1862 Antique Prints - Civil War in Kentucky - Ohio Troops Landing in Louisville

Description

Two original engravings on a single page relating to the Civil War in Kentucky, published in Harper's Weekly dated January 11, 1862 and entitled as follows:
"Landing of Ohio Troops at Louisville, Kentucky" - see Wikipedia entry below using the same engraving
"General Buell's Body-guard" - presumably in front of his head-quarters on Fourth Street
Good condition
- see scans
. Page size 11 x 16
inches
These are original antique prints and not reproductions . Great collectors item for the civil war historian - see more of these in Seller's Other Items
.
Louisville under threats of attack (1862–63)
[
edit
]
Ohio troops arrive at Louisville's wharf
By early 1862,
Louisville
had 80,000
Union
troops throughout the city. With so many troops, entrepreneurs set up
gambling
establishments along the north side of Jefferson from 4th to 5th Street, extending around the corner from 5th to Market, then continuing on the south side of Market back to 4th Street.
Photography
studios and military goods shops, such as Fletcher & Bennett on Main Street, catered to the Union officers and soldiers. Also capitalizing on the troops,
brothels
were quickly opened around the city.
In January 1862, Union General
George Thomas
defeated
Confederate
General
Felix Zollicoffer
at the
Battle of Mill Springs
,
Kentucky
. In February 1862, Union General
Ulysses Grant
and Admiral
Andrew Foote
's
gunboats
captured
Fort Henry
and
Fort Donelson
on the Kentucky and
Tennessee
border. Confederate General
Albert Sidney Johnston
's defensive line in Kentucky crumbled rapidly. Johnston had no choice but to fall back to
Nashville, Tennessee
. No defensive preparations had been made at Nashville, so Johnson continued to fall back to
Corinth, Mississippi
.
Union General
Don Carlos Buell
Although the threat of invasion by Confederates subsided, Louisville remained a
staging area
for Union supplies and troops heading south. By May 1862, the steamboats arrived and departed at the wharf in Louisville with their cargoes. Military contractors in Louisville provided the Union army with two hundred head of cattle each day, and the pork packers provided thousands of hogs daily. Trains departed for the south along the L&N railroad.
In July 1862, Confederate generals
Braxton Bragg
, commander of the
Army of Mississippi
, and
Edmund Kirby Smith
, commander of the
Army of East Tennessee
, planned an invasion of Kentucky. On August 13, Smith marched with 9,000 men out of
Knoxville
toward western Kentucky and arrived in
Barbourville
. On August 20, Smith announced that he would take
Lexington
. On August 28, Bragg's army moved west. At the
Battle of Richmond
, Kentucky, on August 30, Smith's Confederate forces defeated Union General
William "Bull" Nelson
's troops, capturing the entire force. This left Kentucky with no Union support. Nelson managed to escape back to Louisville. Smith marched into Lexington and sent a Confederate
cavalry
force to take
Frankfort
:
Kentucky's capitol
.
Buell's Army arrives in Louisville September 25, 1862; a week later Buell led 60,000 troops to fight at the
Battle of Perryville
Union General
Don Carlos Buell
's army withdrew from
Alabama
and headed back to Kentucky. Union General
Henry Halleck
, commander of all Union forces in the West, sent two divisions from General Ulysses Grant's army, stationed in
Mississippi
, to Buell. Confederate General
John Hunt Morgan
, of Lexington, Kentucky, managed to destroy the L&N
railroad
tunnel at
Gallatin, Tennessee
, cutting off all supplies to Buell's Union army. On September 5, Buell reached
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
, and headed for Nashville. On September 14, Bragg reached
Glasgow, Kentucky
. On that same day, Buell reached
Bowling Green, Kentucky
.
Bragg decided to take Louisville. One of the major objectives of the Confederate campaign in Kentucky was to seize the
Louisville and Portland Canal
and sever Union supply routes on the Ohio River. One Confederate officer suggested destroying the Louisville canal so completely that "future travelers would hardly know where it was." On September 16, Bragg's army reached
Munfordville, Kentucky
. Col. James Chalmers attacked the Federal
garrison
at Munfordville, but Bragg had to bail him out. Bragg arrived at Munfordville with his entire force, and the Union force soon surrendered.
