and “W F Bang” and “R T Kerfoot Dec 1864
Dayton Ohio” in the Main Passage. William Cornwall, Jr. (1845-1921) was a Louisville
candle maker; Margaret B. Drake (c1844-1871), who would die of tuberculosis, was likely
“Maggie,” arriving at the hotel with the Cornwall family July 18; Mat Hagen (b. c1829)

was a Tennessee-born Philadelphia merchant; Mary Elizabeth “Mollie” (1844-1915) who
in 1865 married John B. Richardson and Lyman McComb (1840-1918) of Christian County
were the daughter and son of Jesse McComb and Susan B. Jefferies; Louis H. German
(1841-1927) became a Louisville book publisher; Reuben Hoffa Shade (1846-1916), a
candidate for one T.B hut signer, was a native of Schuykill County, Pennsylvania; Yates
was with a nineteen person group from Clarksville, Tennessee, about July 13; William F.
Bang (1810-1892) was alongtime Nashville printer and newspaper publisher; and Richard
T. Kerfoot (1838-1907), originally from Dayton, was between 1862-63 and May-
November 1865 enlistments as chaplain of the 3 New York Infantry and 3" Pennsylvania
Heavy Artillery.®!

During the winter and spring of 1865 visitation at the hotel and cave was probably
low. During the first five months of the year only two officers of the 111 U.S. Colored
Troops logged in at the hotel, surely an undercount. The war was not quite over and on
March 9 E. K. Owsley recommended to Governor Thomas E. Bramlette two men to be
appointed officers if more state troops were to be recruited. Five days later the conflict did
come near again, when Napoleon Gentry and “forty guerrillas” captured and burned a
L.&N. train “a short distance below Glasgow Junction [Bell’s].” Also that month a story
circulated that “large quantities of pure white alabaster” was “being taken” from the cave
and “manufactured into . . . necklaces, breastpins, ear-rings, crosses, charms, etc.” The
collectors were not named but perhaps the Owsleys condoned the practice to generate
revenue.

In mid-April Kentucky rivers, such as the Green, were “swollen to an unusual
height” and were “filled to overflowing.” At Cave City the roads were “miry” and there
was “no stage running to Mammoth Cave.” But as the country dried out and the main
summer “season” approached, bolstered by therelief that the war was finally over, the hotel
and cave witnessed a revival of visitation. During the warm months various Nashville,
Louisville, Cincinnati, and Columbus newspapers touted the attributes of the resort and
cave, often referring to the increase in attendance. In July “the number frequenting” the
cave was “very large”; “never more gay” with “visitors from Europe and all parts . . .
flocking” to it; and “becoming again a noted place of summer resort” like “in times past.”
The Owsley brothers were lauded as “doing themselves an honor and the public a service”
because the hotel “was never before so complete in all its arrangements and appointments.”
Their “kindness” was “proverbial” with their efforts “to make every one feel at home and
comfortable.” Andrew M McCoy (1828-1907), originally from Indiana, was again running
the stage line from Cave City to the hotel. By mid-July the Owsleys had gotten James D.
Gilman (1831-1914), formerly of Donegana Restaurent in Nashville, “as caterer and
general provider for the hotel.” On July 19 Bill Cole’s quadrille band departed Louisville
for the Cave Hotel “to be a permanent fixture there.”

With the restoration of peace, Mammoth Cave and its hotel received accelerated
traffic by both active duty or just discharged military personnel, especially by those with
high rank. During the summer and early fall of 1865 twelve actual or breveted generals,

Arthur A. Smith (1829-1900), Emory Upton (1839-1881), Edward Hatch (1832-1889), Eli
Long (1837-1900), Edward H. Murray (1843-1896), Maxwell V.Z. Woodhall (1843-1921),
William B. Hazen (1830-1887), Chauncy B. Reece (1837-1870), John H. King (1820-
1887), Thomas J. Morgan (1839-1902), Thomas Swords (1806-1886), and Robert F
Catterson (1835-1914), all still in uniform, made their way to the resort to relax. Smith had
been in charge of Clarksville, Tennessee, for many months. Long, Upton, and Hatch either
had or still commanded the Second, Fourth, and Fifth Divisions of the Cavalry Corps,
Military Division of the Mississippi, with Long and Upton participating in the destructive
raid led by General James H. Wilson through Alabama and Georgia March and April just
past. Wounded in the head at Selma, April 2, Long had been in Louisville for medical
treatment. Murray still headed the western portion of the District of Kentucky; Woodhall
had been on the staff of O. O. Howard and other generals and was then stationed in
Louisville at headquarters of the Army of the Tennessee; Hazen had been a division and
corps leader in Georgia and the Carolinas under Sherman; Reese was an engineer and staff
officer; King had recently been responsible for a brigade in North Georgia; Morgan had
led a brigade of black troops at Knoxville; Swords had been supervising quartermaster in
the Department of Ohio; and Catterson on November 22, 1864, when his superior was
wounded, took charge of a brigade in the Fifteenth Corps of Sherman’s army in Georgia.
Upton, Hazen, Reese, Morgan, Swords, and Catterson chose the Long Route, and Smith,
Hatch, Long, and King picked the less strenuous tour. No report by any of these generals
regarding their experiences at the cave are known. Upton merely stated that he “Spent the
4 of July at Mammoth Cave and returned to Nashville on the train with Gen Sherman.”
About July 29, Brevet Brigadier General Andrew Hickenlooper, now a civilian, did the
short excursion, presumably his first visit to the cave since 1856. Also that month Major
General Robert H. Milroy (1816-1890), who had commanded the defenses of the Nashville
and Chattanooga Railroad, was mustered out of service. The succeeding November 1 and
2 he took both tours in Mammoth, leaving his name in Pensacola Avenue the first day.
Many lesser ranking officers also sampled the pleasures of the hotel and cave. Captain John
W. Latta (1839-1922), assistant adjutant general of the Fourth Cavalry Division, came
twice, June 1 and July 2, doing the short sojourn during his first stay. Colonels Robert P.
Findley (1836-1894) of the 74" Ohio Infantry; Joel D. Cruttenden (1822-1899), inspector
in the Quartermaster Department; Daniel J. Dill (1830-1917), head of the 30" Wisconsin
Infantry and provost marshal of the Department of Kentucky; and William E. Merrill
(1837-1891) of the 18'U.S. Veteran Volunteer Engineers, made their appearances June 27,
July 21, 24, and August 21, with Findley and Merrill seeking the long walk and Cruttenden
and Dill the shorter one. William A. Hoskins (1826-1897), who resigned as colonel of the
12 Kentucky Infantry April 1864, and Charles J. Walker (1835-1879), an 1857 West Point
graduate commanding in 1862-63 the 10“ Kentucky Cavalry) before quitting the army
altogether July 25, 1865, arrived July 3 and September 5, with both apparently making the
long entry. Hoskins on July 4 scratched his name along the Silliman-E] Ghor corridor.
Lieutenant colonels included Frederick S. Palmer (1834-1890) of the 6" U.S. Veteran

Reserves which had recently guarded the Johnson Island, Ohio, prison camp; William L.
Foulk (1827-1886) of the 46" Pennsylvania Infantry, who had been on undisclosed
detached duty; and Edward M. Bartlett (1838-1908) of the 30 Wisconsin, who showed up
July 13, 23, and 24, with Palmer taking the long tromp and the others the lesser. On July
26 Lewis Wolfley (1839-1910), discharged as major of the 3™ Kentucky Cavalry only
eleven days earlier, got to the hotel and soon thereafter left his name in Cleaveland Avenue.
Captain Alexander A. Arnold (1833-1915), Company C, 30 Wisconsin, and three of his
fellow officers registered September 11, and possibly the next day he signed a wall in the
Labyrinth. Captain Clayton McMichael (1844-1906), son of a past mayor of Washington,
D.C., and recently an aide-de-camp to General David B. Birney of the Army of the Potomac
was present October 26. Some six Navy men visited the cave between June 7 and October
9, including Andrew J. Myers, assistant paymaster, formerly aboard the USS Forest Rose
of the Mississippi squadron, and Arthur Mathewson (1837-1920), a Yale graduate and
surgeon with both the Mississippi and North Atlantic squadrons. ®4

