[March 14, 2012]
My first two days in the Breckinridge Family Papers this week took me through eight volumes of correspondence, from February 6, 1862 – January 28, 1863 (boxes 220-227). Since I still have 53 volumes to go, that probably means that I will not be able to finish in the six days that remain to me on this trip! Then again, I’m in the middle of the Civil War. Virtually every letter is packed with significance. It’s hard not to slow down a bit when every letter could contain an important piece of information regarding R. J. Breckinridge’s involvement in the defense of the Union in Kentucky (not exactly the most popular stance he ever took among his fellow Kentuckians — but one that showered praise upon him from all over the rest of the Union [along with a fair share of opprobrium from the Confederacy!]).
As of July of 1862, one of his sons (RJB Jr) was serving in the Confederate Army, along with his nephew, John C. Breckinridge (the same John C. Breckinridge who was the “runner-up” to Abraham Lincoln in the presidential election of 1860). His son-in-law, Dr. Theophilus Steele, was a surgeon in the Confederate Army as well — although Mrs. Steele, R.J.’s daughter, Sophy, did not share her husband’s views on the war.
Another of RJB’s sons (Joseph) was serving in the Union Army — and apparently Joseph and Robert were both in the same battle at one point. Joseph’s letters indicate that he fought in Kentucky and Tennessee before being transferred east to Baltimore and then to Florida. A younger son, Charles, spent most of the war at West Point. Two other sons-in-law, William Warfield (Mary’s husband), and the Rev. George Morrison (Sally’s husband) were staunch Union men. Rev. Morrison was even wounded in the battle of Cynthiana, where he joined in the defense of the town from Morgan’s Raiders.
Morgan’s Raiders changed the whole complexion of the war in Kentucky. Until July of 1862, the Union forces were pushing south into Tennessee, and were likely to take control of the Mississippi River. But on July 4, 1862, Captain John Morgan quietly led a daring company into the heart of Kentucky. On July 14, RJB’s second son, William saw a band of 60-80 men pass through his father’s farm outside Lexington. Willie was rumored to be a southern sympathizer, but he had tried to stay out of the war for the sake of his father. He wrote to his father the next day saying that it had been “my purpose to keep myself entirely aloof from this war – taking no part in it and submitting in silence until God worked out the result. My affection & my duty to my wife & to you, my duty to my creditors and the force of the condition I was in, made me choose this course.” He blamed his older sister, Mary Warfield, for falsely accusing him of aiding Morgan — and then promptly rode off to join Morgan!
Two days later, William fought on the side of the Confederates against his brother-in-law, George Morrison, in the battle at Cynthiana. Word spread that Morgan had divided his troops and planned an attack on Lexington next. Morrison’s wife Sally wrote to her father on August 3 that she would feel better if he (RJB) went across the Ohio to Cincinnati, “for if they do come they would rather have you than 100 common men.” Frustrated at only being able to cook and care for the wounded, Sally added, “I wish I was a man!”
[As it turned out, they didn’t want RJB — they wanted his horses! At least two of his finest were “impressed” into the service of Morgan’s troops.]
When Joseph (who was in Florida in the Union Army at the time) heard about Willie’s defection, he wrote to his father on August 7, “It was a culminating blow I had hoped and prayed would be spared you and all of us. As a soldier may he act in the self-balanced, noble way he did before the war, reflect honor upon his political opinions and make his corps respectable. He knows how I have loved and do love him: I am sorry that that side has been joined by so fine a man.”
Willie’s wife, Issa Desha Breckinridge, whose father and brothers were staunch Confederates, urged him on — and never again would speak to her father-in-law (their eldest daughter was seven years old before she met her grandfather — even though they lived in the same town)! She said that she felt no pity for Union men who now felt the pain of being cut off from family and friends.
With hundreds, if not thousands, of southern-sympathizing Kentuckians rallying to Morgan, R. J. Breckinridge telegraphed General J. S. Boyle in Louisville, asking for immediate assistance. Boyle replied [please note: Boyle replied! Normally, when a civilian asks a general for military assistance, the general does not reply!] that his orders did not permit him to deviate from sending troops to Nashville. Central Kentucky was overrun by Morgan, and for the next four months the mails were somewhat irregular (ceasing altogether for nearly two months in the fall).
When the Confederate Army was driven out of Kentucky, Willie wrote once more to his father on October 27, asking him to forward a letter to his wife. He added, “I am glad that if we are driven from Kentucky & she is lost to us, that you & Joseph & Charles & Mary [those] I love will be benefitted by our loss.” Recognizing that he might never return to Kentucky — or see his father again — he concluded, “I can not avoid expressing my unchanged love & gratitude for & to you for the kindness & love you have ever shown me. It was once my hope & desire that I should be the child who would be the peculiar support of your old age — the staff upon which you would most confidently lean. God has ordered it otherwise — another son may be worthier — he could not be more loving.”
That son — for the rest of the war — was William Warfield (Mary’s husband — and father of Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield). There was no one else! Robert and Willie, the two oldest sons, now fought for the Confederacy. His next two sons were in the Union Army. His youngest son, John, was only 12 — and so Warfield, a leading Kentucky horse-breeder in his own right, took over the task of keeping an eye on RJB’s daily affairs.
I hope you can see how the “late unpleasantness” (as the Civil War was euphemized) truly divided father from son, husband from wife, brother from brother.
[All quotations from Breckinridge Mss. Library of Congress]
