Bugle Briefs ...

New Boyle Civil War Trail brochure
now available to assist in viewing sites

The Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau recently released a Civil War Trail brochure to help engage visitors in touring the historical trail and sites in Boyle County.

Boyle County is known as the birthplace of the Commonwealth. It is well known for its rich history being the site of the conflict at Perryville, the largest and bloodiest Kentucky battle during the Civil War. It is also the home of Constitution Square where the Kentucky Constitution was signed.

With the Civil War Trail brochure that is now available, Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Jennifer Kirchner said she hopes to see more people come out to the trail and take advantage of the opportunity to experience history in a new way.

The brochure is available at the visitor’s center at Grayson’s Tavern in Constitution Square.

Shuffett serves as guest speaker at Hobson event

Retired Kentucky Educational Television (KET) personality Dave Shuffett was the guest speaker at the Camp Hobson Wayside Marker ceremony Sept. 17. Shuffett’s ancestor, Pvt. Michael Shuffett, was mustered into the Union Army at the Taylor County camp.

A mustering-in ceremony was conducted in the early afternoon and recruitment flyers were made available as souvenirs. The pistols of Gen. Edward Hobson from the Kentucky Historical Society were on display at the Tebbs Bend Toll House for public viewing. Hobson commanded the 13th Kentucky Infantry as a colonel at Camp Hobson.

Crutcher, Dupuy, Fields interpret at Camp Nelson

A commemorative living history weekend based on the closing of Camp Nelson was conducted Sept. 9-11 at the former Union Army facility in Nicholasville.

Artillery and infantry demonstrations, period music, museum tours, barracks replica and Perry/White House tours were conducted throughout the weekend. Re-enactors from several states re-enacted life as it was at the original 4,000-acre site from 1863-1866.

First person interpretations of soldiers and civilians were conducted by Michael Crutcher as Frederick Douglass, Charlotte Dupuy as Elizabeth Lawson – an enslaved African American woman, and Curt Fields as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

National Park Service observes 100th year

The National Park Service (NPS) turned 100 in August.

Many Americans with an interest in military history view major battlefields and NPS as synonymous. However, America’s battlefield parks took a circuitous route to full integration into the National Park System. Official incorporation occurred during the summer of 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order to gift existing battlefield sites to the National Park Service. This gift would shape the face of the service for decades to come. There are more than 70 parks in the national system related to the Civil War and its history. Those in Kentucky are the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace and Cumberland Gap. Perryville and Mill Springs are recent applicants for national park status.

Trust to provide 70 more acres to Perryville

The Civil War Trust has obtained three properties totaling 70 acres associated with the 1862 Perryville battlefield.

The tracts were purchased for $736,000 using grants from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program matched by donations from thousands of Trust members. Some of the acreage also was donated by a private landowner. The Trust’s ultimate goal is to transfer the properties to Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site to enhance interpretation of the battle’s closing, climactic stages. The properties also feature a 430-foot long stone fence behind which Union Col. John Starkweather’s brigade finally stopped the advance of Gen. Benjamin Cheatham’s Confederate division. With the addition of the 70 acres, the Trust has helped save 1,027 acres at Perryville.

Some Civil War facts ...

• The first mammoth use of gunpowder as an explosive took place in Petersburg, Va., where 8,000 pounds were detonated forming the Crater and earning its title as the biggest explosion of the Civil War.

• Southern snipers using the Whitworth rifle were greatly feared; at Petersburg, it was demonstrated that the projectile fired more than a mile away with a 12-foot accuracy range.

• With photo technology in its infancy, the news media illustrated battlefield dispatches with woodblock engravings of artist sketches.

• American Express Letter Company didn’t appear to pick sides, delivering mail in the North and in the South during the war.