Kentucky S Civil War Battlefields

A description of major battle sites, past and present. Such battles as Paducah, Perryville, and Middle Creek played a significant role in the outcome of the Civil War. Through firsthand documents, maps, and photographs, this volume provides an overview of the thirteen major conflicts that took place in the Bluegrass State. Sections detail the level of preservation of each site to provide readers with a contemporary perspective.

" The Civil War scene in Kentucky, site of few full-scale battles, was one of crossroad skirmishes and guerrilla terror, of quick incursions against specific targets and equally quick withdrawals. Yet Kentucky was crucial to the military strategy of the war. For either side, a Kentucky held secure against the adversary would have meant easing of supply problems and an immeasurably stronger base of operations. The state, along with many of its institutions and many of its families, was hopelessly divided against itself. The fiercest partisans of the South tended to be doubtful about the wisdom of secession, and the staunchest Union men questioned the legality of many government measures. What this division meant militarily is made clear as Lowell H. Harrison traces the movement of troops and the outbreaks of violence. What it meant to the social and economic fabric of Kentucky and to its postwar political stance is another theme of this book. And not forgotten is the life of the ordinary citizen in the midst of such dissension and uncertainty.

Top scholars contribute to this book of essays on the complex series of battles and political maneuvers for control of Kentucky during the Civil War.

This unique Civil War history chronicles the hard-fought battles and divided loyalties of a pro-Southern county in Union Kentucky. When the Civil War broke out, Kentucky was officially neutral—but the people of Harrison County felt differently. Volunteers lined up at the train depot in Cynthiana to join the Confederate Army, cheered on by pro-Southern local officials. After the state fell under Union Army control, this “pestilential little nest of treason” became a battlefield during some of the most dramatic military engagements in the state. Because of its political leanings and strategic position along the Kentucky Central Railroad, Harrison County became the target of multiple raids by Confederate general John Hunt Morgan. Conflict in the area culminated in the Second Battle of Cynthiana, in which Morgan's men clashed with Union troops led by Major General Stephen G. Burbridge—known as the “Butcher of Kentucky”—resulting in the destruction of much of the town by fire. In this fascinating Civil War history, William A. Penn draws on dozens of period newspapers as well as personal journals, memoirs, and correspondence from citizens, slaves, soldiers, and witnesses to provide a vivid account of the war's impact on the region.

Winner of the Seaborg Award A History Book Club Selection On October 8, 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed near Perryville, Kentucky, in what would be the largest battle ever fought on Kentucky soil. The climax of a campaign that began two months before in northern Mississippi, Perryville came to be recognized as the high water mark of the western Confederacy. Some said the hard-fought battle, forever remembered by participants for its sheer savagery and for their commanders' confusion, was the worst battle of the war, losing the last chance to bring the Commonwealth into the Confederacy and leaving Kentucky firmly under Federal control. Although Gen. Braxton Bragg's Confederates won the day, Bragg soon retreated in the face of Gen. Don Carlos Buell's overwhelming numbers. Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle is the definitive account of this important conflict. While providing all the parry and thrust one might expect from an excellent battle narrative, the book also reflects the new trends in Civil War history in its concern for ordinary soldiers and civilians caught in the slaughterhouse. The last chapter, unique among Civil War battle narratives, even discusses the battle's veterans, their families, efforts to preserve the battlefield, and the many ways Americans have remembered and commemorated Perryville.

A Civil War First! Never has anything comparable to this massive volume been published on the Western Theatre in America's War Between the States. Bush takes the reader through every major battle in the West complete with an order of battle listing all units involved for each confrontation. Richly illustrated with nearly 700 photographs maps, charts and drawings to embellish each detailed account. You'll see extraordinary features of some of the most outstanding artifact collections in the world, all of Western Theatre battles and men who fought them.

A comprehensive history of the bloody Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, featuring over sixty historic images and maps. Desperate to seize control of Union-held Kentucky, a border state, the Confederate army launched an invasion into the commonwealth in the fall of 1862. The incursion viciously culminated at an otherwise quiet Bluegrass crossroads and forever altered the landscape of the war. The Battle of Perryville lasted just one day yet produced nearly eight thousand combined casualties and losses, and some say nary a victor. The Rebel army was forced to retreat, and the United States kept its imperative grasp on Kentucky throughout the war. Famous Confederate diarist Sam Watkins, whose Company Aytch journals were featured as a major narrative thread in Ken Burns’ award-winning Civil War documentary series, declared Perryville the hardest fighting that he experienced. Indeed, history would record that Perryville the second bloodiest battle of the Western Theater after Shiloh. Few know this hallowed ground like Christopher L. Kolakowski, former director of the Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association, who draws on letters, reports, memoirs and other primary sources to offer the most accessible and engaging account of the Kentucky Campaign yet, featuring over sixty historic images and maps.

The border states affected the course of the American Civil War in ways large and small, but none played a more important role than did Kentucky. Just as the nation was torn asunder, so too was the Bluegrass State, divided between those loyal to the Union, those with allegiances looking South, and others who simply wanted to remain neutral. Tumultuous politics gave way to the boots of marching armies that turned some of the most beautiful landscape in the country into bloody battlefields. Don W. Rightmyer s fresh narrative history Torn: The Civil War in Kentucky is the first comprehensive book-length account of politics and war in the Bluegrass State.Rightmyer, who serves as the editor of Kentucky Ancestors, the genealogical quarterly of the Kentucky Historical Society, understands and appreciates Kentucky s unique experiences better than most. After describing the state s delicate situation as a critical border state when the war broke out, the native Kentuckian delves into the tumultuous events that followed, including the violation of the state s neutrality by Confederate troops, Union occupation, and the especially critical 1862 Confederate invasion that culminated in the battle of Perryville that October. Like other border states, Kentucky also experienced brutal guerrilla warfare and complex cavalry raids for several long years.A thorough bibliography of the war in the state, a chronology of the war s major events, and a listing of the Civil War camps and forts in Kentucky supplement the study.Original in its coverage and rich in sweeping fast-paced detail, Torn: The Civil War in Kentucky offers essential reading for everyone interested in the American Civil War in general, and especially Kentucky s unique role in the greatest drama of our nation s past."