Air Date: 110207
Subject: The 15th Kentucky Infantry (U.S.)
Book: The Battle Rages Higher: The Union’s Fifteenth Kentucky Infantry
Guest: Kirk C. Jenkins
Summary: Kirk C. Jenkins discusses the battles inside and outside of the 15th Kentucky Infantry (U.S.).
Brett’s Summary: Kirk C. Jenkins, a lawyer in Chicago, is a native of Kentucky. His inspiration for a book on the 15th Kentucky came after he found out his GGG Grandfather had been killed at Stones’ River. After further research he discovered he had many other relatives in the same regiment.
The Union 15th Kentucky was raised in central Kentucky in mostly heavily slaveholding communities, making it all the more remarkable that this was a Union regiment. Many of these men had to literally start over in life after breaking ties with their Southern-leaning relatives. I found it interesting that many of the officers of the regiment decided to resign en masse when word of the Emancipation Proclamation reached them. Although the politically motivated resignations were denied, says Jenkins, most of these men found ways to escape further service. The men, on the other hand, mostly decided to continue on, even if preserving the Union meant entirely destroying the only way of life they ever knew.
Gerry and Mr. Jenkins mainly discussed the 15th‘s participation at Perryville and Stones’ River, so I am not sure what other battles they were involved in.
The last segment talked about some new projects for the author, one of which is a study of how Lincoln’s record of wins and losses as a lawyer in Illinois.
Civil War Talk Radio airs most Fridays at 12 PM Pacific on World Talk Radio Studio A. Host Gerry Prokopowicz, the History Chair at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, interviews a guest each week and discusses their interest in the Civil War. Most interviews center around a book or books if the guest is an author. Other guests over the years have included public historians such as park rangers and museum curators, wargamers, bloggers, and even a member of an American Civil War Round Table located in London, England.
In this series of blog entries, I will be posting air dates, subjects, and guests, and if I have time, I’ll provide a brief summary of the program. You can find all of the past episodes I’ve entered into the blog by clicking on the Civil War Talk Radio category. Each program should appear either on or near the date it was first broadcast.
Check out more summaries of Civil War Talk Radio at TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog.
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