On July 13, 1865, John Q. Owsley, George H. Yeaman (1829-1908), and Burwell
C. Ritter (1810-1880) noted in the hotel register that they were all candidates for political
office. Owsley sought a seat in the state house, and Yeaman and Ritter were Republican
and Conservative hopefuls to fill Kentucky’s Second District’s slot in the U.S. Congress.
Owsley won, representing Butler and Edmonson Counties until he resigned in late
December 1866. Ritter wrote that he “will be elected” which proved true.®°

As already indicated, civilian visitation rebounded. “A number of excursionists”
passed through Cincinnati and Louisville July 12-14 “bound ...to... Mammoth Cave,”
taking “several horns. . . [and] a brass band.” On the 23" the Louisville Journal noted that
the “season” at the hotel and cave was then, and would be “for some time, at its height.”
Seekers of all kinds were there, the beautiful, the gay, the manly, for health, for pleasure,
for life partners, for cool recesses, for good living, and for curiosities. A Louisville group
of both sexes including one soldier, First Lieutenant William H. Gill, Company B, 30®
Wisconsin; assistant provost marshal left for the cave two days later. Probably after then
some of the employees of the Nashville Daily Union visited the hotel and cave, a “glorious
retreat from the heat and dust of a city like ours.” Also in July, the unions of both the
Louisville Democrat and Journal went to the cave. But, in spite of higher visitation than
the war years, the registrants at the Cave Hotel during July 1865 only totaled some 540,
about fifty-five percent of the number for that month five years before. Perhaps in early
August, “C.A.P.,” a female correspondent from Cincinnati made her way from Cave City
“crammed in a lumbering four-horse coach,” with other women complaining of “the
weariness ofthe journey.” She reported that “the frequent rains have kept Green River, and
consequently, its underground connections in the cave, so high that the ‘Long Route’ was
impassable most of the time.” But the day after arriving she joined a group of forty-five to
attempt that tour, with Nick Bransford as guide. She “improvised a short dress” and
obtained from the proprietor “a new palmleaf hat.” Uponentering each person took “a lamp
and a stick, the latter being important, as one often needs the support of three feet to keep

qoeeowoetacen get,

mn
On

E66

out of danger.” After “seven miles” some became fatigued, stopped, and “remained with
their lamps,” but she and the others continued to the Maelstrom, finally exiting “three hours
after sunset.” “C.A.P.” suggested that people “wishing to procure specimens would do well
to take a basket or satchel containing cotton.” She also advised those wanting to see the
cave and return to Louisville on the night train should make arrangements at Cave City
since “no regular conveyance comes over from the cave in the evening.” She reported the
various fares: $4 per day at the hotel, $5 “fora season ticket through the whole cave,” or a
single visit, $2 for the Short Route and $3 for the Long Route, much the same as it had
been for years.°°

In early August brothers Anderson A. (1830-1900) and Pleasant P. Collier (1837-
1909) began a new stage line at Glasgow Junction. They served both Glasgow and
Mammoth Cave, emphasizing that the road to the latter was “several miles” shorter than
any other. Sadly, on the 215‘ of that month, “an old and respectable citizen” of Nashville
since the 1830s, William H. Calhoun (c1815-1865), died “at the hotel near Mammoth
Cave.” He was a native Pennsylvanian, jewelry dealer, and Oddfellow, and had gone “with
his family” to the Kentucky resort “for health and recreation.”°’

Adin F. Styles (1832-1910), a Burlington, Vermont, landscape photographer,
registered at the hotel September 25, 1865. He did the long excursion with Mat and Nick
Bransford and photographed them near the entrance.®®

On October 2 Joseph R. Underwood began advertising for “sealed proposals” for
leasing the hotel and farms to the next party. The right to show the cave could be had
though an additional agreement. Larkin J. Procter again successfully landed the bids, in
partnership with John N.T. Rogers (b. 1829) and instead of waiting until the first day of
1866, they “commenced” their proprietorship on November 28.°°

In mid-October, “Sharp” of the Cincinnati Gazette arrived at Cave City about
midnight and stayed at the hotel there. He wanted to take the stage the next morning but
was told “it was not the custom to send over a coach unless there was a load, but that the
regular coach would leave at one o’clock.” He waited and the “train from Louisville” came
down, “bringing about fifty passengers, all bound for the cave.” After dinner three coaches
hauled the multitude forward. Some five miles later they stopped at Indian Cave and most
were induced by the stage agent and cave proprietor for $2 each to visit it, then about 7:30
P.M. they got to the Mammoth Cave Hotel. The following morning about nine “Sharp”
embarked on the Long Route in an assemblage of twenty-one led by Mat Bransford. The
women, all southern, were dressed “in red bloomer costumes” with some wearing “Turkish
hats trimmed very richly with beads.” At Echo River they sang “Home Sweet Home” and
“Tramp, Tramp, Tramp.” Beyond, at Washington Hall of Silliman Avenue, they ate “roast
chicken, bread and butter, and — pickles.” All obtained the end, Croghan’s Hall and the
Maelstrom, and they exited “about 7 o’clock P.M.” The next day the same correspondent
did the short trek as part of a crowd of thirty-nine.’°

“Pilgrim” reported a Mammoth trip which probably also occurred during October
1865. In Cleaveland Avenue he alluded to a natural “cross” in the ceiling some eight and

A 2

E187

twelve feet in length, and “near it our nation’s flag [was] kept unfurled.” His “guide, a
black man [one of the Bransfords], said that occasionally visitors knocked down the stars
and stripes, but he always fell back and put them up.”?!

On December 23, 1865, W.H.H. Russell, at Memphis, reported his recent trip to
Mammoth. During the “Indian Summer,” about November 26-27, he had taken the Long
Route with Nick Bransford, observing “the screeching of thousands of bats” not far inside,
and that his group exited “about half-past 9 pm” after some “nine hours.” The next day he
did “the short route, which embraces the sublime and grand part of the cave,” and was
informed by the proprietor that “as many as four hundred people were accommodated . . .
at one time last season.’

1865 Mammoth Cave graffiti is fairly widespread, with almost all generated by
civilians, including former Confederates and sympathizers. Officers W. A. Hoskins, Lewis
Wolfley, A. A. Amold, and R. H. Milroy have already been noted, with Amold being the
only one on active duty when he inscribed the wall. Other definite or possible 1865 names
are: “E H Bowen” in Gothic Avenue; “Geo. H. Hull Cincinnati Nov 1S” in Pensacola
Avenue; “Jas G George Louisville Ky July” between the Cataract and Fairy Grotto;
“George H Reid Hattie EReid Hugh Wnght Addie J Wright Warren Ohio,” “Kuno Kuhn
1865 Pittsburgh,” and “Geo W Dithridge Pittburg Pa Oct 11,” all in Cleaveland Avenue;
“B B? Tyler? Frankfort Ky July 20” on the doorsill of the second T.B. hut; “S Wells” near
Bottomless Pit; “Miss Jewel Marshall Covington,” “Mrs E. M. Bruce Clarence J. Prentice
Miss Judelle Trabue,” “Miss Sallie Z Pretlow Covington,” “D.D. TALLEY Virginia”
“Miss M Withers” (or “Miss Withers Covington”), “Tom Estep Covington Ky.,” “Miss
Sallie Stevenson Covington,” “J.H. O’Shaughnessy,” “G. Gordon Sept. 7,” all in Silliman
Avenue; and “Mr Gormerly & Family” in Valley Cut near Silliman Avenue. A number of
these excursionists have been identified. Edwin H. Bowen (1844-1928), from Louisville,
there about August 9, was a son of George O. Bowen and Harriet Basham. George H. Hull
(1840-1921), who had traveled to the cave with ex-general Milroy, was a New York-bom
veteran of the 1861 three months organization of Company D, 2"4 Ohio Infantry, a
quartermaster employee in Cincinnati, and later a successful businessman. George H. Reid
(b. c1825), an engine manufacturer, his wife, Hugh Wright (1835-1911), and Adaline J.
Hurlbut (1835-1919) had all known each other in Trumbull County, Ohio. However, for a
half decade or more the Wrights lived at Bowling Green, Kentucky, before eventually
moving to Fremont County, Colorado. Hugh and his brother, Seth, “invented and patented
the ‘Wnght Chain Hoist.” Kuno Khun (1840-1931) served July-November 1864 as
corporal in Company F, 193" Pennsylvania Infantry at Baltimore and Wilmington, and
post-war entered the petroleum industry. Dithrndge (1841-1929), who late in life resided
on Long Island, New York, was with Kuhn in the cave. Both are buried in the same
Pittsburgh cemetery. Jewel Marshall (b. c1847) was likely the same as Florence J., daughter
of William and Ellen Marshall of Kenton County, Kentucky. Sarah Elizabeth Withers
(1835-1915) was the wife of Eli M. Bruce, a former Kentucky Confederate congressman.
Clarence J. Prentice (1840-1873), son of Louisville Journal editor, George D. Prentice, and

