Henry Read; the Valiant, the Conquered, the Forgotten

A Brief Examination of the Life & Times of LaRue County's Greatest Soldier and Rejected Statesman

by Gary Dean Gardner, Independent Scholar

 Of an unknown, unverified source, this image is thought to be one of Read taken in Louisville upon his return from Richmond.

Unlike most American men of the 1^st half of the 19^th century, Henry Read was a man of many varying professions.  Craftsman, lawman, lawyer, soldier, statesman, he was most of all a servant to his community. 

Henry English Read was born in what today is LaRue County on Christmas day 1824 to Lewis and Ailsey Brown Read, Lewis (b. 5 Jan 1787 Fairfax Co. VA) being a son of Hensley 1755-1825 and Charlotte Kirk Read and Ailsey M. (b. 28 Dec 1793) the daughter of James & Isabella Brown.  Typical for the upper South, they were prosperous “yeoman” planters and slave holders, being amongst the first inhabitants of the Tonnieville section which had been settled by the families removing from the early Goodin’s Station along the Rolling Fork River.  Lewis and Ailsey Read were early members of Hodgenville Methodist Episcopal (South) Church, in whose congregation they raised their children.  Lewis was as well a Whig party political leader in the southern section of what was then Hardin County.  He became active with other prominent men in proposing and advocating for the separation from Hardin to create a new county.   He was appointed one of the first justices for the new county, and later became its Sheriff. 

The Reads were married in 1813 and had a large family consisting of Belinda, James, William Brown, Nathaniel, Julia Ann, Nannie, Henry English, Charles, Caroline, Lewis, John Mary Jane, and Joshua Joseph.  Of these, William displayed the earliest aptitude at public service and early on became a successful lawyer.  The subject of this sketch, however, initially shunned such a vocation and instead was apprenticed to become a blacksmith.  The war with Mexico changed Henry’s path forever.  Like many young Kentucky men swayed by patriotic fervor inspired by the newspapers of the day, Henry Read enlisted in President Polk’s newly created elite Voltigeurs after recruiting was commenced 4 March 1847 and joined the one company formed in Kentucky, serving under Colonel Thomas Patrick Andrews of Washington, D. C.

Serving in the campaign with distinction, Henry displayed his natural capacity for leadership on the battlefield where he was dangerously wounded several times yet heroically pressed on until his body could sustain no more.  Afterwards Read, wounded and basically abandoned by the Armies, made his precarious and dangerous journey home to Hodgenville alone, arriving as one of our greatest military heroes in any generation before or since.  He would be recognized by the Kentucky Legislature for his heroism some years later.

Resolution #4 would be approved 18^th February 1854.  It read, “Whereas, Henry E. Read, of LaRue County, late ensign in the regiment of Voltigeurs, under the command of Col. T. P. (Thomas Patrick) Andrews, during the war with Mexico, performed gallant services for his country, having been engaged in every battle that was fought in the valley of Mexico- in all of which he conducted himself as a soldier and a Kentuckian, bearing aloft the flag of his country, until he fell covered with wounds under the walls of Chapultepec.  There, Resolved by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, That the governor of this state be authorized to procure and present to Henry E. Read, in the name of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, a sword, as a token of the admiration and gratitude of this general assembly for his gallantry and patriotism manifested in said war.”  Preserved and protected within the Read family by his son John Wesley, this treasured relic was given to the Filson Club where it remains today. (Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky: Vol. 1, 1854 p. 188)

from The Courier-Journal 13 February 1938

Home again, war veteran Henry Read would forever be slightly disabled, preventing him from taking up the hammer to the anvil again as a primary vocation.  He instead followed his father’s lead at last.  The 1850 Federal Census gives us a glimpse of a rather influential household in the newly formed LaRue County, a proud success for the elder Lewis Read.  Family #3 was headed by elder sibling William Brown Read, 32 years of age, and already a respected attorney, his wife Sarah, and borders William H. Waide, 37-year-old merchant, and H. M. Rowlett, a rather prosperous lawyer.  The final resident of the home was William’s younger brother, and Mexican War hero and now Sheriff of LaRue County, Henry English, then 25.  He had in fact succeeded his own father, Lewis, in that position.  Henry’s term as County Sheriff was apparently peaceful.  He submitted the tax returns for the county through 1852.  (Reports Submitted to Both Branches of the Legislature of Kentucky for the years 1849-1852) 

