| Popis: |
When a Confederate officer scribbled in his journal after the Second Battle of Cynthiana that Morgan’s men were “plundering & pillaging … the best rebel town of our native state,” he was expressing a widely held perception that, in the Bluegrass, Cynthiana was a “Rebel town.” This reputation was earned in the early years of the war after a series of implicating events: the county judge, county clerk, sheriff, and newspaper editor were arrested for being southern sympathizers; one of the very first Kentucky Rebel volunteer companies was from Harrison County, marching off to war as a Confederate flag was displayed on the courthouse flagpole; and the majority of Harrison County recruits joined the Confederate army. At this divisive time, a citizen admitted: “It is not safe for a man to talk about or in favor of the Union.” The state representatives from Harrison County were known to be prosouthern by their speeches during the neutrality period. Rep. Lucius Desha fled behind Confederate lines to avoid being arrested, only to be indicted for treason on returning to the state. Cincinnati newspapers and a US representative from Bourbon County pointed to the arrest of about sixty citizens to support their contention that Cynthiana was full of “lurking Rebels” and described the town as a “pestiferous Secession hole.” A militia officer, writing state officials in October 1861, referred to “Cynthiana, that infernal hole of rebellion.” And in correspondence with President Lincoln about shipping guns through Harrison County, the clerk of the Kentucky state court of appeals warned, “Cynthiana is a dark hole of traitors.” Even after the war ended, complaints surfaced that some candidates for office in Harrison County were former “stay-at-home rebels.”... |
