1865 May 27: Letter from the Thirtieth Wisconsin in Kentucky, News of the Guerrillas Captured with Sue Mundy

The following letter comes from the May 27, 1865, issue of The Polk County Press.  The 30th Wisconsin Infantry contained many men from northwest Wisconsin, spread across multiple companies.

Correspondence of the Polk Co. Press.

FROM THE THIRTIETH WISCONSIN REGIMENT.

A SKETCH OF ITS DOINGS IN KENTUCKY, &C.

LOUISVILLE, KY., MAY 8, 1865.

FRIEND FIFIELD.—Here I am setting in my Sanctom Sanctorum [sic]¹ trying to wear away a dull time,—for I have been perfectly at leisure of late—or rather busy doing nothing.  I thought to myself, that perhaps you would like to hear from some member of the BLOODLESS 30th Wisconsin Regiment, and of the grand campaigns the Regiment has been through since it has been in Kentucky.  Five companies of the regiment, under the command of Col. D. J. DILL [Daniel J. Dill], arrived here the 29th of November, 1864.—Four companies under Major JOHN CLOWNEY, were waiting at Paducah for sometime previous to our arrival, for us to join them, and then if possible, to go to the front,—which every member of the regiment have been anxious to do, since its organization.  However such was not our fate.  The Col.’s orders had “gineout”² at this place, and nobody knew anything about the regiment, nor did they seem to care much ;  consequently had to go into camp and await something to “turn up” to relieve us of our situation.  We lay here in camp ten days.  Col. DILL after making every effort to get the regiment together, finally succeeded in getting Major CLOWNEY with his command ordered to this place.  The next move to be made was if possible to get ordered to the front, where we could bather our “maiden swords” in the blood of a “confed” [Confederate]—but all efforts seemed to be unavailing, and we lay here in camp not knowing whether we belonged to Uncle Sam or not, nor even recognized.  The men set about trying to make themselves comfortable.  The weather being cold and either raining, snowing, blowing or freezing—without any fire only what the men had to do their cooking with, as we were in tents.  Finally on the 11th of Dec., orders came from Regimental Hd. Qrs. to strike tents, and be ready to march at short notice.  All was bustle and confusion.  About 10 o’clock on the 11[th] we marched down to the Nashville depot, and proceeded on our journey rejoicing until the next day at 2 P. M., when we arrived at Bowling Green and found that was our destination, as the rebel Gen. LYON³ was in the vicinity of the Louisville and Nashville Rail Road, with quite a force, and might possibly (as there was quite a large supply of Government stores there), attack the place.  We went into camp about two miles back from the town, and immediately formed a picket line.—We staid here four weeks doing picket duty and not a sign of the enemy.  Raining and snowing, nearly all of the time, and the way the Kentucky soil stuck to the Union soldiers boots, you could really say that it was true Union.  The men when off duty were building log houses for shelter and comfort, and had fairly got ready to enjoy life, when we were ordered back to Louisville.  [paragraph break added]

Accordingly on the 10th of January, we took a special train at 1 o’clock, P. M., and did not arrive in Louisville until the morning of the 12th having traveled  72 miles in sixty hours.  If we had been in haste we certainly should have taken “walkers line.”  On our arrival at Louisville we were ordered to duty at the Military Prison, to guard Confederate prisoners ;  but this could not last long without some change.  Major CLOWNEY with three companies was ordered to Frankfort, to protect the loyal Kentuckians from guerrilla outrages.  Capt. MEACHUM [sic: Edgar A. Meacham] was ordered with three companies to the city, to do Provost duty ;  three companies being left at the prison with plenty of Guard duty for the whole nine companies.  I will here say there is but nine companies in the State.  Co. “I” was left at Fort Union, D. T.  There has not been more than six hundred prisoners here at any one time since we have been stationed here, as they are transferred to Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, as soon as the rolls are made out and transportation furnished—the companies that are stationed here guarding them through to their destination.—A great many of them are good looking men, but their dress is not very becoming.  It looks as if they had not changed it since they entered the service.  The Prison is now nearly cleaned out.  None are left here now but the sick and wounded that are unable to travel.  Five guerrillas are confined here, among them is BILL McGRUDER [sic: “Billy” Magruder] and MIDKIFF [sic: Henry Metcalfe], captured with SUE MUNDY.  McGRUDER was badly wounded in the lungs, but is recovering slowly.  I think he will have a chance to practice on the hemp for twenty minutes some of these fine days for exercise.⁴  Guerrilla bands will soon be broken up in this State, as Gen. PALMER [John M. Palmer] is using every effort to bring them to justice.

I suppose I should say something about Louisville.  It is a very well laid out city, with many beautiful residences, but it cannot look as well as it did before the war broke out.—The streets are very much out of repair, and it will take a number of years to bring it back to its original appearance, and as for the genuine loyalty of its inhabitants, I should not want to trust it much, although there are many loyal people here.—The 14th of April there was quite a large procession paraded the streets all day, in honor of our victories.  On the morning of the news of the assassinnation [sic] of our beloved President, the city looked dark and gloomy enough.  The business portion of the city was heavily draped in mourning, also many residences.  Every Union citizen felt as though they had lost their best friend, while many of the “secesh” would say “that it was the death blow to the rebellion.”  Quite a number would rejoice in private, but if the boys in blue could find one of them, he was promptly marched off for safe keeping.  It would not do to talk secesh to any great extent, as Union men were not to be trifled with.  Business has fallen off nearly one half since that time—all Government offices have also cut down their expences [sic] one half of what they were before the surrender of LEE’S army [Robert E. Lee].

