Joe,

The late Dr. Robert Perry wrote a book about Andrew Jackson May, entitled _Jack May's War_, which was published by Overmountain Press in Johnson City, Tennessee. It is readily available in most good book shops in East Kentucky and may also be found (usually) at Joseph Beth Bookseller and Barnes and Noble in Lexington. This adds some information on the activites of the 10th Kentucky Cavalry, though a great deal was derived from Mssrs. Wells' and Prichard's research. Also, tangentially related to the 10th Kentucky are Edmund Kirke's historical fiction, _On the Border_, published in 1867, and William Elsey Connelley's unpublished novel manuscript, tentatively named, _Guerre a Mort_. These two works shed some additional light on conditions in the region before and during the war.

Bruce Hopkins, a teacher in Pike County, has just completed a manuscript for a historical fiction which should be published soon on his ancestor, a member of the Yankee Chasers, who was executed under Burbridge's infamous order. It should be available around the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

I must also note that, with some assistance from Master Sergeant Brian E. Hall, USAF, I have been working on a regimental history for the 39th Kentucky Mounted Infantry, U.S. Volunteers, which unit fought under Burbridge at Cynthiana in June, 1864, with another East Kentucky-derived unit, the 45th Kentucky (Mounted) Infantry. Some may be quick to dismiss these units as composed of mere "Yankees", but both were made up of more East Kentuckians than Jack May's regiment could claim. The 10th Kentucky Cavalry, C.S.A., as Wells' and Prichard's book details, was made up of at least five companies of men derived from Southwest Virginia or southern West Virginia (including some of my own ancestors).

The interesting thing about the 39th, also briefly mentioned in the Wells' and Prichard's book, is the fact that when they met the 10th Cavalry at Cynthiana and later the same year at Saltville, Virginia, these two regiments contained a significant number of men who were indeed actually closely related to each other (by blood or marriage). The 39th is also interesting and significant for many other reasons, not the least of which are that a number of the fathers of the Hatfield-McCoy feudists were members, and that (only recently discovered in the last few weeks) the conflict between the men who joined the 39th and those who joined the 10th may have been begun as early as 1852 in a court case involving the emancipation of a Pike County slave. I believe that much can be learned about a Civil War regiment by studying its adversaries.

Jim Prichard has been one of my most helpful sources for a great deal of the information I have recovered in researching this regiment. The depth of his insight and his assistance rendered at the State Archives has been beyond measure.

Incidentally, the 39th's regimental standard is currently on display in a place of honor and prominence at the Kentucky Military History Museum in the state capitol.

If you have Kentucky ancestors in the 10th or Caudill's 13th Cavalries, the chances are pretty good that you also had ancestors who served with the 39th or 45th.

I am always willing to discuss the 39th's history, or East Kentucky Civil War history in general, with anyone interested in the topic.

I am, sir, yours in Faith, Charity, and Loyalty,

Robert M. Baker,

39th Kentucky Mounted Infantry Historian,
Member, McKee Lodge #144 (London, KY), F. and A. M.,
Signals Officer, Dept. of Ky., SUVCW,
Dispatcher, Post 11 (London), Kentucky State Police