Captain Bart Jenkins of Company A - Seventh Kentucky Mounted Infantry Battalion

In my ongoing research into Civil War veterans of Bracken County, Kentucky, one of the more common Confederate units I have come across is Company A of the Seventh Kentucky Mounted Infantry Battalion. What is interesting about this company is when these men were enlisting to fight for the Confederate cause - June 1864. I have posted some thoughts about these Bracken County Confederates on the Civil War Augusta website, but here I will provide some details about their commander, Barton W. Jenkins.

Bart W. Jenkins was residing in Henry County, Kentucky when he enlisted in the Confederate Army. Son of Thomas Jenkins of Virginia and Catherine Owens of Kentucky (although the 1880 Census shows that Catherine was also a Virginia native), Bart was born near Versailles, Kentucky on January 5, 1832. He was the second of four sons.

Jenkins would marry Anna Rebecca Barnhill on May 18, 1859 in Oldham County. The marriage would produce five children. In 1860 Bart and Rebecca were living in Henry County, with Bart making a living as a trader. When the Civil War started Jenkins cast his lot with the Confederacy - one story mentions that the Henry County Union Provost Marshal with a group of men rode to the Jenkins's home with the intention of arresting him due to his pro-Southern proclivities. Allegedly Jenkins, with a pistol in each hand and holding the reins of his horse in his mouth, rode past the entire group, escaping without a shot being fired.

Jenkins would initially join with a group of men in Owen County and form the Buckner Guards, but shortly thereafter Brigadier General Simon B. Buckner would task Jenkins with a mission to hand-pick a group of men to scout Federal forces at Lebanon, Kentucky. This task successfully completed, Jenkins would be commissioned as a first lieutenant and assigned to Humphrey Marshall's command operating in eastern Kentucky and western Virginia. Jenkins would be promoted to captain and serve on Marshall's staff until June 1863. A fellow member of Marshall's staff, Edward O. Guerrant, recalled that “Capt. Bart W. Jenkins, Aid de Camp has few equals in true nobility of souls, knight errant chivalry & Murat-like daring and bravery. Quick & impulsive in his action, but cool & cautious in his preparation: with more prudence than he has credit for. His great characteristics high & rigid interpretation of the code of honor to which he strictly conforms his speech & actions. He is always ‘responsible’ for everything & weighs that responsibility in the balances of fate—of life & death.” High praise indeed as Guerrant was noted for his direct and at times scathing insights of others, particularly one John H. Morgan in 1864.

Jenkins was a doer, and was commissioned a captain with authority to recruit an independent cavalry command. However, Marshall convinced Jenkins to instead remain on Marshall's staff. However, at this time Jenkins would also start to recruit what would later become the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry Regiment.

On March 27, 1863, Jenkins tendered his resignation due to conflicts he had with Marshall. Marshall refused to accept the resignation. A month later Marshall was relieved from command on April 28 and ordered to report to General Joseph Johnston for assignment. Instead, with Jenkins in tow, Marshall went to Richmond to appeal the order. Marshall had lost his appeal and William Preston assumed command. After attempting to follow Marshall on his way to Vicksburg, Mississippi, Jenkins and Guerrant would learn that General Marshall had resigned his commission on June 17, 1863. Jenkins then accepted a position on the staff of John S. “Cerro Gordo” Williams as assistant adjutant general. On September 8, 1863 Williams led a diversionary force towards Greeneville, Tennessee. His command included the First Tennessee Cavalry, the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry, a force of infantry under A. E. “Mudwall” Jackson, along with two artillery batteries. Lieutenant James J. Schoolfield, one of the battery commanders, would also become closely associated with Jenkins for the remainder of the war and later become a member of Company A, Seventh Kentucky Mounted Infantry Battalion.

At Limestone Creek, Tennessee Williams defeated the 100th Ohio Infantry Regiment. The Enfield rifles captured from the Federals were issued to the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry. Captain Jenkins used the artillery to fix the Federals into place while he led the Fourth Kentucky on a flanking movement that led to the defeat and surrender of the Buckeyes.

