A Stroll into Tennessee

For my sojourn into the University's Archives collection, I decided to take a look into The Civil War Collections Box 2. Inside I found two books, one the Volunteer registry for the 8th Kentucky's Companies B&C, the other the accounting details for the entire regiment. When I looked into the first one, Eighth Kentucky Regiment USA volunteers Companies B and C, I half expected to see just a list of names along with the dates for their enlistment and for their exit from the Regiment. Instead, I found a surprisingly detailed account of each man in the two companies. With each entry I read it was as if I could see the entire story of each soldier laid out before me. Two really caught y attention. The first one was the story of  an Officer named Jacob J. Tipton. Born in Estill Co, Kentucky, Jacob voluntarily enlisted in September of 1861, at 22 years old. Within a year, he was promoted to the rank of Captain within the 8th Kentucky. He met his fate on the 19th of September, 1863, when he was captured by the Confederate forces alongside two other men from the 8th Kentucky during the Battle of Chickamauga. He was not returned during the next 2 years, as is shown by his payroll status in the accounting book ending then, and most likely sat out the rest of the war within the confines of a Confederate POW camp. The other man whose story came to my attention was James J. Boyle, also of Estill Co. Boyle served in the same company as Tipton, company B. During the Battle of Chickamauga, Boyle received not one but 4 severe bullet wounds while fighting. What surprised me most from this, though, was that he then managed to keep on serving for Two Whole Months before succumbing to his injuries in a field hospital just outside Chattanooga in Nov. 1863. That astounds me that these men ere able to go through this voluntarily, all the while the benefits and conditions they were in continued to deteriorate around them (the accounting log showed in the course of a single year, from 1862 - 1863, their pay dropped from about $30 a month to just over $4 a month.) Another point of interest, though, was the fact that each soldier had his skin complexion listed in the roster. Being a Volunteer unit from South Eastern  Kentucky formed in 1861, I excepted it to be a lot of white men rallying for the Union. I was shocked, however, to see that their was a large number of enlistees that were labeled Dark, which to my surprise upon further investigation showed to mean that they were Black. Not only that, but some of these black soldiers were actually officers, the highest one being a colonel. I'm astounded by this, because these men were enlisted a full 2 years before the Union actually began officially enlisting African Americans.

   So, In Conclusion, I find that History has once again proven itself to not be as black or white as we like to think it. I found proof that there was a regiment  from Southern Kentucky, that in 1861 willfully accepted black volunteers into its ranks, and even allowed them to become officers. I saw records of men my own age voluntarily joining to fight and die or fall into enemy hands, al the while their salary, the one thing that was essential to them, kept dwindling and dwindling. This regiment is more than a list of names. its an inspiration for us all.