Henry’s developing political ambitions were successfully rewarded just a few years later in his bid for statewide office when he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives by LaRue County in 1853, serving in that capacity through 1855.  While State Representative in 1854, Henry married Charlotte C. Doran in LaRue County on the 30^th of May 1854.  She was the daughter of Hart County planter Thomas Doran and his wife Mary who, in 1850, were listed in the Census Slave Schedules as the owners of 16 men, women & children.  The young couple became parents to sons John Wesley Read (1857) and William Doran Read (2 Feb 1855), as well as Mary and Thomas who died as infants. (Collins Historical Sketches of Kentucky:  History of Kentucky Vol. 2. P. 457; Daily Commonwealth, Frankfort, KY multiple issues 1853-55, Legislative Directory)

Years after the conflict with Mexico we find reference to Read’s first humble profession, the one forsaken for politics and the law.  The Congressional Globe (VOL 35; First Session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress, p. 2138) for 14^th May 1858 explains the introduction of “A bill (H.R. No. 257) to increase the pension of Henry E Read, a citizen of Kentucky, and for other purposes.  The bill raises the half pension heretofore allowed to Henry E. Read, of Kentucky, a non-commissioned officer in the Mexican War, to thirteen dollars a month.  The second section enacts that the benefits accruing to Henry E. Read, under and by virtue of this act, shall commence 3 March 1848, and continue for and during his natural life.  It appears from the report that Sergeant Read entered the army intended for the invasion of Mexico, in Louisville, Kentucky, in the spring of 1847; that he was in every battle fought by the American arms from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico; and until he fell desperately wounded in the abdomen, in the right shoulder and right arm, at the storming of Chapultepec; that his conduct in every engagement was that of a truly courageous citizen soldier, until his fall at the storming of Chapultepec, with the colors of his regiment in his hands, on the 13^th of September, 1847.  The committee further report that Sergeant Read’s profession or calling before he entered the Army, was that of a blacksmith; and that he has been compelled, by the wounds received in the defense of his country, to abandon his trade; and that he is wholly unable to perform manual labor, and is in that condition at this time.  The committee further report that Sergeant Read was honorably discharged from the service in the city of Mexico, while in the hospital, where he lingered for seven months, and had ultimately to find his way home as best he could.  The bill was laid aside to be reported to the House with a recommendation that it do pass.”  Page 2165 reports the ultimate passage of this bill for the relief of Henry English Read.  Ironically, when the Senate was presented with this Bill, Alabama Senator Clement Clay, with whom Read would one day be a political colleague in the Confederate government, objected to it.  Hearing the Bill read, however, followed by the personal testimony of Senator John Burton Thompson of Harrodsburg, Kentucky who knew Read and “how he was shot…all to pieces”, Clay soon gave in and the Bill was as well reported to the Senate and passed. (The Congressional Globe, p. 2695)

That decade of the 1850s was leading our nation to strife no one could have fathomed, but the national discourse on states’ rights and regional division as well sharpened Henry’s appetite for politics.  His older brother William, assuming a strong Unionist attitude, was serving in the Kentucky Senate and being mentioned in the right social circles as a leader of greater aspirations, serving as Delegate to the infamous Democratic National Convention of 1860 in which Stephen Douglas was chosen to face the Read Brother’s former neighbor, Abraham Lincoln, in the race for President that eventually erupted in Civil War.  The succession of events after Lincoln’s election is perhaps as boggling today as it must have been then.  With the arrival of spring in 1861, “secession” was the buzz word, and War had been declared between American states but Henry Read, like many Kentuckians, held on to hopes of neutrality and a quick end to any hostilities.  Despite the turmoil that both gripped and electrified the nation, Read succumbed to even greater political aspirations than could be found in the mostly Union-controlled Kentucky House, running unsuccessfully on the “Southern Rights” ticket for Fifth District seat in the United States Congress.  (Louisville Daily Courier 19^th June 1861) Still considering himself an American and supporter of the Union, he ran against, and was soundly defeated by, former Kentucky Governor Charles Anderson Wickliffe for a seat in the 37^th United State Congress in 1861 by a vote of 8,217 to 2,719. 

