“THE OLD FIRST IS WITH THE SOUTH”: THE CIVIL WAR, RECONSTRUCTION, AND MEMORY IN THE JACKSON PURCHASE REGION OF KENTUCKY Except where reference is made to the work of others, the work described in this dissertation is my own or was done in collaboration with my advisory committee. This dissertation does not include proprietary or classified information. ________________________________ Patricia Ann Hoskins __________________________ ___________________________ Anthony G. Carey Kenneth W. Noe, Chair Associate Professor Professor History History __________________________ ___________________________ David Carter George T. Flowers Professor Dean History Graduate School “THE OLD FIRST IS WITH THE SOUTH”: THE CIVIL WAR, RECONSTRUCTION, AND MEMORY IN THE JACKSON PURCHASE REGION OF KENTUCKY Patricia Ann Hoskins A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama May 9, 2008 “THE OLD FIRST IS WITH THE SOUTH”: THE CIVIL WAR, RECONSTRUCTION, AND MEMORY IN THE JACKSON PURCHASE REGION OF KENTUCKY Patricia Ann Hoskins Permission is granted to Auburn University to make copies of this dissertation at its discretion, upon request of individuals or institutions and at their expense. The author reserves all publication rights. ____________________________________ Signature of Author ____________________________________ Date of Graduation iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT “THE OLD FIRST IS WITH THE SOUTH”: THE CIVIL WAR, RECONSTRUCTION, AND MEMORY IN THE JACKSON PURCHASE REGION OF KENTUCKY Patricia Ann Hoskins Doctor of Philosophy, May 9, 2009 (M.A., Eastern Kentucky University, 2001) (B.A., Eastern Kentucky University 1998) 315 Typed Pages Directed by Kenneth W. Noe This dissertation examines the secession crisis and the Civil War as a watershed moment in the Jackson Purchase region of Kentucky. In 1819, following the acquisition of land from the Chickasaw, the Purchase became the last area added to Kentucky. It was settled by small farmers who migrated from the Bluegrass and Green River areas of the state, as well as other parts of the south, particularly Tennessee and North Carolina. During the antebellum period, the Purchase became a Democratic Party stronghold in a state dominated by the Whig Party. During the 1850s the area experienced an economic boom through river trade with the south and railroad construction. The improved cultivation of tobacco during the same period greatly increased the number of slaves and slaveholders at a time when the institution declined in the rest of the state. iv During the secession crisis, the Purchase was the only area of the state to overwhelmingly support John C. Breckinridge and agitate for separation from the Union. After Kentucky voted for neutrality, Purchase secessionists threatened to secede from Kentucky and join west Tennessee. In addition, the area contributed more soldiers to the Confederate Army than any other region of Kentucky. Yet from late 1861 to 1865, the Federal army occupied the Jackson Purchase. The area was overrun with guerrilla warfare and irregular activity. The 1864 so-called “reign of terror” instituted by Union General Eleazor A. Paine had a particularly profound effect on Purchase citizens. Federal occupation continued through Reconstruction as the area became one of the few regions of Kentucky to host a branch of the Freedman’s Bureau. In the decades following the Civil War the area increasingly celebrated its Confederate roots through veterans and memorial groups. Residents increasingly defined themselves through their wartime experiences. They added to their regional distinctiveness by emphasizing their southern roots and highlighting their devotion to the Confederacy. As such, they reinforced their “separate” identity from the rest of Kentucky. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing this dissertation has been one of the most rewarding, yet difficult processes I have encountered and I have many people to thank. I want to especially thank my advisor Dr. Kenneth Noe for always being honest with me. He had an inordinate amount of patience with me when my first dissertation topic fell through and likewise endured countless hours of me sitting in his office seeking his advice. If I can only be half the teacher, writer, and mentor that he is, I will have achieved something remarkable in my life. My husband Ray has been a rock through this process. He always encouraged me to get back on my feet when I felt like quitting and always believed in me. He also is to be commended for feigning interest when I excitedly talked about illicit trade and guerrilla warfare. He likewise was kind enough to accompany me to the Jackson Purchase on unforgettable research trips. Lastly, I want to thank my parents Patrick and Mary Ann Hoskins. Though he never had