Kentucky: A History of the State, Perrin, Battle, Kniffin, 8th ed., 1888,
Jefferson Co.

WORDEN POPE.  Pope's Creek is situated in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
Here, in the year 1772, Worden Pope, who was the son of Hon. Benjamin Pope
was born.  It was here also that Gen. Washington was born.  Irving, in his
life of the great man, states that he was born at Bridge Creek.  In this,
it is submitted with great reverence, he was betrayed in error.  It seems
clear from Hower's History of Virginia, that Washington was born on Pope's
Creek, where G. W. Custis has placed a stone, with a simple inscription,
to commemorate this interesting event.  The spot is one of great natural
beauty, commanding a charming view of the shore of Maryland, and of the
Potomac River for many miles in its majestic course toward the Chesapeake
Bay.  There are many other associations connected with Pope's Creek which
would be of interest, but they are not within the scope of this little
sketch.  John Washington and his brother Andrew arrived in Virginia in
1657, and settled in Westmoreland County.  John married Miss Anne Pope, who
was the near kinswoman--probably the daughter of Nathaniel Pope, and by
this marriage she became the great-grandmother of Gen. Washington.  One of
the many evidences of the friendship and intimacy which arose from the
kinship between the Washington and Pope families is found in the will of
Thomas Pope, executed in 1684, and now on record in Virginia.
     The Popes of North Alabama also emigrated from Pope's Creek.  They
first went to Petersburg, and from there LeRoy Pope emigrated to
Louisiana, where he established the first bank organized in that State.
Subsequently he was in North Alabama, where being impressed with the beauty
of the country, he acquired a large tract of land, upon which he laid out a
town, naming it Twickenham, after the villa of the poet Pope on the Thames.
  Afterward, by a vote of the people, the name was change to that of
Huntsville, and so remains to this day.  LeRoy Pope was the grandfather of
LeRoy Pope Walker, (an eminent lawyer and the first Secretary of War in the
cabinet of Jefferson Davis,) and of Richard W. Walker, a Senator from
Alabama in the COngress of the Southern Confederacy.
     It appears from Dr. Borck's Extract from the Land Office of Virginia
that Nathaniel Pope, in the year 1654, three years before the arrival of
the Washingtons in the colony, settled upon the banks of the creek which
has just been mentioned, and to which he gave his name.  He seems to have
been a man of great vigor of character and strength of mind.
     It is needless to trace from father to son the descent of Worden Pope,
the subject of this sketch, from Nathaniel Pope.  It would be tedious and
uninteresting to do so.  In 1779 three brothers, Benjamin Pope, William
Pope and Alexander Pope, having disposed of their estates in Westmoreland
County, emigrated from Pope's Creek to Kentucky County, then a County of
Virginia.  In 1780 Kentucky County was divided into Jefferson, Fayette and
Lincoln Counties.  The brothers crossed the mountains of Virginia, reached
the Ohio River and came down with the current of that beautiful stream to
the Falls, where the city of Louisville no stands.  It was then a most
dismal spot, full of swamps and ponds, and quite unhealthy.  Not a house
was to be seen.  Nothing was visible but a fort, which was built in the
early spring of 1779, and known as Patton's Fort, situated at what is now
the corner of Main and Seventh streets, and in immediate proximity to the
Union Depot of the Chesapeake & Ohio and other railroads.
