Duke, Basil Wilson

(May 28, 1837 - September 16, 1916)
. He had a remarkable, even for Southerners radical patriotism and devotion to the cause of independence from the United States that did not prevent him from being an excellent officer - a fearless and at the same time judiciously.
. Basil Wilson Duke, was born in Scott County, Kentucky, May 28, 1837, in the family, bringing together representatives of the two oldest known genera of the South - Marshall and Duke
. As a child he attended a local private school, and then - in Meysville private school, where he became a favorite pupil of Reverend Lyman Y. Sealy, great philologist and theologian. The brilliant successes allowed the young Basil to do first at Georgetown, and then - in Denvillsky College. Education continued to Transylvania University, where the Duke, studied law under Judge George Robertson, who headed the Kentucky Court of Appeals. After leaving the university, Basil Duke, moved to Missouri and began to practice law in St. Louis. Soon - June 19, 1861 he married Henrietta Morgan, sister of John Hunt Morgan.
. At the beginning of the Civil War, Duke received his first assignment from the Confederate government of Missouri - to go to Montgomery, the capital of the Confederacy, and to obtain weapons for the Missouri Militia
. With this request, he coped without the slightest difficulty. As a lieutenant, Basil Duke proposed to seize the federal arsenal in St. Louis and to establish control over the city. If it fails, it is possible that Missouri would be retained as part of the Confederation. Nevertheless, southern politics lingered, and federal troops ahead of the Confederates, having made that suggested Duke. After the occupation of Missouri federal troops had been issued for the arrest of Basil Duke, and he fled to Kentucky - again to Morgan, in the 2 nd Kentucky Cavalry. In July 1861 about becoming a lieutenant colonel in December - a colonel.
With rangers Morgan was connected the entire period of military life at Duke. When a superior officer killed or promoted, then the first candidate for the vacant job was always Basil Duke, and when he was killed by General Morgan, the Duke led the entire team. He had a remarkable, even for Southerners radical patriotism and devotion to the cause of independence from the United States that did not prevent him from being an excellent officer - a fearless and at the same time judicious. It was said that he leads his people, but not in command of. Many southern historians believe that the success of their daring operations, Morgan primarily incumbent tactical genius of Duke, but the last of modesty always denied this. Basil Duke idolized John Hunt Morgan and called it "the best soldier ever born in this country."
Throughout the first half of 1862 cavalrymen Morgan tormented weak and uncoordinated federal garrisons in the territory of Tennessee. In August, when Morgan entered Kentucky, Duke, was ordered to divert the forces northerners along the Ohio River. During the operation, he sank two ships and captured the city of Augusta, capturing about four hundred soldiers Yankees. Shortly before the battle of Murfreesboro, Basil Duke defeated the Federal brigade at the Battle of Hartsville, and the loss of northerners were 2 096 people, and the loss of southerners Duke - total 139. In the prisoner was taken and the brigade commander, Colonel Moore.
Duke has participated in all campaigns rangers Morgan, including the famous raid into Indiana and Ohio, during which they both were captured. Basil did not escape with Morgan from jail in November 1863, and exchanged for prisoners the Yankees in 1864. In the autumn of that year, Duke returned to Kentucky cavalry and fought in its ranks in southwest Virginia, rising to the rank of brigadier general and took a seat Morgan after his death. In April 1865, upon learning of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, General Lee, Duke and his team rushed to North Carolina and joined General Joe Johnston. It's the people at Duke provided an escape and further escort hiding from the Yankees won the President of the Confederation Davis and his government.
With the end of hostilities, Basil Duke, moved to Louisville and resumed his legal practice. In 1869 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Kentucky, where he worked on zaschty civil rights of their countrymen and the development of instruments relating to banks, businesses and the construction of railways. One of its most important tasks Basil Duke believed the preservation of historical truth, . so he became editor of "South Camp", . best historical journal in America 80 years the 19 th century, . and wrote two first-rate historical work, . are still read in one breath - "History of Morgan's Cavalry" (1867) and "Memoirs of General Basil I,
. Duke (1911). As head of the legal department of the railway company, Louisville and Nashville, Duke published a collection of historical documents about the development of railroads in the United States, and also wrote "History of the Bank of Kentucky since 1835 to break with the Union". This extremely gifted and talented officer and scientist, died in New York on September 16, 1916, leaving a bright trace in the military, literary, scientific and political history of America.