brother of William C. Prentice who descended the Maelstrom Pit in 1858, had been a
Southern lieutenant colonel operating in eastern Kentucky and western Virginia. Judelle
Helen Trabue (1838-1900), a daughter of Chester H. Trabue, spent much of her time in
Louisville, and married Thomas A. MacGregor. Sallie Zalinda (1846-1893), daughter of
Dr. Richard A. Pretlow and Elizabeth Lynch, married Hugh Colville. Daniel D. Talley
(1841-1930), afterinfantry service, became an assistant paymaster in the Confederate navy,
was sent to Europe, and at the end of the war was trying to re-enter the South via Havana
and Galveston. Matilda “Mattie” Lynch Withers (1847-1919) was a sister of Sarah
Elizabeth Bruce. Tom Estep was probably William T. (1837-1866), who had been captain
and quartermaster of the 2"¢ Kentucky Infantry, CSA. At the Mammoth hotel he roomed
with Gustavus A. Henry, Jr. (1838-1882) of Clarksville, Tennessee, who had been a
lieutenant colonel and staff officer for rebel generals Gideon J. Pillow, Joseph E. Johnston,
and John B. Hood. Sallie Stevenson (1847-1890), daughter of John W. Stevenson,
Covington lawyer, later married Edward Colston. John H. O’Shaughnessy (1840-1891) of
Newport, Kentucky, in 1866 was involved in the first efforts to photograph the interior of
Mammoth Cave. The twenty plus predominantly Covington assemblage made the long tour
around July 25-27. “Mr Gormerly & Family” equates to John Gormerly, wife, and child of
Iuka, Mississippi, who were in the cave about September 6. However, nothing additional
is known about them.’?

As repeatedly indicated, the war greatly impacted tourism at Mammoth Cave. But
how much? The best indicators are the surviving pre and wartime hotel registers. For the
year 1860 guests of all stripes, including locals who stayed several times, wives, children,
and servants, totaled about 3,516. The Confederates destroyed the register for 1861, so the
clientele for that year is unknown. But from late September civilian customers were
probably nil or almost so until the Union army gained the area in early 1862. From mid-
March 1862 through the end of 1865 the hotel register accounts for approximately 3,470
visitors, including allusions to groups of twelve, fifty, fifteen, and sixty-five soldiers. If the
1860 rate of traffic continued, there should have been around 14,000 people passing
through during those years. Therefore, business overall was down seventy-five percent,
and more for the majority of the war, only rebounding to forty-seven percent of the pre-
war level in 1865.’4

How many soldiers visited portions of Mammoth Cave during the war? The true
answer is of course unknown. But, according to the hotel register, there were at least 631,
if the above mentioned four groups are counted. Compounding the estimate is the fact that
many military tourists did not stay at the hotel. During late 186l-early 1862, various
Confederates, from at least four units, penetrated Cyclops Gateway, Gothic Avenue, and
other areas. Then “swarms” of Federal soldiers made visits, authorized and otherwise,
during the major military movements of February-March and October-November 1862. In
1864, between April and November, several large parties of soldiers traversed sections of
the cave, especially sizeable contingents of two cavalry regiments headed south, which

E/89

probably altogether totaled over 300. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that military
cave visitors to Mammoth during the conflict exceeded a thousand. ’°

Over a hundred wartime signatures have been noted in Mammoth Cave. The
majority are by civilians, but the number of soldier names has been doubled to forty-two,
with several more pending identification. One previously counted, J. C. Smith in Croghan
Hall, was not in the army when he made his mark. Additional soldier names will probably
be found. It is very likely more are hiding in plain sight, awaiting recognition, amongst the
many thousands of scribblings present.

Within a year and a half after hostilities ended, virtually all of the nearly one million
volunteers of the Union Army were mustered out, leaving once more a small regular army
as the nation’s primary defence force. Consequently, military visitors to Mammoth Cave
shrank drastically, but not entirely. During the immediate post-bellum years a few active
duty officers who were or had been generals made their way to the resort. Included were
William D. Whipple (1826-1902) and James L. Donaldson (1814-1885), May 1866;
Jefferson C. Davis, August 1866; and Henry W. Halleck (1815-1872) and James B. Fry
(1826-1894) in July 1869. Former Confederate generals relaxed there also, such as John S.
Marmaduke (1833-1887) of Missouri, a future governor, at least twice, 1866 and 1869;
John S. Williams (1810-1898) of Kentucky, later a U.S. senator, 1866; George W. Gordon
(1836-1911) of Memphis, subsequently a congressman, 1869; and Bushrod B. Johnson
(1817-1880), temporarily from Nashville, 1871. Former soldiers with lesser rank included
Matthew R. Marks of Florida, former major of the 2°¢ Alabama Cavalry, August 1870,
Carey W. Styles (1825-1897), ex-colonel of the 26" Georgia Infantry, and Charles H.C.
Willingham (1829-1884), who had been a six month enlistee in the 2"4 Georgia Cavalry
(State Guards) during 1863-64. The latter two were with the Georgia Press Association
which met in the Star Chamber May 12, 1872.76

The number of veterans of all ranks from both armies who toured the cave in the
years and decades after the war must have been considerable. A few more ex-Confederates
other than the 1865 Covington party have been identified because they left graffiti. Henry
O. Seixas (c1841-1911), a Louisiana artilleryman in Virginia and then captain of a military
court in the Trans-Mississippi, marked El Ghor August 1866; John B. Pirtle (1842-1934),
a Louisville staff officer for Generals John C. Breckenridge, Ben Hardin Helm, and
William B. Bate, signed Cleaveland Avenue in 1868; Oscar O. Mull (1837-1874), a
Richmond painter, diarist, and soldier in the 12 Virginia Infantry, noted his presence in
the Snowball Dining Room area in July 1869; and William M. Davidson (1841-1915) of
Jacksonville, Florida, a lieutenant on the staff of General J. Patton Anderson, scratched his
name in El Ghor October 1876.77

Veterans of the American Civil War patronized Mammoth Cave until they
approached or achieved senior status. During May 1888, John P. Rea (1840-1900),
commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, paid the cave “a flying visit.”
Then in the fall of 1895 “Many who attended the G.A.R. encampment at Louisville”
afterwards took the cave’s Long Route. Likewise, in 1900, a thirty-seven person party of

E190

ty pe

old soldiers and family members who had attended a Confederate reunion in Louisville did
the same tour. In the cave they erected a monument to the Confederacy, named a segment
of passage the “Confederate Veteran Reunion Hall,” and “added stones to the Tennessee
monument.” When the last veteran of the 1860s conflict passed through the corridors of
Mammoth is unknown, but it had to have been well into the Twentieth Century. 7°

