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Act of Justice: Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the Law of War

Burrus M. Carnahan

In his first inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln declared that as president he would “have no lawful right” to interfere with the institution of slavery. Yet less than two years later, he issued a ... More

In his first inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln declared that as president he would “have no lawful right” to interfere with the institution of slavery. Yet less than two years later, he issued a proclamation intended to free all slaves throughout the Confederate states. When critics challenged the constitutional soundness of the act, Lincoln asserted that he was endowed “with the law of war in time of war”. This book contends Lincoln was no reluctant emancipator; he wrote a truly radical document that treated Confederate slaves as an oppressed people rather than merely as enemy property. In this respect, Lincoln's proclamation anticipated the intellectual warfare tactics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.Less

Cecelia and Fanny: The Remarkable Friendship Between an Escaped Slave and Her Former Mistress

Brad Asher

In 1846, Cecelia, a 15-year-old slave girl traveled to Niagara Falls with her young Louisville mistress, Frances “Fanny” Thruston Ballard. During their stay, Cecelia made the bold decision to escape, ... More

In 1846, Cecelia, a 15-year-old slave girl traveled to Niagara Falls with her young Louisville mistress, Frances “Fanny” Thruston Ballard. During their stay, Cecelia made the bold decision to escape, to endure separation from her mother and brother, still enslaved in Kentucky, in order to begin life anew as a free woman in Canada. Yet the separation gnawed at her. So in the 1850s she opened a correspondence with Fanny, as a way of re-establishing connection with her mother. Fanny's return letters, preserved in Louisville archives for a century, allow a glimpse into the thoughts, feelings, and negotiations between these two women as the United States moved inexorably toward civil war over the issue of human slavery. The story of this 50-year relationship between a former slave and her former mistress brings to life the web of family connections forged by slavery and illustrates the ways that race, class, and gender structured women's lives in the nineteenth century.Less

The Civil War on the Mississippi: Union Sailors, Gunboat Captains, and the Campaign to Control the River

Barbara Brooks Tomblin

Following the fall of Fort Sumter, the Lincoln administration adopted General Winfield Scott’s strategy to win the war. Dubbed the Anaconda Plan, it called for a Union blockade of the southern coast ... More

Following the fall of Fort Sumter, the Lincoln administration adopted General Winfield Scott’s strategy to win the war. Dubbed the Anaconda Plan, it called for a Union blockade of the southern coast and for Union forces to seize New Orleans and push down the Mississippi River, capturing enemy strongpoints and opening the river. To accomplish this mission, the Union navy had to acquire, arm, and man vessels suitable for service on western rivers. The timberclads Tyler, Lexington, and Conestoga, joined by city-class ironclads, rams, mortar boats, and tinclads, enabled Andrew Hull Foote’s Western Gunboat Flotilla to support Union advances down the Mississippi River. Joint Union forces won the battle of Belmont in November 1861, took Forts Henry and Donelson, and engaged rebel naval forces at Plum Point and Memphis. Admiral David Farragut’s squadron ran past Forts Jackson and St. Philip, forcing New Orleans to surrender in April 1862; took Baton Rouge and Natchez; and joined Foote’s flotilla near Vicksburg. David Dixon Porter replaced Foote as commander of the renamed Mississippi Squadron, but he and Sherman were unable to secure the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg in December. Although several gunboats were lost to rebel mines or gunfire, the “brown-water navy” proved remarkably durable in battles with Confederate vessels such as the CSS Arkansas, gun batteries at Port Hudson and Grand Gulf, and guerrillas. Porter and Farragut’s squadrons provided floating artillery for General Ulysses S. Grant’s campaigns which finally took Vicksburg and won control of the Mississippi River in July 1863.Less

Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia

Brian D. McKnight

During the four years of the Civil War, the border between eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia was highly contested territory, alternately occupied by both the Confederacy and the Union. ... More

