Commander

Abstract

Burbridge officially received his appointment as military commander of the district of Kentucky in March 1865. Burbridge faced two different but interlinked military challenges: sporadic cavalry raids into the state by Confederate forces and ongoing guerrilla attacks on Unionist sympathizers and property. He managed the troop deployments to try and counter these threats in the face of limited manpower and the brewing distrust among Kentuckians. He also led the expedition that defeated John Hunt Morgan at Cynthiana in June 1864, but he also obsessed over a potential invasion of the state, leading three forays of negligible military value into southwestern Virginia.