No Longer Trend of Traffic for a short time during the Civil War, they have not again been valuable as through routes. Traffic has continued across country, but it has been divided, at first by the transportation systems of Central Kentucky on the west, and by that of Virginia and West Virginia on the east, and since 1870-1890 by local railroads, which have been * During the war, after Kentucky had abandoned her position of neutrality, the roads were constantly used by the Confederate troops passing between their headquarters in Central and Eastern Tennessee and Central Kentucky. Upon them took place innumerable skirmishes and cross-road battles. Pound and Cumberland gaps, and many other less important passes through the eastern escarpment, were strategic points, held first by one army and then by the other. The Pound Gap routes and the Wilderness Road were the most used. On August 24, 1862, a military notice was served upon slaveholders in Fayette and Madison counties to furnish a specified number of able-bodied negro men "for the use of the United States Government as laborers" to repair the road between Mt. Vernon and Cumberland Gap. (Collins, Vol. I, p. 110.) Even the old branch of the "Warrior's Path" leading north and south, from Pineville across the Ohio to the mouth of the Scioto, was used. (See p. 65, note.) Morgan, in command of the Federal troops at Cumberland Gap, was cut off from supplies by Kirby Smith, who with his men entered Kentucky through the Big Creek Gap, twenty miles southwest of Cumberland Gap. The pass had not been fortified by the Federals in their ignorance of the topography of the country. Fearing starvation, Morgan retreated to Cumberland Ford, where he took the old trail and its branches, marching through Manchester in Clay County, Proctor on the North Fork of the Kentucky in Owsley (now Lee) County, Campton and Hazel Green in Wolfe County, and Grayson in Carter County, to Greenupsburg, on the Ohio at the mouth of the Little Sandy. On this march of nearly two hundred miles, made between September 17th and October 3d, Morgan had with him practically all his field cannon. He was compelled occasionally "to create" his road, and the way was through "clouds of dust and over hot sands, with stagnant, tepid water for drink at times, and only roast corn for food." At the end the men resembled specters. They were shoeless, their clothing hung in tatters, and their bodies were wasted. The retreat is regarded by Shaler and Collins as one of the great exploits of the war. (Collins, Vol. I, p. 112; Shaler, History of Kentucky, p. 314.) The small mountain farms afforded frugal provisions for an army, and by the close of the war had been denuded by passing soldiers of all supplies for man and beast. The devastation was increased later by bands of outlaws, guerillas and deserters, who from their mountain shelters pillaged, burned, and committed other outrages. (Collins, Vol. I, pp. 94-152.) slowly penetrating the region along the old transmontane lines." The old trails connecting with the four main routes were widened into wagon roads in accordance with the early specifications of the road law, and have been established and maintained with the minimum of capital and labor which public opinion would tolerate. The county seats have become centers from which the thoroughfares * The Owingsville-Big Sandy route has become a feeder to the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, which runs parallel to it. The Wilderness Road is likewise a feeder to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, which parallels it. There is now no interstate commerce on the Wilderness Road, although to the east of Cumberland Gap, the strategic point, there is a fertile agricultural district which is practically without a market, and on the west an active mining region with Middlesboro as a center, which might afford an excellent market because of the scarcity of farming land. On the Mt. Sterling-Prestonburg road, from Morgan County, merchandise has long been shipped from West Liberty to the railroads in Menefee County, while from Magoffin County the shipments have gone east to steamboat and railroad in the Big Sandy Valley. In the Kentucky Valley, from as far as Hazard, over the old road to the Bluegrass, stock is still driven and merchandise is taken by wagon from the railroad which runs parallel with the river as far as Jackson. But beyond Hazard commerce and travel go east to the railroads in Pike County and in the counties adjoining in Virginia and West Virginia. The coming of a railroad to a part of the region often immediately reverses the direction of the traffic. When the Lexington & Eastern to Hazard in Perry County is completed the principal exports from Knott County will follow a road of twenty-two miles from Hindman to Hazard, instead of going, as at present, forty-five miles to Jackson in Breathitt County. In Leslie County the traffic, which since 1883 has been hauled fifty-five miles over the road between Hyden and London in Laurel County, will go, upon the completion of the railroad, a distance of only from twelve to twenty miles. These points and others in their vicinity have had the longest hauls to the railroads, and the new line will be an immense advantage. b In 1797 the law provided for the condemnation of property, to be paid for by a county levy, "for opening or altering roads within a county, to the court house thereof, to public warehouses, landings, ferries, mills, lead or iron works, or to the seat of government," these roads to be kept cleared and smooth for at least thirty feet in width. (Littell's Laws.) By the act of December 11, 1801, it was directed that all public roads between county seats, salt-works, or seat of government be kept in repair; that County Seats Railroads have Improvements. radiate, leading to adjoining seats, local industrial works, and railroad stations. During the past decade the mileage has averaged about 17,432 miles,' or one and four-tenths miles per square mile of area and about one mile of road to every twenty-six inhabitants. The total mileage is over one-third that of the entire State.b Before the era of railroads the improvements made on the highways were scarcely worthy the name. Within they must be fifteen feet wide, and might be forty feet if the county court so ordered. (Ibid.) According to the act of January 31, 1812, the road must be fifteen feet wide, but need not be more if it appeared "that from the mountainous and broken situation of their country, that it would be unnecessary and oppressive to the citizens to compel them to clear any road or roads thirty feet wide." (Littell's Laws, Vol. IV, p. 361.) Later legislation reduced the minimum. The present law simply fixes a maximum width of sixty feet for all public roads. The mountain roads probably average ten feet in width. Following are the specifications for a road over Pine Mountain, divided into two "lots"; the contract was offered at public outcry from Harlan County court house door, May 24, 1909: "Both of said lots of road are to be ten feet wide and the winds in said road to be forty feet wide. Said roads are to have good green timber for backing. Said roads are to be made level, the high places taken off and low places filled and to be dug down level and good stone culverts made to carry off the water where needed." (Harlan Enterprise, May 14, 1909.) According to a Federal report of 1904, this varied in the counties from sixteen hundred miles, or three and five-tenths miles per square mile, in Clay, to seventy-five miles, or three-tenths miles per square mile, in Martin-the greatest and least per cent in the State. (See Table 5, Appendix.) A State report of 1907 gives the variation from fifteen hundred miles in Pulaski and Johnson to one hundred and fifty miles in Harlan. (Kentucky Bureau of Agriculture, Table opp. p. 185, 1907.) Both reports indicate that the mileage is least where there is a concentration of population, brought about either by the railroads, as in Boyd, Estill, and Greenup counties, or by the rough topography in those counties situated on the headwaters of the main streams where the concentration has taken place in the more fertile valleys-for example, Knott, Perry and Martin counties. The two tables show such wide discrepancies in details, however, as to render them valueless for purposes of comparison. b The report of 1904 shows for the State one and four-tenths miles of road per square mile of area, and one mile of road to every thirty-seven inhabitants. |