Kentucky and Tennessee share a unique and similar history, having
joined the Union as the fifteenth and sixteenth states in 1792 and
1796, respectively. During the antebellum period, Kentuckians and
Tennesseans enjoyed a common culture, pursued a largely
agricultural way of life, and shared many values, particularly a
deep-seated commitment to slavery. However, the people of these two
sister states found themselves on opposing sides at the most
critical time in American history, as Tennessee sided with the
Southern states seceding from the Union, and Kentucky, after a
brief period of neutrality, remained loyal to the Union. Each state
assumed enormous importance to both the Union and the Confederacy,
for whichever side controlled them commanded vast quantities of
resources desperately needed by the South. Perhaps most important,
control of this strategic region would determine where much of the
fighting in the West would take place, either on northern soil or
farther south. Both states felt the hard hand of war as the
conflict visited them early and often, and Kentuckians and
Tennesseans suffered the same hardships while war was waged within
their borders. Surprisingly, the Civil War in the Volunteer and
Bluegrass states has not garnered the attention by scholars that it
deserves, and few works have dealt exclusively with both of these
states. In Border Wars, prominent Civil War historians Benjamin
Franklin Cooling, Stephen D. Engle, Earl J. Hess, Jack Hurst, and
Wiley Sword, along with other distinguished scholars, explore the
military contests in this vital region. There were several wars
taking place simultaneously along the border of Kentucky and
Tennessee. There was, of course, the war between the Union and the
Confederacy, but there was also fighting between the Union
occupiers and the pro-Southern civilians they encountered.
Hostilities even existed between the Federal army and local
Unionists in some areas, and there was conflict among some Union
generals and among Confederate commanders in the region. With its
unique exploration of these wars and conflicts and the individuals
involved, Border Wars adds an important chapter to our nation's
history.
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