Lexington in the American Civil War

Lexington, Kentucky was a city of importance during the American Civil War, with notable residents participating on both sides of the conflict.

These included John C. Breckinridge, Confederate generals John Hunt Morgan and Basil W. Duke, and the Todd family, who mostly served the Confederacy although one, Mary Todd Lincoln, was the first lady of the United States, wife of President Abraham Lincoln.

She left in 1839 from the family home to live with her sister in Springfield, Illinois, where she would meet Abraham Lincoln in 1842.

Mary's father Richard Smith Todd had fourteen children, of whom six chose the Union side, while eight others went for the Confederacy.

[3] However his nephew John C. Breckinridge, Vice President of the United States under Lincoln's predecessor James Buchanan, two of his sons (Willie and Robert Jr.), and a son-in law joined the Confederacy.

When Kentucky governor Beriah Magoffin established pro-Southern Home Guards in March 1860, the Lexington Rifles were the first to join.

When news of the Battle of Fort Sumter reached Lexington, the leader of the Lexington Rifles, John Hunt Morgan, telegraphed Confederate President Jefferson Davis to offer assistance, and raised the Confederate flag above the city's woolen factory.

[7] On September 19 a strong Union force returned the city, with orders to disarm the home guard.

However, on October 18 Morgan had returned to Lexington and captured Union Major Charles B. Seidel at Ashland, the former home of Henry Clay.

Having lost his better soldiers in the previous year's Morgan's Raid, these men proceeded to loot the city.