The South Carolina of Kentucky Part V:
War Comes to the Jackson Purchase
Written by Justin Lamb
Kentucky’s First District Congressman Henry C. Burnett was expelled from Congress for his ties to the Confederacy. He would later serve as Confederate Senator for the State of Kentucky.
(Courtesy of National Archives)
“When the bow-legged, wooden shoed, sour craut stinking, bologna sausage eating, hen roost robbin’, Dutch sons of bitches had accomplished the brilliant feat of taking down the Secession flag on the river bank, they were pointed to another flag of the same description…and dared to take that flag down as well.” William Howard Russell, a reporter for the London Times was in the Purchase area covering the secession crisis when he overheard an unidentified Purchase citizen protesting the removal of a Confederate flag over the banks of Columbus by Federal forces stationed across the river in Cairo.
Tensions were high in the Purchase as talks of a coming war were spouted freely. “In those border states, the coming war promises to bring misery. They will be the scenes of hostile operations, the population is divided in sentiment; the greatest efforts will be made by each side to gain the ascendancy in the State, and to crush the opposition faction, and it is not possible to believe that Kentucky can maintain a neutral position,” Russell wrote. Federal troops were stationed in Cairo, Illinois awaiting orders to cross the river into the Purchase.
Spirited feelings had given away to violent actions in the Purchase as Southern sympathizers began terrorizing their Unionist neighbors. The editor of the Louisville Daily Democrat, reported that “a Union man is constantly in danger” in the Purchase and pro-Southern citizens had become “violent and vindictive.” The Daily Democrat also detailed a story where a group of young men were taken to Graves County and shot after refusing service in the Confederate Army. The Louisville Journal ran an article detailing the case of a Union family who was warned to leave the town of Columbus by a Confederate Solider from nearby Union City, Tennessee. The family was warned to leave or face hanging. Many Union families fled to Cairo, Illinois to seek protection. Vigilante groups became rampant and pro-Southern citizens formed militias to protect from a possible Northern invasion while Union Home Guards had the backing of the Kentucky state government.
By September 1861, Kentucky’s neutrality would be broken as both Confederate and Union troops moved into the Jackson Purchase region. The river town of Columbus was of great importance to both the Confederacy and Union prompting Confederate General Leonidas Polk to write Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin, “I think it is of great importance that I should be well informed of the future plans and policy of the Southern party in Kentucky so as to shape my policy accordingly.” Polk was referring to the bluffs at Columbus along the Mississippi which he deemed as necessary for defending the state of Tennessee from a Yankee attack.
Across the Mississippi River in Missouri, Federal forces were also watching Columbus closely. Union General and former Republican presidential nominee John C. Fremont occupied the Missouri town of Belmont located directly across the river from Columbus. He imposed martial law and ordered any Southern sympathizer shot and their slaves freed. In a letter to General Ulysses S. Grant, Fremont wrote that he intended to control the Kentucky town of Columbus “as soon as possible.”
Alarmed at various Union maneuvers near the town of Columbus, a mass meeting of “native Kentuckians” took place in Memphis, Tennessee to draft a resolution to encourage the Confederate Army to rescue Kentucky from the “hordes who are endeavoring to subjugate that noble state.” On September 3, their calls were answered when Confederate General Gideon Johnson Pillow upon orders from General Polk crossed into the Jackson Purchase in the city of Hickman. When word reached Confederate Secretary of War Leroy Pope Walker, he condemned the orders placed by Polk and demanded they withdraw from Kentucky at once. Polk defended his decision to Confederate President Jefferson Davis as a means of protecting the pro-Confederate citizenry of the Jackson Purchase.
As the Confederate Army marched toward Columbus, they were met with the cheers and jubilation of the local residents. Private John Milton Hubbard of the Seventh Tennessee Cavalry later wrote in his diary, the citizens of the Purchase shouted “Hurrah for Jeff Davis and the Southern Confederacy” as the troops arrived and one girl in Graves County “trampled the Stars and Stripes.” Hubbard explained the glorious welcome the Confederates received in the Purchase, “the Kentuckians seemed to be pleased with our coming and recruiting went forward accordingly…we made long marches through the Purchase and saw many evidences of Southern sympathy. Indeed the whole population seemed to be friendly to us.”
The Confederate occupation of Hickman and Columbus was a violation of Kentucky’s neutrality policy and gave Union General Ulysses Grant the opening he was waiting for to invade Kentucky. Stationed across the river in Cairo, Illinois, Grant armed with two gunboats and three steam boats led the 9th Illinois, the 12th Illinois, and Smith’s Battery down the river to Paducah. General Grant’s report to his commanding officer General John Fremont read, “Arrived at Paducah at 8.30 this morning. Found numerous secession flags flying over the city, and the citizens in anticipation of the approach of the rebel army, which was reliably reported 3,800 strong 16 miles distant. As we neared the city Brigadier-General Tilghman and staff, of the rebel army, and a recruiting major with a company raised in Paducah, left the city by the railroad, taking with them all the rolling stock. I landed the troops and took possession of the city without firing a gun.”
With the occupation of Paducah and a Confederate defeat at the Battle of Belmont which placed Columbus in Union hands, the Jackson Purchase would be under Union control for the remainder of the war and further dashed any hopes of a Kentucky secession. Though the Yankee Army militarily controlled the Purchase, the area was still solidly with the Rebel cause which had intensified further due to the Yankee invasion. On August 3, 1864, an article in the Louisville Journal reported solider totals for each of Kentucky’s nine congressional district for each side of the war. The report showed that nearly 100,000 statewide had served the Union Army. However, only 1,154 men from the entire First Congressional District donned Yankee blue and only 560 came from the Jackson Purchase. Fulton County sent not a single man to fight for the Union Army. Approximately 40,000 Kentucky fought for the Confederacy with a majority coming from the First Congressional District.
With the increased Union military presence in the state and Frankfort’s commitment to the Union cause, statewide secessionist leaders grew restless and called a convention for November 18 in the town of Russellville located just east of the Purchase in Logan County. Over 200 delegates from 61 counties took part in the convention which “cut ties with state government” and sided with the Confederacy. Several Jackson Purchase men was active in the convention including State Representative Jess Gilbert of Marshall County who would be expelled from the General Assembly due to his ties with the Confederacy and was replaced with Unionist Wiley Waller. Gilbert would later serve in the Confederate army. Henry C. Burnett, though still an active member in the United States Congress, presided over the Russellville Convention which declared, “Kentucky to be a free and independent state, clothed with all power to fix her own destiny and to secure her own rights and liberties.” In December, in large part to the work of Congressman Burnett, Kentucky was admitted to the Confederacy and a provisional Confederate government was put into place. Burnett was appointed as Confederate Senator for the State of Kentucky while he was still serving as United States Congressman. Burnett was eventually expelled from the United States Congress and Unionist Samuel Casey was appointed to take his place. Confederate loyalty was deep in the Purchase, but a Union crackdown of the area was on the horizon which would bring about a reign of terror that would live in the minds of Purchase residents for years to come.