r that he could have put his hand upon his shoulder,
and said: "Don't let us be firing on our own men. Those are our men,"
pointing at the same time toward our forces. Col. Fry looked upon him
inquiringly a moment, supposing him to be one of his own men, after
which he rode forward not more than fifteen paces, when an officer
came dashing up, first recognizing the stranger and almost the same
instant firing upon Col. Fry. At the same moment the stranger wheeled
his horse, facing Col. Fry, when the colonel shot him in the breast.
Gen. Zollicoffer was a prominent and influential citizen of Nashville
previous to the war, and stumped the state with Col. Peyton in
opposition to the ordinance of secession, but when Tennessee seceded
he determined to follow the fortunes of his state. The day before the
battle Gen. Zollicoffer made a speech to his troops in which he said
he would take them to Indiana or go to hell himself. He didn't go to
Indiana.
The poet of the Fourth Kentucky perpetrated the following shortly
after the battle:
"Old Zollicoffer is dead
And the last word he said:
I see a wild cat coming.
Up steps Col. Fry.
And he hit him in the eye
And he sent him to the happy land of Canaan.
Ho! boys, ho!
For the Union go!
Hip hurrah for the happy land of freedom."
The loyal Kentuckians were in great glee and rejoiced over the
victory. It was their battle against rebel invaders from Tennessee,
Mississippi and Alabama, who were first met by their own troops of
Wolford's First cavalry and the Fourth Kentucky infantry, whose blood
was the first to be shed in defense of the Stars and Stripes; and
their gratitude went out to their neighbors from Minnesota, Indiana
and Ohio who came to their support and drove the invaders out of their
state. On Feb. 24, 1862, the Second Minnesota was again in Louisville,
where the regiment had admirers and warm friends in the loyal ladies,
who as evidence of their high appreciation, though the mayor of the
city, Hon. J.M. Dolph, presented to the Second regiment a silk flag.
The mayor said. "Each regiment is equally entitled to like honor, but
the gallant conduct of those who came from a distant state to unite
in subduing our rebel invaders excites the warmest emotions of our
hearts."
On Jan. 25 President Lincoln's congratulations were read to the
regiment, and on Feb. 9, at Waitsboro, Ky., the following joint
resolution of the Minnesota legislature was read before
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