Louisville and the Civil War: A History & Guide

Before the Civil War, Louisville became a vibrant city with steamboat traffic and the rise of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Factories arose in the city to build rails and build farm implements. Louisville manufactured hemp for cotton bags and rope. Louisville became the second largest city to pack pork, slaughtering three hundred thousand hogs a year. Louisville had ties with the North and the South. Louisville also had slave markets.

When the Civil War erupted upon the landscape, Louisville became a military target because of the Portland canal and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. During 1861, Confederate forces under Kentucky native Simon Buckner headed towards Louisville. In 1862, Confederate General Braxton Bragg took his army into Kentucky, poised to take Louisville. In 1863, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan led a daring raid into Kentucky and came very close to the city of Louisville, throwing the people of Louisville into a panic. In 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood led his army towards Nashville, Tennessee and many feared he may try and take Louisville. During the war, the city became a massive staging ground for thousands of Union troops heading South. By the end of the war, Louisville grew tired of the harsh Union treatment of their citizens. Louisville led the way into turning from a pro-Union town into a Confederate supporter.

The purpose of Louisville and the Civil War: A History & Guide is to trace the war in Louisville and give the reader a sense of how the city looked towards the Union and the Confederacy. The book will discuss how Louisville turned from a very pro-Union city towards supporting the Confederacy, or at least the Lost Cause.

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