Kentucky Rising: Democracy, Slavery, and Culture from the Early Republic to the Civil War

15. Civil War, Part Three: Lincoln’s War on Slavery

314 15 Civil War, Part Three Lincoln’s War on Slavery Summer sunlight glistened on Queen Anne’s lace blooming in the pastures and gleamed on tiny trumpet-honeysuckle blossoms along the fence rows, and across the fields above the rows of tobacco one could see the Old South civilization disappearing on the roads. African Americans were on the move, walking toward recruitment centers of the Union army, walking as families—men, women, children, grandparents, ill, and infirm—marching for freedom. Lincoln would lose Kentucky in the presidential election that autumn, for he had invested his political capital on this election in June, and he was winning. The slave dependents knew that their fathers and husbands would be free the moment they enlisted, and they also realized that their freedom would follow. Some families gathered their clothes the night before and left before daylight; others went openly. Twenty-one-yearold Robert Anderson talked it over with his master and won his blessing. “He seemed to sense the fact that the slavery of the past was over,” Anderson wrote.1 One of Lincoln’s most popular actions in the war was relieving General Boyle of command on January 12, 1864; it was an unusual event in that Governor Thomas Bramlette and other Unionists and pro-Southerners all united in breathing a sigh of relief. General Grant, who was in charge in the West, selected General Jacob Ammen as Boyle’s replacement even though he was not a Kentucky native, having been born in Virginia and reared in Ohio. Grant considered him level-headed enough, but he was serving on court-martial duty and not available at the moment. Therefore, Grant appointed General Stephen Gano Burbridge on February 15, 1864, Civil War, Part Three 315 on a temporary basis to serve until Ammen was available. Burbridge and Bramlette were friends, and Burbridge was well liked by the Unionist leaders of Kentucky. They were so pleased with him that the governor and others signed a petition requesting that the appointment be made permanent. Bramlette wrote to Grant with the same request.2 Burbridge was one of the most patriotic Kentucky Unionists; he was a brave, aggressive field commander who took care of his men. He was a fighter and a friend of General Sherman since they became acquainted in the Vicksburg campaign when Burbridge commanded a brigade under him. Burbridge was born in Scott County, Kentucky, son of a War of 1812 veteran, and he attended Georgetown College and Kentucky Military Institute. When the war came, he was farming in Logan County. Grant agreed to make the appointment permanent on March 14, 1864, but it was against his judgment. Later, when Bramlette’s friendship for Burbridge had turned to bitter enmity and Bramlette wrote to Grant asking that Burbridge be removed, Grant replied: “I have from the start mistrusted General Burbridge ’s ability and fitness for the place he now occupies.” Grant recognized vanity and ambition in a man, and he knew that Burbridge lacked the common sense and wisdom to navigate the rough waters of Kentucky politics and maintain his perspective. The temptation was to go over the edge and follow the urging of radical Kentucky Unionists, who advised extreme measures that were more harmful than helpful. As military commander of Kentucky, Burbridge was insensitive and domineering, and, by November 9, when Bramlette asked Lincoln to remove him, eight months after asking for his permanent appointment, Bramlette complained that Burbridge was blind to reality because of his “weak intellect and an overwhelming vanity.”3 Burbridge fell into the same snare as Boyle; he decided that, as commander of Kentucky, it was up to him to win the war for the hearts and minds of the people of Kentucky and that by saving this vital state he would be the savior of the Union. His totally unrealistic goal was, not only to create quiet and calm, but also to transform pro-Confederate Kentuckians into ardent Unionists who would refuse to give the slightest aid and comfort to the Confederates and who would by all their actions and conversations support the Union army and all the policies of the Lincoln administration. He demanded that all Kentuckians assist in ferreting out traitors and reporting guerrilla bands operating against Union facilities or Unionist families . He demanded that there be no “treasonable and seditious speeches” 316 KENTUCKY RISING against enlistment of black troops or...