My Old Confederate Home (39 page)

John Boyd, Addie Graves, and a crowd of two thousand Lost Cause adherents dedicated this statue in Lexington Cemetery on Confederate Decoration Day, June 10, 1893. A more melancholy memorial erected twenty years earlier by the Ladies Memorial and Monument Association stands in the background. (KUKAV-PA62M49–061, Lyle Family Photographic Collection, PA62M49, Special Collections and Digital Programs, University of Kentucky)

Confederate raider and Louisville attorney Bennett H. Young used his political skills, personal relationships, and inexhaustible energy to drive the creation of a Confederate home in Kentucky. He served as president of the Home's board of trustees for almost two decades. (Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society, accession #2000PH12.Young)

J. C. W. Beckham was a thirty-year-old public school principal when he became governor of Kentucky. The Boy Governor desperately needed the support of Kentucky's ex-Confederates to win reelection. (From
The Battle for Governor in Kentucky: Photographs of the Conflict
by Carl Dailey, 1900; courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society)

Henrietta Morgan Duke, sister of legendary general John Hunt Morgan and wife of General Basil Duke, was the founding president of Kentucky's largest UDC chapter. Even Bennett Young was no match for this formidable woman. (PA96M3: KUKAV-PA96M3–152, Hunt-Morgan House Deposit photographs, University of Kentucky Archives)

The board of trustees reviewed every application and voted on whether to admit the veteran to the Home. Accepted veterans received formal letters from the secretary. (Courtesy of Susan Reedy)

Salem H. Ford, first superintendent of the Kentucky Confederate Home, was popular with inmates and employees but lasted fewer than five months on the job. (Salem Ford MSS A F 711a; courtesy of the Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky)

Inmates relax in the library of the Kentucky Confederate Home. The mismatched furniture was donated piecemeal by Kentucky UDC chapters. (Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society, accession #1987PH01.0364)

Commandant William O. Coleman (with black beard, standing left) required the inmates to wear formal uniforms to all meals in the dining hall of the Kentucky Confederate Home. (Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society, accession #1987PH01.0359)

Four distinguished visitors relax in the downstairs parlor of the Kentucky Confederate Home. Left to right: trustee Charles L. Daughtry (who would later serve as commandant), Commandant William O. Coleman, former U.S. senator J. C. S. Blackburn, and Kentucky prison warden Eph Lillard. (Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society, accession #1987PH01.0358)

Wearing ribbons like this one, the women of the UDC escorted out-of-state visitors around the Home during the national United Confederate Veterans reunion held in Louisville in 1905. (From the United Daughters of the Confederacy Records, 1855–1999; courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society)

New York socialite Mrs. L. Z. Duke was elegant in manner and dress, but there was a Kentucky naturalness about her that flattered the old men and reminded them of their rooster days. (From
Confederate Veteran
, courtesy of Jim Wheat)