Louisville in theAmerican Civil War was a major stronghold ofUnion forces, which keptKentucky firmly in the Union. It was the center of planning, supplies, recruiting and transportation for numerous campaigns, especially in theWestern Theater. By the end of the war, Louisville had not been attacked once, although skirmishes and battles, including the battles ofPerryville andCorydon, Indiana, took place nearby.
During the 1850s, Louisville became a vibrant and wealthy city, but together with the success, the city also harbored racial and ethnic tensions. It attracted numerousimmigrants fromEurope such asIrish andGermans, had a largeslave market from which enslavedAfrican Americans were sold to theDeep South, and had both slaveholders and abolitionists as residents. By 1850, Louisville became the tenth-largest city in the United States. Louisville's population rose from 10,000 in 1830 to 43,000 in 1850. It became an importanttobacco market and pork packing center. By 1850, Louisville's wholesale trade totaled US$20 million in sales. The Louisville–New Orleans river route held top rank in freight and passenger traffic on the entire Western river system.[1]
Not only did Louisville profit from the river, but in August 1855, its citizens greeted the arrival of the locomotive "Hart County" at Ninth and Broadway and connection to the nation via railroad. The first passengers arrived by train on theLouisville and Frankfort Railroad.James Guthrie, president of the Louisville & Frankfort, pushed the railroad along the Shelbyville turnpike (Frankfort Avenue) through Gilman's Point (St. Matthews) and on to Frankfort. The track entered Louisville on Jefferson Street and ended at Brook Street. The state paid tribute to James Guthrie by naming the small railroad community ofGuthrie, Kentucky, in Todd County after him.
Leven Shreve, a Louisville civic leader, became the first president of theLouisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N), which was to prove more important for trade. It led to the developing western states and linked with Mississippi River traffic. With the railroads, Louisville could manufacture furniture and other goods, and export products to Southern cities. Louisville was on her way to becoming an industrial city. The LouisvilleRolling Mill built girders and rails, and other factories madecotton machinery, which was sold to Southern customers. Louisville builtsteamboats. Louisville emerged with an iron-working industry; the plant at Tenth and Main was called Ainslie, Cochran, and Company.
Louisville also became ameat packing city, becoming the second largest city in the nation to pack pork, butchering an average of 300,000 hogs a year. Louisville led the nation inhemp manufacturing and cotton bagging.Farmington Plantation, owned byJohn Speed, was one of the largerhemp plantations in Louisville. Hemp was Kentucky's leading agricultural product from 1840 to 1860, and the leading commodity crop of the fertileBluegrass Region. Jefferson County led all other markets in gardening and orchards. The sales of livestock, quality horses and cattle, was also important.
Attracted by jobs and pushed by political unrest and famine, European immigrants flowed into the city fromGermany andIreland; most of them wereCatholic, unlike theProtestants who lived in the city. By 1850, 359,980 immigrants arrived in the United States; by 1854, 427,833 immigrants arrived to seek a new living. With the increase in new immigrants in the city, native Louisville residents felt threatened by change, and began to express anti-foreign,anti-Catholic sentiments. In 1841, the growth in population prompted the Catholic archdiocese to move the bishop's seat from Bardstown to Louisville. The archdiocese began construction on a new Catholic cathedral, which was completed in 1852. This asserted Catholic presence in the city.
In 1843, a new political party arose, called theAmerican Republican Party. On July 5, 1845, the American Republican party changed their name to theNative American Party and held their first national convention inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania. The party opposed liberal immigration policies. On June 17, 1854, theOrder of the Star Spangled Banner held its second national convention inNew York City. The members were "native Americans" and anti-Catholic. When the members answered questions about the group, they responded with "I know nothing about it," giving rise to the nicknameKnow-Nothing for the Native American Party. The new political party gained national support. The Know-Nothing party encouraged and tapped into the nation's prejudice and fears that Catholic immigrants would take control of the United States. Hostility to Catholics had a long history based on national rivalries in Europe. By 1854, the Know-Nothings gained control of Jefferson County's government.
Ethnic tension came to a boil in 1855, during the mayor's office election. On August 6, 1855, "Bloody Monday" erupted, in whichProtestant mobs bullied immigrants away from the polls and began rioting in Irish and German neighborhoods. Protestant mobs attacked and killed at least twenty-two people. The rioting began at Shelby and Green Street (Liberty) and progressed through the city's East End. After burning houses on Shelby Street, the mob headed for William Ambruster's brewery in the triangle between Baxter Avenue and Liberty Street. They set the place ablaze and ten Germans died in the fire. When the mob burned Quinn's Irish Row on the North side of Main between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets, some tenants died in the fire; the mob shot and killed others. The Know-Nothing party won the election in Louisville and many otherKentucky counties.
