Bluegrass Turned Gray: The Unraveling of Unionism in Civil War Kentucky

Abstract

This thesis argues that Kentucky underwent an ideological secession during the Civil War. Rather than identifying a single moment or cause of this departure from the Union, it takes a broader lens and synthesizes previously isolated historical arguments. While Kentucky never officially joined the Confederacy, it resisted federal emancipation efforts, opposed Lincoln’s reelection, and rejected the Thirteenth Amendment, ultimately emerging from the war ideologically estranged from the Union too which it had remained loyal. Building on the work of historians E. Merton Coulter, Gary Matthews, and Jacob Lee, this study examines how Kentucky’s political and cultural identity gradually shifted. Through analysis of local newspapers, diaries, manuscripts, letters, and legislation, this thesis traces the gradual unraveling of Kentucky’s Unionism and argues that its transformation was not a moment, but a process.