A father and son at war

Military Images, May/Jun 2003 by Sickles, John, Cruickshank, Stewart

The Civil War often split families, especially in the border states. George Prentice supported the Union, while his sons joined the Confederate army.

I have as you know, (or you don't know) been subjected to an unceasing fire, from the whole of the northern army since I first entered Confederate States' service. I have seen the canons roar, and heard their smoke arise [sic].

"I am the hero of Gladeville and a hundred other well contended fields. My valuable services and daring exploits are the theme of the victorious. The nations of the earth, are gazing with wonder and surprise upon the towering prodigy that has appeared amongst them, and as I pass through the streets the dogs bark at me."

Only Clarence Prentice could begin a letter requesting a leave of absence in such a preposterous manner. Full of fun, often jolly, fond of playing his violin and writing ludicrous poetry, Clarence Prentice was also a dangerous man.

Prentice was the son of George Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal and a staunch Union man. George Prentice was born in Connecticut in 1802. A prodigy, it was recorded that he could read Shakespeare's works by the age of three. Devoting his life to journalism, he worked for various eastern newspapers until he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1830 to write a biography of Henry Clay.

George Prentice was, perhaps, the most powerful man in Kentucky during the war. His writing and editorializing filled the ranks of Kentucky regiments with blue-coated soldiers.

Angry at the Lincoln administration for the imposition of martial law and because it had imposed General Stephen Burbridge on his state, he wrote unceasingly about local guerrillas as a way to embarrass the Lincoln government.

While he was pro-Union, his Northern-born wife and sons Clarence and Courtland sympathized with the Confederate cause.

Clarence was educated in Germany, where he acquired a wife and a dueling scar, which he invariably turned to the camera for photographs. Military records show him as 22 years of age; five feet, eight inches tall; with dark hair and gray eyes.

Early in the war he attached himself to Jeff Thompson's command in Missouri. He was on General Joseph Wheeler's staff during the battle of Stones River, where he was wounded.

Wanting to see his wife and child, he slipped into Louisville incognito, but was captured and sent to a prison camp as a spy.

His father now had to come to terms with his frequent criticism of Abraham Lincoln. He was forced to swallow his pride and beg the president to spare his son's life and release him after he signed an oath of allegiance.

On April 28, 1862, Prentice wrote directly to Lincoln: "It is long since I wrote to you. In some things I have differed with you. I think you know I have differed with you with great pain. I have tried to serve our country. I know that I have served it. I will not undertake to say how much.

"Mr. Lincoln, I have a great favor to ask of you. Hear me! My only child, Clarence J. Prentice, God help him, is a major in the Confederate service. A few weeks ago he came into Kentucky and being cut off from his command he came by night to his home to see me and his mother and his baby. He was seen coming and in a few hours arrested. He is now at Camp Chase and his mother in Columbus. He desires I know to serve no longer in the war. He would be a great loss to the Confederates, for he has been one of their most effective officers.

"I do not suppose, Mr. Lincoln, that you can parole my boy upon his taking the non-combatant's oath to remain in the United States though I should be most happy if you could; but I fervently appeal to you to let him go upon his taking that simple oath anywhere outside of the United States and of the rebel Confederacy. I know his plans. His mother will go with him and he will never bear arms against us again. I will be surety for this with fortune and life. I have written to General Burnside to let my son remain at Camp Chase till I hear from you. Please let it be soon for I am most unhappy."

Somehow, Clarence never signed the oath, but still was exchanged.

Now free, Prentice applied for a commission to recruit men in far western Virginia and eastern Kentucky. The unit he finally put together was the 7th Confederate Cavalry Battalion, a partisan unit, made up of tough mountaineers, undisciplined and unruly. Many of them were deserters from the Union army. It was officially organized September 16, 1862.

The only discipline Prentice instilled was foolishness. He would raise his cap and his men would shout the "rebel yell" until he put it back on. Then the war whoops would cease.

Prentice was an expert pistol shot. He could toss a chip into the pair and shatter it. His favorite stunt was to point out two targets on either side of the road. He would then ride at breakneck speed and fire two shots 180 degrees apart and hit both targets.

In November 1863 he was charged with killing a hotel proprietor; whiskey was said to have been influential in the act. He once executed one of his men, an uneducated boy, illiterate and unschooled, who joined the Union army. When Prentice sat the boy on a coffin and lined up his firing squad, the poor fellow put his fingers in his ears.