Glasgow and the War

After the battle of Shiloh, the 9^th Kentucky participated in the siege of Corinth, and the occupation thereafter as on the 30^th. The Confederate Army evacuated Corinth and the Union Army moved up to take possession. It would only be a few short months until the 9^th KY. would be forced to defend their home again.

Early in August 1862 Generals Kirby and Bragg decided to invade Kentucky. As far as General Braxton Bragg’s career was concerned, this would appear to be one of the smarter military moves he made. When he ended up encamped at Munfordville KY., he was far north of the line drawn in Bowling Green that was occupied by a small Union force at the time. Though his ultimate goal was Louisville, he first moved to Cave City, fought a short lived battle to keep the Union from advancing, then headed for Glasgow with his purpose to pick up more recruits, collect any detachments that had been posted or left behind, and protect the trains. You see the Union was famous for disabling train tracks, and blowing up bridges, if that’s what it took to keep the rebels from moving their stronghold farther north. The Rebels however did exactly the same thing. As a matter of fact, several of them were captured in Union territory due to the fact that when they blew one of the bridges across the Green River, they ended up on the wrong side and couldn’t get back across. (And they wonder why they lost).

At the beginning of the War, the capital of the Confederacy lay in Bowling Green, and Barren County was generally considered in the north. But with the advancement of Bragg's Army, that would soon change, with the capital moving to Greensburg leaving Barren County lost to the Rebels. Yet even with the capital here, Kentucky was the only state south of the Ohio not to succeed from the Union.

Already the Union forces here were weakening, and by September 13, 1862, Bragg’s Army was here in Glasgow, his final objective being Louisville. Though I don’t personally feel qualified to go into detail on Bragg’s visit here, I can tell you that his wounded and dying were left behind at the hospital, many to be buried. If they could break the Union stronghold that kept them south of the Green River, they thought they could go all the way. If they could seize Louisville and leave enough forces to retain the captivity of Nashville, then the northern states would be in danger of control. Plus in his own arrogance, Bragg thought that they could recruit quite a few Confederate sympathizers there, that possibly Union control had held back. However in the last assumption he was very wrong.

Buell who was in pursuit of Bragg and in a race for his life, found to his surprise that, a large number of new recruits from Ohio, Illinois and Indiana who had no intention of the south invading their territory, had crossed the Ohio river to enlist, and by the time he got his army reorganized was 60,000 strong. It was estimated that Bragg was 68,000 strong. Although when he came through Glasgow and Barren County, the generations who were present for the invasion disagreed in quantities. The Federals reported there were 10,000; the Confederates here said 25,000. At any rate, I don’t think either could have been happy to see him. The Confederate Army had no money for shoes, uniforms, and little if any for food. The ones that remained encamped in the south were much better cared for by local sympathizers, but still not well. The ones who headed north, took from the locals what they needed. That included their food, clothing, livestock and any horses that were useable.

Algerine Susan Wells Simpson, the daughter of a well-known Confederate family and the widow of a Confederate soldier, was totally enraged when Bragg’s Army came thru. She had a pet sow, by which she raised hogs to cure, which the Confederate Army didn’t even stop to kill, before they proceeded to skin it alive prior to cooking it for the camp. After the war, Algerine married Captain Samuel Carter Stout of the 9^th Kentucky UNION Infantry.

The Pursley men, who were too old to fight, had to hide in the woods at Poplar Springs to keep from being taken by force to join the Rebels cause. Bragg’s Army didn’t recruit, they inducted. You either joined the "cause" or you were sent to a Confederate prison camp. They had to take the valuable livestock and horses into the woods. The women would have to go by night to take food, sometimes several days apart, so as not to give away the location of the men to those camped locally. While on their way to secure Munfordville, a detachment of 4 companies of the 2^nd Michigan Calvary under the command of Captain F. W. Dickey met up with pieces of this army left here and had a "skirmish." As in all accounts of the Civil War, the side describing it was vague as to the damage. According to the Union, they lost 2 "Federals" and 17 captured. The "Enemy" lost 4, several wounded and 7 taken prisoner.

The Confederacy destroyed it’s own as it was trying to destroy the Union. Glasgow and Barren County’s sympathies for the most part lay with the Confederacy. But according to the Confederate unit itself, the 37^th Kentucky mounted Infantry (Confederate) under the command of Col. John M. Hughs attacked Glasgow again on October 6^th, 1863. His account says that the Federal Command was "panic stricken and offered little resistance," but again, that account was posted in the eyes of a biased writer. In all actuality, the Union Commander here Major Samuel Martin recognized very quickly that they were painfully outnumbered, and escaped to Cave City, where he acquired reinforcements and returned. But not before the Rebels took 226 prisoners, $9,000 from the bank, and destroyed better than $10,000 of commissary and quartermaster’s stores. The Union forces here had 9 killed and 26 wounded. The Rebels only lost 1 and had 4 wounded soldiers.

Glasgow was occupied by many different troops over the course of the war. At one time, detachments of the 5^th Indiana and 14^th Illinois Cavalry were stationed here. It was from Glasgow where they were posted under the command of Felix Graham that they left for Burkesville to surprise one of the Battalions of Morgan’s Calvary at Kettle Creek. Morgan’s men suffered several losses here, many wounded and several taken prisoner, and the capture of their only 2 pieces of artillery in that battalion.

Captain J. M. Brown recants after a battle at Russelville, "Also routed a party at Glasgow yesterday, taking 10 prisoners, among them Lieut. Crews."