I should have said in my letter before, that the officers of the regiment are scattered nearly as bad as the companies.  Col. DILL was detached and put in command of the Post of Louisville for sometime, and then was relieved at his own request, and is now Provost Marshal Gen. of this District.  Lieut. Col. BARTLETT⁵  is on a General Court Marshal in session in this city.  Surgeon HOYT [Otis Hoyt] is in charge of Post Hospital.  Adjt. SPENCER⁶  is Post Inspector.  Lieut. WILSON [Henry A. Wilson] of company “A” is in charge of a Bureau for the purpose of issuing rations to the destitute families of our soldiers, which belong to Kentucky regiments.  The guerrillas so infest the towns where the soldiers enlist from, that they are obliged to leave their homes, and come to the city to live, where they can be protected.—The season here seems to be very forward to the people from the North.  Every thing is growing nicely and in the city gardens look beautiful.  In some they have mowed the grass, and Peach trees have all been in blossom, and the Shade trees have leaved [sic] out.

As I have used up my present material, I will close, hoping to have something more interesting to communicate at some future period.

Yours,          .D. A. F.

1.  Sanctum Sanctorum is a Latin phrase from the Bible meaning “holy of holies” and referred to the inner place of the Tabernacle of Ancient Israel and later the Temples in Jerusalem. It’s derivative meaning, used here, is any private place that is secure and free from infringement.
2.  Irish slang for “go out” or “get out.”
3.  Hylan Benton Lyon (1836-1907) graduated from West Point in 1856 and was a career military officer, fighting Indians in Florida and then in California and Washington Territory. When the Civil War started, he resigned and raised Company F of the 3rd Kentucky Infantry, which soon became part of the 1st Kentucky Artillery. Lyon equipped the unit, which initially was known as Lyon’s Battery (later Cobb’s Battery). In January 1862 Lyon was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 8th Kentucky Infantry and exercised command in the absence of the colonel. Lyon’s regiment was part of the garrison of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, and he became a prisoner of war when the fort surrendered to General Grant. He was exchanged in September and his regiment was reorganized as the 8th Kentucky Infantry, with Lyon as the colonel. The regiment fought during the Vicksburg Campaign, with Braxton Bragg, Joseph Wheeler, with James Longstreet at the Siege of Knoxville, and the Third Battle of Chattanooga. By 1864, Lyon commander cavalry as a brigadier general under Nathan B. Forrest. In December 1864, he led 800 Kentucky cavalrymen on a raid into Tennessee and western Kentucky, attempting to enforce Confederate draft laws and to draw Union troops away from General John Bell Hood’s Nashville campaign. His men burned seven county courthouses that were being used to house Union troops. With the end of the War, Lyon accompanied Tennessee Governor Isham G. Harris to Mexico, where he was a civil engineer for nearly a year before returning to his home in Eddyville, Kentucky. He resumed farming, opened a prosperous mercantile business, and served as state prison commissioner. He was primarily responsible for the Kentucky State Penitentiary being located in his hometown of Eddyville.
4.  A hemp rope will be used to hang Magruder in October, 1865.
5.  Edward M. Bartlett, from Durand, was on general court marshal duty from March to September 1865.
6.  Theodore C. Spencer, from Eau Claire, was Post Inspector in Louisville from February to September 1865.

1864 July 16: Presidential Proclamation — Martial Law in Kentucky

The following proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln appeared in the July 16, 1864, issue of The Prescott Journal.  Proclamation 113, which declared martial law and a further suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in Kentucky, was dated July 5, 1864.

Martial Law in Kentucky.

By the President of the United States of America :

A PROCLAMATION.

WHEREAS, by a proclamation which was issued on the 15th day of April, 1861, the President of the United States announced and declared that the laws of the United States had been for some time past, and then were, opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in certain States therein mentioned by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals by law ;  and

WHEREAS, immediately after the issuing of the said proclamation the land and naval forces of the United States were put into activity to suppress the said insurrection and rebellion ;  and

WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States by an act approved on the 3d day of March, 1863, did enact that during the said rebellion the President of the United States, whenever in his judgment the public safety may require it, is authorized to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in any case throughout the United States or in any part thereof ;  and

WHEREAS, the said insurrection and rebellion still continue, endangering the existence of the Constitution and Government of the United States ;  and

WHEREAS, the military forces of the United States are now actively engaged in suppressing the said insurrection and rebellion in various parts of the States where the said rebellion has been successful in obstructing the laws and public authorities, especially in the States of Virginia and Georgia ;  and

WHEREAS, on the 15th day of September last the President of the United States duly issued his proclamation, wherein he declared that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus should be suspended throughout the United States in the cases where, by the authority of the President of the United States, military, naval, and civil officers of the United States, or any of them, hold persons under their command or in their custody, either as prisoners of war, spies, or alders or abettors of the enemy, or officers, soldiers, or seamen enrolled or drafted or mustered or enlisted in or belonging to the land or naval forces of the United States, or as deserters therefrom, or otherwise amenable to military law or the rules and articles of war or the rules or regulations prescribed for the military or naval services by authority of the President of the United States, or for resisting a draft, or for any other offense against the military or naval service ;  and

WHEREAS, many citizens of the State of Kentucky have joined the forces of the insurgents, and such insurgents have on several occasions entered the said State of Kentucky in large force, and, not without aid and comfort furnished by disaffected and disloyal citizens of the United State residing therein, have not only greatly disturbed the public peace, but have overborne the civil authorities and made flagrant civil war, destroying property and life in various parts of that State ;  and

WHEREAS, it has been made known to the President of the United States by the officers commanding the national armies that combinations have been formed in the said State of Kentucky with a purpose of inciting rebel forces to renew the said operations of civil war within the said State and thereby to embarrass the United States armies now operating in the said States of Virginia and Georgia and even to endanger their safety :

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws, do hereby declare that in my judgment the public safety especially requires that the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, so proclaimed in the said proclamation of the 15th of September, 1863, be made effectual and be duly enforced in and throughout the said State of Kentucky, and that martial law be for the present established therein.

