Neighbor against Neighbor

This chapter discusses the organization in Harrison County of State Guards and Home Guards, and the recruiting of Confederate and Union volunteers. Jo Desha recruited one of the first Kentucky Confederate companies. The activities of the Home Guards are detailed, including the role of Provost Marshal George W. Berry, in suppressing disloyalty. This chapter explains why a majority of citizens were Southern sympathizers through analysis of elections and army enlistments. The book examines the reaction in Harrison County to the Kentucky neutrality debate and the controversial “Lincoln guns” shipment through the county. Interwoven through the chapter is the notion of “Neighbor against neighbor,” that divided Harrison County citizens.

The Second Battle of Cynthiana

This chapter describes the third engagement of the Second Battle of Cynthiana, when General Stephen Gano Burbridge defeated Morgan’s raiders on Kimbrough’s Hill on June 12, 1864. Morgan deployed his men one mile east of Cynthiana in two locations: on the Millersburg Pike near John Kimbrough’s house, Poplar Hill, and a second position overlooking roads leading to Ruddles Mills and Lair’s Station, commanded by Col. D. Howard Smith. At dawn, Burbridge, with 2,400 mounted infantry and cavalry, attacked Morgan’s first position, whose men, low on ammunition, fled after a flanking cavalry charge. Smith’s second position resisted a little longer, but a flanking cavalry charge sent the Rebels running toward the South Fork Licking River, where many were captured by pursuing Union cavalry. Morgan’s parole signed by Hobson at Keller’s Bridge was later considered illegal and Hobson underwent an official army inquiry before being cleared for improperly signing it.

The Second Battle of Cynthiana

This chapter begins part one of a three-chapter description of the Second Battle of Cynthiana, which took place on June 11-12, 1864, as part of General John Hunt Morgan’s Last Kentucky Raid. Morgan attacked Col. Conrad Garis, 168th Ohio infantry, at dawn, June 11, 1864, from several directions, beginning with the covered bridge, forcing Union troops to retreat to the railroad depot where Capt. George W. Berry was mortally wounded. The Union soldiers then retreated to the Rankin House where Col. Garis was captured. Union troops firing from buildings along Pike Street fled after Morgan ordered some buildings to be set on fire. The fires spread, destroying about 37 buildings. By this time, Union soldiers surrendered along Pike Street and in the courthouse.

In the Path of a Confederate Invasion

This chapter examines the fall 1862 path through Harrison County of the Confederate army invasion of Kentucky. It describes Union soldiers building entrenchments and a large stockade at Camp Frazer before retreating north. Union occupation of the county before and after the Confederate invasion is examined. This chapter describes interactions between citizens and the Union and Confederate soldiers. The various regiments and campsites are listed. Confederate soldiers from Harrison County made short visits to their homes.

Lurking Rebels

This chapter examines Union attempts during the Civil War to suppress disloyalty with controversial new war measures, including the employment of loyalty oaths and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, which blocked detained citizens from access to the courts to obtain their freedom. Taking advantage of these laws, military officers, to silence dissent, were free to arrest and imprison citizens, therefore bypassing the court system. This chapter is a study of the application of these pacification laws in Harrison County, describing the arrests of over sixty citizens, the reasons for the arrests, and incarceration of the political prisoners in Camp Frazer, Camp Chase, and other locations. Cynthiana’s pro-Southern editor was arrested and his paper closed.

The Second Battle of Cynthiana

This chapter describes the Battle of Keller’s Bridge at Cynthiana, Ky., the second of three engagements in the Second Battle of Cynthiana. While the initial battle was being fought in Cynthiana the morning of June 11, 1864, Union reinforcements arrived by train one mile northwest of Cynthiana at Keller’s Bridge on the Kentucky Central Railroad, which the Rebels burned a few days earlier. General Edward H. Hobson and Col. Joel F. Asper with 600 men of the 171st Ohio infantry, unaware of the ongoing battle in Cynthiana, unloaded the train for breakfast. Soon, Rebels stumbled upon the regiment and a battle took place along the Kentucky Central Railroad. Hobson was surrounded after a standoff lasting several hours, and surrendered. The chapter explores why Morgan decided to stay and fight Burbridge while outnumbered and low on ammunition.

