We have brothers been of yore: Singing Kentucky into the Confederacy

Most of us Civil War buffs are familiar with the stories about how during the Maryland campaign in September 1862, soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia sang the tune “Maryland, My Maryland” as they entered the state. The idea behind this was to show solidarity with the “oppressed” people of Maryland and that the arrival of Robert E. Lee’s army provided an opportunity for Maryland to throw off the yoke of Federal oppression and take her place in the ranks of the Confederacy.

There was an interesting parallel to this sentiment in the western theater as well and at the same time. In late August 1862, an army under the command of General Edmund Kirby Smith marched into Kentucky and after quickly dispatching a small Federal army at the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky, set up camp in central Kentucky and opened the recruiting offices to accept Kentucky volunteers. The arrival of General Braxton Bragg’s army a few weeks later further cemented this golden opportunity for Kentuckians to join the western Confederacy.

The idea behind both the Maryland and Kentucky campaigns were the same- the arrival of a Southern army in these states was to provide an opportunity for the citizens of those states to rise up and express their support of the Confederacy. In both cases, those high hopes went up in smoke. While a few recruits joined both armies, by and large the civil populations did not respond with the enthusiasm that Confederates leaders had hoped and ultimately both invasions ended in failure.

But the invasions themselves marked a resurgence in Confederate morale that rode on the backs of Lee’s victories in Virginia and the turning of the tides of war in the West. Great hopes were entertained that the defeats and disappointments of the first half of the year would be redeemed by those bold moves and that by Kentucky and Maryland joining the Confederacy, independence and victory was all but assured.

It was within this spirit of optimism and hope that the following tune was written in the heady days of the early fall of 1862. No doubt inspired by “Maryland, My Maryland,” the song was entitled “Song of the Army of Liberation” and apparently was intended for use by Smith and Bragg’s men while in Kentucky. The lyrics of the song read as an appeal to Kentuckians to join ranks with the Confederacy by speaking to their shared martial heritage in the Mexican War and Civil War, how Kentucky’s sons (Buckner and Breckinridge) have prominent positions within the Confederate army, and how the Confederacy seeks “not thy freedom to oppose” but to “redeem this glorious land of Boone.”

While I have yet to find any firsthand accounts of western Confederates singing this tune on the march or while going into battle, I present it as an interesting nugget of the war in the West.

 

The Kentucky campaign proved to be the most wide-ranging Confederate offensive during the war in the West as Braxton Bragg's and Edmund Kirby Smith's armies moved the theater of war several hundred miles north into the Kentucky Bluegrass. More a campaign of maneuver than of pitched battles, the lack of response from the Kentucky populace ultimately doomed the campaign. However, while the objective of getting Kentucky into the Confederacy wasn't met, Bragg's and Kirby Smith's armies recovered much productive ground (including Cumberland Gap, northern Alabama, and middle Tennessee) that it would take the Federal army most of 1863 to secure again. 

Our feet are on thy fertile shore, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

We have brothers been of yore, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

We come with strong and sturdy blows,

To beat to earth thy vandal foes,

Not thy freedom to oppose, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

 

Together we in battle stood, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

Together flowed our mingled blood, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

In Buena Vista’s dread affray,

Thy gallant sons lead on by Clay,

With Davis fought and won the day, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

 

Thy children sleep in Southern soil, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

They shared our danger and our toil, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

Their bones are on Manassas’ plains,

Their blood the field of Shiloh stains,

Where Johnston died with open veins, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

 

General John Cabell Breckinridge of Kentucky

See our gallant Southern band, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

‘Tis guided by thy Buckner’s hand, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

And Breckinridge whose noble name,

Is linked with thine own deathless fame,

Seeks thy glory not thy shame, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

 

Thy heart hath been in anguish wrung, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

Thy tears have flowed for old and young, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

Look up! The clouds no longer lower,

See the tyrant’s failing power,

‘Tis redemptions glorious hour, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

 

O’er all thy plains and mountain heights, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

Thou cans’t not be the tyrant’s slave, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

They come! They come! Like leaves of June,

They rally to us and we’ll soon,

Redeem this glorious land of Boone, Kentucky, o Kentucky!

 

Source:

“Song of the Army of Liberation,” Columbus Daily Sun (Georgia), October 22, 1862, pg. 1

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