General Leslie Combs, the ‘Boy Captain’

This arti­cle con­tin­ues a series on notable Clark County natives.  Previous sketch­es include William Grant, a PBS tele­vi­sion pro­duc­er; Claude Sullivan, a sports broad­cast­er; Dr. John Fryer, a psy­chi­a­trist and gay rights activist; and Allen Tate, a poet and critic.

Leslie Combs (1793−1881) was a larg­er-than-life figure—youthful war hero, promi­nent attor­ney, mul­ti­term leg­is­la­tor, rail­road exec­u­tive, and Union loy­al­ist.  Combs left an unusu­al will that includ­ed a cap­sule of his fam­i­ly history:

“I was born on my father’s 100 acre farm with­in six miles of Booneboro on the pub­lic trace road to the Lower Blue Licks on the 29^th of November 1793, and altho in my eight­i­eth year and in per­fect, men­tal and bod­i­ly health.  My hair is yet thick on my head and only slight­ly sprin­kled with white, and not an unsound tooth in my head, thank God.

“When we sold the old place after the death of my father 20 and 30 years ago, we reserved ¹⁄₄ of an acre enclos­ing the fam­i­ly grave yard in which my father and moth­er and sev­er­al of my broth­ers and sis­ters are buried.  I after­wards erect­ed tomb­stones at the heads of my father and moth­er and built a strong stone wall around them, about 12 by 24 feet square.

“I claim this gen­er­al pro­tec­tion for my father and moth­er ‑1^st because he was a Revolutionary offi­cer under Washington at the siege of Yorktown – 2^nd because he helped Dan’l Boone to whip the Indians out of Kentucky — 3^rd because my moth­er was an edu­cat­ed woman and a God-send to all the sick in the vicin­i­ty as long as she lived.”

Leslie’s par­ents were Benjamin Combs and Sarah Richardson.  Benjamin came to Kentucky with a group of Virginia adven­tur­ers in 1775.  He staked a claim to 1,000 acres at Indian Old Fields, but even­tu­al­ly set­tled at a small­er tract on present-day Becknerville Road.

The youngest of twelve chil­dren, Leslie received his ear­ly edu­ca­tion from the Presbyterian min­is­ter Rev. John Lyle.  When the War of 1812 broke out, Leslie man­aged to enlist at age nine­teen and set out alone to join the Kentucky army in Ohio.  Gen. James Winchester assigned him to deliv­er an urgent mes­sage to Gen. William H. Harrison.  Leslie com­plet­ed the mis­sion, mak­ing the jour­ney of 100 miles on foot through deep snow in six days.

Though suf­fer­ing from expo­sure, he rejoined Winchester the day after the gen­er­al had been defeat­ed at the River Raisin, which was fol­lowed by a bloody mas­sacre of his troops.  Combs returned home briefly to recov­er and get fresh cloth­ing.  He then joined Gen. Green Clay, who pro­mot­ed Combs to the rank of cap­tain, and the leg­end of the “Boy Captain” was born.  Combs led his com­pa­ny of spies (i.e., scouts) to Fort Meigs.  He was assigned to Col. William Dudley’s com­mand, who suf­fered a dis­as­trous defeat dur­ing the siege of the fort.

Combs, shot in both arms, was cap­tured by the Shawnee Indians and forced to run the gaunt­let.  Afterwards, he claimed, Tecumseh saved him from exe­cu­tion.  He and oth­er pris­on­ers of war were placed on board a British ship in Lake Erie.  After Combs was paroled and returned home, he attend­ed school in Bardstown.  He took up the study of law and, at the age of twen­ty-three, began a lucra­tive prac­tice in Lexington. 

In 1835, Combs was pro­mot­ed to brigadier gen­er­al in the Kentucky mili­tia and raised a reg­i­ment for the Texas Revolution.  During the Mexican War, he devot­ed him­self to recruit­ing troops from Kentucky.  He played the same role dur­ing the Civil War, rais­ing two reg­i­ments for the Union army.

Combs, a life-long mem­ber of the Whig par­ty, was elect­ed to mul­ti­ple terms in the leg­is­la­ture, where he served as Speaker of the House.  He lost his seat to John C. Breckinridge in the elec­tion of 1851.  In 1860, he was elect­ed clerk of the Court of Appeals.  He also served as state audi­tor and trustee of Transylvania University.

He sup­port­ed the devel­op­ment of rail­roads in Kentucky and, in 1830, became a found­ing direc­tor of the Ohio Railroad Company, which planned the state’s first rail line.  The orig­i­nal com­pa­ny passed through suc­ces­sive own­ers before final­ly emerg­ing as the L&N Railroad.  He lat­er served as pres­i­dent of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad (1858).

At his death, Combs left a large estate.  He is buried in the Lexington Cemetery.  Combs’ great-grand­son, Leslie Combs II (1901–1990), was the founder and own­er of the famous Spendthrift Farm in Lexington.

The old Combs Graveyard is locat­ed on Lee Taylor’s farm on Becknerville Road.  According to Mr. Taylor, some years ago, some descen­dants of the Combs fam­i­ly in Lexington came out and removed the grave­stones of Benjamin and Sarah Combs.  Their where­abouts at this time are unknown.