I do therefore hereby require of the military officers in the said State that the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus be effectually suspended within the said State, according to the aforesaid proclamation, and that martial law be established therein, to take effect from the date of this proclamation, the said suspension and establishment of martial law to continue until this proclamation shall be revoked or modified, but not beyond the period when the said rebellion shall have been suppressed or come to an end.

And I do hereby require and command as well all military officers as all civil officers and authorities existing or found within the said State of Kentucky to take notice of this proclamation and to give full effect to the same.  The martial law herein proclaimed and the things in that respect herein ordered will not be deemed or taken to interfere with the holding of lawful elections, or with the proceedings of the constitutional legislature of Kentucky, or with the administration of justice in the courts of law existing therein between citizens of the United States in suits or proceedings which do not affect the military operations or the constituted authorities of the Government of the United States.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed

Done at the city of Washington, this 5th day of July in the year of our Lord, 1864, and of the Independence of the United States the 88th.

Signed,                        ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WM. H. SEWARD, Sec’y of State.

1864 June 11: John Morgan in Kentucky, Plus Black Kentuckians “Stampeding” to Join the Union Army

News from Kentucky from the June 11, 1864, issue of The Prescott Journal.  The first item is a prelude to John Hunt Morgan’s Second Battle of Cynthiana, which will take place on June 11 and 12, 1864.

John Morgan in Kentucky.

CINCINNATI, June 8.

A rebel force, supposed to be under command of John Morgan, made an entry into eastern Kentucky a few days ago, and this morning captured the town of Mount Sterling.  They also destroyed bridges and tore up the track of the Ky Central Railroad between Cynthiana and Paris, and cut the telegraph wires.—Trains coming north returned safely to Lexington.

Another gang attacked a passenger train on the Louisville and Lexington Railroad this morning, near Springfield.  Two passenger cars and the baggage car were burned, the express car robbed and the engine thrown off the track.  None of the passengers were hurt.

The Kentucky Exodus.

Within a few days the negroes of Kentucky have become impressed with the idea that the road to freedom lies through military service, and there has been a stamped [sic] from the farms to the recruiting offices.  The able bodied blacks are turning out almost unanimously, and the women and children are disposed to go with the crowd.  The consequence is, the railroads of the State have not the capacity to transport the negroes who are finding their way to the United States camps.  The white people of Kentucky are taking this extraordinary commotion among the negroes very coolly, looking upon it as one of the phenomena of the times, and acquiescing in it as a part of the drift of destiny.  Slave property has been recognized in Kentucky a[s] very precarious in its nature, ever since the Southern fanatics insisted that sectional difficulties should culminate in war.  The negroes have not been in good working order for some time, and their rush for the army is not as serious a matter for the agricultural interests of the State as might be expected.  Then they are relieving the State of the draft, [__] and forever for enough of them are swarming to meet all probably calls in the future.  If the Government chooses to accept black men for soldiers, and the blacks want to go, and the whites don’t, it is absurd for the whites to complain, the policy tht practically exemppts them and receives an inferior article in full all demands.  The uprising, if we can so call it, of the negroes of Kentucky now in progress, is one of the most remarkable and significant events of the war.—Cincinnati Commercial, June

1864 April 2: Battle of Paducah

The Battle of Paducah was fought on March 25, 1864, in McCracken County, Kentucky.  Confederate cavalry troops under General Nathan B. Forrest conducted a successful raid from Mississippi through Tennessee and Kentucky, reaching Paducah on the Ohio River on March 25.  Forrest’s purpose in raiding was to to recruit soldiers, capture Union supplies to re-outfit his men, and disrupt Union activities.  The Union garrison in Paducah under the command of Colonel Stephen G. Hicks,¹ withdrew to Fort Anderson on the west end of the town.  Forrest’s troops began collecting supplies, unmolested by the Union troops in the fort.  But some of Forrest’s men who were from Kentucky decided to attack the fort; their attack constituted the Battle of Paducah.  The attack was repulsed and the Confederates suffered heavy—and needless—casualties.

This account of the battle is from the April 2, 1864, issue of The Polk County Press.

LATEST NEWS.

Forrest Captures and Sacks Paduca [sic]—
Repulsed in Storming the Fort—
Large amount of Property Burned.

CAIRO, Narch [sic] 26.—Reports circulate here this morning that the rebels under Forrest attacked Paducah, Ky., forty miles above here, yesterday.  They burned part of the town, but as telegraph communications are cut off, no reliable intelligence can be received from their [sic] at present.

The steamer Satan from Nashville, passed Paducah at five this morning, and the Joseph Pearce, which passed two hours later, bring the following account of affairs :

Forrest, with an estimated force of five thousand,² captured the place at two o’clock yesterday afternoon, and sacked and fired the city.

Col. Hicks,¹ commanding the post, occupied the fort below the city with about 800 men.²  The rebels made 4 assaults on the fort and were repulsed each time.  Three gunboats³ opened on the city during its occupation by the enemy, much of which was burned, including the marine Railway and steamer Arizona.  The wharf boat and about 2000 or 3000 of the inhabitants, moved across the the river upon leaning of the rebel approach.

When the Pearce passed, at 7 o’clock in the morning, the enemy had left.  People were returning, and the fires were dying out.  The amount of public and private property captured is unknown at present, but is supposed to be large.