During the four years of the Civil War, the border between eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia was highly contested territory, alternately occupied by both the Confederacy and the Union. Though this territory was sparsely populated, the geography of the region made it a desirable stronghold for future tactical maneuvers. As the war progressed, the Cumberland Gap quickly became the target of invasion and occupation efforts of both armies, creating a chaos that would strain not only the soldiers but all those who called the area their home. This book examines the features of the region's geography and the influence of the attacks on borderlands caught in the crossfire of the Union and Confederate forces. The land surrounding the Kentucky–Virginia border contained valuable natural resources and geographic features considered essential to each army's advancement and proliferation. While the Appalachian Mountains barred travel through large parts of the region, the gaps allowed quick passages through otherwise difficult terrain and thus became hotly contested areas. The book explores the tensions between the accomplishment of military goals and the maintenance of civilian life in the region. With Kentucky remaining loyal to the Union and Virginia seceding to the Confederacy, populations residing between the two states faced pressure to declare loyalty to one side. Roadside towns found themselves the frequent hosts of soldiers from both sides, while more remote communities became shelters for those wishing to remain uninvolved in the conflict. Instead of committing themselves to either cause, many individuals claimed a neutral stance or feigned dedication to whichever side happened to occupy their land. The dual occupation of the Union and Confederate armies consequentially divided the borderland population, creating hostilities within the region that would persist long after the war's conclusion.Less

For Slavery and Union: Benjamin Buckner and Kentucky Loyalties in the Civil War

Patrick A. Lewis

Through a biography of Kentucky lawyer, soldier, and politician Benjamin F. Buckner (1836–1901), this book reorients the narrative of Civil War–era Kentucky around the experience of conservative ... More

Through a biography of Kentucky lawyer, soldier, and politician Benjamin F. Buckner (1836–1901), this book reorients the narrative of Civil War–era Kentucky around the experience of conservative proslavery unionists such as Buckner who resisted secession in 1861 because they believed slavery had safer prospects in the United States than in the new Confederacy. After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, this faith in a proslavery federal government collapsed, and Buckner, who had led Union troops in combat in 1861 and 1862, resigned from the army in April 1863. The book is built around these war years and a revealing body of personal correspondence from Buckner to his rebel fiancée, Helen Martin. Looking both forward and backward in time from Buckner’s war experience, the book uses Buckner’s life and career to reintegrate the fractured historiographies of slavery, secession, politics, war, domesticity, emancipation, Civil War memory, industrialization, and regionalism in Kentucky. The collapse of slavery provided a window of opportunity across the South for significant social change. That window was never truly opened in Kentucky ironically because of its wartime loyalty to the Union. Though they could not save slavery, Buckner and political allies leveraged their loyalty during Reconstruction to delay the advent of civil rights for African Americans, suppress those rights by paramilitary violence, and undermine the Fifteenth Amendment in a pivotal Supreme Court case. Buckner’s life shows how many of the same inequalities, conflicts, and contradictions inherent in antebellum Kentucky were consciously re-created, expanded upon, and reinforced in the latter decades of the nineteenth century.Less

Josie Underwood's Civil War Diary

Josie Underwood

Nancy Disher Baird (ed.)

A well-educated, outspoken member of a politically prominent family in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Josie Underwood (1840–1923) left behind one of the few intimate accounts of the Civil War written by a ... More

A well-educated, outspoken member of a politically prominent family in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Josie Underwood (1840–1923) left behind one of the few intimate accounts of the Civil War written by a southern woman sympathetic to the Union. This portrayal of the early years of the war begins several months before the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861. Offering a unique perspective on the tensions between the Union and the Confederacy, Josie reveals that Kentucky was a hotbed of political and military action, particularly in her hometown of Bowling Green, known as the Gibraltar of the Confederacy. Located along important rail and water routes that were vital for shipping supplies in and out of the Confederacy, the city linked the upper South's trade and population centers and was strategically critical to both armies. Capturing the fright and frustration she and her family experienced when Bowling Green served as the Confederate army's headquarters in the fall of 1861, Josie tells of soldiers who trampled fields, pilfered crops, burned fences, cut down trees, stole food, and invaded homes and businesses. In early 1862, her outspoken Unionist father, Warner Underwood, was ordered to evacuate the family's Mount Air estate, which was later destroyed by occupying forces. Wartime hardships also strained relationships among Josie's family, neighbors, and friends, whose passionate beliefs about Lincoln, slavery, and Kentucky's secession divided them. Published for the first time, this book interweaves firsthand descriptions of the political unrest of the day with detailed accounts of an active social life filled with travel, parties, and suitors.Less

Kentucky Confederates: Secession, Civil War, and the Jackson Purchase

Berry Craig

Dubbed “the South Carolina of Kentucky,” the Jackson Purchase was Kentucky's only pro-Confederate region during the Civil War. Secession sentiment was so strong that in 1861, while Kentucky was ... More