     The Popes were camped outside the fort and narrowly escaped massacre
(by taking refuge in the fort) from the Indians, who crossed from the
Indiana side and made a determined attack upon the little garrison.  At
this time Worden was in his eighth year, and witnessed the onslaught of the
savages.  His elder brother, Nathaniel, for a time was missing, and it was
feared that he had fallen a victim to the tomahawk, but happily no such
fate had overtaken him.  The depreciated value of Continental currency at
this period is shown by the fact that the Popes paid $150 for a bushel of
corn.  About this time General Clarke took the British Forts of Kaskaskia,
Cahokia and Vincennes, which checked the incursions of the Indians and
afforded to the country about the Falls comparative security.  In 1779, or
early 1780, Benjamin Pope removed his family to a forth which stood on the
north bank of Salt River, now a part of Bullitt County.  It was here and
on the path leading to the ferry, about to be mentioned, that George May,
a surveyor of Jefferson County, and a party of followers, excepting one,
were waylaid and murdered by the Indians.  The escape of the one man,
whose name was Hardin, would furnish a thrilling episode, but it would
perhaps be a digression to insert its details in this narrative.  It was
in the midst of such stirring scenes that Worden Pope passed his boyhood
and early manhood.  Benjamin Pope resided here with his family for several
years, and in 1787 bought a tract of land on Salt River, opposite the Fort,
which is now owned and cultivated by James Y. Pope, one of the first
citizens of Bullitt County, and a cousin of Worden Pope.  Benjamin Pope
established a ferry at his house, which carried passengers across Salt
River, and was much traveled by persons going to Bardstown and other
points.  Worden Pope was put in charge of the ferry.
     In those days lawyers of reputation, living at Louisville, found
lucrative employment at Bardstown and similar places.  Among these was
Stephen Ormsby, then clerk of the Jefferson Courts, a lawyer of distinction
and who later on in life adorned both the bench and a seat in the Federal
Congress at Washington.  At this period, in the history of the State, the
clerks of the important courts, generally speaking, were fine lawyers;
and although not permitted to practice in the courts of which they were
clerks they could practice in all other courts in the Commonwealth.  Now a
clerk of the court is rarely or never a lawyer.  Among those who regularly
attended and practiced in the courts at Bardstown was Stephen Ormsby, and
in going and returning between that place and Louisville, he was ferried
across Salt river by Worden Pope.  In this way he became acquainted with
the young helmsman.  Judge Ormsby was endowed with a profound insight
into character, and he soon discovered that Worden was no ordinary youth,
clad, as he was, after the manner of the pioneers, in his leather breeches
and coon-skin cap.  He saw that there was a career before him for future
usefulness and eminence, and conceiving for him an affection and
friendship, he induced Worden to come with him to Louisville, where he
at once installed him as deputy in his office.
     Worden soon acquired a knowledge of its duties; and on the resignation
of Ormsby, he was appointed clerk of the Circuit Court, also of the County
Court.  The former he held until 1834, when he resigned, and his third son,
Edmund Pendleton, was appointed; but the county clerkship he held until
1838, when he died, and his fourth son, Curran Pope, succeeded him.  In
the commencement of his career as clerk, Worden Pope studied law, and to
the day of his death was always an ardent and methodical student of
jurisprudence.  Being forbidden to practice in Jefferson County, the county
of his office, he practiced in Oldham, Nelson, Hardin, Bullitt and Meade,
but, as he grew older, he confined his practice to Oldham and Bullitt.
     The Hon. J. R. Browne, of Washington County, says when Ben Hardin was
a candidate for congress, he was rebuked by his clients for his consequent
inability to defend large ejectment cases brought for their lands in
Washington County; he replied: "I have asked my friend Worden Pope, who is
the greatest land lawyer in Kentucky, to represent me."  Mr. Pope justified
the high estimate of his distinguished friend by successfully defending all
of the actions.  His practice in the federal courts was large and
lucrative, and after his resignation of one of the clerkships was also
large and lucrative in the Chancery Court at Louisville.  Mr. Pope's
contemporaries at the bar often spoke in terms of the warmest praise of the
masterly ability and the profound learning he displayed for the defense in
the well known case of Beard vs. The City of Louisville, and others, in
which was an array of counsel rarely exceeded at any time or in any place.
     It was Mr. Pope, Wm. Pope and Alexander Pope that brought out Gen.
Jackson for the presidency.  The meeting at which Jackson's candidacy was
initiated by the Popes was held at the house of Alexander Pope on the south
side of Jefferson, between Sixth and Seventh streets, in Louisville, Ky.;
where, also, for many years Edmund Pendleton Pope resided, and where his
second son, Judge Alfred Thurston Pope, was born.
