Slavery by numbers in Kentucky 1840-1859

This article is from the March 31, 1860 edition of the Covington Journal and shows that the number of slaves in the state increased by over 45,000 over those two decades, but had decreased in the northern-most counties in the state.

Here is a screen capture of the article. It does not indicate the source of these records and I have not yet done any research to try to confirm these numbers (at the very least there should be census records from 1850 and 1860 and perhaps 1840 as well) but I thought it was an interesting article.

September 1861: Important Action

Major General Ormsby M Mitchel

From the Covington Journal of September 28, 1861 comes this brief article about a meeting that would have some long-term effects in Northern Kentucky and the defense of the Cincinnati region.

The Mayors of the cities of Cincinnati, Covington and Newport, and committees of Councils, met General Mitchel last evening, and an important conference was held as to the defense of the city. It was decided, among other matters, to employ a large force of laborers to dig intrenchments or redoubts on the hills back of Covington and Newport, four in number, and two flanking redoubts on the hills back of this city.  

The force of laborers to be employed will be large, and the wages per day have been fixed at seventy-five cents. 

[Cin Enquirer, 27th]

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The results of this meeting were the beginnings of the construction of what would be 28 defensive positions in the area, 2 in Cincinnati and 26 south of the Ohio river, forming a shape like a ring with one side not quite rounded, each end attached to the river, taking advantage of the waterway's curve that forms Kentucky's northern border.

These defensive positions would fortify the area when Confederates under General Henry Heth threatened the region in September 1862, in what became known as the Siege of Cincinnati

The below illustration is a drawing of "Hooper Battery" (or "Battery Hooper") which was one of the first six positions fortified in the fall of 1861. (The others were built more hastily as the Confederates approached a year later.)  This is also the land where the James A. Ramage Civil War Museum is now located, on a hill in what is now known as the town of Fort Wright, named for General Horatio G. Wright.

Siege of Cincinnati / Battery Hooper article in Cincy Enquirer

I had not planned to make this entry, but the Cincinnati Enquirer today published a good description of the "Siege of Cincinnati" that I mention frequently and I found it to be worth sharing.

It is somewhat surprising that the Confederates did not make a more serious attempt to attack Cincinnati during the war, as it  was quite an important city at the time, and the Ohio River was a major transportation route. It was, however, far enough north to be a difficult challenge for the southerners to undertake, and after Heth and his men saw the fortifications that had been built by the time of their approach in September of 1862, they knew a successful attack would not be easy. The bend in the Ohio River, the hills of Northern Kentucky and the skills of U.S. Engineers like Charles Whittlesey and James Simpson combined to create a strong line of defenses.

Within a few weeks of this threat, a major battle took place a few hours south of Cincinnati,  at Perryville and soon after that fight the Confederates would leave the Bluegrass State, virtually for good. Despite later raids by men such as John Hunt Morgan and the grandiose late 1864 dreams of John Bell Hood,  no major Confederate force ever remotely approached Cincinnati again.

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The above image from Google Earth displays my attempt to show the general outline of where the defenses of Cincinnati were. This, of course, is a modern image, but the path of the Ohio River is fairly obvious as it winds its way towards a meeting with the "father of all waters." The yellow pins represent my understanding of where, amongst the modern sprawl, the fortifications were located. I know they are not exact and there were more than I have pinned so far (plus 2 north of the river) but I think this image provides at least a basic bird's-eye view of the how the shape of the river, the topography of Northern Kentucky and the man-made defensive positions worked together to make this a formidable position, almost a "ring," especially for a force as small as Henry Heth's (estimated from 6,000 to 8,000 men.)

The small, dark north/south line almost exactly in the middle of the page is the Licking River, which runs from southeastern Kentucky and empties into the Ohio River across from Cincinnati. (One of Cincinnati's early names was Losantiville, meaning "across from the Licking.") It divides Campbell County (on the right) and Kenton County (the left) in this image, and for an aggressive attacker, this small river could have served almost as a driveway straight into the heart of the defensive lines, but the engineers knew that and designed some of the positions, including Battery Hooper, to overlook this river and the valley it carved out along its route. If anybody gets the opportunity to visit the Ramage Museum, the view from the front yard, where Battery Hooper once stood, is of this valley and is quite spectacular at times. That type of view makes it seem obvious why the engineers put the batteries where they did. The below image shows a slightly zoomed-in view during the middle of summer.