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Map of the state that shows where battles occurred
List of memorials (battlefield parks, statues, museums, etc.)
Discussion of how the Cumberland Gap was a potential invasion route to Eastern Tennessee, critical to the Union (which is why the
Battle of Mill Springs was important)
I like the template idea--it would help keep all the "Kentucky in the Civil War" events in perspective. Re: states, {{American Civil War}} already lists all the states that have articles or categories of "[state] in the Civil War". I'm happy to see you take the lead on a lot of this. I will, of course, help out where I can.
Stevie is the man!Talk •
Work23:58, 23 August 2006 (UTC)reply
Union OOBs and abstracts which I added
I added 3 abstracts, from 1862, 63, and 64 to give an idea of the strength, composition, and location of the Union Forces. At the bottom, I gave a year-by-year breakdown of the various units and their commanders. However, it could be cleaned up and formatted better, I'm not really the expert on wikicode and I used plain old HTML. Let me know any questions, comments, suggestions, complaints, and/or requests for further information, I have a copy of the OR as well as the Order of Battle books used to generate this information.
MrPrada07:19, 4 August 2007 (UTC)reply
E.A. Paine and the District of Western Ky
Also, I was VERY suprised after I read this to see that Brig. Gen. Eleazer A. Paine is missing from the article. Burbridge's actions were outrageous, yes, but he was never convicted of anything. Paine, and a congressmen, both went to jail for illegally taxing the citizens of the Western District(which I believe included just the Columbus area, I think Lousville and Paducah were in Ewing's command, and the rest of the state fell under Hobson). Anyway, I think the following should be addressed:
Add a major section on Eleazer A. Paine and his actions
Expand 1864-1865 and the information about Burbridge(a lot of it is over in Lousville in the Civil war, but it pertains more to this article)
Add a section about Granger's Army of Kentucky, explain the Command and Control Relationship between the Granger and Nelson in 1862
Explain the command and control relationship between Parke/Foster/Burnside (Department of Ohio), the IX Corps, XXIII Corps and the Kentucky Districts in 1863
Eliminate all of the red links, and add references up top
Once that is completed I think this would be a fantastic FA candidate, and Project Civil War Task Force could definetly use more of those.
MrPrada07:25, 4 August 2007 (UTC)reply
William T. Sherman
Also, for FA-status, the article really needs to hilight Sherman's removal in 1861 amidst allegations of insanity. The articles on
Hugh Ewing and
Lorenzo Thomas get into it a bit and hilight some of the background information. It is probably one of the most interesting incidents of the history of Kentucky in the Civil War, and should feature prominently in the article.
MrPrada09:15, 4 August 2007 (UTC)reply
Confederate states infobox
Even though this infobox shows Kentucky as a border state, the infobox's presence may be misleading to many readers. Kentucky was never officially a confederate state. This needs to be ameliorated somehow.
Stevie is the man!Talk •
Work20:11, 10 August 2008 (UTC)reply
Kentucky was recognized by the Confederate States of America Government as the 13th state. They were admitted to this status just as Alabama, Georgia, etc..etc.. were. The Federal Government did not recognize the Confederacy, never removed any of the 13 stars of the Confederate States. During the war, Kentucky was deemed a Rebel State by the US Government, but never called a Confederate State. This is why after the war, Kentucky did not receive the reconstruction as the other Southern states did and the effects of that shows in our economy today. the state never recovered. — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
Andypreston2010 (
talk •
contribs)
02:28, 27 December 2010 (UTC)reply
Kentucky officially never was part of the Confederacy. Frankfort was seized temporarily, very temporarily. Just because some breakaway citizens formed an alternative government in Bowling Green doesn't mean it was an official declaration.
Stevie is the man!Talk •
Work13:03, 27 December 2010 (UTC)reply
If Kentucky was deemed a "rebel state" and all the other things that followed from that, as you state, are there references for this material and how should it be incorporated into the article?
Stevie is the man!Talk •
Work13:06, 27 December 2010 (UTC)reply
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
During the Civil War, Kentucky was geographically a Southern State and militarily a Border State with soliders serving both the Union and Confederate Armies.
Kentucky furnished 75,000 soldiers to the Union and an Est. 50,000 to the Confederacy. 14,000 of the Union total included the Home Guard who were more or less military police that did not leave the state. The number of Confederates from Kentucky is complicated becuase many Kentuckians served in other state units, because Neutrality prevented enlistment or formations of state troops.
If you look at the actual Ky Units that fought on the battlefield, the total of Union and Confederate Kentuckians would be close to the same number.