     Governor John Pope, a man commanding talents, who had served with
distinguished ability a number of terms in the lower house of congress from
1837 to 1843, and in the senate of the United States from 1807 to 1813, was
a close kinsman of Mr. Pope.  He had made the race for congress in the
Ashland district against Henry Clay.  It was a tilt of giants.  Governor
Pope, being a man of stubborn convictions, refused in that canvass to bend
to the popular will.  He was defeated and burnt in effigy at Lexington.
Worden Pope, whether he was right or not, believed the great Clay could
have prevented this outburst of popular feeling.  And it was the
indignation which Worden Pope and his family left at this insult to their
kinsman, as well as the warm and devoted attachment which Mr. Pope
cherished fro Gen. Jackson, that led him to urge upon the country the name
of the latter for the office of chief executive.  In the canvass which
followed Mr. Pope gave Jackson a most loyal and devoted support.  The
Advertiser, then the oldest and most influential newspaper in the West, was
edited by Shadrach Penn.  In the columns of this journal Mr. Pope furnished
a series of articles, over the nom de plume of "Publicola" advocating the
claim of Gen Jackson, which created something of a stir and sensation, and
excited widespread comment and discussion.  Judge Little, in his life of
Ben Hardin, states: "To the Pope family, in Kentucky, Gen. Jackson owed
his majority in that State in 1828.  When Gen. Jackson became President,
he tendered any office within his gift to Worden Pope, but Mr. Pope,
whilst appreciating the action of his friend, declined to accept any
appointment, for the reason that he was quite nearsighted and not able to
see at night.  Gen. Jackson, however, appointed John Pope Governor of
Arkansas; and Curran Pope, who afterward with heroic valor fell at the
head of his regiment at Perryville, as a cadet to West Point."
     The contest which took place between the old and new court parties was
one of the most able, bitter and determined controversies which has ever
occurred in this country.  With his characteristic frankness and boldness
Mr. Pope without hesitation threw the whole weight of his ability and
personal influence on the side of the old court party.  Again the
productions of his pen were a feature in the canvass.  He was in the very
front of the fight and helped lead the forces with consummate ability.
     In a historical sketch of the "Pope Family" by the Hon. Wm. R.
Thompson, that admirable and forcible writer says: "Worden Pope was an
eminent lawyer--but few his equal in Kentucky--a great politician, and
the life-long and unswerving friend of Gen. Jackson, and though he acquired
an immense property, he died by no means owning a fortune.  His munificent
liberality and generosity, which is a trait of many of the Pope family,
caused him to give away in his lifetime several fortunes.  The Pope
family, taken all in all, is one of the most distinguished families in
he history  of Kentucky from the day Boone passed the Allegheny gap to
the present time.
     Mr. Pope's death came unexpectedly to his friends.  He was making an
argument in an important land suit in the court house at Louisville when
he was seized with a sudden illness.  Judge J. J. Marshall immediately
adjourned the court.  Mr. Pope, however, rallied and went to this home,
which then embraced what is now between Fifth and Tenth and Walnut and
Broadway streets, in Louisville, Ky.  He never recovered, and after a
brief illness he passed peacefully away.
     Dr. Nat. Field, of Indiana, in his interesting little volume on "The
Pope Family," states that "The name of Worden Pope was a household work
in Jefferson and adjoining counties.  His name was a synonym of honesty
and benevolence.  He died in a good old age, laden with the honor esteem of
all who knew him.  His funeral was the largest ever seen in Louisville. It
was an outpouring of all classes of people to do honor to a great and good
man."  The late Coleman Daniel, a stanch Methodist, one of the purest
citizens of Louisville, used to say that when he would hand the box
around in his church for charitable purposes, Worden Pope would empty his
purse, not knowing what he gave, and that for the sake of curiosity Daniel
would count it, and the contribution "would amount to hundreds of dollars."
A write of a recent sketch of Worden Hope [sic], who knew him well, does
not employ the language of exaggeration when he states: "His home was
always open to the poor and needy and his ear to the cry of distress. He
was, it may be said, the adviser of his county, and in the advice he gave
the utmost confidence was placed.  He never charged a widow, orphan or
minister of the gospel or a young lawyer.  He adjusted difficulties amongst
his friends and prevented litigation by his counsel.  In his practice he
aided young lawyers, devoting his abilities to them, rejoicing in their
success, but refusing fees they insisted on sharing with him."