Dubbed “the South Carolina of Kentucky,” the Jackson Purchase was Kentucky's only pro-Confederate region during the Civil War. Secession sentiment was so strong that in 1861, while Kentucky was officially neutral, leading politicians and influential citizens met in Mayfield and considered a regional military alliance with Tennessee or secession from Kentucky to form a Confederate state with West Tennessee. In addition, the Purchase was Kentucky's only region that furnished more soldiers to the Confederacy army than to the Union forces. Between 1861 and 1865, nearly 5,000 Purchase men donned Rebel gray while approximately 850—white and African American—opted for Yankee blue. Statewide, between 90,000 and 100,000 Kentuckians—white and African American—fought for the Union, and between 25,000 and 40,000 took up arms for the Confederacy.Less

Kentucky Rebel Town: The Civil War Battles of Cynthiana and Harrison County

William A. Penn

This is a detailed Civil War study of a Kentucky Blue Grass town and county. This extensive research of Cynthiana and Harrison County reveals the area’s divisive sectional animosities and ... More

This is a detailed Civil War study of a Kentucky Blue Grass town and county. This extensive research of Cynthiana and Harrison County reveals the area’s divisive sectional animosities and personalities. As the title suggests, Cynthiana was widely perceived to be a Rebel stronghold when the secession crisis erupted. The county’s state representatives, Lucius Desha and W. W. Cleary, were among Kentucky’s pro-secession supporters during neutrality, and Desha was arrested for treason when accused of recruiting for the Confederate army. Belief that the town was a den of Southern sympathizers was further supported when Union soldiers arrested and imprisoned for disloyal activities about sixty citizens, including several county officials and newspaper editor. Countering these secession activities were Home Guards and Union supporters, such as attorney W. W. Trimble. John Hunt Morgan’s raids in Kentucky resulted in the First and Second Battles of Cynthiana, which the author carefully researched and enhanced by new battlefield maps. Readers will learn of the central role of the county in the Union military defenses of the Kentucky Central Railroad corridor. The book also describes from both the soldiers’ and citizens’ viewpoints the Confederate army march through the county on the way to threaten Cincinnati in 1862. It also describes the recruiting activities of Union and Confederate supporters, and the controversial African American enrollments.Less

Kentucky's Rebel Press: Pro-Confederate Media and the Secession Crisis

Berry Craig

Before Kentuckians marched off to the Civil War, Bluegrass State newspaper editors waged a war of words. Louisville, Lexington, Frankfort, and other towns had competing unionist and secessionist ... More

Before Kentuckians marched off to the Civil War, Bluegrass State newspaper editors waged a war of words. Louisville, Lexington, Frankfort, and other towns had competing unionist and secessionist papers. This is the first book written about border-state Kentucky’s vociferous rebel press during the secession crisis of 1860–1861. On the eve of the Civil War, Kentucky had about sixty newspapers; close to half were pro-Confederate, which made support for the secessionist cause seem stronger than it was. Loyalties were divided in Kentucky, but the rebel press was unable to overcome the state’s deep devotion to the Union. At first, Kentucky tried to remain neutral within the Union—a stance the Confederate papers scorned as untenable and cowardly. But when both sides invaded, Kentucky joined the war to suppress the Southern rebellion. Afterward, the rebel press, deemed disloyal by federal authorities, was silenced, thus setting up a collision between the right of free speech and the government’s right to protect itself against treason. Reflecting Kentucky’s embrace of the “Lost Cause” after the war, many of the rebel editors resurrected their papers. Walter N. Haldeman, whose Louisville Courier was the state’s leading secessionist organ, bought out its top two unionist papers, the Louisville Democrat and Louisville Journal. The result was the Louisville Courier-Journal, which is still Kentucky’s largest newspaper.Less

Lincoln on Trial: Southern Civilians and the Law of War

Burrus M. Carnahan

In light of recent controversies and legal actions related to America's treatment of enemy prisoners in the Middle East and Guantánamo Bay, the regulation of government during wartime has become a ... More

In light of recent controversies and legal actions related to America's treatment of enemy prisoners in the Middle East and Guantánamo Bay, the regulation of government during wartime has become a volatile issue on the global scene. By today's standards, Abraham Lincoln's adherence to the laws of war could be considered questionable, and his critics, past and present, have not hesitated to charge that he was a war criminal. This book conducts an extensive analysis of Lincoln's leadership throughout the Civil War as he struggled to balance his own humanity against the demands of his generals. The author specifically scrutinizes Lincoln's conduct toward Southerners in light of the international legal standards of his time as the president wrestled with issues that included bombardment of cities, collateral damage to civilians, seizure and destruction of property, forced relocation, and the slaughter of hostages. The book investigates a wide range of historical materials from accounts of the Dahlgren raid to the voices of Southern civilians who bore the brunt of extensive wartime destruction. Through analysis of both historic and modern standards of behavior in times of war, a sobering yet sympathetic portrait of one of America's most revered presidents emerges.Less

One of Morgan’s Men: Memoirs of Lieutenant John M. Porter of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry

John M. Porter

Kent Masterson Brown (ed.)

