The Union Army, vol. 4, states that "The
muster-rolls of the adjutant-generals office make the number of men furnished by
the state to the Federal armies to be 63,975 white soldiers on an enrollment of
113,410. The rolls in the same office further show that 20,438 colored
troops were mustered into the Federal service from the state. In addition, about
5,000 were enlisted preparatory to being mustered in, making the aggregate of
colored troops 25,438. Thus, with a white and black male population of 133,742
between 18 and 45 years of age, the state contributed to the Federal armies
89,413. Apart from this force, there were employed in the service of the state
for various periods 13,526 militia, or state troops."
Kentucky was a Border
State of key importance in the Civil War (1861-1865).
President Abraham Lincoln recognized the importance of the Commonwealth when he
declared "I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky." In a
September 1861 letter to Orville Browning, Lincoln wrote "I think to lose
Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. ... We would as well
consent to separation at once, including the surrender of the capital."
Kentucky was among the
chief places where the "Brother against brother" scenario was prevalent.
Kentucky was officially neutral at the beginning of the war, but after a failed
attempt by Confederate General Leonidas Polk to take the state of Kentucky for
the Confederacy, the legislature petitioned the Union for assistance, and
thereafter became solidly under Union control.
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.
In 1861 both sides
respected the Commonwealth's neutrality,
but positioned themselves strategically to take advantage of any change in the
situation. Union forces established Camp Clay in Ohio just north of the city of
Newport, Kentucky and Camp Joe Holt in Indiana opposite Louisville, Kentucky.
Meanwhile Confederate troops constructed Forts Donelson and Henry just across Kentucky's southern
border in Tennessee, and stationed troops fewer than
50 yards from Cumberland
Gap. Volunteers from the Commonwealth left the
state to join up with whichever side they favored. Some covert recruiting also
took place. Nearly 60 infantry regiments served in the Union armies versus just
9 in the Confederate. However, a rather large number of cavalry outfits joined
the latter. John Breckenridge originally commanded the "Orphan Brigade"
of the Army of Tennessee, consisting of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 9th Kentucky
Infantry. The brigade's nickname came about allegedly because the soldiers' home
counties were occupied by Union troops for most of the war and they couldn't go
home to them.
Realizing that neutrality was
becoming less and less feasible, six prominent Kentuckians met to find some
solution for a state caught in the middle of a conflict. Governor Magoffin, John
C. Breckinridge, and Richard Hawes represented the states' rights position,
while Crittenden, Archibald Dixon, and S. S. Nicholas advocated the Northern
cause. The sextet agreed only to continue the doctrine of neutrality, however,
and called for the formation of a five member board to coordinate the
Commonwealth's defense. The General Assembly created the board on May 24 and
vested in it supervision of the state's military, a power reserved in the
Kentucky Constitution for the governor.
The Commonwealth's
military forces, however, proved to be just as divided as the general populace.
The State Guard, under the command of Simon B. Buckner, largely favored the
Confederate cause, while the newly-formed Home Guard were mostly Unionists.
Several close calls almost started a conflict within the state, but Buckner
successfully negotiated with Union general George B. McClellan and Tennessee
governor Isham Harris to maintain the Commonwealth's neutrality through the
summer.
On September 4, 1861,
Confederate Major General Leonidas Polk violated the Commonwealth's neutrality
by ordering Brigadier General Gideon Johnson Pillow to occupy Columbus. Columbus
was of strategic importance both because it was the terminus of the Mobile and
Ohio Railroad and because of its position along the Mississippi River. Polk
constructed Fort DuRussey in the high bluffs of Columbus, and equipped it with
143 cannons. Polk called the fort "The Gibraltar of the West." To control
traffic along the river, Polk stretched an anchor chain across the river from
the bank in Columbus to the opposite bank in Belmont, Missouri. Each link of the
chain measured eleven inches long by eight inches wide and weighed twenty
pounds. The chain soon broke under its own weight, but Union forces did not
learn of this fact until early 1862.
