From Kentucky cabin homes came the two men who were destined to be the political leaders in the greatest conflict that ever shook our continent.

In 1808, Jefferson Davis, who became the President and idol of the Confederacy, first saw the light in that part of Christian County that was afterwards erected into Todd.

In 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the war President of the United States, was born in that part of Hardin County that afterwards became Larue.

The gifted Kentuckian, Henry Clay, had by his pacific measures postponed war, but it was not to be averted. When it came, our governor, Beriah Magoffin, attempted neutrality, and refused to raise troops for either army. From many homes, however, went soldiers to each side; friend was arrayed against friend, brother against brother, and father against son. The hour of patriotism, danger, and privation had come. When the first gun in the war was fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, a native Kentuckian, Major Robert Anderson of the United States army, commanded the garrison.

On our soil both Confederate and Federal forces were raised. Various towns were occupied and fortified by soldiers, at some places under the Stars and Bars, at other places under the Stars and Stripes.

The boys that wore the gray entered Kentucky and fortified themselves at Columbus and Hickman under Major General Leonidas Polk, and at Cumberland Gap under General Zollicoffer. The boys in blue, acting under orders from Brigadier General U.S. Grant, invaded the state at Paducah.

General Albert Sidney Johnston of Kentucky took command of the Confederate "Central Army of Kentucky," and under his orders General Simon B. Buckner fortified Bowling Green.

At Wildcat Mountain, near London, a bloody conflict took place, General Zollicoffer leading the Confederates, and Colonel T.T. Garrard and General Schoepff the Federals. The Confederates, being outnumbered, withdrew, after a loss to each side.

At Sacramento, Colonel Forrest defeated a company of Federals two days after Christmas, 1861.

Early the next year General Zollicoffer and General George B. Crittenden encountered General Thomas at Mill Springs; reËnforcements came to the Federals, the gallant Zollicoffer fell, and the Confederates were forced to retreat.

At Big Hill, in Rockcastle County, the Federals were defeated; at Richmond the Confederates were again victorious, while at Munfordville they were repulsed.

At Augusta a bloody battle between Colonel Basil Duke's men and the home guards under Dr. Joshua T. Bradford resulted in another victory for the Confederates.

In the severe battle of Perryville, where 25,000 Federals, under General A. McCook, met 16,000 Confederates under General William J. Hardee, the Federal loss was more than four thousand and the Confederate, one thousand less. This was one of the most desperately contested battles of the war.

That daring Confederate cavalryman, General John H. Morgan, the "Francis Marion" of the Confederacy, captured Glasgow, Elizabethtown, and the blockhouses at Muldraugh's Hill, where he tore up the railroad track. Colonel Cluke defeated the Federals at Mount Sterling, destroyed railway trains, and captured supplies.

At Bardstown, Maysville, Tompkinsville, Cynthiana, and Paducah, the two sides met in deadly conflict. At the latter place the daring Confederate cavalryman, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, entered with his troops. Here also General A.P. Thompson, while gallantly leading his troops in a charge on Fort Anderson, fell pierced by a cannon ball.

At Murfreesboro, Missionary Ridge, Chickamauga, Vicksburg, Donelson, Shiloh, Baton Rouge, Stone River, indeed, on almost every battlefield, Kentucky courage was tested and never found wanting.

At the close of the crucial conflict more than thirty thousand of the flower of our Kentucky manhood had fallen, and thousands more were crippled.

More than forty thousand Kentuckians followed the fortunes of the Confederacy. Among them were: General Albert Sidney Johnston; Lieutenant Generals Simon B. Buckner and John B. Hood; Major Generals John C. Breckinridge, William Preston, and George B. Crittenden; Brigadier Generals John Hunt Morgan, Humphrey Marshall, Ben Hardin Helm, Basil W. Duke, Roger W. Hanson, Lloyd Tilghman, John S. Williams, George B. Hodge, Thomas H. Taylor, Henry B. Lyon, Adam R. Johnson, and Richard S. Gano.

More than one hundred thousand of the white men of our state and eleven thousand negroes enlisted in the Federal cause. Among the former were numbered: Major Generals Thomas L. Crittenden, Cassius M. Clay, Don Carlos Buell, William Nelson, Lovell H. Rousseau, and Thomas J. Wood; Brigadier and Brevet Major Generals Robert Anderson, Richard W. Johnson, Stephen G. Burbridge, W.T. Ward, Walter C. Whittaker, John T. Croxton, and Eli Long; Brigadier Generals James M. Shackelford, James S. Jackson, Green Clay Smith, Speed S. Fry, Jerry T. Boyle, Edward H. Hobson, T.T. Garrard, L.P. Watkins, and W.P. Sanders.

Of the Kentuckians engaged we can truly say no braver men were found on either side; no better citizens have helped to develop our state since the conflict closed. Now only a few veterans are left on either side. Most of them are