Our loss is 12 killed and 40 wounded.  The enemy is reported o have lost 150 killed,² among them General Thomson [sic].⁴  Twenty-five houses around the fort were destroyed by our troops; they being used as screens for rebel sharpshooters.  Headquarters and Government store-houses were burned by the enemy.

Sketch of Paducah, KY, and Vicinity, plate 6, map 2 (see footnote 5)

CAIRO, March 27.—A dispatch from Columbus says that Forrest and Faulkner⁶ are between that place and Mayfield.  Their forces are in a crippled condition.  Their strength is much greater that was at first estimated.  Mayfield is filled with rebel wounded from Paducah.  Twelve or fifteen hundred are said to have arrived there.  One regiment lost 101 and one company fifty killed.  The rebels were marching towards Clinton at last accounts.  Should they attack Columbus they will receive a still warmer reception than at Paducah.

The steamer Perry has arrived from below.  She was fired into while passing Hickman yesterday.  There were a large number of rebels in town, and a great number of shots were fired, but nobody was hurt.  The steamer Graham brought up 600 men from New Madrid who charged thro’ the town, but the rebels had fled.—They belonged to Faulkner’s command.

Three hundred rebels were killed at Paducah, and 1,200 wounded.²—Several citizens of the place were killed during the fight.  The city is nearly in ruins.

Memphis dates of the 26th say that cotton is unchanged.  Holders show no disposition to sell.  The steamer Des Arc was burned at Duval’s Bluff while lying at the levee.  She was towed into the stream and sunk in order to save a number of other boats.  A large quantity of government stores was on the landing.  She had 300 bales of cotton on board, most of which was destroyed.

A dispatch from Paducah says that a party of Home Guards surprised and captured Col. Croslan [sic]⁷ and seven of his guerrillas near Mayfield yesterday.

1.  Stephen G. Hicks (1809-1869) served in the army as a sergeant in the Black Hawk War, a captain in the Mexican War, and and a colonel in the Civil War. His father, John Hicks, was one of the seven men killed at the Battle of New Orleans (January 8, 1815). He served in the Kentucky state legislature from 1842 to 1848, studies law and was admitted to the bar. During the Civil War he enlisted in the 40th Illinois Infantry Regiment on July 22, 1861, and was honorably discharged on the July 24, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, and when recovered from his wound was appointed commander at Fort Anderson, Kentucky, in October 1863. Hicks was in command of the Fort during the Battle of Paducah and famously told Forrest that if he wanted the fort he would have to come take it.
2.  The Confederate force was less than 3,000, and the Union garrison was 650, according to the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program website for the Battle of Paducah. Estimated casualties were 90 Union and 50 Confederate (10 killed, 40 wounded), considerably less than the estimates listed here.
3.  Only two gunboats were involved, the USS Peosta and the USS Paw Paw.
4.   Albert P. Thompson (1829-1864), colonel of the 3rd Kentucky Infantry (Confederate), and also commanding the Third Brigade at Paducah, which included the 7th and 8th Kentucky Infantries in addition to the 3rd Kentucky. Colonel Thompson was killed by cannon fire while leading his troops. Before the Civil War, Thompson was a Paducah lawyer who served as McCracken County’s commonwealth attorney. During the War, Thompson had been severely wounded at the Battle of Baton Rouge.
5.  From the Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, published under the direction of Redfield Proctor, Stephen B. Elkins, and Daniel S. Lamont, Secretaries of War, by George B. Davis, Leslie J. Perry, Joseph W. Kirkley, Board of Publication ; compiled by Calvin D. Cowles (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1891-1895). Available in Special Collections, UWRF University Archives & Area Research Center (E 464 .U6), or digitally at Ohio State University’s eHistory.
6.  William Wallace Faulkner (1836-1865) was, at this time, colonel of the 12th Kentucky Cavalry (Confederate). He entered the Civil War as a 1st lieutenant in the Kentucky State Guard. In the spring of 1862, he recruited a unit known as Faulkner’s Partisan Rangers. They disrupted Union supply and communication lines in west Tennessee and northern Mississippi. He was captured at Island No. 10 in the fall of 1862, but was exchanged by the end of the year. He commanded Faulkner’s Kentucky Partisans during the siege of Vicksburg. In late 1863 he raised the 12th Kentucky Cavalry (CSA) and in December, the 12th joined Nathan B. Forrest’s command and were mustered into Confederate service on Jan. 28. 1864 with Faulkner as colonel. Faulkner’s 12th fought in all of Forrest’s campaigns in 1864 until Faulkner was wounded at the Battle of Harrisburg in August. In 1865, Faulkner and Captain Henry A. Tyler were murdered in Dresden, Tennessee, by deserters.
7.  Edward Crossland (1827-1881) was colonel of the 7th Kentucky Infantry (CSA). Before the Civil War he was a lawyer, sheriff, and member of the Kentucky House of Representatives (1857-1858). When the War started, he became a captain in the 1st Kentucky Infantry (CSA). He fought at the Battle of Dranesville, and was discharged after his one-year service ended. He then was elected colonel of the 7th Kentucky Infantry. In 1864 the 7th was mounted and assigned to Nathan B. Forrest’s cavalry corps. Crossland served under Forrest until the end of the War in May 1865. After the War he was elected as a judge of the court of common pleas (1867-1870) and was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives (1871-1875).

