One of the several military units that recruited men from Campbell County was the 8th Kentucky Cavalry, a regiment mostly formed in the western region of the state but that included a company enlisted in Newport by Captain John Arthur.These men became the regiment’s company E.
One of those Campbell Countians was Andrew Jackson Huddleston, known as Jackson to his army colleagues.
Jackson was a native Hoosier, having been born in Indiana on August 19, 1839. By 1850 he lived with the Books family in Geneva in Jennings County of the Hoosier State. His brothers John and James were also in the house.
By 1860, with the nation on the brink of civil war, he had moved to Cold Spring, Campbell County, where he boarded with another family. He was now 21 years old.
When the war broke out, men throughout the nation reacted in a variety of manners – some joined the army right away, others waited before doing so, and still others never volunteered.
In Campbell County, one man was anxious to play his part. John Arthur quickly enlisted in the 2nd Ohio Infantry for a three-month term. After this service ended, he still wished to support the national government and formed a Home Guard company in Newport. This group saw fighting in the July 1862 Battle of Cynthiana, where it suffered a handful of killed and wounded men.
This Home Guard force disbanded after its brief time in service, but Captain Arthur still wished to do more and opened a recruiting office on York and Fourth Streets in Newport, where he was “recruiting a cavalry company…to be assigned to the twelve months service in Kentucky.”1
Jackson saw or heard about the advertisement for this company and decided to enlist in this unit on August 11, 1862, for a term of one-year. He was fortunate to get his spot, as the unit soon filled up and Arthur had to reject other men who tried to join.2
As the new recruits prepared to leave their homes to start for their military adventures, local women prepared them a “fine dinner” in a local firehouse. These 103 men left soon thereafter on the steamship Florence heading for Louisville, from where they would go to their camp.3
They reached that river city safely, then settled into camp nearby. Here they found out they would join the 1st Battalion of Colonel James Shackelford’s 8th Kentucky Cavalry as Company E.
Shackelford gained a reputation as a “prominent” guerrilla hunter in the Western Kentucky region and was later promoted to Brigadier General of United States Volunteers. He commanded a group of men who captured Confederate General John H. Morgan at the Battle of Salineville, Ohio in the summer of 1863.4
The 8th Kentucky Cavalry entered the war as a one-year unit, formed mostly in and around Russellville, Kentucky and mustered in on August 13, 1862. It remained in Kentucky and Tennessee for much of its service, combating local Confederate irregular soldiers, known as partisan rangers, or as guerrillas, as Union officials labeled them. The regiment also joined in the pursuit of Morgan and his Confederates during his “Great Raid” in July of 1863.
Jackson experienced his own personal adventures during his year in the army, leaving even military officials puzzled about his fate.
On October 1, 1862, he was foraging with a squad of fellow soldiers, searching for food near Henderson, Kentucky to bring food back to camp, but he did not return with them.
Records agree on that much, but exactly what happened next is unclear. One document claims he deserted the unit. That may have been initial confusion when he did not return immediately from the foraging expedition before authorities realized what had really happened.
Another page notes that he was “supposed captured and killed,” the second part of which definitely proved to be in error.
Others say he was simply captured. One shows that he was sent to Richmond, Virginia to await exchange and that he had lost his gun, horse, and other equipment, probably to Confederates looking to supplement their own war materiel.
Another form even alleges that he joined the Army of the Potomac, the Union’s main army in the east, though no other records claim or confirm this.
It is nearly certain that Confederates captured him and perhaps they did transport him to prison in Richmond until they could exchange him. Jackson did survive his ordeal and the war before returning to civilian life. Not all captives were so fortunate.
In 1880, he was living in Clermont County, Ohio with his wife Grace and their three children. He was working on a farm to support his family.
By 1900, he lived in Carthage, Hamilton County, Ohio, and worked as a watchman, i.e., a security guard. He lived with Lucy Grace, his wife since 1863, and they had one son and one boarder in their home.
Ten years later, the couple lived in Cincinnati, where Jackson claimed night watchman as his occupation.
Jackson and Grace eventually moved to Campbell County, across the Ohio River, south of Cincinnati.
Sadly, Grace passed away on March 7, 1920, and was laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery. Jackson did not live long as a widower. He called Silver Grove home, but passed away in Ft. Thomas due to pleurisy, a painful lung issue, on April 24, 1921. He was also buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
Notes
1Cincinnati Daily Commercial, August 7, 1862
2Cincinnati Daily Commercial, August 19, 1862
3Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, August 19, 1862
4Lindow, Derrick. We Shall Conquer or Die: Partisan Warfare in 1862 Western Kentucky. Savas Beatie. 2024 p. x
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