Kentucky

Kentucky has always had something of an identity problem. In the 19th century she straddled several sections of the United States — geographically, economically, ideologically, and politically. During colonial and federal days, Kentucky was considered a ‘western’ state. But by the Civil War, she had become a border state, lying between the solidly Union states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio and the Confederate states of Tennessee and Virginia. Kentucky, for a short while, attempted neutrality. Unionists in Kentucky still clung to the hope of mediation between North and South, and Southern sympathizers in the state were afraid that declaring for the Confederacy would spur the North to invade Kentucky. Both Unionists and secessionists in Kentucky suspected that their home state was being used as a buffer to protect the combatants’ solidly-held territories. During the war, Louisville, Kentucky’s largest city and a port on the Ohio, was a major staging point for Union troops and supplies, and even hosted major strategy meetings between some of the war’s most illustrious Union generals. After the war, Louisville served as a mustering out point for many Union troops.

Kentucky was once part of Virginia, and she retained much of that state’s culture when she became an independent state. Some things, however, did not translate well, or completely, in Kentucky. There were few large plantations in Kentucky, like those of Virginia, that would require large pools of slave labor. Slavery, in Kentucky, was more prominent at Kentucky’s slave auctions where slaves dreaded the possibility of being “sold down river” to plantations in the South. Louisville represented one of the largest slave markets in the antebellum United States, but few of those slaves stayed in Kentucky. Most slave owners in Kentucky owned four or fewer slaves. When the Civil War came, therefore, the potential loss of slaves would not cripple Kentucky, but Kentucky nonetheless found herself torn between economic and cultural ties with the South and patriotic loyalty to the Union. Kentucky ultimately declared for the Union, one of four “border states” to do so (the others were Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri; West Virginia, once it split from Virginia during the war, also became a border state). Kentucky’s importance in the war was seen by President Lincoln as crucial: “I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.” Abraham Lincoln, by the way, was born in Kentucky (Hodgenville, near Elizabethtown), as was Confederate President Jefferson Davis (Fairview, just outside of Hopkinsville). First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln, was also a Kentucky native (Lexington). Kentucky sent, by various accounts, 100,000-125,000 of her sons to serve in the Union army, and between 25,000 and 40,000 to serve in the Confederate army.

Kentucky had the third highest number of slave holders (behind Virginia and Georgia) but ranked ninth in number of slaves (behind Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee), per the 1860 census. Slaves represented 20% of Kentucky’s total population in 1860, compared to states like Mississippi (55%) and South Carolina (57%). Slaves in Kentucky were mostly found in the southern and western sections where cash crops like tobacco and hemp (both labor-intensive crops) could be grown on large farms like those found further south.

During the war, Kentucky was counted among the states loyal to both sides of the conflict. Southern sympathizers in Kentucky, angry at a mostly Union government elected to the capital in Frankfort, organized a counter-government in 1861, establishing the capital of Confederate Kentucky in Bowling Green. The Confederate States of America recognized this government at Bowling Green and admitted Kentucky to its ranks. Kentucky thus was a member of both the United States of America and the Confederate States of America. Briefly, the Union capital at Frankfort was captured by Confederates and the rebel government attempted to install itself there, but this attempt was thwarted almost as soon as it started. Even so, Frankfort became the only Union capital captured during the Civil War. After the Frankfort disappointment, Confederate Kentucky largely existed on paper and/or on horseback with the Army of Tennessee, with whom its officials traveled.

After the war, Kentucky redefined herself. As has been often suggested, Kentucky joined the Confederacy after the war. Kentucky became decidedly anti-federal by the time Ulysses S. Grant took the White House in 1868, so much so that Reconstruction measures — designed for states lately in rebellion — were considered for the troublesome border state. Conservative Democrats (ex-Confederates) were elected to the highest offices in the state and in the cities, including its largest city, Louisville. Many Kentuckians who supported the Union during the war, joined ex-rebels to thwart federal measures instituted to protect black freedoms and privileges. It was an unholy marriage that would define Kentucky for decades after the war. Kentucky, for instance, did not ratify the Thirteenth Amendment (abolishing slavery) until 1976, more than 100 years after the Civil War ended.