HISTORY OF KENTUCKY, by Lewis Collins, and J.A. & U.P. James, 
published 1847.  Reprinted by Henry Clay Press, Lexington, Ky., 1968, 
pp.171-173. [Shelby county].

CAPTAIN BLAND BALLARD, in honor of whom this county is named, was born 
near Fredericksburg, Virginia, on the 16th of October, 1761, and is now 
in his 87th year.  He came to Kentucky in 1779, and joined the regular 
militia which was kept up for the defence [sic] of the country; and 
after serving on Bowman's campaign in 1779, accompanied the expedition 
led by Gen. Clark against the Pickaway towns in Ohio in 1781, on which 
occasion he received a severe wound in the hip, from the effects of 
which he is suffering at this day.  In 1786 he was a spy for General 
Clark in the expedition to the Wabash, rendered abortive by the mutiny 
of the soldiers.  In the summer of 1791, he served as a guide under 
Generals Scott and Wilkinson, and was present under General Wayne at the 
decisive battle on the 20th of August, 1794.
	When not engaged in regular campaign, he served as hunter and spy 
for General Clark, who was stationed at Louisville, and in this service 
he continued for two years and a half.  During this time he had several 
rencounters [sic] with the Indians.  One of these occurred just below 
Louisville.  He had been sent in his character of spy to explore the 
Ohio from the mouth of Salt river to the falls, and from thence up to 
what is now the town of Westport. On his way down the river, when six or 
eight miles below the falls, he heard, early one morning, a noise on the 
Indiana shore.  He immediately concealed himself in the bushes, and when 
the fog had scattered sufficiently to permit him to see, he discovered a 
canoe filled with three Indians, approaching the Kentucky shore.  When 
they had approached within range, he fired and killed one.  The others 
jumped overboard, and endeavored to get their canoe into deep water, but 
before they succeeded, he killed a second, and finally a third.  Upon 
reporting his morning's work to General Clark, a detachment was sent 
down, who found the three dead Indians and buried them.  For this 
service General Clark gave him a linen shirt, and some other small 
presents.  This shirt, however, was the only one he had for several 
years, except those made of leather; of this shirt the pioneer hero was 
doubtless justly proud.
	While on a scout to the Saline Licks on one occasion, Ballard, 
with one companion, came suddenly upon a large body of Indians, just as 
they were in the act of encamping.  They immediately charged, firing 
their guns and raising the yell.  This induced the Indians, as they had 
anticipated, to disperse for the moment, until the strength of the 
assailing party could be ascertained.  During this period of alarm, 
Ballard and his companion mounted two of the best horses they could 
find, and retreated for two days and nights, until they reached the 
Ohio, which they crossed upon a raft, making their horses swim.  As they 
ascended the Kentucky bank, the Indians reached the opposite shore.
	At the time of the defeat on Long Run, he was living at Lynn's 
station on Beargrass, and came up to assist some families in moving from 
Squire Boon's station, near the present town of Shelbyville.  The people 
of this station had become alarmed on account of the numerous Indian 
signs in the country, and had determined to move to the stronger 
stations on the Beargrass.  They proceeded safely until they arrived 
near Long Run, when they were attacked front and rear by the Indians, 
who fired their rifles and then rushed on them with their tomahawks.  
Some few of the men ran at the first fire, of the others, some succeeded 
in saving part of their families, or died with them after a brave 
resistance.  The subject of this sketch, after assisting severeal of the 
women on horseback who had been thrown at the first onset, during which 
he had one or two single handed combats with the Indians, and seeing the 
party about to be defeated, he succeeded in getting outside of the 
Indian line, when he used his rifle with some effect, until he saw they 
were totally defeated.  He then started for the station, pursued by the 
Indians, and on stopping at Floyd's Fork, in the bushes, on the bank, he 
saw an Indian on horseback pursuing the fugitives ride into the creek, 
and as he ascended the bank near to where Ballard stood, he shot the 
Indian, caught the horse and made good his escape to the station.  Many 
were killed, the number not recollected, some taken prisoners, and some 
escaped to the station.  They afterwards learned from the prisoners 
taken on this occasion, that the Indians who attacked them were marching 
to attack the station the whites had deserted, but learning from their 
spies that they were moving, the Indians turned from the head of 
Bullskin and marched in the direction of Long Run.  The news of this 
defeat induced Colonel Floyd to raise a party of thirty-seven men, with 
the intention of chastising the Indians.  Floyd commanded one division 
and captain Holden the other, Ballard being with the latter. They 
proceeded with great caution, but did not discover the Indians until 
they received their fire, which killed or mortally wounded sixteen of 
their men.  Notwithstanding the loss, the party under Floyd maintained 