In response to the
Confederate advance, Union Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant left Cairo,
Illinois, and entered Paducah, Kentucky, on September 6, which gave the Union
control of the northern end of the New Orleans and Ohio Railroad and the mouth
of the Tennessee River. Governor Magoffin denounced both sides for violating the
Commonwealth's neutrality, calling for both sides to withdraw. However, on
September 7, 1861, the General Assembly passed a resolution ordering the
withdrawal of only Confederate forces. Magoffin vetoed the resolution, but both
houses overrode the veto, and Magoffin issued the proclamation. The General
Assembly ordered the flag of the United States to be raised over the state
capitol in Frankfort, declaring its allegiance with the Union.
Its neutrality broken,
both sides quickly moved to establish advantageous positions in the
Commonwealth. Confederate forces under Albert Sidney Johnston formed a line in
the southern regions of Kentucky and the northern regions of Tennessee,
stretching from Columbus in the west to Cumberland Gap in the east. Johnston
dispatched Simon B. Buckner to fortify the middle of the line in Bowling Green.
Buckner arrived on September 18, 1861, and immediately began intensive drill
sessions and constructing elaborate defenses in anticipation of a Union strike.
So extensive were the fortifications at Bowling Green that a Union officer who
later surveyed them commented, "The labor has been immense– their troops cannot
be well drilled– their time must have been chiefly spent in hard work, with the
axe and spade."
Many small skirmishes occurred in Kentucky in 1861, including "Forrest's First Fight" at Sacramento, but battles of great military significance did not begin in earnest until 1862.
In January 862, Union General George H. Thomas began to advance on George B. Crittenden's position at Mill Springs. In rainy conditions, Thomas' army moved slowly, and Crittenden advanced to meet them before they could be reinforced by forces from nearby Somerset. The battle commenced on January 19, 1862, and favored Crittenden's forces early on. However, in the confusion caused by the rain and fog, Felix Zollicoffer, commander of Crittenden's First Brigade, rode into the midst of the Union forces. A Confederate officer galloped in, yelling at Zollicoffer to inform him of his mistake. Upon being identified, Zollicoffer was shot out of the saddle and killed, disheartening the Confederates and turning the tide of the battle. Thomas' reinforcements arrived, and Crittenden's forces were forced to retreat across the flooded Cumberland River. Many drowned in the process, and Crittenden was given the blame for the debacle.
General Johnston learned
of Crittenden's defeat at Mill Springs through an account of the battle printed
in a Louisville newspaper. However, he had larger concerns, as Ulysses S. Grant
was advancing up the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers toward Forts Henry and
Donelson. Union ironclads routed the Confederate river gunboats on the
Mississippi River during the Battle of Lucas Bend on January 11, forcing them
back to Columbus. Following Grant's victory at the Battle of Belmont, General
Polk had anticipated that Union forces would target the Mississippi River and
attack Columbus, and had withdrawn most of his forces to that location. Lloyd
Tilghman was left to defend Fort Henry with fewer than 3,000 men. Union troops
began their assault on the fort on February 5, 1862, and Tilghman surrendered
the following day.
General Johnston countered
by ordering Pillow, Buckner, and John B. Floyd to the defense of Fort Donelson.
None of the three was specifically given command, a decision that would prove
costly. Grant arrived at Donelson on February 13, and found himself outnumbered
by some 3,000 troops. Floyd failed to capitalize on his advantage, however, and
Grant was reinforced the next day. On February 15, the Confederates had nearly
cleared an escape route to Nashville, but arguments among the generals delayed
the retreat. Floyd seized a steamboat and used it to evacuate his forces, while
Pillow fled in a rowboat. Buckner, left alone in command, proposed a cease-fire
to Grant while terms of surrender were negotiated. Grant's reply– that only "an
unconditional and immediate surrender" could be accepted– made him a hero in
Union eyes, and earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender"
Grant.
The collapse of Forts
Henry and Donelson made Polk's position at Columbus untenable; the Confederates
were forced to abandon "The Gibraltar of the West." His line shattered, Johnston
abandoned Bowling Green on February 11, 1862, retreating first to Nashville,
then further south to join P. G. T. Beauregard and Braxton Bragg at Corinth,
Mississippi. Cumberland Gap, the final piece of Johnston's line, finally fell to
Union forces in June 1862.
Almost immediately
following the Confederate withdrawal from Kentucky, General John Hunt Morgan
began the first of his raids into the Bluegrass state. In May 1862, Morgan's
riders captured two Union trains at Cave City, but his apparent goal was to
agitate Union forces; he paroled everyone aboard, returned one of the trains,
and sent the occupants back to Louisville. This move accomplished little except
to embolden Morgan for a more extensive raid in July.
