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John Borders Obituary
John Borders, 92, a native of Lowmansville, this county, who served under Lt. Col. Laben. T. Moore in the Civil War, died last Saturday at his home in Ashland. He was born at Lowmansville, April 15, 1845. His father died when he was a baby and he lived with his grandfather until he was five, then he went to live with an uncle near Flat Gap, Johnson Coun ty, Ky. At 16, tiring of farm life, he ran away and joined the Union Regiment organized by Lieu. Col. Laben T. Moore in this county and later served under Col. George Gallup and Gen. Jas. A. Garfield. Three weeks ago a newspaper interviewed Mr. Borders at his home. The following excerpts of his war experience is from that interview. "After enlisting I saw a little fighting in a few skirmishes close home, then I went with Gen. Garfield with his campaign up the Big Sandy. While we were encamped at Catlettsburg with about 1550 men, we were ordered to meet the enemy under the Confederate Humphrey Marshall, who had about 45,000 men. We marched from Catlettsburg to Hager Hill, about 5 miles above Painstville. After an hour of hard fighting we defeated the rebels and they retreated over into old Virginia. Later we were ordered South and I took part in several balttles, but the hardest fighting I was in took place when 13,000 of our men met and fought 40,000 of the Rebels. This was mostly hand to hand fighting that lasted about 3 days. When it was over we were pretty well starved and exhausted and almost naked for clothes. They had to take us to Lowmansville for a complete new outfit of clothes and equipment. Later I was with Gen. Hooker on Lookout Mt and with General Sherman on his march to the sea. Sometimes our usual fare of hardtack, bacon and coffee grew pretty monotonous. One day I decided to cook some beans, but discovered the nearest water was a half-mile distance. As I was in a great hurry and quite hungry, I thought I would try cooking the beans in some grease, but to my surprise and chagrin, the longer they cooked the tougher they became, and when I tried to eat them they felt more like buckshot than beans. Needless to say, I went hungry that day. Many little incidents of interest still linger in my memory, but the one that stands out most vividly happened one day when I was out scouting. I had approached to near the enemy and they discovered me and gave me the chase of my life. I could see they were gaining on me and escape looked impossible, but as I ran I saw a big hollow log and made a dash for it. I crawled back into it several feet, but alsa, it looked as if my good luck was not to last. My arrival had disturbed a big rattle snake and to my horror he was ready to strike. I believe that was the hardest moment of my life. To stay in the log meant sure death from the snake, and to crawl out meant to be shot by the enemy. I hadn't much time to think, but I got out as fast as possible and when I was finally free of the log I was surprised to find my enemies were nowhere in sight. In their hurry they had run past my hideout, so I straightway dived into a thicket of underbrush and made my escape in another direction." When the war was over, Mr, Borders returned to Johnson Co and resided until he moved to Ashland 30 yrs ago. Although rapidly approaching his 93 rd birthday and had been active in life until a short time ago. His death has come as a great shock to his family and friends. Surviving are the widow, Mrs. Phoebe Borders, 2 daughters, Mrs James Rose, at home, and Mrs. Joe Dixon, of Lucasville, Ohio, 3 sons; Lewis Borders of Summit, Ky, John Borders of Johnson Co and H. C. Borders of Ashland. Funeral services were conducted from the residence Sunday afternoon. Interment was made in the Dixon Cemetry at Ashland. Annotations: John Borders was a s/o Lewis Borders &
Eleanor Wheeler, parents died young, he was raised by grandfather Rev John Borders, then lived some with an uncle.
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