KENTUCKY RAIDER

Karvel outlines a Confederate soldier’s service in the Civil War as part of the infamous unit known as Morgan’s Raiders.

Commodore Perry Snell—named after a hero who fought in the War of 1812—was born in 1821 in Kentucky and is the author’s great-great-grandfather. A farmer and father of eight, he enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1862 and was assigned to the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry. Kentucky was a divided state. As a result, it “suffered more fratricidal warfare than any of the other border states,” and its inhabitants were vulnerable to conscription by the Union Army. Snell was neither a slave owner nor advocate of the institution but was motivated to join out of a protective attachment to state sovereignty and an inherited fear of centralized government. Snell became a member of John Hunt Morgan’s band of cavalrymen known as Morgan’s Raiders, a legendary group notorious for its costly attacks on Union supply depots and railroads, theft of horses and gold, and the general destruction left in the wake of its march through Kentucky across the Ohio River into Indiana. Having enlisted with Morgan’s Raiders, Snell was indicted for conspiracy by the state. He was captured twice and escaped imprisonment and eventually surrendered in 1865. He was paroled, divorced his wife, married a much younger woman, and started anew. He was impressively wealthy by 1870, his affluence potentially subsidized by gold purloined during the war. Debut author Karvel also chronicles Morgan’s eventful life—up until he was shot in the back while attempting to evade capture in 1864—as well as the lives of the men who zealously hunted him, Edward Henry Hobson and Israel Garrard. Karvel bases much of his account on an order book taken from Hobson after he was captured and held privately within his family for 150 years. (An order book is a record of both orders and correspondence kept by a commanding officer’s adjutant, and as a result, it provides a fascinating peek into the internal machinations of a military unit.) Karvel’s commentary astutely observes the simmering emotions often embedded within professional understatement and restraint: “Irritation and frustration is almost imperceptible in the abbreviated, direct, and efficient language employed by adjutants and their commanding officers.” Furthermore, Karvel’s research is rigorously documented and presented via clear, accessible prose. The author’s most important contribution to the existing scholarship on the Civil War is his nuanced depiction of both sides. Hobson, for example, had no real interest in the opposition to slavery, but he fought to preserve the Union. In the aftermath of the war, though, he seemed to change his mind and believed he was denied public office because of his support for the 13th and 14th amendments. The author explores the myriad reasons cited for the support of either side and avoids any sententious judgments, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions in the face of evidence expertly presented.

An impressively fresh look at an otherwise well-covered historical event.