Madison's Confederate Cavalry

Madison's Confederate Cavalry

Most Madison Countians know about the 11th Kentucky Cavalry, raised shortly after the Battle of Richmond to serve in the Confederate Army. It was organized near the spring at Woodlawn mansion. This location is now the empty corner of Big Hill Avenue and the EKU Bypass, the house having been dismantled in the 20th century. Both Federal and Confederate regiments watered their horses there. David Wallace Chenault of Foxtown was chosen as the unit’s commander.

James B. McCreary, later two-term Governor of the Commonwealth, joined with the rank of major. Chenault was killed at the engagement at Green River Bridge while the regiment served under General John Hunt Morgan of Lexington. The force was captured in Ohio while on a raid. They were held prisoner for about a year until being paroled or exchanged.

Now for the story of the other Madison County regiment to serve the Confederacy. Dating back to 1846, a militia unit designated the 1st Kentucky Volunteer Regiment was formed of men in the Bluegrass counties. It was closed down in 1847. John Hunt Morgan reorganized it in 1857. In 1860, this unit withdrew from the State Guard (a Union-oriented command) and was reorganized in Bowling Green where it entered service in the Confederate army.

In 1862, it became part of the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment. After much varied action under Morgan the unit laid down its arms in 1865 at Woodstock, Ga. Reorganized in 1884 as the Second Infantry Regiment in the National Guard, it is the parent unit of our local National Guard unit of today. A long way from 1846, but a discontinuous continuity that is a part of Madison’s heritage.

Dr. Fred Engle

8/24/2010

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