By Todd Hatton / Berry Craig
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-987430.mp3
Murray, KY – On today's Kentucky Civil War Dispatch, Union troops poured into the Commonwealth a century and a half ago after the end of neutrality. We'll look at the contrasting reactions of two towns with very different loyalties.
On this date in 1861, it was plain Union and Confederate armies were in Kentucky to stay - or at least until one side could drive the other out.
After Grant took Paducah and Smithland, Union soldiers marched into Louisville, where they were generally welcomed. Grant's blueclad troops received a decidedly cooler reception in the two western Kentucky towns.
A reporter for the St. Louis Republican described Paducah under Union occupation: "Here in Paducah considerable terror has arisen among the inhabitants, and thousands would leave if they could. Household furniture is being removed in skiffs, and what other conveyances can be got, to safer points. If affairs in Kentucky continue in their present state three weeks longer, the town will be almost depopulated Numberless residences are deserted and stand monuments of blighting secession, society seems to have fled, and gloom and horror taken possession. Not a carriage is seen upon the streets or lady upon the beautiful walks."
The reporter said many stores were closing, their unsold goods piled in wagons before the doors. "In no place yet have I seen so bitterly hostile a feeling existing against the Union as here," he wrote. "Scowling, angry glances watch with what seems an intense hatred, every movement of a passing soldier."
He said secessionists had poisoned some of the wells where the soldiers got water and had committed "many similar acts" of disloyalty.
He concluded: "Secession is the rule and Union the rare exception. Whether Uncle Sam has any medicine so strong as the complaint, is still an open question. On the streets people wear secession caps, and boast that before the week closes every Federal will be driven out. The telegraph wires have been cut through the town and lie across the sidewalks, or are twined around trees." On the other hand, "signs of enthusiasm" for Yankee fighting men "were not wanting" in Louisville, In The Civil War and Readjustment in Kentucky, E. Merton Coulter wrote, "The inpouring of troops from the North were given warm welcomes as they pitched camp or marched through the city."
Coulter quoted an excited local Unionist: "The regiments that pass through here are unanimous in declaring that they have had a reception in Kentucky so far beyond anything they have found elsewhere, that they scarcely know what to do with themselves in the presence of the glowing hearts and liberal hands that shower upon them substantial comforts and blessings."
While Paducahans were sabotaging Yankee watering holes, Louisvillians were proffering free coffee to the soldiers in blue uniforms. The Unionist that Coulter cited declared, "One Regiment a few days since drank six barrels at the Depot, but there was enough for all."
The Unionist prayed that the "National Government should neither give sleep to its eyes, nor slumber to its eye-lids until Kentucky is safely anchored in the harbor of the Union; until her territory is made the break-water upon which the billows of treason, of robbery, and every conceivable iniquity may surge in vain."
WKMS produces Kentucky Civil War Dispatches from West Kentucky Community and Technical College history professor Berry Craig. The Murray State alumnus is the author of Hidden History of Kentucky in the Civil War, Hidden History of Kentucky Soldiers and True Tales of Old-Time Kentucky Politics: Bombast, Bourbon, and Burgoo. For WKMS News, I'm Todd Hatton.