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49 “Neutrality with a Vengeance” [5] Nelson reached Louisville Monday evening, May 6, 1861. The next morning , the Kentucky General Assembly was meeting in special session at Frankfort when he arrived at Joshua Speed’s office. This was the first encounter between the two men, and they went into an adjoining room and engaged in small talk until each felt comfortable enough to openly discuss arming Unionists and meeting with the key leaders in Frankfort. The two men agreed to leave for the state capital that afternoon, and as Nelson started for the door, he warned that neither of them should acknowledge each other “on the cars this afternoon.” If needed, Nelson said he would “insult” Speed to dispel any notion of friendship between them. Joshua and his brother James avoided Nelson by traveling in a separate car. At Frankfort Nelson dashed off to the residence of an old acquaintance while Joshua Speed went about notifying key Union leaders there would be a special meeting at the office of James Harlan later that Tuesday evening.1 At 9:00 p.m., Nelson met with the Speeds, James Harlan, John J. Crittenden, Charles A. Wickliffe, Thornton F. Marshall, and Garrett Davis. Davis told the others he had known Nelson for twenty years, that he was “a friend . . . and a gallant officer of the navy” who had recently traveled over a large portion of Kentucky meeting with Union men who wanted to arm companies formed in opposition to State Guard troops who favored secession. Nelson told the gathering the president had authorized him to bring in five thousand muskets and bayonets along with a supply of forty cartridges and fifty caps per gun. He placed blank authorization forms on the table, trusting that would intimidate these men into signing. Harlan and his colleagues were not the type who would give anyone that much discretion, and they made it clear the distribution would be solely under their authority. They decided that each of 50 “Neutrality with a Vengeance” them should oversee their own district; Nelson would allocate weapons according to their requests; and Joshua Speed would endorse the consignments. When the meeting adjourned in the early morning hours of Wednesday, May 8, Garrett Davis boldly declared this might have been the most vital assembly ever held in Kentucky and possibly the United States.2 On Tuesday, May 14, 1861, Nelson and Davis were at the public landing in Cincinnati to superintend the unloading of the guns from the steamboat Reliance. A hard bunch of roustabouts was to separate the cargo into two shipments. One would be ferried across the Ohio River to railcars at the Covington & Lexington depot. The second was to go by steamboat to Maysville. The activity caught the attention of the Home Guard Central Committee and they alerted the Committee on Suspicious Characters. Wednesday afternoon several of the latter group went to Covington and ordered the telegraph operator to cease all transmissions. Another bunch went to the landing and demanded that Nelson produce papers that authorized him to ship guns into hostile territory. A stream of curses and the threat to arrest anyone who interfered with the loading sent those men scurrying back to the safety of the six-story Carlisle Building at Fourth and Walnut Streets.3 About midnight, the conductor on the last railcar signaled the loading at Covington was completed. Ten percent (500) of the muskets and bayonets were to remain under the control of local Union leaders Bushrod W. Foley and John W. Finnell. The other 4,500 went into the heart of Kentucky to inspire unionism and sour secession. At daylight, Thursday, May 16, some 2,250 arms arrived in Paris. Garrett Davis and John D. Hearne sent two wagons to Georgetown. Fourteen boxes stayed at Paris. The rest went to Fayette, Clark, and Montgomery counties.4 The second shipment arrived in Maysville on Saturday. Richard H. Stevenson wrote to Col. Thomas B. Stevenson that “about two o’clock [a.m.] Hamilton Grey [Gray] and others brought here in the Steamboat Boston, 2,500 percussion muskets, obtained from the Lincoln authorities, pretendedly to be used in arming the Home Guard . . . but really in support of the ursurpations [sic] of Lincoln.” Stevenson believed that Garrett Davis was responsible for instigating the “high handed treachery,” and it appeared that Nelson had directed this act of “neutrality with a vengeance.”5 Garrett Davis indicated that “the officer” (Nelson) had fronted some of the costs, and it required “that...

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