Western Kentucky: a deadly and expensive war within a war raged there behind the front and often out of the major headlines. In 1862, the region was infested with guerrilla activity that pitted brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor in a personal war that recognized few boundaries. The raiding and fighting took hundreds of lives, destroyed or captured millions of dollars of supplies, and siphoned away thousands of men from the Union war effort. Derrick Lindow tells this little-known story for the first time in We Shall Conquer or Die: Partisan Warfare in 1862 Western Kentucky.
Confederate Col. Adam Rankin Johnson and his 10th Kentucky Partisan Rangers wreaked havoc on Union supply lines and garrisons from the shores of southern Indiana, in the communities of western Kentucky, and even south into Tennessee. His rangers seemed unbeatable and uncatchable that second year of the war because Johnson’s partisans often disbanded and melted into the countryside (a tactic relatively easy to execute in a region populated with Southern sympathizers). Once it was safe to do so, they reformed and struck again.
In the span of just a few months Johnson captured six Union-controlled towns, hundreds of prisoners, and tons of Union army equipment. Union civil and military authorities, meanwhile, were not idle bystanders. Strategies changed, troops rushed to guerrilla flashpoints, daring leaders refused the Confederate demands of surrender, and every available type of fighting man was utilized, from Regulars to the militia of the Indiana Legion, temporary service day regiments, and even brown water naval vessels. Clearing the area of partisans and installing a modicum of Union control became one of the Northern high command’s major objectives.
This deadly and expensive war behind the lines was fought by men who often found themselves thrust into unpredictable situations. Participants included future presidential cabinet members, Mexican War veterans, Jewish immigrants, some of the U.S. Army’s rising young officers, and the civilians unfortunate enough to live in the borderlands of Kentucky.
Lindow spent years researching through archival source material to pen this important, groundbreaking study. His account of partisan guerrilla fighting and the efforts to bring it under control helps put the Civil War in the northern reaches of the Western Theater into proper context. It is a story long overdue.