As in other cities, slavery was a consuming topic; some of Louisville's economy was built on its thriving slave market.Slave traders' revenues, and those from feeding, clothing and transporting the slaves to theDeep South, all contributed to the city's economy. The direct use of slaves as labor in the central Kentucky economy had lessened by 1850. But throughout the 1850s, the state slaveholders sold 2500–4000 slaves annually downriver to the Deep South. Slave pens were located on Second between Market and Main Streets.
TheKansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 added to the controversy, as it threatened potentially lucrative expansion of slavery to western states. Louisville also had afree black population, among whom some managed to acquire property. Washington Spradling, freed from slavery in 1814, became abarber. By the 1850s, he owned real estate valued at $30,000. With its agriculture, shipping trade and industry, and slave markets, Louisville was a city that shared in cultures of both the agricultural South and the industrial North.
In theNovember 1860 Presidential election, Kentucky voters gave native KentuckianAbraham Lincoln less than one percent of the vote. Kentuckians did not like Lincoln, because he stood for the eradication ofslavery and hisRepublican Party aligned itself with the North. But, neither did they vote for native sonJohn C. Breckinridge and hisSouthern Democratic Party, generally regarded assecessionists. In 1860, people in the state held 225,000 slaves, with Louisville's slaves comprising 7.5 percent of the population. The voters wanted both to keep slavery and stay in the Union.
Most Kentuckians, including residents of Louisville, voted forJohn Bell ofTennessee, of theConstitutional Union Party. It stood for preserving the Union and keeping thestatus quo on slavery. Others voted forStephen Douglas ofIllinois, who ran for theDemocratic Party ticket. Louisville cast 3,823 votes for John Bell. Douglas received 2,633 votes.
On December 20, 1860,South Carolina seceded from the Union, and ten otherSouthern states followed. Kentucky, however, chose to remain neutral and later went with the Union.
On April 12, 1861,ConfederateBrigadier GeneralPierre G. T. Beauregard ordered the firing onFort Sumter, located in theCharleston harbor, thus starting theCivil War. At the time of theBattle of Fort Sumter, the fort's commander was UnionMajor Robert Anderson of Louisville.
After the attack on Fort Sumter,President of the United StatesAbraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers.Kentucky GovernorBeriah Magoffin refused to send any men to act against the Southern states, and both Unionists and secessionists supported his position. On April 17, 1861, Louisville hoped to remain neutral and spent $50,000 for the defense of the city, namingLovell Rousseau as brigadier general. Rousseau formed theHome Guard. When Unionists asked Lincoln for help, he secretly sent arms to the Home Guard. TheU. S. government sent a shipment of weapons to Louisville and kept the rifles hidden in the basement of theJefferson County Courthouse.
Louisville residents were divided as to which side they should support. Economic interests and previous relationships often determined alliances. Prominent Louisville attorneyJames Speed, brother of Lincoln's close friendJoshua Fry Speed, strongly advocated keeping the state in the Union. Louisville Main Street wholesale merchants, who had extensive trade with the South, often supported theConfederacy.Blue-collar workers, small retailers, and professional men, such as lawyers, supported the Union. On April 20, two companies of Confederate volunteers left bysteamboat for New Orleans, and five days later, three more companies departed forNashville on the L & N Railroad. Union recruiters raised troops at Eighth and Main, and the Union recruits left forIndiana to join other Union regiments.
On May 20, 1861, Kentuckydeclared its neutrality. An important state geographically, Kentucky had the Ohio River as a natural barrier. Kentucky'snatural resources, manpower, and the L&N Railroad made both the North and South respect Kentucky's neutrality. President Lincoln and Confederate PresidentJefferson Davis both maintained hands-off policies when dealing with Kentucky, hoping not to push the state into one camp or the other. From the L&N depot on Ninth and Broadway in Louisville and the steamboats at Louisville wharfs, supporters of the Confederacy sent uniforms, lead, bacon, coffee and war material south. Although Lincoln did not want to upset Kentucky's neutrality, on July 10, 1861, afederal judge in Louisville ruled that the United States government had the right to stop shipments of goods from going south over the L&N railroad.
On July 15, 1861, theWar Department authorizedUnited States NavyLieutenantWilliam "Bull" Nelson to establish a training camp and organize a brigade of infantry. Nelson commissionedWilliam J. Landram, a colonel of cavalry; andTheophilus T. Garrard,Thomas E. Bramlette, andSpeed S. Fry colonels of infantry. Landram turned his commission over toLieutenant ColonelFrank Wolford. When Garrard, Bramlette, and Fry established their camps atCamp Dick Robinson inGarrard County, and Wolford erected his camp nearHarrodsburg, Kentucky's neutrality effectively ended.[2] Brigadier General Rousseau established a Union training camp opposite Louisville inJeffersonville, Indiana, naming the camp afterJoseph Holt. Governor Magoffin protested to Lincoln about the Union camps, but he ignored Magoffin, stating that the will of the people wanted the camps to remain in Kentucky.[3]
In August 1861, Kentucky heldelections for theState General Assembly, and Unionists won majorities in both houses. Residents of Louisville continued to be divided on the issue of which side to join. TheLouisville Courier was very much pro-Confederate, while theLouisville Journal was pro-Union.
