Bugle Briefs...

Perryville's House elected president
of Kentucky Civil War Sites Association

Joan House, preservation coordinator for Perryville Battlefield Historic Site, has been elected president of the Kentucky Civil War Sites Association (KCWSA) for 2014.

The statewide organization promotes the Commonwealth’s Civil War heritage and markets the state as one of the nation’s top War Between the States places to visit.

Also elected at the April meeting were Vice President Phillip Seyfrit (Richmond), Secretary Chris Lueken (West Point) and Treasurer Nancy Turner (Fort Boonesboro-Winchester).

Mary Kozak, who represents Camp Nelson, stepped down from the presidency after serving the organization for five years. As the initial president of KCWSA, she led the association’s development from regional to statewide status.

Membership in the association is open to Civil War site anchors (major battlefields and sites), smaller developed sites and emerging sites. Annual membership for anchor locations is $250, $100 for smaller sites and $50 for emerging locations.

Community leader Jack Keeney named
to head Mill Springs Battlefield group

The many occupations of Somerset’s Jack Keeney were added to recently as the former educator, coach and community leader accepted the position of executive director of the Mill Springs Battlefield Association.

Keeney replaces David Gilbert who held the assignment as interim director.

In January, Keeney stepped down as executive director of God’s Pantry, which provides meals to low-income families in the Somerset area. Prior to that, he served as executive director of the Somerset-Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce. He also has taught and coached in the Somerset school system.

Keeney, principal of Somerset’s Meece Middle School from 1990-2000, is an alumnus of Bethel (Tenn.) College where he was a member of the basketball and baseball teams.

Thia’s background very much about military

Thia Stover’s interest in the Civil War (see story) comes from a solid family history where the military is concerned. From World War II to Afghanistan, the Elizabethtown photographer’s family members have been involved in defending the United States and its efforts to quell international crises.

Thia’s father fought in Okinawa and the European Theater during World War II and also participated in the Korean conflict. Five brothers also were in the military and one fought in Vietnam, as did her husband. A son saw duty in Persian Gulf I and II and a grandson and nephew have seen action in Afghanistan.

“Those who have laid down their lives for us need our love, support and respect,” she maintains. And that includes those that fought in the Civil War.

Fort Duffield SUVCW hosts memorial services

Fort Duffield’s Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) hosted Memorial Day services at the New Albany (Ind.) National Cemetery, May 30. The services commemorated the 150th anniversary of the dedication of the cemetery.

Many of the Civil War soldiers who died of hardship and disease while stationed at Fort Duffield were buried near the fort at West Point. In 1868, the bodies were reinterred at the New Albany cemetery. The Fort’s SUVCW group (Camp No. 1) has honored the memory of those soldiers for more than 10 years.

The Fort Duffield unit was assisted at the New Albany services by the 9th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Re-enacting organization. The original 9th Michigan built Fort Duffield. Also participating was the Cyrus Grable Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the Union.

Author Bryan Bush, writer for The Kentucky Civil War Bugle, was the keynote speaker at the anniversary program.

Exterior renovation begins at Joseph Holt House

Exterior renovation of the Judge Joseph Holt House in Breckinridge County began in May.

Moldings are being replaced and reconstructed and an addition not original to the pre-Civil War structure has been removed.

The Holt House was constructed circa 1850 during the time of Judge Holt’s national service in Washington from 1857-1875. The Breckinridge County native served as Commissioner of Patents (1857), Postmaster General (1859) and Secretary of War (1860) under President James Buchanan before being named the nation’s first Judge Advocate General by President Lincoln in 1862.

His most memorable role as JAG came when Holt presided over the 1865 trial of the Lincoln assassination conspirators.

Morgan’s cell block door among items displayed

An exhibit featuring items belonging to Kentucky Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan is on display at the Jefferson Davis Historic Site in Fairview.

The exhibit, which will be on display through July 15, tells the story of horse soldiers during the Civil War.

Among items on display are the door from the cell block of Morgan’s imprisonment in Ohio, the saber the general used following his prison escape and a revolver presented to Morgan by his uncle.

The exhibit will move to Columbus-Belmont State Park later this year.

Camp Nelson helps commemorate Overland Campaign

Camp Nelson partnered with three national parks (Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania, Richmond and Petersburg) and seven other communities across the nation in May to commemorate the 1864 Overland Campaign in Virginia.

The program, “Reverberations,” highlighted Union Gen. U.S. Grant’s campaign against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to illustrate the devastating impact of the Civil War on communities.

Camp Nelson, one of the largest Union recruiting and training centers for African American soldiers, is associated with Petersburg where the attacks brought an end to the Overland Campaign and Grant laid siege to Lee’s army. The conflict around Richmond and Petersburg in 1864-65 led to the end of the Civil War in April 1865 at Appomattox Court House.

The contribution of African American troops from Camp Nelson was considered critical to the Union’s success in the nearly 10-month campaign.

Danville nurse qualified for pension following Perryville

A Danville nurse, who was a native of Casey County, was among the Kentuckians who received a pension for service during the Battle of Perryville in October 1862.

Margaret Ann Quinton drew a pension shortly before she died in 1889 after serving in the Nurse Medical Department of U.S. Volunteers for care given to wounded soldiers.  She served troops who were wounded at Perryville and brought to Danville for treatment.

Quinton, according to pension documents, was a nurse from October 1862 to March 1863 when she was 47 years of age.

$1,000 banknote proof sold at auction for $96,000

How much is a proof that was used to make Civil War $1,000 bills worth?

The answer is nearly 100 times its face value.

The $1,000 proof was placed on the auction block May 29 in Lynbrook, N.Y., on Long Island. When all the bidding was done, the item was sold for $96,000. The buyer is Al Huie, who represented an investor who didn’t want to be identified.

The 1864 U.S. Treasury proof is the only known existing one from when Abraham Lincoln was president and the Civil War was being fought. The proof was discovered recently during a Manhattan estate sale.

The proof would have been lifted from the plate used to print genuine notes and sent to the U.S. Treasury for design approval. A proof banknote is inspected to determine if it’s suitable for being placed into full production.

Offspring still receives Civil War benefits

Irene Triplett is the last child of any Civil War veteran to still receive benefits from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

Triplett, 84, receives $73.132 monthly for her father’s service in the Union army.

Mose Triplett was born in 1846 and joined the Confederate forces in 1862 before deserting and signing up with the Union. In the 1920s, he married a woman 50 years his junior, who later gave birth to Irene.