Munfordville, Kentucky’s Civil War Heritage - Nov. ‘96 America’s Civil War Feature

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Munfordville, Kentucky, proudly preserves its Civil War heritage–including, some say, a wartime ghost.

By Darleen Francisco

Visitors to Munfordville, a small town in central Kentucky about 70 miles south of Louis-ville, are in for a pleasant surprise. The Hart County village is living proof that, as the old saying goes, “Looks can be deceiving.” For the events that took place in the sleepy little town in 1862 were perhaps more decisive than previously has been thought. Certainly, they were quite dramatic–some might even say haunting.

As most armchair historians know, when the Civil War began, Kentucky had chosen a position of “armed neutrality.” But it still contained strong loyalists for both the North and the South, and a Confederate Kentucky would have thrown open the entire southern frontier of the Ohio River–including portions of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois–where 2,600,000 persons had deep sentimental attachments to the South.

At the beginning of the war, President Abraham Lincoln, himself a native Kentuckian, was quoted as saying that “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game.” His emphasis on the importance of Kentucky was not misplaced, because the state was the most crucial of the border states. The Confederate lines of defense extended from Columbus through Munfordville to the Cumberland Gap, with the Confederate headquarters located at Bowling Green. If the Confederates could control Kentucky, they would also control the principal avenues–waterways and railways–for invading and waging war in the central United States.

The Green River Bridge in Munfordville was a vital bridge for both armies to control. In early October 1861, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston gave a Munfordville native, Brig. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, a direct order to destroy the bridge in order to prevent Union forces from attacking Bowling Green. Knowing that the bridge had been built in part by local people, Buckner protested vehemently, but to no avail. John W. Key and his sons, also residents of Munfordville, had originally been the chief stonemasons for the bridge, and, ironically, it was these same men who placed the explosive charges beneath the southernmost piers. The charge was detonated, and the Keys watched glumly as two spans of the bridge dropped, extensively damaging their masterpiece.

In December 1861, Union-leaning workers arrived to repair the bridge, but on December 17, a short, intensive battle was fought, known as the Battle of Rowlett’s Station. After the battle and the temporary repair of the bridge, Union Brig. Gens. Alexander McCook and James S. Negley arrived to protect the Green River Bridge from further Rebel attacks. McCook quickly ordered the construction of what was to be a five-point fort about 800 yards east of the bridge, to be named Fort Craig. A rifle trench surrounded the work, and to protect the Louisville & Nashville Railroad tracks and bridge against further attacks, he had a stockade of heavy logs and banked earth erected at the south end of the bridge. This would ensure that Union forces had a
continuous line of communication between their forces in the South and their base at Louisville.

Before the task was completed, however, McCook was ordered to leave, and the job passed to Colonel John T. Wilder. Although he was not a professional soldier and lacked military training and experience, Wilder was determined to devote all his efforts to maintaining and holding the all-important railroad. He strengthened the wooden and earthen stockades and constructed the star-shaped earthen fort that is still visible today.

On September 15, 1862, news of Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky reached Munfordville, and the town was thrown into a state of turmoil. The next day, Bragg moved his entire force of 30,000 men into the area and prepared to capture the Union position.

Wilder was a very conscientious, intelligent man. He began to suspect that his troops were no match for Bragg’s superior forces, and he arrived at an unorthodox
solution when asked to surrender. Knowing that General Buckner was commanding
a division of Bragg’s forces, and believing him to be an honorable man, Wilder went into the Confederate camp under a flag of truce to ask Buckner’s advice, one gentleman to another.

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