     The Hon. John Rowan, a Kentuckian whose biography should be written,
eloquently said of Worden Pope that "he was the oldest number of the
bar . . . Endowed by nature with a good constitution and a vigorous mind,
he improved the former by manly exercise and enriched the latter by zealous
and unremitting devotion to the attainment of solid and useful information.
Without the aid of classical learning he acquired a very thorough and
accurate knowledge of English literature.  He was temperate in all his
enjoyments, patient of labor and research in whatever he was engaged;
benevolent and charitable in a high degree, of high moral firmness, of
sincerity in his friendships, his enmities were slow in forming and swift
in fading.  His moral habits were exemplary; his manners were neither
gracious nor repulsive.  He had an habitual aversion to artificial or
fictitious mannerism.  His manners and morals were founded in the old
school where the solid was preferred to the showy, and where simulated
courtesies were rebuked by honesty and sincerity of sentiment.  Influenced
through  life by sentiments of that school and the inherent benevolence of
his own heart and feelings, his powers and attachments were devoted more to
the benefit of society than of himself.  As a clerk of the courts of
Jefferson  County he was in a position to be consulted by the widows, the
orphans, and the indigent; and his knowledge of law enabled him to obey the
kind impulses of his nature most beneficially to the applicants.  The young
men who officiated as deputies under the influence of his example and
benign instructions went hence into society with good habits and qualified
for usefulness . . but the deceased was as remarkable for his exemption
from sordid and selfish influences as any man of the age in which he lived.
As a clerk of the County Court he had the custody of the books, papers, and
records of the trustees of Louisville from its origin, which afforded him
an opportunity of becoming blamelessly rich.  He resided in the town from
its first establishment, with but little exception, until his death,
without speculating in town property, while other men by such means under
his eye were acquiring great wealth.  Although he possessed the facilities
for such speculations beyond anybody else, he never touched them; so
that it might be said of him emphatically that he lived for others, not
for himself.  The facts of his life constitute his best eulogy, and the
more his loss will be deplored and his memory revered.  A pocket edition
of the Bible was his constant companion.  His daily life was controlled
by its precepts, and he tried to live and be governed by its beneficent
teaching.  It was his daily habit to turn to its pages and he seemed to be
supported and sustained by its comforting words.
     In 1804 Worden Pope married Elizabeth Thruston, a lineal descendant
of the Thruston of the revolution, an eloquent divine who left his pulpit
and fought gallantly in the Colonial ranks against Great Britain and who
in consequence of his courageous service has ever since been known by the
sobriquet of "The Warrior Parson."  She was a daughter of John Thruston,
who represented Kentucky in the Virginia Legislature before the former
became a State, and also the niece of Judge Buckner Thruston, who was one
of the first two United States Senators from Kentucky.  She was also the
sister of Charles M. Thruston, of Louisville, a great lawyer and a speaker,
who, when in the mood or aroused, was the equal of any one.
     The fruit of the marriage of Worden Pope with Elizabeth Thruston was
a large family.  Of all the children, thirteen in number, Hamilton Pope
alone has reached an old age.  He has enjoyed a long, successful and most
honorable career at the Louisville Bar, and is a man of decided ability
and marked characteristics.  Averse to public life, he has never sought
office; indeed, he has declined several times the nomination for Congress
tendered him by the Whig party, although in early life he was induced to
serve the people of Louisville in the Legislature and in the Senate at
Frankfort.  Had he chosen to follow the paths which lead to public honor,
he would have achieved a national fame and been eminent in the councils of
the Nation.  Standing six feet and four inches high, he is a man of
commanding presence, of the very purest private and professional character,
of an integrity that has never been sullied, and is possessed of a
magnetism which has made his personality potent in its influence with all
those with whom he has come in contact.  In the fall of 1855 he was
married to Mrs. Prather, of Washington County, Kentucky, the daughter of
Mr. Samuel Booker, and a woman of many personal attractions, of brilliant
attainments and gifted with rare conversational powers.