It is hard for people today to understand that Kentucky Union Soldiers considered themselves Southerns, actually many refered to themselves as "Southern Unionist". They did not like to be called a "Yankee". Many of their diaries, which apparently historians of today do not read give a very different view of the Union Soliders from KY. They believed in Henry Clay, who worked to keep the USA together. They fought for the Nation and yes many of them owned slaves...When Lincoln sent out the Emancipation--It is documented that many KY Units had to be held by force to not leave the army, but some did. Proof of all of this is that after the war, when KY was elected ex-Confederates in local and state offices---Where was the ex-union soldiers?
Kentucky was a state of Federal occupation and that sums it up. Men like Jerimiah Boyle and Stephen Burbridge are proof of this--There actions in KY during the war made KY as Confederate as any of the other 11 states.
I just added a key takeaway from Anne Marshall's Creating A Confederate KY, which is a must read.
"Although counterintuitive politician and periodical editor Robert J. Breckinridge represented the majority of Unionist Kentuckians in his belief that the federal government was the optimal system for preserving slavery. Thus, during the early onset of the war the majority of Kentuckians supported the Union, regardless of their position on slavery. As the war unfolded the federal goals of emancipation squandered Kentucky's support for the Union, most notably after the declaration of the Emancipation Proclamation. The destruction of institutionalized slavery uprooted the foundations of racial hierarchy and shattered antebellum social structures."
So many Unionist Kentuckians were actually fighting to preserve slavery and protect Kentucky's immense slave trade to the deep south. Louisville shipped 2500 to 4000 enslaved people into the Natchez MS and New Orleans slave markets annually. Slavery represented 20% of the city's total tax revenues and the demand in the deep south was growing as was Kentucky's slave markets. The Smithsonian Institute is referring to this as the "Slavery Trail of Tears". KY and VA were the largest exporters. I also added a direct observation made in 1865 about the collapse of Union support in KY by wars end
"This is documented in Louisville by a prominent Washington DC journalist, Whitelaw Reid who accompanied Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase for a tour of the south from May 1, 1865, to May 1, 1866 . Reid observed in 1865 “At Louisville a pleasant dinner party enabled us to meet the last collection of men from the midst of a Rebel community. At that time there was more loyalty in Nashville than in Louisville, and about as much in Charleston as in either. For the first and only time on the trip, save while we were under the Spanish flag, slaves waited on us at dinner. They were the last any of us were ever to see on American soil.”
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Key importance
OK, maybe this is addressed elsewhere and I didn't see it. But aside from Lincoln's assessment, why are we stating Kentucky was a border state of "key importance"? Firstly, Lincoln was a politician, not a military man (prior to becoming C-in-C of course), and therefore does not represent an expert opinion. He could have just been expressing a heartfelt desire not to lose his birth state. People cared about such odd things back then.
In fact, the entire "above the fold" section of this article 'seems' to me to be a collection of statements designed to support the "key importance" statement without, you know, actually *supporting* it with sources.
The sort of things I would be looking for in a state of "key importance" would be things that drastically affected the overall course of the war and helped determine the winner. For instance, Virginia was obviously of key importance - not only for being a major battleground and occupying territory between the opposing capitals, but for the might-have-beens of its secession alone. Had mighty Virginia not seceded, it wouldn't have taken Robert E. Lee along with it - and he was a large part of the reason the CSA held on as long as it did.
Or how about Tennessee? The long and bitter battles of Tennessee were critical to the course of the war. With Chattanooga fell the CSA's last hope of protecting the Deep South from invasion. It opened the door to Sherman's devastating march and the burning of Atlanta. Tennessee was clearly of key importance.
I'm just not seeing it for Kentucky. They had horses, and important people were born there, and their people were highly divided. But being from the midwest, I've driven through Kentucky a lot, and it's a lot of flat open nothingness, geographically, so I doubt it was an important transportation bottleneck. One can't even say that winning Kentucky was critical to Lincoln's reelection since he lost the state but still won. If it had gone over entirely to the CSA is anyone seriously suggesting a might-have-been involving an invasion of Indiana? :P If it had ever been firmly in Unionist hands would it truly have been that big a help? Where is the key importance in this state?
Complete control of Kentucky by the CSA would mean that the Confederate could harass Ohio River trade, as well as increase the chances of invasion of Indiana and Ohio, plus increasing the liklihood that the other border states with slaves like Missouri and Delaware would also secede. Plus, with Louisville and Lexington the CSA would have gain up to 90,000 additional soldiers.--
King Bedford ISeek his grace01:34, 7 June 2011 (UTC)reply
Were there any border or Confederate states that weren't considered important? It seems to me that someone somewhere is always making the case for why this state or the other was very important to the Union or the Confederacy. Well, maybe not Alabama.
Rissa, copy editor (
talk)
00:38, 16 June 2014 (UTC)reply
A map would be helpful
For non-American readers of this article, it would be really helpful to have a map of Kentucky to illustrate what is meant by a "border state" in the US Civil War.
Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (
talk)
04:50, 19 March 2023 (UTC)reply