Kentucky Confederates: Secession, Civil War, and the Jackson Purchase
Berry Craig
Abstract
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 Re ... 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.
Keywords:
Civil War,
Confederate,
Jackson Purchase,
Kentucky,
military alliance,
secession,
“South Carolina of Kentucky,
” Union
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780813146928 |
Published to Kentucky Scholarship Online: May 2015 |
DOI:10.5810/kentucky/9780813146928.001.0001 |