Introduction

When a Confederate officer scribbled in his journal after the Second Battle of Cynthiana that Morgan’s men were “plundering & pillaging … the best rebel town of our native state,” he was expressing a widely held perception that, in the Bluegrass, Cynthiana was a “Rebel town.” This reputation was earned in the early years of the war after a series of implicating events: the county judge, county clerk, sheriff, and newspaper editor were arrested for being southern sympathizers; one of the very first Kentucky Rebel volunteer companies was from Harrison County, marching off to war as a Confederate flag was displayed on the courthouse flagpole; and the majority of Harrison County recruits joined the Confederate army. At this divisive time, a citizen admitted: “It is not safe for a man to talk about or in favor of the Union.” The state representatives from Harrison County were known to be prosouthern by their speeches during the neutrality period. Rep. Lucius Desha fled behind Confederate lines to avoid being arrested, only to be indicted for treason on returning to the state. Cincinnati newspapers and a US representative from Bourbon County pointed to the arrest of about sixty citizens to support their contention that Cynthiana was full of “lurking Rebels” and described the town as a “pestiferous Secession hole.” A militia officer, writing state officials in October 1861, referred to “Cynthiana, that infernal hole of rebellion.” And in correspondence with President Lincoln about shipping guns through Harrison County, the clerk of the Kentucky state court of appeals warned, “Cynthiana is a dark hole of traitors.” Even after the war ended, complaints surfaced that some candidates for office in Harrison County were former “stay-at-home rebels.”...

United States v. Lucius Desha

Federal courts indicted but later acquitted General Lucius B. Desha, a prominent Harrison County farmer and politician, for both treason and high misdemeanor; however, Union commanders incarcerated him as a civilian prisoner for three months in Camp Chase, a Northern prison, on unspecified charges. This chapter follows Desha’s pro-Confederate activities from the time he was a state representative participating in a State Rights convention and its committees. The book details an inquiry by a legislative committee on his alleged disloyal activities, a federal trial for treason, and his role as Harrison County’s “secessionist leader.” It was Desha’s prominent role that helped label Cynthiana as a Rebel town. The chapter quotes letters describing farm operations and camp life between Eliza Jean Desha and her husband, Lucius Desha, who was a political prisoner at Camp Chase, Ohio.

Guarding the Railroad

This chapter examines the military defenses on the Bluegrass corridor of the Kentucky Central Railroad, which was important for military transportation and communications. State Guards, Home Guards, and Union volunteers encamped in the Cynthiana, Ky., area to guard the railroad, including Camp Bruce. The book describes in detail the establishment and activities of Camp Frazer, one of the first Union camps in Kentucky after neutrality ended. It was organized by Col. Van Derveer’s 35th Ohio Voluntary Infantry in September 1861. The reaction of citizens to these troops is explored in the chapter. The book documents other Union regiments who guarded the railroad, including Col. S. R. Mott’s 118th Ohio infantry, who built stockades for Union squads to protect railroad bridges. The chapter examines the interaction of Union troops occupying the county with local citizens, and the military arrest of secessionists caught sabotaging bridges.

Rising from the Ashes

This chapter describes the impact of the Civil War on the Cynthiana and Harrison County, Ky. Subjects include: War claims submitted by attorney William S. Haviland; a duel between a former Yankee and Rebel; founding of Battle Grove Cemetery on the site of a battle; the first Confederate monument in Kentucky; Civil War veterans’ organizations and reunions in Harrison County; rebuilding of the burned downtown; newspaper editor urged reconciliation; Burbridge vilified for reprisal shootings; Civil War correspondence; and Harrison County Freedmen’s Bureau activities. This chapter also reveals details of Cynthiana attorney William W. Cleary’s role in the Confederate Secret Service operations in Canada as secretary to a Confederate commissioner. After Lincoln’s assassination Cleary and the other agents were implicated by circumstantial evidence after being seen meeting John Wilkes Booth in Canada, but charges of conspiracy to kill Lincoln were later dropped for lack of evidence.