Once disqualified from joining Mt. Horeb church, John B. Castleman reminisces.

In his autobiography 'Active Service', John B. Castleman wrote about his desire to join the church for his mother's sake, and his unorthodox beliefs, that once kept him from membership, at Mt. Horeb Presbyterian Church.

• The year was 1852, and John B Castleman would have just turned 11 years old. 
• His father David Castleman died on May 22, 1852
• His brother Robert Harrison Castleman was killed on June 22, 1852
• Mt. Horeb Church still stands in Lexington, KY

General Castleman wrote:

[...There was being held at Mount Horeb, a "revival meeting," and there was much interest. I had listened with an absorbing attention. It was not possible for me to understand or to believe in Calvinism and the expounding of the confession of faith. I felt that I was a free agent. I did not believe in the devil, nor did I believe in God's wrath and in torment in the hereafter. My biblical knowledge was very limited, but I believed in the love and mercy of God, and that "whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." And I tried to comfort my bereaved mother with the thought that man, made in God's own image, was immortal and could never die.

My father had passed away, and a month thereafter my brother Robert was killed. My mother was the first consideration of everyone in her household. My thought was to do anything that would give my mother comfort. So I thought of joining the church. During the revival, those who contemplated joining the church were, at each meeting, asked to come to the front seats. It was customary for the pastor, or one of the elders, to examine the religious views of those contemplating "making a profession of religion." The pleasure that my mother would realize came to my thoughts. I was among those responding to the invitation to come to the front seats. I fell to the lot of Elder Thomas Sprake, a good man for whom everyone entertained great respect. I was asked the customary questions as to my belief, and, in a simple but frank way, gave Mr. Sprake my views about religion — and was disqualified.

Thus my unorthodox views kept me from being a member of Horeb church. But, at this writing, I am one of the trustees of the church, and I esteem this the greatest honor I have had.]
----

source: 'Active Service'

Controversial Monument: Gen. John B. Castleman, ex-Confederate Tells Soldiers it is Their Duty to Salute Black Officers

The New York Times
November 12, 1917

SALUTE NEGROES IN SOUTH.

Gen. Castleman, ex-Confederate, Tells Soldiers it is Their Duty.

LOUISVILLE, Ky, Nov. 11- Louisville, in which much of the spirit of the old South still lives, putting aside racial feeling and personal prejudice, has settled for itself, patriotically and unreservedly, the question of the propriety of white soldiers saluting negro officers. This question, which came to the fore recently, was on the first thought answered to reconcile inherent convictions with military regulations.

The solution was that an officer should not be regarded as a personality toward whom the salute homage to the country's uniform and to the things it typifies should be accepted.

An exposition of this viewpoint was voiced by General John B. Castleman, a Major of the Army of the Confederacy, later Colonel of a Kentucky National Guard regiment and a Brigadier General of Volunteers who saw active service in Porto Rico during the Spanish-American War. He said:

"The discipline of the army must be maintained, and non-commissioned officers understand little of the spirit of the army when they refuse to salute a negro officer. I have held several commissions in the military service, and I unhesitatingly say that I would or will, at any time salute an officer, superior or inferior, who salutes me without regard to the color of his skin. The regulations, the laws, and the fundamentals of courtesy and discipline upon which these regulations and laws are based prescribe this. It is no time to stand against them. I want to urge every soldier to be a soldier in the full sense of the term. We are at war, and soldiers are under the rules of the American Army. We are all one under the flag. We salute the rank, not the individual."

The incident which brought forth General Castleman's statement occurred here recently when two white soldiers refused to salute Captain Glass, a colored officer.

A Call for Unity under the flag of the Union: Colonel John Breckinridge Castleman Speech 1898, Spanish-American War

Colonel John Breckinridge Castleman, 1900

Speech of Col. John B. Castleman

"Gen. Henry, Mr. Alcade, Gentlemen: My esteemed commander has elected to refer to me in terms of commendation and to invite your attention to matters personal to myself in order to illustrate the liberality of the Government to whose protection you are assigned.

