Talk:Orphan Brigade

Comments on name
Kentucky never left the union of states and hence never rejoined the union. The Kentucky Legislature elected to remain a member of the union. For a very brief period of time a seperate confederate government was active with offices in Bowling Green, Ky. The Orphan brigade was so named because the provisional Confederate government, co-existing with the legitimate government of Kentucky, was forced to leave the state. Hence, the military units formed by the illegitimate Kentucky Confederate provisional government were "orphaned." (anonymous comment)

Name Comment
I don't know that I buy the theory about the Orphan Brigade name stemming from the flight of the KY Confederate government. For one, some of the "military units formed by the illegitimate Kentucky Confederate provisional government" were being formed before that government was established. The KY units at Camps Boone and Burnett in northern TN, for example, were organized in hopes of seeing the legitimate state government secede. Secondly, while it may be true that these units were "orphaned" by the flight of the government I believe we must consider the soldiers themselves as the genesis for "orphans". I would be very interested to see any official document with the word "orphan" on it. Did the soldiers not feel seperated from their home state as much as the government? In the 1862 KY campaign the KY Brigade was halted and ordered to return to TN just as it was only miles away from the Cumberland Gap, causing many of the men to execute that countermarch with tear rolling down their cheeks. A few months later, we find the first (admittedly undocumented if not apochryphal) use of "orphans" to refer to KY troops we must look to Gen. Breckinridge at Stones River on seeing his decimated statesmen. Was this in reaction to their return home being thwarted by Bragg's loss of KY? Moreover, this story is, as mentioned above, probably apochryphal. Reading what primary sources remain, we MAY have reference to the name "orphan" in John Jackman's journal for the first time in 1864, long after the flight of the government. In short, I feel that the name generated somewhere with the soldiers themselves during the war if not after, not in some de jure state given the condition of the government. The original article, though needing expansion, I feel hits more true to the point.