[healy61]

As a cousin in Kentucky said, they might find their way into the hills and hollows, but they won’t find their way out.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Kentucky's terrain is not beneficial to invading forces, as both North and South discovered during the Civil War. The mountains of Eastern Kentucky and the Knobs (essentially the foothills of the Appalachians) of Central Kentucky were not very friendly to infantry or cavalry and many of the rivers have steep valleys with only a handful of bridges that were constantly being blown up or burned by one side or the other.

While the Confederacy did not mount a full-scale invasion of the Commonwealth after the fall of 1862 (the Heartland or Perryville Campaign), they did have a successful guerrilla campaign throughout the region. Hiding back in the "sticks", these rebels would pop out, hit a target, and disappear back into the hollows before any pursuit could be summoned. Louisville was the Union Army's primary supply depot and new recruit training facility for the Western Theater, yet a number of Confederates managed to hide less than thirty miles away in a large hollow just two miles from the L&N railroad, the Union's main supply artery to the forces campaigning in Tennessee and points south. Today that hollow is known as Guerrilla Hollow; it is located in the Bernheim Forest Nature Preserve and boasts a popular hiking trail.