On September 4, 1861, Confederate GeneralLeonidas Polk, outraged by Union intrusions in the state, invadedColumbus, Kentucky. As a result of the Confederate invasion, Union GeneralUlysses S. Grant enteredPaducah, Kentucky. Jefferson Davis allowed Confederate troops to stay in Kentucky. GeneralAlbert Sidney Johnston, commander of all Confederate forces in the West, sent GeneralSimon Bolivar Buckner of Kentucky to invadeBowling Green, Kentucky. Union forces in Kentucky saw Buckner's move toward Bowling Green as the beginning of a massive attack on Louisville. With twenty thousand troops, Johnston established a defensive line stretching from Columbus in western Kentucky to theCumberland Gap, controlled by Confederate GeneralFelix Zollicoffer.
On September 7, the Kentucky State legislature, angered by the Confederate invasion, ordered the Union flag to be raised over thestate capitol inFrankfort and declared its allegiance with the Union. The legislature also passed the "Non-Partisan Act", which stated that "any person or any person's family that joins or aids the so-called Confederate Army was no longer a citizen of the Commonwealth."[4] The legislature denied any member of the Confederacy the right to land, titles or money held in Kentucky or the right to legal redress for action taken against them.
With Confederate troops in Bowling Green, Union General Robert Anderson moved his headquarters to Louisville. Union GeneralGeorge McClellan appointed Anderson asmilitary commander for the District of Kentucky on June 4, 1861. On September 9, the Kentucky legislature asked Anderson to be made commander of the Federalmilitary force in Kentucky. The Union army accepted theLouisville Legion atCamp Joe Holt inIndiana into the regular army.Louisville mayorJohn M. Delph sent two thousand men to build defenses around the city.
On October 8, Anderson stepped down as commander of theDepartment of the Cumberland and Union GeneralWilliam Tecumseh Sherman took charge of the Home Guard. Lovell Rousseau sent the Louisville Legion along with another two thousand men across the river to protect the city. Sherman wrote to his superiors that he needed 200,000 men to take care of Johnston's Confederates. The Louisville Legion and the Home Guard marched out to meet Buckner's forces, but Buckner did not approach Louisville. Buckner's men destroyed the bridge over theRolling Fork River inLebanon Junction and with the mission completed, Buckner's men returned to Bowling Green.
Louisville became a staging ground for Union troops heading south. Union troops flowed into Louisville fromOhio, Indiana,Pennsylvania andWisconsin. White tents and training grounds sprang up at the Oakland track,Old Louisville andPortland. Camps were also established at Eighteenth and Broadway, and along the Frankfort and Bardstown turnpikes.
By early 1862, Louisville had 80,000Union troops throughout the city. With so many troops, entrepreneurs set upgambling establishments along the north side of Jefferson from 4th to 5th Street, extending around the corner from 5th to Market, then continuing on the south side of Market back to 4th Street.Photography studios and military goods shops, such as Fletcher & Bennett on Main Street, catered to the Union officers and soldiers. Also capitalizing on the troops,brothels were quickly opened around the city.
In January 1862, Union GeneralGeorge Thomas defeatedConfederate GeneralFelix Zollicoffer at theBattle of Mill Springs, Kentucky. In February 1862, Union GeneralUlysses Grant and AdmiralAndrew Foote'sgunboats capturedFort Henry andFort Donelson on the Kentucky andTennessee border. Confederate GeneralAlbert Sidney Johnston's defensive line in Kentucky crumbled rapidly. Johnston had no choice but to fall back to Nashville. No defensive preparations had been made at Nashville, so Johnson continued to fall back toCorinth, Mississippi.
Although the threat of invasion by Confederates subsided, Louisville remained astaging area for Union supplies and troops heading south. By May 1862, the steamboats arrived and departed at the wharf in Louisville with their cargoes. Military contractors in Louisville provided the Union army with two hundred head of cattle each day, and the pork packers provided thousands of hogs daily. Trains departed for the south along the L&N railroad.
