FAQ #6: Didn't Kentucky stay neutral during the Civil War?

Answer: No.

Governor Beriah Magoffin called for a special session of the Kentucky legislature to meet in January 1861 to determine Kentucky's direction in the growing secession crisis following the election of Abraham Lincoln as the next President, and the secession of the state of South Carolina in December 1860. The legislature did meet in January 1861 but no action was ever taken to call for a sovereignty convention or any efforts to decide if Kentucky would join other slave-holding states in seceding from the Union.

Many in Kentucky wanted the state to remain neutral in the war that all feared was about to crash over the country. In May 1861, both the Kentucky Senate and House had passed resolutions declaring the neutral status of the state between the Union and the Confederate States of America. The governor publicly declared that Kentucky would remain neutral and notified both sides of that fact.

In September, 1861, Confederate forces under the command of General Leonidas Polk entered the territory of Kentucky and occupied the city of Columbus on the banks of the Mississippi River. Two days later, Union forces under Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant occupied nearby Paducah. Later in the month, the Kentucky legislature formally indicated that the state of Kentucky would side with the United States government and Kentucky's period of neutrality had ended.