"The first full biography of the famous Confederate cavalry leader from Kentucky. It provides fresh, unpublished information on all aspects of Morgan's life and furnishes a new perspective on the Civil War. In a highly original interpretation, Ramage portrays Morgan as a revolutionary guerrilla chief. Using the tactics of guerrilla war and making his own rules, Morgan terrorized federal provost marshals in an independent campaign to protect Confederate sympathizers in Kentucky. He killed pickets and used the enemy uniform as a disguise, frequently masquerading as a Union officer. Employing...

By the early twentieth century, Basil Wilson Duke had established himself as one of Kentucky's most popular storytellers, but unlike many other talented raconteurs, Duke was not merely a man of words. In Basil Wilson Duke, CSA, the first full-length biography of this distinguished American, Gary Robert Matthews offers keen insight into the challenges Duke faced before, during, and after the strife of the Civil War. As first lieutenant of General John Hunt Morgan's legendary band of Confederate raiders, Duke became Morgan's most trusted advisor and an integral contributor to his dramatic...

When John Wesley Hunt came to Kentucky in 1794, his plan was to open a general store in Lexington. A canny judge of business opportunity, he soon expanded his activities and became one of the responsible figures of Kentucky banking and finance. In another kind of venture, he imported fine stallions from the East, significantly improving the bloodlines of thoroughbreds and trotters in the Bluegrass. John Wesley Hunt tells the story of Hunt's business exploits against the background of life in frontier Lexington. James A. Ramage reveals how his innovative solutions to the financial...