In July 1862, Confederate generalsBraxton Bragg, commander of theArmy of Mississippi, andEdmund Kirby Smith, commander of theArmy of East Tennessee, planned an invasion of Kentucky. On August 13, Smith marched with 9,000 men out ofKnoxville toward western Kentucky and arrived inBarbourville. On August 20, Smith announced that he would takeLexington. On August 28, Bragg's army moved west. At theBattle of Richmond, Kentucky, on August 30, Smith's Confederate forces defeated Union GeneralWilliam "Bull" Nelson's troops, capturing the entire force. This left Kentucky with no Union support. Nelson managed to escape back to Louisville. Smith marched into Lexington and sent a Confederatecavalry force to takeFrankfort:Kentucky's capitol.
Union GeneralDon Carlos Buell's army withdrew fromAlabama and headed back to Kentucky. Union GeneralHenry Halleck, commander of all Union forces in the West, sent two divisions from General Ulysses Grant's army, stationed inMississippi, to Buell. Confederate GeneralJohn Hunt Morgan, of Lexington, Kentucky, managed to destroy the L&Nrailroad tunnel atGallatin, Tennessee, cutting off all supplies to Buell's Union army. On September 5, Buell reachedMurfreesboro, Tennessee, and headed for Nashville. On September 14, Bragg reachedGlasgow, Kentucky. On that same day, Buell reachedBowling Green, Kentucky.
Bragg decided to take Louisville. One of the major objectives of the Confederate campaign in Kentucky was to seize theLouisville and Portland Canal and sever Union supply routes on the Ohio River. One Confederate officer suggested destroying the Louisville canal so completely that "future travelers would hardly know where it was." On September 16, Bragg's army reachedMunfordville, Kentucky. Col. James Chalmers attacked the Federalgarrison at Munfordville, but Bragg had to bail him out. Bragg arrived at Munfordville with his entire force, and the Union force soon surrendered.
Buell left Bowling Green and headed for Louisville. Fearing that Buell would not arrive in Louisville to prevent Bragg's army from capturing the city, Union General William "Bull" Nelson ordered the construction of a hasty defensive line around the city. He also ordered the placement ofpontoon bridges across the Ohio to facilitate the evacuation of the city or to receive reinforcements from Indiana. Two pontoon bridges built of coal barges were erected, one at the location of theBig Four Bridge, and the other fromPortland toNew Albany. The Union Army arrived in time to prevent the Confederate seizure of the city. On September 25, Buell's tired and hungry men arrived in the city.
Bragg moved his army toBardstown but did not take Louisville. Bragg urged General Smith to join his forces to take Louisville, but Smith told him to take Louisville on his own.
With the Confederate army under Bragg preparing to attack Louisville, the citizens of Louisville panicked. On September 22, 1862, General Nelson issued an evacuation order: "The women and children of this city will prepare to leave the city without delay." He ordered theJeffersonville ferry to be used for military purposes only. Private vehicles were not allowed to go aboard the ferry boats without a special permit. Hundreds of Louisville residents gathered at the wharf for boats to New Albany or Jeffersonville. With Frankfort in Confederate hands for about a month,GovernorMagoffin maintained his office in Louisville and thestate legislature held their sessions in theJefferson County Courthouse. Troops, volunteers and impressed labor worked around the clock to build a ring ofbreastworks andentrenchments around the city. New Union regiments flowed into the city. General William "Bull" Nelson took charge of the defense of Louisville. He sent Union troops to buildpontoon bridges at Jeffersonville and New Albany to speed up the arrival of reinforcements, supplies and, if needed, theemergency evacuation of the city.
Instead of taking Louisville, Bragg left Bardstown to install ConfederateGovernorRichard Hawes at Frankfort. On September 26, five hundred Confederate cavalrymen rode into the area of Eighteenth and Oak, capturing fifty Union soldiers. Confederates placed pickets aroundMiddletown on the 26th, and on the 27th their soldiers repelled Union forces from Middletown nearShelbyville Pike.[5] Southern forces reached two miles from the city, but were not numerous enough to invade it. On September 30, Confederate and Union pickets fought at Gilman's Point inSt. Matthews and pushed the Confederates back through Middletown to Floyd's Fork.[6]
TheWar Department ordered "Bull" Nelson to command the newly formedArmy of the Ohio. When Louisville prepared for the Confederate army under Bragg, GeneralJefferson C. Davis (not to be confused with Confederate PresidentJefferson Davis), who could not reach his command under General Don Carlos Buell, met with General Nelson to offer his services. General Nelson gave him the command of the city militia. General Davis opened an office and assisted organizing the city militia. On Wednesday, General Davis visited General Nelson in his room at theGalt House. General Davis told General Nelson that his brigade he assigned Davis was ready for service and asked if he could obtain arms for them. This led to an argument in which Nelson threatened Davis with arrest. General Davis left the room, and, in order to avoid arrest, crossed over the river to Jeffersonville, where he remained until the next day, when GeneralStephen G. Burbridge joined him. General Burbridge had also been relieved of command by General Nelson for a trivial cause. General Davis went toCincinnati with General Burbridge and reported to General Wright, who ordered General Davis to return to Louisville and report to General Buell, and General Burbridge to remain in Cincinnati.