1862 September 24: Confederate Heartland Campaign

While battles raged in Maryland, something was happening in Kentucky, too.  The Battle of Munfordville, also known as the Battle of Green River Bridge, took place on September 14-17, 1862, in Hart County, Kentucky.  It was part of the Confederate Heartland Offensive.  Confederate General Braxton Bragg had marched into Kentucky in late August.  A portion of Bragg’s troops, under General Simon B. Buckner, headed to Munfordville, which was an important transportation center.  Union Colonel John T. Wilder was in charge of the garrison at Munfordville and at first refused the Confederate’s requests for him to surrender.  But after two days of siege Wilder did surrender to Buckner.  Confederate control of Munfordville will hamper the movement of Union supplies and men.  We recently posted a letter of Edwin Levings, who was stationed in Tennessee with the 12th Wisconsin Infantry, briefly describing the battle.

Bragg’s drive into Kentucky also included the second Battle of Cumberland Gap.  The Cumberland Gap is a mountain pass through the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains, where the borders of Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky meet.  In June 1862, the Union had taken possession of the Gap in the first Battle of Cumberland Gap.  In September, Confederate General (E.) Kirby Smith occupied the Gap after forcing Union General George Morgan¹ and his troops out by cutting their supply lines.  Morgan and his troops then endured an arduous 200-mile march back to the Ohio River in 16 days, being constantly harassed by John Hunt Morgan’s guerrillas.

The following articles are from the September 24, 1862, issue of The Hudson North Star.

SURRENDER OF MUNFORDSVILLE [sic].

4,000² UNION PRISONERS TAKEN.

SAFETY OF LOUISVILLE.

NASHVILLE, Sept. 19.

At the surrender of Munfordsville [sic] on Wednesday morning, the rebels took about 4,000 prisoners, who are reported to have been subsequently paroled comprising the 6th, and 67th and 80th Indiana, 400 men of the 5th Indiana, two companies of the 17th and 74th Indiana, one company of the 1st Wisconsin, one of the company of the Louisville Provost Guard and seventy recruits of the 33d Kentucky, the 4th Ohio Battery of six guns, and four other guns in position.³  The loss at Munfordsville [sic] previously stated was in Sunday’s fight.  There were two or three hours of skirmishing on Wednesday, between the sharpshooters of both parties.  The rebels did not attack us in force on Sunday.  Gen. Palmer⁴ made an attack on our forces with eleven regiments.  On Tuesday night Buckley’s division was added to this force.  The firing on Tuesday night was a rebel feint to enable them to secure the north bank of the river.  In that we lost two killed and four or five wounded.  Eleven of the enemy were killed.

Very many reports are circulating from down the road, the transmission whereof is forbidden by the millitary [sic] authorities who, however, entertain the hope and belief that preparations now consumating will not only insure the safety of Louisville, but speedily clear Kentucky of her rebel invaders.

FROM CUMBERLAND GAP.

Map of Cumberland Gap operations in 1862, from the “Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies,” plate 118, map 2 (see footnote 5)

From the Louisville Democrat.

By information received in this city from a reliable gentlemen at the Gap, we learn that a force left the Gap on the 28^th ult., and made an attack on the Georgia brigade, who had been within four miles of our forces for several weeks when our forces under the indomitable General George W. Morgan,¹ completely dispersed the whole brigade, killing several and taking a good many prisoners and capturing their entire camp equipage and rations, &c., sufficient to last  our entire division for two months.  This is a fortunate occurrence for our troops stationed at the Gap, as they have been on short rations for some time past.  This will place them in a position to hold out double the length of time they have so far.

1.  George Washington Morgan (1820-1893) went to West Point but left after two years due to poor grades. Instead he went to law school in Ohio and practiced law there. He served in the Texas Army under Sam Houston, commanding the post at Galveston, and in the Mexican War. In 1856 Morgan was appointed U.S. Consul to Marseilles, France. Two years later, he became the Minister to Portugal, which post he held until 1861, when he returned to the United States following the outbreak of the Civil War. Due to his previous military experience, Morgan was appointed as a brigadier general in the Union Army and served in the Western Theater. In June 1862 he was ordered to drive the Confederates from the strategic Cumberland Gap, which he did and then then successfully manned the Gap until Bragg invaded Kentucky and cut off his supply lines.
2.  Estimated casualties were 4,148 Union and 714 Confederate.
3.  While the 1st Wisconsin Infantry was involved in “the general movement against Bragg,” it was not at the Battle of Munfordville. The actual regiments/companies involved were:

Union
Indiana: 17th, 50th companies A, B, D, F, G, H; 60th, 67th, 68th, 74th companies C and K, 78th company K, 89th, 13th Battery Light Artillery
Kentucky: 28th company I, 33rd, 34th company G
Ohio: Battery D Light Artillery

Confederates
Alabama: 28th (2 companies)
Mississippi: 7th, 9th, 10th, 29th, 44th
South Carolina: 19th
Ketchum’s Battery (2 sections)
Richards’ Battalion of Sharpshooters
Scott’s Cavalry

4.  Probably Joseph Benjamin Palmer (1825-1890), who was from Tennessee.
5.  Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, published under the direction of Redfield Proctor, Stephen B. Elkins, and Daniel S. Lamont, Secretaries of War, by George B. Davis, Leslie J. Perry, Joseph W. Kirkley, Board of Publication ; compiled by Calvin D. Cowles (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1891-1895). Available in Special Collections, UWRF University Archives & Area Research Center (E 464 .U6), or digitally at Ohio State University’s eHistory.

1862 September 10: Defense of Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio, and areas across the Ohio River in Kentucky and what will become West Virginia were threatened by Confederate forces from September 1 through 13, 1862.  Union General Lew Wallace declared martial law, seized and armed steamboats, and organized the citizens.  This article comes from the September 10, 1862, issue of The Hudson North Star.