After relinquishing the Mammoth Cave lease, on February 7, 1866, Edward K.
Owsley lost a vote in the Kentucky legislature for keeper of the penitentiary. Within a few
years he and his family moved to McCracken County, Texas, before returning to Kentucky,
finally settling in Ballard County as a farmer. John Q. Owsley soon married again (Annie
Elizabeth Roberts, 1844-1910) and for a while continued to live in Edmonson County. In
1870 he was back at his native town of Burkesville, and by 1880 was a farmer near
Nashville. A decade later he was at Hendersonville, Sumner County, Tennessee, and at his

death he was buried in Nashville. 7?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Identification of the majority of the visitors to Mammoth Cave noted in this study
bear the expertise of Landon D. Medley of Bald Knob, Tennessee, who spent many hours
searching the web for both the famous and obscure. Equally important was the effort of
James R. Honaker of Morgantown, Kentucky, to photograph the 1858-60 and 1862-66
Mammoth Cave Hotel registers, and the permission granted by Western Kentucky
University for him to do so. Thanks go to Kristen Bobo of Cookeville, Tennessee, for
supplying various graffiti photos when needed, and to Joy Tucker Odom of Rising Fawn,
Georgia, who contributed to the biography of Lieutenant Frank P. Gross.

SOURCES

1. New-York Weekly Museum, July 27, 1816, Vol. 4, No. 13:193-94; Niles Weekly Register, X (Aug.
24, 1816), 420-21; Mammoth Cave Hotel Register, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green.

2. Madison (Wis.) Express , Jan.25, 1840, Oct. 3, 1844; Samuel W. Thomas, Eugene H. Conner,
Harold Meloy, “A History of Mammoth Cave, Emphasizing Tourist Development and Medical Experiment
Under Dr. John Croghan,” The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, 68 (Oct., 1970), 319-40;
Knoxville Daily Journal, Aug. 13, 1887; Mammoth Hotel register; John A. Jakle, Images of the Ohio Valley:
A Historical Geography of Travel, 1740-1860 (New York, 1977), 62.

3. Nashville American, Aug. 23, 1908; Louisville Courier-Journal, Jan. 28, 1912; Findagrave
#42902849 (L.J. Procter); Louisville Daily Journal, June 11, 1857.

4. William R. Halliday, Depths of the Earth (New York, 1976), 51-53. Not everyone in the
Nineteenth Century condoned defacing the walls in Mammoth Cave. Melinda Wolcott Russel of New
England in early 1854 deplored the many names smoked on the ceiling of Gothic Avenue, which she thought
caused it to lose “most of its primitive beauty.” Burlington (Vt.) Weekly Sentinel, Feb. 9, 1854.

5. Diary of Marion O. Smith, Sept. 23, Dec. 23, 2016, Apr. 14, May 26, June 9, 2017; Nov. 24,
2018; Findagrave 450782694 (H. M. Skillman), 8922 (B. W. Duke), 77269854 (H. L. Douglass), 140248078
(O. W. Dodge), 7136230 (G. T. Ward), 10179604 (R. H. Gamble), 9093552 (R. J. Wingate), 5951252 (A.
Hickenlooper), 161401921 (Whaley); Roger D. Hunt, Colonels in Blue: Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee

si
ACY

E/9/

(Jefferson, N.C., 2014), 183-84; Bruce S. Allardice, More Generals in Gray (Baton rouge and London, 1995),
179-80; Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner (Roberts Brothers, 1893), 3: 418-19.

6. Louisville Daily Journal, July 7,9, 1860; Albert D. Kirwan, John J. Crittenden: The Struggle for
the Union (Lexington, Ky., 1962), 435; New York Herald, Aug. 10, 1860; Findagrave #11758788 (E.D.
Fenner); Evansville Ind.) Daily Journal, Feb. 7, 1861.

7. MammothCave Hotelregister; Francis T. Miller, ed., The Photographic History of the Civil War,
(10 vols., New York,1911) 10: 258 (Buckner); Findagrave #9520889 (W.B. Bate), 11013 (Liddell), 8758
(Holtzclaw), 8926 (Hodge), 10893 (H. T. Hays), 10815 (H. W. Allen), 8605 (J. C. Davis), 5090 (M. F. Force),
5076 (E. F. Noyes), 27850495 (C. Shaler Smith), 82267471 (J.C. Wrenshall), 981 (A. H. Stephens), 6005936
(L. A. Stephens),7397789 (W.C.P. Breckinridge), 65594472 (C. Wickliffe), 71032475 (F.R.R. Smith),
130728594 (H. M. Doak), 105041805 (Swearingen), 9016129 (H. C. Yeatman), 69115202 (A. Pirtle),
105041805 (Swearingen), 22729 (G. J. Pendergrast), 37905916 (L. Sitgreaves), 6989940 (H. W. Kingsbury),
93533021 (R. C. Brinkley), 19488788 (M. Latimer); Frank Freidel, Our Country’s Presidents (Washington,
D.C., 1966), 122-24; David D. Hartzler, Marylanders in the Confederacy (Silver Spring, Md., 1986), 115;
Dictionary of American Biography, 1: 274-75 (R. Anderson), 6: 199-200 (B. Magoffin); India W.P. Logan,
Kelion Franklin Peddicord of Quirk’s Scouts Morgan Kentucky Cavalry, C.S.A. (NewYork and Washington,
D.C., 1908), 10-12,21-27.

8. Clarksville (Tenn.) Chronicle, Jan.4, 1861; Louisville Daily Journal, Oct. 18, 1860; Findagrave
#12078703 (Thomas), 42775133 (R. H. Crittenden); 1860 Census, Ky., Hardin, 3™ Dist., 90; Joseph R.
Underwood’s Report on Mammoth Cave for 1861, April 2, 1862.

9. Ancestry.com (E. K. Owsley); 1850 Census, Ky., Christian, 1S‘ Dist., 438; John E. Kieber, The
Kentucky Encyclopedia (Lexington, 1992), 702-4; Findagrave #68810420 (A. K. Bagby); Mammoth Hotel
register; M. O. Smith Diary, Sept. 1, 2017.

10. 1861 Mammoth Report; Nashville Republican Banner, June 29, 1861; Louisville Daily Journal,
Aug. 13,21, 1860, Mar. 16, July 26, Aug. 1, 1861; Grand Rapids Weekly Eagle, early 1863, Slayton Papers,
Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan; Nashville Daily Union, Oct. 6, 1863; 1860 Census, Ky.,
Jefferson, Louisville, 8" Ward, 238; (1870), 10'* Ward, 54 (Quigley).

11. Louisville Daily Journal, July 26, Aug. 1, 1861; Louisville Daily Democrat, Aug. 11, 1861.

12. Findagrave #87204007 (Richardson); Albert D. Richardson, The Secret Service in the Field. The
Dungeon and the Escape (Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Chicago), 1865,21-22, 26.

13. 1861 Mammoth Report.

14. Findagrave #14665394 (Niles), 128290139 (Merwin), 42940477 (Waples); Diary of Jason Niles,
June 22-26, 1861, Electronic Edition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; New Orleans Times-
Democrat, Feb. 24, 1865; M. O. Smith Diary, Oct. 14, 2016, Mar. 10, 11, May 26, June 30, Sept. 1, 2017;
Compiled Service Records, RG94, National Archives, Michael H. Owsley File; 1860 Census, Ky., Jefferson,
Louisville, 20 (Merwin); Ala., Baldwin, 81 (Rupert); History of Kentucky, the Bluegrass State (4 vols.,
Chicago, 1928), 3: 1020-21. Mollie and N. Ketchum were perhaps the same as Mary Hanna Martin (1833-
1909), born in Hinds County, Mississippi, and Nicholas Ketchum (1829-1918), a Tennessee native who
studied medicine in Louisville. They married during the mid-1850s and moved to Arkansas. On June 1, 1861,
Nicholas joined Company C, 6" Arkansas Infantry, CSA, as second lieutenant and eventually was promoted
to surgeon. He and Mary likely visited Mammoth Cave EITHER early in 1861 or late in the year when his
regiment was stationed with the 8" (Terry’s) Texas Cavalry and Swett’s Mississippi Battery under General
Thomas C. Hindman at/near Cave City. The couple decades later moved to Texas where they apparently
separated or divorced, with Nicholas living in San Saba County and Mary in El Paso. Finda grave #105765644
(N. Ketchum), 1265659973 (M. Ketchum); Ancestry.com (N. Ketchum and Civil War Regiments).