General Davis returned to Louisville and reported to Buell. When General Davis saw General Nelson in the main hall of the Galt House, fronting the office, he asked theGovernor of Indiana,Oliver Morton to witness the conversation between him and General Nelson. The Governor agreed and the two walked up to General Nelson. General Davis confronted General Nelson and told him that he took advantage of his authority. Their argument escalated and Nelson slapped Davis in the face, challenging him to a duel. In three minutes, Davis returned, with a pistol he had borrowed, and shot and killed Nelson. The General whispered: "It's all over," and died fifteen minutes later.[7]
With General Nelson dead, the command switched over to General Don Carlos Buell. On October 1, the Union army marched out of Louisville with sixty thousand men. Buell sent a small Federal force to Frankfort to deceive Bragg as to the exact direction and location of the Federal army. The ruse worked. On October 4, the small Federal force attacked Frankfort and Bragg left the city and headed back for Bardstown, thinking the entire Federal force was headed for Frankfort. Bragg decided that all Confederate forces should concentrate atHarrodsburg, Kentucky, ten miles (16 km) northwest of Danville. On October 8, 1862, Buell and Bragg fought atPerryville, Kentucky. Bragg's 16,000 men attacked Buell's 60,000 men. Federal forces suffered 845 dead, 2,851 wounded and 515 missing, while the Confederate toll was 3,396. Although Bragg won theBattle of Perryville tactically, he wisely decided to pull out of Perryville and link up with Smith. Once Smith and Bragg joined forces, Bragg decided to leave Kentucky and head for Tennessee.
After the battle, thousands of wounded men flooded into Louisville. Hospitals were set up in public schools, homes, factories and churches. The Fifth Ward School, built at 5th and York Streets in 1855, became Military Hospital Number Eight. TheUnited States Marine Hospital also became a hospital for the wounded Union soldiers from the battle of Perryville. Constructed between 1845 and 1852, the three-story Greek revival style Louisville Marine Hospital contained one hundred beds. It became the prototype for sevenU.S. Marine Hospital Service buildings, includingPaducah, Kentucky, which later becameFort Anderson. Union surgeons erected theBrown General Hospital, located near the Belknap campus of theUniversity of Louisville, and other hospitals were erected at Jeffersonville and New Albany, Indiana. By early 1863, theWar Department and theU.S. Sanitary Commission erected nineteen hospitals. By early June 1863, 930 deaths had been recorded in the Louisville hospitals.Cave Hill Cemetery set aside plots for the Union dead.
Louisville also had to contend with Confederate prisoners. Located at the corner of Green Street and 5th Street, the Union Army Prison, also called the "LouisvilleMilitary Prison", took over the old "Medical College building." Union authorities moved the prison near the corner of 10th and Broadway Streets. By August 27, 1862, Confederateprisoners of war were taken to the new military prison. The old facility continued to house new companies of Provost Guards. From October 1, 1862, to December 14, 1862, the new Louisville Military Prison housed 3,504 prisoners. In December 1863, the prison held over 2,000 men, includingpolitical prisoners, Union deserters, and Confederate prisoners of war.
Made of wood, the prison covered an entirecity block, stretching from east to west between 10th and 11th Streets and north to south between Magazine and Broadway Streets. Its main entrance was located on Broadway near 10th Street. A high fence surrounded the prison with at least two prison barracks. The prison hospital was attached to the prison and consisted of two barracks on the south and west sides of the square with forty beds in each building. The Union commander at the Louisville Military Prison was Colonel Dent. In April 1863, Captain Stephen E. Jones succeeded him. In October 1863, military authorities replaced Captain Jones with C. B. Pratt.[8]
A block away, Union authorities took over a large house on Broadway between 12th and 13th Streets and converted it into a military prison for women.
On September 22, 1862,PresidentLincoln issued theEmancipation Proclamation, which declared that as of January 1, 1863, allslaves in therebellion states would be free. Although this did not affect slaveholding in Kentucky at the time, owners felt threatened. Some Kentucky Union soldiers, including Colonel Frank Wolford of the 1st Kentucky Cavalry, quit the army in protest of freeing the slaves. The proclamation presaged an end to slavery.