Buell left Bowling Green and headed for Louisville. Fearing that Buell would not arrive in Louisville to prevent Bragg's army from capturing the city, Union General William "Bull" Nelson ordered the construction of a hasty defensive line around the city. He also ordered the placement of
pontoon bridges
across the Ohio to facilitate the evacuation of the city or to receive reinforcements from Indiana. Two pontoon bridges built of coal barges were erected, one at the location of the
Big Four Bridge
, and the other from
Portland
to
New Albany
. The Union Army arrived in time to prevent the Confederate seizure of the city. On September 25, Buell's tired and hungry men arrived in the city.
Bragg moved his army to
Bardstown
but did not take Louisville. Bragg urged General Smith to join his forces to take Louisville, but Smith told him to take Louisville on his own.
Citizens evacuate Louisville after Union General
William "Bull" Nelson
issues an order
With the Confederate army under Bragg preparing to attack Louisville, the citizens of Louisville panicked. On September 22, 1862, General Nelson issued an evacuation order: "The women and children of this city will prepare to leave the city without delay." He ordered the
Jeffersonville
ferry to be used for military purposes only. Private vehicles were not allowed to go aboard the ferry boats without a special permit. Hundreds of Louisville residents gathered at the wharf for boats to New Albany or Jeffersonville. With Frankfort in Confederate hands for about a month,
Governor
Magoffin
maintained his office in Louisville and the
state legislature
held their sessions in the
Jefferson County Courthouse
. Troops, volunteers and impressed labor worked around the clock to build a ring of
breastworks
and
entrenchments
around the city. New Union regiments flowed into the city. General William "Bull" Nelson took charge of the defense of Louisville. He sent Union troops to build
pontoon bridges
at Jeffersonville and New Albany to speed up the arrival of reinforcements, supplies and, if needed, the
emergency evacuation
of the city.
Union General
William "Bull" Nelson
Instead of taking Louisville, Bragg left Bardstown to install Confederate
Governor
Richard Hawes
at Frankfort. On September 26, five hundred Confederate cavalrymen rode into the area of Eighteenth and Oak, capturing fifty Union soldiers. Confederates placed pickets around
Middletown
on the 26th, and on the 27th their soldiers repelled Union forces from Middletown near
Shelbyville
Pike.
[5]
Southern forces reached two miles from the city, but were not numerous enough to invade it. On September 30, Confederate and Union pickets fought at Gilman's Point in
St. Matthews
and pushed the Confederates back through Middletown to Floyd's Fork.
[6]
The
War Department
ordered "Bull" Nelson to command the newly formed
Army of the Ohio
. When Louisville prepared for the Confederate army under Bragg, General
Jefferson C. Davis
(not to be confused with Confederate President
Jefferson Davis
), who could not reach his command under General Don Carlos Buell, met with General Nelson to offer his services. General Nelson gave him the command of the city militia. General Davis opened an office and assisted organizing the city militia. On Wednesday, General Davis visited General Nelson in his room at the
Galt House
. General Davis told General Nelson that his brigade he assigned Davis was ready for service and asked if he could obtain arms for them. This led to an argument in which Nelson threatened Davis with arrest. General Davis left the room, and, in order to avoid arrest, crossed over the river to Jeffersonville, where he remained until the next day, when General
Stephen G. Burbridge
joined him. General Burbridge had also been relieved of command by General Nelson for a trivial cause. General Davis went to
Cincinnati
with General Burbridge and reported to General Wright, who ordered General Davis to return to Louisville and report to General Buell, and General Burbridge to remain in Cincinnati.
Union
Gen.
Jefferson C. Davis
shoots Union Gen.