15. Stanley F. Horn, The Army of Tennessee (Norman, Okla., 1955 [1941]), 41-44; Dan Lee, The
Louisville and Nashville Railroad in the Civil War (Jefferson, N.C. and London, 2011), 23-26.

16. Ibid., 25-26; The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies (128 books in 70 vols., Washington, D.C., 1880-1901), Ser. 1, Vol. 4: 407, 414, 424,
435,444, 454, 463-66; Vol. 7: 761-62; Hom, Army of Tennessee, 44, 57-62.

E (93

17. Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 4:492;M. O. Smith Diary, Oct. 14,2016, Mar. 11, May 26, Sept.
1, 2017; Findagrave #132453169 (Cameron); CSR, RG109 (M317, Roll 159), NA, John F. Cameron File;
Memphis Daily Appeal, Dec. 25, 1861, quoting the Mobile Register; 1861 Mammoth Report. Only one
Alabama regiment, the 7 Infantry, was near Bowling Green, sent there from Chattanooga in December | 861.
Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 7: 689,713, 751, 762-63, 852.

18. Ibid., Ser. 1, Vol. 7: 461,464, 467; Hom, Army of Tennessee, 82-85,99.

19. Henry M. Cist, The Army of the Cumberland (New York, 1882), 1-30.

20. Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 7:610-11; Cleveland Plain Dealer, Mar. 6, 1862; Ralph E. Kiene,
Jr., A Civil War Diary: The Journal of Francis A. Kiene, 1861-64 (n.p., 1974), 10, 323; Alexis Cope, The
Fifteenth Ohio Volunteers and Its Campaign, War of 1861-5 (Columbus, Ohio, 1916), 78; Robert I. Girardi,
ed., Campaigning with “Uncle Billy” The Civil War Memoirs of Sgt. Lyman S. Widney 34" Ilinois Volunteer
Infantry (Victoria, B.C., 2008), 50-51; J. Thompson Gibson, ed., History of the Seventy-Eighth Pennsylvania
Volunteer Infantry (Pittsburgh, 1905), 35; William D. McGrath to George D. Freeman, Feb. 26, 1862,
SC3064, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green; Cowan’s Auctions, 334 MS re Feb., 1862 visit by
C. G. Wakefield to Mammoth Cave; M. O. Smith Diary, Oct. 14, 2016; Findagrave #47562554 (Pearson);
Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana (8 vols., Indianapolis, 1865-66), 2: 385; 5: 231; Bonnie
Poindexter and Merry Cotton, “The Life ofa Civil War Soldier from Kalamazoo: Independent Research in
History,” 470 (1972 Honors Thesis, Paper 1278), Western Michigan University.

: 21. Thomas F. Domblaser, Sabre Strokes of the Pennsylvania Dragoons in the War of 1861-1865
(Philadelphia, 1884), 51-52; George Kryder to wife, Mar. 14, 1862, George Kryder Papers, MS 163, Bowling
Green State University, Ohio; William F. Bradley to editor, Mar. 29, 1862, Norwalk (Ohio) Huron Reflector,
Apr. 18, 1862; M. O. Smith Diary, Oct. 14, 2016, May 26, Sept. 1, 2017, Feb. 9, 2018, Feb. 23, 2019;
Mammoth Cave Hotel Register; Findagrave #87293683 (S. L. Meredith), 109585734 (O. J. Ford);
Indianapolis Indiana State Sentinel, Mar.25,2862; Ancestry.com, Headstones of Deceased Union Civil War
Veterans (Balfe); 1880 Census, Ind., Marion, Indianapolis, 128t* Enum. Dist., 690c (Balfe). The first men to
sign in at the hotel after it reopened were Quartermaster James Vance Kelso (1835-1902) of the 38 Indiana
Infantry, and Lieutenant John Frank Miller (1830-1904), Company C, 9" Pennsylvania Cavalry on March
15. Findagrave #34064039 (Kelso), 51577607 (Miller).

22. Mammoth Hotelregister; 1861 Mammoth Report; Finda grave #7781081 (Underwood).

23. Mammoth Hotelregister; Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Des
Moines, 1908), 1142, 1209, 1286; Louisville Daily Journal, May 15, 1862; Findagrave #12084527 (Howard),
44425521 (Beatty).

24. Louisville Daily Journal, May 13, 1862; Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 10, Pt. 1: 891; Lee, L. &
N. Railroad, 60-67.

25. Mammoth Hotel Register; Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, June 29, 1862; Wikipedia, Thomas
Tobin.

26. Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 16, Pt. 1: 861; Louisville Daily Journal, Aug. 19, 21,1862; Richard
H. Collins, History of Kentucky (2 vols., Covington, 1878), 1: 108. John F. Demonbreun (1811-1875), a
farmer, lived two houses from his Mammoth Cave guide brother, Francis M. Eventually, he moved to
Washington County, Indiana. F. M. Kelly was a stage coach driver. Ancestry.com (J.F. Demonbreun); 1860
Census, Ky., Edmonson, Brownsville P.O., 57; Mammoth Hotel Register.

27. Lee, L. & N. Railroad, 85-89; Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 16, Pt. 1: 4, 49.

28. Mammoth Hotel register; Janesville (Wis.) Daily Gazette, Nov. 15, 1862; Nixon B. Stewart,
Dan McCook’s Regiment: 52"* OKI (n.p., 1900), 33, 200-201, 225; M. O. Smith Diary, Sept. 1, 2017;
Findagrave #78964391 (James), 5995124 (M. C. Hunter), 63586885 (Lister), 55704507 (Swezey),
106185157 (Lick), 126202206 (Moore), 170182907 (Hays); Ancestry.com (Brower); Roger D. Hunt,
Colonels in Blue: Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia (Jefferson, N.C.,2011), 39-40; A History of the Seventy-
Third Regiment of Illinois Infantry Volunteers (n.p.,n.d.), 107; L.G. Bennett and William M. Haight, History
of the Thirty-Sixth Regiment of Illinois Infantry Volunteers (Morengo, IIL, 1999 [1876]), 302-3; J.R. Kinnear,
History of the Eighty-sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry (Chicago, 1866), chapter one; Alf. G. Hunter,

History of the Eighty-Second Indiana Volunteer Infantry (Indianapolis, 1893), 27; Aurora (Ill.) Beacon, Nov.
13, 1862:

29. Mammoth Hotel register; Dictionary of American Biography, 1: 252-53 (Bierce); Dyer,
Compendium, 1291; M.O. Smith Diary, Jan.27, 2017; Notes of Joseph C. Douglas, May 6, 2017; Findagrave
81347272 (Wilson), 34322446 (Coon); Ancestry.com (Benjamin Wilson); 1860 Census, IIL, Tazewell,
Mackinaw Twp., 208; Adjutant General Report of the State of Illinois (9 vols., Springfield, 1886), 6: 52;
Samuel P. Bates, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 (10 vols., Harrisburg, 1869-71), 6: 814.
Wilson’s identity has been a challenge. He plainly signed the hotel register and cave wall with the middle
initial “R,” but no Silas Wilson in the Union army is listed as such. In the register he indicated his origin was
“USA” which usually meant he was in the military. The 108" Illinois Infantry and 2"4 Michigan Cavaky
were the only units with a Silas Wilson in Kentucky at the right time, and both only briefly, with a plain Silas
in the former and a Silas H. in the latter. The 108 Silas Wilson is judged the better candidate. He was a
married farmerin Tazewell County, Illinois, before enlisting in Company A, August 14, 1862.He died from
an unspecified disease at Benton Barracks July 31 the next year.