their ground, and fought bravely until overpowered by three times their 
number, who appealed to the tomahawk.  The retreat, however, was 
completed without much further loss.  This occasion has been rendered 
memorable by the magnanimous gallantry of young Wells (afterwards the 
Colonel Wells of Tippecanoe), who saved the life of Floyd, his personal 
enemy, by the timely offer of his horse at a moment when the Indians 
were near to Floyd, who was retreating on foot and nearly exhausted. 
	In 1788, the Indians attacked the little Fort on Tick creek (a few 
miles east of Shelbyville), where his father resided.  It happened that 
his father had removed a short distance out of the fort, for the purpose 
of being convenient to the sugar camp.  The first intimation they had of 
the Indians, was early in the morning, when his brother Benjamin went 
out to get wood to make a fire. They shot him and then assailed the 
house.  The inmates barred the door and prepared for defence. [sic] His 
father was the only man in the house, and no man in the fort, except the 
subject of this sketch and one old man.  As soon as he heard the guns he 
repaired to within shooting distance of his father's house, but dared 
not venture nearer.  Here he commenced using his rifle with good effect. 
In the meantime the Indians broke open the house and killed his father, 
not before, however, he had killed one or two of their number.  The 
Indians, also, killed one full sister, one half sister, his step-mother, 
and tomahawked the youngest sister, a child, who recovered.  When the 
Indians broke into the house, his step-mother endeavored to effect her 
escape by the back door, but an Indian pursued her and as he raised his 
tomahawk to strike her, the subject of this sketch fired at the Indian, 
not, however, in time to prevent the fatal blow, and they both fell and 
expired together.  The Indians were supposed to number about fifteen, 
and before they completed their work of death, they sustained a loss of 
six or seven.
	During the period he was a spy for General Clark, he was taken 
prisoner by five Indians on the other side of the Ohio, a few miles 
above Louisville, and conducted to an encampment twenty-five miles from 
the river.  The Indians treated him comparatively well, for though they 
kept him with a guard they did not tie him.  On the next day after his 
arrival at the encampment, the Indians were engaged in horse racing.  In 
the evening two very old warriors were to have a race, which attracted 
the attention of all the Indians, and his guard left him a few steps to 
see how the race would terminate.  Near him stood a fine black horse, 
which the Indians had stolen recently from Beargrass, and while the 
attention of the Indians was attracted in a different direction, Ballard 
mounted this horse and had a race indeed.  They pursued him nearly to 
the river, but he escaped, though the horse died soon after he reached 
the station.  This was the only instance, with the exception of that at 
the river Raisin, that he was a prisoner.  He was in a skirmish with the 
Indians near the Saline Licks, Colonel Hardin being the commander; the 
Colonel Hardin who fought gallantry under Morgan at the capture of 
Burgoyne, and who fell a sacrifice to Indian perfidy in the northwest; 
the father of General M. D. Hardin, and grand-father of Col. Hardin of 
Illinois, whose heroic death at Buena Vista was worthy of is unsullied 
life.
	In after life Major Ballard repeatedly represented the people of 
Shelby county in the legislature, and commanded a company in Colonel 
Allen's regiment under General Harrison in the campaign of 1812-13.  He 
led the advantage of the detachment, which fought the first battle of 
the river Raisin - was wounded slightly on that day, and severely by a 
spent ball on the 22d January.  This wound, also, continues to annoy his 
old age. On this disastrous occasion he was taken prisoner, and suffered 
severely by the march through snow and ice, from Malden to Fort George.
	As an evidence of the difficulties which surrounded the early 
pioneer in this country, it may be proper to notice an occasion in which 
Major Ballard was disturbed by the Indians at the spot where he now 
resides.  They stole his only horse at night.  He heard them when they 
took the horse from the door to which he was tied.  His energy and 
sagacity was such, that he got in advance of the Indians before they 
reached the Ohio, waylaid them, three in number, shot the one riding his 
horse, and succeeded not only in escaping, but in catching the horse and 
riding back in safety.
	The generation now on the sphere of action, and the millions who 
are to succeed them in the great valley, will have but an imperfect idea 
of the character and services of the bold patriotic men, who rescued 
Kentucky from the forest and the savages.  The subject of this sketch, 
however, is a fine specimen of that noble race of men, and when his gray 
hairs shall descend to an honorable grave, this short biography may 
serve, in some degree, to stimulate the rising generation to emulate his 
heroid patriotism.

Ballard Bowman Clark Scott Wilkinson Wayne Boon Floyd Holden Wells 
Morgan Hardin Allen Harrison
=
VA OH Louisville-Jefferson-KY IN Shelbyville-Shelby-KY IL

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/shelby/ballard.b.txt