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  • Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia
  • Tim McKinney
Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia. By Brian D. McKnight. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006, Pp. ix, 312.)

Most people probably think of the American Civil War in terms of the great and bloody battles such as Gettysburg or Antietam, or drawn-out campaigns like General Sherman's infamous march to the sea. In Contested Borderland author Brian McKnight brings us a splendid study of the Civil War on a more local level. Between 1861 and 1865 the border between eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia was highly contested territory. Although sparsely populated, the region's geography made it a focal point for occupation by military forces of the Blue and the Gray. Both sides were quick to realize the strategic value of holding the rugged Cumberland Gap.

This study reveals in careful detail the effect repeated invasion and occupation had on the borderland communities. Although the Kentucky legislature approved an official policy of neutrality in the spring of 1861, the people of Kentucky were divided in their loyalties. Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin refused President Lincoln's call for the states of the Union to provide seventy-five thousand ninety-day volunteers at the onset of conflict. Shortly thereafter, Confederate sympathizers established a Provisional Government of Kentucky at Bowling Green, with George W. Johnson as governor. That summer, U.S. forces established recruitment centers in Kentucky. Thus, with the border areas occupied alternately by forces of the North and the South, the populace declared loyalty to the force in charge at any given time in order to guarantee their survival.

The efforts of Blue and Gray alike to gain manpower and material support for the war effort fell short of what had been expected. Frustrated by a lack of public support, Confederate General Humphrey Marshall complained that citizens of the border communities were "perfectly terrified or apparently apathetic" and would not help his army "either for love or money" (67).

Repeated military invasion of the area led to increasing guerrilla warfare that tore communities along partisan lines. Deprivation, theft, and even [End Page 111] murder became commonplace. The region's rugged geography contributed to partisan bushwhacking in an area where even prewar grudges became an excuse for killing. These facets of the war are often overlooked in more general studies of the conflict. Their inclusion here adds a human element to an already valuable work.

Union general and future U.S. President James A. Garfield came to prominence in these campaigns. Others, such as Confederate General Felix Robertson, one of the South's youngest general officers, saw their careers ruined by failures of judgment and command. Although the campaigns of eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia were not as sanguinary or glorious as those in the East, Brian McKnight shows us how these events shaped the war effort, and their effect on the weary public stretched well beyond the silence of Appomattox.

Contested Borderland is the first detailed study of the Civil War on the eastern Kentucky border. The author's analysis of military tactics, political realities, and genuine hardship, is first-rate.

Tim McKinney
Fayetteville, West Virginia
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