The Civil War in Kentucky

The Civil War in Kentucky
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The elections in 1860 in the United States enthroned Abraham Lincoln, a president that ran on a platform that was against slavery in the Union. His stance on slavery coerced many southern states to secede from the union to form a confederacy, which was under Jefferson Davis’ provisional presidency. This is because they believed that Lincoln stance on slavery would pose a threat to their lucrative slave trade business and cotton farming. They maintained their stance notwithstanding that Lincoln had communicated his intentions to maintain the status quo in areas where the practice had already been established.
Prior to the time where many states in the south split from the federal union, Kentucky was part of the union. Kentuckians were divided on issues that related to the civil war and had sympathizers supporting both the confederacy and the union. This political position resulted in their neutral stance on secession where the state’s lawmakers failed to approve withdrawing their membership in the federal union during voting. In June of 1861, a special election for Congress produced nine representatives that supported the union and only one representative that supported the confederacy. In the following state assembly elections, the union gained the majority position, which shattered the neutrality position. The confederate and the union states were building the army troops, which staged attacks upon each other over a four-year civil war period of1861-1865. Kentucky did not eventually join the confederacy implying that it remained in the union throughout the civil war period. During the neutrality period the governor Beriah Magoffin who covertly supported the confederacy also failed to vote to contribute troops to the union’s army indicating that the confederates were sister states.  Kentucky’s citizens enrolled in both confederacy troops and union troops, which staged numerous attacks against each other throughout the civil war period. This is because it had both south and north sympathizers who fought relentlessly until the north captured the bowling green area forcing the southern sympathizers to stage attacks from mere tents until 1865.
Kentucky was a very important state in the development of the civil war particularly because the state was on the divide between the North, which was composed of union sympathizers, and the South, which was predominantly a confederacy. 1861 marked the inception of the war with the confederacy initiating attacks on Fort Sumter triggering federal troops to return fire. Lincoln and Jefferson hailed from Kentucky and Lincoln was determined to ensure that Kentucky remained in the union. Lincoln established an army in Kentucky’s northern borders occupying Louisville, Ind...