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Kentucky was a border state of key importance in the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln recognized the importance of the Commonwealth when he declared "I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky."〔''Encyclopedia of Kentucky'', p. 43.〕 In a September 1861 letter to Orville Browning,〔Brown, p. 79.〕 Lincoln wrote: I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this capitol.〔Harrison, p. 3.〕 Kentucky, being a border state, was among the chief places where the "Brother against brother" scenario was prevalent. Kentucky was officially neutral at the beginning of the war, but after a failed attempt by Confederate General Leonidas Polk to take the state of Kentucky for the Confederacy, the legislature petitioned the Union for assistance, and thereafter became solidly under Union control. Kentucky was the site of fierce battles, such as Mill Springs and Perryville. It was host to such military leaders as Ulysses S. Grant on the Union side, who first encountered serious Confederate gunfire coming from Columbus, Kentucky, and Nathan Bedford Forrest on the Confederate side. Forrest proved to be a scourge to the Union Army in such places as the towns of Sacramento and Paducah, where he conducted guerrilla warfare against Union forces. Kentucky was the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary Todd, and his southern counterpart, Confederate President Jefferson Davis. ==Antebellum Kentucky== Kentucky's citizens were split regarding the issues central to the Civil War. In 1860, slaves composed 19.5% of the Commonwealth's population, and many Unionist Kentuckians saw nothing wrong with the "peculiar institution".〔Harrison, p. 1.〕 The Commonwealth was further bound to the South by the Mississippi River and its tributaries, which were the main commercial outlet for her surplus produce, although railroad connections to the North were beginning to diminish the importance of this tie.〔Harrison, p. 2.〕 The ancestors of many Kentuckians hailed from Southern states like Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, but many Kentucky children were beginning to migrate toward the North.〔 Kentucky, along with North Carolina, also boasted the best educational systems in the South. Transylvania University had long been one of the most respected institutions of higher learning in the nation, and while its reputation had begun to fade by 1860, other Kentucky schools like Centre College and Georgetown College were gaining prominence.〔Klotter in ''Kentucky's Civil War 1861–1865'', p. 13.〕 Politically, the Commonwealth had produced some of the country's best known leaders. Former Vice-Presidents John C. Breckinridge and Richard M. Johnson both hailed from the Bluegrass state, as did Henry Clay and future US president Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis.〔Klotter in ''Kentucky's Civil War 1861–1865'', p. 14.〕 However, by the time of the Civil War, the Commonwealth was in a politically confused state. The decline of the Whig Party, which Clay had founded, had left many politicians looking for an identity.〔Harrison, p. 4.〕 Many joined the increasingly popular Democratic Party, a few joined the newly formed Republican Party, while still others associated with one of numerous minor parties such as the Know Nothing Party.〔 Kentucky was strategically important to both the North and South. The Commonwealth ranked ninth in population by 1860, and was a major producer of such agricultural commodities as tobacco, corn, wheat, hemp, and flax.〔 Geographically, she was important to the South because the Ohio River would provide a defensible boundary along the entire length of the state.〔 Kentucky governor Beriah Magoffin believed that the rights of the Southern states had been violated and favored the right of secession, but sought all possible avenues to avoid it.〔Harrison, pp. 6–7.〕 On December 9, 1860, he sent a letter to the other slave state governors suggesting that they come to an agreement with the North that would include strict enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, a division of common territories at the 37th parallel, a guarantee of free use of the Mississippi River, and a Southern veto over slave legislation.〔Harrison, p. 7.〕 Magoffin proposed a conference of slave states, followed by a conference of all the states to secure these concessions.〔 Due to the escalating pace of events, neither conference was ever held.〔 Magoffin called a special session of the Kentucky General Assembly on December 27, 1860, and asked legislators for a convention of Kentuckians to decide the Commonwealth's course regarding secession.〔 The majority of the General Assembly had Unionist sympathies, however, and declined the governor's request,〔 fearing that the state's voters would favor secession.〔Harrison in ''Kentucky's Civil War 1861–1865'', p. 26.〕 The Assembly did, however, send six delegates to a February 4 Peace Conference in Washington, D.C., and asked Congress to call a national convention to consider potential resolutions to the secession crisis, including the Crittenden Compromise, authored by Kentuckian John J. Crittenden.〔Harrison, p. 8.〕 When the General Assembly convened again on March 20, it called for a convention of the border states in the Kentucky capital of Frankfort on May 27, 1861.〔 Again, the call went unheeded. Legislators also passed a proposed Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution that would have guaranteed slavery in states where it was already legal.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kentucky in the American Civil War」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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