By Todd Hatton
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-964824.mp3
Murray, KY – During this U.S. Civil War sesquicentennial year, we've been looking back at events in the Commonwealth as the war began. Today on the Kentucky Civil War Dispatch, we'll meet some of the first Kentuckians who went off to fight, including some from the Jackson Purchase.
On this date in 1861, Confederate Secretary of War Leroy Pope Walker asked Gov. Beriah Magoffin to send a Kentucky infantry regiment "without delay, to rendezvous at Harper's Ferry, Virginia."
A week before, the governor sternly refused a request for soldiers from Lincoln's secretary of war. Magoffin also turned down Walker, but more politely.
Even so, a group of about 800 Kentucky volunteers would end up in Virginia on their own. These Rebels were among the first - if not the first -- Kentuckians to march off to the Civil War.
The men would become the First Kentucky Infantry Regiment, which signed up in May, 1861, for one year's service.
Meanwhile, Joe Desha and a Harrison County company departed on April 22. Capt. Desha and his men would become Company "G" of the First Kentucky. Other companies were leaving from elsewhere in the state.
The regiment was formed by the merger of two battalions commanded by a pair of Louisville men: Thomas H. Taylor and Blanton Duncan. Taylor became colonel of the regiment. Duncan was his lieutenant colonel.
Companies "A" through "D" and Company "H" came from Louisville. Company "I" hailed from New Orleans; the men of Company K were Logan countians.
(There was no Company "J" in Civil War regiments on either side. It was thought that a written "I" and "J" looked so similar that the "J" should be skipped to avoid confusion.)
The First Kentucky also included two companies from the Jackson Purchase.
Capt. Edward Crossland recruited the "Alexander Guards" from Fulton and Hickman counties. They formed Company "E."
Crossland, a Hickman countian, was promoted to major.
Capt. C.C. Bowman and his Calloway County contingent were formed into Company "F."
The Kentuckians arrived in Virginia in July of 1861, before the first Battle of Bull Run. But they did not participate in the battle, which ended in a decisive Confederate victory.
The First Kentucky served in northern Virginia in the summer and fall of 1861. On December 20, the regiment fought under the storied Gen. James Ewell Brown, or "Jeb," Stuart of Virginia in the small battle of Dranesville, a Confederate defeat.
On April 16, 1862, the First Kentucky experienced its largest battle - at Yorktown, Va. The Kentuckians reportedly repulsed two Union charges.
The regiment disbanded in May, 1862. Most of its men would later join other Kentucky Confederate outfits.
Kentucky Civil War Dispatches are produced from West Kentucky Community and Technical College history professor Berry Craig. Craig is the author of Hidden History of Kentucky in the Civil War and True Tales of Old-Time Kentucky Politics: Bombast, Bourbon, and Burgoo.