News in brief...

At battle site…
Historical marker recognizes Kirkland home
used as hospital during Battle of Perryville

A home used as a hospital during the Battle of Perryville has been noted with a historical marker dedicated April 27.

The Kirkland Home was deserted when Charles King Kirkland and Caroline Purdom Kirkland fled with their three young children to escape the Oct. 8, 1862 battle. The Kentucky Historical Society stated that the Kirklands returned a few days later to find much of their property destroyed.

The society noted the dining room table was used for operations and clothes had been torn for bandages. Furniture, fences and outbuildings were burned for fuel and farm animals were killed for food.

The family sold the farm and moved to nearby Forkland, where Caroline Kirkland's father lived.

Civil War marker dedicated at Camp Dick Robinson

A Civil War Interpretative Station was dedicated June 17 at Camp Dick Robinson where many of Kentucky’s Union regiments were formed.

The markers are placed near the campsite established in 1861 by Union Gen. William (Bull) Nelson on the farm that belonged to Richard Robinson. The farm is located near the intersection of old U.S. 27 and Ky. 34 in northern Garrard County.

The markers commemorate the camp’s role in the Civil War and history of the region.

The Robinson mansion currently is privately owned and sits on about 325 acres of farmland. Kentucky was attempting to stay neutral in the conflict when the camp was established.

Although Gov. Beriah Magoffin complained to Abraham Lincoln about the site, Lincoln responded that since the camp “consists exclusively of Kentuckians” and that it was not the “popular wish of Kentucky” to close it, he refused to remove the soldiers.

A year after Camp Dick opened, Confederate troops took over the camp and renamed it Camp Breckinridge and used it as a supply base. Prior to the Battle of Perryville in October 1862, the Confederates fell back to Perryville to stay between Union forces and the South’s supplies.

The dedication was sponsored by the Garrard County Historical Society and Richmond Civil War Roundtable. Local and state officials and representatives of the Kentucky Historical Society attended.

Memorial service, living history event presented
at Northern Hardin County’s Fort Duffield

The Annual Memorial Day Service and Living History Program was presented at Fort Duffield May 27. The 10 a.m. memorial by Camp 1 of the Sons of Union Veterans was followed by a noon-5 p.m. living history event.

Featured at the living history program were the Bluegrass Mountain Artillery, presentations on weapons and uniforms, infantry firing and skirmishes at 1 and 3 p.m.

Fort Duffield, Kentucky’s largest and best-preserved Civil War earthen fortification, sits 300 feet above the small river town of West Point in Northern Hardin County. The fort was built in the fall of 1861 to protect Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s supply base in West Point at the confluence of the Salt and Ohio Rivers.

Gettysburg’s Civil War Wax Museum for sale
featuring more than 300 life-sized figures

A favorite destination in America’s most famous Civil War battlefield faces an uncertain future as its owners are retiring and putting the building up for sale.

The American Civil War Wax Museum at Gettysburg, Pa., was opened in 1962 and reportedly is selling for $1.7 million. The current owners, who are retiring, say they’re confident someone will buy the museum and keep it open.

The museum features more than 300 life-sized wax figures such as Confederate Generals Joseph Johnston and Robert E. Lee. Many of the figures are arranged into scenes of important moments in the Civil War.

In addition to the museum and a large gift shop, visitors can see re-enactors demonstrating Civil War-era weapons and equipment most weekends from April through October.

The museum has hosted more than 8-million visitors.

Lincoln – with only 39.8 percent of the vote – won
presidency in most unusual American election

The election of 1860 was one of the most unusual in American history.

In a four-way race brought on by a split in the Democratic Party, the name of Kentucky’s Abraham Lincoln did not even appear on the ballot in most Southern states. In the electoral college, Lincoln solidly carried the free states of the Northeast and Northwest.

Another Kentuckian, John C. Breckenridge, won the slaveholding states with the exception of Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky in the Upper South, which went to John Bell of Tennessee. Illinois’ Stephen Douglas, although he made a solid showing in the popular vote, only took electoral votes from Missouri and New Jersey.
 Lincoln won with only 39.8 percent of the vote.

Maryland, South Carolina led the railroad way,
but Kentucky was in expanding pack by 1835

Maryland and South Carolina were the first states to build railroads in the early 1830s, but by 1835, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois were part of the 11 states with more than 200 railroads and approximately 1,000 miles of main line track.

The railroads had more than 9,000 miles of main line by 1850, all in the eastern states. In 1851, the railroads crossed the Mississippi and began their expansion westward. By 1860, there were more than 30,000 miles of railroad establishing boomtowns, settlers and adventure seekers in their path.

See the story on the L&N in this issue for more about Kentucky’s railway progress.