The War News: No Fighting Yesterday – 2-4
The Killed and Wounded – 4-5
The Plans of the Rebel Generals – 5
The War in the West (1): Union Victory at Bolivar, Tenn. – 6
City Point Demolished: The Rebels Open Fire Upon Our Flotilla – 6
The War in the West (2): Details of the Expedition UP the Yazoo – 6-7
News from Washington: The Government and the Newspapers – 7
Rebellion at the Last Gasp – 7
Editorial: The Situation – 7-8
The Pending Battles – 8
Editorial: The Patriotism of the Country – 8
The New Bounty and the Draft – 8-9
The President’s Emancipation Policy – 9
False and Disheartening Rumors – 9
Gen. McClellan – 9
Closing the Stable After the Horse is Stolen – 9
Horrible Murder: A Wife’s Throat Cut by Her Husband – 9
Haven’t seen anything about Kentucky in the New York Times from that period. This may be why:
Aug.29-30, marks the battle of Richmond, Kentucky in 1862. Per Wikipedia, “it was one of the most complete Confederate victories in the war by Major General Edmund Kirby Smith against Union major general William “Bull” Nelson’s forces, which were defending the town. It was the first major battle in the Kentucky Campaign.”
“Nelson and some of his men escaped, but ... the way north towards Lexington, Frankfort, and Cincinnati was open.[6]”
If the Confederates had won the war, it would’ve been considered one of the major victories because, as “Civil War historian Shelby Foote remarked that Smith “accomplished in Kentucky the nearest thing to a Cannae ever scored by any general, North or South, in the course of the whole war.”[8]”.
The battle IS mentioned on a monument to Confederate Civil War victories in the square outside the state capital of Texas in Austin (if it’s still there). I discovered it on a business trip there in the 1980s. Here, in Richmond, KY there’s only a plaque noting the battle happened here. And oh, a golf course named Battlefield Golf Club. There is a re-enactment every year, but I’ve never been.
To my (libertylover’s) knowledge, it’s the only time in history that an entire U.S. Army group was routed with over 5,000 killed or captured.
But for some reason, the Confederates did not exploit their victory, and Nelson escaped and lead another battle, about 50 miles to the west at Perryville, which was victorious. After that the Confederates left Kentucky never to return.
I guess it would take a few days in 1862 for news to travel from Central Kentucky to New York. Also, they’d be hesitant to report one of their armies being routed.