Recommended Reading


Our membership recommends these books, manuscripts, newsletters, and other resources to gain knowledge and perspective on the peculiar type of conflict experienced here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and particularly in the Appalachian Mountains.


Annotations are included to guide the reader.


The second battle at Cynthiana, June 12th, 1864, where John Hunt Morgan's raiders met Stephen Gano Burbridge's troopers (combined cavalry and mounted infantry).

The Adjutant-General of Kentucky, ed. The Kentucky Adjutant-General's Report. Available from McDowell Publishing. This is the best source for tracking down any Kentucky soldier, Union or Confederate, who served in the Civil War.

Allison, Col. Philip W., editor. "Memories of the Early Days: An Account of the Early Experiences of Brigadier General James N. Allison, U. S. A." Ann Arbor, MI: Ann Arbor Publishers, 1964. Honestly speaking, the relevant accounts are short and lacking in detail, but the tales he tells of the Indian Wars are fascinating!

Baker, Nancy Virginia. Bountiful and Beautiful: A Bicentennial History of Buchanan County. Grundy, VA?: Buchanan County Vocational School, 1976. Not long on detail, but a necessary book about a place not well-known in Civil War studies.

Baker, Robert M. The Bushwhacker. Newsletter of Big Sandy Valley History and Baker Family Genealogy.

Baker, Robert M. The Home Guard. Information about the 39th Kentucky Mounted Infantry, U. S. Army.

Baker, Robert M., ed. The Mountain Banner. Official newsletter of the Brigadier General Theophilus T. Garrard Camp #4, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.

Caudill, Harry M. Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1963. A sad and depressing book by one of the brightest men to come from the mountains. But, why couldn't he write about the other side of mountain heritage and history?

Caudill, Harry M. A Darkness at Dawn: Appalachian Kentucky and the Future. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1976. Pretty much the same as above.

Clark, Thomas D. A History of Kentucky. Originally published 1937. This publishing Ashland, KY: The Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1992. The original, classic, and definitive work on the history of our state.

Clark, Thomas D. A History of Laurel County. London, KY: The Laurel County Historical Society, 1989.

Coleman, Steve, and James Rasnake. Buchanan County Men in the Civil War. Grundy, VA: Privately published, 1998. Another ground-breaking study proving that the mountain counties were strongly divided and not overwhelmingly for one side or the other.

Collins, Lewis. History of Kentucky. Two volumes. Frankfort, KY: Kentucky Historical Society. Reprint, 1966.

Connelly, William Elsey. Quantrill and the Border Wars. Originally published 1909. NY: Pageant Book Company, 1956. Dismissed by Rebel scholars and "fans" of Quantrell, Connelley put to rest any romantic notions attached to this notorious guerrilla. This is the best work on its subject, having been recently reprinted in a much more affordable edition.

Coulter, Ellis Merton. The Civil War and Readjustment in Kentucky, Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press, 1926. Kentucky Department, SUVCW, member Steve Lynn recommends this rare and not well-known volume.

Crofts, Thomas. History of the Service of the Third Ohio Veteran Volunteer Cavalry in the War for the Preservation of the Union from 1861-1865. Originally published 1910. This publishing Huntington, WV: Blue Acorn Press, 1997.

Current, Richard Nelson. Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy. NY: Oxford University Press, 1992.Indispensible study shattering the myth of monolithic loyalty to the Lost Cause in the Southern States.

Davis, William C., and Meredith L. Swentor, eds. Bluegrass Confederate: The Headquarters Diary of Edward O. Guerrant. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1999.

Day, John F. Bloody Ground. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1981.

Deskins, William David. Pike County: A Very Different Place. Carol Crowe-Carraco and Sara Falls George, editors. Randall Osborne and John B. Wells III, research consultants. Pikeville, KY: Printing By George, 1994. A hard-to-find, but most excellent book full of detail about the bloody guerrilla war along the border between Kentucky and the Virginias.

Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Multiple volumes. NY: Thomas Yoseloff, no date.

Ellis, Daniel. Thrilling Adventures of Daniel Ellis: The Great Union Guide of East Tennessee for a Period of Nearly Four Years During the Great Southern Rebellion. Johnson City, TN: The Overmountain Press, 1989. A bit heavy on propaganda, but he names real names that he couldn't be familiar with unless he'd encountered these people in the manner in which he claims.

