Gen. Basil W. Duke, CSA

John Hartwell

Lt. Colonel
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Aug 27, 2011
Location
Central Massachusetts
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The youthful Gen. Basil W. Duke
[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8922/basil-wilson-duke]

According to a report in the Staunton (Va.) Spectator and Vindicator (July 23,1890), Gen. Duke "was reminded of a story...."

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Thanks for posting that great story and the photos of the graves of Morgan and Duke.
My gg grandfather served in Duke's Brigade, so I'll add a quick anecdote about my late father, who took great pride in "Morgan's men." Morgan's gravestone above is now clean, but about 15 years ago, dad, mom, and another couple visited those graves. Morgan's was covered in a green mossy mildew. Dad took out his credit card, began slowly scraping the mildew off and kept at it for some time. Finally, mom said, "Perry, it's past lunchtime and we're all getting hungry." Dad didn't miss a stroke with the credit card, and firmly replied, "Some things are more important than lunch!" No one said another word and it was some time before they got lunch. Dad died in 2011.
When I visited those graves about five years ago, that same green mossy mildew was prevalent. Out came my credit card...
 
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Basil Duke's parents died in the cholera epidemic that swept Kentucky in 1832-1833, leaving him orphaned. He moved in with his aunt and uncle, James K. and Mary Duke, who raised him with their daughters on their farm in Scott County, KY, just outside Georgetown. His first cousin, Martha McDowell Duke, daughter of James and Mary, with whom Basil was raised, married her third cousin, Lt. John Buford of the 2nd U.S. Dragoons, in 1854 (Mary Duke's maiden name was Buford; her father Abraham was the brother of John Buford's grandfather, Simeon. Mary's father Abraham was a colonel of the Virginia Line during the Revolutionary War, and was known by the unflattering nickname of Buford of Waxhaws for the terrible defeat he and his troops sustained at the hands of Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton's Legion in the 1780 Battle of Waxhaws, South Carolina). Another of Martha Buford's sisters was married to Union general Green Clay Smith, and Martha was a first cousin of Irvin McDowell, the Union commander at First Bull Run. Martha's husband obviously became one of the great heroes of the Battle of Gettysburg, and his half-brother, Maj. Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte Buford, was not only a West Pointer, but also a Union general.

Basil, of course, married John Hunt Morgan's sister and was very much the brains of Morgan's operations. John Buford's first cousin Abraham Buford (named for his great uncle, the Revolutionary War hero) also became a Confederate brigadier general of cavalry.

The schisms that split Kentucky clearly split this family. It's a fascinating microcosm.
 
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Thanks for posting that great story and the photos of the graves of Morgan and Duke.
My gg grandfather served in Duke's Brigade, so I'll add a quick anecdote about my late father, who took great pride in "Morgan's men." Morgan's gravestone above is now clean, but about 15 years ago, dad, mom, and another couple visited those graves. Morgan's was covered in a green mossy mildew. Dad took out his credit card, began slowly scraping the mildew off and kept at it for some time. Finally, mom said, "Perry, it's past lunchtime and we're all getting hungry." Dad didn't miss a stroke with the credit card, and firmly replied, "Some things are more important than lunch!" No one said another word and it was some time before they got lunch. Dad died in 2011.
When I visited those graves about five years ago, that same green mossy mildew was prevalent. Out came my credit card...
We are our fathers sons. I find myself doing the same.
 
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