American Civil War Battlefields 

Battle of Wildcat Mountain 

Camp Wildcat 

Laurel County, KY

Photos and Text courtesy of  LCWRT Member Holly Jenkins-Evans

The Battle of Wildcat Mountain, also known as Camp Wildcat, was located outside London, Ky. The Laurel Home Guard Reservation was the site of CSA Gen. Felix Zollicoffer's camp.

Fought on October 21, 1861, this small battle was the first Union victory in Ky, effectively ending the Confederate incursion under Brig Gen. Felix Zollicoffer. Zollicoffer and his force of approximately 5400 men had entered the state and occupied the Cumberland Gap. The camp at Wildcat Mountain was established by Col. Theophilus T. Garrard and his small force of 975 men under orders by USA Brig. Gen. George H. Thomas in order to block the Wilderness Road and secure the river ford on the Rockcastle. After Garrard's request for reinforcements, Thomas ordered Brig. Gen. Albin Schoepf to reinforce the heavily outnumbered Garrard, the Union forces numbered approx. 7000. Schoepf and his troops arrived at Camp Wildcat on Oct 20. The nest day, the Union troops were able to repel the Confederate attacks. Zollicoffer and his troops retreated to Cumberland Ford by the 26th. 

If  Zollicoffer had been successful, the Confederates would have been able to occupy the important central area of Kentucky, along with its forage, horses and potential troops with a force of 5400 and few losses. With the loss at Wildcat Mountain, they would have to make a much costlier and ultimately unsuccessful attempt a year later in October of 1862. 

American Civil War Monuments
Memorial Arch 
6th and Washington St., Heritage Park
Junction City, KS

Photo and Text  by LCWRT Member Holly Jenkins-Evans

This impressive, 35 foot high Civil War Memorial Arch stands in Heritage Park in Junction City, Kansas. Not bad for a town with a population of 2684 in 1880. Planned and built by the veterans of the Union Army, as a tribute to the those who died during the American Civil War, the arch was dedicated on September 8, 1898. The arch is 23 feet wide with a white bronze soldier atop as well as two 8-inch mortars.

The following inscriptions are both on the arch itself and on replica plaques on a pedestal behind the arch, recently dedicated on April 9, 2019.

Left front of the arch:

In God We Trust 

In Memory Of

The Soldiers And Sailors Of

1861-1865

Who, Inspired By Patriotism

Freely Offered Their Lives;

For The Maintenance Of

An United Country

Right front of the arch:

1861-1865

Total Enlistment 

2,778,304 

Killed in Battle 

67,050 

Died of Wound Received in Action 

43,012 

Died from Other Causes 

240,458

Announcing Our 537th Meeting
Saturday, April 13

The Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign 

Presented by Chris Mackowski 

Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the editor-in-chief of Emerging Civil War and managing editor of the Emerging Civil War Series. He is a professor of journalism and mass communication at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, NY, and historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield in central Virginia. He has also worked as a historian for the National Park Service at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, where he gives tours at four major Civil War battlefields (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania), as well as at the building where Stonewall Jackson died. Chris has authored or co-authored a dozen books on the Civil War, and his articles have appeared in all the major Civil War magazines. Among the books Chris has authored or co-authored are The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson: The Mortal Wounding of the Confederacy’s Greatest Icon-and the Birth of Its Greatest Legend, Fight Like the Devil: The First Day at Gettysburg July 1, 1863, and That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy, May 1-5, 1863. He was a 2014 finalist for the Army Historical Foundations' Distinguished Book Award for Chancellorsville's Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church. Chris has had six of his plays produced and he serves on the national advisory board for the Civil War Chaplains Museum in Lynchburg, Virginia. His latest book is The Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign. 

The Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign

 The stakes for George Gordon Meade could not have been higher. After his stunning victory at Gettysburg in July of 1863, the Union commander spent the following months trying to bring the Army of Northern Virginia to battle once more and finish the job. The Confederate army, robbed of much of its offensive strength, nevertheless parried Meade’s moves time after time. Although the armies remained in constant contact during those long months of cavalry clashes, quick maneuvers, and sudden skirmishes, Lee continued to frustrate Meade’s efforts. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Meade’s political enemies launched an all-out assault against his reputation and generalship. Even the very credibility of his victory at Gettysburg came under assault. Pressure mounted for the army commander to score a decisive victory and prove himself once more. Smaller victories, like those at Bristoe Station and Rappahannock Station, did little to quell the growing clamor—particularly because out west, in Chattanooga, another Union general, Ulysses S. Grant, was once again reversing Federal misfortunes. Meade needed a comparable victory in the east. And so, on Thanksgiving Day, 1863, the Army of the Potomac rumbled into motion once more, intent on trying again to bring about the great battle that would end the war.