Pictorial history of the war for the Union, volume 2 (of 2) : $b A complete and reliable history of the war from its commencement to its close ... together with a complete chronological analysis of the warStephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
History
Pictorial history of the war for the Union, volume 2 (of 2) : $b A complete and reliable history of the war from its commencement to its close ... together with a complete chronological analysis of the war
Stephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
The appointment of General Burnside was followed by the organization of
a portion of the army into divisions, and a movement to concentrate it
at Fredericksburg.
OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY.
JUNE TO SEPTEMBER, 1862.
Never in the history of the world has there been a war of such magnitude
as that waged by the loyal Unionists against the Southern insurgents in
the American Republic, and never have the divisions of military forces
stretched over so wide a field of operations. While the Army of the
Potomac was fighting in Virginia, the struggle of loyalty and treason
was going on in Kentucky. The masses of the people there were in favor
of the Union; but their feeling was so cold, and had been operated on so
strongly by Secession-sympathizing slaveholders, that as a body, they
desired to remain simply neutral. The Governor of Kentucky, Beriah
Magoffin, adopted a position of strict neutrality, and in accordance
with this unpatriotic spirit, the slaveholding Senate of the State
passed a decree that the State “will not sever her relations with the
National Government, nor take up arms for either belligerent party.” At
the same time, while refusing to lend the National cause any assistance,
the slaveholding aristocracy of Kentucky entreated the people of the
loyal North to yield to the rebels and win them back by amending the
Constitution, in such a way as to make it a bulwark of negro slavery.
But all this manœuvering was finally terminated, and the men of Kentucky
were driven either to the protection of the national flag, or to the
camps of the rebels. The battles before Richmond, Virginia, having paved
the way for a general rebel advance, the enemy resolved on an effort to
transfer the field of battle to northern soil; and it was in pursuance
of this plan that General Lee had invaded Pennsylvania; but having been
signally repulsed, he had, as we have seen, been obliged to abandon the
attempt.
Early in June guerrilla operations became troublesome in some of the
lower counties of Kentucky. At Madisonville, in Hopkins county, a
descent was made by a small body of them at night. The county clerk’s
office was broken open and the records of the court carried off or
destroyed. In other places horses and other property were taken. Their
own friends, equally with Union citizens, were robbed. In Jessamine,
Mercer, Boyle, and Garrard counties bridges over the streams were
burned. On the 5th of July Lebanon was taken. It is at the termination
of the Lebanon branch of the Louisville and Nashville road. About the
same time Murfreesboro’, in Tennessee, was captured by a strong
guerrilla force under Colonel Forrest. Vigorous opposition was, however,
made by the small body of Federal troops stationed there. The Ninth
Michigan regiment, however, was captured entirely by surprise, with
Brigadier-Generals Duffield and Crittenden, of Indiana.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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