So many slaves arrived at the Union camp that the Army set up acontraband camp to accommodate them. The ReverendThomas James, anAfrican Methodist Episcopalminister from New York, supervised activities at the camp and set up a church and school for the refugees. Both adults and children started learning to read. Under direction by generalsStephen G. Burbridge andJohn M. Palmer, James monitored conditions at prisons and could call on US troops to protect slaves from being held illegally, which he did several times.[9]
The Union's recruitment of slaves into the army (which gained them freedom) turned some slaveholders in Kentucky against the US government. In later years, the depredations ofguerrilla warfare in the state, together with Union measures to try to suppress it, and the excesses of General Burbridge asmilitary governor of Kentucky, were probably more significant in alienating more citizens. Civic rights were overridden during the crisis. These issues turned many against the Republican administration.
After the war ended, theDemocrats regained power in central and western Kentucky, which the former slaveholders and their culture dominated. Because this area was the more populous and the Democrats also passed legislation essentiallydisfranchising freedmen, the white Democrats controlled politics in the state and sent mostly their representatives to Congress for a century.[10] In the mid-1960s, the federalCivil Rights Act andVoting Rights Act ended legalsegregation of public facilities and protected voting rights of minorities.
TheTaylor Barracks at Third and Oak in Louisville recruitedblack soldiers for theUnited States Colored Troops. Slaves gained freedom in exchange for service to the Union. Slave women married to USCT men received freedom, as well. To secure legal freedom for the many slave women arriving alone at the contraband camp, Burbridge directed James to marry them to available USCT soldiers, if both parties were willing.[9] Black Union soldiers who died in service were buried in Louisville'sEastern Cemetery.
In the Summer of 1863, ConfederateJohn Hunt Morgan violated orders and led hisfamous raid into Ohio and Indiana to give the northern states a taste of the war. He traveled with his troops through north-central Kentucky, trekking from Bardstown to Garnettsville, a now defunct town inOtter Creek Park. They took the Lebanon garrison, capturing hundreds of Union soldiers and then releasing them on parole. Before crossing theOhio River into Indiana, Morgan and his crew arrived inBrandenburg, where they proceeded to capture two steamers, theJohn B. McCombs and theAlice Dean; theAlice Dean burned after their crossing.
After the fall ofNew Orleans and the capture ofVicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, 1863, theMississippi andOhio Rivers were open to Union boats without harassment. On December 24, 1863, asteamboat from New Orleans reached Louisville.
In late 1863, GeneralHugh Ewing,brother-in-law to General Sherman, was appointed Military Commander of Louisville.
Widespreadguerrilla warfare in the state meant a widespread breakdown in the society, causing residents to suffer. In Kentucky, the Union defined a guerrilla as any member of theConfederate army who destroyed supplies, equipment or money. On January 12, 1864, Union GeneralStephen G. Burbridge, formerly supervising Louisville, succeeded GeneralJeremiah Boyle as Military Commander of Kentucky.
On February 4, 1864, at theGalt House, Union generalsUlysses S. Grant,William S. Rosecrans,George Stoneman,Thomas L. Crittenden,James S. Wadsworth,David Hunter,John Schofield,Alexander McCook,Robert Allen,George Thomas, Stephen Burbridge and Read Admiral David Porter met to discuss the most important campaign of the war. It would divide the Confederacy into three parts. In a follow-up meeting on March 19, generals Grant andWilliam Tecumseh Sherman met at the Galt House to plan the Spring campaign. (As of 2014[update], that these meetings actually occurred has fallen into dispute.[11]) Grant took on Confederate GeneralRobert E. Lee atRichmond and Sherman confronted GeneralJoseph E. Johnston,capturing Atlanta, Georgia, in the process.[12]
On February 21, 1864,Jefferson General Hospital, the third-largest hospital during the Civil War, was established across theOhio River atPort Fulton, Indiana, to tend to soldiers injured due to the war.
On July 5, 1864,PresidentAbraham Lincoln temporarily suspended the writ ofhabeas corpus, which meant a person could be imprisoned withouttrial, his house searched without warrant, and the individual arrested without charge. Lincoln also declaredmartial law in Kentucky, which meant that military authorities had the ultimate rule.Civilians accused of crimes would be tried not in a civilian court, but instead amilitary court, in which the citizen's rights were not held as under theConstitution. On the same day, General Burbridge was appointed military governor of Kentucky with absolute authority.[13]
On July 16, 1864, Burbridge issued Order No. 59: "Whenever an unarmed Union citizen is murdered, four guerrillas will be selected from the prison and publicly shot to death at the most convenient place near the scene of the outrages."[14] On August 7, Burbridge issued Order No. 240 in which Kentucky became amilitary district under his direct command. Burbridge could seize property without trial from persons he deemed disloyal. He could also execute suspects without trial or question.
