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When news reached Lexington, Kentucky of the attack on Fort Sumter by Confederate forces in South Carolina, which heralded the start of the Civil War, "Lexington and the Bluegrass region, like the rest of Kentucky, was strongly divided," wrote J. Winston Coleman in Lexington During the Civil War. ... The Masonic Hall on Walnut and Short Streets, which was demolished in 1891, later took on this function, after serving as a hospital and prison during the Civil War. ... Its capital was Bowling Green, but this government withdrew with the Confederate army in mid-February 1862 and, despite a brief return the same year, spent most of the Civil War in exile. ... Leaving Knoxville on August 14, Confederate Major General Edmund Kirby Smith bypassed to the west of the Union-held Cumberland Gap and thrust deep into eastern Kentucky. ... This battle, which was the largest Civil War engagement in the Commonwealth, killed and wounded over 7,500 troops. ... Ashland, the home of Henry Clay, was occupied by Union Major Charles B. Seidel, but on October 18 John Morgan and his cavalry surprised Major Seidel at Ashland and captured him and his command in broad daylight. ...
Ashland, the home of the "Great Compromiser"Henry Clay, witnessed the capture of Union Major Seidel and his command by Confederate John Hunt Morgan and his men on October 18, 1862
Courtesy of the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation
By the winter of 1862-3 refugees from East Tennessee, which was largely sympathetic to the Union, and escaped African-American slaves, began arriving in Lexington. ... African Americans comprised 12 percent of the Union army by the end of the Civil War, and had engaged in 41 major battles and 449 smaller operations.
On June 8, 1864, Morgan returned to Lexington for the final time during the Civil War. ... Hundreds of cords of wood at the Kentucky Central Railroad building near the Lunatic Asylum were set on fire, and, as Coleman records in Lexington During the Civil War, one Confederate soldier recalled "though we had but four buildings burning they were nigh circled half the town and the illumination suggested the appearance of a general conflagration. ...
After Morgans last raid, the Civil War in Lexington was over. Nationally, the Civil War began to draw to a close with the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. ...
Gatehouse and office of Lexington Cemetery, where 7 Civil War Generals are buried. ... There are at least seven Civil War Generals buried in the cemetery, which also includes the graves of numerous soldiers from both sides. The Hunt-Morgan House, at 201 North Mill Street, is a house museum, which includes period furnishings and a second-floor Civil War museum.
Approximate Word count = 2209
Approximate Pages = 8.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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