The Most Hated Man in Kentucky: The Lost Cause and the Legacy of Union General Stephen Burbridge

by Brad Asher

Overview

For the last third of the nineteenth century, Union General Stephen Gano Burbridge enjoyed the unenviable distinction of being the most hated man in Kentucky. From mid-1864, just months into his reign as the military commander of the state, until his death in December 1894, the mere mention of his name triggered a firestorm of curses from editorialists and politicians. By the end of Burbridge's tenure, Governor Thomas E. Bramlette concluded that he was an "imbecile commander" whose actions represented nothing but the "blundering of a weak intellect and an overwhelming vanity."

In this revealing biography, Brad Asher explores how Burbridge earned his infamous reputation and adds an important new layer to the ongoing reexamination of Kentucky during and after the Civil War. Asher illuminates how Burbridge—as both a Kentuckian and the local architect of the destruction of slavery—became the scapegoat for white Kentuckians, including many in the Unionist political elite, who were unshakably opposed to emancipation. Beyond successfully recalibrating history's understanding of Burbridge, Asher's biography adds administrative and military context to the state's reaction to emancipation and sheds new light on its postwar pro-Confederacy shift.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813181394
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	11/15/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	343
File size:	9 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Brad Asher is an independent scholar. He is the author of Cecelia and Fanny: The Remarkable Friendship Between an Escaped Slave and Her Former Mistress and Beyond the Reservation: Indians, Settlers, and the Law in Washington Territory, 1853–1889. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Brad Asher is an independent scholar. He is the author of Beyond the Reservation: Indians, Settlers, and the Law in Washington Territory, 1853–1889. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
1. Introduction
2. Gentleman
3. Soldier
4. Commander
5. Liberator
6. Tyrant
7. Butcher
8. Pariah
9. Exile
10. Conclusion
Appendix A: Retaliatory Executions of Guerrillas per Burbridge's Order No. 59
Appendix B: Actions Involving Irregular Forces in Kentucky, 1864-1865
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Kentucky-based historian Brad Asher reexamines Burbridge's life, legacy, and memory. Asher's task was no easy one. Burbridge left no great cache of surviving personal papers or writings. Even still, the author tapped an impressive collection of federal, state, and local records, as well as manuscripts and period newspapers, a platform Burbridge was all too happy to leverage in arguing with his opponents. Through these sources, Asher does a terrific job of weaving together the military, political, social, and economic threads that made Kentucky such a complex story in and of itself during the Civil War.

Emerging Civil War Book Reviews

Brad Asher's The Most Hated Man in Kentucky is a solid reassessment of Kentucky's most controversial and reviled Union general, and one that will help readers understand the state's complex place (and Burbridge's complex place) in Civil War history.z

Stuart W. Sanders

A superb biography of one of the most pivotal figures in Kentucky's Civil War history. Stephen Burbridge figures heavily in any analysis of Kentucky's wartime experience, both for his actions as commander of the Military District of Kentucky in 1864–65 and for his outsized reputation as the chief villain of the 'radical Unionist' cause. There has been a lot of revisionist literature in the last fifteen years on Kentucky's belated Confederate identity but no work up to now has addressed Burbridge himself. Brad Asher has filled a very important gap in the literature on wartime and postwar memory of Kentucky.

Aaron Astor

"A superb biography of one of the most pivotal figures in Kentucky's Civil War history. Stephen Burbridge figures heavily in any analysis of Kentucky's wartime experience, both for his actions as commander of the Military District of Kentucky in 1864—65 and for his outsized reputation as the chief villain of the 'radical Unionist' cause. There has been a lot of revisionist literature in the last fifteen years on Kentucky's belated Confederate identity but no work up to now has addressed Burbridge himself. Brad Asher has filled a very important gap in the literature on wartime and postwar memory of Kentucky." — Aaron Astor, author of Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri, 1860—1872

"Brad Asher's The Most Hated Man in Kentucky is a solid reassessment of Kentucky's most controversial and reviled Union general, and one that will help readers understand the state's complex place (and Burbridge's complex place) in Civil War history." — Stuart W. Sanders, author of Murder on the Ohio Belle

From the Publisher