During the months of July and August, Burbridge initiated building more fortifications in Kentucky, although Sherman's march through Georgia effectively reduced the Confederate threat to Kentucky. Burbridge received permission from Union General John Schofield to build fortifications inMount Sterling, Lexington, Frankfort and Louisville. Each location was to have a small enclosed field work of about two hundred yards along the interior crest, except for Louisville, which would be five hundred yards. Otherearthworks were planned to follow in Louisville. All the works were to be built by soldiers, except at Frankfort, where the state would assign workers, and at Louisville, where the city would manage it. Lt. Colonel. J. H, Simpson, of the Federal Engineers, furnished the plans and engineering force.
Eleven forts protected the city in a ring about ten miles (16 km) long fromBeargrass Creek to Paddy's Run. The first work built was Fort McPherson, which commanded the approaches to the city via the Shepherdsville Pike, Third Street Road, and the L&N Railroad. The fort was to serve as acitadel if an attack came before the other forts were completed. The fort could house one thousand men. GeneralHugh Ewing, Union commander in Louisville, directing that municipal authorities furnish laborers for fortifications, ordered the arrest of all "loafers found about gambling and other disreputable establishments" in the city forconstruction work, and assigned military convicts as laborers. It was typical of military commanders to press citizens into service.
Each fort was a basic earth-and-timber structure surrounded by a ditch with a movabledrawbridge at the entrance to the fort. Each was furnished with an undergroundmagazine to house two hundred rounds of artillery shells. The eleven forts occupied the most commanding positions to provide interlocking cross fire between them. A supply of entrenching tools was collected and stored for emergency construction of additional batteries and infantry entrenchments between the fortifications. As it happened, the guns in the Louisville forts were never fired except for salutes.
With orders No. 59 and No. 240, Burbridge began a campaign to suppress guerrilla activity in Kentucky and Louisville. On August 11, Burbridge commanded Captain Hackett of the26th Kentucky to select four men to be taken from prison in Louisville toEminence,Henry County, Kentucky, to be shot for unidentified outrages. On August 20, suspected Confederate guerrillas J. H. Cave and W. B. McClasshan were taken from Louisville toFranklin,Simpson County, to be shot for an unidentified reason. Thecommanding officer General Ewing declared that Cave was innocent and sought apardon from Burbridge, but he refused. Both men were shot.[15]
On October 25, Burbridge ordered four men, Wilson Lilly, Sherwood Hartley, Captain Lindsey Dale Buckner and M. Bincoe, to be shot by Captain Rowland Hackett of Company B, 26th Kentucky for the alleged killing of apostal carrier near Brunerstown (present dayJeffersontown). This was in retaliation for the killing by guerrillas allegedly led by CaptainMarcellus Jerome Clarke, sometimes called "Sue Mundy". On November 6, two men named Cheney and Morris were taken from the prison in Louisville and transported toMunfordville and shot in retaliation for the killing of Madison Morris, of Company A,13th Kentucky Infantry. James Hopkins, John Simple and Samuel Stingle were taken from Louisville toBloomfield,Nelson County, and shot in retaliation for the alleged guerrilla shooting of two black men. On November 15, two Confederate soldiers were taken from prison in Louisville toLexington andhung at the Fair Grounds in retaliation. On November 19, eight men were taken from Louisville to Munfordville to be shot for retaliation for the killing of two Union men.[16]
By the end of 1864, Burbridge ordered the arrest of twenty-one prominent Louisville citizens, plus the chief justice of theState Court of Appeals, ontreason charges. He had captured guerrillas brought to Louisville and hanged on Broadway at 15th or 18th Streets. General Ewing was effectively out of the loop and often bedridden from attacks ofrheumatism. As he was ordered to rejoin his brother-in-law General Sherman, Ewing has escaped the condemnation of Burbridge's actions in Louisville.
By theNovember elections of 1864, Burbridge tried to interfere with the election for president. Despite military interference, Kentuckycitizens voted overwhelmingly for Union GeneralGeorge B. McClellan over Lincoln. Twelve counties were not allowed to post their returns.[17] In December 1864, President Lincoln appointedJames Speed as theU.S. Attorney General.[18]
Although the Confederacy began to fall apart in January 1865,Burbridge continued executingguerrillas. On January 20, 1865, Nathaniel Marks, formerly of Company A,4th Kentucky, C.S. was condemned as a guerrilla. He claimed his innocence, but was shot by afiring squad in Louisville. On February 10, Burbridge's term as military governor came to an end.Secretary of WarEdwin Stanton replaced Burbridge withMajor GeneralJohn Palmer.