It is true that against the great republic beyond the seas, to which you are now united by the inseparable strength of governmental union, I fought a third of a century ago as a Confederate soldier. It is true that the Government whose commission I now hold is one which then I united in a common effort to destroy. But the spirit of patriotism which then animated a great people in an heroic struggle, now prompts the same people, through their survivors of that war, to demand that no effort of mankind shall cause to be effaced any star from the flag of the Union, but that where self-respecting, intelligent citizenship shall warrant it, those represented in that sisterhood of States shall aid other territorial communities in enjoying whatsoever privileges they may demonstrate that they are entitled to receive. Your position in the future is with yourselves. Your respect for law and your enforcement of order are matters which will determine your right to the respect and confidence of your new associates. You will be required to exercises courage and firmness and manhood in controlling the ignorant and vicious and the unwise. Every citizen of Porto Rico, no matter what his antecedents shall receive the protection and support of the constituted authorities of the United States. And every citizen shall be compelled to respect his neighbor's right to equal freedom. "

[General John Breckinridge Castleman, 1898]

Speech of Col. John B. Castleman
Saturday, October 29, 1898
The Courier-Journal

Lincoln, the Forgiving Foe by General John B. Castleman: Lincoln Memorial Dedication Ceremony, November 10, 1911

Crowd hearing President Taft's Speech on Steps leading to Lincoln Memorial
1911

Gen. Castleman Speaks
The Courier-Journal
November, 10, 1911

[Article transcribed]

General Castleman Speaks

Gen. John B Castleman delivered the final address. His subject was "Lincoln, the Forgiving Foe." Mr. Folk, in introducing Gen. Castleman, called attention to the fact that he had fought under the stars and bars during the Civil War, and, later, during the war with Spain, he had fought under the stars and stripes.

Asserting that he did not know until this morning that he was to be called upon to speak, Gen. Castleman said the occasion was too sacred for one to participate in without first having prepared himself. He said Mr. Collier had called upon him, however, and that any Kentuckian of the worth of the publisher of Collier's Weekly could never refuse to comply with his request, if possible, or at least to make the effort.

"Even if Robert Collier could not induce me to attempt a thing that I feared I might not be able to carry out, the memory of his father would," Gen. Castleman said.

Getting down to his subject, Gen. Castleman, without mentioning names, related a story of how Lincoln had intervened in behalf of a young Confederate soldier who was in grave danger of execution at the hands of the "Yankees." The sister and brother-in-law of the young soldier had appealed to Lincoln, he said, and the latter, after listening to their story, wrote an order to Maj. Gen. Hovey, instructing him to suspend execution in case the Confederate youth was found guilty.

Some one among those on the speakers' platform called upon Gen. Castleman to give the name of the young solder, be he refused. Gov. Wilson then announced so that all could hear, that the name of the soldier was John B. Castleman, and the requested President Taft to read the original order to Maj. Gen. Hovey, which Gen. Castleman held in his hand. The President complied setting at rest all doubt as to the identity of the young Confederate soldier, whose life probably was spared by the intervention of President Lincoln.

Notable Personages Who Took Park In Lincoln Farm Memorial Dedication Exercises
The Courier-Journal
November 10, 1911

Gen. Castleman related other instances illustrative of the forgiving spirit of Lincoln. He said the martyred President had set an example that had been followed by many of his successors in office, in support of which statement he pointed to the fact that Gen. Basil W. Duke, who fought for the South, is now a member of the Shiloh Battlefield Commission.

Instancing the good Lincoln's attitude toward those who fought against the North, coupled that of later Presidents who folloed in the "Emancipator's" footsteps, had brought about, Gen. Castleman told how Confederate solders all over the South responsed to McKinley's call for 200,000 volunteers when the blowing up of the Maine made the war with Spain inevitable.

