THE WAR IN KENTUCKY 223 



Many years after the war, at his own table, Mr. Shaler nar- 

 rated this episode to a famous teller of stories just then the 

 people's idol and whose hand students waiting in the library 

 were eager to grasp. The guest listened with rapt attention, 

 and when the tale was finished, he exclaimed: "Now that's 

 just the kind of thing no man can invent it is unimaginable. 

 May I have it for my own?" 



Mr. Shaler greatly admired John Morgan's military exploits ; 

 indeed, there was a spiritual affinity between them in dash and 

 power of invention. In his history of Kentucky he lays stress 

 upon the fact that " Morgan's subordinate officers were nearly 

 all Kentuckians." "Their wonderful work," he writes, "is per- 

 haps the best evidence of the military capacity of this people. 

 More than any other it shows the people to possess fertility of 

 invention, endurance, and the vigor in action demanded in suc- 

 cessful war." 



It was a dismal time in Kentucky during all the years '63 and 

 '64, for although the state was no longer the pathway of great 

 armies, many of the greatest events then happening took place 

 in its immediate vicinity. Its fertile lands and rich supplies 

 provoked a series of small raids which incessantly harassed the 

 people. To these were added the still more grievous hardships 

 of guerilla warfare. Bands made up of the unsoldierly rubbish, 

 deserters, and outlaws of both armies, invaded the state and 

 brought back to Kentucky the evils of Indian strife. Men again 

 tilled their fields with their muskets by their sides, and slept in 

 expectation of combat. The destruction of property and the 

 depreciation of land values touched the pockets of all classes in 

 the community, while the loss of the loved ones bowed down 

 the hearts of the people. One after another of Mr. Shaler's in- 

 timate friends, mostly in the Confederate army, were slain by 

 the sword or perished in prisons, so that while still a young man 

 there were few left, outside his immediate family, who ever 

 called him by his given name. 



While waiting for the reestablishment of his health Mr. Shaler 