the opportunity to go to college, my father is an enthusiastic lover of history and politics and he transferred that love to me as a young girl. My mother has always been my loudest cheerleader, has talked me out of several panic attacks, and always pushed me on with the words “I have faith in you.” They have sacrificed throughout their lives to give my sisters and I what they never had. As such, I dedicate every page, sentence, and word of this dissertation to them. vi Style manual or journal used: The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th Edition. Computer software used: Microsoft Word vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction………………………………………………………………………………. .1 Chapter 1. “One of the Greatest Country’s in the World”: The Creation of the Purchase …………………………………………………………… 21 Chapter 2. “Our Boasted Constitution Was Simply a Sublime Farce”: The Politics of Separation in the Purchase……………………………………………... 62 Chapter 3. “Not a Shade’s Difference Between the Murderer and the Deceptious Yank”: War Comes to the Purchase,1861-1862…………………………... 104 Chapter 4. “Guerrillas, Horse-Thieves, and Robbers”: A New Phase of the War, 1862-1864………………………………………………...... 140 Chapter 5. “Are you people ready for the Federal Salvation?” Paine’s “Reign of Terror” and the Hardening of Federal Policy, 1864- 1865……………………………………………………………………………………..181 Chapter 6. “Enjoying my Freedom”: The End of the War and Reconstruction in the Purchase……………………………………………………. 220 Chapter 7. “The Antique Modes of the Chevaliers”: Race and Memory after Reconstruction…………………………………………………………………………. 264 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………… 293 viii INTRODUCTION Attention southern rights men, let’s show the submissionists of this State that the old first is with the South. -Congressman Henry C. Burnett, First Kentucky Congressional District, June 1861 In 1944, famed Paducah author, newspaper columnist, and humorist Irvin S. Cobb published an essay entitled “Away Back Yonder,” which detailed his life growing up in the Jackson Purchase area of Kentucky during the late 19th century. Schooled at the feet of ex-Confederates, Cobb was proud of what he saw as his distinctly “southern” heritage. Yet he eschewed the popular postwar image of Kentucky as a prewar land of Confederate gentry, sitting on their veranda’s sipping bourbon and counting their horses and slaves with equal enthusiasm. To him, the independent, Democratic-voting, small farmer of the Purchase was the real representative Kentuckian and southerner. Indeed, he consistently pointed to the Purchase as the only area of Kentucky to rightfully lay claim to Confederate heritage: Central Kentucky was divided and the mountains of eastern Kentucky might be overwhelmingly for the Federal cause, as they were, but these counties in the toe of the sock showed their sentiments in the latest election before avowed hostilities began, by sending to Washington as their representative an ardent advocate of secession—with a thumping big plurality behind him. To this modern day, Democratic spellbinders love to proclaim that of all the congressional districts in the whole country, this is the only one which, neither when armed troops held the polling places nor in the Carpetbagger period following, nor in any subsequent political upheaval, ever went Republican…Indeed, it 1 was said certain unreconstructable veterans insisted on voting for Jeff Davis every Presidential election.1 Cobb put to paper what white Purchase residents had long believed, namely that their region was different, more southern than the rest of Kentucky. That difference stemmed from the area’s late development, distinct settlements patterns, economic ties, political affiliation, and isolation from the rest of the Bluegrass state. Most importantly, however, they traced their uniqueness to their Civil War experiences. The following work explores how the Jackson Purchase became the most “southern” part of the Bluegrass State. * * * * * Kentucky is a difficult place to understand. Like many states, it has several geographic regions with distinctive cultural characteristics that prevent general classification. Much of the difficulty in defining Kentucky stems from the Civil War and the decades that followed. While Kentucky shared slavery and commerce with the South, it shied away from the separationist politics of the Democratic Party in favor of Henry Clay’s Whig ideals. When the political crisis of 1860-61 finally came, the state voted for Constitutional Unionist John Bell and chose to remain neutral. In what historian Anne Marshall has called “one of the great paradoxes of Civil War history” Kentuckians 1 Irvin S. Cobb, Exit Laughing, (Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill, 1941), 41. 2 nonetheless embraced the Lost