On July 4, 1862, Morgan
and his men left Knoxville, Tennessee, and captured Tompkinsville five days
later. After a brief stop in Glasgow, where many of Morgan's troops were from,
they continued to Lebanon, capturing it on July 12. From there, the cavalry
stopped in Harrodsburg and Georgetown, and upon seeing that Lexington was too
heavily fortified, turned their attention to the town of Cynthiana. Morgan was
again victorious at Cynthiana, but with Union reinforcements closing in on him,
he paroled all the captured soldiers from the battle and rode to Paris.
On their exit from the
Commonwealth, the cavalry picked up 50 recruits at Richmond. They also stopped
in Somerset, where Morgan instructed his telegrapher, George "Lightning"
Ellsworth to send taunting messages to General Jeremiah Boyle and publisher
George Prentice. At the completion of his escape through the Commonwealth,
Morgan claimed to have captured and paroled 1,200 enemy soldiers, recruited 300
men and acquired several hundred horses
for his cavalry, used or destroyed supplies in seventeen towns, and incurred
fewer than 100 casualties.
Morgan's exploits encouraged Confederate General
Edmund Kirby Smith to move on Kentucky. After conferring with General Braxton
Bragg at Chattanooga, Smith moved to drive George W. Morgan from Cumberland
Gap in August 1862. Both generals understood
that Smith would capture Cumberland Gap, then join Bragg in Middle Tennessee.
When the two armies met, Bragg would command the combined force against Don
Carlos Buell in Nashville. Once Nashville was captured, Bragg and Smith
would commence an invasion of Kentucky.
As the battle at
Cumberland Gap wore on, Morgan refused to retreat or surrender his position.
Thinking an invasion of Kentucky was preferable to a long siege on the Gap,
Smith left a detachment to handle Morgan and proceeded toward Lexington,
abandoning the plan to join Bragg and capture Nashville. The move forced Bragg's
hand, and he too entered Kentucky on August 28. As Smith progressed toward
Lexington, Indiana governor Oliver P. Morton decided that Governor Robinson was
doing too little to support the Union cause. He dispatched regiments across the
Ohio into Louisville, and considered himself governor of both Indiana and
Kentucky.
Upon learning of Smith's
advance into Kentucky, General "Bull" Nelson prepared to engage the invading
army at the Kentucky River to take advantage of the better terrain, but delayed
the engagement so that more reinforcements could arrive. He ordered the brigades
under Mahlon Manson and Charles Cruft not to attack Smith, but to withdraw to
Lexington, but the orders either were not delivered in time, or they were
ignored.
After some preliminary
skirmishes, Smith's army met Mahlon's brigade at Richmond, Kentucky on August
30. Smith's more experienced troops broke the center of the Union line, and
Mahlon fell back to Richmond Cemetery. By the afternoon, General Nelson arrived
and tried to rally the troops. Riding along the front of the Union line, the
portly Nelson exclaimed, "Boys, if they can't hit me, they can't hit a barn
door!" Unfortunately for Nelson, he was soon hit twice by Confederate gunfire.
Though Nelson was seriously wounded, he escaped the battle as Confederate
cavalry moved to cut off the Union retreat. He left behind 206 killed, 844
wounded, and 4,303 missing. With only 98 killed, 492 wounded, and 10 missing,
Smith had won one of the most complete Confederate victories of the entire
war.
While Smith was continuing
on to Lexington, Bragg was just entering Kentucky, having delayed at Chattanooga
until August 28. Bragg was told that there were ample supplies in the Glasgow
area, but upon learning that Bragg had entered Kentucky, Buell left George
Thomas to guard Nashville and moved the rest of his army to heavily-fortified
Bowling Green.
Meanwhile, Smith had
dispatched Colonel John Scott to look for Bragg. On the night of September 13,
Scott encountered John T. Wilder at Munfordville, and demanded his surrender.
