The Orphan Brigade
The
Orphan Brigade was the nickname of the First Kentucky Brigade, a group of
military units recruited from Kentucky to
fight for the Confederate States of America Kentucky
The
regiments that were part of the Orphan Brigade were the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th,
6th, and 9th Kentucky Infantry Regiments. Units of the Orphan Brigade were
involved in many military engagements in the American South during the war,
including the Battle of Shiloh. In 1862, Breckinridge was promoted to division
command and was succeeded in the brigade by Brig. Gen. Roger W. Hanson. At the
Battle of Stones River, the brigade suffered heavy casualties in an assault on
January 2, 1863, including General Hanson. Breckinridge—who vehemently disputed
the order to charge with the army's commander, General Braxton Bragg—rode among
the survivors, crying out repeatedly, "My poor Orphans! My poor
Orphans," noted brigade historian Ed Porter Thompson, who used the term in
his 1868 history of the unit. The name came from how the Confederacy viewed its
soldiers from Kentucky (which remained in the Union , but was represented by a star in both countries'
flags). The term was not in widespread use during the war, but it became
popular afterwards among the veterans.
The
Orphan Brigade lost another commander at the Battle of Chickamauga, when Brig.
Gen. Benjamin H. Helm, Abraham Lincoln's brother-in-law, was mortally wounded
on September 20, 1863, and died the following day. Major Rice E. Graves, the
artillery commander, was also mortally wounded.
The
Orphan Brigade served throughout the Atlanta Campaign of 1864, then were
converted to mounted infantry and opposed Sherman South
Carolina in late April 1865, and surrendered at Washington , Georgia
The "Ohio County" unit was Company C, of the 9th Kentucky Infantry Regiment, which was part of the 1st Kentucky Brigade.
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