William Brown Read of Hodgenville, photo by Brady

Read published his political views at this time in the Louisville Daily Courier Tuesday 18^th June 1861 in response to questions posed by the publication in regard to his Congressional race against Wickliffe.  Read replied, “Lebanon, June 17, 1861.  Editors Louisville Courier: - In your daily of the 14^th, I find the following Interrogatories propounded to Mr. Wickliffe and myself:  1. Are you in favor of Kentucky maintaining her position of armed neutrality?  2) If the Federal Government or Confederate Government should send their forces on our border, are you in favor of repelling their invasion with arms?  3. Are you in favor of the recognition of the Confederate Government?  4. Will you, if elected to Congress, vote for the passage of a law to raise men, and furnish money to maintain them, or to maintain those now in the field?  5. Has Lincoln the power and authority under the Constitution to call our forces for more than thirty days after the next Congress, to quell the Southern rebellion, or subdue the South?  6. Has Lincoln, in our present state of the country, a right to withhold the right to the write of habeas corpus in any Stat which has not seceded?  7. It is estimated that the maintaining of the Federal army now costs $1,000,000 per day.  Are you in favor of continuing this army to subjugate the South?  During my speech here on last Saturday to a large audience, I answered them substantially as follows:  To the first I answered that I was in favor of Kentucky maintaining her position of armed neutrality, as long as her commerce shall be undisturbed and her soil uninvaded.  To the second, I would repel by force any invasion made upon our State without the consent of my State.  To the third, I answer yes; that I would be willing to acknowledge the independence of the Confederate Government.  To the fourth, I answer no; not one dollar would I vote or one man to carry on this unholy war.  To the fifth; I answer, no.  To the sixth, no.  The withholding the writ of habeas corpus makes him a usurper and tyrant.  To the seventh, I answer again no- not under any circumstances connected with this war.  Yours respectfully, H. E. READ.”

Perhaps this defeat to Wickliffe was Read’s signal to join with his old friends in Hardin County in military service to the Confederacy.  Newly appointed a Brigadier-General in the Confederate Army, later Governor of Kentucky Simon Bolivar Buckner’s surviving orders confirm Read’s initial activities.  (The War of the Rebellion:  A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union & Confederate Armies.  Chapt. XII)

HEADQUARTERS CENTRAL DIVISION OF KENTUCKY,

Bowling Green, Ky., September 18, 1861.

Maj. J. M. HAWES, C. S. A., Bowling Green, Ky.:

SIR: You will establish yourself without delay, with an infantry battalion of 600 men and Byrne’s battery of artillery, at the railroad crossing on Green River, to cover the bridge and the line of defense of the river. I also desire you to open communication with Elizabethtown. It is also suggested that you establish a strong picket at Bacon Creek Bridge, 8 miles in advance of Munfordville, on Green River, and that you carefully watch the Green River Bridge, 10 miles above Munfordville. You will rally around your command as strong a force of Kentuckians as possible. It is supposed that a large force of southern-rights men will assemble on Muldraugh’s Hill, near Elizabethtown. Encourage their remaining there as long as they can and the assemblage of soldiers. Muster into service all companies who may present themselves armed for three years, or during the war, or for twelve months, if they will not volunteer for a longer period. At Elizabethtown, communicate with Colonel Helm, Col. Martin H. Cofer, or General Henry E. Read in relation to destruction of bridges and organization of troops. At Munfordville, communicate with Messrs. Showdy, Bohannon, or Edwards. Seize any United States arms which may be in Munfordville depot. Send all trains to Bowling Green, after establishing communication within Elizabethtown, except one locomotive and a few cars, to keep up communication with your pickets. Impress upon the people, in accordance with the assurances of my proclamation, that we do not propose to

{p.416}

molest them. There is a Union company in Munfordville, commanded by Capt. William Brown. Endeavor to make his acquaintance as a friend of mine, and give him my most friendly assurances.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. B. BUCKNER,

Brigadier-General, C. S. Army.