On April 14, 1864 Captain Jenkins and Schoolfield’s Battery joined Brigadier General John H. Morgan’s command. The battery was disbanded shortly thereafter, the men becoming members of Captain Bart Jenkins's Independent Company. This company usually acted in conjunction with the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry Regiment but it was an independent command. Jenkins and his men would participate in the ill-fated Last Kentucky Raid which resulted in Morgan's command being shattered at Cynthiana, Kentucky on June 12, 1864. Jenkins and his men were used as scouts for Henry Giltner's brigade, which included the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry. The day before the defeat, Jenkins, under the authority granted him in 1862, officially enrolled his company on June 11, 1864 as Company A, Seventh Kentucky Mounted Infantry Battalion. Oftentimes this company was referred to as Captain Jenkins’ Cavalry Company or Bart Jenkins Special Detachment.

With John Morgan's demise in September Brigadier General John Echols set about reorganizing the remnants of Morgan’s command. On September 16th Jenkins’ Company was issued clothing; they were then detached to scout near Jeffersonville in Tazewell County, Virginia on September 30th. Advancing Federals cut them off from rejoining the main army during the Battle of Saltville, fought on October 2, 1864. However Jenkins led a surprise attack on the retreating Union troopers at Pearson’s Gap which spread additional panic upon the rear guard.

In late October Jenkins and his men were on the move again, this time in support of Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The troopers of Captain Jenkins' company reached Luray on October 30. By mid-November they were picketing the river fords near Front Royal, and occasionally skirmishing with Union cavalry.

Captain Jenkins was captured twice, once in mid-December while trapped inside a home. He managed to kill both of his captors at different times and escape. This allowed him to participate in the Battle of Marion, Virginia on December 17th and 18th. After the second Battle of Saltville on December 20, 1864, Jenkins' company was detached for service with Brigadier General Basil Duke, who planned to recruit and gather horses in Kentucky.

The incessant movements for Jenkins' troopers continued. On January 21, 1865, the company was stationed in Russell County, Virginia. An inspection of the company reported 56 men and 60 horses, of which only 10 were serviceable. However, on March 27, 1865, Guerrant recorded in his diary that “Jenkins came with his white battle flag (2nd National) floating in the mountain breeze, followed by 100 trusty sons of Kentucky.” On January 29th Jenkins was ordered to proceed within seven miles of Bristol. On April 3rd the company was stationed at Dickensonville, in Scott County, Virginia. The next day they were ordered to Wytheville where they later skirmished with Union troops. On April 7th Captain Jenkins was reported as sick with inflammatory rheumatism at Fort Chiswell, Virginia. Lieutenant Freeman, adjutant of the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry was in command of the now 101 men.

On April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia near Appomattox Court House Virginia. Soon afterwards word reached the troops in Southwestern Virginia, and General Echols disbanded his troops. Most of the Kentucky men from Giltner’s Brigade accompanied him to Mount Sterling, Kentucky where they were surrendered April 30th, and later paroled to their homes on May 10, 1865.

After the war Jenkins served one term in the Kentucky House of Representatives (1873-75). In 1880 the Jenkins family was living in Louisville, Bart providing support by working as a livery stable keeper. Ten years later Jenkins was farming near Turner' Station in Henry County with his wife, son Thomas, and daughter-in-law Cadelia. By 1910 he was residing in Lake County, Florida (Rebecca having died in 1903). Jenkins would die that same year on November 20, 1910. At the time of his death at age seventy-eight (date of death was November 20, 1910), widower Jenkins was residing at 843 South 4th Street in Louisville (now the location of Spaulding University), his occupation given as fruit grower. Jenkins would be buried in the Eminence City Cemetery, Henry County. HIs tombstone simply shows "Barton W. Jenkins, 1832-1910." It is denoted with a C. S. A. grave marker.

Sources:

• Bluegrass Confederate: The Headquarters Diary of Ward O. Guerrant

• Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky: Civil War

• 1860 1880, 1900 and 1910 United States Census.

• Kentucky Deaths and Burials, 1843-1970