Minutes, John Hunt Morgan Camp 1342, May 19, 2012

1. Meeting held at South Park Country Club. Members and guests in attendance: Danny Davis, ,Bill Hayes, Ben Kennedy, Bob Strange, Noble Roberts, Bennett Young, David High, Gene Wood, David Harbolt, Bill Cherry, Steve Walker, prospective member Terry Ash, and guest Nancy Hitt.
2. Invocation by Chaplain Kennedy and introduction of prospective member Terry Ash.
3. Minutes from April meeting were read and approved.
4. Camp funds and books were audited by Ben Kennedy and reported as being in order. Audit letter to be forwarded to Commander Davis.
5. Tebbs Bend trip scheduled to depart South Park CC at 09:00 AM on Saturday June 16th. Expected return time approx. mid-afternoon the same day. Noble Roberts to contact docent who will meet us in Campbellsville.
6. Graves to be decorated for Memorial Day on Saturday, May 26th at 08:30 AM. Meet near the CSA flagpole. Flags will remain on graves until Memorial Day evening, Monday, May 28th.
7. Nancy Hitt passed info on a celebration of Nicola Marschall in St. Wendel, Germany this year.
8. Nancy also gave info on the 209 Society, which is a group that keeps alive the memory of the CSS Alabama, which was hull number 209. The CSS Alabama was sunk off the coast of Cherbourg France by the USS Kearsarge in 1864.
9. The ceremony at Pewee Valley will take place as planned at 11:00 AM, Saturday, June 2nd. The following persons are assigned tasks for the event:
• Sound system: Bill Hayes
• Keynote Speaker Sam Flora: UDC
• Reenactors for color guard and possible firing detail: Danny Davis
• Flags and flag stand: Harold Sneed
• Grave flags: Bill Hayes
10. Several new members to be sworn-in at the Pewee Valley ceremony.
11. Date for Lee-Jackson dinner set for Jan 19, 2013, at South Park Country Club. Bennett Young will be in charge of arranging a speaker for the dinner.
12. Bill Cherry suggested that at each meeting a pre-assigned member give a short description of their Confederate ancestor and his role in the war or stories.
13. Proposed amendments to SCV Standing Orders, and proposed amendments to SCV Constitution were reviewed.
14. Delegate credentials were signed and given to Gene Wood, who will attend the reunion.
15. The meeting was closed with benediction by Chaplain Kennedy.

Wm. M. Hayes
Adjutant

Morgan Camp May Meeting

Compatriots and Friends:

The John Hunt Morgan Camp will hold its May monthly meeting at 10:30 AM on Saturday, May 19th, at South Park Country Club.  Lunch or Breakfast menus are available at a very reasonable cost.  There is no scheduled program, as we will be finalizing plans and task assignments for the placement of flags at Cave Hill for Memorial Day and our Confederate Memorial Day service at Pewee Valley on Sat, Jun 2nd.  Come and join us for friendship and a good time. 

South Park Country Club is located in the Fairdale area.  From the Gene Snyder Fwy (841) take Exit 8 onto National Turnpike South. From National Turnpike turn East (left turn) at the stop light onto Fairdale Rd.  Just after crossing the railroad tracks there will be a right turn exit ramp onto South Park Road.  The entrance to the country club will be on the left just after the the series of 90 degree turns.  For additional information please contact Danny Davis or Bill Hayes.  We will be looking forward to seeing you.

Wm. M. Hayes

Adjutant, John Hunt Morgan Camp

The Wedding of Jefferson Davis and Sarah Knox Taylor

Sarah Knox Taylor, the daughter of future president Zachary Taylor and Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor, was born at Fort Knox in Vincennes, Indiana, in either 1813 or 1814 (probably the latter), and was named for her paternal grandmother and for the fort where she was born. Often called Knox or Knoxie, she was educated in Kentucky and Ohio and met Davis in 1832, when both he and her father were stationed at Fort Crawford in what is now Wisconsin. Her father opposed the relationship, both because of the hardships of army life and because there was some friction between Davis and himself.

The details of their courtship were lost to history in the summer of 1863 when Union troops carried off a packet of correspondence between Sarah Taylor and Davis. It is unknown whether they even saw each other from the time Davis left Fort Crawford until they met to be married. Rumors of an elopement circulated for decades, but there was a formal ceremony, and the couple apparently had the blessing of Zachary Taylor, perhaps because Davis had decided to resign his commission. Sarah's parents were not present at the wedding, however, which took place on June 17, 1835, at Beechland, near Louisville, Kentucky, the home of Sarah's widowed aunt Elizabeth Taylor.

The newlyweds took a steamboat to Vicksburg, traveling to visit Joseph E. Davis on Davis Bend. There Davis began the planning for Brierfield. Later that summer the couple went to see Davis' oldest sister Anna Smith at "Locust Grove" in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Either on the journey or soon after their arrival, both Davis and Sarah contracted either malarial or yellow fever. On September 15, two days short of their three-month anniversary, Sarah Taylor Davis died. She was buried at "Locust Grove," which is now a state historical site that is open to the public.

Today, a historical marker stands at the site of their wedding (located at 2 Rebel Road, near the corner of Brownsboro Rd. and Zorn Ave.) with the following description:

On June 17, 1835, the daughter of Zachary Taylor, Sarah Knox, married Jefferson Davis in the house that originally stood on this site. The home was owned by Zachary Taylor's sister. Soon after their marriage, while visiting Davis' relatives in Louisiana, the couple contracted malaria. In September of that year, the young bride died. The present house built ca. 1870.

For more information, see The Papers of Jefferson Davis.