Something of Men I Have Known: With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and RetrospectiveStevenson, Adlai E. (Adlai Ewing)
History
Something of Men I Have Known: With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective
Stevenson, Adlai E. (Adlai Ewing)
United States -- Biography; United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1933
COLONEL WOOLFORD, A HERO UNDER GENERAL ZACHARY TAYLOR--HIS MANNER OF
FIGHTING--HIS DEFENCE OF A YOUTH CHARGED WITH MURDER--HE MAKES A
SPEECH THAT INFURIATES GENERAL FRY.
One of the men not easily forgotten was the Hon. Frank Woolford,
a member of Congress from the mountains of Kentucky nearly a quarter
of a century ago. He was without reservation a typical mountaineer.
He practised law in the local courts, and was prominent in the
politics of his State. His style of oratory bore little resemblance
to that of the British House of Lords. He had been a soldier in two
wars, and his dauntless courage and inexhaustible good humor made him
the idol of his comrades. He had been of the heroic band of
"Old Rough and Ready" that repelled the charge of twenty thousand lancers
under Santa Ana at Buena Vista. He was as brave as Marshal Ney,
and it was said of him that the battle-field was his home as the
upper air was that of the eagle.
He promptly espoused the cause of the Union at the outbreak of the
Civil War and was chosen Colonel of a mounted regiment gathered
from his own and adjacent counties. He knew how to fight, but
of the science of war as taught in the schools he was as ignorant as
the grave. It was said that his entire tactics were embraced in
two commands: "Huddle and fight," and "Scatter." When the
first was heard his men "huddled and fit"; and when retreat was the
only possible salvation, the command to "scatter" was obeyed
with equal alacrity. Each man was now for himself, and "devil take
the hindmost" for a time, but the sound of Woolford's bugle
never failed to secure prompt falling into line at the auspicious moment.
"Woolford's cavalry" was the synonym for daring, even at the
time when the recital of the deeds of brave men filled the world's
great ear.
Woolford and his troopers were in the thickest of the fight at Mill
Spring, where Zollicoffer fell; later, they hung upon the flanks
of Bragg on his retreat southward from the bloody field of Perryville.
More than once during those troublous times our hero was a "foeman
worthy the steel" of John Morgan, Forrest, and the gallant Joe
Wheeler of world renown.
At the close of the war, Colonel Woolford returned to his mountain
home and was in due time elected a Representative in Congress.
Years later, with life well rounded out, he met the only foe to
whom he ever surrendered, and lamented by all, passed to the beyond.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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