Bragg's Army Comes to Bardstown

In September of eighteen sixty two, Bardstown became the temporary headquarters of the Confederate Army of the Mississippi. General Braxton Bragg had launched one of the boldest Confederate offensives of the war, pushing his army north from Tennessee into Kentucky, hoping that the border state's residents would rise up and join the rebellion. His proclamations promised liberation, and his army reached Bardstown in late September, making the town his base of operations while he waited to see if Kentucky would answer his call.

The response was deeply disappointing. Only a small number of Kentuckians enlisted in the Confederate army during the entire campaign, far fewer than the tens of thousands the Southern commanders had expected. Kentucky's loyalties were divided, and Bardstown contained both Union supporters and Confederate sympathizers.

Bragg's exhausted soldiers foraged across the countryside for food and supplies while the general maneuvered against the Union army under General Don Carlos Buell. Eventually Bragg moved east from Bardstown toward the town of Perryville, where on October eighth, eighteen sixty two, the two armies fought the largest battle in Kentucky's history. Though the Confederates held the field, Bragg concluded his losses were unsustainable and withdrew from the state entirely.

The Confederate occupation of Bardstown lasted only weeks, but it left memories the town carried for generations.