30. Mammoth Hotel register; M. O. Smith Diary, Apr. 14, 2017; Findagrave 83206761 (Rule),
89911740 (V. and F. Black), 10770975 (A. J. Whipps); 1860 Census, Ky., Mason, 3" Dist., Maysville P.O.,
77; (1870), Oldham, Satillo Precinct, 16; Sam McDowell, ed., Kentucky Genealogy and Biography (9 vols.,
Utica, Ky., 1981), 8: 13; Eugene A. Bagby was at the Mammoth Cave Hotel May 16, July 3, Dec. 13, 1862,
July 18, 1863,and July 15, 1865.

31. Mammoth Hotelregister; Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 20, Pt. 1: 134, 141, 145, 150; Vol. 23,
Pt. 1: 736; Pt. 2: 233, 604, 605; Vol. 30, Pt. 2: 553-55; M. O. Smith Diary, Dec. 23, 2016, June 30, 2017:
Finda grave #869 15105 (Hindman), 70110968 (Monroe), 168628619 (Ward), 16049541 (Leasure), 22149100
(McMannomy), 42141564 (Crosby), 86691898 (Banks), 60227254 (Butler), 169809473 (Wallace),
15150079 Jenkins), 2972646 (Steen), 16587893 (Anderson); Hunt, Blue Colonels: Ind., Ky., andTenn., 55.

32. Mammoth Hotelregister; Grand Rapids Weekly Eagle, Slayton Papers, University of Michigan;
Finda grave #62542073 (A. W. Slayton), 95023654 (C. M. Slayton); E. K. Owsley to A. W. Slayton, Feb. 5,
1863, copy in possession of Dr. Stanley D. Sides, Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

33. Mammoth Hotel register; Buffalo Evening Courier and Republic, June 6, 1863; Findagrave
#47477246 (Wheeler); Sheffield Ingalls, History of Atchison County, Kansas (1916). Wheeler was later
employed by the Union Pacific Railroad, and moved to Atchison, Kansas.

34. Lee, L.&N. Railroad, 129-30; Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 23, Pt. 1: 645-46; http://www.salem-
ny.com/1863letters.html; The Town of Wayland in the Civil War of 1861-1865 (Wayland, Mass., 1871), 214-
15; CSR, RG94, NA, Frank W. Draper File.

35. Louisville Daily Journal , June 5, July 22, 30, 1863.

36. Mammoth Hotelregister; Ancestry.com (E. K. Owsley and Family); CSR, RG94, NA, John Q.
Owsley File.

37. Louisville Daily Journal, Aug. 20, 1863; Findagrave #139656016 (T. L. Bransford, Jr.);
Ancestry.com (T. L. Bransford, Jr.); Robert M. McBride and Dan M. Robison, Biographical Dictionary of
the Tennessee General Assembly (Nashville, 1975), 1:73; 1850 Census, Ky., Barren, Glasgow in the 1 *t Div.,
805; (1860), Tenn., Davidson, Edgefield, 2; Charles W. Wright, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky (Vincennes, Ind.,
1858), 5; Nashville Daily Press and Times, Aug. 24, 1868; Joy M. Lyons, Making their Mark: The Signature
of Slavery at Mammoth Cave (Ft. Washington, Pa., 2006), 54. On April 23, 1862, Mat was entrusted onan
unspecified mission to Cave City. Mammoth Hotel register.

38. Frederick James Stevenson Collection, Royal Geographic Society, London; F. J. Stevenson,
“Adventure Underground. The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky in 1863,” Blackwood’s Magazine, No. 1400,
VoL 231 June, 1932), 721-22, 740-56. It is not known if or how many slaves E. K. Owsley owned. The
blacks Stevenson mentioned could have been hired from locals. J. Q. Owsley in 1860 owned nine slaves,
three males aged 30, 32, and 48, and six females aged 4, 7, 10, 14, 25, and 32. 1860 Slave Census, Ky.,
Cumberland, 2"4 Dist., 10.

E /94.

39. Stevenson, “Adventure Underground,” 740-56; Ancestry.com (F.M. Demonbreun); M. O. Smith
Diary, Déc. 23, 2016.

40. Louisville Daily Journal, Sept. 9, 1863.

41. Nashville Daily Union, Sept. 23-Oct. 25, 1865.

42. Rochester Moores Rural New Yorker, Nov. 7, 1863, quoting the Springfield Republican;
Louisville Daily Journal, Oct. 26-31, 1863; Mammoth Hotel register.

43. Minot J. Savage Papers, 1856-64, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts;
Dictionary of American Biography, 8: 389-90 (Savage); Finda grave #13234363 1 (Hawes).

44. Mammoth Hotelregister; Finda grave #18492670 (Walden), 13165270 (Reed).

45. M. O. Smith Diary, Sept. 9, 23, 2016, Mar. 11, June 9, 30, 2017; Findagrave #98571619
(Ragland), 78980538 (Law), 6051199 (Evans), 119765994 (Mary L. Hilburm), 18481147 (Tyler), 185300796
(J. C. Smith); 1860 Census, Ky., Butler, Morgantown, 178; Records of Officers and Men of New Jersey 1861-
1865 (2 vols., Trenton, 1876), 1: 361; 2: 960, 990; Index to Civil War Pensions, 1861-1934 (John C. Smith
and John B. Tyler); CSR, RG94, NA, John B. Tyler File; Mammoth Hotel register; 1900 Census, N.J., Essex,
Newark, 11 Enum. Dist., 16B.

46. Mammoth Hotelregister; Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 32, Pt. 1:624; Pt. 3: 75, 156, 572.

47. Louisville Daily Journal, Mar. 30-May 2, 1864.

48. Charles City(lowa) Republican Intelligencer, May 5, 1864.

49. Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 32, Pt. 2: 290; Pt. 3: 292, 438, 557; G.W.H. Kemper to Hattie
(future wife), Apr. 28, 1864, General William Harrison Kemper Papers, Ball State University Archives and
Special Collections, Muncie, Indiana; Finda grave #70327457 (G.W.H. kemper).

50.Mammoth Hotel register; Finda gra ve #20468989 (W.H. Greenwood), 44553751 (H. B. Ewing),
107807735 (Baker), 69032770 (Hazelip); Ancestry.com (Eveline D.K. Greenwood); David S. and Jeanne T.
Headler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War A Political, Social, and Military History (New York
and London, 2000), 666.

51.Mammoth Hotel register; Findagrave #103 16909 (Pitman), 1 18254063 (Brown); John T. Pitman
to his wife, Caroline, May 2, 1864, John Talbot Pitman Family Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society,
Providence.

52. Mammoth Hotel register; Findagrave #12606 (Ruth Dodge), 46092606 (Lettie), 66094246
(Ella), 22686795 (Bailey), 9150 (G. E. Spencer), 24629956 (Bella Spencer), 34669388 (M.M. Bane),
68485681 (Marina Bane). In 1866 Bella Spencer published Army of the Great Rebellion, before dying of
typhoid fever.

53. Mammoth Hotel register; M. O. Smith Diary, Apr. 14, 2017; Findagrave #95167100 (Baer),
5895116 (McArthur), 69663214 (Randall); Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 32, Pt. 2: 295; Pt. 3: 170, 453-54,
mh pe ee

54. Roger D. Hunt and Jack R. Brown, Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue (Gaithersburg, Md.,
1990), 525; Mammoth Hotel register; James F. Rusling, Men and Things I Saw in Civil War Days (New
York, 1899), 3, 310-13, 322, 348, 350, 352, 353; James F. Rusling, A Trip to the Mammoth Cave KY
(Nashville, 1864), passim; Findagrave #78913488 (Crane), 18294000 (Newlin); Official Records, Ser. 1,
Vol. 44: 826; Vol. 45, Pt. 1:325.