The Louisville Democrat of Friday 20^th Sept. 1861 substantiated Read’s early-war military activities, reporting that, “A gentleman who reached out city yesterday morning, reports that the Secessionists, under the lead of Henry E. Read, Richard Wintersmith, a gentleman by the name of LaRue, and others, placed Elizabethtown under martial law or mob low, at the instance of General S. B. Buckner.  After seizing a train and conveying it beyond Bacon Creek bridge, that bridge was burned, and sundry outrages committed upon Union citizens.  The Secessionists then took possession of “Old Uncle Bob,” as Robert Wintersmith is familiarly called, and compelled him, amid their savage yells, to burn the bridge over Rolling Folk.  After committing sundry other outrages, they fled.”

After his very brief period of military enlistment for the Confederacy, which must have been physically taxing to the aging veteran, Read was forced to again acknowledge his lingering physical impairments from battle wounds sustained all those years before back in Mexico and render his services instead through politics.  When Kentucky’s “Sovereignty” Convention met in Russellville the 18^th of November 1861, Read attended as a delegate from Hardin and LaRue Counties, casting his vote on behalf of his constituents for secession from the United States.  The 10^th of December the Confederate Congress admitted Kentucky as member of the Confederate States.  Read wasn’t initially selected for the provisional Congressional seat, but instead Theodore Burnett filled that until “The council divided the State into twelve districts and provided for an election by the State at large of persons to represent these districts in the first permanent Congress of the Confederate States.  On the designated day voting places were fixed and the election was held in all the counties within the lines of the Confederate army” resulting in Henry Read’s running for and winning Kentucky’s 3^rd District CSA Congressional seat that fall of 1861, with re-election in November of 1863 to serve in both the First & Second Confederate Congresses representing the people of Hardin & LaRue Counties for the duration of the War.  (Evans, Gen. Clement A., Confederate Military History; A Library of Confederate States History, Vol. IX, pp. 213-215)

Henry Read would become known in the Confederate Capital as an advocate for the support of the soldiers, introducing substantial legislation for their benefit during his tenure.  While a Congressman in Richmond the General would serve on the Confederacy’s Medical Department Committee as well as the Quartermaster & Commissary Department’s Military Transport Committee.  In such a capacity Read was able to work to relieve, in what small way he could, the suffering of the boys wounded in battle, much as he himself had been wounded on the battlefield over 20 years before.  With oversight of the quartermasters of the army, Read could also make sure desperately needed food and supplies reached the troops.  This became a daunting task as the war neared an end and state governors, particularly those from North Carolina and Georgia, began fighting with President Davis and the Congress over power, and by doing so deprived the army of both food and fresh troops.

Charlotte, for most of the War, remained in Kentucky, but did make visits to Richmond as she was able to secure passes for safe passage through the shifting lines of battle.  One such journey took place in January of 1863, with her pass granted by former LaRue Countian President Abraham Lincoln himself.  John Wesley Read gave a remarkable war-time account of his amazing childhood adventure to the Confederate Capital via Washington DC.  He vividly recalled in later years that, “my mother took me with her to Washington to get Mr. Lincoln to allow her to pass through the Federal lines to Richmond, Va.  As a boy of 6 years of age, I remember as distinctly as if it was yesterday of sitting on Mr. Lincoln’s lap and listening to the inquiries he made of citizens of LaRue County, that he knew when a boy.  He inquired about Drs. Jessie and George Rodman; my grandfather, Lewis Read, my uncle, William B. Read; Austin Gollagher and others.  What impressed me more than anything, while sitting on his lap, was the expression on his face while describing to my mother the horrors of the war and especially the condition of the South and of the Confederate armies.  It really seemed to me that if he had been describing a death in his own family he could not have shown more pain and sorrow than while describing the horrors of the war.” (The Courier-Journal, 30 December 1928, p. 32)

