By Charles R. Welsko
The Civil War looks different in Kentucky. This is true for the course of the conflict’s memory as well as its military conduct within the state. Only a handful of major military engagements, chiefly the Battle of Mill Springs (January 19, 1862), the Battle of Richmond (August 29-30, 1862), and the Battle of Perryville (October 8, 1862) took place in the Commonwealth. More common were raids by Confederate forces and pervasive guerrilla violence. John Hunt Morgan’s raids into Kentucky from 1861 to 1864 spawned numerous smaller engagements—from Tebb’s Bend to Lebanon to Frankfort to Cynthiana (twice). Unlike the Eastern Theater of the war and the rest of the Western Theater, Kentucky, was a space paradoxically spared numerous major battles, but also constantly under threat of violence from outsiders and other Kentuckians.
By extension, CWGK offers a different look at the war than other primary source collections. Rather than detailed analyses of the military dimensions of the conflict or the experiences of people in the path of the conflict as it happens, CWGK looks mostly at the war’s ramifications. This unique view comes from the project’s framing. CWGK uses the materials Kentuckians wrote to the governors as its foundation, to capture how ordinary people experienced life during the Civil War. Kentuckians wrote to Frankfort about any number of interests—seeking political appointments, asking for pardon from criminal prosecution, requestioning military equipment, or reporting guerrilla violence. As such, the edition is well positioned to highlight how the war impacted individuals but provides less information about the military dimensions of battles or individual units.
An example from Curran Pope, Colonel of the 15th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment to Governor James F. Robinson exemplifies this issue. Three days after the Battle of Perryville (October 8, 1862), while Pope himself was wounded (and would later die from typhoid fever while recovering from his wounds), the colonel asked Robinson to commission new officers in the 15th to replace those men killed or wounded at Perryville. He provided no discussion of the engagement, merely its human consequences (KYR-0001-028-0063). Other records in CWGK, such as the 13th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment’s casualty list after engagements at Huff’s Ferry and Campbell’s Station, Tennessee summarizes the regiment’s movements, but focuses predominately on listing the men wounded or killed at the battles (KYR-0001-003-0014). CWGK is a Civil War archive of consequence and reaction, not decisive, heroic battlefields narratives or accounts of the war’s drudgery in camp. This is an important distinction for researchers and users of the site. This archive not only uses the governor’s office as a lens, but it also presents the war how they would have seen it—at a distance, responding to information and personal requests across disparate parts of the state. The fog of war is real in CWGK, because it was how the governors—and ordinary Kentuckians—experienced the conflict.
Additionally, it is worth exploring the fact that CWGK is also an archive of active, self-curation by wartime participants. Again, the 15th Kentucky Infantry is an illuminative example. Early in 1863, Governor James F. Robinson submitted a report to the General Assembly of Kentucky, highlighting flags presented to him by Kentucky officers. These “mementoes” were “prized and cherished as heirlooms for those who are to come after us.” At the Battle of Perryville, James B. Forman, a young captain in the 15th recovered the regiment’s colors and was later appointed colonel of the regiment following Curran Pope’s death. Forman would fall at the Battle of Stones River, but beforehand, he wrote to Robinson, asking that the 15th’s flag be “reserved among the archives of the State where in future years we may visit it.”[1] Forman along with other officers from the 6th and 17th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiments also referenced the importance of preserving their flags as a testament to their valor and patriotism, as well as a record for the state.
Other Kentuckians outside of these examples spoke about the importance of archives and historians in remembering the Civil War. George C. Hallet, a judge and militia officer from western Kentucky noted future historians would rely on the official archives of the state to write the history of “this stupendous rebellion.”[2] Governor Thomas Bramlette made illusion to the importance of unwritten interpretation, when he noted that “Our future historian will drape in mourning the page on which is recorded the recorded the history of these years of rebellion, calamity, and woe!”[3]
This should not suggest that every single record and person in CWGK were so cognizant of how future readers might use or interpret their materials. However, when researchers engage CWGK sources (and other records) they should keep the presence of such self-curation in their mind. No source from the Civil War era came without some level of reflection and intentionality. Soldiers censored or reframed letters that they wrote home to loved ones. Petitioners to the governors shaped their appeals to fit legal requirements, cultural norms, or attempts at flattery (such as claiming to have named a son after Beriah Magoffin). If CWGK is an archive of reaction, those responses must be understood through the fact that wartime participants curated their correspondence with an eye to their own self-interest and the future.
[1] Louisville Weekly Journal, March 10, 1863, p. 2.
[2] George C. Hallet to Daniel W. Lindsey, November 24, 1863, 37th - 76th Regiments Enrolled Militia Primary Source Documents (1861-1866), Box 80, Folder 863-64 FULTON COUNTY Recruiting and Raising Company 40th Rgt. Ky. Militia, Kentucky Department of Military Affairs, Frankfort, KY. Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0002-022-0011.
[3] Thomas E. Bramlette, Inaugural Address of Governor Thomas E. Bramlette, of Kentucky, Delivered at Frankfort, on Tuesday, September 1st, 1863 (Frankfort: Kentucky Yeoman Office, 1866), 3-4.