NEWS FROM CINCINNATI.

TROOPS POURING INTO THE CITY.

Outbreak in Western Virginia.

INVASION OF OHIO.

INDIANA MILITIA CALLED OUT.

CINCINNATI, Sept. 5.

The order suppressing the Cincinnati Evening Times was revoked this morning and the paper appears as usual.

A bridge of boats is being built across the river from the foot of Walnut street.

An order was issued this morning compelling citizens to be in their houses at 9 o’clock P.M.

Troops continue to pour into the city.  Among the arrivals this afternoon, was the 18^th
Regulars.

CINCINNATI, Sept. 6.

Conductor Woodall made a reconnoissance [sic] with an engine on the Kentucky Central Railroad.  He proceeded to a point ten miles north of Cynthia [sic],¹ where they discovered three men, who, upon being hailed, said they belonged to a Georgia regiment.

He afterwards discovered their camp, but it was so hidden by the bushes that he could not make out their numbers.

A dispatch from Falmoth [sic],² at 1 o’clock this morning, says the scouts report the rebels within four miles of that place, with artillery.  A dispatch from Pomeroy, Ohio,³ says that Spencer, Roane county Va.,⁴ surrendered to Jenkins.⁵  Colonel Rathbone’s command was taken prisoners.⁶

On Wednesday Jenkins entered Ravenwood [sic], Virginia,⁷ and on Thursday crossed the Ohio at Buffington Island, and came down to Racine, Ohio.⁸

They killed one man and wounded two, stealing twelve houses, and then recrossed the river at Wolf’s Bar and encamped for the night.  People were raising to resist further attempts.

A later report says a force is crossing at Racine and coming down on both sides.

A dispatch from Point Pleasant to the military committe [sic] at Gallipolis,⁹ says the contending forces are now in sight of each other.  The enemy is 900 strong and a battle is imminent.

Governor Morton¹⁰ has ordered out all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45, residing in the border counties, to organize themselves into military companies to repel invasion.

1.  Cynthiana is the county seat of Harrison County, Kentucky. It is located about halfway between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Lexington, Kentucky. A battle had been fought in Cynthiana on July 17, 1862, as part of a raid by Confederate General John Hunt Morgan.
2.  Falmouth is located in Pendleton County, Kentucky.
3.  Pomeroy is the county seat of Meigs County, Ohio.  U.S. Congressman Valentine B. Horton, who had been a member of the 1861 Peace Conference, lived in Pomeroy.
4.  Spencer is the county seat of Roane County in what is now West Virginia.
5.  Albert Gallatin Jenkins (1830-1864) graduated from Harvard Law School and was an attorney and planter in what is now West Virginia. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1857-1861), resigning to raise a company of company of mounted rangers that became part of the Confederate 8th Virginia Cavalry with Jenkins as its colonel. In early 1862 he became a delegate to the First Confederate Congress, which he left in August 1862 when he was appointed a brigadier general. In September, Jenkins’s cavalry raided northern Kentucky and West Virginia, and briefly entered extreme southern Ohio near Buffington Island, becoming one of the first organized Confederate units to enter a Northern state. In May 1864, Jenkins will be severely wounded and captured during the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain. A Union surgeon will amputate his arm, but he will die twelve days later.
6.  John C. Rathbone was the colonel of the 11th West Virginia Infantry from 1861 to 1863. The regiment was recruited from Elizabeth, Wheeling, Burning Springs, Ravenswood, Kanawha Station, and Point Pleasant in western Virginia.
The Blue & Gray Trail for West Virginia, Roane County, “The Civil War in Spencer,” has the following information about this incident at Spencer:

In September 1862 Confederate Gen. Jenkins arrived in Spencer during the early morning hours and deployed his men along the ridge northeast of town, near present day Prospect Street on Alvord Hill, in such a manner to give the appearance of a force two or three times its actual size. Messengers entered town under a flag of truce and demanded that the Federals surrender unconditionally within 30 minutes. Rathbone surrendered without attempting any defense. Jenkins and his men rode into town and claimed it “in the name of Jefferson Davis and the southern Confederacy.” The men stayed only long enough to gather the militia guns and burn them on the courthouse square. The Union troops were paroled after taking an oath not to bear arms against the Rebels for a period of 30 days. Jenkins and his men left the morning following the surrender in the direction of Ripley.

7.  Ravenswood is in Jackson County, West Virginia.
8.  Buffington Island is an island in the Ohio River in Jackson County, West Virginia. Racine is located in Meigs County, Ohio, along the Ohio River. It is Ohio’s closest incorporated village to Buffington Island, the site of Ohio’s only battle in the Civil War, which will take place on July 10, 1863.
9.  Point Pleasant is located in Mason County, West Virginia. Gallipolis is the county seat of Gallia County, Ohio.
10.  Oliver Hazard Perry Throck Morton (1823-1877), usually known simply as Oliver P. Morton, was the 14th governor of Indiana, serving from 1861 to 1867. After the War, he will be a U.S. senator from Indiana (1867-1877), where as a Radical Republican will support numerous bills designed to punish the former Confederate states.

1862 September 3: Battle of Richmond, Plus Update on Baton Rouge

From the September 3, 1862, issue of The Hudson North Star comes two articles.  The first is a brief account of the Battle of Richmond, which took place August 29-30, 1862, and was an unexpected Confederate victory.

In the second article, Colonel Halbert E. Paine, commanding at Baton Rouge, is the colonel of the 4th Wisconsin Infantry, which includes the Hudson City Guards as Company G.  Paine will be promoted to a brigadier general, but not until March 1863.

