Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia

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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 973.7309755 EAN: 9780813123899 ISBN: 0813123895 Label: University Press of Kentucky Manufacturer: University Press of Kentucky Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 328 Publication Date: 2006-03-31 Publisher: University Press of Kentucky Studio: University Press of Kentucky
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Editorial Reviews: From 1861 to 1865, the border separating eastern Kentucky and south-western Virginia was more than just a geographic marker - it represented a major ideological split, serving as an "international" boundary between the United States and the Confederacy. The loyalties of those who lived in this mountainous region could not be so easily divided, and large segments of the population remained neutral or vacillated in their support. Location and a wealth of resources made the region strategically important to both sides in the conflict, and both armies fought for control. In "Contested Borderland", Brian D. McKnight shows how military invasion of this region led to increasing guerrilla warfare, and how regular armies and state militias ripped communities along partisan lines, leaving wounds long after the official end of the Civil War.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Contested Borderland Comment: I am currently working on my family genealogy and most of my relatives hail from this area of Kentucky and Virginia. This book mentions many of the units my relatives served in, which includes both Union and Confederate. I found the book to be filled with good information about the major battles and some of the smaller ones. The author gives good background on most of the major commanders, to include some of the Confederate commanders of several small local units. Occasionally individual soldiers are mentioned. All of the information is taken from well-documented sources. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the Civil War and how it affected the people of eastern Kentucky and western Virginia. Customer Rating: Summary: They felt the war on the mountain tops too Comment: When most of us close our eyes and try to picture the Civil War as it happened, I imagine most of us see long rows of uniformed men advancing toward one another with appropriate flags waving above them, in an open field lit with sunshine. We seem to picture the war as one great Pickett's Charge. All the men are true and brave, ready to die doing their duty. Of course, that's not the way it was. And that vision was especially untrue in the regions tucked away from the commerce and the traffic and the war's main events. The ridges of the Appalachians separated people. They defined borders between states, between free and slave, and for a while between a country trying to save itself and another wanting to begin on its own. Those mountains and the narrow valleys between them offered plenty of shade and shadows in which people of all sorts could seek refuge. Where they ended in northwestern Pennsylvania the lumber camps became havens for well-armed bands of Union deserters. Farther south, along the Kentucky-Virginia frontier, mixed bands of deserters from both sides hid in the forests and preyed upon the locals. "Volunteers" stepped forward under the shield of being soldiers to steal from whomever they didn't like. As Brian McKnight points out in this regional study of the war near the Cumberland Gap, although lightly populated, this area had points of military significance, the gap itself being but one. It was here that James A. Garfield first proved his worth in the field, managing his men so well that he quickly gained promotion to brigadier and appointment as Don Carlos Buell's chief-of-staff. McKnight, who teaches at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, located right in the center of the area covered by his book, does a great job of showing all the facets of the war as they happened there. He shows you the military side, but also the partisan and civilian sides, which was significant in this mountain country where grudges were quickly formed and rarely forgotten, and an assassin in the dark could just as easily dole out justice as could a judge or jury. This was, after all, where the Hatfields and McCoys would carry on their own private war not many years afterward. In his thoughtful introduction, the author provides a good historiography of other regional studies of the partisan war fought in other places in the Appalachians, as well as in Missouri where it was, perhaps, at its worst. And he correctly points out that the war around the Cumberland Gap has never been adequately covered before. It has now, thanks to his efforts now available in this excellent book. More Reviews