Ely, William. The Big Sandy Valley: A History of the People and Country from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. Originally published 1887. This publishing Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 1987. Though any deep discussions of the war are studiously avoided, Ely delivers a great deal of biographical information for many of the most prominent men in the region, including some details about their service during the war.

Fisher, Noel C. War at Every Door: Partisan Politics and Guerrilla Violence in East Tennessee, 1860-1869. Part of a series: Civil War America. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1997. Magnificent and long-overdue critical study of the war in the mountains. Some of the general ideas fleshed out in this book can be applied to the situation in Kentucky.

Hafendorfer, Kenneth A. Perryville: Battle for Kentucky. Louisville, KY: K H Press, 1991.

Hafendorfer, Kenneth A. They Died by Twos and Tens: The Confederate Cavalry in the Kentucky Campaign of 1862.

Harrison, Lowell H. The Civil War in Kentucky. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1975. Brief, but informative study on the war in this state. Covers most of the largest actions, but there is not space enough in this format to write about the smaller skirmishes and sorties.

Hinman, Wilbur F. The Story of the Sherman Brigade. Published by the author, 1897. Contains accounts of the service of McLaughlin's Squadron, based for a brief time in East Kentucky.

Horan, James D. Confederate Agent: A Discovery in History. NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1954. A very interesting account of conspiracy in the Old Northwest. An excellent and exciting read.

Inscoe, John C. Mountain Masters: Slavery and the Sectional Crisis in Western North Carolina. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 1996. Has some relevance to the same topic in the mountains of Kentucky.

Johnson, Don. The Rebel Yell. The official newsletter of the Eastern Kentucky Brigade of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Lang, Theodore, F. Loyal West Virginia: From 1861 to 1865. Originally published 1895. This publishing Huntington, WV: Blue Acorn Press, 1998. A little heavy on propaganda, but also full of detail about Union actions in that section of the country.

Maddox, Ed and Connie. Pike County, Kentucky: A Pictorial History. Virginia Beach, VA: The Donning Company Publishers, 1998. Contains some excellent details found in no other source.

Marsh, Robert L. . . . And That's A Fact: An Anecdotal History of Paintsville and Johnson County, Kentucky. Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, Inc., 1998. Contains some anecdotes about the war in that county.

McDonough, James Lee. War in Kentucky: From Shiloh to Perryville. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 1996. The definitive study on this period of the war.

Mosgrove, George Dallas. Kentucky Cavaliers in Dixie: Reminiscences of a Confederate Cavalryman. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. Exceptionally readable account of the service of Giltner's 4th Kentucky which saw much service in the border area, Kentucky, and East Tennessee. Mosgrove is also very balanced and therefore fairly accurate and trustworthy in most of his accounts.

Mullins, Billie Hill. Pike County, Kentucky, 1860 Federal Census: With Genealogical Annotations. Logan, WV: Privately published, no date.

Mullins, Billie Hill. Tazewell County, Virginia, 1850 Federal Census: With Genealogical Annotations. Logan, WV: Privately published, no date.

Myers, Raymond E. The Zollie Tree: General Felix K. Zollicoffer and the Battle of Mill Springs. Louisville, KY: The Filson Club Historical Society, 1998.

Nickell, W. Lynn. Hanging Justice: The Complete Military Trial of Pvt. John Jackson Nickell, 1864. West Liberty, KY: Privately published, 1997.

Noe, Kenneth W. Southwest Virginia's Railroad: Modernization and the Sectional Crisis. Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois Press, 1994. An excellent and balanced treatment of the economic conditions in the Southwestern Virginia region prior to and during the war. Noe's conclusions may be surprising, but his work reveals the errors in much of the scholarship that has preceded this book regarding the industrialization of the region and the loyalties of its inhabitants.

Noe, Kenneth W., and Shannon H. Wilson, editors. The Civil War in Appalachia: Collected Essays. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 1997. Hard-to-find and expensive, but an indispensible volume on the subject.

The Official Record of the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865. This is the best source for information on all major and many minor actions occurring during the Civil War. It is available on CDROM and most come with powerful search engines. We do not recommend H-Bar's production as it does not contain the last series of records pertaining to Disloyalty. It is also full of typographical errors and omissions.

