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Irregular Cycle

Posted by Peter Brackney on August 02, 2010

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My apologies for the somewhat irregular posting schedule. A lot has been going on!

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NoDestination: I75, Exit 154

Driving north to Pittsburgh, Pa., I found myself needing to refuel. I was not anticipating my fuel stop a possibility for NoDestination , but as I stood putting 87-octane into my car I noticed a historic marker in the lawn between the Shell station and the KY-36. I suppose the moral of this story is that you never know when you might see something worthy of visiting and that you should always take the opportunity to inquire. Marker #725 "A Civil War Reprisal" tells the tale of an Aug. 1864 execution of three Confederates in retaliation for the guerilla murder of two Union sympathizers. Interestingly, the three were held in Lexington prior to their execution but were brought to the Owen/Grant County area (home of their victims) to be executed. According to E. Polk Johnson's 1912 A History of Kentucky , the executions were performed by firing squad.

walkLEX: A Facelift for Historic Marker #3

Historic Marker #3 - Lexington, Ky. In front of the Hunt-Morgan House, also known as Hopemont, at Lexington's Gratz Park is a historic marker, number 3 in the Kentucky Historical Highway Marker Program, that reads: Home of John Hunt Morgan, "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy." Born Huntsville, Alabama, June 1, 1825. Killed Greeneville, Tennessee, September 4, 1864. Lieutenant, Kentucky Volunteers in Mexican War 1846-1847. Major General, C.S.A., 1861-1864.

Regifting a Relic from the Spanish-American War

Cannon on the front lawn at UK. UK Libraries . An oft-forgotten conflict in American history, the Spanish-American War was one of only five wars in the nation's history to be formally declared by Congress. Lasting only three months in 1898, the island of Cuba served as the conflict's main theatre. The final battle of the war was staged in the hills to the immediate east of Santiago and it acquired the name The Battle of San Juan Hill. A month after the battle, a dispatch was sent from the Secretary of War to General Shafter in Cuba requesting that "a lot of old brass cannon, old style, at Santiago, captured by you." These many cannons were ultimately distributed by the War Department throughout the country. One in particular has since 1903 been on the grounds of the University of Kentucky, though it didn't arrive directly but was instead "regifted" through multiple hands before arriving in front of the University's Main Building.

No Destination: John Hunt Morgan Bridge

John Hunt Morgan Bridge, Cynthiana, Ky. General John Hunt Morgan, the Thunderbolt of the Confederacy , is a favorite Civil War general among many Kentuckians. In Lexington, the statute of him upon his steed is the only one in Kentucky with a mounted Civil War soldier or officer. In Cynthiana, site of two Civil War battles (both involved JHM), a bridge "honor[s] famous Confederate calvary leader." Opened to traffic on October 8, 1949, the General John Hunt Morgan Bridge was dedicated in 1950. It replaced a wooden, covered bridge which had been erected in 1837. Closed in 1944 and the flooring and sides removed, daring teenagers attempted to cross the skeletal remains of the covered bridge in 1946. Four drowned. In December 1948, that bridge was pushed into the river and construction began on the present bridge. [ * ] [ * ] The bridge crosses the south fork of the Licking River.

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