We Shall Conquer or Die: Partisan Warfare in 1862 Western Kentucky

In 1862, western Kentucky experienced a deadly and expensive war within a war, waged by Confederate Colonel Adam Rankin Johnson's 10th Kentucky Partisan Rangers. The region was infested with guerrilla activity that took hundreds of lives, destroyed or captured millions of dollars of equipment, and siphoned away thousands of men from the Union war effort. Union civil and military authorities changed strategies, rushed to guerrilla flashpoints, and utilized all available types of fighting men to clear the area of partisans and install Union control. This partisan guerrilla fighting and efforts to bring it under control helps put the Civil War in the Western Theater in context and is a story long overdue.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 15 December 2023
Publisher: Savas Beatie

war within a war was waged behind the lines (and often out of the major headlines) in western Kentucky. In 1862, the region was infested with guerrilla activity that pitted brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor in a personal war that often recognized few boundaries. The riding and fighting took hundreds of lives, destroyed or captured millions of dollars of equipment, and siphoned away thousands of men from the Union war effort. Derrick Lindow tells this little-known story for the first time in We Shall Conquer or Die: Partisan Warfare in 1862 Western Kentucky. Confederate Colonel Adam Rankin Johnson and his 10th Kentucky Partisan Rangers regiment wreaked havoc on Union supply lines and garrisons from the shores of southern Indiana, in the communities of western Kentucky, and even south into Tennessee. His rangers seemed unbeatable and uncatchable that second year of the war, especially because of the Partisan Ranger method of temporarily disbanding and melting into the countryside, a tactic relatively easy to execute in a region populated with Southern sympathizers. In the span of just a few months Johnson and his men captured six Union-controlled towns, hundreds of prisoners, and tons of Union army equipment. Union civil and military authorities, meanwhile, were not idle bystanders. Strategies changed, troops rushed to guerrilla flashpoints, daring leaders refused the Confederate demands of surrender, and every available type of fighting man was utilized from Regulars to the militia of the Indiana Legion, temporary service day regiments, and even brown water naval vessels. Clearing the area of partisans and installing a modicum of Union control became one of the Northern war machines major objectives.

Weight: 546g
Dimension: 160 x 237 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781611216684