Osborne, Randall, and Jeffrey Weaver. The Virginia State Rangers and State Line. Lynchburg, VA: H. E. Howard, Inc., 1994. An absolutely necessary work on an organization which was virtually unknown before the publication of this book.

Paludan, Phillip Shaw. Victims: A True Story of the Civil War. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 1982.

Perry, Dr. Robert L. Jack May's War. Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1998. An honorable treatment of a unique man. A bit heavy on the propaganda, but well-researched nonetheless.

Phillips, V. N. "Bud." Between the States: Bristol Tennessee/Virginia During the Civil War. Johnson City, TN: The Overmountain Press, 1997.

Preston, John David. The Civil War in the Big Sandy Valley of Kentucky. Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, Inc., 1984. One of the first concise modern studies of this topic. It remains one of the few works which discusses the Union presence in the Big Sandy Valley.

Ramage, James. Rebel Raider: The Life of General John Hunt Morgan. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1986.

Scalf, Henry P. Kentucky's Last Frontier. Prestonsburg, KY: Privately published, 1966. The definitive study on the mountainous eastern portion of the state. The best of its kind.

Schmucker, Samuel M. The History of the Civil War in the United States: Its Cause, Origin, Progress and Conclusion. Philadelphia, PA: Jones Brothers and Co., 1865. The only general history I've seen which includes some of the East Kentucky actions in its discussion of the war.

Sensing, Thurman. Champ Ferguson: Confederate Guerrilla. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 1998.

Speed, Captain Thomas L. The Union Regiments of Kentucky. Louisville, KY, Courier-Journal Job Printing Co., 1897 (Ed's. note: a reprint edition is available from McDowell Publishing, $80). This is the best reference work available for the history of the service of each and every one of the Union regiments raised in Kentucky. Indispensible for the serious researcher!

Speer, Lonnie R. Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997.

Sprague, Stuart. Eastern Kentucky: A Pictorial History. Norfolk, VA: The Donning Company, Publishers, 1986.

Stone, Richard G., Jr. Kentucky Fighting Men: 1861-1945. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1982.

Swiggett, Howard. The Rebel Raider: The Life of John Hunt Morgan. Garden City, NY: The Garden City Publishing Co. Inc., 1937. Fascinating and unique classic account of the Rebel Raider's most lasting work.

Tarrant, Sergeant Eastham. Wild Riders of the First Kentucky Cavalry. Originally privately published in 1897.

Temple, Oliver P. East Tennessee and the Civil War. Reprint of the 1899 edition. Johnson City, TN: The Overmountain Press, 1995. Vitriolic work by one of the most vocal and powerful of the East Tennessee Unionists.

Thomas, Edison H. John Hunt Morgan and His Raiders. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1975.

Thomas, William Roscoe. Life Among the Hills and Mountains of Kentucky. Originally published 1926 and 1930. Private reprinting. Reprinted 1997 by the Big Sandy Valley Historical Society.

Walker, Gary C. The War in Southwest Virginia: 1861-65. Eighth printing. Roanoke, VA: A & W Enterprise, 1985. While this work is full of detail, Mr. Walker's book contains many organizational and grammatical errors which make it nearly impossible to read with any pleasure. One major point which needs to be made about this book: Mr. Walker selectively ignores some information while providing other information, for some strange and unexplained reason. The Second Battle of Cynthiana, though in Kentucky and out of the topographical scope of the book is never even mentioned, though that event affected men and events in Southwest Virginia drastically.

Weaver, Jeffrey C. The Civil War in Buchanan and Wise Counties: Bushwhackers' Paradise. Lynchburg, VA: H. E. Howard, Inc., 1994. Fantastic work on a topic which needs much more study.

Wells, John Britton, III, and James Prichard. 10th Kentucky Cavalry, C.S.A.: May's~Trimble's~Diamond's "Yankee Chasers". Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, Inc., 1996. The best and only work of its kind. This book alone has spawned a crop of similar books and has been partly responsible for the strong resurgence in Civil War studies in East Kentucky.

Wilson, Samuel M. History of Kentucky: Volume 2. Louisville, KY: The S. J. Clark Publishing Co., 1928.




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