From the Louisville Courier Journal, September 11, 1895

Opposite Louisville, on the Indiana side of the falls of the Ohio, is a spot of more than ordinary historical associations. There, at Camp Jo Holt, mustered the first Federal forces of Kentucky, and their presence was undoubtedly a strong factor in keeping the State within the ranks of the Union.

There were virtually two armed camps in Louisville after the opening gun at Sumter, the State Guards, whose commander-in-chief was the Governor, Beriah Magoffin, and who were supposed to be Confederate in their sympathies, and the Home Guards, organized by Lovell Rousseau, to offset the other body, for the Unionists feared that at any moment the city might be seized in behalf of the Confederacy.

When the news from Bull Run arrived there was the wildest excitement, and, many thought, imminent danger of a collision. Toward evening both armed forces gathered at their respective armories, and while the Federals awaited the issue in silence, the State Guards were harangued in fiery and triumphant speeches.

Many of the sympathizers of both sides, slipped over from Indiana and joined the respective forces. Among those who came to join the home guards was Col. James Keigwin ─ now Superintendent of the National Cemetery at Cave Hill. He went to their arsenal, on Jefferson Street, near Fourth Street, bringing with him his musket and cartridge-box, ready to take a hand. His brother, Albert Keigwin, was a Lieutenant of the guards.

Slowing the evening wore on, and every moment the men expected to hear the long roll of the drums and the alarm of the fire bells, telling of battle in the streets. The suspense became unbearable, and at least Col. Keigwin and a companion sallied forth to reconnoiter.

In speaking of the matter, Col. Keigwin says that he never saw the streets so utterly deserted. All doors were closed, windows barred and not a citizen to be seen anywhere. A death-like silence reigned in the thoroughfares of the city. The scouts reached Marble Hall, where the State Guards has an armory, and there they found an enthusiastic gathering, shouting, hurrahing, speaking and congratulating each other. It was more than the two scouts could stand they made their way back to their own quarters. All night they expected to hear the call to arms, all night citizens lay awake, dreading to hear the rattle of musketry, but the night passed with out any trouble.

There was a coterie of strong and able Union men in Louisville, among them James K. Joshua and Dr. Speed, William Needham, Thomas Ward Gibson, (father of Judge George H. D. Gibson of Clark county, Ind.), the great editor, George D. Prentice, John H. Hegney and the two Rousseaus, Lovell and Dick. All of these bent their energies to keeping the city and State loyal to the Federal Government.

With these men Lovell Rousseau conferred, and the result was the formation of the Federal brigade. But it could not be formed upon Kentucky soil, and thus while Gen. Buckner mustered the Confederate side of Kentucky’s youth on Tennessee soil, just over the border, Rousseau came to Indiana, and Camp Jo Holt, named by Capt. Jack Trainor after the Kentucky loyalist and jurist, became one of the greatest military camps of the war.

The National Government was partially paralyzed when the crisis came upon it, and when Rousseau, unable to secure a commission from the Governor, returned from Washington with a commission from the President, he had to accept the hospitality of a private, patriotic citizen. Col. S. H. Patterson, a kinsman, of Jeffersonville, who placed the camp at the soldiers’ disposal, and when Jo Holt was occupied in June, 1861, this same private citizen used his credit and money to furnish the necessary supplied for the recruits until the National Government could get its breath.

The loyal Kentuckians came with a rush to the standard of their leader, and in a few days between 1,400 and 1,500 men, anxious to fight, poured into the camp.

It was more than he expected, but Rousseau soon got his raw recruits into some shape, and was soon after joined by the Second Kentucky Cavalry under Col. Buckner Board and a battery of artillery. Arms came and Camp Jo Holt became the resort of the fashion of Louisville which repaired thither to witness the drilling and dress parades.