John Marion Porter (1839–1898) grew up working at his family's farm and dry goods store in Butler County, Kentucky. The oldest of Reverend Nathaniel Porter's nine children, he was studying to become ... More

John Marion Porter (1839–1898) grew up working at his family's farm and dry goods store in Butler County, Kentucky. The oldest of Reverend Nathaniel Porter's nine children, he was studying to become a lawyer when the Civil War began. As the son of a family of slave owners, Porter identified with the Southern cause and wasted little time enlisting in the Confederate army. He and his lifelong friend Thomas Henry Hines served in the Ninth Kentucky Calvary under John Hunt Morgan, the “Thunderbolt of the Confederacy.” When the war ended, Porter and Hines opened a law practice together, but Porter was concerned that the story of his service during the Civil War and his family's history would be lost with the collapse of the Confederacy. In 1872, Porter began writing detailed memoirs of his experiences during the war years, including tales of scouting behind enemy lines, sabotaging a Union train, being captured and held as a prisoner of war, and searching for an army to join after his release. This book is a fascinating firsthand account of the life of a remarkable Confederate soldier.Less

Reconstructing Appalachia: The Civil War's Aftermath

Andrew L. Slap and Andrew L. Slap (eds)

Families, communities, and the nation itself were irretrievably altered by the Civil War and the subsequent societal transformations of the nineteenth century. The repercussions of the war incited a ... More

Families, communities, and the nation itself were irretrievably altered by the Civil War and the subsequent societal transformations of the nineteenth century. The repercussions of the war incited a broad range of unique problems in Appalachia, including political dynamics, racial prejudices, and the regional economy. This book reveals life in Appalachia after the ravages of the Civil War, an unexplored area that has left a void in historical literature. Addressing a gap in the chronicles of America, this anthology explores little-known aspects of history with a particular focus on the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction periods. It features a broad geographic focus: chapters cover postwar events in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. This approach provides an intimate portrait of Appalachia as a diverse collection of communities where the values of place and family are of crucial importance.Less

Rethinking the Civil War Era: Directions for Research

Paul D. Escott

The field of Civil War history seems to have reached an inflection point. There is a great amount of interesting new research that departs from long-established channels and seems to be looking in ... More

The field of Civil War history seems to have reached an inflection point. There is a great amount of interesting new research that departs from long-established channels and seems to be looking in new directions. This volume examines much of the latest work. It covers the sectional crisis, the war itself, and concepts of the Civil War era. Although not a conventional historiography, it offers broad coverage of the field, raises major interpretive questions, and suggests many new issues or questions to research.Less

A Tour of Reconstruction: Travel Letters of 1875

Anna Dickinson

J. Matthew Gallman, (ed.)

During the Civil War, public speaker Anna Elizabeth Dickinson became a national sensation, lecturing on abolitionism, women's rights, and the Union war effort. After the war she remained one of the ... More

During the Civil War, public speaker Anna Elizabeth Dickinson became a national sensation, lecturing on abolitionism, women's rights, and the Union war effort. After the war she remained one of the nation's most celebrated orators and among the country's most famous women. In 1875 Dickinson toured the South, lecturing and inspecting life in the southern states ten years after the war. Her letters are a fascinating window into race relations, gender relations, and the state of the southern economy and society a decade after Appomattox. In a series of long letters home to her mother, Dickinson describes the places she visits and the people she encounters in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. Her rich descriptions include detailed commentary on buildings, monuments, churches, schools, prisons, cemeteries farmland and battlefields. Her travels provide valuable information on hotels, trains, and carriages and all manner of postwar travel. Along the way Dickinson battles unreconstructed southern women, unscrupulous hotel keepers, and shady newspaper editors, while meeting a fascinating assortment of kindred spirits, both white and black.Less