Ferocious Kentuckians

From the Covington Journal of August 10, 1861, comes this piece.

A correspondent of the New York Tribune draws a very captivating picture of the Kentuckians in Johnston's division:


Among the troops was one regiment of over 1,000 Kentuckians, armed with rifles and bowie-knives. They refused to take but one round of cartridges to go into the contemplated fight with Gen. Patterson's column, intending to lie hid on the ground in the artificial thickets until our troops should approach, and then make at them with their bowie-knives. This might have made some desperate fighting; but our bayonets would probably have been an overmatch for their knives. 


The men of the Kentucky regiment are described as a savage and desperate set, who exhibited their ferocious disposition on the slightest pretext, and kept everyone in terror of them; they considered it a pleasant diversion to chop a man up with an Arkansas tooth-pick. The wife of one them (sic) is the vivaudiere of the regiment; she is a thorough soldier and acts as a lieutenant of a company, which she drills herself. She is said to be very handsome and a perfect Amazon. Her dress is very gay and conspicuous. Her ruffian comrades take great pride in their fierce and dashing heroine; and she is as anxious to split a Yankee with her bowie-knife as the bloodiest-minded wretch among them.