"President McKinley called for 200,000 volunteers," he said, "and 1,000,000 men responded, the Confederate soldiers all over the South entering instantly the service of the country."

In this connection, Gen. Castleman said that the first regiment that offered its service to the Government was a Kentucky regiment and was commanded by a Confederate soldier. He was called upon to give the name of the commander of that regiment, and when he hesitated someone again answered for him, informing the assemblage that the commander referred to was Gen. Castleman.

Source: [Gen. Castleman Speaks, The Courier-Journal, November, 10, 1911]

Grievous errors: Letter from John B. Castleman to President Andrew Johnson, June 7, 1865

General John Breckinridge Castleman
circa 1863

From John B. Castleman

Indianapolis Ind. June 7th 1865

To the President of the U.S.
Sir.
    In the Summer of the year 1862, being then less than Twenty one years of age and living near Lexington Kentucky, I was induced to engage in the Rebellion, and joined the Rebel Army. I continued in that service, and was arrested in Southern Indiana in the month of September 1864, and have been since that time a prisoner and held under charges for trial. In what I did, I was led to believe, and at the time thought, I was doing my duty. I am now convinced that my action was wrong from the beginning, and that I have committed grievous errors.

    For what is past, I can only express my sincere regret, and promise to strive by my future action to atone for it by faithful efforts to discharge my duty as a citizen of the United States.

    With this preliminary statement, I desire now to ask that I may be permitted to take the Oath of Allegiance, and be released on such terms as may to you seem best. And if it is not possible for proper in your judgement that this should be done, I ask that I may be allowed to become a voluntary exile to some other country, for life or such shorter time, as may be deemed by you sufficient, Subject to such penalties for returning as may be imposed, and giving my obligation in such form as may be required, to observe strictly the terms of the order and to do no act of hostility in any way to the United States.

   I hope it will be found consistent with your views of duty and of the public interests to grant my request.

I am, Very Respectfully

Your Ob't Sv't J.B. Castleman. 

Controversial Statue: John B Castleman on Slavery, Lincoln, and the Union

"In Louisville today the remains of General John Breckinridge Castleman lie in state. General Castleman's story is not without significance in these troubled times. As a youth of nineteen he rushed into Confederate service at the outbreak of the war. He was opposed to the institution of slavery but he was a hot-headed advocate of the principle of state's rights and to him every state was a republic unto itself. He was the dashing kind of soldier who would naturally be drawn to the audacious trooper, Morgan." 

"At the entrance of Cherokee park which is the product of his generosity and constant care and watchfulness stands a modest little frame cottage in a spacious park-like yard where arching trees abound. That little house for nearly half a century has been General Castleman's home. In the large central window of this home, facing the thorofare, there has always hung an American flag.The flag was General Castleman's passion. In the days of his youth on his return from exile he, like General Gordon of Georgia, became a great reconstructionist. He went among the people of the south, telling them what the flag meant, how wrong their war was, how the lost cause was a wrong cause, how they should rejoice in their defeat tho never losing their love and enthusiasm for their hero dead who gave their valor for that which they thought to be right but which they now found, to their sorrow and to their gladness, was wrong. He was the sympathetic southerner who love the South so much that he could love North and South more."

When the Lincoln Memorial at Hodgenville was dedicated a few years ago General Castleman with President Taft was an honor guest of Kentucky. When all the services and exercises were over, and the 17,000 spectators on the grounds had dissipated, gone on their way and the Presidential train was standing on its siding with impatient engine three mile distant from the isolated shrine, General Castleman expressed the wish to return to the Memorial that he could see it in the silence of its setting, with the multitude away.

When, with a few friends present, he paid this second visit to that shrine that day he said, "“ I cannot describe my feelings. Here from a home of lower birth than that which I knew, the humblest hut of a cabin, came a man who lived to have the power to save my life. Had Lincoln lived, I always knew that I would have returned from exile not two years after but at the close of the war In giving me my life this man gave me the light to see the wrong cause I had championed, the right cause that he battled for. I have given my ...

