![]() ![]() As long as the Confederacy survived, they could not, in a very real sense, go home again. These men left their homes and families to serve the Confederacy, and when the state remained in the Union, they were essentially cut off from the lives they previously had known. ![]() The largest formation of Kentucky soldiers raised by either North or South during the Civil War, the 1st Kentucky has become known to history as the Orphan Brigade. The story of the Confederate 1st Kentucky Brigade is indicative of the tragedy spawned by divided loyalties among the citizens of a state. Perhaps more than any other state, the Bluegrass State would come to know the dreadful meaning of the phrase “brother against brother.” Restructuring the Kentucky State Guard Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin. Johnson, and the late Senator Henry Clay, architect of the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 that had staved off civil war for a while, was not to be spared. ![]() The home state of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, former U.S. A flimsy proclamation of neutrality issued in May 1861 had little lasting effect. However, the hope that Kentucky might avert its share of the sorrow and destruction to come proved fleeting. Despite their personal loyalties, Magoffin and other prominent Kentuckians sought to avert secession, maintain the Commonwealth’s neutrality, and possibly play a role as a mediator in the conflict. For years, partisan rhetoric and posturing had wracked the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and by the spring of 1861, when both Unionists and Southern sympathizers were in the midst of raising and training their own state militias, nearly 20 percent of the population was slaves. “I will send not a man nor a dollar for the wicked purpose of subduing my sister Southern states,” he said.Īlthough Magoffin was forceful in his reply, the governor apparently did not speak for the majority of his own people. Pro-Southern Governor Beriah Magoffin’s response was terse and to the point. Their purpose was to augment the Federal Army that would put down the burgeoning rebellion and save the Union. On April 15, 1861, three days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteer troops. ![]()
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