Creating a Confederate Kentucky: The Lost Cause and Civil War Memory in a Border State

Civil War America

by Anne E. Marshall

Historian E. Merton Coulter famously said that Kentucky "waited until after the war was over to secede from the Union." In this fresh study, Anne E. Marshall traces the development of a Confederate identity in Kentucky between 1865 and 1925 that belied the fact that Kentucky never left the Union and that more Kentuckians fought for the North than for the South. Following the Civil War, the people of Kentucky appeared to forget their Union loyalties, embracing the Democratic politics, racial violence, and Jim Crow laws associated with formerly Confederate states. Although, on the surface, white Confederate memory appeared to dominate the historical landscape of postwar Kentucky, Marshall's closer look reveals an active political and cultural dialogue that included white Unionists, Confederate Kentuckians, and the state's African Americans, who, from the last days of the war, drew on Union victory and their part in winning it to lay claim to the fruits of freedom and citizenship.
Rather than focusing exclusively on postwar political and economic factors, "Creating a Confederate Kentucky" looks over the longer term at Kentuckians' activities--public memorial ceremonies, dedications of monuments, and veterans organizations' events--by which they commemorated the Civil War and fixed the state's remembrance of it for sixty years following the conflict.

Genres: History, Civil War, Race, American History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2010

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

No state had a more interesting transformation after the Civil War than Kentucky, the only state that became confederate after the war was over.

I’ve always wondered why a state that stayed loyal to the Union all the way through the Civil War ended up with so many confederate monuments, and only three Union monuments. The answer: Kentuckians were loyal to the Union because they had been told the war was about keeping the country together. They just did not care about black people, and when it became apparent that the main end-goal of the war was freeing blacks from slavery, Kentuckians became apathetic about Union memory.

So when lawless bands of ex-confederate criminals started terrorizing (mostly black) citizens, the elected representatives in Frankfort didn’t care enough to do anything about it. Before long, Kentucky descended into near-anarchy. Kentucky was seen by the rest of the country as a disgrace, and completely lawless.

This is an academic book, but Marshall writes it in a very interesting way, bringing in sources from not only Kentucky but around the country to paint a picture of what life in the state was like in the post-war years. This is a great political and social history of Kentucky at that time.

Notes:

- The Kindle version of this book is poorly edited.
- One of the issues that made Kentucky fall into lawlessness so quickly was that face that Kentucky had (and still has) 120 counties, meaning 120 “little kingdoms” that all had their own laws. Kentucky’s state government was unwilling to do much to help, but also a little too weak to help.
- I never knew just how much confederate propaganda there was in Kentucky in those years, from the Uncle Tom’s Cabin Law, which was designed to keep depictions of how slaves were treated out of plays and performances, to all of Kentucky’s schools receiving portraits of Jefferson Davis as gifts from confederate groups.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. Dr. Marshall puts forth the idea that Kentucky was a staunch Union state during the war, but spend the decades after glorifying her Confederate past. The state erected dozens of Confederate monuments and celebrates Confederate holidays and heroes. Each chapter of the book offers unique insights to a fascinating state. Anyone interested in Civil War history or Southern history will find this book a good read.

[Charlsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt more like case study essays packed together rather than a comprehensive narrative or analysis. I was somewhat disappointed in the frequent focus on Louisville, since as any Kentuckian will tell you, we are much more than Louisville. I did not get a clear picture of the Lost Cause in Kentucky from this book.

[Julie Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sheds light on our border state that never left the Union - and its revisionist history that celebrated the Confederacy decades after the fact, in an effort to deny and then delay civil rights. So much better than the similarly titled book “How Kentucky Became Southern.” Very solid research and broad scope.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kentucky, the birthplace to both Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, never joined the confederacy during the Civil War, but teetered on the edge. Lincoln famously said he wants God on his side, but he must have Kentucky. Historian E Merton Coulter also said Kentucky waited until after the War to secede. Very well researched book about Kentucky and those years after the Civil War

[Chris Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully insightful book about a border state that after the conflict took on a new identity, based upon how they were treated as part of post war reconstruction. This is my mother’s home state and so I was very interested to read more about the bluegrass state.

[Sandra Oldfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read of the Lost Cause from border Kentucky's perspective

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for comps

[Maryroseanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is scholarly, but also accessible. I learned a lot about my own reactions, misconceptions and especially public policy decisions. There is no question that Kentucky is a wonderful place in many ways, but also that it is plagued by on-going racism and bigotry. We live out lives surrounded by unconscious belief systems and Anne Marshall shines a light on where some of these came from. I highly recommend this to anyone who cares about history, human rights, public monuments:), or race relations.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every Kentuckian should read this book. It's very academic and a bit dry in places, but it explains so much about the state and why so many people identify as Southerners. Kentucky, as the book points out, did not leave the Union -- until after the war. I was fascinated by how Southern sympathizers managed to take political power following the war.

[Christopher Walls · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of my unknown delusions about Kentucky have been answered. Does a good job of explaining the post American Civil War mentality/delusion?

[Jason S · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting account of contested memories of the Civil War in Kentucky. Concise and drawing on a variety of different sources.