In the summer of 1862, partisan ranger warfare entered western Kentucky as Adam Rankin Johnson attempted to raise a regiment behind Union lines. A partisan ranger regiment operated differently than a typical cavalry regiment, mostly since their activities were behind enemy lines. He gained recruits with flashy attacks and raids that not only reached the local newspapers but even the international press, especially when he captured Newburgh, Indiana, in July 1861. To remain a viable and active force, Johnson had to constantly resupply his men by capturing Union equipment and weapons. This activity forced the Union to redirect several infantry and cavalry regiments, Brown Water Navy vessels, and valuable resources that could have been used with the main armies advancing in the South. Eventually, the Union learned how to quell Johnson’s success and re-establish control behind their own lines, but not before many lives and millions of dollars of valuable military goods were lost.
Derrick Lindow is an 8th-grade US History teacher in Owensboro, Kentucky. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Kentucky Wesleyan College and a Master’s in Education from the University of the Cumberlands. He also holds a Master’s in History from Western Kentucky University. In 2019, he was awarded the James Madison Memorial Fellowship for the state of Kentucky and is also a Kentucky Colonel. He is the owner and co-administrator of the Western Theater in the Civil War website and blog. We Shall Conquer or Die is his first book with another currently being written. At home are his two boys Ezra and Owen and his wife of 14 years, Allie.
