Penn poses with his book outside his Midway Museum Store. |
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media
It could be said that Bill Penn’s book, Kentucky Rebel Town:
The Civil War Battles of Cynthiana and Harrison County, is 55 years old.
Penn,
co-owner of the Historic Midway Museum Store, first wrote about “the best rebel
town of our native state,” a Confederate officer’s reference to Cynthiana, in
1962. Dr. Thomas D. Clark, University of Kentucky history professor and founder
of the University Press of Kentucky, taught Penn in his History of Kentucky
course. Penn turned in a 40-page paper on his hometown of Cynthiana, the seed
of his future book.
Although Penn never went back to school, the history bug
never left him. In 1995, he synthesized research he had done since his
undergraduate years, self-publishing the book Rattling Spurs and Broad Brimmed
Hats. The title was a quote from a letter on Gen. John Hunt Morgan’s
Confederate raiders who rode through Cynthiana.
When Penn sent the book to
Clark, his old professor wrote back: “One can never tell where bread he casts
upon waters will come floating home.” His proud appreciation of Penn’s book
encouraged Penn to do further research. He expanded his study to nearly 400
pages of historical text, published by the University Press of Kentucky last
fall.
Penn will give a reading at the Midway branch of the Woodford
County Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, and will be at the
Northern Kentucky Regional History Day at the Boone County Library for a
workshop on his book March 25.
The Kentucky Civil War Bugle editor, Ed Ford, said of Penn’s
work: “Penn deserves an “A” for his research and another “A” for his skill in
effectively pulling the story together.”
Close-up of cover shows cropped image. |
Penn’s insistence on historical precision begins with the
book’s cover. The painting of the Civil War emblazoned on the bottom half comes
from Frankfort.
“The battle is realistic,” said Penn, “But an anomaly exists
in the bottom right.” According to Penn, rifles are shown instead of a cannon
atop a wheeled carriage. Because a cannon carriage is more historically
accurate to the time period, Penn had the University Press cut off the image at
the carriage wheel.
His research is undoubtedly a labor of love. Unable to find
any Civil War battlefield maps of Cynthiana, Penn studied primary texts of
citizens and soldiers. The extensive analysis allowed him to redraw battlefield
maps for Morgan’s raids, and the subsequent first and second Battles of
Cynthiana.
According to Penn, there is an assumption that Morgan rode
through town on horseback shooting guns and quickly leaving. But Morgan and his
troops actually dismounted and fought bigger battles in Harrison County.
Morgan raided Cynthiana because of its tactical position
bordering the Kentucky Central Railroad. But his interest in Cynthiana may have
also been its initial pro-Southern leanings. State Rep. and slave-owner Lucius
Desha advertised for Southern sympathizers to join a volunteer company led by
his sons. At the beginning of the Civil War, a Confederate flag flew from the
Harrison County Courthouse.
Penn did several maps. (Click on image for larger version) |
Those interested in civilian life can also look forward to
Penn’s next book. “A project I had started before I finished this was a history
of Midway and northern Woodford County horse farms,” said Penn. “And I laid
that aside. I’ve done two chapters of that, I’ve done one on the settlement
period around this area from the first surveyors. They actually camped near
here. And then I’ve written a chapter on the Civil War period here.”
Penn is obviously a hard worker, but is anything but
self-congratulatory.
“I plagiarized all I could,” Penn joked when asked how long
it took to complete the book. He teased Dr. James Ramage, a history professor
at Northern Kentucky University, when Ramage visited Penn’s shop. “Dr. Ramage
was in here about a month ago,” Penn said. “I told him that I had stolen all I
could out of his book on John Hunt Morgan.”
Joking aside, Penn’s love of history continues to guide his
life. Penn interrupted the Midway Messenger’s interview to greet a customer
purchasing books on Versailles from his store’s upstairs library. Hopping up
from his stool, Penn ran upstairs to get another book to “throw in” for free.
“This is a prize,” Penn told the customer, handing him a
book on the architecture in Versailles. “I just want someone who’s interested
to have it.”
Penn poses in the upstairs library and bookstore of his and wife Leslie's Midway Museum Store.
No comments:
Post a Comment