     Patrick Pope, the eldest son of Worden Pope, died in his thirty-fourth
year.  Graduating as valedictorian from St. Joseph's College, Bardstown,
Kentucky, he began the practice of law in the city of his birth, in 1827.
He speedily rose to distinction in his profession.  By his ability and
eloquence he overcame a Whig majority of one thousand, being elected to
the Legislature over the beloved and talented Henry Crittenden.  When he
made this brilliant canvass he was not yet twenty-five years of age.  He
ably co-operated with his father and the other members of his family in
bringing out General Jackson for their presidency.  Declining the place
of Secretary of State, tendered him by Governor Breathitt, he was elected
in his twenty-eighth year to Congress, which position he filled with credit
and reputation to himself and with acceptance to his electors.  He died
May 4, 1840.  Notwithstanding his premature death Mr. Pope had attained an
enviable public rank.  His conversational powers, integrity of character
and eloquence, made him one of the first lawyers of his time.
     Edmund Pendleton Pope, who was generally known as Pendleton Pope, was
the third son.  He was tall and slender, with a strong and most pleasing
face, and graceful person; graduated with honor in the regular course at
Transylvania University; was, like his brother patrick, gifted with rare
conversational power, and inherited the constitutional intrepidity of his
father.  He was for fifteen years clerk of the Circuit Court, and
afterward practiced law with great success to the day of his death, which
occurred in his forty-seventh year.  More than thirty years ago the
writer heard his argument in defense of Johnson, who killed Lawrence, and
so great was the impression then made, that the more eloquent parts of
his speech remain in the memory of the write to this day.  He married
Nancy, the daughter of Colonel James Johnson, of Scott County, Ky., and
has three sons--Judge Alfred Thruston Pope, Captain James Worden Pope and
Hamilton Pope, Jr., who survive him.
     Curran Pope, the fourth son, graduated at West Point in 1836, and
after a short service in the army he resigned to take one of the clerkships
made vacant by his father. He held the office for seventeen years, the last
four of which were by election by the people.  He was a citizen of much of
much public spirit; one of the original projectors and directors of the
Louisville & Nashville Railroad; one of the main promoters of Louisville
Water Works; devoted much of his time as trustee of Danville College, and
as trustee of various educational institutions of Louisville especially to
a seminary organized and established by himself and others in the old
homestead of his father; served for eleven years in the General Council of
Louisville; and on the breaking out of the late war he espoused the cause
of the Union.  He raised the Fifteenth Kentucky Regiment, which, after a
varied service, was decimated in the battle of Perryville, which, for the
number and length of time engaged, is said to have been the bloodiest
battle of the war.  Early in the action Colonel Pope's horse was killed
under him, and toward the close of the engagement he was shot through the
shoulder.  E.P. Humphrey, D.D., LL.D., the scholarly author of "Sacred
History from the Creation to the Giving of the Law" who was the co-laborer
in many fields of usefulness with Colonel Pope, and who was his life-long
friend, thus writes of him a short time after Colonel Pope's death: . .
"through his father, the late Worden Pope, Esq.--in his day one of the
foremost citizens of the commonwealth--and through his excellent mother and
amiable wife as well, he was allied to some of the most influential
families in the country. . .  His ample private fortune released him, in a
large measure, from professional labor; so that he was able to devote the
last twelve years of his life to the general interests of society.