William "Bull" Nelson
on the steps of the
Galt House
General Davis returned to Louisville and reported to Buell. When General Davis saw General Nelson in the main hall of the Galt House, fronting the office, he asked the
Governor of Indiana
,
Oliver Morton
to witness the conversation between him and General Nelson. The Governor agreed and the two walked up to General Nelson. General Davis confronted General Nelson and told him that he took advantage of his authority. Their argument escalated and Nelson slapped Davis in the face, challenging him to a duel. In three minutes, Davis returned, with a pistol he had borrowed, and shot and killed Nelson. The General whispered: "It's all over," and died fifteen minutes later.
[7]
With General Nelson dead, the command switched over to General Don Carlos Buell. On October 1, the Union army marched out of Louisville with sixty thousand men. Buell sent a small Federal force to Frankfort to deceive Bragg as to the exact direction and location of the Federal army. The ruse worked. On October 4, the small Federal force attacked Frankfort and Bragg left the city and headed back for Bardstown, thinking the entire Federal force was headed for Frankfort. Bragg decided that all Confederate forces should concentrate at
Harrodsburg, Kentucky
, ten miles (16 km) northwest of Danville. On October 8, 1862, Buell and Bragg fought at
Perryville, Kentucky
. Bragg's 16,000 men attacked Buell's 60,000 men. Federal forces suffered 845 dead, 2,851 wounded and 515 missing, while the Confederate toll was 3,396. Although Bragg won the
Battle of Perryville
tactically, he wisely decided to pull out of Perryville and link up with Smith. Once Smith and Bragg joined forces, Bragg decided to leave Kentucky and head for Tennessee.
After the battle, thousands of wounded men flooded into Louisville. Hospitals were set up in public schools, homes, factories and churches. The Fifth Ward School, built at 5th and York Streets in 1855, became Military Hospital Number Eight. The
United States Marine Hospital
also became a hospital for the wounded Union soldiers from the battle of Perryville. Constructed between 1845 and 1852, the three-story Greek revival style Louisville Marine Hospital contained one hundred beds. It became the prototype for seven
U.S. Marine
Hospital Service buildings, including
Paducah, Kentucky
, which later became
Fort Anderson
. Union surgeons erected the
Brown General Hospital
, located near the Belknap campus of the
University of Louisville
, and other hospitals were erected at Jeffersonville and New Albany, Indiana. By early 1863, the
War Department
and the
U.S. Sanitary Commission
erected nineteen hospitals. By early June 1863, 930 deaths had been recorded in the Louisville hospitals.
Cave Hill Cemetery
set aside plots for the Union dead.
Louisville also had to contend with Confederate prisoners. Located at the corner of Green Street and 5th Street, the Union Army Prison, also called the "Louisville
Military Prison
", took over the old "Medical College building." Union authorities moved the prison near the corner of 10th and Broadway Streets. By August 27, 1862, Confederate
prisoners of war
were taken to the new military prison. The old facility continued to house new companies of Provost Guards. From October 1, 1862, to December 14, 1862, the new Louisville Military Prison housed 3,504 prisoners. In December 1863, the prison held over 2,000 men, including
political prisoners
, Union deserters, and Confederate prisoners of war.
Made of wood, the prison covered an entire
city block
, stretching from east to west between 10th and 11th Streets and north to south between Magazine and Broadway Streets. Its main entrance was located on Broadway near 10th Street. A high fence surrounded the prison with at least two prison barracks. The prison hospital was attached to the prison and consisted of two barracks on the south and west sides of the square with forty beds in each building. The Union commander at the Louisville Military Prison was Colonel Dent. In April 1863, Captain Stephen E. Jones succeeded him. In October 1863, military authorities replaced Captain Jones with C. B. Pratt.
[8]
A block away, Union authorities took over a large house on Broadway between 12th and 13th Streets and converted it into a military prison for women.
Historical marker noting Morgan's activities at
Brandenburg, Kentucky
, where his forces captured two
steamboats
, the
John B. McCombs
and the
Alice Dean
, before crossing the
Ohio River
into
Indiana