I went to the Baseball Hall of
Fame Induction Weekend
Click here for a full
report!!
CLICK
HERE TO BUY Kentuckians in
Gray
"I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky"
Perhaps
the most interesting thing about the oft-stated
quote above is that no one is sure where, when, or
even if, Abraham Lincoln ever said it. Although it sounds
like Lincoln, it doesn't matter if he said it or not, we
get the point. President Lincoln, believing that he had a
special understanding of Kentucky's strategic importance,
became justifiably obsessed with the fate of his home state
for the first eighteen months of the war.
Belying its
Southern heritage today, Kentucky remained a part of the
North during the Civil War, sending four out of every five
Kentucky volunteers to fight for the Union Army. However,
despite Kentucky's alignment with the Federal government, a
surprising number of key Confederate Army officers hailed
from the Bluegrass
.
The book is published by University Press of Kentucky
(2008) and is edited by Lawrence Lee Hewitt, author of
Port Hudson: Confederate
Bastion on the Mississippi
and Bruce Allardice, author of
Confederate Colonels: A
Biographical Register
.
Kentuckians in Gray profiles 39 Civil War generals and field officers who were born in the Bluegrass state. The authors contributing to this project are a virtual who's who of modern Civil War literature. The authors include William C. Davis
,
Brian McKnight
,
James Ramage
and
Lowell Harrison
.
Oh yes, and me too!!
CLICK HERE TO
BUY Thunder From a Clear
Sky
On
July 18, 1862, an Indiana town of nearly 1,300
citizens,
including almost 100 convalescing Union soldiers, was
captured by a bold Confederate icon commanding only
twenty-seven Kentucky rebels. The Confederate commander's
name was Adam Rankin Johnson and the event was the first
Confederate raid north of the Mason-Dixon Line in the
American Civil War.
According
to Union Army colonel and noted Kentucky historian Edmund
L. Starling,
"[Adam] Johnson performed perhaps the most reckless, and yet most successful, military masterstroke achieve by any commander of high or low authority, in either army during the war."
displays this little-known, but fascinating nugget of
Civil War history- the first Confederate raid to cross
the Mason-Dixon Line, the capture of the thriving
riverport community of Newburgh, Indiana. With the
politically divided landscape of Civil War Kentucky
and the steamboat economy of the Ohio River as its
backdrop, the surprising events of July 1862 build to
an improbable climax.In this story of deception, betrayal, murder, and revenge, Adam Rankin Johnson - Kentucky legend, Texas hero, Confederate raider - conducts a traveling recruiting campaign through the hills of western Kentucky in the summer of 1862. Johnson's crowning effort, his foray onto Northern soil at Newburgh, has the unintended consequence of waking the sleeping giant. Indiana Governor Oliver Morton unleashes an overwhelming counter-offensive that seals the fate of western Kentucky for the remainder of the war. For the first time since Adam "Stovepipe" Johnson's 1904 autobiography, Partisan Rangers of the Confederate States Army
,
the fabled story of the 1862 Confederate raid on
Newburgh, Indiana, is revisited in vivid, thorough
detail. With the help of historians and archival
materials from throughout the Midwest, author Ray
Mulesky breathes new life into the dramatic Civil War
events of the lower Ohio Valley in the high summer of
1862. Dozens of exciting, new revelations are
presented in a story telling style that places the
reader at the center of events as the story
unfolds.The new Star Book Edition of Thunder From a Clear Sky is 200 pages covering five critical weeks of 1862 Civil War history. Western Kentucky and Southern Indiana are in the spotlight as the unsuspecting towns of Henderson, Kentucky; Newburgh, Indiana; and Evansville, Indiana, serve as the stage for the story. The book includes period photos, maps, illustrations of prominent characters, and 212 endnotes revealing additional research details. Please check the "Star Edition" button on this site for more information on the re-release of Thunder from a Clear Sky.
The author's profits will be donated toward historical preservation.
Explore
Thunder From a Clear Sky...
NEW!
Go here for a quick look at some information
regarding my upcoming Civil War book on the unpublished
letters of a Union soldier from Pike County,
Indiana.