"...life in a humble effort to carry on his work, to bring his divided people once more,” then pointing to the inscription on the pediment of the building, he read “ into union, peace and brotherhood among these United States.” A few years ago in front of his own home at the entrance of the park which was the result of his own generosity and handiwork, Louisville unveiled in his presence, Kentucky ’s great man on a horse, GENERAL CASTLEMAN.

General Castleman lived the repentance of a mistake against a just cause and a flag that was borne into battle for liberty and for a government that stood for both freedom and fellowship. No one ever worked more faithfully to correct a wrong against his country's flag. No one ever learned to love his country's flag more than did Kentucky s great horseman. He was one of the rebuilders of the South, and as a rebuilder he became one of the builders of the nation.

General Castleman is dead. His mortal remains lie in state in Louisville today. Kentucky honors in this hour the memory of one who was more than her son; he became a great, soldier son of America. This was his pride. The flag that always made brilliant the big window of his home he loved better than life itself. The spirit of General Castleman is one that cannot be laid at rest. In the words ; of Webster it will march on and on in the cause of “ union, one and inseparable now and forever-”THE WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL. SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1918.

On saluting black officers General John B Castleman

Drawing Color Line, Albert Lea Evening Tribune, 1917

DRAWING COLOR LINE.

The question as to whether a white man must salute a colored officer in Uncle Sam's army is causing considerable trouble in many of the training camps. Many white officers, especially southerners have absolutely refused to recognize a colored officer.

Gen. John B. Castleman of Kentucky says:

"I unhesitatingly say that I will at any time salute an officer, superior or inferior, who salutes me, without regard to the color of his skin. The regulations and laws, and the fundamentals of courtesy and discipline, upon which these regulations and laws are based, prescribe this. It is no time to stand against them. I want to urge every soldier to be a soldier in the full sense of the term. We are at war, and soldiers are under the rules of the American army. We are all one under the flag. We salute the rank, not the individual."

General Castleman's stand in this matter seems to be right. It isn't the man that he salutes, but what he stands for.'

Albert Lea Evening Tribune
Thursday, November 22, 1917, Albert Lea, Minnesota


It is the rank, not the individual, who is saluted. The military regulations are plain on this point, and we of the South, however hard it comes to us, must see to it that our spirit is that of America and the National Army in every particular. The Negroes are soldiers like the white men, ready to face the same conditions and perils and ready to pour out their blood as freely as if they were white. If General John B. Castleman, as he says, can cheerfully salute a Negro soldier, then any son of a Confederate can do the same. — Louisville, Ky., Times. 
(source: The Crisis: Volumes 15-18 page 78)

White Soldiers Object To saluting Negro Officers.

In connection with the commissioning of large numbers of Negroes as officers, there almost immediately came up the question as to whether white soldiers should salute Negro officers the same as they did white officers. This matter was brought prominently, to public attention when at Louisville, (Kentucky) a non-commissioned white officer was taken to task for failing to salute a Negro Captain. General John B. Castleman of Louisville, (Kentucky), a former Confederate soldier, when asked for his opinion on the matter of saluting Negro officers, said:

“The discipline of the army must be maintained and the non-commissioned officers understand little of the spirit of the army when they refuse to salute a Negro officer. I have held several commissions in the military service and I unhesitatingly say that I would or will at any time salute any officer, superior or inferior, who salutes me, without regard to the color of his skin. The regulations, the laws and the fundamentals of courtesy and discipline upon which these regulations and laws are based, prescribe this. This is not the time to stand against them. I regret the incident and want to urge every soldier to be a soldier in the full sense of the term. We are at war, and soldiers are un der the rules of the American army. We are all one under one flag. We salute the rank, not the individual.”

(source: Negro Year Book, An Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro 1918-1919)

The New York Times
November 12, 1917

Salute Negroes in the South
Gen. Castleman, ex-Confederate, Tells Soldiers it is their Duty