Joe,

Websites with rosters for the 39th and 45th Kentucky Union can be found at:

http://www.geocities.com/rmbaker66/
and
http://www.39thkentucky.com/39thkentucky/index.html

and

http://www.geocities.com/johnmasonbrown/

Neither website contains the whole story for the regiments (I've been working for the past 5 years on a regimental history for the 39th). They are truly interesting units with Hatfield-McCoy fued connections, direct connections to President Lincoln and many other influential politicians, several notable personalities and military personages, numerous controversies, excellent fighting qualities, and many tales of men acting both heroically and badly. The veterans and their descendants helped to establish communities in Minnesota, Washington, Texas, Arizona, Kansas, and led the founding of many cities in the Old West. With few exceptions, they were good men and devoted to their cause.

I would like to note that the region was not solely the province of bushwhackers as the 39th remained in the region during its entire service, as did the 45th for a majority of its service. At some points during the war, details of the 39th were sent into the Bluegrass to fill in when there were no other regiments available to combat small groups of bushwhackers, thieves, and murderers. The men of the 39th and 45th were controversial, contrary, and unique, but their overall service was excellent and useful to keeping the peace in the region.

Incidentally, Company D of the 19th Kentucky Infantry, which was drawn from Letcher and Pike Counties, is another unit to look into if you have border area ancestry. The 14th Kentucky Infantry, as well as the 22nd Kentucky Infantry, 10th Kentucky Cavalry (Union), and 14th Kentucky Cavalry, also drew recruits from the region. The 5th West Virginia Infantry also drew many men from the area, but I have yet to find any rosters for the regiment. I've looked into the rosters of McLaughlin's Independent Ohio Cavalry Squadron, the 40th and 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantries, all of which spent considerable time in the area, and can only identify a few East Kentuckians, West Virginians, and Virginians who joined the Ohio units. Apparently, the mountaineers chose to join Kentucky units over Ohio, Indiana, or other out-of-state units.

It is also not widely known that many, many Southwest Virginians and northwestern North Carolinians joined the Union army, most often the 39th Kentucky, as they were often not mentioned in the local histories from the region. When they left their native counties to join the Union army, they were forgotten or ignored, though some returned after the war. The evidence of their service is most often found in the 1890 Special Veterans Census or in the post-war Claims Commission records. Northern Buchanan County, the Cranesnest and South of the Mountain areas of Dickenson and Wise Counties, and parts of McDowell, Logan, and Wayne Counties in Virginia and West Virginia had significant minorities of Unionists. Because of this prevalence of Unionists in the region, it is my belief that there are Heroes of America connections which could be found in those areas right up to the Kentucky border. I have a few circumstantial pieces of evidence to support the contention, but nowhere near enough evidence to indicate a widespread phenomenon - other than more circumstantial evidence. This is an area of the war long overlooked, but quite fascinating if one is inclined to search for these fleeting mentions in the available records.

Robert