History of the First Kentucky Brigade

History Of The First Kentucky Brigade by Edwin Porter Thompson. This book is a historical narrative that aims to be a complete record of the Confederate First Kentucky Brigade, detailing its formation on the Tennessee border in 1861 under Buckner, its early regiments, batteries, and cavalry detachments, and tracing its leadership, morale, and battlefield endurance. It places emphasis on the private soldier’s experience while defending the brigade’s honor and offering a fair assessment of actions, even as it laments Union missteps. The work surveys Kentucky wartime politics, describing three camps of opinion pro-Southern sympathizers, the Union party, and Trimmers, and explains how neutrality evolved into Confederacy. It covers social climate at home, supply difficulties, and the reception of Confederate troops, coupling commemorative, apologetic, and polemical tones with careful reconstruction from memories and records. The excerpt also sets Part 1’s aims and previews campaigns in the Western Theater, including Shiloh, Fort Donelson, Murfreesboro, Jackson, Chickamauga, and the Atlanta campaigns, as well as the roster-focused Local Summaries that follow.