55. Mammoth Hotel register; M.O. Smith Diary, Sept. 9, 2016, June 9, 2017; John W. Rowell,
Yankee Cavalrymen: Through the Civil War with the Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry (Knoxville, 1971), 184-
87; Findagrave #85588601 (Baker), 117466454 (Thomas), 8036 (Jordan), 16870837 (Walker), 58508570
(Landis), 18778435 (Foose); Bates, Pennsylvania Volunteers, 5: 242, 244, 266; New Bloomfield Perry
County Democrat, May 6, 1867.

56. Mammoth Hotel register; 1850 Census, New York, Albany, Albany, 4° Ward, 183B; (1860),
Ga., Chatham, Savannah, 3 Dist., 197; An Historical Sketch of the State Normal School at Albany, 1844 -
1894 (Albany, N.Y.), 137; W. G. Dickson to E. Levassor, Aug. 27, 1864, William G. Dickson Papers,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the
Rebellion 1861-1866 (11 vols., Akron, Cincinnati, Norwalk, 1886-95), 10: 259; Savannah City Directory

L/95

(1867), 184; Findagrave #42588315 (LaMotte), 124086854 (Stickney), 81104476 (Sawyer), 38578890
(Hammond).

57. Mammoth Hotelregister; Findagrave #22954995 (Hurd), 59621205 (Lewis); Ralph H. Bowen,
trans.anded., A Frenchman in Lincoln’s America: Huit Moisen Amerique: Letters et Notes de Voyage, 1864 -
1865 by Ernes Duvergier de Hauranne (Chicago, 1974), 350-53, 357-71; Wikipedia (Duvergier).

58. Trevor R. Shaw, “Barametric Depth Measurements in Mammoth Cave,” Journal of Spelean
History, Vol. 25, No. 3 (July-Sept., 1991); Mammoth Hotel register.

59. Mark Grimsley and Todd D. Miller, eds., The Union Must Stand: The Civil War Diary of John
Quincy Adams Campbell, Fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (Knoxville, 2000), xiii-xxii, 188-92; Findagrave
#21075674 (Campbell). The vote of the Fifth Lowa at the cave was Lincoln, 235, McClellan, 10. Burlington
(lowa) Weekly Hawk-eye, Nov. 26, 1864.

60. Robert Ferguson, America During and After the War (London, 1866), 136-45; Wikipedia
(Robert Ferguson). Presumably, Ferguson was referring to E. K. Owsley’s wife, Mary Alice. J. Q. Owsley’s
second wife, Mary Davis Cabell (b. 1837), had died Sept. 3, 1863, and he had not yet wed a third time.
Finda grave #3 1923982 (J. Q. Owsley); Ancestry.com (Mary D. Cabell).

61.M.O. Smith Diary, Oct. 14, 2016, Jan. 27, Mar. 10, Apr. 14, May 26, June 9, 30, 2017, Feb. 9,
July 20, 2018; Mammoth Hotelregister; Finda grave #5 1289622 (Cornwall, Jr.), 13190403 (Jesse mcComb),
86821592 (Mary E. Richardson), 121929509 (German), 86821592 (L. McComb), 131774764 (Shade) ,
9520939 (Bang), 121929509 (Kerfoot); 1850 Census, Ky., Jefferson, Louisville, 2°4 Dist., 58; (1860),
Louisville, 7** Ward, 87; Pa., Philadelphia, Philadelphia, 18t* Ward, 310; (1880), Ky., Jefferson, 147 Enum.
Dist., 50; (1900), 131% Enum. Dist., 10A; Kentucky Death Records, 1852-1965, July 19, 1871 (Margaret B.
Drake); W.W. Clayton, History of Davidson County, Tennessee (Nashville, 1880), 238, 239, 253; Annual
Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York for the Year 1898, Series No. 17 (New York and
Albany, 1899), 465; Bates, Pennsylvania Volunteers, 8: 700; Washington Evening Star, Feb. 14, 1907; The
Living Church, Vol. 36, No. 18 (Mar., 1907), 626.

62. Mammoth Hotelregister; Daniel W. Lindsey to E.K. Owsley, Mar. 13, 1865 Kentucky Adjutant
General Letter Book No. 10; Louisville Daily Democrat, Mar. 16, 1865; Louisville Daily Journal, Mar. 18,
1865; Columbus Ohio State Journal, Mar. 29, 1865. Thomas E. Bramlette (1817-1875), who resigned as
colonel of the 3™ Kentucky Infantry, USA, in July 1862, 0n June 6, 1863, wasa guest at the hotelat Mammoth
Cave. Findagrave #6860277 (Bramlette); Mammoth Hotel register.

63. New York Times, Apr. 16, 1865; Louisville Daily Democrat, July 19, 1865; Louisville Daily
Journal, July 19, 20,23, 1865; Nashville Daily Union, Aug. 4, 1865; Nov. 17, 1983, newspaper clipping in
Cave City Folder, Museum of the Barrens, Glasgow, Kentucky; Ancestry.com (Andrew M. McCoy); 1870
Census, Ky., Barren, Cave City, 2; (1880), 10 Enum. Dist., 44; Findagrave #17824148 (J.D. Gilman).
Gilman for years was a stock trader, ultimately moving to Texas. 1860 Census, Ky., Jefferson, 2™4 Dist., St.
Matthews, 141;(1870), Gillmans Precinct, 21; (1900), 67 Enum. Dist., 6A.

64. Mammoth Hotel register; Findagrave #1052 (Upton), 10030 (Hatch), 4262 (Long), 5988408
(Murray), 43599624 (Woodhull), 5842278 (Hazen), 11455563 (Reese), 33715283 (Morgan), 7218621
(Swords) 18126 (Catterson), 5895158 (Milroy), 28510180 (Latta), 21049542 (Cruttenden), 48332535 (Dill),
49260114 (Merrill), 61539854 (Hoskins), 150209979 (Palmer), 90894283 (Foulk), 91412323 (Bartlett),
13636882, Amold), 28513426 (McMichael), 93578767 (Mathewson); Heidler, American Civil War
Encyclopedia, 1127 (King); M.O. Smith Diary, Sept. 9, Oct. 14, 2116,Jan. 27, Apr. 14, June 9, 2017; Hunt
and Brown, Brevet Brigadiers, 602; Hunt, Blue Colonels: Mich., Ohio, and W.Va., 50 (Findley); Bates,
Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1: 1117 (Foulk); Wikipedia (L. Wolfley); Hunt, Blue Colonels: Ind., Ky., and
Tenn., 191-92 (Walker); Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 33: 1047; Vol. 40, Pt. 1: 417-18; Vol. 43, Pt.2: 188,
331; Vol. 44: 105-6, 849; Vol. 49, Pt. 2: 30, 126-27, 220, 444-45,572, 592,940, 976, 982,990, 1015, 1024-
25, 1075-76, 1079; Margaret B. Paulus, comp., Papers of Robert Huston Milroy (4 vols., n.p., 1965), 1: 375-
7; 2: 44; Emory Upton to E. F. Winslow, July 7, 1865, Digital Library, University of lowa; Yale University
obituaries: Record of Graduates Deceased During the Year Ending July 1, 1920 (New Haven, 1921), 10-12.
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion (30 vols., Washington,

wt
13
F

E196

eS.
D.C., 1894-1922), Ser.1, Vol. 27: 194, 334. On September 5, 1863, W. NM. Merrill visited Long Island
Saltpeter Cave, Alabama, and in August 1864,General Milroy toured part of Nickajack Cave, Tennessee.

65. Mammoth Hotelregister; Louisville Daily Journal, Sept. 28, 1866; Louisville Courier-Journal,
Jan. 5, 1867; Ben Perley Poore, The Political Register and Congressional Dictionary (Boston, 1878), 598,
714.

66. Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, July 13, 1865; Louisville Daily Democrat, July 14, 25, 1865:
Louisville Daily Journal, July 23, 25, 1865; Cincinnati Commercial, Aug. 10, 1865; Roster of Wisconsin
Volunteers, War of the Rebellion 1861-1865 (2 vols., Madison, 1886), 2: 420. On Aug. 14 J. Q. and E. K.
Owsley wrote the Louisville Journal editor, claiming that at the Cave Hotel and cave they were “having a
gay time. .. all the while justas many guests as we can accommodate.” The Long Route was open and Cole’s
String Band remained present. Journal, Aug. 17, 1865.

, 67. Ibid., Aug. 9, 1865; Nashville Daily Press and Times, Aug. 22, 1865; 1850 Census, Tenn..,
Davidson, Nashville, Household 523; (1860), 1% Ward, 30; Ancestry.com (W. H. Calhoun); Findagrave
#139593118(A. A. Collier), 64210302 (P. P. Collier). A.A. Collier’s pencil autograph, without a date, is in
Mammoth Cave’s Cleaveland Avenue. He was at the hotel August 26, 1858.

68. Bob Thompson, Photographers of the Mammoth Cave Region of Kentucky 1865-2015 (n.p..,
2015), 10-11.

69. Louisville Daily Journal, Oct. 3, 1865; Louisville Daily Democrat, Oct. 7, 1865; Mammoth
Hotel register (Aug. 3, 1860, Nov. 28, 1865); Communication from Dr. Stanley D. Sides, Cape Girardeu,
Mo., May 21,2019; Ancestry.com (J.N.T. Rogers).

70. Cincinnati Gazette, Oct. 18, 1865.

71. New York Independent, Nov. 9, 1865.

72. Detroit Free Press, Dec. 31, 1865.Mammoth Hotel register. Some 516 guests, including twenty -
four military, registered at the hotel during August 1865, peak of the season.

73.M. O. Smith Diary, Sept. 9, 2016, Jan. 7, 27,Mar. 10, 11, Apr. 14, June 30,2017, Nov. 24, 2018;
Lyman H. Weeks, ed., Prominent Families of New York (New York, 1897), 10; 1850 Census, Ky., Kenton,
393; (1860), 1% Dist., 183; Covington, 7 Ward, 406; Warren, 2"4 Dist., Bowling Green P.O., 27; (1870),
Ohio, Trumbull, 2°4 Ward, 10; Ancestry.com (Kuhn, O’Shaughnessy); Findagrave #181698863 (Bowen),
22290558 (H. Wright), 122292379 (Dithridge), 10043 (E. M. Bruce), 88461039 (Mrs. E. M. Bruce),
74876307 (C. J. Prentice), 91764702 (Judelle Trabue), 61830074 (C. H. Trabue), 89864751 (R. A. Pretlow),
113760980 (Colville), 6519170 (Talley), 84402438 (Mattie Withers), 87372993 (Estep), 7896599 (Sallie
Stevenson), 15212383 (G. A. Henry, Jr.); Pittsburgh Press, Feb. 11, 1929; Bates, Pennsylvania Volunteers,
9: 384 (Kuhn); Official Records Navy, Ser. 1, Vol. 27: 194-95; Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 7: 343; Ser. 2,
Vol. 4: 439; Civil War Badges.com Catalog, George H. Hull; Chris Howes, To Photograph Darkness
(Carbondale, Ill, 1989), 50-51; Frank Moore, ed., The Rebellion Record, A Diary of American Events (12
vols., 1864-69), 12: 420-21; Mammoth Hotel register. C. J. Prentice had been to the cave before, about
August 15, 1858. Hugh Colville, who wed Sallie Pretlow, left his name in Franklin Avenue August 6, 1857.
Estep and Henry probably first knew each other when they were at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, in early 1862.
Henry escaped but Estep did not. On August 29, 1865, in company with another Clarksville ex-Confederate,
Captain William A. Elliott (1840-1881), Henry visited Mammothagain, with both paying forthe Long Route.
M.O. Smith Diary, Dec. 23, 2016; Hotel register; Findagrave 110988436 (Elliott).

74. Mammoth Hotel register.

75.Ibid.; Kinnear, Eighty-sixth Illinois, chapter one; Stewart, Dan McCook’s Regiment, 33; Seventy-
Third Illinois, 106-7; Bennett and Haigh, Thirty-sixth Illinois, 361-62; Hunter, Eighty-Second Indiana, 27;
Rowell, Yankee Cavalrymen, 184-87; George Kryder to wife, March 14, 1862, George Kryder Papers;
Grimsley and Miller, The Union Must Stand, 188-92. Due to its large entrance and proximity to a railroad,
Nickajack in Marion County, Tennessee, was probably the cave most visited during the war, especially 1 863-
65. However, due to the closing ofa dam in late 1967, many of its wartime names are under water. Thousands
of soldiers camped near Lost River Cave, Warren County, Kentucky, in 1862, and untold numbers wandered
inside but left comparatively few names. Caves with a concentration of 1860s military graffiti include

E 197
Railroad Crevice near Munfordville, Kentucky; Harrison (Melrose) Cave, Rockingham County, Virginia ;
Lookout Cave at Chattanooga, Tennessee; Long Island Saltpeter Cave, Jackson County, Alabama; Soldiers
(Cudjos) Cave at Cumberland Gap, Lee County, Virginia; and Weyers (Grand) Cave, Augusta County,
Virginia, America’s oldest spelean show operation.

76. Mammoth Cave register; Louisville Daily Journal, Aug. 18, 1866; Memphis Daily Appeal, July
23,24, 1869; Nashville Republican Banner, Aug. 18, 1870, July 25, 1871; Photographic History of the Civil
War, 10: 164 (Halleck); Hunt and Brown, Brevet Brigadier Generals, 168 (Donaldson); West Point Register
(1970), 239 (Fry), 244 (Whipple); Lynda L. Crist, The Papers of Jefferson Davis, (Baton Rouge, 1999), 10:
580-81 (B.R. Johnson); Constance W. Altshuler, Cavalry Yellow and Infantry Blue: Army Officers in Arizona
Between 1851 and 1886 (Tucson, 1991), 363-64 (Whipple); Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Gray (Baton Rouge,
1959), 211-12 (Marmaduke), 338 (J. S. Williams); George Washington Gordon... Memorial Addresses
(Washington, D.C., 1913), 11, 31, 45, 47; Atlanta Constitution, May 16, 1872; Findagrave 116703685
(Marks), 12181839 (Styles), 36297954 (Willingham; CSR, RG109 (M311, Roll 6; M266, Roll 13), NA, Matt
R. Marks, Charles H.C. Willingham Files. Brevet Major General John Ely (1816-1869) and Brevet Brigadier
General Andrew R.Z. Dawson (1835-1896) signed in atthe hotel June 11 and 18, 1866. Brevet Brigadiers,
152, 193; Mammoth Hotel register.

77.M. O. Smith Diary, Jan. 27, Apr. 14,2017, Aug. 24, 2017, Aug. 21, Nov. 24, 2018: Mammoth
Hotel register; CSR, RG109, NA, H. O. Seixas, O. O. Mull, and W. M. Davidson Files; Sioux City (Lowa)
Journal, May 20, 1911 (Seixas); Findagrave 10176910 (J. B. Pirtle), 33144157 (O. O. Mull), 55254459
(Davidson); 1860 Census, Va., Henrico, Richmond, | St Ward, 171 (Mull); General and Staff Officers, RG109
(M331, Roll 72), National Archives, William M. Davidson File.

78. Nashville Daily American, May 20, 1888; Findagrave 47122113 (Rea); Hiawatha (Kans) Brown
County World, Oct. 4, 1895; Confederate Veteran, 8 (1900), 256.

79. Louisville Daily Journal, Feb. 8, Sept. 28, 1866; 1870 Census, Ky., McCracken, 34 Precinct,
12; Cumberland, Burkesville, 13; (1880), Ballard, 63" Enum. Dist. 4; 1890 Veterans Census, Tenn., Sumner,
5 Dist., 254 Enum. Dist.; Ancestry.com (E. K. Owsley).

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