“Kentucky’s Rebel Press: Pro-Confederate Media and the Secession Crisis” by Berry Craig. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2018. 215 pages, $45 (hardcover).

Recent books by rising young scholars such as Ann E. Marshall, Luke E. Harlow and Patrick A. Lewis provided excellent accounts of the Civil War’s detrimental effect on Kentucky, both during the conflict and after. Berry Craig, initially a newspaper reporter and later a successful history professor and a prolific author, added significantly to our knowledge of the role of newspapers throughout the secession crisis, during President Abraham Lincoln’s “free press” issues with the state’s pro-Confederate papers, and the conduct of editors in creating what is commonly known after the war as “Confederate” Kentucky.

Newspaper accounts of Civil War battles are notoriously weak. Young historians are taught today in their first graduate Civil War seminar to read battle accounts carefully, analyze them thoroughly and determine if the writer was in a position to observe scenes described. Newspaper editorials, however, are another matter. The number of editors who supported the Union cause and those who were pro-Confederate in Kentucky were evenly divided – unlike volunteers who were 60 percent Union – and neither side minced words. They wrote exactly what they thought.

Readers will learn which editors favored the Union and which supported the Confederacy. George D. Prentice, unlike the vast majority of editors, possessed a college education and edited the Louisville Journal, a pro-Union – but also pro-slavery – paper, and William N. Haldeman, the editor of the Louisville Courier, was a secessionist who fled south after his paper was shut down by the Union army. After the war, Haldeman returned to Kentucky and joined together both papers to create the Courier-Journal with Henry Watterson, a former Confederate officer, as editor. Craig’s descriptions of editors and their writing are lively, with pockets of humor here and there, and some accounts of events, like the arrest of A.J. Morey, the pro-Confederate editor of the Cynthiana News, might spur instant laughter in readers. When arrested, he was subdued by two Union soldiers, one of whom referred to Morey as “a pompous little fellow.” Without thinking, Morey challenged the Yankee, who was much larger, to a duel. The challenged Yankee possessed under the rules of duels the right to choose weapons. The Yankee chose “knives at one pace”; Morey quickly had second thoughts and withdrew his challenge.

After the war, colonels, majors and foot soldiers who had fought for the Confederacy returned to Kentucky. Among them were a host of pro-Confederate editors. These were the people who were determined to attach Kentucky ideologically to the Confederacy. The Kentucky that played a major role in shaping the nation before the Civil War sank into a backwater of resentment for generations. Public schools and the economy became second thoughts, and the lingering shadow of slavery quickly descended upon African-Americans, reducing most to a condition of peonage.

Readers who wish for details about the appearance of Civil War-era newspapers will find an appropriate amount in this book. Craig has it all: where papers were published, how many were daily or weekly publications, the size and typical number of pages, the number of columns, where stories were generally found and, of course, ads.

– Reviewed by Marion B. Lucas, History Department, Western Kentucky University.