Kentucky in the American Civil War Kentucky in the American Civil War Kentucky was a border state of key importance in the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln recognized the importance of the Commonwealth when, in a September 1861 letter to Orville Browning, he wrote: I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this capitol. Kentucky, being a border state, was among the
Canada in the American Civil War in the 4th Rhode Island Volunteers of the Union army during the American Civil War, attaining the rank of lieutenant. Canadian-born Edward P. Doherty was a Union Army officer who formed and led the detachment of Union soldiers that captured and killed John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Lincoln, in a Virginia barn on April 26, 1865, 12 days after Lincoln was fatally shot. Canadian-born Sarah Emma Edmonds was a noted Union spy. One of the longest-living Canadians to have fought in the American Civil War was James Beach Moore, who died on August 29, 1931. Anderson Ruffin Abbott was