Despite adversity and separation from his family in Kentucky, Read remained in Richmond until the very end.  It is likely that Read was among those faithful Kentucky Congressmen who met & dined with fellow Kentuckian and then Confederate Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge on the eve of the fall of Richmond.  These Kentuckians would have been among the last vestiges of the crippled Confederate government to leave the city before it fell to the encroaching Union Army, staying long after their President had fled the city to set up a safer temporary government in Georgia.  It fell upon Breckinridge to salvage the doomed government’s official records for posterity along with the remaining treasury, in addition to his charge of evacuating the city of Richmond.  One of his final duties was to give a final pay to the seasoned Kentucky soldiers who volunteered as escorts for President and Mrs. Davis as they made a desperate and futile attempt to relocate the capital of the Confederacy.  But with Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia and the final hours of conflict coming to a swift end, any hopes for a continuation of their beloved Confederacy were dashed.  War at last was ended and peace restored to the Nation, and at last Henry Read could envision a return home, but there was little peace for Read to come home to. 

The displaced government officials of the Confederacy slowly made their way back to their respective states.  Sadly, the terms of surrender granted to soldiers failed to apply to high ranking government officials like General Henry Read of Hodgenville.  Like his President & fellow Kentuckian Jefferson Davis, Read was arrested and imprisoned for treason against the United States. The scant few accounts from the newspapers of the day piece together a picture of the events in this painful chapter of Henry Read’s life after returning to Kentucky.  Louisville’s Daily Courier reported on Saturday 3^rd February 1866 the, “Arrest of General Henry E. Read.  Yesterday afternoon General Henry E. Rad, formerly a member of the Confederate Congress, and latterly residing in this city, in the practice of his profession, was arrested by United States Marshal Merriwether.  The arrest was made upon a warrant issued by the United States Court for the District of Kentucky, based upon an indictment which was framed about the beginning of the war.  General Read was conveyed before Judge Builard and allowed to go upon bonds of $20,000 for his appearance this morning, when the case will be investigated.  As President Johnson some time ago pardoned General Read, we shall probably have the validity of the Executive pardon decided upon.”

The case against Read was continued until the 26^th of February.  Joyous news for Read was finally announced on March 31^st with headlines reading, “ACQUITTED OF TREASON. - Considerable inquiry being constantly made as to the present political status of Gen. Henry E. Read and Major John D. Morris, who were recently arrested by the U. S. Marshal upon old indictments for treason, we are gratified to state that these gentlemen have been fully acquitted of all charges by the United States Court.  They are now rectus in curia (right in court), being perfectly restored to all the immunities and privileges of their former citizenship.

Still, the traumas of a brutal failed war and his own ultimate arrest, along with great personal tragedy, all took a heavy toil on Henry Read’s formerly heroic & cavalier spirit.  The South as he had known it was long gone, and Read, like many Confederates, could not make the adjustment.  Grieving within for his personal failures as well as the loss of his country, coupled with continuing agony of old physical wounds suffered for the country he had forsaken, Read could take no more. Though he had tried to pick up the pieces and practice law again, the reality of post-war society was more than he could handle. Read had returned home to his beloved Kentucky to immense loss, perhaps all due, in Read’s frayed and distraught mind, to the hardships of war that he had helped perpetuate.  Little Thomas Doran Reed, born just as America was ripped apart by war, had died in 1862 before he even learned to walk.  Both of Henry’s dear parents had passed during the conflict as well, in fact within a month of one another, in the summer of 1863.  There are indications that the family plantation in Tonnieville had been confiscated by the Federal Government due to the Confederate service of Henry & a younger brother.  At the age of 43, on the 9^th of November 1868, Read could take no more physical and emotional suffering.  He ended his own life with a derringer to his right temple.  It’s been recorded that his son John Wesley, then but a boy of 11, discovered the horrific scene, finding his father’s lifeless corpse and a bewildering letter expressing both pride & sadness but failing to offer any true glimpse into the General’s thoughts that triggered such a damaging, hurtful reaction to his own personal suffering.  His body was brought back to Elizabethtown for burial, where he lies at peace at last in the Elizabethtown City Cemetery.