Scott requested the aid of James Chalmers' Mississippi brigade, which moved to
support Scott throughout the night. The assault commenced the next morning, and
though outnumbered, Scott's forces inflicted more than 200 casualties in the
early fighting. At 9:30 AM, Chalmers tried to intimidate Wilder into surrender,
sending a flag of truce with the message, "You have made a gallant defense of
your position, and to avoid further bloodshed I demand an unconditional
surrender of your forces. I have six regiments of infantry, one battalion of
infantry sharpshooters, and have just been reinforced by a brigade of cavalry,
under Colonel Scott, with two battalions of infantry." Upon receiving this
message, Wilder replied "Thank you for your compliments. If you wish to avoid
further bloodshed, keep out of the reach of my guns."
Wilder was soon reinforced
by Colonel Cyrus L. Dunham, who brought a force of 4,000 men. Scott and Chalmers
sought assistance from Bragg's main army. Bragg was incensed, but arrived the
next day to take charge of the battle. Bragg deployed forces under William J.
Hardee and Leonidas Polk to surround the town, delaying his assault until
September 17. Bragg sent another request for the force's surrender. At a council
of war, Wilder made an unusual request of Bragg's subordinate, Simon B. Buckner–
that he be allowed to inspect the forces that now surrounded him to determine
whether surrender were the correct course of action. Delighted by this supreme
compliment, Buckner obliged, and after surveying the Confederate line, Wilder
surrendered.
Wilder's force of some
4,000 men was paroled and directed to Bowling Green, where Bragg hoped they
would be a drain on Buell's supplies. The delay caused by the Confederate
victory at Munfordville may well have cost them a much more important prize–
Louisville.
While Bragg rested his troops and planned his next move, Buell marched north from Bowling Green and arrived in Louisville on September 25. Seeing his primary objective fallen into Union hands, Bragg turned to Bardstown, where he had expected to meet Smith. Smith was actually operating independently near Frankfort, and Bragg, now painfully aware that the lack of cooperation with Smith might prove the Confederates' undoing in Kentucky, began to disperse his troops into defensive postures at Bardstown, Shelbyville, and Danville.
Both Bragg and Smith Had
been disappointed with the number of volunteers from Kentucky. Wagonloads of
rifles had been sent to the Commonwealth to equip the anticipated recruits, but
although Confederate sympathies were high, willing volunteers were not, and many
of the rifles remained on the wagons. Bragg hoped to rally potential recruits by
installing Richard Hawes, governor of Kentucky's Confederate shadow government,
in an inauguration ceremony in Frankfort. The elected government fled to
Louisville just before the Confederates arrived in Frankfort.
The ceremony took place on October 4, 1862.
First, Bragg addressed the assembled partisan crowd, promising to defend the
Commonwealth. Then Hawes, who had taken the oath of office months earlier
while traveling with Bragg's Army of Tennessee, delivered a lengthy inaugural
address. He told the crowd that the provisional government would "institute as
far as possible such civil institutions, as will protect persons and property,
until the people in their sovereign capacity can establish a permanent
Government founded on the will of the majority."
The promises made by Bragg
and Hawes were short-lived. Before the inaugural ball could be held, Buell's
forces had descended on the state capital, firing artillery shells that
shattered the jovial atmosphere and put the Confederate forces to flight. Bragg
had sorely underestimated Buell's ability to make a rapid advance on his
position. While preparations were being made for Hawes' inauguration, Buell was
already forcing the Confederate army from Shelbyville. Bragg ordered Leonidas
Polk from Bardstown to attack Buell's flank, but Polk was already under attack
and retreating to Bryantsville. Bragg began a retreat from Frankfort to
Harrodsburg to regroup with Polk. Meanwhile, Smith prepared to defend Lexington,
where he assumed the bulk of Buell's force would be directed.
By October 7, Polk's
forces had fallen back to the town of Perryville. The dry summer of 1862 had
left water in short supply, and when the Union troops learned of water in
Perryville's Doctor's Creek, they began to move on the Confederate position.
Bragg shared Smith's assumption that the bulk of the Union attack would be
directed at Lexington and Frankfort, and ordered Polk's forces to attack and
destroy the approaching Union force before proceeding to Versailles to meet
Smith. The Confederate soldiers in Perryville, however, realized that a much
larger force was approaching, and assumed a defensive posture. In fact, Buell,
Charles Champion Gilbert, Alexander McCook, and Thomas Crittenden were all
approaching Perryville.
