Civil War Guerrilla Collections at The Filson Historical Society

SUMMER 2014 87 Collection Essay Civil War Guerrilla Collections at The Filson Historical Society A s a border state, Kentucky, like Missouri, was scourged by guerrilla warfare during the Civil War. Although Federal forces twice drove Confederate armies from Kentucky soil in 1862, the state remained vulnerable to cavalry raids and guerrilla depredations throughout the conflict. In fact, roving bands of guerrillas remained at large in the Bluegrass long after Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. The Special Collections Department of The Filson Historical Society contains numerous diaries, manuscripts and images that reflect this dark chapter in Civil War history throughout the war-torn nation. Specific collections include the Winn-Cook Family Papers, the Charles Crawley Letters and the Cora Owens Hume Diary to name a few. The following selected sources reflect the brutal nature of guerrilla warfare in Kentucky. Although a commissioned Confederate cavalry officer, John Hunt Morgan of Lexington adopted hit-and-run tactics that branded him as a “guerrilla” in the eyes of Federal military authorities and Kentucky Unionists. In his first Kentucky raid (July 4-22, 1862), Morgan sparked widespread panic throughout the heart of the state. His nine hundred man force captured over seventeen Kentucky towns and damaged both the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and rail John Hunt Morgan Proclamation issued at the beginning of the Perryville campaign, in early September 1862. THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY CIVIL WAR GUERRILLA COLLECTIONS AT THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY 88 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY connections between Cincinnati and Lexington. The raiders also seized or destroyed large amounts of Union weapons and supplies, captured twelve hundred prisoners and took over six hundred government horses and mules. In a letter from his Tennessee camp dated July 28, 1862, Jonathan B. Holmes of the 6th Ohio Infantry referred to Morgan’s raid and lamented the fact that “a few mounted outlaws can frighten the loyal people of a whole state and fill Cincinnati with fears of invasion.”1 Morgan’s forays into Kentucky continued through the summer of 1864. At the same time, Kentucky experienced raids by other Confederate cavalry leaders, including Joseph Wheeler who commanded General Braxton Bragg’s mounted forces during the 1862 Perryville campaign. The formidable General Nathan Bedford Forrest raided western Kentucky in the spring of 1864 and attacked the Union fortifications at Paducah. In December of the same year, Brigadier General Hylan B. Lyon of Forrest’s command swept through western Kentucky and burned over eight courthouses. Staunch Bowling Green Republican Joseph Whitfield Calvert penned a lengthy account of life in a border state to fellow Republican Edward Morris Davis, prominent in abolitionist circles. On February 20, 1863, Calvert wrote, “With great raids by…Bragg and lesser ones by Morgan, Wheeler, Forrest & co. through our part of the state we have been, at least, half the time without mail communication with the North.” Calvert lamented that he had burned many of his pro-Republican and antislavery papers for self protection. He added, “I keep nothing in my trunk that would be a warrant for hanging me by the ‘Guerrillas’ except Old John Brown’s picture. I could not burn that. I could it hide—so kept it.”2 From the beginning of the conflict Kentucky, particularly in the counties bordering Tennessee and Virginia, was plagued by small bands of both Union and Confederate partisans. The Confederate government authorized some of these units, like the Partisan Rangers, to operate behind the lines. Others consisted of men who had deserted from both armies to wage their own petite guerre against home front foes. Captain Champ Ferguson of Clinton County was typical Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan (1825-1864). THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY J. W. Calvert to E. M. Davis, February 20, 1863. THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY JAMES M. PRICHARD SUMMER 2014 89 of these guerrilla chieftains. Ferguson and his men hunted down and killed numerous Union soldiers and sympathizers, many of them former neighbors, along the upper reaches of the Cumberland River. Captured by Union forces during the summer after Lee’s surrender , he was tried by a military commission and hanged in Nashville on October 20, 1865. Captain L. P. Deatherage of Hart County was typical...