     As an office-bearer in one of our largest city churches, and in many
other positions, he rendered the most important services.  He brought to
all his trusts a fine capacity for business, public spirit, unwearied
diligence, habits of system, order, and punctuality, and a nice sense of
duty.  Few men of his generation here have performed as much gratuitous and
arduous labor for the common good.  It happened to him to be of the number
of those in whom all the great issues of life flow together in a single
hour of supreme necessity and peril; when the high qualities, which have
been for nearly fifty years slowly maturing within them, are brought to a
final and fiery test, and suddenly emerge all aglow with consummate
splendor.  Colonel Pope met that hour on the bloody slopes of Perryville,
and took the crown.  The writer of these lines was during the whole day
within hearing distance of the artillery and musketry; was at one time on
the outskirts of the field, and before the dead were all buried he
carefully surveyed the ground on which the battle was fought.  The carnage
over, the whole field was frightful, and Colonel Pope stood in one of its
hottest positions.  His regiment was posted upon the brow of the hill; the
enemy was arrayed in two lines on the slope below him, one of these lines
being partially concealed in a field of standing corn, the other protected
by a substantial stone-wall.  The positions of the rebels being down the
hill gave them this important advantage.  They would not be likely to fire
too high, while Pope's troops, being so much above them, could hardly avoid
that mistake.  Besides, the foremost rebel line had the stone-wall in their
rear, to the cover of which they could at any time retreat, and to which,
in point of fact, they did retreat under the fire of our gallant Fifteenth.
Furthermore, the right of the regiment rested on a barn, which, early in
the action, was set on fire by s shell from the enemy, so that our troops
on that wing were nearly roasted by the flames.  And, more than all, the
brave Jouett and Campbell were shot down in the very beginning; the noble
McGrath, who went to Jouett's assistance, was instantly killed.  Pope's
horse was shot under him; he himself was wounded, and his men were falling
in heaps around him.  Colonel Pope stood near the center of the column,
about four feet from the line of battle giving direction to every movement.
Just in front of the position was a low rail fence; further down the hill
are two trees, the trunks of which are about the size of a man's body. The
bullet marks in trees and in the rails leave us in wonder how any human
being standing in that line of battle could have escaped death. Yet such
was the intrepidity of the regiment and of its commander that they held
their ground, until ordered to another position, when they filed out into
the road and marched off in perfect order.  Colonel Pope, on reaching his
new position, ordered his men to lie down under the brow of the hill as a
protection from the enemy's shells.  General Rousseau, observing some
change in the field, rode up and suggested to Colonel Pope the propriety of
showing his forces to the enemy.  Colonel Pope instantly gave the order;
the men sprang to their feet and marched in line to the battle, to the top
of the hill.  The General was so much struck with their promptness and
discipline, that he put his cap on his sword and waved it with the cry,
`Hurra for Kentucky!' Night soon set in; and, of the Fifteenth, seventy-two
slept in death, about a hundred and seventy staunched, as best they could,
their bleeding wounds, and the others rested on their arms.  Colonel Pope
remained with the army a few days and joined in the pursuit of Bragg, who
fled to the mountains; but, finding himself utterly exhausted, he returned
to Danville, where he lingered three weeks and died.  He looked forward to
the eternal world with pious composure, and expressed his unwavering
confidence in the Savior.  But for this opportunity on the field of battle,
none, not his most intimate friends even, would have known the man.  In him
we have an instance pointing out the fine distinction between certain
brutal ferocity, which sometimes passes by the name of courage, and that
more humane and exalted sentiment which springs out of a nice sense of
honor, the love of country and the fear of God.  Such was Colonel Pope's
quiet, and amiable, and even diffident manner in society, that no man, not
even he himself, knew what a brave and gallant heart was hidden in his
bosom, patiently waiting the hour of his grant manifestation.  The hour
came; the man was fully revealed to the homage of his countrymen, and his
life was finished, wearing "the beauty of a thing completed" a good work
well done.  He name is enrolled with the dead heroes of the Commonwealth.
She will never suffer his memory to perish."