The Confederates were not
the only ones to misjudge the situation, however. When Bragg learned that his
men had not attacked as ordered, he came to Perryville himself to lead the
attack. In realigning to an attack posture, the Confederates stirred such a
cloud of dust that the approaching Union force believed they were retreating to
Harrodsburg. This gave Bragg's men the advantage of surprise when they opened
fire on McCook's forces at 2 PM on October 8. While McCook was being pushed back
on the left flank, the Union center held strong until the right flank began to
collapse.
It was not until late
afternoon that Buell learned of McCook's plight, whereupon he sent two brigades
from Gilbert's corps to reinforce him. This halted the Confederate advance on
McCook north of Perryville. Meanwhile, small Confederate brigades encountered
Gilbert's force of 20,000 men to the west and Crittenden's force, also 20,000
strong, to the south. Only then did Bragg realize that he was facing Buell's
main force, and that he was vastly outnumbered. As night approached and halted
the battle, Bragg conferred with his officers and decided to retreat to
Harrodsburg to meet Smith. From Harrodsburg, the Confederates exited Kentucky
through Cumberland Gap. For the remainder of the war, there would be no
concerted efforts by the Confederacy to hold Kentucky.
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.
His inability to engage
Bragg and Smith on their retreat from Kentucky led to Buell being replaced by
General William Rosecrans. Rosecrans encamped at Nashville during the fall and
early winter of 1862. Believing that Rosecrans would begin a campaign as soon as
sufficient supplies were accumulated, Bragg dispatched John Hunt Morgan back
into Kentucky in December 1862 to cut the supply line afforded Rosecrans by the
Louisville and Nashville Railroad.
Morgan's men crossed into
Kentucky on December 22 and captured a Union supply wagon bound for Glasgow. On
Christmas Day, Morgan's men rode through Glasgow, bound for Bacon Creek Station
and the L&N bridge span. After quelling the stiff Union resistance, Morgan's
men destroyed the bridge and several miles of railroad track. Whatever else
might happen, they had succeeded in disrupting Rosecrans' supply line.
From Bacon Creek, Morgan
rode to Elizabethtown, arriving on December 27. The Union commander, Colonel H.
S. Smith, demanded Morgan's surrender, but Morgan turned the tables, surrounded
Smith, and, after a short skirmish, accepted his surrender. Again, Morgan
destroyed the L&N infrastructure in the area, and then began planning an
escape back to Tennessee.
Colonel John M. Harlan's
artillery shelled Morgan's force as it crossed the Rolling Fork River on
December 29, seriously wounding First Brigade commander Basil W. Duke. Duke was
taken to Bardstown for medical treatment, however, and recovered in time to
rejoin the Confederate retreat the next day.
Freezing rain plagued
Morgan's men as they encamped at Springfield on the night of December 30. Worse
yet, scouts reported a massive Union force concentrated nine miles away at
Lebanon. With Frank Wolford's men moving on his position, Morgan made the
difficult decision to move out just after midnight in ever-worsening weather. He
ordered a few companies to create a diversion, feigning an attack on Lebanon and
burning fence rails to give the appearance of campfires, while the main body of
his force continued to Campbellsville. The plan worked, and following a march
that many described as their most miserable night of the war, Morgan's men
arrived safely in Campbellsville on New Year's Eve and captured some welcome
supplies. The following day, they proceeded through Columbia, and returned to
Tennessee on January 3.
Following the Christmas
Raid, there were only minor incursions into Kentucky by various units under Roy
Cluke, John Pegram, Humphrey Marshall, among others. Frustrated Union commanders
could only react to these unpredictable raids. Morgan would soon do them a
favor, however, by raising the visibility of his next raid.
It was widely reported
that since his December 1862 marriage, Morgan had lost some of his bravado.
Morgan, eager to dispel such rumors and weary of guarding Bragg's left flank,
proposed a raid through Kentucky and across the Ohio River. Bragg, fearing an
attack from Rosecrans, welcomed the idea of a distraction that would take the
pressure off his Army of Tennessee. Morgan gathered his men to an area between
Liberty and Alexandria, Tennessee. On June 10, he addressed his unit, telling
them that Bragg had sanctioned a raid to Louisville, and if conditions
permitted, across the Ohio River into Indiana and possibly Ohio. He confided
Bragg's true orders– to halt at the Ohio River– only to trusted confidant Basil
Duke.