BATTLE IN KENTUCKY
NATIONAL TROOPS DEFEATED.

CINCINNATI, Aug 31.

On Friday afternoon the rebels beyond Richmond, KY., drove in our cavalry.

Gen. Munson [sic]¹ with the 69th and 71st had moved up and advanced.

Saturday morning an artillery fight began.  Heavy loss on both sides.  The rebels finally turned our left flank, and advanced in full force.  Munson [sic] ordered a retreat, and fell back three miles, and reformed his line of battle on high hills after two hour’s fight.

The enemy advanced and turned his right flank, and a retreat immediately after took place to the original camping grounds.

Here Gen. Nelson [William “Bull” Nelson] came up, who after greats efforts succeeded in rallying the men and formed another line of battle.²

Our artillery and ammunition were exhausted, and some guns left without a man to work them, all having been killed and wounded.  Nelson was wounded² about 3 P. M. the men again fell back and retreated to Lexington.  Enemy’s force from 20,000 to 30,000.³

LATE FROM NEW ORLEANS.

THE GUNBOAT SUMTER LOST.
Breckinridge Proposes to Raise the Black Flag.

New York Aug. 29

Another steamer from New Orleans, with dates to the 22d inst., arrived tonight.  The city continues healthy.

Arms were being found in all sorts of out of the way places, but no owners.

A large union meeting was held on the 20th inst.

The New Orleans correspondent of the Times states that the gunboat Sumter got ashore near Bayou Sara, and was destroyed by guerillas [sic].

Bayou Sara was afterwards leveled to the ground by our gunboats.  Com. Porter [William D. Porter] has gone up the river to demolish all places on the banks used by guerillas[sic] as localities from which to fire on our boats.

Breckinridge [John C. Breckinridge] has threatened to raise the black flag against our troops, and Col. Paine [Halbert E. Paine], commanding at Baton Rouge, has appropriately responded.  Baton Rouge is to be abandoned, and probably destroyed.

1.  Mahlon Dickerson Manson (1820-1895) commanded the Union forces in the Richmond area. Before the Civil War he had been a druggist in Indiana and a member of the state legislature. He was appointed a captain in the 10th Indiana Infantry, quickly promoted to colonel, and in March 1862 promoted to brigadier general. Manson was wounded in the thigh and captured by the Confederates at the Battle of Richmond, but will be exchanged in a few months. He will then be promoted to command first a division and then the XXIII Corps. After the War he served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1871-1873) and as the 20th lieutenant governor of Indiana (1885-1886).
2.  Nelson received a wound in the upper thigh. When the fighting became really intense, he tried to stop the raw recruits from retreating by shouting at them and slashing at them with his sword. Those actions were severely criticized by the general public.
3.  The Confederate forces were approximately 6,800 and the Union forces were 6,500. (Interestingly, the figures given in this article are the same figures given elsewhere for the Second Battle of Bull Run.)

1862 July 30: John Morgan Routed

The following article appears to give greater detail on John Hunt Morgan’s recent raid.  Instead, the Louisville Journal seems to be trashing Morgan in an attempt to keep Kentuckians from joining his forces.  It is from the July 30, 1862, issue of The Hudson North Star.

JOHN MORGAN ROUTED.

 [From the Louisville Journal, 21st]

We received intelligence by telegraph and train from Lexington, on Saturday, of the surprise and total rout of John Morgan’s forces by General Green and Col. Metcalf, near Paris, on Saturday morning.  We received by few details beyond the fact that Gen. Smith left Lexington at midnight on Friday, and surprised the marauders, who were encamped on the Hon. Garet Davis’ farm.—Gen. Smith’s command embraced about 1,000 cavalry and two pieces of field artillery.  Morgan’s loss is reported by telegraph to be ten in killed and twelve in prisoners, his forces fleeing toward Winchester, Clark county, leaving their baggage behind, being hotly pursued by Gen. Smith.  There were no casualities [sic] in Gen. Smith’s command.  Gen. Boyle received later information last evening, which leads him to believe that the rebel rout was more disastrous than at first reported.

Morgan had been disappointed or deceived as to the temper of Kentucky.—He was heard to say at Millersburg that he had been promised 20,000 recruits of the best blood of the State, all mounted and armed, but instead thereof he had received but a few vagabonds, and had been compelled to steal horses for their use.  The fact is that Morgan, from a partisan leader, has degenerated into a common horse-thief, and this is acknowledged by most of those who were under the influence of the enchantment which distance lent to his exploits.  His former sympathizers at Frankfort and Lexington shouldered muskets and joined the extemporised Home Guards, denouncing his actions as those of a common thief and highway robber, and saying, “If this is the way he wages war for Southern Rights, we are done with it.”

Morgan is no fighter.  His men are no fighters.  He and they have won no part of their reputation by fighting.  He is reputed to be bold and dashing in his movements, but, although he may be dashing, he is not bold.  He dashes only where he thinks there is no danger.  He has a thousand spies to report to him where he can go without the risk of an encounter with a formidable Federal force, and availing himself of the information, he aims to dash from one important place to another, stealing and robbing and killing where he dashes.

At Lebonon, Tennessee, they were overtaken by an inferior force and routed utterly and with great loss.  At New Hope, they outnumbered the Federal forces two to one, yet were put to shameful flight.  At Cynthiana they were full twenty to one, and it was clear, that, if they had been but ten to one, they would have been whipped ingloriously.  At Paris, the feeble resistance they made scarce deserved to be called a fight.

When Morgan is disposed of, as we trust he has been ere this, we shall probably hear of no more guerilla [sic] raids into the interior of Kentucky.  His miserable failure, like the skin of a crow nailed to a post in a corn field, is likely to warm off all other creatures of his class.

