Kentucky in the American Civil War
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Kentucky was a border state of key importance in the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln reportedly stated, "I hope we have God on our side; I have to have Kentucky on our side."[citation needed] Kentucky was the site of fierce battles, such as Mill Springs and Perryville. It was host to such military leaders as Ulysses S. Grant on the Union side, who first encountered serious Confederate gunfire coming from Columbus, Kentucky, and Nathan Bedford Forrest on the Confederate side. Forrest proved to be a scourge to the Union Army in such places as the towns of Sacramento and Paducah, where he conducted guerrilla warfare against Union forces. Kentucky, being a border state, was among the chief places where the "Brother against brother" scenario was tragically prevalent. Kentucky was the birth place of Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary Todd and his southern counterpart Jefferson Davis.
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[edit] 1861
At the outset of the Civil War, Kentucky did not secede, and was officially neutral until a new legislature took office on August 5, 1861, with strong Union sympathies. On September 4, 1861, Confederate Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk violated the state's neutrality by occupying Columbus. As a result of the Confederate invasion, Union Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant entered Paducah, Kentucky, on September 6, which gave the Union control of the mouth of the Tennessee River. On September 7, 1861, the Kentucky State Legislature, angered by the Confederate invasion, ordered the Union flag to be raised over the state capitol in Frankfort, declaring its allegiance with the Union.
Throughout most of the war, U.S. Col. Stephen G. Hicks was in charge of Fort Anderson at Paducah. The Union also maintained massive supply depots and dock facilities there for the gunboats and supply ships that supported Federal forces along the Ohio, Mississippi, and Tennessee River systems. This move later helped to ensure the success of Grant's campaigns against Confederate Forts Henry and Donelson, just south of the Kentucky border in Tennessee. Grant also had established a large base at Fort Defiance, Illinois, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers across from Wickliffe, Kentucky. From here he led an attack, the Battle of Belmont, testing the Confederate stronghold at Columbus and providing him his first combat experience of the war.
[edit] 1862 and 1863
On August 13, 1862, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith's Army of East Tennessee entered Kentucky and on August 28, 1862, Confederate General Braxton Bragg's Army of Mississippi also entered Kentucky, beginning the Kentucky Campaign. For a short time, Bragg had control of Frankfort and, while there, installed Kentucky's second Confederate governor, Richard Hawes. Bragg's ultimate retreat following the Battle of Perryville left the state under the control of the Union Army for the remainder of the war.
On December 17, 1862, under the terms of General Order No. 11, thirty Jewish families, longtime residents all, were forced from their homes. Cesar Kaskel, a prominent local Jewish businessman, dispatched a telegram to President Lincoln, and met with him, eventually succeeding in getting the order revoked.
[edit] 1864 and 1865
On March 25, 1864, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest raided Paducah as part of his campaign Northward from Mississippi into Western Tennessee and Kentucky to re-supply the Confederate forces in the region with recruits, ammunition, medical supplies, horses and mules, and to generally upset the Union domination of the regions south of the Ohio River. The raid was successful in terms of the re-supply effort and in intimidating the Union, but Forrest returned south.
I drove the enemy to their gunboats and fort; and held the town for ten hours, captured many stores and horses; burned sixty bales of cotton, one steamer, and a drydock, bringing out fifty prisoners.
– Nathan Bedford Forrest, report on raid
Later, Forrest, having read in the newspapers that 140 fine horses had escaped the raid, sent Brig. Gen. Abraham Buford back to Paducah, to get the horses and to keep Union forces busy there while he attacked Fort Pillow. On April 14, 1864, Buford's men found the horses hidden in a foundry as the newspapers reported. Buford rejoined Forrest with the spoils, leaving the Union in control of Paducah until the end of the War.
In response to the growing problem of guerrilla campaigns throughout 1863 and 1864, in June 1864, Maj. Gen. Stephen G. Burbridge was given command over the state of Kentucky. This began an extended period of military siege that would last through early 1865, beginning with martial law authorized by President Lincoln. During Burbridge's rule in Kentucky, he directed the execution and imprisonment of scores of people, including public figures, on charges of treason and other high crimes, much of which were baseless. He would go down in history as the "Butcher of Kentucky". After a falling out with Governor Thomas E. Bramlette, Burbridge was dismissed.
[edit] Timeline
[edit] See also
- Kentucky's adjacent states in the American Civil War
- Missouri in the American Civil War
- Illinois in the American Civil War
- Indiana in the American Civil War
- Ohio in the American Civil War
- Tennessee in the American Civil War
- Virginia in the American Civil War
- West Virginia in the American Civil War
- Louisville in the American Civil War
- Timeline of Kentucky history
- Border states (Civil War)
- Battle of Belmont
- Battle of Perryville
[edit] External links
- National Park Service map of Civil War sites in Kentucky
- Article: "Major General Stephen Gano Burbridge: 'The Scourge of Kentucky'" by Bryan S. Bush.
[edit] Further reading
- Coulter, E. Merton. The Civil War and Readjustment in Kentucky (1926)
- Klotter, James C.; Lowell Harrison, James Ramage, Charles Roland, Richard Taylor, Bryan S. Bush, Tom Fugate, Dixie Hibbs, Lisa Matthews, Robert C. Moody, Marshall Myers, Stuart Sanders and Stephen McBride (2005). in Jerlene Rose: Kentucky's Civil War 1861-1865. Back Home In Kentucky Inc. ISBN 0-9769231-1-4.
- Remini, Robert V. Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union (1991).
- Townsend, William H. Lincoln and the Bluegrass: Slavery and Civil War in Kentucky (1955)
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