The raid was delayed
by orders to intercept a Union raiding party moving on Knoxville, Tennessee, but
after three miserable weeks of floundering through muddy conditions, Morgan's
men still had not located the enemy. They finally began entering Kentucky on July 2, 1863. Two days later, Morgan engaged
Colonel Orlando Moore's forces at Tebb's Bend, a bridge crossing the Green River
near Campbellsville. As was his custom, Morgan demanded an unconditional
surrender, but Moore, noting that this was Independence Day, replied "It is a
bad day for surrender, and I would rather not." Moore's forces won the day, and
Morgan, having suffered 71 casualties, decided to bypass the
bridge.
Morgan again encountered
resistance at Lebanon where, despite the Confederate victory, his
nineteen-year-old brother Tom was killed. From Lebanon, Morgan's men made haste
through Springfield toward Bardstown, where they learned that Union soldiers
were less than a day behind, and that Louisville was already bracing for another
attack. Morgan had the advantage of surprise, however, having selected
Brandenburg as his target instead. He sent an advance detachment to make
preparations for crossing the Ohio, and on July 7, they captured two steamboats,
the John B. McCombs and the Alice Dean. By midnight, all of Morgan's men were on
Indiana soil.
Over the next few weeks,
Morgan rode along the course of the Ohio River, raiding Indiana and Ohio. On
July 19, Federal forces captured Duke and 700 of Morgan's men, but Morgan
escaped with 1,100 others. Union pursuit was heavy, and Morgan lost exhausted
men daily, his command dwindling to 363 men by the time he surrendered on July
26, 1863.
Morgan was taken to a
penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, but escaped with several of his officers in
November 1863. Despite the threat of a court martial from Bragg for disobeying
orders, the Confederacy so desperately needed leaders that Morgan was restored
to his command position.
Following Morgan's capture
in the summer of 1863, there were no major engagements fought in Kentucky until
spring of 1864. Portions of three infantry regiments from Bragg's army had
requested to reorganize as a mounted infantry under Abraham Buford, but the
Confederacy had no horses to supply them. In response, Nathan Bedford Forrest,
who had been operating in Mississippi, began to organize a raid on western
Tennessee and Kentucky. Besides obtaining mounts for the mounted-infantry-to-be,
Forrest intended to disrupt Union supply lines, obtain general provisions for
Confederate forces, and discourage enlistment of blacks in Kentucky into the
Union army.
On March 25, 1864, Forrest
commenced his attack. He met Colonel Stephen G. Hicks at Fort Anderson and
demanded an unconditional surrender. Knowing that Forrest's main objectives were
to obtain supplies and horses, Hicks declined. For the most part, Hicks was
right in his assumption that Forrest would not assault the fort, but Confederate
colonel Albert P. Thompson, a native of the area, did briefly attempt to capture
it before being killed with 24 men from his unit. Forrest held the city for ten
hours, destroying the Union headquarters, as well as the buildings housing the
quartermaster and commissary. Forrest also captured a total of 200 horses and
mules before withdrawing to Mayfield. Following the raid, Forrest granted
furlough to the Kentuckians under his command so they could secure better
clothing and mounts. As agreed, every man reported back to Trenton, Tennessee on
April 4.
Unionist newspapers
bragged after the raid that Union forces had hidden the best horses in the area
and that Forrest had only captured horses stolen from private citizens. Furious,
Forrest ordered Buford back into Kentucky. Buford's men arrived on April 14,
forced Hicks back into the fort, and captured an additional 140 horses in the
foundry, exactly where the newspaper reports had placed them. They then rejoined
Forrest in Tennessee. The raid was not only successful in terms of gaining
additional mounts, but provided a diversion for Forrest's attack on Fort Pillow,
Tennessee.
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 control that would last through early 1865,
beginning with martial law authorized by President Abraham Lincoln. To pacify
Kentucky, Burbridge rigorously suppressed disloyalty and used economic pressure
as coercion. His guerrilla policy, which included public execution of four
guerrillas for the death of each unarmed Union citizen, caused the most
controversy. After a falling out with Governor Thomas E. Bramlette, Burbridge
was dismissed in February 1865. Confederates remembered him as the "Butcher of
Kentucky". See also Kentucky Civil War
History
and Kentucky in the American Civil War: Kentucky
(1861-1865).