Discipline was very loose at first, and the custom prevailed among the volunteer soldiers to pick out the company they wished to serve in, and if the first did not suit them to change to another, perhaps two or three times before they finally settled down. This nearly led to a tragedy in one instance, two captains of the Second Kentucky becoming involved in a quarrel over such a change made by some soldier, and one of the officers, a Capt. Thompson, was seriously hurt by the other.

In August a dramatic scene took place at the camp, which proved that Rousseau’s brigade served more useful purposes than merely to attract the idle and curious. The brigade had been ordered to Missouri, but a loud protest went up to Washington from the Union men of Louisville. They feared, the brigade gone, the Confederates would seize the city, block the Ohio, and work incalculable damage.

James K. Speed and others advised the Washington authorities to leave the Legion where it was, but no answer came. Rousseau made ready to leave, it was the last dress parade, camp was struck, the Legion, 2,000 strong, was drawn up in line, ready to march. A great crowd of people, thousands of them on foot, on horseback, in carriages, from Louisville, Jeffersonville and New Albany were there to bid the boys farewell. Many of these who had come to see Rousseau’s forces go felt heavy and sad at heart. Already the drums and fifes sounded, the battalions swung into line, when a buggy was seen to come from Jeffersonville at breakneck speed. One man stood up in it, yelling and gesticulating frantically, waving a letter over his head, while another man was driving the horse like mad. The crowd saw them coming, guessed their purpose, and cheer after cheer went up. In a badly racked buggy, behind a foaming horse, Dr. Speed and Dick Rousseau drew up in front of Gen. Rousseau and handed him a letter. It ordered him to remain at the camp.

It is thought by some that Rousseau’s celebrated night march to Muldraugh’s Hill was his first armed invasion of the neutrality of Kentucky, but this is a mistake. About two weeks before that event he ordered his brigade to be ready to march. Ammunition, which as kept at the Prison South at Jeffersonville, for safe keeping, was served to the battery and the soldiers, and then the leader declared to this soldiers that he proposed to march through Louisville and make a display. In earnest words he warned them that there must be no violence, no shot fired, unless by order of the officers. Taunts, jibes and jeers were to be utterly disregarded and the solder who would notice them or depart from orders would be severely punished.

On the night of September 17 the Legion left Camp Jo Holt forever.

At that time armed bands of Confederates came up as far as Nolin’s creek and Muldraugh’s Hill. They belonged to Gen. Buckner’s command and were never very strong, but they recruited men, impressed horses and took away provender and gave serious alarm to the city. Rousseau was ordered to Muldraugh’s Hill.

The night march was dramatic. But few in Jeffersonville and perhaps no one in this city knew of the order, and over the river the people, with the exception of a few roisterers, had retired to rest, when a long line of bayonets, glinting in the moonlight, moved up Market street.

Only the steady tramp of feet and now and then a low word of command were heard. In front rode Lovell Rousseau, a knight of the Nineteenth century to win the accolade of war. On came the silent column until it reached the Patterson homestead, where Mrs. Patterson, her daughter, Mrs. Ed. J. Mitchell, and several other ladies stood under the shadow of the porch. They had been very kind to the soldiers and as the dark, steel-created columns swept past, there rose sound as of the water rushing over the falls.

"Good-bye, little mother!"

"Good-bye, Miss Mollie!"

All along the line hummed and murmured the sound, the tribute of Kentucky’s brave soldiery to Indiana’s womanhood!

They would have cheered with lusty throats as the handkerchiefs of the ladies waved to them in salute, but the march was a secret one, and no unnecessary noise must be made. When the smoke banner of the ferryboat trailed along the water at the foot of Second Street and the soldiers landed in the city, there was perhaps not a citizen to meet the martial array. Silently the brigade marched to the L. and N depot and next day it occupied Muldraugh’s Hill. The Legion never returned to its birthplace as a military body.

Soon after the camp was reopened by order of Gov. Morton and the Forty-ninth Indiana was recruited under Cols. Ray and Keigwin, and later the Twelfth Indiana Battery, while many other regiments occupied it successfully until the Government finally converted it into a great hospital.