     Wm. R. Thompson, in his "Historical Sketch of the Pope Family," thus
speaks of Colonel Pope: he "was the idol of the men he commanded. Though of
a very gentle and inoffensive disposition, he was one of the bravest, most
resolute men in the Union army, equally ready to oppose and smite a giant,
or to soothe and protect a child, and many a tear was shed by his brave and
scar-covered soldiers when he had to leave them. The writer of this, who
saw Colonel Pope Monday after the battle Perryville, has heard many of his
soldiers say that after a long and tiresome march, when night came and they
went into camp, other officers sought a house to sleep in, but Colonel Pope
laid down upon the ground with his men, and took their fare. He looked upon
them as a father looks upon his children, and he said it was his duty to be
with them and take care of them. He never sought or claimed any better fare
than his soldiers got; hence his immense popularity with his men who revere
his memory to this day with the affection of a child for its father.  When
you meet one of the Fifteenth Kentucky who fought at Perryville, ask him
what he thinks of Colonel Curran Pope, and he will give you a better eulogy
than I can write, more graphic and to the point; he can tell facts I know
not in his undying praise and he will love to talk to you about him. The
writer of this article was well acquainted with Colonel Curran Pope before
the war, and saw him several times in his camp after he entered the army,
and he can bear witness to his great worth as a man, citizen and soldier.
The slaughter of Pope's regiment at Perryville was so great, that afterward
it was given the sobriquet of the `Bloody Regiment.'"
     General Sherman succeeded General Anderson to the command in Kentucky
in the earliest stage of the war.  His headquarters were at Louisville, and
there he often met Colonel Pope, who had already determined to enter the
army of the Union.  General Sherman had abundant opportunity to form a
correct estimate of Colonel Pope's character, a correct estimate of Colonel
Pope's character, both as a soldier and as a gentleman.  A few days after
he learned through the public prints of the death of Colonel Pope, although
he was burdened with the absorbing responsibilities of a great military
command, he wrote Colonel Pope's widow the following letter:

                                   "Headquarters, Memphis, Tenn.,
                                         November 10, 1862.

Dear Madam: --
  . . . . I know you will pardon me, afar off, if, at this your dread hour,
I come to bear my feeble show of honor to him whose name you bear and
and whose child will in after years look back upon as one of those heroes
who labored and gave his life to his country.  Well do I recall the soft
and gentle voice of Curran Pope, the peculiar delicacy of his approach,
the almost unequal courtesy of hi manner and the first faint doubt that one
so gentle, so mild, so beautiful in character, should be a warrior; but
another look, and his eye, the plain direct assertion of a high and holy
purpose, with the pressure of his lips, told that he was a man; one to
lead; one to go where duty called him though the path led through the hail
storm of battle.  Among all the men I have ever met in the progress of this
un-natural war, I cannot recall one in whose every act and expression was
so manifest the good and true man; one who so well filled the type of
the Kentucky gentleman.
     He died not upon the battle-field but of wounds inflicted by parricidal
hands on Kentucky's soil and his blood is the cement that will ever more
bind together the disjointed parts of a mighty nation.  Though for a time
smitten down by the terrible calamity, may you and your child soon learn to
look upon his name and fame as encircled by a halo of glory more beautiful
than ever decked the victor's brow.  Curran Pope is dead, but millions will
battle on, till from his heaven-home he will see his own beloved Kentucky
the center of his great country, regenerated and disenthralled from the
toils of wicked men.
     I fear that in trying to carry comfort to an afflicted heart, I do
it rudely, but I know you will permit me in my blunt way to bear my
feeble testimony to the goodness, braveness, and gallantry of the man who
more nearly filled the picture of the preux chevalier of this age, than
any man I have yet met.  I know you are in the midst of a host of friends,
but should in the progress of years any opportunity come by which I can be
of service to any of the family of Curran Pope, command me.

                    With great respect,
                         Your obedient servant,
                              W. T. Sherman.
                                   Maj. Gen. Vols."

     Curran Pope was married to Matilda Prather, a daughter of John I.
Jacob, by whom he was blessed with one daughter, Mary Tyler Pope, who is
possessed of many accomplishments, great force of character and intellect,
and of much beauty, and who still lives in the home of her heroic father,
the happy wife of Judge Alfred Thruston Pope, and the devoted mother of an
interesting family.

Pope Walker May Ormsby Brown Penn Marshall Field Daniel Rowan Jacob
Thruston Johnson Humphrey Jouett Campbell McGrath
=
Bullitt-KY Nelson-KY Washington-KY Scott-KY Westmoreland-VA AL IN

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/pope.w.txt