Most considerations of the American Civil War tend to center on the places where the Union and Confederate armies clashed: Gettysburg, Shiloh, Antietam, Vicksburg, or Chickamauga.
A new book from western Kentucky historian John Cashon, Paducah and the Civil War, makes the case that the River City belongs on that list as well.
"Paducah became the source of all that General (Ulysses S.) Grant was able to do," Cashon says, referring to Grant's quick seizure of Paducah following the Confederate occupation of Columbus, Kentucky in September 1861. "I believe that, with General Grant, taking Paducah was the single most important thing he did during the war."
Cashon's book makes the case that Grant's step off of the transport onto the Paducah riverfront on September 6, 1861 was the first, and most crucial, of those that led him to the McLean House at Appomattox Court House, Virginia in April 1865. In short, without Paducah, there's no Fort Donelson, no Vicksburg, and no surrender of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia three and a half bloody years later.
Paducah and the Civil War goes on to look at the 1864 Battle of Paducah, where Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford raided the town, which was vital to the supply of Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's campaign in Georgia. While Forrest was successful in seizing or destroying supplies, he failed to take Paducah's Fort Anderson, thanks in part to the courage of an African-American unit, the 8th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery.
But Cashon hopes his book does more than tell his readers a good story. Cashon says, "I want them to be able to know their local history and say, 'I'm a part of that, my family was a part of that.' And another part is that I'd like to bring tourism to Paducah too. I would love that, if people came to explore Civil War sites."
John Cashon's Paducah and the Civil War will be available online and in bookstores October 10, 2016.