1862 July 23: Morgan’s Raid on Cynthiana

A short article on John Hunt Morgan’s Raid on Cynthiana, Kentucky, from the July 23, 1862, issue of The Hudson North Star.

Morgan left Knoxville on July 4, 1862, with almost 900 men.  In three weeks time he swept through Kentucky—including a July 17, 1862, raid on Cynthiana—capturing 1,200 Union soldiers, acquiring several hundred horses, and destroying massive quantities of supplies.  His raiding unnerved Kentucky’s Union military government, and even President Lincoln.  The success of Morgan’s raids was a key reason that the Confederates will launch a invasion of Kentucky later that fall, assuming that thousands of Kentuckians would enlist in the Confederate Army thanks to Morgan’s exploits.

The Guerilla [sic] War in Kentucky.

MORGAN’S RAID ON LEXINGTON.

Cynthiana Surrendered.

LOUISVILLE.  July 16. —Morgan at Midway, yesterday noon, cut the telegraph wires, tore up the railroad, and took everything convertible to his use.  He has four twelve-pound howitzers, but it is said only six rounds of ammunition.—He left for Georgetown last evening, encamping on Touci’s farm.

He said he meant to visit Lexington and Frankfort before he got through with his job.

Lexingtonians say they have an ample force to protect the town, but not to take the offensive.

Our pickets were fired on by rebels approaching in force, and are falling back on the Georgetown road.  Our men, with several pieces of artillery are advancing on Georgetown to meet the rebels.  The railroad and telegraph at Midway are repaired, but the burnt bridge at Keysers is not yet reconstructed.

[NOTE—Midway is a station on the Louisville and Lexington railroad fourteen miles north of the latter place, and about eighty from Louisville.]

CINCINNATI.  July 18.—A man came into Boyd’s Kentucky, on the Kentucky Central Railroad, this morning, reports the town of Cynthiana City, 66 miles from here, having surrendered at 5 o’clock, yesterday, after an hour’s fight—he saw Morgan and shook hands with him, Morgan’s men number about 2,500.  A soldier came into Boyd’s and says Morgan’s men fired two rounds after the surrender.  Captain Arthur’s company from New Port are all killed or taken prisoners.  The excitement is very high and increasing: citizens organizing for defense.  The New Port Provost Marshal arrests all sympathizers to day.

1862 March 5: Tennessee and Kentucky

More of the “Latest News” from the March 5, 1862, Prescott Journal.

 The Latest News.

BOLIVAR, MD., Feb. 28

The army of Gen. Banks [Nathaniel P. Banks] occupied Harper’s Ferry,¹ unopposed, on Wednesday, with all necessaries for a permanent occupation.  The advance took possession of Bolivar Heights yesterday, pushed a reconnaissance to Charlestown, capturing a few prisoners.  London Heights are also occupied, to prevent any flank movement by the enemy.

To-day Charlestown was occupied by a strong force, and will be held against any attack. 

The plans to the commanders are not known, but the movement is probably to cover the reconstruction of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad bridges, and may mean more.

WASHINGTON, March 1.

Neither Jeff Davis [Jefferson Davis] or others have made any overtures to the Government, concerning terms of submission or compromise. The flag of truce some time ago sent by Gen. Johnson to Gen. McClellan [George B. McClellan] and also Howell Cobb‘s interview with General Wool [John E. Wool] related solely to an exchange of prisoners.

The above facts are derived from the best sources of information.

The army promotions for gallant conduct in late victories, will be announced next week.

In reply to inquiries from distant points it is authoritatively stated that no battles have recently been fought near the Potomac.

The public are cautioned against false reports of battles, defeats, etc., circulated by stock speculators, and designing persons.  Where any news of importance occurs or any matter relating to the war, it will be forwarded in an authentic form at the earliest moment.

CHICAGO, Feb. 28.

A special dispatch from Cairo to the Tribune says:—

The rebel army retreated from Nashville and left 1000 sick and wounded behind.  They destroyed bridges and burned all the steamboats but one, which made her escape. Texan soldiers fired the city in many places but the citizens extinguished the flames.  The great majority of property owners remained. The excitement is intense.

Gov. Harris made a speech in which he said he had done all he could.  He was going to leave, and advised all to follow him.²

We learn from a gentleman thoroughly conversant with Kentucky, that the rebels were dismounting large guns at Columbus, and that the evacuation of that place was now going on.

Several transports were lying at Columbus to carry troops.  Every man coming into Columbus was impressed, even farmers who came in with teams.

Several hundred negroes [sic] left for the interior yesterday.  This is from a rebel source.

The rebel War Department has called on Tennessee for thirty-two more regiments.

Official dispatches received at Knoxville say ample force will advance from Richmond to protect East Tennessee.

Governor Harris has taken the field in person.²

The report of Beauregard’s illness is unfounded. He left Corinth for Columbus on the 19th. [P.G.T. Beauregard]

1.  Harpers Ferry will change hands eight times between 1861 and 1865, because of the town’s strategic location on the railroad and at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley.
2.  Isham Green Harris (1818-1897) was the Governor of Tennessee from 1857-1862. As governor, he decided not to respond to President Lincoln’s call for troops at the start of the War and helped Tennessee to secede; it was the last state to join the Confederacy. Once Lincoln appoints Andrew Johnson the military governor of Tennessee on March 12,1862, Harris will cease making any effort to function as the state’s executive. Although he never formally resigned as governor, Harris then served as a staff officer in the Confederate Army. After the War, Harris will serve as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1877 to his death in 1897.