On March 12, Union forces captured 20-year-old CaptainM. Jerome Clarke, the alleged "Sue Mundy", along with Henry Medkiff andHenry C. Magruder, ten miles (16 km) south ofBrandenburg nearBreckinridge County. The Union Army hanged Clarke three days later just west of the corner of 18th and Broadway in Louisville, after a military trial in which he was charged as a guerrilla. During the secret three-hour trial, Clarke was not allowed counsel or witnesses for his defense, although he asked to be treated as a prisoner of war. Magruder was allowed to recover from war injuries before being executed by hanging on October 29.[19]
On April 9,Confederate GeneralRobert E. Lee surrendered to Union GeneralUlysses Grant, and on April 14, Confederate GeneralJoseph Johnston surrendered to Union GeneralWilliam T. Sherman, ending theCivil War.
On May 15, Louisville became a mustering-out center for troops from midwestern and western states. On June 4, 1865, military authorities established the headquarters of the Union Armies of the West in Louisville. During June 1865, 96,796 troops and 8,896 animals leftWashington, D.C., for the Ohio Valley. There 70,000 men took steamboats to Louisville and the remainder embarked forSt. Louis and Cincinnati. The troops boarded ninety-two steamboats at Parkersburg and descended the river in convoys of eight boats, to the sounds of cheering crowds and booming cannon salutes at every port city. For several weeks, Union soldiers crowded Louisville. On July 4, 1865, Union General William T. Sherman visited Louisville to conduct a final inspection of the Armies of the West. By mid-July the Armies of the West disbanded and the soldiers headed home.
Due to the Emancipation Proclamation, the severity of martial law under Burbridge and the enlistment of Kentucky slaves into Union regiments (Kentucky had the 2nd largest African American Union enlistment only behind Louisiana), Union support among native Kentuckians greatly diminished by war's end. This is documented in Louisville by prominent Washington, D.C. journalistWhitelaw Reid, who accompanied Chief JusticeSalmon P. Chase for a tour of the south from May 1, 1865, to May 1, 1866. Reid observed in 1865 "At Louisville a pleasant dinner party enabled us to meet the last collection of men from the midst of a Rebel community. At that time there was more loyalty in Nashville than in Louisville, and about as much in Charleston as in either. For the first and only time on the trip, save while we were under the Spanish flag, slaves waited on us at dinner. They were the last any of us were ever to see on American soil." This sentiment is also evident in the daily violence between Louisville citizens and the Union soldiers mustering out of the city to their home states during this period in what was known as the "war after the war" throughout the state.[20][21]
On December 18, theKentucky legislature repealed the Expatriation Act of 1861, allowing all who served in the Confederacy to have their full Kentuckycitizenship restored without fear of retribution. The legislature also repealed the law that defined any person who was a member of the Confederacy as guilty oftreason. The Kentucky legislature allowed former Confederates to run for office. On February 28, 1866, Kentucky officially declared the war over.[22]
After the war, Louisville returned to growth, with an increase in manufacturing, establishment of new factories, and transporting goods by train. The new industrial jobs attracted both black rural workers, including freedmen from the South, and foreignimmigrants. It was a city of opportunity for them. Ex-Confederate officers entered law, insurance,real estate and political offices, largely taking control of the city. This led to the jibe that Louisville joined theConfederacy after the war was over.
Women sympathizing with the Confederacy organized many groups, including in Kentucky. During the postwar years, Confederate women ensured the burial of the dead, including sometimes allocating certain cemeteries or sections to Confederate veterans, and raised money to build memorials to the war and their losses. By the 1890s, the memorial movement came under the control of theUnited Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) andUnited Confederate Veterans (UCV), who promoted the "Lost Cause". Making meaning after the war was another way of writing its history.[23] In 1895, the women's group supported the erection of aConfederate monument near theUniversity of Louisville campus.
"The Lost Cause" movement in Louisville primarily occurred between 1865 and 1935. This is due to most native Kentuckians coming to regret their decision to support the Union due to the war's upending of the antebellum racial and social hierarchy in Kentucky. One of the most notable personalities of Louisville during this time was that of Henry Watterson, a Confederate veteran and editor in chief of the newly formedCourier-Journal (1868). He was a major proponent of theNew South Creed which emphasized a vision of a prosperous and independent South within an expanding American empire. He is the person who coined Louisville as being "The Gateway to the South". Watterson was one of the most important and widely read newspaper editors in American history. In the late 19th century theCourier-Journal had the largest circulation of any paper outside of New York and was the paper of record for Kentucky and that of the entire south. TheCourier-Journal had four times the circulation of fellow New South advocateHenry W. Grady'sAtlanta Constitution.[24][25]
Around 1864–65, city defenses, including eleven forts ordered by Union GeneralStephen G. Burbridge, formed a ring about ten miles (16 km) long fromBeargrass Creek to Paddy's Run. Nothing remains of these constructions.[26] They included, from east to west:
Also in the area were Camp Gilbert (1862) and Camp C. F. Smith (1862), both at undetermined locations.
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